Friendship - 7th March

Morning!


First of all thank you to those of you who have left comments, I really like reading them. I've been writing this blog for over 6 months now and I really get a lot of satisfaction from not only uploading my designs to share, but also looking at other crafters blogs and leaving messages. The world of crafting is such a friendly place isn't it?


Today's card was actually made as a commission for a wedding, but I photographed it before adding the front sentiment. For the actual card the sentiment was printed with the name of the couple and cut with the matching Spellbinders die, but for the photo I used a sentiment from my box of pre-made sentiment toppers and in doing so, converted it from a wedding card to a friendship card..but I think it actually works for either!

I first of all layered an 8x8 card with white card embossed with Spellbinders M-Bossabilities (Mystic). These are great embossing folders, the best I've used I think; they leave a really crisp design.


Next I cut a rectangle from plain white card and matted and layered this with a rectangle cut from card printed from Polkadoodles Wonderland CD. Polkadoodles never fails to come up with amazing backing papers on their CDs and Wonderland is one of my favourites. This paper gives the impression of being embossed. I also cut the leaves from Spellbinders Assorted Leaves with the same card.


The die-cut in the centre of the card is  from Spellbinders Antique Frame and Accents and is beautiful, but this time was my first use of Creative Expressions Clear Micro Beads...these really are magic! You use them with double sided sticky paper.


First of all you stick one side to your piece of card and die-cut/emboss it as usual.  After putting some of the tiny beads into an open container (I used a plastic box lid)You then  peel off the other sticky side from the die-cut and put in on top of the beads, pressing it down gently to  cover the whole piece. It leaves a beautiful glittery coating, without being too dazzling and is quite lovely. As you don't really use many beads, even on a intricate die such as this, the 300g pot should last a long time!


I laid ribbon behind the rectangles and finished the card with a flower from Spellbinders Anemone set, ribbon and little faux pearls. This card did take a while to make, but I really enjoyed putting it together!


Thanks for stopping by,
Carole  X

18th Birthday Easel Card - 6th March

Morning!


Today's card is a fun 18th birthday card I made recently for a commission. One of the recipient's likes was listed as her blue car...so that was a starting point for me! I went through a phase where almost every card I made was an easel, but I hadn't made one in a while...

I started with an 8x8 blank and covered the base and upper half with some paper from stash...I have an apology here as I think it was originally printed from one of my craft CDs and I have no idea which! It may well be a Pink Petticoat design. The girl is a Pink Petticoat digital stamp that I coloured using Promarkers. The car is an image from Polkadoodles Paper Boutique Volume 1. I decoupaged it, added a wire steering wheel and the birthday girl's name and age to the number plate.

I then cut a large '18' with my little Cricut on to Coredinations card and used an M-Bossability (Splendid) to emboss it and give it some lift and finally sprayed it with stick and spray. I printed the greeting on to white card stock and die cut it using Spellbinders Labels Four Small, The little flower is also cut from a Spellbinders die. For finishing touches I added some turquoise gemstones, a blue diamanted brad, ribbon from stash and Cosmic Sparkle on the 'icing'.

Thanks for stopping by,

Carole X

Wedding Day - 5th March

Good Morning!


No post yesterday, I needed time to catch up a little, plus my craft room needed a bit of a tidy (not that it looks much better now!)


Today's card features a Lilli of the Valley stamp. I always head for my box of their stamps when I want something really cute. I think they are absolutely adorable images.

First of all I stamped the image, coloured with Promarkers and cut it using the Spellbinders Heart Squares die. I shaded the edges with Spun Sugar distress ink. I then cut two of the Spellbinders Layered Flowers. Last week on Create and Craft, Sue Wilson suggested using wax paper with dies  that are intricate and hard to release. This works brilliantly, but the wax paper also has a life of it's own when used with Spellbinders. It has a lovely texture and feel. I don't use vellum much, it's just not something I like using at the moment, but this paper, has the translucent look of vellum, only thicker and I love it.


I layered an 8x8 card with pale pink polka dot paper from my stash box. It has a little motif in the corner, which I allowed to peek through when I matted and layered with plain pink card (edges distressed with Spun Sugar) and then white card, embossed with 'Splendid' M-Bossabilities. The tag is cut from Spellbinders Antique Frames and Accents and a  Spellbinders Ribbon Buckle die cut is used with the bow. I finished the card off with ribbon, flowers and pearls from my stash box and added a little glitter to the bride's head-dress and bouquet.


Hope you have a Happy Monday and thank you for visiting my blog...please leave a comment, I love to read them!


Carole X

Rule Britannia! 3rd March

Good Morning!


This card was made for a commission, but in this instance, from one of my family to another, so in view of the fact that we have a year ahead where we are all celebrating how fab it is to be British and I'm always stuck with mens' cards, I thought I'd give it a go!

One of my Christmas presents was a Hobbycraft voucher and I used some of it to buy the Portobello Road 12x12 paper pack from Docrafts/Papermania, as well as some of their embossing folders & ribbons -  and this was the basis for this card. The card is 8x8 and is first of all layered with some vintage newspaper print paper from the pack. 


The die-cut Union Jack was also in the pack, so I centred this on the front of the card. I then die-cut three of the images and used Vintage Photo again to distress the die-cuts and the card.


The bunting and cupcakes were printed from Serif Craft Artist "British Street Party'. I downloaded this last year when we war having a Royal Wedding party, so I can see it's going to be useful again!


The Keep Calm and Carry On, I admit I have seen presented in this way on items in shops, the internet - all over the place, but I typed this one out using the Serif Program and added the crown from my clipart. I then die cut it in using Spellbinders Labels Four Small. Finally I added a little Cosmic Sparkle and the ribbon.


Have a super Saturday and thanks for dropping by!
Carole X


For this card I used:


Papermania Portobello Road 12x12 paper pack, embossing folders and ribbon
Serif Craftartist British Street Party
Vintage Photo distress ink
Cosmic Sparkle

Nautical Journey - 2nd March

Morning!


This is the last of my \mixing old with new\ set of cards: I was recently tempted by Sam Poole's latest set of stamps with a sea-faring theme. Like the Vintage Inventor, it was once again a step in a different direction for me, but I do like to add a mixture of images to my crafty arsenal and I view good stamps as an investment, which will give me years of value if treated well. 


The 'new' on this card is a Spellbinders die! Last week when  Sue Wilson was demo-ing on Create and Craft, I bought one of the offers as my birthday present from my husband (it's okay my birthday is in March!). I have dispensation to carry on and use them as well! I was really tempted by Sue Wilson's own design. I think they are lovely and they are on my wish list, but this time I went for the bundle that included flowers,  romantic rectangles, antique frames, buckles and M-bossibilites. I have them now and have used the first one on this card...

Again this is an 8x8 layout, starting with a layer of black card. I then used the Debbi Moore's Shabby Chique Vintage Travel CD to print off a faded map backing paper on to cream card and I distressed this quite heavily with Vintage Photo ink. It almost looks burnt  and is the base layer for the ship's journey.


I matted and layered this over the black card, cutting it slightly smaller and added the other elements.


The map, ship, steering wheel and small compass were all stamped from Sam Poole's  Nautical Journey stamp set and given the same treatment. I mostly distressed the edges of the map, just enough to give it an old parchment look and then I curled the edges inward. The ship was layered over the map and I wanted it to stand out, so I gave that a more intense colouring. I also fixed both of them to the card with Pinflair to give them more 'lift' and curl.


The sentiment oval and larger compass were both printed from the CD and again distressed and I added vintage brown ribbon to the bottom with a die-cut buckle (which distressed in this way I think actually looks like a piece of coral or something you would find beneath the ocean). The little pearl dots at the top are Cosmic Shimmer Olympic Gold


There is one bit of 'colour' on this card. I found it when I was rummaging through my stash box -  it's a piece of stampbord that I had  stamped a compass on some time ago. It was already complete as a topper; I'd added the rope and the colour. So I tried it on the card, thinking I wasn't going to like it -but I think it works, so it has stayed!


Looking at the photo and the actual card, I noticed something quite odd..all to do with angles and bad photography I guess..on the card the little compass & wheel do not look like they are encroaching on the sentiment...honest!


Thanks for checking out my blog!


Carole X


For this card I used:


8x8 card blank; black card, cream card
Ddebbi Moore's Shabby Chic Vintage Travel CD
Sam Poole's Nautical Journey stamp set
Spellbinders Ribbon Buckles Shapeability die
Vintage Photo distress ink
Stampbord stamped with compass stamp
Cosmic Shimmer Olympic Gold
Pinflair Glue

Spring time door wreath - 1st March

Hello and here I am with a second post today!


Last month I explained that mainly due to having American relatives and spending quite a bit of time visiting over the years, one or two of their traditions have rubbed off on me...I love Halloween for example. The other tradition I really like is having welcome wreaths adorn a front door. You usually change them with a Season and/or Holiday. I decorate my own wreaths and this year have decided to change all or most of them, starting with the heart wreath I had up all through February and shared here on my blog.


As it is now Spring, the time has come to share my Spring/Summer creation with you! It's simple a plain circular wreath to which I have added a flower garland, floristry roses and ribbon...it's that easy! I hope you like it, Carole X

Materials used:
Plain Willow wreath (I already had this but they are widely available from hobby stores, some florists, basketry makers etc
Ribbons
Floristry roses: Hobbycraft
Floral Garland: www.calicocrafts.co.uk 

Thingamajig! - 1st March

Good Morning to you...and we are in March already!


As promised, my second foray into the world of Steampunk and this is the real thing. I said that this week's cards are all projects made so that I could use new additions to my craft room and today's is extra special.


Just after Christmas I was lucky enough to be a Card Candi winner on Sue Wilsons blog. As Sue was just about to leave for the US, she asked me to choose a stamp and she would post it on her return. I love Sam Poole's stamps and saw this as a good excuse to try the Vintage Inventor Stamp set, so this was my choice and it arrived a few weeks ago...so here is  my first project using it!

The base layer is cream card which is distressed with Antique Linen distress ink. I stamped the inventor, 'Thingamajig' and the three cogs on to some Kraft card and from the remainder of the cream card I cut two dies from Spellbinders Edgeabilities Classic Postage stamp. These fit together nicely down the spine side and the edger at the top of the card is the 'waste' from the other die-cuts. I distressed all the edgers with Vintage Photo, quite deeply and roughly to emphasise the worn, industrial look.

I had some screw style brads in my box (I think they are Tim Holz) and I added three of these to the bottom of the card and one to the centre of the flowers. The little cogs are from a bag of watch parts I got really cheaply rummaging in a shop somewhere! I made the flowers using pages from my charity shop book and using the flower creations and peony Spellbinders dies, which I distressed slightly with Vintage Photo. The leaf is cut with my Cricut.

Although this is a male card, the flower and ribbon soften it a little. My final touch was adding  Olympic Gold Cosmic Shimmer to the holes created by the die to complete the industrial theme.

Carole X

For this card I used:

8x8 base card, cream card stock and Kraft card

Vintage Inventor stamp - Sam Poole 

Cosmic Shimmer PCA

Screw effect brads

Spellbinders: Edgeabilities Postage Stamp; Peony, Flower Creations

Distress inks" Antique Linen and Vintage Photo

Ribbons and brads from stash