Mother's Day 2015

Hi, hope you've all had a good week.

Mother's Day was a few weeks ago so I thought I would share my Mother's Day gift and card.  It's taken me a little while to sort my photos out, so apologies for the delay.

Firstly the gift; I started with a 'special mum' MDF blank from Anna Marie Designs and glued, then painted it with a Range Paint Dabber in Juniper.

When the paint was completely dry I stamped an Inkylicious script stamp with Flitter Glue and used gilding flakes over the script.

Next I went round the edge with some pale rose gilding powder that I bought from the Stencil Library, it's hard to see in the pictures but you can just see it on the edge of the glittered flowers that I covered in in PVA glue and then added two colours of Chloe's Chunky Glitter.

Next I used some Arianna Blooms and Arianna Lace die cuts for the flowers and flourishes and dug out a packet of rosettes I had in my stash.  I inked round the edge of the flowers before assembling them and added a couple of the flower stamens (also from Anna Marie Designs).  I only used a few as they were so floppy ... it didn't occur to me until later that I could have put some PVA on them to stiffen them up, doh!

I then placed the buttons and pearls (both from a Tattered Lace show) in place and shuffled everything around until I was happy and then I glued everything down with my brilliant hot glue pen.

This is the rear view and also where I did my practice run on the stamping and gilding!

This is a view from the top and you can just about see the gilding powder on the top and at the front.

The card was quite simple; as ever I had spent so much time on the gift I had to be quick with the card.  The base card came from a pack I ordered from Create and Craft a while ago and  I embossed the next layer with a Tattered Lace Embossing Folder then inked round the edges.  Next I cut three of my favourite Labels 1, the patterned paper on the left side was from my scrap box and the right hand side was printed on the PC and then die cut.  I covered the messy middle with a ribbon, added a bow and a paper flower from Wild Orchid Crafts and ended with two stick pins that I made a while ago that happened to match.

No bloopers this time ... just my usual slightly rough looking inking, I definitely need to practice making it blend better.

Well that's it for this week, thanks for reading, hope you all had a great week.

Floral New Home Card

Hi again

Have been looking at my Project Life album again this week. I really enjoy getting the photos and bits and bobs in the album - still got a way to go though.  I have also been playing with displaying my photos on the blog differently, so let me know what you think.

This card was made for my step-aunt who lives in Ireland and is the first time I have tried to recreate someone else's card completely. I usually take an element or see something I can adapt for myself but this one I saw on Selma's Stamping Corner (Selma's Vintage Floret Tutorial) and I knew I had to try it, although you will see that my flowers aren't a patch on Selma's.  Selma's blog is stunning and packed with brilliant tutorials and ideas.

I started with the Cuttlebug embossing folder 'Eyelet Stripe' and embossed both the folder and the border. After matting them on pale pink, I trimmed the short edges and stuck it on a card.

Next up were the flowers, and although they do look great they took me an absolute age. As ever, I didn't have the dies that Selma had so I used my Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms die instead.  

I cut lots of flowers out of 120gsm paper and then inked the edges in pink and the centres in yellow. Then I misted the petals with plain water and shaped and scrunched them over a shaping tool. When they were drying I used a large ball tool to shape the centres.  This did not come naturally to me! Trying to keep the petals damp enough to shape but not so wet they turned to mush was tricky for me and I was a bit upset at the time that the ink looked like it was all being left on my glass mat.  The ink problem went away when they dried and I could see how the ink had blended really evenly.  

When all the individual petals dried completely I made up one large flower, two medium and two small, for the very centres I used some fine beady stuff that I have had in my stash for ages.  After adding a couple of white swirls, some inked leaves, pearls and a printed sentiment, it was all done.

My aunt had decided to give up her apartment and move into more sheltered accommodation so it was a big move for her so I wanted to send something pretty to cheer her up, and it worked!

I will be making some more samples this weekend for MCS and I love the images on this CD, very different from the last few, not sure when the show is on though.

No bloopers on this card but it did take a huge amount of time.  Although the flowers are really pretty when they're  done, I'm not sure how many more I will be doing!

Hope you all have a great week and thanks for reading.