SAL Sunday – 9 – happy dance!

Happy Sunday crafty people!  It’s been another very speedy three weeks and here we are again with a SAL Sunday post.  It’s been a busy three weeks including a trip to the Download music festival (or brownload as it turned out as it was pretty wet and very muddy!). I’ve not spent very long stitching but I have got some progress to share!

 

Three weeks ago my tigers were looking like this….

…. Today they are all done and I’m doing a happy dance!

Now since joining this SAL I have made a good dent in my pile of projects that I had started.  The one I’ve chosen for my next project is very old and is a bit more of an undertaking!  The project is from the Cross Stitcher magazine in 1996!  The project was included in several issues of the magazine and I was annoyed to be missing one of them.  I thought this meant that I would never get it finished but amazingly I found the missing issue on ebay for a couple of pounds and I am all systems go now!  I hope to get it finished off in 2019 and then it’s only taken me 23 years!!!

So I should let you know what it is!  It’s a floral alphabet designed by Sheila Hudson and I have 6 of the letters completed….

I’ve got three letters partially done so this time I’m going to focus on the Oriental Poppy which is currently looking like this….

I think I should be able to get it finished off and maybe more!  I’ve no idea what I will do with the finished alphabet but it’s so pretty that I will enjoy the stitching and I hope that by the time I have finished the 26 letters I will have a plan for a finished item.  Please let me know if you have any thoughts!

In case you haven’t seen one of my SAL posts before I should explain.  SAL stands for Stitch Along and this one is organised by the lovely Avis.  The idea is to finish off a UFO (or Unfinished Object!) and let me tell you I have lots of those!  If you fancy joining in then contact Avis and she will give you all the information you need.

I’m looking forward to catching up with all the other blogs in this SAL group, please give them a visit too, I’ve linked them here so you can easily find them.

Avis , Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze  ,Christina, Kathy , Margaret , Cindy , Helen , Linda , Heidi , Jackie , Sunny , Hayley ,Megan , Deborah , Clare , Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn and Sharon

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

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Sid the Silly Seahorse – Aud Sentiments Challenge

Hi crafty people!  How are you all today? I hope you are having a great week, our weather has been a bit of a rollercoaster this week from heavy rain and fog to glorious sunshine!  Good old Scottish summer!  At least crafting doesn’t rely on any particular weather.  Today there is a new challenge on the Aud Sentiments Challenge blog and it’s an anything goes challenge so you have free reign to enter any project as long as it has a sentiment.

We were lucky to be gifted an image from our lovely sponsor Oddball Art.

I chose Sid the Silly Seahorse (which is image 323) and this is my creation…..

I love that digital stamps allow you to make the image any size you like so I made a big Sid and I decided to colour him with my alcohol pens and made him bright and cheerful so he would stand out in the ocean!  I added some glossy accents to his glasses and then cut him out.

The background is a mix of coloured card and some vellum with alcohol inks then just a few circles for bubbles and pearls.  The sentiment is from a Tracey Hey set and I just love the message.  When I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed a few deep breaths to blow the trouble bubbles usually helps to feel a little calmer.

The rest of the design team have made some really beautiful cards so please pop over to check them out and give them some love ( Aud Sentiments Challenge ).  Thanks so much for visiting the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, it always makes me smile when I see I’ve got a comment or a like on a post.  Have a wonderful day.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

 

Explosion Card – Back to Basics and Beyond Challenge

Happy hump day crafty people!  I hope you are having a great week.  Today there is a new challenge launched at the Back to Basics and Beyond Challenge and it’s a fun one!  This time we are challenged to get some fancy folding done to make an explosion card.  I had never made one of these but after a browse of pinterest I realised that these are not difficult at all and I just had to decide on the theme of my card.  I thought I would break down the process here so if you fancied joining in you could follow these steps.

The first thing you need is a 8.5 x 8.5 inch piece of paper with a pattern on just one side.

Then you want to decorate the reverse side of this paper, I used some tropical leaves stamps (from the Flamingo Party stamp set from For the love of stamps by Hunky Dory).  I wanted to leave a blank spot in the middle to write a personal message so I masked it off with a circle sticky note.

Once I had stamped all the leaves I removed the mask and stamped a sentiment.  The dino-mite seemed appropriate for an exploding card but is also fitting for the characters in the front!

Then I started with the folding!  The first step is fold the bottom right corner to the top left and then use a bone folder to smooth the fold.  Open this fold up and repeat with the remaining corners so you have a cross folded.  Open up the paper again and turn over before folding the bottom edge up to the top edge.

The next stage is to create a triangle by folding the sides in side so it looks like this…

 

Mark the centre point of the bottom of this triangle with pencil (both sides).  Fold each side point into the centre and then turn the triangle over and repeat on the other side.

 

The next stage is to open up the sides and fold the point inside the triangle to form a concertina inside.  Once you’ve done all four yours should look like this….

You then need to create a card blank from a sheet of card measuring 4.5 x 9 inches, folded in half.

Add some double sided tape around the edges of your patterned papers and stick the bottom inside your card base …

before closing the card to stick the top half to your base.

The next step is to decorate the front. I cut a white square measuring 3.75 inches and decorated with the same leaves as inside before adding a sentiment and some cute characters (Clearly Besotted stamp set – You’re dino-mite)

 

The final step is to test out the explosion effect….

I hope that my explanation makes sense!  In case it doesn’t I actually made a youtube video tutuorial and you can find it here Jenny Ginger Ninja Crafts Channel .  Please be kind as this is my first youtube video and I should have turned my phone to landscape!  Ah well I will know better the next time, I decided to upload it anyway as done is better than perfect!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog, I would love if you could pop over to the Back to Basics and Beyond Blog and enter our challenge.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Hi crafty people,  I hope you are all having a fab Saturday.  I’m back with a card made for the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge 393 .

I used my favourite stamp from a Tracey Hey set called Rhino Rascals,  the little rhino dressed up as a bumble bee is so sweet!

I then made a honeycomb background for him to sit on using a stencil, some mustard seed distress ink and a foundation brush.  I finished off with some strips of yellow and black card and stamped the sentiment “stay strong”.

Thanks for visiting the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, I hope to see you again soon!

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Just keep swimming!

Happy fri-yay!  How’s your week been?  I hope you’ve got something fun planned for the weekend ahead.  I’m looking forward to having a weekend at home after we were away camping last weekend.  We had a great time with lots of laughs and good music but it was very muddy and I’m loving all the comforts of home!

Today I’m sharing a card I made for the Cupcake Challenge 472 using a pop up element.

I used the “Make a Splash” stamp set from Tracey Hey and coloured and cut out these creatures for my card.

I decided I wanted to make a twist and pop card and used the Karen Burniston die set which makes it nice and easy as it cuts all panels you need plus the mechanism for the twisting pop up section.  This is the basic mechanism with the card insert and arms which you stick on and then add the pop up panels.

I know the idea of these cards is that all the decoration is on the inside but I just can’t bring myself to leave the front totally blank!  So I added one of my whales with a sentiment and a few bubbles.

I decorated the panels inside with the other creatures and a sentiment with some patterned papers from a Hobbycraft pad.

These cards are lots of work but they are perfect for someone special or just because they are fun to create!  Thanks so much for visiting the blog and I hope that you will pop back soon.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Nail polish marbling

I thought I would share a couple of other cards I made with my nail polish marbled papers for the Back to basics and beyond challenge

Check out my post from last week to see how I made these papers.  Thanks so much for visiting my blog and I hope to see you again soon!

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Aud Sentiments Challenge 229 – Anything goes!

Hi crafty people!  How are you all doing?  We are having a few days off work to recharge the batteries.  Today I’m here to let you know about the new challenge launching today at the Aud Sentiments Challenge and it’s one for everyone to join in with because it’s an anything goes theme!  Yay, well you need to include a sentiment as always with this challenge.

I started by picking out a stamp set called Alien Invasion from Crafti Potential.  I stamped and coloured a few items from this set, including a few planets, a UFO or two and a couple if aliens!  Here is the items once I had fussy cut them out.

Then I made a pop up box card base from navy blue card and added some panels of starry patterned paper.  I used some acetate sheets from packaging to attach my space creatures to the card.

The finishing touch was to add the sentiment, “have an extra-terrestrial day”!

I hope that you will join in with this challenge, it’s going to be great fun to see a big variety of entries I think.

Have a fab day and thanks again so much for visiting my blog, it means a lot.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Back to Basics and Beyond Challenge – Nail varnish technique

Happy hump day crafty people!  I can’t believe it’s time for another challenge at the Back to Basics and Beyond Challenge and it’s another fun technique!  This was a new one to me, using nail varnish for marbelling paper.

I covered a small casserole dish with tin foil and added some water before dripping in some nail varnish.  The first time I made the mistake of stirring the water in an effort to spread the colours around but I just ended up picking up the colour on the cocktail stick in a lump!  So I just tried to distribute the colours as I dripped them in!  It was a fun process, although it was pretty smelly and I opened a few windows to get some fresh air.

After the nail varnish was floating on the water I just laid some white card stock on and then set it aside to dry.  It was very hit or miss, just the luck of the draw (or the drip!) but this is a small selection of the papers I created.

I took the bottom left piece and cut some hearts and a sentiment for the card.  I liked being able to pick out patterned areas that I liked despite not being that keen on the whole piece!

I hope that you are able to join in with the challenge, there are lots of great ideas from the other design team members over on the blog.  Thanks so much for visiting the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, I hope that I will see you again soon!

Crafty hugs

Jenny  (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

SAL Sunday – 8

Happy Sunday crafty people!  It’s been three weeks since my last confession…. oops no SAL post!  Last time I hadn’t been stitching but as you will see I’ve got quite a bit done this time.  I had picked up a project which had been started several years ago and this is how it was ….

Three weeks later and it’s looking like this….

Just a few leaves to finish off, the tiger face needs filled in and some back stitching and it will be done.  The pattern has “the tiger” stitched at the bottom but I think I will leave that off as I don’t really think it looks good.  I’m fairly confident that these two cuties will be finished off before the next SAL post in three weeks but who knows!

In case you haven’t seen one of my SAL posts before I should explain.  SAL stands for Stitch Along and this one is organised by the lovely Avis.  The idea is to finish off a UFO (or Unfinished Object!) and let me tell you I have lots of those!  If you fancy joining in then contact Avis and she will give you all the information you need.

I’m looking forward to catching up with all the other blogs in this SAL group, please give them a visit too, I’ve linked them here so you can easily find them.

Avis , Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze  ,Christina, Kathy , Margaret , Cindy , Helen , Linda , Heidi , Jackie , Sunny , Hayley ,Megan ,Catherine , Deborah , Clare , Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn and Sharon

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Alphabet Challenge – F for Flowers

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you’ve had a great week and have something fun planned for the weekend.  I think we will be doing some more work in the back garden if the weather isn’t too wet!  I can’t wait to get our patio laid so maybe we will make some progress with that.  Today I am sharing a card for the new Alphabet Challenge which is to create something using F for flowers.

I used an Altenew rose die which was very popular as a magazine give away last year to make some pretty pink roses, added some patterned paper and a sentiment and finishes it off with a few diamond sequins from Nuvo.

I hope you will check out the other design team members take on this theme, they are a talented bunch and I’m sure you will enjoy their makes.  The challenge is open for two weeks so you have plenty of time to get your thinking caps on and enter.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and I hope to see you again soon.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x