Flutterbies

When I was younger (and now, if I'm honest :-) )  I thought Flutterbies a much better name for coloured, winged insects!

I often find the card I "must get round to making" isn't produced until the postbox shreaks at me, so I need something quick, simple, effective and that works in reality, not just my head.

I recently came up with a plan for a card that uses one of my favourite dies and stamped flowers (masked to make a whole field). Then I tided my craft room and found my chalks, and hatched another plan!

This card used a die, which I used to cut two tags from 160gsm card, then glued together. Next they were embossed using a flower embossing folder (hindsight note for next time, emboss, then glue, as that leaves a flat surface on the back to write on!) and I rubbed pink and purple craft chalk across (an alternative is to choose a couple of flowers and chalk only them, for extra definition). Finally I cut butterflies from an old book (it's a children's one, so there is a choice of words or illustrations and I think the illustrations can be fab! though I didn't use them this time), which is made from absorbent, almost-blotting-paper. These were inked with vibrant distress stains and then stuck on and the wings bent up to add dimension.

I think a version of this tag or card could be one of my fav makes for a while :-)

I'm entering it into the Country View Crafts challenge.

Teenage years

To make this card I used:
7" x 5" white card blank
A sheet of 160 gsm white card
Papermania 90mm number stamps
Kaisercraft clear "Sheet Music" stamp
Papermania Urban "Chronology (Looking Glasses) stamp
Hobbycraft "Happy Birthday" stamp
Anitas indigo ink
Hobbycraft ink pads - blue in a couple of shades
Sizzix Tags 3 die
Promarkers - Azure

The first thing I did was to stamp the Chronology stamp as a background, masking as I went along to allow me to mix and match the direction.

Next I cut out a tag, stamped the Sheet Music (the birthday boy is a whizz with his guitar and ukelele!) and then blended some of the same colour ink using a sponge.

Then I stamped the numbers onto the card, cut out the shapes and coloured them in with the Azure Promarker.

I attached the tag with a brad (using my lovely Crop-O-Dile), then popped on the numbers using foam pads for dimension and then stamped Happy Birthday into the space that was left :-).

Sewing for Mum

It was time to make a Mothering Sunday card and I began by using Milled Lavender Distress Stain to colour a card blank.

Next I used an old snack box to cut Sewing Room die pieces,

and coloured the cotton reel with Antique Linen and the mannequin with Brushed Corduroy. I added some blue paper thread to the reel and cut the mannequin body shape from some lovely floral paper (I had a great hour or two yesterday sorting the storage for my paper stash and promised myself I'd use some, so this is a good start).

To finish I printed out a phrase (note to self, next week rubbage in the reduced area in craft shops and buy a Mothering Sunday stamp!) and edged it with some more Milled Lavender and then used glue and foam pads to combine the elements together and also add some dimension.

It was only when I finished that I realised I'd used many of the elements of the current Crafty Boots blog challenge, so though this isn't a wedding card, I hope it's still OK to enter this card.

I am also entering the Country View Crafts first challenge "Anything Goes"

with this card.

New Home

Once again it was time to make a New Home card and this was a also a chance to use one of my new Christmas dies.

I started by cutting out a full set of the shapes from some corrugated card.

As you can see, it was recycled card!

 Then I used one of my new Perfect Pearls mists (copper), carefully tucked inside a box to avoid mess all over the study, to colour the shapes to look like metal.

 

 The card was less absorbent than I hoped / expected, so I had to add a number of layers and the lock split into the two layers of card. But as so often in crafting, this gave another option and meant the key and lock are different thickness, adding instant dimension and difference to the card.

Next I cut an ATC and edged a little with copper ink, to define the edges.

 

Finally I combined the ATC and keys etc onto a card, using some craft pads to introduce dimensions, and stamped the words "New Home".

I am entering this into the  One Stop Craft and Creative Craft Challenges 2 challenges as this is a New Beginning, in a special place, for our friends.

 

 

When I saw the Crafty Boots Challenge I knew it was the perfect way of returning to my blog, so I am entering this into the challenge.

So I killed two birds with one stone and made a birthday card for my cousin (sshh, it's not til the end of the month, so we won't tell him about this blog!) as my entry.

I knew straight away what the tag would be about, as I was lucky enough to get a new die for Christmas which was just right for the tag.

I chose some burgundy card I had, since our wedding car  was a burgundy Austin 16, and I wanted to remind myself of that and cut out my Old Jalopy. I found a metallic silver pen and inked in the bumpers and left it to dry.

Next I cut out two tags 

 

and used some lovely new distress stains to ink both

 

 with grass and sky. I misted with water and dried off quickly with my heat gun. I mixed in a little stormy sky and bundled sage, misted again and dried it all off. To finish I created a "road" of black soot.

 

 

I added a Happy Birthday stamp and then used some craft pads to add dimension when I stuck on the car.

Finally I sandwiched the two tags together.