Thursday 27 February 2014

Easter Greetings

Materials used:-
Stampendous
CRR192 Cling Lily Cross
 CRR138 Cling  Calligraphy Sampler
    V147 Easter Blessings (wood mounted)
 Detail gold embossing powder
Aged Spice embossing powder 
Champagne Crushed Glass glitter (Frantage range)
Also:-
Versafine Vintage Sepia & Onyx Black
Tombow pens
Liquid Pearls -Copper
A5 card blank
Hairy Manila craft card
Brown card for layering
All available from:-
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
 
Easter will soon be upon us & time to turn our thoughts to some Easter card designs. I fell in love with this magnificent cross design from Stampendous the moment I saw it as it has such potential.
 I've stamped 3 times; first onto the cream base layer using Vintage Sepia & sponged softly around the edges with a brown chalk inkpad (also the card blank).
Next, for the cross I've embossed onto craft card using Detail gold powder & then cut out & mounted onto the base with some 3d foam pads. Finally I've stamped onto cream paper using the black inkpad & coloured the flowers with some Tombow pens. I've cut out the lilies, given them some gentle sculpting  with a ball tool before layering them onto the cross  with some silicone glue. 
The background layer for the card blank I have stamped all over using my old friend Calligraphy Sampler & Vintage Sepia. With both the "cross" design & the background  I have layered them both onto brown card & given them the "Frantage" treatment before I have attached to the card as the heat does tend to buckle the card & this way you can stick them down flat again. The sentiment is a wood mounted stamp & actually reads "Easter Blessings from our house to yours" but I wanted to use just "Easter Blessings" so I applied a black Tombow pen to the words & stamped that way. You can use the whole message for the inside of your card which I thought was nice.
To finish I have added some Liquid Pearls to the stamens of the lilies.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday 21 February 2014

Flourishes & Swirls

Materials used:-
Stampendous CRW111 Cling Cherish Heart
Perfect Prints 6" x 6"paper pad "Heat"
Magenta Flourishes & Buds 
Magenta laser cut shapes -Mini Swirls
Brilliance Graphite Black & Orchid
Stampendous Aged Wine embossing powder
Narrow & wide white organza ribbon
Glossy Accents
8" x 8" card blank
Lilac & purple card for layering 
Tombow pens 
All available from:-
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
 
The theme for this week is just "me" as I love swirls & flourishes in all forms! I've used this beautiful romantic heart stamp from Stampendous "Cherish Heart". The Perfect Print paper pad was just great for this project as it's full of gorgeous designs  full of swirls & flourishes. There are lots of different pads in various colourways just perfect for card making & so reasonably priced too.
I stamped onto the darker paper first  which will be the base & then twice onto the lighter one. I added some colour to the leaves with Tombow pens & cut out the roses to decoupage onto the flowers which I coated with Glossy accents at the end to give a lovely enamelled look. Cut out the heart & place on top of the darker image. I have stamped randomly all over the card blank with an old favourite of mine which I have used many times before in blog designs "Flourishes & Buds" from Magenta.
For the finishing touches I added some Aged Wine embossing powder to the Magenta Mini Swirls (these are mount board shapes) & added some ribbon on the swirl & at the left hand side of the card. 



Saturday 15 February 2014

Sketch Challenge for February

Materials used:-
Stampendous HHCQ03 Bunny Love
JGCL533 Daffodils
Bremen 12 x 12 papers
Burlap daisies
1" Beech leaf punch
Versafine Vintage Sepia
Sakura coloured pencils
6" x 6" card blank
All available from:-
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
 
Time for this month's sketch & quite a simple one this time. I've chosen one of the new Stampendous Happy Hopper stamps which come from the same stable as the Housemouse range. I know I'm a day late for Valentine's Day but I just couldn't resist these 2 cute characters &  they could be used for a variety of occasions- get well, welcome baby, thinking of you & birthday. 
I've stamped with Versafine onto linen card as I think it gives added texture to the rabbits' fur. Coloured with my good old favourites Sakura pencils & edges with a soft pink chalk inkpad. I love the new Burlap  daisies from Woodware which come in 3 sizes & have "ribbon" to go with them too. As you can see I've used these for the bottom bar of the sketch & teamed them with some punched leaves. The sentiment comes from "Daffodils" which is an old set from Jane but has some useful words  as well as a lovely daffodil design too.  
 
Here's the sketch
 
 
 

Monday 3 February 2014

Stash Busting


Materials used:-
2" punches:-
Square, label & rock fern
Magenta & Bremen 12 x 12 papers
JGS901 Birthday Textbox
Paper flowers, buttons & MR Elements
Lilac spotty organza ribbon
Peel off lines
DSA sheet
A5 Hairy Manilla card blank
All available from:-
Your local Exmouth stockist is:-
 
Our task should we choose to accept it this week is to use all those treasures which we all hoard as they're sure to come in handy one day. Maybe we've been to a craft show or visited a new craft shop & just couldn't resist. We then scurry off to our craft lair where we carefully store away our haul & we might take it out and stroke it, only to pop it away again as it's far too precious to actually use!! Enough!! Raid those drawers & dust off the cobwebs & see what you can do with the scraps of card, bits of ribbon, buttons etc. etc.
Here's what I collected together - & it didn't even scratch the surface! If Mr Frosty ever looked in my crafty drawers (behave!) he'd have a fit- but I don't think he's brave enough to mess with the dragon's lair!!
 

 
A great way of using up scraps of paper is to make you own background paper. Get all the co- ordinating  papers together & punch some squares which you can assemble using the grid on a piece of DSA sheet. I've covered the joins with a gold peel off line, added some ribbon & a tag before attaching to a piece of cream card. I've used one of the new mini singles stamps by Jane Gill to stamp a border on the card blank as well as for the tag. I've added some faux stitching  around the edges of the card blank with a Micron pen. I've finished off with the paper flowers which started life intended for another project & got rejected (they've been kicking around ever since!) a flower button & some Mark Richards Elements.