Playing!

I made a couple more cards for the Less is More challenge for no other reason than all my pink, green and grey stuff was out for the card I made yesterday and I wanted to 'play'! The first card really was inspired by the picture provided by Chrissie & Mandi for this week's challenge, I kept looking at it and trying to think how I could make some gerberas. As it happens I think they look more like daisies but that's sometimes what happens when you play, the end result not being quite the same as the picture in your head. I used the smallest flower on the Flower Daisies die, cut from Pink Pirouette and folded over, then punched the large flower shape with the Boho Blossoms die in Certainly Celery and cut it to make the base, the stems are just a strip of Certainly Celery gently teased around to give a curve. All the flower pieces were lightly inked with a sponge dauber to add a bit of depth. For the border I used the Sandy Speckles Wheel with Basic Gray then masked this and sponged over Pink Pirouette before positioning the flowers, added a knot of Pink Pirouette Taffeta ribbon and a sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes stamped in Basic Gray. Now onto my second card which really was playing!

In my kitchen I have a pot of pink hyacinths, bought for me by my daughter for Mothers Day and, again, I keep looking at them thinking how can I make something that looks like a hyacinth. So that's where the playing comes in, I took the flower stamp from Flight of the Butterfly, a Pink Pirouette stamp pad and a piece of Whisper White and stamped, then over-stamped until I was (reasonably) happy with the shape. I then added the stem using a stamp from Greenhouse Garden and some leaves with a stamp from the Build a Blossom set. The stem and leaves were given a touch of shading using a Crumb cake marker as they looked a little flat then the panel was matted onto Basic Gray and Pink Pirouette cardstock before placing in the centre of a plain white card blank with a knot of retired Basic Gray Taffeta ribbon added to the bottom corner. In hindsight I think it would have been better to have stamped the flower using a mixture of Pink Pirouette and the slightly darker Pretty in Pink as the 'hyacinth' does look a little flat and insipid but that's what palying is all about - I'll know better next time :0) 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, the sun is shining beautifully here but boy is it cold!!!!

Totally Tags

My card today is one I've made for the Simply Stampin' challenge which, this week, is Totally Tags. Usually when I see the challenges an idea springs to mind but for some reason that didn't happen this weekend. I struggled with an idea for both this and the LIM challenge yesterday but, not to be beaten, I was determined to come up with something this morning- and here it is!

I needed a sentiment that was long and thin and this one fitted the bill perfectly, it is an old retired SU stamp but I never get rid of sentiment stamps and will use them retired or not - sorry. I stamped this in Rich Razzleberry onto Whisper White cardstock and cut out, this determined the size for my other tag. For this I used the leafy branch stamp from Borderlines (be warned this set is only available in the Spring Mini until April 30th) and stamped in Certainly Celery and, after stamping once, I stamped again without re-inking. The tiny flower from Flight of the Butterfly was stamped over the leaves in Rich Razzleberry and I added a few to the sentiment panel as well. Both panels were matted onto Rich Razzleberry cardstock, a hole punched in the top and some Whsiper White grosgrain ribbon threaded through. I didn't want a bulky knot in the ribbon so I just folded the ribbon over and used a flower, punched with the Itty Bitty Shapes, to cover the hole and added a tiny Basic Pearl to the centre. I played around with some ideas but decided the tags looked best on just a piece of Rich Razzleberry DSP from the Rich Regals Paper Stack. I added three more punched flowers to the bottom corner just because it looked a bit bare!

Have a lovely Sunday and for those of you who are Mum's - Happy Mother's Day x

Gift Bag & Card set

As you will know by now I like to make matching sets and here is another one! I needed a little birthday gift for a work colleague so I bought a bag of nice chocolates and have made this gift bag to put them in -with matching card of course. I adapted the pattern which I used to make the larger bags a couple of weeks ago (original pattern by Sarah - here) and this size only uses one A4 sheet of cardstock. Before assembling the bag I stamped with butterflies from Flight of the Butterfly in Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant and filled in with the flower stamp from the same set. The ribbon handles were fixed in place with Rhinestone Brads (both ribbon and brads now retired). I added a vellum butterfly which was cut from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and inked with Wisteria Wonder with a Basic Rhinestone in the centre. The tags were stamped with images from Tiny Tags and punched with the Jewelry Tag punch. The card doesn't really need any explaining as it used practically the same products as the bag except that the sentiment was punched with the Word Window punch and matted onto a Modern Label punch.

Aqua Again!

Today when I went into my craft room there was a Baja Breeze Scallop Circle sitting on my desk (left over from the frame I made on Saturday for the Aqua Less is More card) so I decided I would use it and have another go at the challenge. I started by masking off an area on a card blank and stamping the tiny flower, from Flight of the Butterfly, in Baja Breeze. I then placed it on my scoring board and scored a line either side of the border to give a negative embossed line. The Scallop Circle was run through the Polka Dots Embossing Folder and the edges inked before placing onto the stamped border. I then used a piece of SU Vellum cardstock to cut and emboss the butterflies with the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and placed these onto the card and added some Basic Pearls. The sentiment is one from Flight of the Butterfly and this was stamped in Baja Breeze. This was quite a quick card to make and used up some scraps which would otherwise have ended up in the bin!

On Saturday night it was so cold and I was nice and warm in my living room so, as I didn't really want to move, I did what I do best (and far too much of!) and trawled through a lot of my favourite crafting blogs. I came across someone who had used a technique I was not familiar with - the Bandana Technique - so I diverted to YouTube to investigate. I suppose the nearest thing to compare it with is wax resist but using a white pencil. Now I know I have several coloured pencils and I'm sure one of them has to be white but, in my grand tidy up, I have put them 'somewhere' and could I find them? Well you know the answer to that. As I had already stamped my flower from Greenhouse Garden, and not to be beaten, I decided to try emboss resist using white embossing powder instead and this is the result. No masterpiece but acceptable - ISH. Finished off with Baja Breeze Seam Binding and a sentiment from Perfect Pairs.