Playing with Paper on a Saturday Afternoon

I saw this paper folding idea somewhere on my web-wanderings the other day.  It was actually to make a "ball" from these shapes but I thought it would make a great idea for paper flowers to stand in a vase, and maybe with a bit of adaptation they would make an embellishment for the top of a box or even a *very bumpy) card.

So I've been playing this afternoon and thought I'd share the photos on here to see what my fellow crafty bloggers think about them.

The first version is the "original" and is a sort of cone shape at the back.  I glued a piece of wire into where all the petal pieces join to make a stem

These next ones are my "flatter" versions, which would work as an embellishment. They are still about 1.5cms deep so quite bulky, they measure about6cms across. I'd need to cut a matching petal shape to use as a backing piece, I think, or maybe just a circle of contrasting card would do the job.

.I hope you like them - I'd be interested in hearing what you think

Buttons and Bows

This week it's Sharon's first time to set a challenge over on The Daring Cardmakers:

Cute as a Button

It's Sharon here with my first ever dare - how exciting! My challenge for you all this week is to create a card using buttons - but hold on, it's not that simple, oh no. I'd like you to use buttons in the main feature of your card, not just as an added embellishment in the corner.

As usual there are some fab ideas and wonderful cards on the blog, so we're hoping lots of people will feel inspired to join in this week.

For some reason I couldn't get the phrase "Buttons and Bows" out of my head - I think maybe it's a line from some old fashioned song, but I haven't got round to googling it so I don't know.

So I decided to go with a ribbons and buttons theme and make a New Baby card.  This idea looked better in my head, I think I should have gone with the "less is more" rule, but once I'd covered my desk with my ribbon and button stash I got rather carried away!!

 I used:

Smooth white card blank, Pink card, Turquoise card, White card, 

MS Doily Lace border punch, 

Rbbons, Seam binding, Pink twine, 

Buttons from stash and from THIS pastel mix pack pastel 

from Creative Treasures

The top section of the sentiment was pc generated, the "buttons and Bows" part is cut on the Craft Robo.  

I used the same "Curlz" font for both, but welded the letters together for the cutting version - there is a tutorial HERE on how I do this.

Maybe one day I'll have another go and see if I can get something along the same lines that I'm happier with.

It's definitely worth visiting the DCM blog to see what eveyone has come up with, it's such a colourful blog this week

Tomorrow we'll be seeing the people we hope will be designing our new kitchen to see the first ideas they've come up with - scary stuff! It would be lovely if, once we've decided on everything a nice little Kitchen Fairy would come and wave her wand and everything was done.  I'm really not looking forward to having the builders in knocking down walls, building walls etc etc again.  It's going to be even more chaos than when we had the bathrooms done a few years ago.  The good thing is that, having decided to do the whole kitchen/utility/cloakroom/inner hall area in one go it will mean that most of the internal renovation stuff will be finished.

Right, I suppose I should stop this waffling and do some work.

Thanks for visiting

Ovally Holey

I've done another card using the July sketch on my Sketch File blog.

For some reason I always find it hard to get back to making stuff after I've had a break - even though I'm looking forward to messing about with paper, glue, buttons and ribbons nothing seems to come together the way I want it to.

I knew that what I really wanted to do was get stuck in to the lovely DT bundle that arrived from Creative Treasures the day before we left, so eventually I kicked the BFoP out of the room and made this card.

Unfortunately she wasn't happy and cast some sort of nasty spell which made getting anything to work a real battle!  I'm sending the BFoP off to bother Kaz now, as I'm fed up with the little minx being here.  Sorry Kaz, but she's already on her way....

So, here's what I used:

All these from Creative Treasures: Seam Binding (purple, turquoise). Lace, Purple Flower, Buttons, Black and White Baker's Twine

Other Stash: Purple card. Stripy paper (MME), Spellbinders Nesties Ovals die set, Medium Flower punch

Notes:

July Sketch rotated 90deg right

Aperture cut with Oval die, spare piece added to inside of the card

2 pieces of seam binding glued together with book binding glue to get double width pieces

Twisted lengths of seam binding for the bows and purple trim

Flower stem was twisted using a cocktail stick 

Frame cut with 2 sizes of the Nesties and adhered in place to cover rough edges

Please visit Sketch File blog to see Carol's latest piece using the same sketch, and if you've not checked out the other DT work this month, scroll down to see what we've all been making with the July sketch.

Right, time to get on with my DCM card for tomorrow - fingers crossed the idea I have will actually work :-?

I promise I'll get round to some blog-hopping soon, it seems ages since I managed to visit my favourite blogging places. Thanks for visiting today.

Been to the Sea....

We're back from a week in Northumberland with my folks - the weather wasn't too bad and we were able to get out and about for at least part of every day.  It's just lovely to spend time in my "home" village with my Aunt and Uncle really - that it's less than a five minute walk to the prom from their house is a bonus!

 The photos haven't even been put onto the pc yet so if you want to see where I was, scroll down a couple of posts to Friday's Daring Cardmakers "Wish You Were Here?" challenge and there's a photo of the bay there!

The excitement I had while I was away was hearing that the latest issue of "Simply Cards and Papercraft" magazine was out along with it's "Best of British supplement - exciting because the card I made using Funky Hand products is in there - and it's on the cover too.

The card template and all papers are by Funky Hand and the instructions on how I made it are in the magazine

As my Aunt always comes to visit armed with boxes of home-made goodies, we decided to do a bit of baking ourselves so we could return the favour.  We made another batch of those wonderful Rhubarb and Custard Cupcakes and also tried out a new recipe for Chocolate Chip Woopie Pies.  Sorry about this rubbish photo but you'll get the idea, I'm sure!

Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of crafting, blogging and blog-hopping soon, but now I must get back into "cooking dinner" routine - I'd forgotten that food wasn't just going to appear in front of me courtesy of Aunt and Uncle or via a waiter/waitress today.  Oh the shock of being home!

Thanks for visiting

Wish You Were Here?

Well I'm not sure what's happened to the weather, but even if it doesn't feel particularly Summery, the holiday season is in full flow now and that's what Lynda has based her challenge for the Daring Cardmakers around.

It's Summer now in the Northern hemisphere so lets see your holiday creations - Beaches, Tropical Paradises, Camping/Caravanning, Countryside or even a City Break - what takes your fancy?

It had to be a seaside theme for me and I managed, for once, to resist digging out my favourite Craft Robo Beach Hut template, along with the photos of  Southwold ; my favourite beach-hut viewing place!

 Summer is about the garden, sunshine (well, sometimes), holidays, seaside, colours - both bright and sea-faded, ice-cream, and all sorts of other things, so I thought I'd do something more collage-y this time and use the 6x6 Websters Pages set I bought a few weeks ago and haven't touched since. I'm not really convinced about this as a card, I think it would be better as a canvas, and as I have some 8x8 canvases lurking somewhere I might just see if I can do something with it later.

I used:

papers: Websters Pages (background, striped lower edge, yachts, signpost, lighthouse - I coloured on red and white stripes for a more UK version of a lighthouse) ) , 

Fancy Pants "Beach Bum"(bunting, tree, flip-flops), Echo Park Summer Days (ice cream)

Suticases - same Craft Robo template as for the Suitcase challenge of a couple of weeks back 

I made the top one deeper to look more like a vanity case, and used a gel pen to draw in the details as these were all quite small. 

 

Flowers: large red and blue flowers are made with circles of organza (using the tea-light technique), centres are "Sheer Blooms" from Creative Treasures, Lime green "Aster" and red wired rose, plus turquoise seam binding for the twisted bow also from Creative Treasures. 

Shell - which doesn't show up very well, sorry! - is made from paper clay.

I love to be at the seaside.  I was born and lived in a seaside village till I was 10, My mum would meet us out of school on nice days and we'd go straight to the beach, then for years after we moved away, we returned every summer to spend time with the rellies so the beach on the photo below has a huge place in the summer-times of my memory.

Maybe one day I'll get to live at the seaside again.....

Please visit the DCM Blog to see the wonderful cards the team have made for Lynda's fun dare this week - and hopefully you'll be inspired to join in with us, I hope so.

Thanks for visiting

Carry on Camping, Caravanning, Glamping.....

It's Crafty Templates time again and this month the templates have a lovely Summery feel to them.  There's a tent, caravan and camper-van and lots of other summery images to play with, along with another of Leo's lovely cupcake ideas.

This month there are downloadable papers to go with the templates and they have a soft and summery  feel to them with pretty spotty, flowery and "textured" designs.

Here are my cards using the templates and papers

 I used:

Campervan Template, Grass template,  download papers

Bazzill card; yellow, orange, green,, white

Hand-cut balloons covered with Glossy Accents, daisy punch, Spellbinders "big scalloped circles" die, Cuttlebug "tiny hearts" embossing folder, Prima Athena Flower (yellow), Orange Stickles

Butterfly and Bakers Twine from my Crafty Goodies stash

 I used:

Caravan Template, Grass template,  download papers

Bazzill card; blue, orange, green, black, white

Daisy punch, Orange seam binding for curtains

Butterflies, tiny letter stickers, flower shaped journal spots 

 I used:

Cupcake on a Stand template,  download papers

Bazzill card; blue, bisque, brown

EK Success Border Punch, large button, Green Seam Binding 

"Made with Love" sticker. Bakers Twine

This is a really fun set of templates - you always get about 8-10 different templates in a set so plenty to choose from.  I hope you like the things I've made using these three!

Click the link to find out more about Crafty Templates

Thanks for visiting

Pinteresting

Wow, posting two days running, maybe I should go and have a lie down once I've finished this!

It's Daring Day today and we've had a wonderful week sharing inspiring photos and then using them to create our cards.  It's all down to Nat:

".........something a little different!

we're looking to Pinterest for some inspiration!

I am a relatively new convert to Pinterest - I only joined a month or so ago, but it is definitely my favourite place to hang out at the moment and get instant inspiration - plus I can keep track of all the wonderful inspiring pics and cool techniques I've bookmarked over the years in one handy place.

If you don't know what Pinterest is, check out the blurb here for more info.

We want to spread some Pinterest love this week - because the joy of Pinterest is discovering new sources of inspiration!

So the dare this week is to create a card using a "pin" for inspiration. "

So, the basic idea is to find a photograph on Pinterest, or elsewhere on the net and use it as the starting point for making your card.  There's lots more info over on The Daring Cardmakers Blog, which will help make it seem less complicated!

I've made a couple of cards this week - the problem with Pinterest is that there are just sooo many wonderful, inspiring photos and it's too easy to get diverted - I've been dipping in for a while but this week I took the plunge and joined up so that I could start making my own pinboards.  

 This is the photo which was the inspiration for the first card I made:

Source: curbly.com via John on Pinterest

I used:

Red, turquoise and lime card, All circles cut with Craft Robo.  I made the inverted scallop frame using a graphics program then converted it for Robo cutting in PSP.

I punched a circle in the base card and the green and red circles so that the glittered button couldbe adhered to the inside of the card and show through the holes.

Red Organza flower and red seam-binding flower are handmade, Small wired roses, Prima "flat" flowers, Glittered brad, seam binding bow, Button, glittered with Stickles then a coat of Glossy Accents, All gems I-rock  hot-fix (Imaginisce), Green and Turquoise Dew Drops

Then yesterday I saw this other photo and I loved the tile patter, the colours and the composition, so just had to make another card!

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com via Kathy on Pinterest

I made the curvy diamond tile by combining a couple of images in PSP then converting for cutting on Craft Robo - I think there's a similar Spellbinders shape - but imagine cutting all of those individually - sticking them on the white panel was tedious enough!

I used:

White card blank and matching card for the tiled panel, Black card, Paper (Fancy Pants "On a Whimsy"), ink for edging,, 

 White seam binding double wrapped around the panel, Lace adhered around panel

Flowers: large flower hand-made with white Seam Binding, 

Top flower made with a rosette of lace and a medium sized Prima rose, 

Right-hand coiled rose made with heavy crepe paper (thank you Joanne :)) 

Stickles glitter glue on each flower.

Yesterday morning the postie brought a lovely DT pack of new goodies from Creative Treasures - What timing!! The  white seam binding and beautiful lace I found in my parcel was just perfect for this card!  I've already been suing some of the other things Tracy sent too, but I'll share those another day!  It's hard to beat Creative Treasures for tempting embellishing treats!

Right, I think that's me done for today - do please check out the Daring Cardmakers BLOG, and all the personal blogs to see the cards and the inspiration behind them - if you are ever in need of inspiration, a little Pinterest browsing is sure to kick start your mojo!  If you do, then please join in and play along with us this week, we'd love to see what you come up with.

Thanks for visiting, please leave a message, it's always good to read them!

Still Here...

I've been an even worse blogger than usual lately, but these things happen from time to time, don't they?

So I thought I'd have a quick catch up this morning before I get diverted by anything else - oh, hang on a minute, I'll just go and grab a coffee first ....hehe....

Right that's better.

Yesterday it was my turn to share my project for June's Funky Fifteenth over on Get Funky (challenge blog for Funky Hand).  It seems a bit weird doing the June project on the 13th July, but I'm the last one before the new July Funky 15th is announced (by Ruth, tomorrow).

This time Anice has been our Hostess and she gave us this sketch to work with.  It's a good one, isn't it?  You've still got today to enter and maybe win the prize of a free Funky Hand download of your choice - so if you're quick....

I turned the sketch around and made this card using papers and an image from Funky Hand (you have to use at least one FH product for your entry to count).

 I used:

spotty papers from "Hearts and Flowers" download collection, Plant in Pot image from "Dreams Come True" CD and flowers cut from the current Funky Freebie paper (today is the last day to collect your copy...); All Funky Hand

Other stash: Bottle Green card, White card, i-Rock green gems (Imaginisce), Button covered with circle cut from Funky Freebie paper.

I've made another card using the sketch too, but when I photographed it the colours didn't look right (although they are fine irl :-/).  I might see what I can do to fix the problem and add it later.

Anyway, as I said, it's the last day to get your entries in and the last day to grab that Funky Freebie - so better get busy if you want to join in this time. 

Over on my own Sketch File blog we've got some fab news about a new teamie.  The sketches there aren't aimed at cards, or LOs or any one specific area - they are there for any sort of crafting at all and we think  Carol is the perfect person to inspire people to look at how they might use them for whatever crafting they like to do - visit Carol's blog and you'll see why!

You can also see the first piece that Carol has made for The Sketch File on yesterday's July Update 1 - it is just gorgeous.

Finally for this bit of my catch-up, here is the little cheque holder I made for nephew Dan's birthday at the end of last month (see, I really do have quite a bit of catching up to do!)

I used:

Orange Bazzill card, 

Papers from a couple of the MME LIme Twist paper pads

Star, Circles and Lettering all cut with Craft Robo, 

"Homemade" decal sentiment sticker

It would  have been better, and less puzzling for Dan if I'd actually put the cheque in it before sealing it up in the envelope and giving it to him...ooops!

hey ho, Mad Auntie Kathy strikes again!

Well, I must away and get started on my DCM card, so that I can tick something else off my ever-growing to-do list.  The Time Thief is around again, methinks hehe

Thanks for visiting today, I hope you'll come by again soon

Suitcase!

Our lovely Rein has set the Daring Cardmakers'  challenge this week and her instructions are very simple - just to use a Suitcase on our cards

"SUITCASE"

I'd like you to use a suitcase in any way you like on your card

It could be what you put in your suitcase when you're off travelling, or you could incorporate any sort of suitcase; old, new, shiny or battered into your design.

......"hmmm now then, where is my trolley case......''

We had problems getting our Linky thing to work properly last week and lots of people were unable to leave their links, so as we were offering a prize it seemed only fair to do a "roll over" and give everyone another chance to win , the prize donated by online store Crimson Cloud, will run for this week's challenge too.  
They sell a lovely range of crafting goodies, so if you're looking for a little temptations, maybe you'll find it there. hehehe

I wanted to do something with a pile of suitcases (why is it that a pile of different sized suitcases is such a pleasing image?), so my first port of call was a good old Google Image search, where up popped a fab "colouring page, just perfect for converting to a Craft Robo template. The best thing is that although the original image has 3 suitcases, I only needed to actually make a template from one of them then tweak the size on my Robo page to make the others.

I couldn't decide whether to make a big, shaped card or a card using the suitcases small-size as the focus piece - so I made both.

I used 

For both cards; Craft Robo template (email me if you would like a copy)

MME Stella and Rose 6x6 pad "Mabel", brown Bazzill card

For shaped card;

pc generated sentiment, twine

For Little Cases card;

Spellbinders Big Scallops die and photo corner die, 

Inner circle is Robo cut,

EK Success border punch, pc generated sentiment,

Brown Seam binding (Creative Treasures)

I really enjoyed making these cards, and they show how versatile Craft Robo templates are.  As well as making the 3 sizes of suitcases I could have altered the shapes to make, say, the top one deeper as well as smaller - a bit like a hat box or vanity case. I did make two different handle styles in case I wanted to mix them up in the stacks but in the end I just used the curved ones on the shaped card and the angular ones on the little cases.

As always our DT have come up with some wonderful ideas and a great variety of styles, please go and see what they've all made {HERE}, they are sooooo lovely.  We're hoping lots of people will join in this week and we;re hoping we've got the code right this time (ooops!).

Rightie-hoo, time I wasn't here, but hopefully I'll get time to have a blog-hopping and catch-up session later.

Thanks for visiting
Suitcases template for Craft Robo is HERE

Ickworth House

Feeling happier today as Hubby is back home after a couple of days away on business in Düsseldorf.  Thankfully, he doesn't have to go away very often.  You'd think I'd be able to get down to some "serious" crafting on those occasions but in actuality I find I can't really settle to doing anything much and end up faffing around all over the place.  I push paper around my desk a bit but not much else.  Two whole days to myself and all I actually managed was to stick a few "finishing off" bits to projects that were lying on my desk.

Yesterday the July LO idea went "live" over on The Sketch File blog, so I thought I'd blog a bit here about my first project using the sketch.  It's another page for my "A Year with the National Trust" album - this makes three whole pages, I'll have you know - which is something of a record for my books!

I've used the sketch for the right hand page of a double page LO

 Materials:

Papers: Prima 6x6 "Jack and Jill" collection, Spellbinders Dies: Ovals, photo turn

Flower made using brown Seam Binding from Creative Treasures - I just ruffled and glued the binding straight on to a circle of scrap card (I love how it turned out!). 

large pearl brad, small brad, small circle punch

Here's the left hand page which has the title and info

 Materials:

Papers as above, EK Success Border Punch

Ruffled brown Seam Binding from Creative Treasures  

Title is cut with Craft Robo,  

flowers made with loose mulberry paper petals, along with some punched from the Prima papers, small green brad, Blue gems are hot fix "i-Rock" gems by Imaginisce

Here's how they look in the album:

That's all from me for today, I hope you'll pop over to The Sketch File and see what Jackie and Lynda have made so far using the July Sketch - and I'm hoping you'll feel inspired to have a go at making something too.

Thanks for visiting

July's Flowers of the Month

Daring Cardmakers Day again and as it's the first Friday of the month it's a flowery one this week.  The flowers associated with July are the Larkspur and the Water Lily.  On a few occasions I've been glad there are two flowers to choose from - but this time I hadn't a clue about what I could do with either of them - not a good start!

 It didn't help that when I googled on Larkspur there didn't seem to be a definitive answer as to whether it was the same as a delphinium or a related plant. I love delphiniums with those tall showy spikes and fabulously flamboyant colours - if only I could grow them - I've tried a few times but failed dismally, but I digress....(again)

I gave up on the Larkspur and settled for the water lily,  I find a good starting point is searching the web either for videos or for "punch art" and the name of the flower I'm interested in.  Even if I can't find instructions there's often some pictures or something else that helps me come up with a plan. 

 Having my trusty Craft Robo means I can usually make templates for the shapes I need, and this turned out to be fairly simple - all you need is a couple of 12 petalled flowers and lots of little starburst shapes for the centre.  I found a clipart picture to use for the petals and then used the 9 pointed star (Star5) in the templates that come with Craft Robo.

 The background is a photograph I took of Water Lilies at the Marie-Nui Gardens on Raratonga in the Cook Islands - those colours aren't subtle, are they? hehe

I used:

14cm square card blank, 
Card: fuchsia pink, purple, dark green, 
Photograph printed on plain white card, 
Apple green ribbon, Purple button, Pink baker's twine, 
Dewdrops in green and purple, Glamour Dust glitter, 
Glossy Accents for water drops on the flower, 
Home made decal rub-on

There are lots of beautiful cards to see on the Daring Cardmakers BLOG this week so I hope you'll take a look and of course we'd love you to join in!  We have a prize this week too - a gorgeous card-making kit from our new sponsor; on-line craft store Crimson Cloud

Just make a card and check the Three Little Rules for a chance to win this little bundle of goodies:

I tried to blog the latest pages for my mini album the other day but gave up when Blogger wouldn't load my photos.  So I'll add that over the weekend (if I remember...), but that's all for now.

Thanks for popping by