Sea Dome

Hello - Happy Friday!

The good news is that its very sunny here this morning, the not-so-good-news is that the pollen count remains very high which makes things a bit uncomfortable.  Good for the sales of Kleenex Balsam tissues though, I guess....

It's Daring Cardmakers Day today and I couldn't resist making another card using the same Grand Dome dies I used for my Spellblogger project earlier in the week.  Joanne's challenge was just perfect for an under the sea sort of card!

It's Joanne here with this week's challenge and I'd like to see you using 

ABW - Anything But White! 

Using white as a card base is a really easy habit to slip into so I'd like to see what else you can come up with. It could be a chalkboard technique on black cardstock, metallic or opaque embossing powder on a coloured base, coloured pencils on kraft or something like the Joseph's Coat technique.

What will you decide on to make your base other than white? Here's what the team came up with:

   

 Info

First I used the large die as a template and scissor-cut the 6 white card pieces I needed for the dome. These were inked on both sides with various Distress and Distress Oxide Inks.  

The bits of white card left over were inked in the other colours I wanted to use

Once completely dry I die cut the pieces for the Dome, and put it together only using the tabs on one side to allow me to add all the other die cuts to the various layers - it would be very tricky to do this if the 'box' was completely formed.

 

I found that twiggy branches and other tree dies are great for making coral and seaweed - especially those in the Four Seasons Trees collection - don't you just love it when you see other ways to use your dies!

Some of the sea creatures were simply glued in place on the various layers of the dome. others were suspended on silver thread.  

When I was happy that the various layers of the dome had enough bits and bobs added to them, I slotted in the tabs on the other side and glued the tab that closes it all.

 

 I won't deny this was was fiddly, but it was fun too. The next picture shows how it just folds flat to fit in a regular sort of envelope - isn't that just soooo clever!

Here are the dies I used for this card, all from Spellbinders

Grand Dome 3D Card  Elegant 3D Vignettes by Becca Feeken  

Shapeabilities Etched Dies

Sea Animals  

Shapeabilities Die D-Lites Etched Dies    

That's it for this time, I hope you'll click on the link to see a wonderful array of cards from The Daring Cardmakers DT this week - and I hope you'll be inspired to join in with us.

Grand Dome 3D Vignettes - Spellblogger post for Spellbinders

Hello

I'm so happy to be able to share my first Grand Dome card for my Spellbloggers post this time! 
  I had a surprise package arrive from Spellbinders last week and among the new dies inside were a couple more of 3D Vignettes die sets, including the Grand Dome - they have been very hard to get hold of so I was thrilled to bits, I'll tell you!

 The Elegant 3D Vignettes range from Spellbinders is  Becca Feeken's beautiful new collection and I've been sharing projects made using some other dies from the range over the last few weeks, I love them to bits!  Now I've got my hands on one of the 3D card creating sets and I couldn't wait to have a go.

You wouldn't believe when you look at these cards standing up that they will fold flat and slide into an envelope, would you?I know mine has extra dimension with the flowers, but I could still mail this with a bit of bubble wrap to protect it
Here's how it looks when it's smoothed down; all the layers 'move' sideways and flatten out.

Info:

a few sheets of smooth white card 
1x inked background piece

Thinner card inked on both sides for the flowers

 Cut the main layers first, then use the leftover card for the leaves, sentiment insert etc

The larger flowers are made using a couple of the smaller petal dies from  Cinch and Go Flowers 3

For the little roses I used the smallest of the petal dies from Cinch and Go Flowers set one.

I've also used some pearl sprays, and some white and lemon flower stamens

The 3D card is easy to put together, there are instructions on  the back of the pack, but if you would like to see one being put together in real time, Becca Feeken has a video HERE 

I would advise making a practise one first so you can see how it works and also how best to add your decorative elements and layers

Here are the details of all the Spellbinders die sets used this time 
 
Grand Dome 3D Card - Elegant 3D Vignettes by Becca Feeken 

 Shapeabilities Etched Dies

 Layered Happy Birthday Elegant 3D Vignettes by Becca Feeken

 Shapeabilities Etched Dies
 

Cinch and Go Flowers 3  Elegant 3D Vignettes by Becca Feeken

 Shapeabilities Etched Dies

  

Cinch and Go Flowers set one by Becca Feeken (Amazing Paper Grace) 

Shapeabilities Etched Dies

Platinum Die Cutting and Embossing Machine
 

This angled view shows how the layering pieces slot into the side panels.  There are 6 layers all together, the back, front and 4 inner sections

That's all for this time, but if you click on This Link you'll find yourself browsing the aisles of the wonderful Spellbinders store where you will find lots of lovely dies, stamps and other goodies, plus a huge amount of inspiration
to get you motivated

Happy Crafting

Totally Tropical

Hello!

Happy Friday.  Gosh this week went past quickly.

It's been a horrible week for those of us with hay-fever , and if you've been suffering too, then you have my sympathies.  Thank goodness for Balsam tissues, I say!

We went to our local cinema for another of the "Live Stream" events earlier in the week, this time it was "An Ideal Husband", another of the Oscar Wilde series streamed from the Vaudeville Theatre in London.  We booked this one because we enjoyed "Lady Windermere's Fan" so much.  It was good, it was funny, and there was much laughter in the auditorium.  I love the whole idea of these live streaming events - instead of all the faffing and extra expense to get to the theatres in London or Stratford or wherever  we just walk up the road to the cinema, and after its over we'll be out and home within 10 minutes!  I guess you do miss out on a bit of the atmosphere of being in the actual venue, but I can live with that!

Enough of the waffle, on to this week's Daring Cardmakers' challenge and this time its our lovely Shabneez in the hot seat:

Following on with Svenja's summer theme from last week
I want us to go
 Totally Tropical!  

So I'd like to see you use bold, bright colours, flowers, fruit, animals, birds and anything else you can think of associated with my tropical theme.  Take a look at the BLOG to see the DT's creations for this week

I've got another project on my desk which left me with a batch of circles left over after die cutting apertures, so rather than waste them I've been inking them up with Distress Oxides.  So it was good to come up with a design that actually used one.  

 Info

For the background I used masking tape to create a border then stencilled the wavy pattern.  I don't have a proper waves patterned stencil, so improvised with Echo Park Woodgrain

stencil, turned 90degrees, it sort of looks like ripples on water, I think....

I wanted to add more tropical colours so used another piece of card,, pieces of masking tape and various inks to make the strip for the right hand side.

The sunset circle was then glued in place.

I then used various scraps of card and a couple of Spellbinders die sets to cut the flamingoes, leaves and pineapple, and also the lily, info as follows:

Tropics Wild & Free by Debi Adams 

Shapeabilities Etched Dies  

Create A Lily   

Shapeabilities InspireEtched Dies  

That's all for this time, thank you very much for taking the time to visit. I hope you'll leave a message - it's always lovely to hear from you.

Don't forget to pop across to the DCM BLOG to see my Teamies' creations too - and of course, we'd love you to join in and share your own tropical paradise cards with us.

Have a great weekend

I'm a Seaside Girl at Heart

Hello!

I've been delving into my brand new 'Hooked!' craft box from Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox for today's little bit of crafting fun!
I've made a 'mixed media' canvas, with loads of inking and other messy stuff on it - well, I say 'canvas' but actually it's made using the cardboard top of one of the Through the Letterbox craft boxes!  It's always fun to think of a crafty idea for using the actual box the goodies come in, isn't it? It may not last for ever, but as soon as I'm bored looking at this one I can just make something new.

 

Actually though, the base board held up really well to a lot of abuse - I was inking and splashing water around like nobody's business.  And then there's loads of different glues, texture paste and all the weight of the big wooden heart, a huge amount of beads and sequins, the card flowers and lots of thick chipboard to even out the layers.

So if you're looking for a cheap alternative to 'proper' canvases, then maybe this would suit you too.

I started by taking time to cover my cardboard with a sheet of fairly thick white cardstock, folding around and mitring the corners to give myself a good base in which to work.

I'm no artist, so anything like this is always a splosh and hope sort of journey.  I'm a great believer in sticking something else on if something doesn't turn out as I hope, so this sort of collage art works great for me!

There's more info on the Bubbly Blog HERE, plus lots of other lovely ideas for the various boxes and other Letterbox-friendly stash.

That's all for this time

Thanks for dropping by :)

 

Driftwood

Hello

Happy Friday

Here we are on the first day of June - boy, do those months slip away - and on the brink of another weekend.  Friday always means Daring Cardmakers Day and the first Friday of each month is always an Elemental Inspiration Challenge.  This time it's Svenja's turn to inspire us and she's put together a gorgeous mood board using her own photos and I love it - so Summery and Beachy!

 All you need to do is select a minimum of 3 'elements' from the mood-board to inspire your card, you can see what the Design Team made by clicking HERE

Those who know my love of beach huts will probably be surprised that there isn't one on my card even though there are some in the photo!  It was the middle picture, with the frame on a beach which grabbed my attention first.  Certainly the beach huts couldn't be ignored, so I've used the gorgeous  blue and white stripes from those, and then oh look! there's a big pink flower -  and that obviously was  element no. 3  

Info

For the background I masked off the stripes with with washi tape using the grid on my craft mat as a guide.  The blue ink is a Versacraft cube

Once dry I die cut a square aperture, then behind it used paper from a Studio Light paper pad.  I 'fussy-cut' extra elements from the same sheet of paper to add more detail within the aperture.

Using a couple of square dies I cut the dark blue frame, and glued in place, with some strips of chipboard between the layers 

Instead of leaving the frame plain and to keep the beachy theme, I made some driftwood branches.  They are die cut from Kraft card, then inked up with various brown, grey, white and silver inks to get a driftwood look.

Next came the flower - made from paper inked with Raspberry Distress Oxide and water sprayed before cutting with a brand new, just arrived this week die set - the latest in the Cinch and Go series

The petals are heart shaped - the little heart 'hanger' was made using hearts cut from a flat petal shape!

While they were still just on the damp side of dry I used reverse tweezers to shape the petals, then left them to dry completely before creating the flower. The yellow centre is just a rolled narrow strip of card which was first fringed very finely with scissors.

The bunting is made with scraps of card, cut into strips and then into small triangles and glued behind a length of blue and white stripes Baker's Twine

The Cinch and Go Flowers III and the Cherry Blossom set used for the driftwood branches are both by Spellbinders
 

Cinch and Go Flowers 3  Elegant 3D Vignettes by Becca Feeken 

Shapeabilities Etched Dies
 

Cherry Blossoms 

Shapeabilities Etched Dies

I really had a lot of fun making this card.  I think it may well end up in some sort of frame rather than being used as a card.  My lovely friend Dawn gave me some instructions on making a box frame from card so I think maybe this is a good excuse to finally have a go at making one.

Thank you so much for visiting, I hope you like what you saw here 

Have a great weekend