Bee happy

  Happy Mothers day to all you Mums. I've taken advantage of today being 'my day' and spent the whole morning crafting. 

This card is what I came up with.

Layers of paint, stamps, ink and Grunge paste

A lovely day

Hello, well it's Thursday again so my turn to share over on Clare Curd Crafts

The sun put in a very welcomed appearance yesterday and I think it was reflected in the card I was making, bright and cheerful

I used the 

My Mind's Eye Kate and Co. OXFORD LANE 6 x 6 paper pad 

and the 

My Mind's Eye Kate and Co. OXFORD LANE Stamp Set

start by decorating your base card if you wish, then cut a few narrow strips of the patterned paper and weave these together. Cut a picture tile, also from the paper pack, and mount this up on layers of 

coordinating papers to give some depth. Finally run a contrasting ink pads around the edges of your finished card.

A sunny disposition

Hi, it's Thursday and that means it's my turn to share a little inspiration on Clare Curd Crafts DT blog

I've used the

My Mind's Eye Kate and Co. OXFORD LANE 6 x 6 paper pad

and the clear stamp set that goes with the collection.

I love this collection, so fresh and sunny, and yet suitable for anyone as there is such a wide variety of papers and images in the collection.

I started off by picking a few papers from the pack and cut them into banner shapes.

I them picked out one of the small icon pictures that are included in the pad. I cut it out and mounted it onto a contrast piece of card.

I found my base card to stark against the patterned papers so I took out my beloved Dylusion sprays and added some splashes of colour. 

I also took the little dotty stamp and the flower from the stamp set and added them in a few places.

Then I mounted up  the banners, curling the points a little, and the image, raised on adhesive 3D foam pads.

C.A.S

 

It's my turn over on Clare Curds Craft DT page today and I came up with this very clean and simple, but stylish card.

 

 

I used some Flitter Glu and Mega Flakes, love these products! to create the substrate to cut my die from.

Then layered up my card base and sentiment on white card, keeping everything very clean.

 

 



Who doesn't love a saving

It's Thursday and that means it's my turn on the DT blog at Clare Curd Crafts.

 

It was only after I made this card that I realised Clare has put this stamp set and lots more into the 40% sale she has on at the moment

 

The background of the card is brayered with grey ink and over stamped using the small nut & bolt stamp. The motorbike is stamped in grey ink and layered onto black card.

The patterned paper is from the Carta bella well Travelled pad

I cut a couple of cute little banners and attached them.

 

 

A bit of distressing on the edges and this manly card is finished.

 

 

Lots of lovely layers

It's coming to that time of year again, and no matter how much I want to bury my head in the sand and pretend that Christmas isn't just under 5 weeks away I need to put on my big girl pants and face facts. Now I stopped making all my Christmas cards years ago as I found it was too much pressure to make them all and I wasn't prepared to start making Christmas cards while I was still thinking of summer holidays, so now I only make a handful of cards for very special people and that allows me to put more time and effort into each one.

 

For this card I used  Here Comes Santa from IndigoBlu, available from Clare Curd Crafts.

I also used FlitterGlu and Mega Flakes.

 

I applied the FlitterGlu to the edges of the base card and then got a good layer of the flakes to cover the glue.

Then edged some black card, one of which I embossed, with silver embossing powder and layered these up.

 

 

 

Next I stamped the snowflake border in the FlitterGlu and covered it in the flakes, and mounted that onto a strip of black card and applied off to one side.

The tree was stamped and embossed in silver and mounted onto 3D pad, and the sentiment was tucked behind.

 

 

 

I'm sharing this card on the following challenge blog ~ http://scribbleandscrapcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/challenge-5-always-anything-goes.html



Cute Critters

As soon as I saw this set of stamps my first thought was 'awwwwww how sweet' my second was how versatile they were.

The little animals are really adorable and could be used for any occasion.

 

I stamped them in Stazon ink and then painted them in a pearlescent paint.

I then stamped the trees with Versamark ink and embossed them with black embossing powder. The animals were then mounted on 3D foam pads.

I then stamped the star with FlitterGlu and then applied IndigoBlu Mega Flake in Royal Peacock.

Before mounting the black square onto the base card I edged the basecard with flitterGlu and applied some more of the Mega Flake.

Items used :- Mega Flake

                  FlitterGlu

                   Phat Foam

                                         Winter Critters stamp set



Something for the boys

It's my turn over on the Clare Curd Crafts DT blog today and yes I know it's Halloween but I just couldn't bring myself to make anything spooky, so instead I went all butch and masculine and made a grungy card.

 

the base of the card is coloured using a brayer and a brown ink pad.

The layers are cut from the Carte bella paper pack as well as some old Tim Holtz papers from my own stash.

 

Clare stocks a great selection of Tim Holtz products by the way!

 

 

I then started working on my layers, some inking, some distressing and some stamping

 

The motorbike stamp is great and is  from  the Crafty Impressions Explore stamp set

 

I put half the quote on the outside of the card

 

And then stamped the rest inside

 

I'm linking this card to the following challenge blogs

 

MAKE IT MONDAY

 

&

 

SCRIBBLE&SCRAP

 

 

 



Mixed media on acetate

This week I thought I'd visit a love a had years back, acetate! I have made many things in the past using acetate as the base, I just love the look of it.

 

I had the urge to make something girly and pretty so that's exactly what I did.

 

 

 

 

I started out with a piece of acetate, 4x12 inches folded in half (4x6), which I then put the right hand side through my cuttlebug to emboss, bare in mind this will then be the front of your card

 

 

once embossed this is what you will have.

 

Now to start working on the elements for your card. I used some Dylusion sprays to colour my card,

put some of your chosen colour into a pallet and use as paint

 

 

remember to use varying amounts of white to vary your shades.

 

with any paint left cover a sheet of card or paper, you'll need it later if you want to die cut elements to add to your card.

 

Now for stamping, pick your main image stamp and also a few smaller stamps with which to make a background. I used the postage mark stamp from the Crafty Impressions Explore stamp set , as well as a couple of others from my stash.

 

 

cut you background piece about an inch smaller all round than your card base and after edging the sides with some brown ink apply it to the inside of your card. Don't worry about being able to see the glue as you'll cover this up later.

 

Now for the front of the card, place your main focal image where you would like it to be and using decorative elements play around until you like what you see. Clare carries some lovely

elements you could use. Some great items to use are sequin waste, ribbons, lace, paper flowers and die cuts ( this is where your painted sheet of paper comes in handy) ( metal dies )

 

 

My altered die cuts ready to add to my card.

 

Once I was happy with the layout of the elements I glued them all in place.

 

 

Once the front of your card looks pretty you need to pay a little attention to the back and inside as all the glue/double sided tape that you've is visible, so cut a piece of card the same size as the background you stuck inside the card and attach this to the vary back of your card, this also gives you somewhere to write your sentiment.

And do the same to hide the sticky stuff from the front.

 

 



 

 

Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow

Hello lovelies, it's Thursday again and that means it's my turn over on Clare Curd Crafts blog.

 

The title of this post kind of sums my life up at the moment, nothing happens for ages then a whole load of stuff all at once. This week is a whole load at once one as my youngest is off to Uni on Saturday so it's all hands on deck getting all the last minute bits and pieces together for him. With this in mind crafting time has been very limited, but I got stuck in and in under 30 minutes put together two cards, both quite different from my usual style but they show the versatility in the products I was talking about here.

 

First up is a little pink and black number I put together using the papers from the Carta Bella - Well Travelled 6x6 pad and some well loved dies I rediscovered in a box

 

 

I used a 5x5 black card blank and covered it with a sheet of paper from the paper pad, then cut the circles using dies and my Cuttlebug.

 

The words and butterfly are also dies. To bring the pink over onto the butterfly I applied some micro beads down the body.

 

The second card I made was even faster than the first

for this card I started out with a 5x5 white card base which I sprayed with Dylusions spray in Dirty Martini. When this was dry I over stamped it with the sentiment from the Crafty Impressions Explore stamp set. I then cut three banners from different sheets of paper from the paper pad and using a paint brush edged them in the green spray ink.

 

When I stuck the banners down I curled the edges a little to give some movement and dimension to the card

 

If your in the market for some new dies take a look here at the selection Clare carries in the shop.

 

 

A bit of what you fancy

Good morning, well I hope the weather is a bit better where you are, because it looks like autumn is well and truly here today in Birmingham. It's wet , grey and quite chilly, a total comtrast to last week when me and hubby headed to Somerset for a couple of days, wonderful blue skies and lovely warm sunshine.

 

I had to make a birthday card for my Sister today, and I fancied something feminine and a bit shabby chic, this is what I came up with

 

 

the hearts are made from a sheet of decorative paper I made myself using layers of acrylic paints.

 

and those gorgeous crocheted ribbons are a bargain I picked up last week in The Works, only 99p a pack! they were white but I've tinted them with ink, and the flower ribbon, also 99p, is a much softer shade of cream, so I also tinted that.

 

 have a good Monday x





Versatility

Today is my turn over on the Clare Curd Crafts blog

 

With pennies not as free flowing as they once were I know I like to get as much mileage from my crafting materials as possible, and one of the things I look for is versatility in the products. Take the Carta Bella - Well Travelled 6x6 paper pad, as soon as I saw it I liked it, and my first impression was how masculine it was, but after looking through it I discovered there are in fact some very useful papers in there.

 

 

I've previously used this paper collection and made a very manly card and a boyish mixed media hanging, but today I thought I'd show you just how versatile this paper pad really is.

 

 

The black and cream papers are from the Well travelled collection, and to contrast with these I wanted something totally different in both colour and pattern, so I took a plain piece of white copy paper and made my own sheet of patterned paper using Dylusion sprays in Dirty Martini and London Blue I sprayed through a paper doily to get the lacy effect.

I stamped and cut out my main focal image, a very old stamp, in fact it's the very first rubber stamp I ever bought a good 10 years ago, and it's still a firm favourite of mine. I mounted this onto black card, as I did with all the other layers.

 

 

The flower is one I made from the sprayed paper, just cut a rough circle and then cut a spiral into it. Then from the outside edge of the spiral roll the strip all the way to the centre, then secure with adhesive. Roll some of the edges back to get some texture, then add a black gem to the centre of the flower. The frill is in fact a piece of the doily I sprayed through. 

 

Once everything was mounted up I stuck it to a 6x6 white card base.

 

 

~~~~~~

 

Just to show how versatile this paper pad really is I then went on to make a quick and simple Christmas gift tag

 

 

So crafting need not be expensive if you shop wisely and buy products that will see you through the whole year.



DT Thursday

Good morning :)

 
Today is my turn over on the Clare Curd Crafts blog

 

I loved the Carta Bella - Well Travelled Collection paper pad as soon as I saw it, such a great collection of really useful papers, and that is what I used on my card and gift bag I'm sharing today.

 

 

 

-I started off making a card 6x6 card base from a sheet of black card from my stash. Then after deciding which of the lovely Carta Bella papers I was going to use I then decided on my layout.

 

- I stamped the motor bike, from the Crafty Expressions EXPLORE set and distressed and inked the edges, this then led the way for the overall look of the card, rough, ready and masculine.

 

 

 

-  all the edges of the patterned papers were also distressed and inked, I tore into my main patterned paper and rolled the edges back and put a contrasting piece of paper behind, then matted all my pieces onto black card.

 

 

- in the paper pad there is a sheet that has little quotes and saying on it, I cut one of these out and attached it off to the side of the card. I also made little tabs, rounded the ends with a corner rounder punch and attached them with eyelets. Little details like these add interest to a card.

 

 

- now mount everything onto you base card and we're done. Now onto the gift bag.

 

 

- this was so simple to make as I already had a pile of brown paper bags in my stash, but you could just as easily make a bag.

 

-I stamped the motor bike out and cut the piece into a tag shape, then made a second tag with some black card and some off cuts of paper left from the card. I attached these together with another little tab.

 

- I made a decorative strip for the bottom of the bag, again using off cuts.

 

- all that is left to do now is decide how you are going to close your bag. I decided to roll the top over a couple of time, punch a hole and then thread a piece of ball chain through my tag and the bag, so when the chain is closed it holds the bag shut.

 

 

 

Items used from Clare Curd Crafts

 





~ Carta Bella - Well Travelled Collection

 

~  Crafty Impressions Explore