Paintbox Poppets Birthday Card

Good afternoon, I hope everyone is having a great Bank Holiday weekend.

A few weeks ago someone told me that I should put the Pinterest button on my pictures.  I am not that technical so for me it was easier said than done, however it is on there now if anyone feels the urge to 'pin'.  I have had a look on Pinterest and pinned a few cards I like but I am still not entirely sure what it is all about!

Anyway, back to the card ... I made this card last year for my sister in law and it was a bit of a different style for me as I don't usually do the matting quite so randomly, but I quite liked it once it was done.

I started with an 8x8 card and printed out the backing paper from a Wild Rose Studio Spring CD that I have had for some time, I printed off enough that I could cut the bottom layer out as well as a few of the Cheery Lynn Fanciful Flourishes.  I ran a piece of Centura Pearl through my Regal Mbossability and wrapped a piece of seam binding ribbon with a bow round the card.  The sentiment was printed off, inked round the edge and then burnished onto an old button I had in my stash box.

I used this Paintbox Poppets picture as my nieces are twins and I thought it would make the picture a bit more relevant.  I know the photo isn't very good and it looks quite flat but the die cut decoupage on the Paintbox Poppets sheets is really lovely and intricate ... tiny bits that I couldn't cut out if I spent years on it!

Next I cut up a couple of the Fanciful Flourishes and arranged the pieces along with a couple of whole flourishes, stuck them down and then put the decoupage piece on the top and it was finished.

There wasn't really a blooper this time either, the bow took ages as usual (even for me) and I really wasn't happy when I finished it so I sprayed on a bit of water and scrunched it up which covered up the bits I didn't like.

That's it from me, hope you all have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

My Craft Studio Samples for Wishes and Whispers CD

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a great week.  I had a fantastic long weekend in the New Forest, I have never been there before and it is really beautiful.  The scenery and the forest and all the wild ponies and donkeys were just lovely, I want to go back already!

Well, guess what?  After sending in my samples to My Craft Studio for the cards a few weeks ago (see other post), they asked me to be part of their Design Team.  I just can't believe it, I am so flattered (thanks so much Diane), especially as I thought my cards were in the average range and some of the other samples shown were so much more intricate than mine.

Anyway I said that I wouldn't be able to make cards / samples with very little notice as I work full time and Diane was so lovely and said that she would only put me down for samples when there was a bit more notice.  That would have been great except I was going away last weekend so I had to make all six samples in two and a half days the weekend before!!  I am a bit of a 'try this, try that, go back and improve it till I am happy' sort of crafter so doing six samples that quickly was a bit rushed for me.  I am sure there are sample makers out there that make loads of samples much more quickly than I can ... but they are probably a lot more organised than me too!

I really liked the soft, but not pastel colours on this CD, and since seeing it on TV there is just loads and loads of stuff on it.  Anyway here are the samples:

First up is one of my favourites although very plain.  The picture above makes it look slightly blue when actually it was all white.  The flowers I manipulated in My Craft Studio and cropped the ones that had the most colour flecks and then made them into two sizes, one set as per the other flowers on the original image sheet and the other set smaller.  They are actually supposed to be roses, but I cut into the petals to round them off a bit and curled them up rather than down.

The background is an embossing folder at the top and then a separate piece at the bottom that I scored every 8th of an inch (you can't really see it in this picture).  The flourishes are actually the waste out of the Tattered Lace Heart Die that I inked with Antique Linen that I also used on the sentiment which I printed then cut out from Fancy Framed Tags 2.
 

This one is fairly obvious what I did, using my favourite Labels 1, but the backing paper is really pretty and doesn't really show up here (my photography again, sorry!).  I wasn't a big fan of this card by the end as it has a bow on it!  And as usual the bow took as long to get right as the rest of the card did to make.

This one is crying out for some ribbon round that plain oval in the middle or some mulberry paper, but I didn't have anything that looked right so I had to manage without!  I did quite like the effect of the Heartfelt Creations Decorative Lattice Swirl making a frame (just cut out four and stick them together) with the Floral Ovals on top.  Again I used a printed sentiment on a tag from Fancy Framed Tags 2.

This next one is only a little card but the flowers took AGES!  I used a Tonic Petal Pairs Punch and punched out lots of petals then coloured them with Promarkers.  Then I snipped each petal into three and shaped them to curl a bit.  I used two Martha Stewart punches to make the borders along the top with a bit of ribbon from my stash to cover the messy bit.  I printed off the whole card from MCS but used the one with the blank sentiment and filled it in myself using their text feature.  I couldn't face another bow so I sorted out my Pull Bow Ribbon that I bought years ago from the NEC.  The centre of the flowers is also another purchase from years ago Beadazzles or something like that, anyway I thought they matched the colours on the card quite well ...

... I did a close up so you can see them better ... you can also see the gems and glitter better too!  The little tiny flowers are also the 'waste' from the Tattered Lace Heart die that I coloured with a Promarker and stuck a tiny gem in the middle.

This is a Pillow Box to match the card above and I used one of the spare flowers from the card with two flowers made out of the smallest of the Delicate Asters die.  Another Pull Bow and a little tag that I just cut out of spare card and inked round the edge and this was done.  All the work is done for you really as I just printed it straight off the CD, scored it and decorated it!

This is just showing the Card and the Pillow Box together.

 

Last but not least I decorated a candle.  Took a while as the printer seemed intent on chewing my tissue paper as it went through the printer but I eventually got enough to put on the candle.  I took the images and flipped the flowers and put a load on a sheet along with two fairies and the sentiment and then printed it several times on tissue paper till I had enough to go all over the candle.  Another bow and a gem and it was done!

Phew!  Long old post this week.  Hope everyone has a lovely crafty week and thanks for stopping by.

New Baby Card and Gift Box

Hi everyone, hope you are having a good week. We haven't been able to get away so far this year so I can't wait for tomorrow as we are having a long weekend away!

This was a card and box that I made for a lady at work who was just about to go on maternity leave.  I decided to buy a teeny t-shirt and make a box that would fit the card and the little gift.  I wanted it to be nice and bright and babyfied but not blue or pink ... 'gender neutral' I think is the PC term!

I started with a 5x5 card and covered it with some yellow star paper that I downloaded some time ago and got out my old favourite, Labels 1 and cut out a background for my topper.  I inked round the edge of the paper with my Ink Dusters which I find that I am much lighter handed with.  I do ink through dies sometimes with cut and dry, but I find on large areas I get lines with cut and dry that I don't when I use the Ink Dusters.

I used paper for the centre and the butterfly as I wanted to shape them which isn't as easy when you use card and it also gave a slightly lighter feel to it.  The bottom layer of the centre is a Fleur de Lis Motif with the centre cut out and on top of that some Anemone Flowers with the centre of the petals cut out.  I made the sentiment myself in Word and then cut it out using a small Classic Scalloped Circle.  I added a butterfly even though I didn't know if the baby was a boy or a girl as I thought it didn't look too girly (just as well as she had a boy!).  I could have sworn that the butterfly was a Marianne die, but it is actually a Memory Box die called Vivienne Butterfly.

All that was left was the box that I made on my trusty Ultimate Pro.  I still use the Ultimate Pro for loads of things including trying to make bows.  I don't put too many bows on my cards as making the bow look right can take as long as the rest of the card.  Why wont somebody make a die that I can make paper bows with?!

I made the holes in the box using the Classic Scalloped Circle dies and notice that I even got the holes in the right place on this one!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and thanks for taking a look at my blog.