Dance Like No One is Watching - Sugar Pea Designs

Hello! How are things going with you all mid week? Today I'm sharing a card with you that I made for a very kind crafty friend's birthday. She loves pigs and I have one set, which I use a lot, that has a very cute picture of a dancing pig in it. I think you might recognise it!

I felt like doing a bit of water colouring and paper piecing, and came up with this:

I took a square piece of water colour card stock and stamped the image of the dancing pig into the centre of it, in archival ink. I used the dies I wanted to use as a frame as a guide. I then made a mask of the pig and covered the image.

I picked three nice pinks from my Spectrum Aqua markers and gave the panel a splotchy water colour wash. I then gave it a nice splattering of the deepest pinks and also with my Pink Champagne Spectrum Sparkle pen.

I die cut out the frame with my SSS stitched squares, and die cut 4 other frames from plain white card stock to build up the frame - I am out of foam tape. I then stamped the image onto some Lawn Fawn Let's Polka paper scrap that I had and cut out the tiara, tutu and shoes and glued them onto the pig.

I stamped the sentiment in archival ink onto the bottom of the top frame, before gluing it on top of the other 4, then onto a 3.75 x 3.75 inch card blank. I then adhered the pig into the centre.

I hand wrote 'Dance Like No One is Watching' on the inside - I could do with working on my lettering, but it looked neat :)

Below is a list of what I used to make this card and where I purchased them. Please note I DO NOT USE affiliate links :)

Spectrum Aqua Markers - Floral	Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens - Shades of Spring	Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens - Clear	Tonic Studios Maxi Guillotine	Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black	WHSmith Watercolour Paper 12 Sheets - Art, Craft and Hobbies	Sugar Pea Designs Everyday is Christmas	Lawn Fawn LET'S POLKA Petite 6 x 6 Paper Pack
Tonic Titanium Fine Control Scissors	A4 Super Smooth White Card - 250gsm - 100 Sheets	Hero Arts Stamp Scrubber Pad	Clear Design Ultra Clean Stamp Cleaner	Hobbycraft Clear Acrylic Stamping Blocks 2 pack	Lawn Fawn Stamp Shammy	*3M Scotch PINK ATG ADVANCED TAPE GLIDER 1/4"" Adhesive Glue Gun	Simon Says Stamp SHAPES WITH STITCHES SetSS160 In Stitches

InLinkz.com

I hope the recipient likes it. I had loads of fun making it - I do like paper piecing and splattering, it's very therapeutic!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I wish you a fabulous rest of the week :)

You're A Gem - Embossing with Felt

Hello Again! I hope you're having a good week so far? I can't quite believe we are into the middle of May, but life has a habit of creeping up on you like that.

Seven Hills Crafts are now stocking the We R Memory Keepers Next Level embossing folders - well they have one set at the moment! - and I've been thinking about them for a long time, so I had to buy. At the same time I thought I'd get some of their felt because I'd seen Tara's blog post where she embossed it. I had to try!

I had a lot of fun and embossed both felt and card to see the comparison:

The felt is on the left, the card on the right. I have to say it worked amazingly well, and was really easy to follow Tara's instructions. You need to give the felt a good spray with starch, soak it really, and leave it a decent length of time in the embossing folder in the die cutting machine. I left the green in over night and after taking it out of the machine, left it in the embossing folder opened out on a window ledge to dry and it worked the best. So it takes a little time, but works for me as I find I card make in 15 minute chunks these days with small people around :)

I made cards out of the green to enter into the Seven Hills Craft Challenge for May which is all about embossing and also the Sugar Pea Designs Sugar Sketch #52. *Edit: I've also just discovered the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is all about felt, so of course I had to enter that too!* I decided to make two identical cards, one with felt, the other with the card. Felt is on the right.

I love the texture you get with these folders, and with the felt, it's just so tactile - you want to stroke it!!

I cut the embossed card/felt to A2 size and attached it to a white card base with double sided tape. I stamped out the ring from my Every Day is Christmas set (yes I love this set it's official!) and coloured with Copic markers, adding a little white gel pen for hightlights. The little gems are from my Clearly Besotted Pirate Party set and coloured with my Jade Spectrum Sparkle pen - they are so sparkly! 

I then die cut them with my Spellbinders circle dies. I took a strip of Neenah and stamped the sentiment from SPD Feeling Sentimental in Versafine Onyx Black before attaching with double sided tape. I attached the circles with foam pads. 

Below is a list of of what I used to make this card and where I purchased them. Please note I DO NOT USE affiliate links :)

WRMK Next Level Embossing Folder Gemstone	Garden Greens Felt Pack	Blissful Blues Felt Pack	Dr. Beckmann Spray Starch at Morrisons	Sugar Pea Designs Feeling Sentimental	Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens - Shades of Spring	Tonic Studios Maxi Guillotine	Sugar Pea Designs Everyday is Christmas
Crafters Companion Neenah Classic Crest Card Pack - A4 Solar White 20 pack	Memento Tuxedo Black	Copic Markers	Sellotape Double Sided Tape 25x33	Versa Fine Onyx Black	Hobbycraft Clear Acrylic Stamping Block 13.4 x10.1 cm	Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large	Double sided foam pads
A4 Super Smooth White Card - 250gsm - 100 Sheets	Martha Stewart Mini Scoreboard	Pirate Party

InLinkz.com

I do love trying out new techniques, especially when they don't require me to buy a lot of tools and supplies - my spray starch was £1 and will come in handy for the ironing too!!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of the week, whatever you are up to - crafting I hope ;)

Happy Birthday Aileen!

Well Hello! Welcome to another week from still sunny Yorkshire - wonders will never cease! I'm sharing a project with you for a lovely crafty friend Aileen, all the way down under in Oz. It turns out it's her 21st Birthday on Tuesday - who knew? Loking good kiddo! She has been super lovely on my crafty journey and we have shared ups and downs along the way, as well as doing the Copic Markers course together. It's been a lot of fun.

She's fabulous with florals, and with entering challenges, so I had to make a flowery card and enter it into a challenge.

I saw that the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge was all about flowers, so that's the challenge I'm entering this into.

I started by taking a 4.25 x 5.5 inch panel of blue cardstock. After giving it a good going over with an anti static tool, I stamped the flower - is it a gladioli?? - in a random pattern over it with versa mark ink. I then decided to heat emboss it with clear embossing powder.

I then stamped the flower out three times in chalk ink and fussy cut them out (dedication!). I trimmed the panel down and attached it to an A2 card base before attaching the vellum and flowers. The vellum panel I had pre stamped and embossed, and rather foolishly cut a little too short, but I think it doesn't look too bad with the flowers framing it.

It's on it's way across land and sea, and I hope you like it when you get it, Aileen! Thank you for all your support this past year, and hope this coming year is full of more fun and frolics. Happy Birthday!

Below is a list of what I used to make this card and where I purchased them. Please note I DO NOT USE affiliate links :)

Versa Magic Dew Drop Chalk - Night Sky	Clearly Besotted Stamps - Miniature Florals Collection	WOW! Clear Gloss Embossing Powder	Tonic Studios Maxi Guillotine	Clearly Besotted Brushed Greetings II	Docrafts Papermania Pink Heat Tool	Woodware Miracle Adhesive Film	Woodware - Vellum Paper - Whiter Shade - 180gsm
Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# SET OF 26 COLORS 26Cdsk	A4 Super Smooth White Card - 250gsm - 100 Sheets	Martha Stewart Mini Scoreboard	Hobbycraft Clear Acrylic Stamping Blocks 2 pack	Sellotape Double Sided Tape 12x33	Hero Arts Stamp Scrubber Pad	Clear Design Ultra Clean Stamp Cleaner	Lawn Fawn Stamp Shammy
Tonic Titanium Fine Control Scissors	Versamark Watermark Ink	Ranger .5 Oz. MINI MULTI MEDIUM MATTE Glue Adhesive Paint INK41511	Crafters Companion Neenah Classic Crest Card Pack - A4 Solar White 20 pack

InLinkz.com


Thank you so much for reading. Here's to a wonderful week ahead, full of crafty adventures :)