Tassels and Flowers

Hello

We've another sunny Lockdown Monday atm but the forecast mentioned RAIN! How very dare it!  Actually as our grass is already looking a bit brown in places maybe some rain wouldn't be such a bad thing.
Like a lot of people we did a bit of work in the garden over the weekend , and this morning we've ordered up some growbags and a selection of herbaceous plants from the small local nursery who are doing deliveries. 
Thee building work on our new garage hasn't moved forward since they finished the groundwork, and as one thing leads to another, its all a bit of a mess out there atm!

Last week I started  my crafting catch up, and today I've another birthday card to share -  it's back to early March for this one

I used some card stock along with dies from the March Papercraft Society box for this card

 Info
White card blank.
Lime green card layer is cut with border dies from the
Papercraft Society box as are the flowers
I added black and white twine and  a couple of hand-made paper tassels to decorate the upper section
Some small white pearls for the flower centres and add detail to the pretty border design
The white on black printed sentiment and diagonal pattern are both pc generated

  That's all for today, Thank You so much for visiting,
please leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages!

Happy Crafting, and stay safe!

Let the Music Play

  

Hello

Another sunny day here in Hertfordshire, I hope its the same where you are. Are you ready for my weekly rant?
How have you coped with lockdown this week? 
 I reckon its all about the mind-set you develop - if you are staying at home, and keeping to the rules then you are one of the lucky ones - you are safe, healthy and have total control over keeping it that way. And that's a Positive way to look at it - you are in control of your environment.
Remember how everyone moaned about the work-life balance, the horrendous traffic jams, the long commute, that they didn't get enough time with their families......well, .....

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones; stay home, stay safe, 
and look for the positives!



This week at The Daring Cardmakers our fabulous Queen of the Ink Svenja has set the challenge:
  

let the music play

(and show some sheet music).

Make a card using some kind of sheet music. This may be the real thing, design paper, stamped, or even handwritten by yourselves. Any other ideas? Go ahead!

🎵  🎵  🎵    Ta-daa!   🎵  🎵  🎵

  You can see what our fab Design Team made by clicking HERE

 Info
I used a few shades of yellow and peachy shades (Versamagic) to ink the front of my card, then stencilled a pattern down the left side with a light green embellishing mousse (Tonic)
Next I used the same inks to colour up a piece of card ready to cut the flowers and butterflies, I swished a little of the metallic embellishment mousse over the top to add a soft sheen to parts of the card, then left it to dry
For the sheet music elements I used a couple of different digital paper collections bought via Etsy. The background sheet music paper is from one set and after printing to size I tore it rather than cutting it out. The other two printouts are from a set of collage effect designs with flowers and butterflies. I used my fingers to add a little  around the edges of all three.
Next I die cut the hearts background (CraftStashUK) from black card, and again rubbed a little gold embellishment mousse over parts of it
Now I arranged and glued down the music piece, then the hearts, then the two collage cards
The butterfly was cut using a fabulous Hunkydory set
Rhe flowers and swirls are cut using dies from the March Papercraft Society box, with the flower centres coming from a Joanna Sheen die set
To finish this card I added a few tiny green gems and a Happy Birthday sentiment

Thank you for visiting today, I hope you'll add me to your 'following' list and come back again soon
Please leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages! 

Happy Crafting!

Birthday Balloons

Hello

It's another sunny Lockdown Monday here!  
How is your home-working going? My OH and I share our study-cum-craft room, but I'm used to him being here as he spent years working from home a couple of days a week, it just means I can't use my noisy gadgets when he's on the phone!  He's one of those people who once he's busy with work doesn't notice anything at all.
 Unless it's "Would you like another cup of tea?" Funny how that phrase always manages to get through.....

 It must be much harder if you're not used to home working,and if there's a few of you all trying to work, home-school etc.  But it has compensations - the commute is shorter for a start!

Anyway, waffle over for this time!

I was looking through my photos at the weekend and realised that I've loads of cards that I've not blogged yet, so I'm going to make a start with catching up.

The first is from February (shows how behind I am) and is a 50th birthday card for a friend of OH.  I couldn't manage to get 50 balloons on though

 Info

White card blank. 

Whit Bazzill upper layer printed with a wood effect design from a digital collection

Corrugated strip scavenged from a cardboard box

The dog die cut is from a Spellbinders set of 4 cute dogs

I used scraps of inked card left over from another project to die cut the balloons using another Spellbinders die, and added some twine for the strings

Finally a white on black printed sentiment to finish

  That's all for today, Thank You so much for visiting,
please leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages!

Happy Crafting!

Umbrella

  

 
Hello

Not surprisingly, the lockdown here in the UK and other parts of the world will go on.  Personally, I'd rather it stayed in place until there are more guarantees of us being safe out there, or a vaccine or treatment that works.  
When I see pictures/film of  people going out and about all over the place I wonder what's the matter with them - do they think it's really all a big joke, or that they are invincible?  Or maybe they are just too selfish or stupid to realise how easily this virus spreads.
Do us all a favour and stay at home.

And having had my little rant.....

This week at The Daring Cardmakers it was my own turn to come up with the challenge:
  

Umbrella

Though we've only seen sunshine so far this month,
it is traditionally the month of April Showers. So I'd like to see umbrellas on your cards this week.  Use just one, or lots of them, or if you're desperately wishing for hot summer days you can use a parasol instead!

  You can see what our fab Design Team made by clicking HERE

 Info
This is a rocker card so I started by making the base from a folded piece of white card and using a large circle die to cut the shape.  You need to place the die so that a portion of the fold is 'inside' the circle die, so it all remains in one piece when cut.  The flat, folded edge is the top of you card.
I used the same die to cut the semi-circle for the umbrella section, then measured and drew the curves in before cutting them.
I used  rainbow coloured inks and a stencil to add the spots, then when the ink was dry I used the stencil again to add glittery spots, using Glitter Gel paste.
My rainbow was made using the Tonic circle die set, when it was finished I cut it in half to make two rainbows.

I laid the umbrella shaped piece and the rainbow piece onto the base card and used them as a guide for where to cut into the sides of the base card, and as I wanted an aperture straight through both layers of card, where to cut that circle out.
That done I could adhere those pieces in place and add the handle for the umbrella. I made a little multi-coloured tassel to add interest.
I die cut the sun and the clouds using Spellbinders die sets and created the sentiment on the pc.  These were all added using pieces of temporary tape to hold them in place as I worked out where they needed to go to balance the card centrally.  They were all glued in place once I was happy.

Thank you for visiting today, I hope you'll add me to your favourites list and come back again soon
Please leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages! 

Happy Crafting!

Sparkle and Shine

 
Hello

H A P P Y      E A S T E R
I hope you're keeping safe and well and finding your own way to cope with our new way of life!  At least as Crafters and Makers we have plenty of stash and resources at hand and of course, most of us know that crafting is a great therapy in times of stress!

This week at The Daring Cardmakers Dawn is setting the challenge:
  
Clean and Simple with a dash of Sparkle

is the theme of this weeks challenge.  

I would like to see lots of white space on your clean and simple projects but as I  believe a card isn't finished until you add a little bling, please also include some gems, sequins, glitter on your creations this week.

  You can see what our fab Design Team made by clicking HERE

 Info

 White base card 
Spare card for die cut circle
 Aqua rectangles are stencilled using Nuvo Embellishment mousse
(I had to alter an existing stencil to get the shapes I wanted)
The mousse gives a lovely soft metallic finish which doesn't really show up well on the photos
Scraps of card for the daffodil, the die came in my Christmas stocking, so good to give it an airing!
White ion black sentiment created on the pc
Black and white twine
Glittery accents are Stickles

 I only make a couple of Easter cards, and the second is much like this one, just with different glittery dots!
I don't find the 'white space' thing easy, so this was quite a taxing challenge, but I rather like the results. and hope you do too.

please leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages! 

Happy Crafting!

Shells, Hearts and Flowers

Hello
I hope you're keeping well and remembering we're not 
"Stuck at Home", but "Safe at Home"!
I've always thought that crafting is not only a pleasure, but a kind of 
therapy and I think those of us who enjoy and find joy and release in 
making something will probably cope better with our strange new 
way of life.  After all - just think how many more new projects 
we can start and never get round to finishing during lockdown
 - or is that just me?😂😂😂😂

This week at The Daring Cardmakers we have a fabulous new April moodboard from Shabneez to play with:
   
April's Elemental Challenge  

As it's the first Friday of the month I have been set the task of setting

 the Elemental Challenge.  I've picked a moodboard

 and you have to choose at least 3 elements from it.  

Colours count as 1 element! 

You can see what our fab Design Team made by clicking HERE

  There are so many choices in this one - I must have changed my mind about what to use at least 4 times before settling on what to use!  
In the end I chose the shell pattern background, the hearts and the flowers.  I was convinced I had a background panel die with that shell pattern, but after looking through all my die files and boxes it became apparent that I'd imagined it.  I'd set my hear on using that element though, so I found a google image of the pattern and made it into a cutting file for use with the Cameo machine.  It worked out pretty well - once I'd remembered how to do a 'double cut' anyway!

 Info

White base card 
Shell pattern panel resized and cut from white Bazzill card
More of the same card to make the patterned background piece - I used lots of different aqua tones of inks to 'draw' lines of colour across the card, then merged them together with a damp wipe.  Once cut to size I matted it onto a piece of aqua pearl card and added the shell pattern on top 
For the flowers and leafy swirls I inked up a few scraps of card and die cut the shapes using dies from the March Papercraft Society box
 For the hearts I wanted to echo the tiny pattern effect on the heart in the middle of the moodboard.  Rather than try to draw minute flowers I just used various dots of colours from my rarely used Promarker pens all over a piece of card.  It's pretty small this whole piece measures about 10 x 7cms

 When the ink was dry I went back and filled in some more dots and added some more, along with some splodges of gold paint to brighten it up.  I die cut some hearts from the finished piece and went around the edges with a gold pen. 

Once I'd used all these bits to make an arrangement I was happy with I glued them in place, then added a sentiment and some black and white twine to finish it off.  It seems that at the moment I just have to add a bit of
black and white to everything.  Maybe its something to do with how they really seem to lift a mainly pastel colour palette

 I have no idea, but I do love how it works....

Anyway, that's quite enough from me today, I hope you like it, and that you'll feel inspired to join in with us this week   
Thank You so much for visiting, have yourself a peaceful and safe weekend.
Please leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages! 

Happy Crafting!