What a Wonderful World

Hello

Firstly, apologies for my lack of blogging and commenting this week.  I've been really struggling with my hay-fever over the last few weeks.  It sounds really pathetic, I know, but it leaves this constant high pollen count is really making me feel exhausted and generally rotten!  Most of the time I feel as though my head is in a metal bucket!  

Anyway, hopefully it will ease up soon....been saying that for weeks, mind....!

It was my turn to set the challenge for The Daring Cardmakers this week so I had to give myself a shake and actually do something productive. 

It's Kathy here this time, and I'd love for you to use one of my all-time favourite songs to inspire your card-making, it's

What a Wonderful World

by Louis  Armstrong

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves to cherish the wonderful world we live in. I inherited a love of this song from my dad and I'd love you to choose something from the lyrics to use on your card, or maybe you'll try to encapsulate the whole thing!  

Don't forget to click on the link so you can sing along with Louis!  I can't wait to see what you come up with

 You can see the whole of the lyrics and the lovely cards made by the design team HERE, but I chose the red roses from the first part of the song as the theme for my card:

'I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself what a wonderful world'

 Info

 Smooth white card blank plus an extra square of the same card, which was embossed with a Petite Dots embossing folder.  This was adhered to the centre of the base card.

The beautiful, intricate heart is a new Spellbinders die (details below), and was cut from a gold card that has a slight hint of glitteriness, then adhered in place with a few tiny pieces of chipboard between the layers to give a little dimension.

Next I die-cut a batch of petals to make different sized roses and made the flowers.  I actually made roses in 5 sizes though in the end I only used three of them.  My favourite die set for roses is Cinch and Go Flowers set 2

by Spellbinders, it's a six-petal shape and in the set there are 6 sizes of petals so you can make quite large and really dinky little roses from the same set 

The roses were cut from dark red Bazzill card, and the petals shaped using a bamboo skewer.

"Love" was die-cut three times and the layers adhered together before adding to the card.  The little gold heart was just lying on my desk - it was some 'waste' from another project!

To complete this card I tied a triple loop bow from organza ribbon and glued it in place

Dies used (all by Spellbinders ):

Swirl Heart  - On the Wings of Love Collection by Joanne Fink 

 Cinch and Go Flowers set one Amazing Paper Grace

Live Love Laugh from On the Wings of Love Collection by Joanne Fink 

 

 

I loved making this card, I (almost) always enjoy making paper flowers and this style of rose is much easier than the finished flower implies!  

Thank you so much for popping by today, I hope you'll come again soon

Happy Crafting

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