Father's Day - June 21st 2015

Hello Friends!

Well didn't we just pick the best week of weather to have a holiday in this Country!!!!! We had the best time..we are so lucky to live right on the edge of the Cotswolds..my favourite part of England and we don't have to go far to be right in it's heart, enjoying it's beauty. We have had such a 'full' week that I haven't even downloaded my photos yet, but I will share a few later in the week....Christine, if you read this...I did look out for you when we were in Stow :)

I haven't looked at a computer or iPad screen for more than a few moments for a week and it's been great, so relaxing...but I had to pop on here to share my Father's Day makes and to let you know that I will be catching up with your current posts later on.

Thank you for your comments on my Wedding project for Fran and Alex...last week I had a few messages via Facebook from friends of theirs asking me to make one, but I had to say no. It just took so long.... once I had started it I almost regretted it as it was fiddly and ever evolving, so it was truly a 'one off'....

And so to my Father's Day card and gift box: sadly I lost my own dear Dad many years ago, when I was barely out of my 20's and there were still so many chats to have and questions to ask, but luckily I have a wonderful Father-n-Law. Toni is a typical Italian, likes cars, football and good food and wine!  He also enjoys DIY and gardening, so today usually means a suitable gift card and some Prosecco for a toast. I made the card when we did our Father's Day craft workshop, but I also made a gift box.

I made the box using  black heavy card and the Sizzix mini bag die by Eileen Hull and I also made a carrying handle for the back, with some extra card and die cut a circle in the centre using Spellbinders Classic Circles.  Before putting the box together I ran through the die-cutting machine with an M-Bossabilities folder. I then rubbed it all over with silver gilding wax for an industrial look.

I made the little gift card holder for putting inside the  bag using grey card and a Sizzix Notebook Cover embossing folder,which I also rubbed with silver wax. To finish I tied with black twine, secured with a brad.

The stamps are from Visible Image.

Thank you for stopping by,  I will catch up with you all later and back to work tomorrow so will probably not be posting again until Wednesday!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Spring Wreath - Friday 24th April 2015

Hello Friends,

Wow time flies! I can't believe it's been a week since my last post...I want to thank you all for your lovely comments on my Eileen Hull post last week and to those of you who hopped over and left a comment on Eileen's blog too...all your comments were much appreciated and I did reply with a 'thank you'  to every one of them, but I'm never sure if that's very visible or obvious with blogger, so I'm saying it again!

I also want to offer a big welcome to my new follower Jean Bullock. Thank you so much for deciding to join my blog friends Jean and please let me know if you also have a blog, so I can visit you too! I hope you'll keep dropping by here.

It's been a busy week: work has been fairly quiet, although I have been back and forth to the office quite a lot, so it's been a bit 'disjointed'. I did get in  quite a bit of crafting though...mainly making some pop up cards using a new die from Stampendous, which we used in our craft workshops this month. It  was a 'different'  type of card for the group and seemed to go down well. I will share some of the photos of our ladies' finished cards tomorrow.

Today I want to share something else I've been working on this week...my project to enter into this months Art with Heart Challenge from Eileen. As I was creating the projects for last week's post, I did wonder if I would get a project made this month, but I had this bit of Spring crafting at the back of my mind to make so just had to find time!

The theme is Spring Break, I did think of another mini album with a holiday theme, but instead decided on  a Spring wreath.

Those of you who have been following me for a long will know that I always have a seasonal wreath hanging on our front door. I also hang one on the interior door to our lounge. It's something I've always done...many of you will also know that a lot of my family are American, spread across California and times spent staying with my auntie in San Francisco really influenced me in my decor and craft tastes. There was always an abundance of door decor in her neighbourhood and I loved seeing it so much that when I got married and we had our own house, I decided to carry on the tradition ...of course many years later I'm still the only one in the street doing it, except for Christmas!

I haven't posted any wreaths for a while because the new ones I made and posted here a few years ago and still doing well and getting hung on the front door!

This is an interior door wreath, which I made by first of all covering a plain white coloured vine circle with burlap:

I then die cut  15 flowers from felt, using Eileen's Flower Layers With Heart Petals die (Sizzix) and leaves using Sizzix Bigz Arbor die. Once I had cut the leaves, I inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink, but I left the flowers untouched.

To finish I sewed buttons on to some of the flowers and rolled left over felt to make centres for the remaining flowers, I added some green stripe and yellow gingham ribbon and tied a length of burlap to hang.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Challenge: Art with Heart Challenge: Spring Break 

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Featured Fan Day! - Friday 17th April 2015

Hello Friends,

Well I am so excited that my post from yesterday is up on Eileen Hull's blog today. I have been excited since she asked me about three weeks ago, if I would guest and have struggled to keep it quiet.

I think it's safe to say that I'm quite addicted to her designs now, the dies are just what I like and quite different from many that we see on the market. I love three dimensional art more and more, it's probably overtaken card making for my first love and when I pick up one of the dies to use, the creative juices really flow...of course a lot of the ideas are so 'out there' they are impossible, but at least they are there.

I was so pleased you all enjoyed my projects yesterday. The photo journal was a labour of love because it was about our pets, but in a way I was pleased that I had such a short time to make it. If I hadn't  had a deadline, it may well still be awaiting the first photo or piece of journalling!

For the garden project, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I used to (still do but you don't see it so much now) really admire the country style art work of quilter and crafter Debbie Mumm and her designs inspired me with the colours and painted elements, as well as placing the flowers and bees on sticks. In fact, the bee, butterfly and ladybird stamps are all Debbie's stamps - wooden stamps- from quite a few years ago. Remember when Tom and I made the wooden stamp rack a few months ago? Well as I placed them on the shelf, I knew a project to include them wouldn't be long coming!

Here are a few more photos from the journal as promised:

Thank you again for your comments yesterday, if you have time do pop over and have a look at Eileen's blog...maybe leave a comment against my post today, or just have a look at all the fabulous inspiration from Eileen and her  design team.

The link is  http://www.eileenhull.com/2015/04/featured-fan-carol-zorzo.html

If I don't make it back here over the weekend, have a good and sunny one!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Tales from the Coop Mini Album - Thursday 16th April 2015

Hello Friends,

Today I want to share two projects I have made using Eileen Hull's dies for Sizzix. I really enjoy creating projects that are tactile and dimensional. I love stamping and I really love dies...they open up a whole new avenue of creative possibilities. I was first introduced to Eileen Hull's dies by my blog friend Anne Redfern and her fabulous creations and in turn was led to Eileen's Art with Heart Challenge, which I really look forward to taking part in every month. I love Eileen's dies, they are so  versatile and I always have so many ideas rolling around in my head when I use them!

I was thrilled when Eileen invited me to post as her Featured Fan this week and what a time I had creating these two projects especially for Eileen's blog.

My first creation is something from the heart. I love animals of all kinds and we keep hens as pets: they are the most uplifting little critters we've ever owned, with their comical natures.Watching them as they go about their foraging, clucking softly to each other is so relaxing. Over the eight years we have been keeping hens, the only downside has been that they are not long livers and I have so many photos on my computer that I wanted to put into a proper record, but with a twist.

Eileen's Mini Album die is ideal for a photo journal. This die allows the  creation of a thin or thicker book and I wanted to create a really chunky journal to capture the lives of all our hens, other garden visitors and flowers right up to date...in fact it is so chunky, I will soon be starting the next volume!

I wanted it to appear quite rustic: a mixture of photos, my own sketches, stamped images and journalling. The album was die cut using grey board, given a base coat of gesso and finished with a dull pink chalk paint. I used a honeycomb stencil with wild honey distress paint on the cover, ( just very faintly) and stamped the hens and nest, heat embossing the images. The lettering is from Tim Holz's Alphabetical die set, inked with Vintage Photo. I added metal edgers to the corners, die  cut flowers and then button brads on front and back to hold the ribbon to tie the book when closed.

I used Eileen's own tutorial for making pages by folding 12x12 card into half and then quarters and placing the long fold just short of the last score-line on the die. This gives two sets of pages. I inked the edges of each page with wild honey distress ink to give it a more vintage appearance.

The pages were bound to the book using string, it is really easy to add more...if there were room...

Now for the inside: I decided to try it out on 'our girls' but only one of them really took an interest and she was our young hen, Tilda. I guess that Cara, our oldest girl had seen it all before!

 On this page I used Eileen's bird die from 'Birds and Butterflies', the wings lift, so I  wrote a little message underneath. I took so many photos of the project and will share more on my blog tomorrow.

I love the 'feel' of the finished album, it's lovely and chunky to handle. It isn't completely finished, I aim to fill the pages with more sketching and journalling, plus there are a few pages left at the end to add some photos from this post.

Summer Colour

My second creation is  very summery and was made using a mixture of Eileen's dies.

 The Watering Can die has fast become one of my favourites and I think it will make a fabulous alternative to a birthday card for gardening friends, or can be used all year round for decor makes - autumn and  Christmas for starters.

 I used grey board again and a base coat of white gesso. I wanted a 'Country Style' so I sponge painted the main area with salty ocean distress paint and coloured the handle and spout with green and yellow promarker. I drew the checker pattern on the base and along the top, then coloured with pens and stencilled the flower.

The bee, butterfly and ladybird are all stamped images and the flowers from various dies. I attached them to thin sticks (which I had coated with wild honey distress paint). I added the bird die, I love the way the wings open. All were arranged using a florist's oasis for stability.

This project is in two parts, I wanted to create a garden scene, so I made a little storage pot using the medium size from Eileen's 3D Cube die, painted and decorated to match the watering can. I also die-cut plant signs and 'bloom' from the 'Phrase, Bloom and Plant Markers' die set and added lettering from the Tim Holz alphabetical die set. The project had to have some tools to complete it, so I die cut these from Eileen's Gardening Tools set. I coloured these using walnut stain distress ink and brushed pewter distress stain.

I do hope you have enjoyed my projects today, please ask if you have any questions. Thank you for looking and have a great Friday!

Happy Crafting!
Carole X

ATB Pincushion - Friday 23rd January 2015

Good morning friends,

Hope you are all well and keeping warm! I would like to welcome my latest follower, Scrapping for Fun Challenges...thank you for joining me!

My project today was made for this month's Art with Heart Challenge from Eileen Hull. I have to say I am totally blown away by Eileen's new release dies and they are definitely on my wish list. I am always truly inspired by all the DT projects to make something.

This month's challenge is Fresh Ideas, so I thought long and hard...I think the scope is quite wide, so I thought about an idea that is new to me and decided to create something  for my sewing desk.

I decided to create an ATB Pincushion...

 I used my Sizzix Scoreboard XL die to cut the largest block/box once and the medium sized one once, using heavy black cardstock.

Next I chose my paper - this is from the Tilda 'Corner Shop' pad and cut a square for each side, using a corner punch to soften the corners and before adhering them to the sides I inked the edges with Dusty Concord distress ink.

I also decorated the top edge of the inner box with lace.

Next I made a quarter size box for the side, just big enough to hold a tiny handbag size tape measure. I tied a ribbon around it before attaching it to the main box.

To decorate I used a wooden dress form, which I coloured with just a hint of Dusty Concord and sealed with Mod Podge. I then die cut three roses using plum wool felt.

I also used: Sizzix Sewing Machine and Bobbins die: I just used the bobbins and wound cotton around them before adhering them to the box lid.

Tim Holz Sizzix Letters die: SEW

To make the pin cushion, I simply took a small piece of Tilda fabric, cut a circle, sewed around the edge and gathered it after putting some toy stuffing inside.

To finish off, I glued four large glass beads to the base of the box.

Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment, I love to read them!

I would like to enter this into the following challenge:

Art With Heart January Challenge: Fresh ideas
http://www.eileenhull.com/2015/01/art-with-heart-challenge-january-fresh-ideas.html#comment-33655

Love and Hugs,
Carole X