April's Elemental Inspiration

Hellooo!

I hope you're well this sunny Friday morning.  Rumour has it that today is going to be the warmest of the year - mind you, it doesn't have to try too hard, does it?  It's a relief to see everything bursting into life again - Spring is really here, I think (she says, fingers crossed and touching wood)

It's the first Friday of April,  and my turn to choose this month's Elemental Inspiration Picture for the Daring Cardmakers Challenge. As usual I struggled with my own challenge, and I'm not entirely happy with the results - it looked different in my head!

I chose to use the gold frame, the overlapping rectangles and the green leafy sprigs as the main trio of elements from the mood board, I've kept vaguely to the colour scheme, and used a bunch of patterned papers.  The sketch-style dandelions in the frame echo the sketched portrait on the board

Here's the mood board - you need to choose at least 3 elements to use when you make your card

Suggestions: sketching, woman, feathers, colours, overlapping rectangles, buttons, metal frames, leaves/sprigs, arrows. triangles, shells, quotations

I started with a cream card blank and chose some lovely digital papers from Grepic for the layers, one of which I resized just a section of to create the candelions for the framed picture

 Info

Cream card blank

Royal Blue card, Dark Green card

Digital paper collection from Grepic via Etsy, resized and printed on textured white card

Gold frame cut using Tonic nested rectangles die set 

A few pearls for the dandelion centres

Leaf dies all from a Small Die of the Month club set by Spellbinders

The gold card I used to cut the frame also came from Spellbinders - it was in one of the fab Card Kit of the Month boxes I bought in one of their sales and is absolutely the best gold card I've ever come across!

That's it for today, thank you for looking - I would lo0ve it if you'd join in and see what you can make using the elements from the picture.  You can see what the team made by clicking HERE

Elegant Blue and Cream - Spellblogger post for Spellbinders

Hello

For my Spellbloggers post this time I've used two die sets from Becca Feeken's beautiful new Elegant 3D Vignettes collection from Spellbinders

What I love about these die sets is bot only how they will blend with other sets but how beautifully they will work in many different projects.

The rosette die comes with three different edging dies.  You just butt your chosen edger up to the rosette die and cut both in one pass.  I've used two of the edges on this card as you can see

Info:
Soft Cream card blank cut into a 'fat' rectangle

Extra cream card for the vertical panel

Cream paper

Blue card

The upper cream panel was adhered first to spare strips of the blue card then on to the card blank

The lower rosette with the zig zag edge was cut in blue card and folded up, fixing with circles to create the rosette

The upper rosette was cut in a lovely cream coloured paper (heavier than text weight), using the fanciest of the edging dies - it is so pretty and lacy!

Before forming this rosette I cut about 1cm off the long edge.

The cream rosette was glued in place using a circle of card between that and the blue one

For the vertical blue strip I used the fancy edging die again, this time just on the two long sides of a strip of blue card

Next the bow pieces were cut and glued together before adding to the rosette.

To complete I used some pearly faux brads in a cream colour

Here are the details of all the Spellbinders die sets used this time 

Tiered Rosettes  Elegant 3D Vignettes by Becca Feeken 

Shapeabilities Etched Dies

 Petite Double Bow and Flowers  Elegant 3D Vignettes by Becca Feeken
Shapeabilities Etched Dies

Platinum Die Cutting and Embossing Machine
 

That's it for this time. Thank you for visiting. 
 Did you get any "Easter Money" that's burning a hole in your pocket?
 If so, why not click on This Link - you'll find yourself at the Spellbinders store where you will find lots of lovely dies, stamps and much much more to tempt you!!

Happy Crafting

Do Something Digi

Hello

I hope you've started the Easter Weekend off well - maybe with breakfast in bed?  Ah! we can but dream!

It's my turn to set the challenge for the Daring Cardmakers this time.  A couple of weeks ago I used some digital papers for the first time in a while, and it reminded me how much I love the scope and versatility of using my pc and printer as crafting tools.  Even if its just to print out the perfect sentiment in the perfect colour and size for a project!  It's also a great solution when you don't have exactly the right paper or image in your stash.  Google Image is a great friend when it comes to images and clip-art, and there are loads of people creating beautiful paper designs we can download for little cost.  My favourite source of lovely papers is Etsy!

The thing about digital is that you get to 'manipulate' on screen before printing on whatever material you like. If you want the flower shape on a digital design to fill your card front, then you can crop down to the bit you want and resize what's left to the actual size you want!

Anyway, I'm getting carried away....

I chose and bought a digital paper collection from PaperMoonDesigns, via Etsy, and within a couple of minutes I was able to download and start using it to make the background and the flowers for my card

Info

Paper Download from PaperMoonDesigns

I used 4 or 5 of the patterns, printed onto white textured Bazzill card.  The designs I was going to use for the flowers were printed on both sides of the card 

2x shades of green card for the swirls and black for the sentiment, which was created digitally using Paint Shop Pro and cut out using my Silhouette machine

All the flowers (except those cut out from the flower paper design) are made with this die set from Spellbinders

Succulent and Mum Flower Thoughtful Expressions by Marisa Job  

Shapeabilities Etched Dies 

I made a triple bow from yellow ribbon to pop under the flowers and cut some swirly leaf flourishes from green card for extra contrast

That's all for this time, I really hope you'll join in this time - I would really love to see how you use digital tools in your crafting!

Happy Easter - Spellblogger post for Spellbinders

Hello, Happy Easter! 

For my Spellbloggers post this time I thought I'd share a couple of Spring themed cards.  I added Easter greetings to mine and I hope they will make people smile when they arrive at their destinations

The first card uses just one of the elements from a brand new set in the Die D-Lites range from Spellbinders, its called Lady Bug Garden and I have a feeling this will become a real favourite!

There are several cute shapes in this set, but I used only the little tulip shaped one to make this card - I love tulips, so I sneaked some into the second of my cards too 
I'm saving the other dies in this set for later projects - they are so darned sweet - check them out on the die set pictures and links below.
Info:
I inked up small pieces of white card in good 'tulip' shades to start with, then cut the die first in green for the stems, then in the colours.  Once cut out I added extra ink and layered the heads onto the stems with a tiny piece of chipboard between.
I matted a strip of white card onto a strip of deep pinky-peach card, adhered this across my card blank and arranged my flowers along the strip
For the lettering out came my new favourite alphabet die set (again). The letters of HAPPY were just cut once in the same green card as the flower stems.  
For EASTER I cut three layers in white card and glued them together, then used scraps of the inked card left over from the petals for the upper layer.  The tiny heart was punched from a scrap of inked card too

For my second card i used a die set that I just couldn't resist!  I knew this Some Bunny  set from the My Little Red Wagoncollection by Debi Adams  would come in handy one daywouldn't it make the sweetest  new baby card or a birthday card for a Small Fry! 
 But it's also perfect for this fun little Easter Bunny

Info:
To begin with I taped off the white edge of my card blank and filled in the remaining square with a few shades of blue ink
I coloured some white card scraps with pinks and turquoise to use for tulips, rabbit ears and the bow tie
The tulips are cut using the same die used for card 1.  The tufts of crass were cut using  Flower Field 
For the rabbit I used kraft card, and inked through the holes in the die to add the nose and eyes.  I used a baby-bud to add some pink to his cheeks
The sentiment was pc generated , then printed and matted on green card to fit between his paws 

Here are the details of all the Spellbinders die sets used this time 

Lady Bug Garden 

Die D-Lites Etched Dies

Alphabet Die Set 

 Small Die of the Month Club April 2017

card 2
Some Bunny (My Little Red Wagon by Debi Adams) 
Shapeabilities Etched Dies


Flower Field 
Die D-LitesEtched Dies

Platinum Die Cutting and Embossing Machine
 

I hope you have a lovely, peaceful Easter weekend, wherever you are and whatever you're up to.
That's it for this time. Thank you for visiting, if you click on This Link  you'll find yourself at the Spellbinders store where you will be tempted by lots of lovely dies, stamps and much much more!

Happy Crafting

Hello Spring Gift Bag

Hello!

A lovely new craft box called "Hello Spring" has just gone on sale at Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox

As well as all the gorgeous, interesting bits and pieces you'd expect now from one of our Craft Boxes, you also get the choice of which stencil will be in your box.  Mine is the lovely flowery one I’ve used on this little gift bag. 

 

  Once I'd cut to size and made the creases that would allow my bag to fold up, I taped my stencil in place and used various yellow, pink and peachy-orange inks in a fairly random way to stencil the lovely flower.

While it was still in its flat, unfolded state I added the inked and glittered chipboard flower and used some of the green spotty ribbon for the stalk and leaves. 
 Then the bag was folded and glued into its finished shape, and holes added for the ribbon closure.

  

from  the "Hello Spring" Through the Letterbox craft box I used:

Green Ribbon

Yellow Ribbon

Flower Stencil

Flower Chipboard shape

From my stash I added; Faux brads, green dewdrops and alphabet die cuts

Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox  craft boxes cost just £12.50 each and are stuffed with all sorts of different stash to keep you inspired and keep you crafting

That's all for this time. Thanks for popping by

Back to Basics

Hi there!

It's a bright and sunny day here today and I'm sure the weather forecaster on the radio said the words "warm and sunny" - bit of a change from last weekend, then!

I'm still putting up with having limited crafting time, which doesn't go down well, I can assure you.  Hoping things will get properly back to normal soon!

Joanne posted an interesting Back to Basics challenge for the Daring Cardmakers this week.  I thought it might prove really tricky, but in the end it went together fairly easily.

 Joanne here this week and I’d like to take us 

Back to Basics

 Choose one basic geometric shape (square, circle, triangle etc) and one primary colour (red, blue, yellow) and make them the focus of your design. You can add other shapes and colours as accents, just keep the focus on those basics.

Circles are great for making various kinds of flowers. For this flower I inked up some white card with a few shades of lemon and warmer yellow ink, punched 5 quite large circles then used a ball tool to get some shape into them.  Was it cheating to do that bit?

A smaller punched circle was used as a base to overlap the large ones on, then  the flower centres were cut from black card using a couple of different dies

I made the leaves using the same large circle punch.

Keeping to the circles theme I embossed the grey backing panel using a folder called Décor Circles

 At this point I got a bit stuck so left it overnight to have a bit of a think about how to finish it (do you do that?)

Because the flower is large and quite graphic, it needed something along the same simple lines to complete it.  So out came this fabulous alphabet die set from Spellbinders

I cut the letters three times in black card and once in the left over piece of the inked yellow card and glued them all together.

The final thing was to make three faux brads using more of the yellow card, a tiny circle punch and a ball tool for shaping

Materials and Tools

White card blank

Grey Bazzill card embossed with Décor Circles A4 folder (Teresa Collins)

White card inked both sides with various Versamagic inks

Circle Punches (EK Success and Xcut)

Alphabet
Alphabet Die Set - Small Die of the Month Club April 2017

That's all for this time - please pop over to The Daring Cardmakers Blog to see all the wonderful Geometric and Primary cards everyone has made - I wonder if you'll take up the challenge this week?