Sunday, February 25, 2024

Sealing Wax Gift Wrapping

 


Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 
 
This time I'm sharing another little project using the beautiful Lily of the Valley Wax Seal of the Month club stamp from Spellbinders. 
This particular seal sold out very quickly and the only way you can get hold of it now is to grab the Deluxe Caboodle Value club - then you'll get absolutley EVERYTHING, plus some extras too.

Excited by the mixed colour seals I'd been making I decided to wrap a gift in plain brown paper and use a seal to decorate it.
Having wrapped the box I tied twine around it and made a knot,  Next I tucked some sprigs I'd had left over from another project under the twine.
They are from one or more of these sets

Then it was time to get creative with the wax!  
It was quite a chunky knot so I melted a good few beads in various different colours  - I didn't want it to go sludgy so avoided mixing the colours other than having a prod to amke sure they were melted.
Then I poured a large dollop over the knot and the stems before pressing the LotV seal into the wax and holding it there for a minute or so to make sure it stuck everything down.
To finish I added some gold highlighting


Oh my word, wax seal making is such fun - I'm addicted already.  It's so easy to whilte away the afternoon melting and remelting.  It's all very 'zen'!  A d there's no waste because if you have a disaster, or you just don't like something, just cut it into bits and save it in a pot to use again later

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,
 
Kathy xx

PS 
 If you buy from Spellbinders and you'd like to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...
  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  
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Saturday, February 24, 2024

Lily of the Valley Wax Seal of the Month

 


Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 
 
This time I'm sharing more photos and info about the Wax Seal of the Month club from Spellbinders. Now this particular seal sold out soooo quickly , and I'm not surprised - I mean who doesn't love a little bunch of beautiful Lily of the Valley flowers - my mum loved them and had some in her wedding bouquet.  I've tried to grow them in various gardens but have had no luck - even though everyone says you just need a few and then they'll start popping up all over the place.  Its just not fair!
Anyway, the only way you can get hold of this seal now is to grab the Deluxe Caboodle Value club - then you'll get absolutley EVERYTHING, plus some extras too.
I'm going to share some of the seals I made using this one, plus a card and next time I've a way to use a seal when wrapping a gift to share
Now, you do need to remember that I am very much a novice when it comes to making seals, so they are never perfect!  That said I actually don't really like them to be too 'perfect', too round, too beautifully highlighted.  They would never have been that way in their hay day, would they?  (and I'm sticking to that excuse by the way!)
 

 The three green ones are made using the beautiful green wax beads you get as part of the Wax Seal of the Month kit.  I used Edding 751 gloss pens in white and gold to add highlights.  I've never had a steady hand so its acually quite amazing that these turned out okay! 
 For the other two I got brave and mixed some different colours of wax beads - now this is very addictive, so be warned.  I used a few shades of blue for the, well Blue one, and the other brownish, reddish, bronzish one has many colours in it and most are metallic too.  Oh gosh they are so pretty!
I liked the shape the blue one made, so I heated my mixing tool and used it to pierce a hole so I can add a chain, some twine or a ribbon to hang it with
 
 Here's the simple Easter card I made using one of the green seals.
 
 I used a piece of greenish wood effect digital paper, matted onto gold card and added a loop of green twine behind the seal using a blob of melted wax to fix it there.
To complete this card I used one of the two sentiments you get in February's Glimmer of the Month kit
 

Oh my word, wax seal making is such fun - I'm addicted already.  It's so easy to whilte away the afternoon melting and remelting.  It's all very 'zen'!  A d there's no waste because if you have a disaster, or you just don't like something, just cut it into bits and save it in a pot to use again later

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,
 
Kathy xx

PS 
 If you buy from Spellbinders and you'd like to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...
  This is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  
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Blooming Boots

Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 
 
This time I'm sharing more photos and info about my Blooming Boots card!
I made this using the fabulous die set from Spellbinders' February  Small Die if the Month  kit

Those boots were just crying out to be a display vehicle for the daffodils and tulips that are also in this set - well. anything goes as a vase these days doesn't it!
 
This kit is just wonderful - I love  flowers and find it hard to resist each new die set that comes out!  Amazing then that all the daffodil and tulip sets I had in my collection up till now were really quite small with flower heads only about 1.5cms in size.  So this set is brilliant - my card is about 14cms square, so you can tell that these flowers are a lovely size for a big bouquet!

I used coloured cardstock for the boots and the leaves. For the flowers I inked both sides of some thinner white cards in various shades of yellow, orange and pink. then cut out and built up the petal layers.
I was really happy with the 'wood' wffect background I'f used for the Glimmer daffodils card so stuck with the theme and used a soft creamy beige wood design digital paper for this one
To complete this card I used one of the two sentiments you get in February's Glimmer of the Month kit
 
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If you buy from Spellbinders and you'd like to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...
  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!
There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,
 
Kathy xx

Golden Daffodils

Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 
 
I've been using some of the fabulous February Spellbinders Monthly kits and today I have more info on the daffodil card made using the Glimmer of the Month club kit  
Nothing shouts "Springtime" quite as brightly and bravely as daffodils do.  In my garden they are definitley having to be brave as they've been battered by all the rain we've had recently!

There are some beautifully coloured-in examples using this gorgeous hot foil stamp to see on the various Spellbinders' websites and social media sites, but colouring in ihas never been my forte, so I try to show other ways you can use the Glimmer plates
 
This time  I hot-foiled 3 copies onto thin white card using the gold foil in the kit.  I fussy-cut out the whole of one and used inks to colour it for my base layer of daffodils, as below.
 
Next I coloured parts of the other copies to make more layers of leaves and flowers and use when I built up my picture.
A bit of serendipity is always nice and I spotted the perfect background in my 'bits box'. It was a digital design I'd already printed onto textured cardstock but hadn't used - the pale blues and distressed wood pattern were just right for these daffodils


Once I'd adhered the base layer of daffodils to the background I added my extra flower layers and more leaves using small pieces of chipboard (okay, its old cereal packet) between the layers to complete my picture.
To finish I made a sentiment on the pc to tone with the background shade
I tend not to glue downthe whole of leaves so that I can arrange them to give more dimension and 'movement'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you ever buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...
  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!
There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,
 
Kathy xx

Friday, February 23, 2024

Kisses in the Rain

 

Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 
 
This time I’m sharing my card for the new Daring Cardmakers challenge and it's our lovely Kirsty's first time as our host, and there must have been some magic in the air because I'd just got my hands on the perfect die set to use for her challenge!
 
It's Kirsty here, and my debut for hosting
This week's theme is
 'Whatever the Weather'
Don't we always love to chat about the weather? 
We've had a real mix lately from freezing cold, wind storms, 
rain and sunshine so I thought this would be a great theme! 
I would love to see your weather related card!
This super-cute die set is called Sneaking a Kiss and of course its a Spellbinders set! 
As soon as I saw cards using this one appearing I knew I needed to own it and kept my fingers crossed that it was still in stock! I was so pleased when it arrived through my letterbox.
And then of course, Kirsty's challenge popped up with the perfect excuse to play with it too
If you compare the picture above with the one below you'll see that our girl's legs have moved!  That's because they are fixed with a clever but simple 'meachanism' that allows them to swing!  How cute is that?
I printed out some simple digital designs in pink and white, and black and white, making them quite small to get them the right size for my couple.  As usual I printed them onto white Bazzill card
The pink lines with 'love' and hearts were cut from matching pink card and are also from the  Sneaking a Kiss set
The clouds and raindrops were cut from a pale grey and white spotty paper - actually an old bag!
This set is also by Spellbinders, but about a hundred years old!
 So I had a look to see what similar but newer sets I could find and 
found this brand new one called Up in the Air View which I have to say is calling to me....

******

Just a Note
If you buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty
 friend with a stash addiction...
  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!
There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

******
Thank you so much for coming by
 
 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,
 
Kathy xx

 

Friday, February 16, 2024

It's OK, There's No-one Watching


  

Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 
 
This time I’m sharing my card for the new Daring Cardmakers challenge and I've gone for something quite differneet to my usual stuff.  
Let me oknow what you think!
 
Let's Face the Music and Dance!

Hello crafters, Joanne here and for this week’s challenge,  I’m making a song and dance about things: make a card inspired by music and/or dance. 

Any kind of music, any kind of dance — serenade us or break out the boogie, however the mood takes you!

 Click Here for some ideas from the design team


I was checking out digitals on Etsy for some suitable papers to use for rhis challenge when I came across a fabulous set of Street Dance watercolours from

TheDigitalMuseShop  - and my ballet dancer idea was forgotten!
These images are so full of movement and colour that I knew I needed to keep my chosen image as the main feature and decided that an eclipse
card could work well.

 
Once resized and printed out (I always print two, just in case somehting goes wrong) I cut the word PARTY from the image (remember to keep all the little bits to glue back in later) and chose a mauve-grey colour od plain card to cut 5 more of each letter from.  There were all glued on top of each other with the top layer being those from the image.
I inked the base card where the letters would be just in case any of the white remeained visible, then adhered the printed image to the card. Next i used tape to fix the bits from the P, A and R to the back of the letters then glued them in the gaps on the image
 

 I have some musical die with notes on curlin staves so used the spare image to cut one of these out, and cut another in the coloured card to back it with so that it would stand out more.  This piece was adhwewd to the corner of the card. 

 Then, for once I resisted the urge to stick anything else on - its really hard, you know!

Thank you so much for coming by
 
 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,
 
Kathy xx

******

Just a Note
If you buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty
 friend with a stash addiction...
  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!
There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  


Friday, February 09, 2024

Fabulous February Spellbinders Monthly Kits

 


    Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 
 
The fabulous February Spellbinders Monthly kits are ready to go so its time to share some of the projects I've been making using the following:
 
 Today I'm sharing a main project for each of the kits and I'll be back on other days with more info about each and some other things made with them.
 
First up is my Blooming Boots card using the Small Die of the Month 
Anything goes as a vase these days! doesn't it!
This kit is just wonderful - I love daffodils and tulips and you get both in this die kit along with leaves, stems and of course this great pair of boots!
The sentiment is ine of two you get in February's Glimmer of the Month kit
 
There are more glorious daffodils to be found in the Glimmer of the Month kit. 
 I hot-foiled 3 copies on white card using the gold foil in the kit.  I fussy-cut out the whole of one and used inks to colour it for my base layer of daffodils, then use the other copies to make more layers of leaves and flowers.
 
 
My third kit is the Wax Seal of the Month and I'm very much a novice at using wax - but that said, I am absolutely loving it.  If you want to try something ytuly absorbing give it a try.  It doesn't matter if they don't turn out very well because you can just cut them up and re-melt!  There's something very soothing about this activity which I really didn't expect
Lily of the Valley were a favourite of my mum and she had them in her wedding bouquet.  I've tried growing them in the garden but haven't had much luck at all! I made a this card using February's wax seal and the wax you get with it - it's such a pretty soft green colour.
I'm not great at colouring or pen work - I've never had steady enough hands for fine work like that, but I coundn't resist trying to add some white to the flowers as well as gold on the stems.
I did buy a silicone mould for m
aking perfect 'rounds' but actually I think I like the more organic shapes - and as I said before if they are a total mess I just put the bits of wax in a 'rejects' pot and save them to reuse another time

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you ever buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...
  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!
There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,
 
Kathy xx

Friday, February 02, 2024

Pink Roses

 


   Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place!  I'm sharing this week’s card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge today. 
Our host this time is Rizwana with the
February Elemental Inspiration Challenge 
It's Rizewana here to host this week and mymoodboard issuper pretty, with lots of lovely inspiration in there. 
Remember just choose at least 3 elements to use when you make your card.
Using pink is optional!
 p[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[
 
oooooooooooooooo

 98888
 
 

Thank you so much for coming by

Just a Note
If you buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty
 friend with a stash addiction...
  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!
There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  
 
 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,
 
Kathy xx