It's a boy!

Hello, crafty friends. I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's July already. June was quite a crafty month with the Daily Marker 30 Day 2. I'm sad it's over, because I had so much fun learning new things, but all good things must come to an end, and it's time I started turning all that colouring into cards! 

Over on Instagram (it's lovely, really lovely, so much inspiration and friendly crafters!) I shared some colouring linked to a baby a friend was expecting. I hedged my bets and did two lots, one in pink and one in blue. I'm not usually quite so generic, but sometimes inspiration is lacking! Anyway, it turned out to be a boy, by the name of George, so blue it is!

I stuck with simple and decided to make a shaker too - any chance to get those Lucy Abram's shaker mixes out!

Supplies: White Card Blank (14.75x14.75cm); ME Up And Away Stamps and Dies; Papermania 6x6 Papers Capsule Collection; Memento Tuxedo Black; VersaMagic Dew Drop Night Sky; Derwent Artists Pencils; Caran D'Ache Metallic Pencils; LF Large Stitched Square Lawn Cuts; Acetate; Double-sided Tape; Red tape; Adhesive backed Fun Foam; CB Sweet Little Sentiments; Lucy's Little Things Shaker Sequin selection Glacier; Joe and Flo Baker's Twine; Sellotape Double Sided Sticky Foam Pads; Ranger Multi Medium Matte; Bazzill Cardshoppe - blue; VersaMagic Dew Drop Aspen Mist

I started by die cutting a square of blue Bazzill Cardshoppe using two of the LF large stitched square lawn cuts to make a frame. I then attached a piece of acetate to the back of the square aperture to start the shaker section. I then hand cut a piece of adhesive backed fun foam to match the size of the frame, and stuck it down on the back of my blue card. Face down on my craft mat I then filled the shaker section with lots of Lucy's lovely sequins and things. 

I then attached some very sticky red tape to the back of the fun foam, positioned it face down on my craft mat and attached the card base on the top. I'm getting better at this the more I do and this one is not too squint!

I then attached some baker's twine to the back of the balloons and then to the monkey's hand. Then, with double sided sticky foam pads, attached them to the card front as shown.

The sentiment is stamped in Aspen Mist and attached with sticky foam pads. The additional sequins started by covering a slight smudge, but I added a few more so it wasn't quite so obvious! They are stuck on with the Multe Medium Matte.

Hope you survived the mid week heat wave - that'll be summer over now in the UK, we've already had torrential rain today!

Do enjoy your weekend, whatever the weather. Thanks, as always, for reading :)

Butterflies and Roses

Two posts in two days? I'm getting carried away with all my The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge and also the Pretty Pink Posh Watercolour Blog Hop. If you haven't been joining in with the former, you have lots of time still, but with the former, you have until Monday at 11:55pm PST (which I think is Pacific Standard Time!). The cards that are there from the design team are truly inspirational, and lead into even more inspirational cards from Joe Public - I had no idea there were so many crafters and water colourists out there.

 

I started off my card with just a blank square of water colour card stock and stamped and embossed a rose and some butterflies using my free Clearly Besotted stamp set from Simply Cards and Papercraft (issue 134). I then got busy with my Spectrum Aquas using the floral range (this is the one I use most often!). This was the result:

I liked the rose and the butterflies but wasn't happy with the background, so inspired by Debby Hughes' post using tags, I got out my CB rounded tag die and cut out the rose and the big butterfly, then fussy cut out the smaller butterflies. I found some previously die cut rectangles in my scraps box, got a couple of card blanks, one Kraft, the other white and with a bit of tape adhered the rectangles to the cards, then with some fun foam, the rose and butterfly tags on top. Some twine and then another butterfly set them off. I had to cut the cards down a bit as the rectangles didn't fit so well with the size they were, so using my WRMK Envelope Punch board, I made some new envelopes for them. I loved that when the cardstock went through my die cutting machine it went from textured to smooth. A different touch.

[Supplies: Spectrum Aquas Floral; Versa Mark Ink; WOW! Embossing Powder Bright White; Simply Cards and Papercraft Issue 133; Baker's Twine - Joe and Flo; Bazzill Paper] 

I've another butterfly card I made earlier in the week that I'd like to share because the challenge at Addicted to CAS is butterfly:

 
[Supplies: Memento Tuxedo Black; CD Metallic Pencils; Wink of Stella]

Again using my CB freebies, these are simply stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Caran D'Ache metallic pencils, with some Wink of Stella on top. Very very simple.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have time to do some colouring and join in with the blog hop :)

My first shaker card!

Hello everyone, hope you're looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend - those in the UK, at least! 

Tonight I'm bringing you my first ever shaker card. I have tried these before, without much success. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, but it does work and half the sequins aren't on the floor. I think I need a bit more practice, so this is hopefully the first of a few. No doubt a splurge on some nice sequins will be required - #impoverishedhappycrafter :)

  
I've made it using some of the new things I received the other day in my haul. It's a basic 6x6 card blank with a piece of Lawn Fawn Let's Polka as backing. The shaker part is a nice grey from my Papermania capsule collection, die cut with the new Lawn Fawn stitched squares - they cut beautifully - filled with some sequins from Hobbycraft. I need some Pretty Pink Posh! 

I wanted to see the backing paper through the shaker box, so it is backed with acetate to contain the sequins before attaching to the card - did I mention before that usually they end up on the floor? Some time looking at how to make shaker card videos might be well spent over the next couple of days.

The set is Mama Elephant Up and Away, stamped in various Memento dye inks, coloured with Derwent pencils. The balloons are coloured using my metallic Caran D'Ache, with a bit of Wink of Stella and glossy accents. The fox is hanging on with some red baker's twine.

I'm just so happy it worked, I had a lot of fun making it.

Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend!

I like big books...

I bought a few nice things in the March release from Clearly Besotted Stamps. I do so love their style! The Bookworm Additions I had to have because I'm a librarian by profession and have lots of librarian and also book loving friends who will appreciate this... if only for the pun on the flag!

I have some Kraft card I bought a few weeks ago as I kept seeing it mentioned in various magazines and blogs. I'm not entirely sure I like it, but I'm willing to give it a go. I also hadn't used any lovely Bazzill for a while, so I grabbed some of my browns as I thought it would go with the Kraft. Who knew I'd like brown so much?

I started by stamping one of the books from the Bookworms set using my old favourite, Memento Tuxedo Black and colouring it in with my Derwent pencils with a bit of metallic from my new Caran D'Ache set. I stamped the two bookworms (one from the main set, the other from additions), plus the flag with my Versa Magic Dew Drops - Hint of Pesto, Aloe Vera, Perfect Plumeria - and then die cut them out.

I took some Bazzill card stock and cut to size to layer on the Kraft. I then die cut a circle using my Nestabilities Circles, from the top piece. It is just wide enough to show the bookcase behind it. I glued the bookcase to the back card, then stuck the bookworms to the back of the top piece of card, so they'd be in front of the books (they are a bit cheeky those bookworms!). I then attached the top piece with foam tape to add a bit of dimension. The banner I also adhered with foam pads.

It makes me laugh and I hope it does you too! Thanks for reading :)

Monkey baby

A friend had baby no. 2 last week. Another little boy. Time for a card! I've been thinking about it for the past week and decided I'd incorporate it into the Tic Tac Toe challenge from Make The Day Special. I've chosen the diagonal Metal/Metallics-Circles-Stripes. It actually turned out pretty much how I envisaged it which is a first!

I started by stamping the balloons from the Up and Away Mama Elephant set onto a piece of white card using Memento Tuxedo Black. I coloured the balloons in with my new metallic pencils from Caran D'Ache. I love them and have to use them again soon! I cut them out (I need to get the dies to go with this set) and attached them with foam pads to the stamp on the card blank. I stamped the monkey onto the card blank holding the balloon strings and coloured him in with my Derwent Artists Pencils.

Now, the tricky bit was the tail and the little blue bundle. I used a cut out balloon to create a stencil of the bundle and cut it out of white paper then inked it up with in Aspen Mist. I got some blue and white twine and tied it round the neck of the bundle. I then stamped the monkey's tail onto some white card, coloured it in and then cut it out - that was hard! I then threaded the twine through the tail and stuck it onto the monkey and a foam pad under the bundle. Think it works well!

The jungle is the free Clearly Besotted fuschia stamp from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133 and stamped multiple times in Hint of Pesto. The sentiment is also from Clearly Besotted (yes I am!) and their Sweet Little Sentiments set.

I added the stripes from my Pebbles basics set down the side because I needed stripes for the challenge.

Thanks so much for reading. Please feel free to leave me a comment. I love hearing from you. I hope you've had a great Easter weekend. 

Crafty Switzerland :)

We're on holiday in Switzerland, but that hasn't stopped me hunting down some crafty things to take back home to Blighty. I love my three Derwent Inktense pencils, and I'd like some more. However, every time I go to an art shop, they only have the single pencils in stock and I'd rather buy a tin of 12 - it's more economical at the price they are.

Whilst shopping for baby's first birthday present (tomorrow!!) in the Coop (it's a supermarket with a shopping centre) in Lausanne, I came across Caran D'Ache tins of watersoluble pencils. The pencils are Swiss made (like Derwent are British made) the company has been around for 100 years. I thought it would be a nice reminder of our trip, so I purchased:

A tin of 12 Prismalo Aquarelle

A carton of 6  Fancolor Metallic colour pencils - I thought they were different!

And for good measure some handmade butterfly stickers from the craft section I just liked the look of.

No photo because despite me following all the instructions, Google+ won't talk to my iPad and I can't upload photos from this device. Suffice to say, they are lovely and I am very happy. Just to survive the journey back with the kiddies so I can use them :)