Reworked cards, a couple of old favourites

Afternoon everyone, popping in with a really quick post to show some reworked oldies.  I dug out some of my old papercrating kits from workshops, these must be 2 - 3 years old - cant believe that!

Anyway I decided to spruce them up a little and for the first one I inked a little deeper pink on the centre flower, left out (!) the green organza ribbon and added the leaf flourish.

I like looking back and reworking things as it means I am learning, hopefully!......

Today I had some time as all my samples for Crafters Companion are up to date, so I had a stocktake of my memento ink pads (mostly small dew drop ones) and have done up a colour chart to save time when making projects, so if you'd like one, then drop me a comment with your email address (personal information wont be published) and I'll send it to you as word or PDF or both.. I used memento inks to stamp this card and ink with daubers.

Next up is an embossed Lili of the Valley Stamped sentiment decorated with flowers and the Mega Cheery Lynn Fanciful Flourish Die cut which I inked in various shades of green, and it gives more depth to the card this way. Apart from that I didn't change anything else, other than perhaps slight change to placement of flowers.

Off to sift through loads of photos as I have lost to share in the next couple of weeks.

LOTV simply stamped Birthday card

hi everyone, hope you're all well and taking advantage of the mild weather :)
Sharing a very simple card today with heat embossing, using a Lili of the Valley sentiment stamp.

The sentiment stamp I used is part of a set and can be found here. They are very versatile and for someone who is beginning stamping and / or embossing they are very forgiving because of their 'distressed' or patchy typeface - that's the effect I love about them!

I used spellbinders Posy Patch and Daisy patch flowers and the Cheery Lynn Fanciful Flourish leaf dies for the flowers and leaves

Some more photos of the shaped flowers.

thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jess

Me To You Bears' Confirmation Card

Popping in with a really girly Me To You / Tatty Teddy Confirmation card. This is a larger version of an older square 6x6 design card, which I also changed to suit the occasion, still retaining the colour scheme and the crochet doily die cuts from My Favourite Things.

Box decorated to match the card..

The card is a portrait A5 size easel card..

Clean lines and fresh colours - lemon, dove grey, mint green and lots of white with a splash of cerise pink.

You cant help but love Tatty Teddy, can you.  Hope you had a great day Emily :)

Peppa Pig is making an appearance today!

A really cheery card to share with everyone today, for a little girl's birthday!

This is my first Peppa Pig card and I had loads of fun creating this little scene.. when something 'works' you just cant put it together quick enough LOL

Lots of photos so you can see the dimension / depth and shapes..

Used an image I got from google for Peppa and this card was just so perfect for me to use the Martha Stewart punch around the page farmyard set

One of my new dies - stitched hills / slopes from Simon says Stamp die range

CraftyCutting Shadow Box - Design Team post

Hi everyone, a little late with a post than I wanted to be, but  I had been working on a project and delighted to showcase these gorgeous shadow boxes from CraftyCutting.
The theme I chose this time was Weddings.

Lots of photos in this post and if you have any questions about materials used, just ask by leaving me a comment.

I have used lots of different brands of dies and various materials including hessian / burlap I bought near the end of last year ... have been itching to do make the bunting with lace since buying the hessian, and delighted with how it turned out now.

I wanted to keep the project as clean and simple as possible but still decided to ink the papers to give the box a slightly aged / worn feel, without being too shabby!

You can see how deep these boxes are in this photo, and I raised the heart around a third of an inch from the back panel, still giving loads of depth for the flowers and without 'hiding' the heart shape.

The heart shape is also from CraftyCutting and can be seen on my last CraftyCutting post where I covered a mini heart shaped album - yep that's one of the die cut heart shaped pages! (use the labels on my blog to locate CraftyCutting projects)

A love themed Artemio stamp used to alter the dotty papers memento ink, after which the heart was distressed with Frayed Burlap distress ink.

One final photo to show the depth - I fussed a lot about where to hang the bunting as adding it the front seemed too obvious and I like the way it hangs inside the frame.

The lace was sewn onto the bunting with a sewing machine.

Will be back with more cards shortly :)

Royal blue and white Wedding - Lili of the Valley Wedding Couple

Sorry it's taken so long to sort the photos and share these posts, but I thought I better hurry up and make sure I do.  It's no secret that blue and white go so well together and this card was no exception with the royal blue ribbon and pearls.

The same flower making technique used here as in my last wedding card post, except that I inked the petals with blue ink. 

Some close up photos..

The image was coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and you can purchase the stamp HERE.

LOTV Man's Best Friend

Time for a general greeting card for a guy in this post, using a Lili of the Valley stamp which I had neglected to use until late last year. New years resolution is to use the perfectly fantastic stuff in my stash which has been neglected!!

                             For those of you who like the stamp, you can purchase it HERE  

I added texture to the sign post (made with Sizziz sign dies) by using an old cuttlebug branch design embossing folder, making it look like wood and added my own 'sign post' by rounding the edge of a strip of brown card. The wording on the sign is computer generated.

...and the side on view to show a little layering

Baby's First Christmas - Memory Box stocking die

Well I loved making these cards, especially after purchasing that little stocking die, it is so cute. The die has a stocking shape (die cut in pink in the picture) and the top bit cut in white glitter card.  The bit that doesn't come with the die is the white toe piece, which I cut using a small spellbinder oval and part of the memory box die, where the toe part would be.

The border behind the stocking is also memory box, the snowflakes from Marianne D, the holly leaves are cut from a Cheery Lynn Holly Flourish die and the labels / ovals from Spellbinders.

Lots of photos in this post, as I did a girly pink and a blue boy version.

The light isn't great in some of these photos, in part because I was trying to get things done and photographed them on a dull day :(

That teeny tiny holly piece is so sweet when inked with memento green inks and a dauber and finished off with red pearl 'berries'.

Tonic Studios Trellis Die

It's easy to get hooked on all the lovely dies available on the market right now, and there are more and more to choose from every month too, for just about every theme you can think of . This card is a mixture of embossing, Cheery Lynn and Tonic Studios Dies and punched flowers.

The great thing about dies over punches is that they will outlive punches which eventually wear and could break, plus the fact that you can cut thicker materials with dies, like heavy weight card, chipboard, foam and fabric.

The tonic die used is called Pick of the Bunch Trellis Wall Die.

the flowers are from old EK success daisy punches, and if you like the shape, its difficult to source the punches, so go for the spellbinders dies or the woodware punches instead

Woodware punches 

Spellbinder Daisy Dies

My all time favorite technqiue - partial embossing using a recent edition Papermania folder:

April Workshop

Hi everyone, hope you are having a relaxing Sunday or doing your favourite thing today, wherever you are! Just posting the cards made in my April workshops, great to see everyone again and have loads of laughs and share any new crafting news and products too!

So the first card is a no-colouring, lots of punched-and-die-cut-shapes card, where we used daubers and templates to ink our own sky background.

the products I used and links are below:

Mairanne's Bicycle die LR0233

Martha Stewart grass punch

EK success leaves punch

Memory box Flower mound Die

Spellbinders labels called Grommet tags

Cheery Lynn fence die

Spellbinders grand oval and grand label dies

Pearls from Jeans range in Cottage Crafts, Co Wexford

 The next card is a coloured image one which is good for a get well soon or cheery spring card or for anyone feeling under the weather - the products used on this one were:

a polymer stamp from Stampavie called Giving Shelter

Martha Stewart frond punch for leaves

EK Success Daisy punched flowers

Faber Castell Polylchromos pencils for colouring

 

Here is a side on view of the flowers and layering:

and the inside of the card decorated to match the front:

 

The other coloured image card for this month - using an Elisabeth Bell stamp (did anyone notice the new DVD of coloured Elisabeth Bell images just released? - let me know if you want more info by leaving a comment if you are interested in getting one)

Stamp called You Make the Grade

Memory Box Butterfly

Spellbinders Grand Ovals and Grand Scalloped Ovals

Charms from eBay (see my where I shop page for Links or HERE)

Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder

Faber Castell Polylchromos pencils for colouring

and below are some close up photos:

  
     

  

To decorate the box, we used a Marianne's key die, LR0193 which was embossed in silver mirri card, and the same colour ribbon used to finish.

A very handy hint is to use promarkers / peel off markers / alcohol based pens to colour your clear gems and  turn them into other colours - the same can be done with white pearls. I used a dark purple coloured promarker to colour mine.

The next card was a 'simply stamped' one, so for those who had never inked and used  stamp before, this was a good introduction of how easy and effective stamping can be!

the flower punch I used was tiny and an old EK success one which I think is now discontinued sadly, but you can find this shape flower in the Spellbinders'/Heartfelt Creations POSY PATCH die set (this set contains an amazing 7 dies all nesting to create amazing flowers you can make yourself with the aid of glue and ball / embossing tools to add shape). I guess that the dies will last longer than any punch will and I have used my set lots already.

The sentiment and branch / flower stamp set are from Stampin Up and are called Hopeful Thoughts, and if you want them, they may be a retired set soon enough so here is a link to the product which you may be able to find on eBay as a second hand /used set.

this is the inside of the card, again using Jeans' Pearls from Cottage Crafts:

The last card for this month was a twisted fold card using images from Fred She Said, called Smelling the Cherry Blossoms - 
These digi's come in precoloured or black and white if you wish to colour yourself, with extra blossoms. The added advantage with digi's is that you can resize to suite your own project! the little girl is also available in the digi set without the background.

this is what the card looks like open:

Some angled photos so you can see the layering:

Other products  used in this card were:

Cuttlebug embossing folder called Floral Screen (on of the early designs!)

Starburst or 'splat' shaped punches for centre of flower

EK success retro flower punch
note - I have the digi artist's permission to use digi images in my workshop

that's all for now, I need to make some more communion cards, so will be back in a few days with some more to show - enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Thanks to everyone who attended a workshop this month, and keep on crafting :)