Rock On! 9th February

Morning! 


Hope you are all keeping warm out there! If you are reading this and like me, take commissions for cards, you may get asked to make cards that are way out of your 'comfort zone'. I do, often. But the thing about making cards as commissions is that it not only keeps you on you toes with different techniques and styles, but you learn to work to a deadline. Over the years I have discovered that I am some times at my best when I have a specific and small amount of time to create a card.

The remit for this one was anything to do with Elvis and for my ability to create it, I have to thank My Craft Studio (MCS) for the art work.


I started with a of teal card on an 8x8 blank.I cut the rectangular shapes using the deckle edged blade on my cutter (I use a Purple Cow guillotine/ cutter - have had it years). The image of the Elvis figure was printed on to card and then cut and the greeting also came from the same MCS programme. I added all the elements at angles to give the card movement. The 'rock on' boots, guitar and name were all cut using my Cricut. For a final touch I added small amounts of Cosmic Twinkles glitter over the starbursts.


This card took a long time to get going, but like with most projects, once I got the idea I found I was on a roll!
Carole X

Pretty Sweet Girl - 8th February

Morning,


Another twisted easel...I made a few at at the same time...sometimes you are in the mood aren't you?


The image of the little girl is from the Polkadoodles 'Pretty Sweet' cd. I printed her and coloured her with a mixture of promarkers and flexmarkers, adding a tiny bit of Cosmic Shimmer twinkles to the roses.


I had the pink polkadot paper in my stash box, but I think it was originally printed from a Polkadoodles cd, the card behind the girl is again from the desert blooms pad. I die cut the girl using a Spellbinders Grand Ovals die and shaded the edge with Spun Sugar distress ink. The greeting is another from my stash, but originally from a Polkadoodles cd.


The ribbon is from my ribbon box and is really pretty with a vintage look to it. For some reason I am going through a phase where I like to let ribbon hang off the edge of the card, just like the look of it!
Thanks for visiting!
Carole X

Little Bird - 7th February

Morning!

This is a Spellinders die - Bird Sanctuary - that I got late last year and have hardly had a chance to 'play with' - but I love it and I can see that it is one I will use more and more. I have a bird and cage with the Cricut, but whilst my little machine is something I use almost every time I craft, my Grand Calibur gets used every time and the difference is..you can emboss and it makes a big difference!

This is a 6x6 twisted easel: I used like paper with a faded floral pattern to cover the base and another lilac paper, this time with an embossed glittery floral design to the side. This was from my much used Desert Blooms pad and was just what I needed to make the background 'pop'. I cut and embossed the cage and small bird on to plum coredinations paper, which instead of sanding I sprayed lightly with Crafters Companion 'Spray and Sparkle' multicolour. I typed and printed the greeting and cut it using Labels Four Small. I also cut a faux die around it in the plum card. The greeting label and the edges of the whole card were coloured with a mixture of Spun Sugar and Milled Lavender distress inks.

The ribbon is gorgeous...its one of those double-sided silk ribbons, a dark and light colour. I got it locally in Out of the Blue, Chipping Sodbury

I really enjoyed making this card...hope you like it!

Carole Z

Peachy - 6th February

 This is probably a little 'Spring like' for February, but we need to brighten things up a bit, don't we?

This 8x8 card was made using  peach coloured card from stash as a base layer. It has a lovely silk sheen and feel to it. I then added a layer of card from my desert blooms pad which was itself matted and layered with another piece from the same pad. The photo doesn't do the colours of that particular card justice; in reality it is just a shade lighter than the one beneath it. I pin-pricked the edge of the second layer and used a white jelly roll pen to add faux stitches. I intended to go around the edges of the next layer with tea dye distress ink, but sometimes a small distraction will cause mistakes and that's what happened here. By the time I noticed, it was too late to change it. Not the end of the world though.

Felt has become a real like for me when using my Spellbinder floral dies...these are made from Spiral Blossom one and Flower Creations. I just added a  crafty pearl to the centre of each and tied a peach coloured ribbon.


Hope you like and thanks for visiting!
Carole X

Valentine Door Wreath - 5th February

Hand decorated
St Valentine
door wreath

Morning!

I think it must be from my American family and the times I have spent with them, that quite a few of the American craft and traditional home decor styles have 'rubbed' off on me. I subscribe to their "Papercrafts' and 'Country Sampler' magazines and have done so for many years.

Many Americans love to decorate their houses with a year round door wreath, which changes with the season or for a 'Holiday' /festival and I have also done this for as long as I can remember.  Over here, there is a tradition of lovely Christmas door wreaths building up, but I would really like to see us embrace this all year! I see door wreaths as very welcoming and I get lots of compliments about my door, so come on...join me!

My January wreath was really just my Christmas one ( a large willow ring decorated with winter berries), with a change of ribbon from Christmas red to winter white..so I'll save that to share with you next Christmas. This year I am going to refresh my wreaths and intend to create a series of new ones...starting with St Valentine's for February!

Close up of roses and ribbons

I already had the basic twiggy heart, which I bought at a craft fair some years ago. I made the ribbon roses, following instructions from Sue Wilson (see Creative Expressions site or Particraft blog). They aren't perfect, the ribbon was a bit wide, but they still look quite  effective. I then sewed the roses on to the wreath and added two lengths of voile ribbon tied in a double bow. This is probably the simplest of my wreaths, I don'y think St Valentines should be fussy and have aimed to keep it that way. The 'Live, Love, Laugh' ribbon is from stock; it's one of those ribbons I love to keep and use a little when required...in other words, can't bear to part with it!

This wreath will stay on the door through February, when it will be time to welcome in the Spring months....

Full view of heart on our door

Floral Acetate Card - February 4th

Afternoon Bloggers!


I'm still having problems with Blogger finding photos I upload to iPhoto, so for today I'm sharing a card I made some time ago....hopefully will get it sorted tomorrow and be able to schedule daily blogs for next week. Hope you are all keeping warm! We've been having some snow this afternoon - on the local radio today, the presenter was asking what we would put in room 101...I don't have to think very hard: snow!


This is actually a really simple card, but still quite effective (I think!). I used the heavy card quality acetate as the'blank', A4 folded in half. Everything else was from stash: the flowered card was from an old scrapbook paper pad that featured a 'rainforest' theme, with lots huge floral images. I cut the shape/greeting in background by hand, having printed it out from one of my Polkadoodles cds (I have all of them, but it must have been an earlier one, Paper Boutique methinks). I printed the polkadot paper from the same cd and made the flower in the foreground by hand, using circle punches. The brad in the centre is from my brad box. I finished it off with co-ordinating silk ribbon. I only ever made one card in this style and sold it last year...so maybe it's time for a re-visit.


Notice anything about this card? Not a Spellbinder in sight! Reason? I made it pre-Grand Calibur :)


Thanks for visiting, please leave a comment as I love to read them and if your not already following, please do!


Bye for now,
Carole X

Floral Bouquet - 2nd February

Morning!


I don't know what to call today's project...it's not a card, just a collection of little flowers I made last week and decided to make into a picture. There was no real thought behind it, but it is now on a shelf in my craft room and is rather pleasing to look at...it has certainly given me some inspiration in the type of flowers I am making for cards and other projects!

Where to start with the description? The leaves were all cut from my Matchmakers Brights pad and for most of them I used Spellbinders dies from various leaf sets...however...some were cut with the Cricut Storybook cartridge, which was very naughty of me because it is white core. It was hard to cut, because I couldn't get the pressure etc right and it tore the paper..and didn't do the blade any good either. But I needed the  flourishes and at present none of my Spellbinders dies are big enough.


All the flowers were made with Spellbinders dies: the big pink flower is the Peony die ...I just cut several different sized layers, secured them together with a brad and then crumpled it up. An easy flower. If I had wanted to I could have added inks or micas, but for this project I wanted to keep it simple (and I wasn't in a messy mood!).


Two of the felt flowers, the orange flower and the pink flower were all variations of  a rose, made with the Spiral Blossom One die and the white flower is created with a mix of blossoms from Flower Creations.The large red felt flower was a little more complex....
I cut three layers from the lovely Anemone Flower Topper and then added the centre by just rolling a strip of red felt. For all the felt flowers I used Cosmic Shimmer acrylic glue. It grabs the materials for glueing really quickly and dries absolutely clear. This glue and Pinflair are the only glues I use.


When I look at this particular flower now, I think that in yellow, with orange for the bugle, it would make a gorgeous daffodil, so I'm going to give this a try.


I think I will just call this an exercise.. would be a good one for a workshop, I will keep that in mind!
All the best,
Carole X