Monday 19 August 2013

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.


6 comments:

  1. Beautiful creations Melanie. They look great on TV. CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS on your new DT post :)
    Hugs
    Sandra x

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Sandra, it was a lovely surprise to be asked to be on the DT. Hope I can keep up with Diane and the other DT members as some of their cards are stunning!

      Melanie
      x

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  2. Wow, your cards are stunning Melanie, I can understand why MCS wanted you on their DT ~ huge congrats. I particularly like the wedding card, it's really elegant.
    Maggie x

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  3. Hi Melanie, your cards are amazing, absolutely gorgeous.
    Congratulations on becoming part of the MCS DT, you so deserve it.

    Craft hugs
    Elaine (laney56) x

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  4. Well done Melanie and welcome to the team...your cards are amazing....xx

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  5. Thanks so much everyone for the lovely comments and for reading the blog. Maggie, I liked the Wedding card best too, I am a bit of a Plain Jane crafter a lot of the time, not too much glitter (or bows!) so I was surprised that they used my samples with the main subject being fairies. Thanks again for the comments.

    Melanie
    x

    ReplyDelete

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