Moonlight Swan

Like alot of crafters I follow Michelle Zindorf's blog. She can turn a simple stamped image and some inks into an amazing piece of art. Now I am not for one minute comparing myself to her but her work has inspired me to create this swan card using some of her techniques. I used two sets of Inkadinkado stamp sets , patterned birds and bugs for the swan and delicate branches for the grass and trees. The grass has been stamped using peeled paint distress ink and then clear embossed and the tree branches and the swan have been stamped in black and clear embossed. I painted the swan with white and grey inktense water colour pencils and highlited with a white souffle pen along with holographic glitter. The grass and branches have been highlighted in the same way. I took a sponge and covered most of the card in a light blue dye based ink and then worked in some navy ink followed by a touch of lavender at the edges. The picture has been matted and layered onto light blue and navy card which has had the corners punched with one of those triangle paper punches (you can tell I have forgotton its make!) I set an eyelet in the top left of the base card and then treaded through some beads and fibres to finish off.

Your Special Day

I had forgotten how much I liked the brass stencil used as the centre piece of this card until I dug it out for my yellow beaded canvas a short while ago hence why it has been used again. I coloured some chip board with green tinka billa ink and then placed the Plaid stencil onto it, securing it with masking tape. I then applied snow tex paste to the stencil and when it had dried I brushed some faded jeans distress ink to add a slight blue tinge to the white snow tex. I then dabbed clear drying glue to the image and sprinkled with the blue glitter which was a free gift with a magazine a while back (can't remember which one). The chip board has been edged with the blue ink and then mounted onto some olive green glossy card. The base card has been stamped and clear embossed using a scroll corner from Elusive Images and stamped in a blue pigment ink. I then went over the whole card with Peeled Paint Distress Ink using a sponge.
The paper flowers from Kaiser Craft have been stamped on using the scroll corner and the Peeled Paint Distress Ink and finished off with a small green button from Paper Mania. The greeting has been created on the computer and printed onto white card then coloured with the peeled paint. I then layered it onto the olive green glossy card and attached it to the base card using 3mm foam squares.

Blog Candy

Here is some fab blog candy from Kim Dellow, why don't you pay her a visit at Crafty Makes and guess how many beads there are to be in with a chance of winning!

Happy Easter

Hope you are all having a great Easter Weekend. I thought I would show you one of the Easter cards I have made using Joanna Sheen's Messy Rabbit CD rom. I think I have said before that I don't usually do decoupage but there are some lovely images on this CD so instead of just printing them out and sticking them on the card I thought I had better make more of an effort so decided to cut a few out to decoupage up!

Birthday Last Year!

It is my daughter's birthday next month and so I have to start thinking of ideas for her card. It becomes a challenge every year! I thought I would show you what I made for her last birthday. It's a box card made using the Deco Template from Creative Craft Cabin which I love making but they can be a bit time consuming. The decorative panels inside have been stamped with a background stamp and the letters, hearts, flowers and balloons have all been cut using the Cricut and the George cartridge.

More Crafter's Kitchen flowers

I really love the flowers that Jak Heath from Crafter's Kitchen has been giving away on her blog. Here is another card I have made using them. I don't usually get involved with decoupage sheets but these are different as you still have control over the design of your card. It's really an aid to making your own embellishments.

I sponged brick red and milled lavender distress ink around the edges of the base card and stamped the swirl from Hero Arts using the milled lavender ink. The backing paper is a Crafters Kitchen download which I have just sponged with the inks as before. I do not know who makes the border punch that I used as there is no note of it on the machine. The flowers and leaves have been layered up using silicone glue and distress ink dabbed onto them. Peeled paint for the leaves, brick red, milled lavender and distressed paper for the flowers. The buttons sewn onto the border are from Paper Mania. The greeting stamped onto the border is from one of the new teddy bear stamps sets from DO Crafts.

Crafters Kitchen Flowers

I made this card using one of the fabulous downloads from Jak Heath's, Crafters Kitchen blog. The flowers are all on the same sheet and I simply cut them out and layered them up with silicone. I made the background card by brayering beige Brilliance ink to one side of the card and then sponging some lilac chalk ink to the opposite side. The swirls have been stamped with a clear stamp from Hero Arts and the ink used is Dusty Concord from the distress ink range. I also stamped onto the lighter part of the card using the beige Brilliance.

Mother's Day

For Mother's day yesterday I made these for both my mum and mum-in-law. The MUM card was made using the Cricut design studio and just decorated with flowers and ribbon. The paper mache boxes were painted with watered down PVA glue and then painted with acrylic paint. The flower design is a tissue napkin that has been glued on with the PVA glue. I can't remember where I saw the tip about covering paper mache boxes with PVA before painting, but it's a really good tip as it stops the box absorbing the paint and expanding so the lid no longer fits.

Blog Candy

Wow , Jak Heath is giving away some fabulous blog candy. She also has so gorgous downloads, go take a look at her Crafters Kitchen blog

Graphicus, March Challenge

Good morning everyone, it's lovely and sunny with a perfect blue sky here today, so I thought I would post my Graphicus Challenge as it is a nice sunny yellow inspired piece. Glenda set the March challenge as the colour yellow and the title Song. Mmm I thought..... what could I do to incorporate both of these elements and use Elusive Images stamps. Well I came up with this creation, when you see the title you will probably think Cheesy! but I couldn't stop humming the tune!

I started off with an A5 canvas board and spritzed it with yellow and orange glimmer mists (sorry can't remember the exact colour names), then I stamped the corner swirl and daisy collage stamp onto white tissue paper using light brown staz-on, which I then glued onto the canvas with watered down PVA glue. When dry I sponged the edges with yellow acrylic paint. I found a brass stencil in my stash that had a similar pattern to the Elusive Image corner stamp so used in the opposite corner with snow tex paste. When this was dry I dabbed it with the yellow acrylic paint. The butterfly has been made by stamping the butterfly stamp into green hearty clay and cutting out. when it was dry I dabbed yellow glimmer mist over the surface and attached wire and beads as the antenna. It was attached to the canvas with silicone glue. The title was stamped with an alphabet set in black staz-on. The holes at the top and bottom of the canvas was made using a Crop A dile and the beads threaded onto beading wire. To finish off two paper sunflowers were added using silicone glue. Voila!

Hydrangea Card

I used this Brick and Teal combination on a recent Graphicus Challenge and really liked the colours together so decided to use it again for a friend's birthday card. I chose the Hydrangea script stamp from Elusive Images. The image has been stamped with fired brick distress ink and edged with Teal Staz-On. The back ground has been coloured with a baby wipe which had been dabbed with the Teal and Fired Brick ink and swiped across the card. The cheat bow has been made by sticking 3 loops of the ribbon together. The greeting is just a rub on which I haved added straight to the ribbon.

Cricut Creation

It's my husband's cousin's 50th birthday on Saturday so thought I would have ago at making her a card. I decided to use my cricut design studio as it hasn't had an airing lately and came up with this orangey design. Not sure I like it and even less sure the recipient will but hey ho the thought was there! Before putting the shapes together on the card I sprayed them with glimmer mists to add a bit of interest and threaded some beads onto some wire to finish off the design.