Ladies That Tea

It was my OH's birthday this weekend and we did lots of lovely birthday stuff including eating lots of yummy food and visiting places such as doing the BBC tour around Television centre. He took friday afternoon and Monday off of work and it has been a nice extended weekend.

Shock to the system getting back to normal today! Plus I reckon I need to go for a run or something to work all that food off. LOL!

So I haven't really been making a lot over the last few days and to prove it I have a card from last year that I haven't blogged yet. If you get Papercrafts Essentials you will have seen it in the latest issue as they asked me to send some examples of my work for the interview piece. Thank you those who have seen it and have left such lovely comments :)

A paper pieced Elzybells Art Stamps with some fab retro bright papers. I'm busy on a sewing project at the moment. I hope I get some time to do some cards to show you all. If not you might have to make do with a rather novice bit of embroidery :)

Happy Tuesday.




Materials:
Stamp - Elzybells Art Stamps
Ink - Versafine Onyx black
Papers - Rusty pickle (I think)
Usual Suspects - Double sided tape; Paper trimmer
Other - Brads; Lime and brown cardstock

A Pink Card For A Sunny Day

Still in the pink today and the card uses an Elzybells Art Stamp paper pieced with SEI papers and 'floated' onto some swirly Papermania acetate :) Lovely sparkly buttons are from Buttons Galore and they are very juicy - I love them!

So how do you like the Pinkwall tyres? If I had a car I would like Pinkwall tyres - don't think my OH would appreciate them!


Materials:
Stamp - Elzybells Art Stamps; Sentiment free stamp from a magazine
Ink - VersaFine Onyz Black
Colouring - Letraset Promarkers
Papers - Papermania; Papermania Acetate; SEI
Usual Suspects - Double-sided tape; Silicone glue; Craft knife; ruler
Other - Buttons; Embroidery thread

Tea For Two

Back to normal today and the novelty of the snow has warn off, so showing cards :)

Today we are in the pink with some papers from S.E.I. and some ladies that tea from Elzybells Art Stamps.

Hope you are all keeping warm.


Materials:
Stamp - Elzybells Art Stamp
Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black; Versacolor Opera pink
Colouring - Letraset promarkers
Usual Suspects - Paper trimmer; Double-sided tape, Scissors; Circle template
Other - Ribbon; Crop-a-dile; Eyelets; Cuttlebug; Nestibilities; Flowers; Brad; White gel pen

Peace On Earth

The penultimate Christmas card from me this year (I hope) and I thought I would have a go at the challenge Katy has put up on the Craft Stamper Blog which is to use Glimmer Mist in a project. This follows on from a fab masterclass article in the January edition of the mag. So I used the cellophane (clingwrap, saran wrap whatever you might want to call it) technique as I've been meaning to try it for a while, what better excuse can one have?

I love this technique my only problem is being patient enough to let the paint dry :)


Materials:
Stamps - Elzybells Art Stamps
Inks - Glimmer mist; Brilliance Pearlescent
Usual Suspects - Paper trimmer; Double-sided tape
Other - Cellophane; Galaxy marker pens; silver wrapped elastic; silver ribbon; eyelets; crop-a-dile; 3D glue

Needle Felted Christmas

Well I'm a little later than usual with my posting today. On top of that I don't have a finished project to show you - Shock! Has the 20 cards marathon washed me out? Well perhaps, but the main reason is I've been a bit busy on other things - Double Shock.

I've been to a creative embroidery class, I'm starting next year and went along to meet the group - it was fab and perhaps if I manage to get anything done I will be able to show it on here at a later stage :)

So what is this image today? I thought I would play about with some needle felting on a stamped image and here was my first attempted. You might recognise the image as an Elzybells stamp - so cute. Stamped onto calico and filled in with wool tops and a felting needle. Then cut out carefully and mounted onto the image stamped onto card.

As I said - I was just playing about :)


Materials:
Stamp - Elzybells stamp art
Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black
Usual suspects - Silicone glue; paper trimmer
Other - calico; wool tops; felting needles; flower flock

Take Care Of Your Garden

A Blooming Marvellous card for an avid Gardener, with a bit of a gardening twist. The card uses the Kaboodle Doodle Blossom Berry Bright kit with a watering can stamp from Elzybells Art Stamps. I had fun glittering the sentiment and the flowers on this one.

I made this a while back now for a birthday this month and I've been sitting on it so that it got to it's recipient before I posted it on my blog :) I made it such a long time ago that I almost forgot about it and just remembered before I made another one for the same person! Do you do that?


Materials:
Papers - Kaboodle Doodle Blossom Berry Bright Kit
Stamp - Elzybells Art Stamps
Colouring - Letroset Promarkers; Glitter
Other - Glitter; ribbon

A Wedding Card

A card for a wedding today, using the lovely Blossom Berry Bright kit from Kaboodle Doodle, I love this kit, and a stamp from Elzybells Art Stamp. This one is using the fab sketch from this week's Friday Sketchers. You can't see it too well in the photo but I used co-ordinating glitter on the dress, flowers, hat, waistcoat and cravat.

AND get this - I was drawn in last week's draw on Friday Sketchers and won the fab Hero Arts background stamp. How lucky am I? It was quite a shock, I was just checking out the site for this week's sketch and saw my name - so was not expecting that :)


Materials:
Stamp - Elzybells Art Stamp
Paper - Kaboodle Doodle
Colouring - Letroset Promarkers
Inks -VersaFine Black
Other - Glitter; Shades of purple Bazzill cardstock; Cuttlebug and Dots embossing folder

Let Sleeping Cats Lie

Elizabeth has started to put challenges up on the Elzybells blog. The challenges are fab sketches using Elzybells wonderful stamps and the DT cards are beautiful so go check it out.

Here is my humble attempt :)


I love paper piecing with these stamps.


Materials:
Stamp - Elzybells
Colouring - paper piecing and Letraset promarkers
Ink - VersaFine black
Papers - PaperMania Exquisite; A present from a crafty friend, I think they might be from Lakeland
Other - white, pink and black cardstock; Ribbon; Fiskers eyelet hammers

Blossom Berry Leaving Card

Here is my take on this week's great sketch from Mumur at Friday Sketchers. The papers I've used are from a fab new kit, 'Blossom Berry Brights', that is being launched from Kaboodle Doodles soon.


Elizabeth over at Elzybells Art Stamps has showcased my card on her blog - I'm tickled pink, thank you Elizabeth. You must have a look at her stamps, they are fab.

Materials:
Stamp - Elzybells Art Stamp; Studio G alphabet
Papers - Kaboodle Doodle Blossom Berry Brights
Inks - VersaFine Black; VersaColor Orange and Amethyst
Colouring - Letraset Promarkers
Other - Pearl brads; Orange sead beads; Metallic elastic; White cardstock; Orange Bazzill; White galaxy marker; Notepaper

Flowers for a RAK

Here is a RAK card I made recently. It uses some flowers I made from paper inspired from nature itself.



Walking to work one day I found a petal shape on a flower that I just knew I had to copy. I sketched it then made a template flower which I've now been using in lots of different ways. I've been asked how I did it so here is a step by step, hope it is clear :)

So first using my template I cut the shapes from my chosen papers which in this case are from the All Star set from Kaboodle Doodle.









I then cut a small slit between the petals to separate then a little.











For these flowers I distressed the edges using a felt block (a bit of felt attached to wood with velcro) with small circular motions around the edges on a craft mat. The edges pick up the ink nicely. You can also ink the edges directly or drawn on them - anything really.




To shape the petals I use a thin embossing tool, but a thin knitting needle or a cocktail stick works as well.

I start by bending the centre of the petal downwards over the embossing tool.




Next there is an upward bend on either side of the centre line of the petal.








Then a downward bend on both edges of the petal











I also curl the tips downwards and if you want even more dimension you can use the ball to a larger embossing tool to dent the centre.







For the centre of these flowers I used a flower punch, curling the tips of these flowers downwards, and a brad. But there are all sorts of things you can do - use a sentiment, a decorated brad, gems, buttons - it is endless :)






The finished flower :)








Hope that helps :)


Materials:
Stamp - Elzybells Art Stamps
Papers - All Stars Kaboodle Doodle
Inks - VersaFine Black; VersaColor Pink
Equipment - Embossing tools; small flower punch, felt block; craft mat
Other - Letraset Promarkers; Fine black marker pen; white cardstock