Dorso Crayons

Well this is my last post for 2016 . What a year it has been. Lots of great people have died but let's not forget those that have died who are not celebrities. May they rest in peace. 

2016 has been a roller coaster year  for me moving to Spain. We have now experienced a winter and a very very hot summer. I've enjoyed living in Spain  it's been a learning curve , 

Crafting in Spain is very different as acquiring materials are much harder and very expensive. Luckily friends and family bring me items with them when they visit. 

We are hosting a party New Year's Eve so that should be fun, so my next post will be 2017.

I'm still in love with parchment craft and I feel I'm improving slowly. 

My parchment teacher Brenda Oldham introduced me to dorso crayons , and yes you have probably guessed I love them. 

You apply the crayon to the back of your work and use essential oil to blend the color . For finer detail you use cut and dry nibs. Here's a couple of cards I've made . I need lots more practice but I'm enjoying the journey. 

I love doing white work and especially enjoyed completing the green card. Anyway have a Happy Crafty New Year . Love and hugs Julie xx

Success in parchment with a little help from Groovi plates.

Good evening, hope you are all fit and well.

As I wrote in my last post I've been going to classes to learn the technique of parchment. 

I really struggled with the length of time and concentration needed to complete a project. I decided to buy some Groovi plates from clarity stamps to improve my technique. 

Absolutely love the Groovi plates , you can design your card so easily. Well enough of me waffling . Here's my first completed card that I'm happy with. 

I'm going to duplicate this card several times as I have so many coloring techniques I want to try. 

Here's a topper below that I've just done which I now need to colour. If you have ever wanted to try parchment  give the Groovi plates a try. 

Take care and keep crafting Julie xx

Parchment problems

'Long time since I posted. 

 Well Life in Spain is so busy , the time is whizzing by. 

Craft classes and market stall are going well and I'm really looking forward to starting my Christmas cards. 

I've made quite a few pop up card boxes , they are very popular. 

I always enjoy making these cards. They are light weight and lay flat to post. 

I've also started to learn parchment craft which is so time consuming  and very unforgiving.  I'm not used to spending such a long time on one card but I'm sure I will speed up and improve my technique. 

I do enjoy the coloring. Here's two little projects I managed to complete. 

Anyway Hope you are all well. Take care and keep crafting love Julie x

Missing in Action

Hi Everybody, 

                      Yes I've been  missing in action, life is whizzing  by. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to craft as I've taken on a couple of extra jobs.   Anyway life is beginning to settle down so today I've had alittle play. 

I've used one of my favorite techniques Triple Stamping Technique..... This technique is so simple and gives a great effect on your cards. 

I always tend to make several cards at once unless it's a commissioned  card. 

The cards have been made using several Stampin up stamp sets and the colors are chocolate chip, slate grey , crumb cake and cherry cobbler perfect combination. 

Hope you like my cards and please comment. Take care and keep crafting Julie xxx

Baby cards

Hi everyone, It's very hot today, crafting with blinds down to try and keep cool. Just a quick post today . Two little baby cards using stamping up Little Additions and some decoupage. Hope you like . Take care keep crafting x

Living Design Class

 Hi everybody, I'm alittle late posting pics from last class. Only two at this class but it was great we had a good laugh and I got lots of information regarding living in Spain. 

Here's 

Sue, always smiling and so enthusiastic about every project we make , a joy to craft with. 

This is Jan  

. Jan makes her own cards for family and friends. I'm hoping to inspire her to stamp more as apparently she has lots of her own stamps amongst  her crafty stash.

I've been driving today , I've changed from an automatic to a manual and lost my confidence. But with the help of a very good neighbor I'm overcoming my fear. 

This week I met my second snake on a hot Sunday afternoon , quite scared . But he didn't bother me ( thank goodness). Anyway bye for now and Sue and Jan I haven't forgot your emails with measurements I've misplaced my notebooks with notes and emails. Lol I'm sure they will turn up. Bye for now and keep crafting xx

Exploding boxes

Good Afternoon, 

          Yesterday class went really well this the project the ladies were to make. 

The ladies did exceptionally well. Although some of the comments about sucking cocktail sticks etc must have sounded very strange if anyone was listening from outside lol. This is areal easy project and the fun is in the decorating. We used stampin up papillon potpourri and petite petals.  Well onto pictures of the ladies as you can see by their faces they enjoyed themselves. 

Finally a pic of Jake who kept us all company for the afternoon. Take care and keep crafting. 

Details of classes. Snakes and Centipedes

Hi everybody. Hope you are all well. 

      Eventful day my husband found our first snake which apparently after researching by our neighbor is called a ladder snake.

Omg  it was scary although it didn't show any reaction to us I must admit I was petrified. Lol.  Just as that left our garden we then found  this 

Horrible centipede which is called a Megarian Banded Centipede. This centipede has venom but won't kill you unless you have a bad reaction. I don't know which is the scariest. 

Anyway back to my blog post. My next class in living design will be 25th May 1-3pm. If you would like to attend please contact by either by email. ... julieelizabethmccartney@msn.com. Tel. 616605400 or Facebook  Julie McCartney . Hope to see you there . Take care and keep crafting Julie x

Living Design Craft Class

Good Evening. 

    Excellent craft class today in Living Design today. The ladies who attended were all beginners but you wouldn't have thought by the projects they produced. 

Today the ladies learnt several techniques including heat embossing and stamping. They all completed the projects no problems and I was so pleased to see they had added their own little ideas to their makes. 

I've started doing classes in Living Design , it's perfect as before you start your class you can browse around some of the amazing products been made by some amazing talented people. Hers some happy faces from the class. 

Thank you ladies for a great class, great company  and see you all very soon. If you would like to join one of my classes and you live in Spain please contact me either via Facebook, email julieelizabethmccartney@msn.com. Take care keep crafting x

New classes in Spain

Hi everybody,

 What a brilliant day, my first craft class in Spain. This is the project we completed.

The ladies who attended loved crafting and they were all beginners. 

I wish I could say they were well behaved lol but two ladies were very competive and tried to distract each other. 

We made a card with stamping up just for you stamp set. They learnt matting and layering. Stamping and heat embossing. Considering it was their first time they all did exceptionally well.

I love sharing my love of crafting. Take care and keep crafting x

Sharpies are a must have craft item.

Good evening,

                    Hope  you are all fit and well. Very productive day , I'm now beginning to get into a routine with my crafting. The weather is so gorgeous it's tempting to sit outside and relax but needs must, I need to craft for my Saturday stall. More good news this week , my candles are now being sold in one of our shops in Albox. This shop is full of amazing original art and handmade objects . 

Anyway top tip for today . If you are running low on card or limited funds try using a sharpie pen and outline your card , before matting and layering.Remember to clean your ruler each time , I've forgotten then ruined my image with smudged ink. 

This just makes your image pop and it looks like you have layered it onto black card. Luckily my friend Angela bought me a pack of sharpies which included gold and silver. I probably use my sharpies on all of my fairy cards. 

Here are a few of my makes. 

Happy Easter weekend

Sorry for not posting for awhile but I've been so busy building my stock for my market stall.Hope  you are enjoying your Easter weekend and haven't eaten too many chocolates. 

I thought I would share a few of my makes including my candles. As from next week my candles will be for sale in Living Design a fab shop in Albox which promotes artists and their creativity. Sorry had to squeeze in a couple house mouse cards oops x

Take care and keep crafting x

Personalized Cards

Well, back to England tomorrow for a visit. Setting of early hours and catching ferry at 15.45 , it's going to be a long day. I'm sure it will be worth it when I see my friends and family. 

Recently sold several cards to a shop in Turre so hopefully that will be a regular order. 

I had several commissioned cards this week so I thought I would share them with you all.

As everybody knows I love House Mouse decoupage, I spend hours cutting and glazing. 

I tend to use stencils on quite a few of my cards as I love the effect. This is a clarity stencil , with a Lavinia fairy  stamped onto it using memento black ink.

Last week I made some of my own stencils which I showed you in my last post. 

Well I suppose I had better pack and have an early night. 

Take care and keep crafting Julie x

Good afternoon.

My last post showed you some cards I'd made using stencils. I don't have many so I thought I would make my own and this is what I came up with. 

I used clarity card so that I could rub the ink into the image aswell as using my brushes. Make sure you tape your stencil down using low tack tape as they can move about quite a it. I used dies to cut the shapes but you could do it free hand with a Stanley knife. ( they are not called Stanley knives but I couldn't remember but you know what a mean lol)

Well here are some of the finished cards,at the last event I went to they requested sympathy cards.

I just love how they turned out and got carried away and made 12 in total. My favourite is the card with all leaves just so simple and elegant. Anyway hope you like them take care stay safe and keep crafting love Julie xx

Magical Fairies

Hola, 
                      Busy day today finally got time to blitz my studio. When we moved into the villa , the previous owners left lots of books and knick knaks. Today I boxed them all ready for my market stall on Saturday. I now have lots of storage for my crafty stash.
Saturday will be my first market stall in Spain and I'm really looking forward to it. In England stall fees could be quite expensive and sometimes it was hard work making a profit, in Spain they charge a very small fee which makes it easier I hope to make some money.
I used my clarity masks and stencil brushes to design some backgrounds for these cards. 

I love how this card turned out,I was asked to make it for a friends son. I then decided to use my masks again and create a few fairy cards. I'm going to make these again but frame them for one of my spare bedrooms, but change the sentiments. 

Anyway off to bed I go another busy day tomorrow. Take care and keep safe love Julie xx