Flowers and Fairies...

You know when you buy a stamp plate and you love it, but you haven't used it for ages? I am like that with all my Crafters' Companion fairies stamps. I decided that I liked this little fairy and wanted an excuse to use her on a project! The fairy, sentiments, butterfly and flowers are all from the 'Lavender Fairy' plate. The flowers were tricky to line up and overstamp, but I think they came out ok in the end. I think if I had used a stamp without a definite line at the bottom it would have been much easier! The outlines were all embossed with black detail powder and the colour was applied using watercolour pencils. A touch of Hunkydory Diamond Sparkles 'Fairy Daydreams' finished the card off, along with some stickles in the lavender. I will enter this card in Lisa Bakers' challenge this month - 'Spring Watercolours'.

Santa Delivering Presents!

Two 6x6 cards, again using my old faithful, the Hunkydory Santa's Pants Collection. I have decoupaged the layers on the card to my left, and the bottom card has been turned into a shaker card (filled with snow and glitter!)

Continued...

 Ok some more designs for you, another 6x6 and two DL style cards now!

Santa's Pants Continued...

 Again, I have been using more from the Santa's Pants collection from Hunkydory. The  two 6x6 square cards have Anne Marie Designs card blanks for the base, which I have been really impressed with. Lovely thick card and in Centura Pearl double-sided card as well. The A5 card has been created using a whole sheet from the collection and I have also added matching inserts into each one. Basic, quick, but hey...still enjoyed making them!

 

Christmas Panic!

Ok, I always have very good intentions every year in the run-up to Christmas. I have perfect images in my head of sitting down in my craft room watching the snow, listening to carols and crafting away. Pah, that never happens. So in reality: last minute panic, need to make cards, so reach for a Hunkydory kit! Santa's Pants it is then...
The card to the left is an 8x8 blank with elements from the Santa's Pants collection and a Spellbinders Poinsettia used in the middle. Bottom left is an A5 card created from the same collection with snowflake acetate across the whole card as well. The right-hand one uses
                                                                                    acetate over the Santa scene and is also 8x8.

 

Thoughtful Fairies

 This card was made in an attempt to try and use a 'less is more' theory. I have chosen a large A5 size funky card blank from Hunkydory and cut an aperture from the centre with a Spellbinders Long Classic Rectangles Large die. The sentiment stamp, and indeed all the stamps, are from Lavinia.
I wanted to create a centre panel with a subtle background in my favourite colours. At my last craft class I went a little mad with my purchases and decided to add some Imagination Crafts Silkies paints to my basket. I have used them here to create my graduated background, and am really impressed with the seamless blending and sparkly finish you get. I used the colours called Pearl Satin, Turquoise Satin and Purple Lace. All the colours were put in large blobs on the top of a craft mat, dragged downwards with a brayer and then applied to the card in firm downward stripes. There are no lines, brush marks or streaks anywhere! Once the Silkies were dry I have then used Versafine ink to stamp the fairies and thistles. The ink soaked in really well, leaving a really subtle black behind which I have then embossed with clear detail powder. I have used Jones Tones iridescent glitter to add some fairy magic (you can't have fairies without some glitter!) The zen butterfly has been stamped onto white card, embossed and then coloured with the same colour Silkies as before. The antennae have been made from purple jewellery wire twisted into coils (I was defeated with whilst trying to 'fussy cut' them out!). Hope you like it, it's a bit of a different style for me! I am going to enter it in 2 challenges this month: Lisa Baker's Butterflies and Flowers and Lavinia's Add Some Glitter.

Christmas Post

Well, it had to start sometime! I started some Christmas cards a few days ago using the Craftwork Cards Christmas Post collection. The first one on the left was made using papers and toppers from the collection, along with some Christmas Paper Bows from the same company. The 'tree' was made using 3 of the bows and topped with a small poinsettia flower from Marianne Creatables and some Card Candi. The tree was then backed onto coordinating red card embossed with the Crafter's Companion Christmas Patchwork folder. The pot is a Card-io stamp stamped onto kraft card and distressed at the edges with vintage photo distress ink. The main background paper was also distressed for that vintage feel and matted onto coordinating green card with a kraft card blank. The circle sentiment was backed onto a Spellbinder's delightful circle die.
The two cards below are made using the same collection and accessories, again with similar colour tones. I have also used red perfect pearls for the flower centres and found some cream and gold ribbon to add an extra touch. The card on the right was inspired by a card I made at a class this time last year with Lisa Baker, this time adapted for use with the Christmas Post collection. The card has been cut apart with some Hunkydory Snowfall acetate added and then reconstructed again. As Lisa's blog challenge is 'Traditional Christmas' I will enter these for this month...

 

Layering Spellbinders

This card was inspired by Julia Watts from Creative Expressions. I do not often use lots of Spellbinders shapes layered together, but seeing Julia do it, I thought I would give it a go! The main colour was chosen as it was for a lady who loves purple. I started with white card stock and distressed using Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord Distress Inks. I then randomly stamped a flourish stamp I have from Hunkydory. The darker purple panel has been embossed using a Couture Creations embossing folder and edged with lace. The die cut flourishes have been cut using a Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz die (elegant flourish) and coloured using the same inks as before. The main sentiment is from LOTV and has been layered several times with Persian Spellbinder's dies, Lacey Circles and Basic Circles. The flowers are from my stash. I have used decoupage pads to add some height, so it is quite a fat card!

Beautiful Lili of the Valley girly!

Hi there, I have been a little quiet on the blog front this month, as I have been a busy bee working on a mammoth project in celebration of my 10th Wedding Anniversary! I have been sorting, organising and ordering 10 years worth of photos! These are then rapidly becoming a 40 page scrapbook as a present for my husband. I have never done scrapbooking before, so 40 pages with 10 different themes I think may have been a tad ambitious; but hey ho!

I have made a couple of cards though, and this lovely girly has inspired me for one of them. I know a lot of people don't like the missing features on these type of images, but I really like this one from LOTV. She is clearly happy! Both the sentiment and main image are from LOTV, the card from Hunkydory, flowers cut using Marianne Dies, and the rest of the bits and bobs are from my stash. I have coloured her with Promarkers.

Bright and Magical

 This time I have gone a little bright with some Lavinia stamps for the new April challenge, Bright and Beautiful. A little away from my normal colours so took me a while to get used to it, but why not! I have used Jones Tones glitter for the wings and Adirondak colours for the scene. Although you can't really see it in the photo, I have also made my own backing papers using 2nd and third impressions of ink and a swirly stamp from Hunkydory. I am sure that my trip to Ali Pally this weekend will result in me purchasing a few more Lavinia stamps; I have a long list ready!

Beautiful Butterflies

This easel card was made using more Hunkydory papers and toppers. I have also used some flowers from my stash to complete the look and add a stopper for the easel. The colours are so feminine and I love the added button details!

More Hunkydory!

 Back to experimenting with 'kits' again; this card was made with the free kit from the first Hunkydory Compendium (I think?) and used for a 'thank you card'. Simple, but sweet.

Below and to the right; made from the same kit as above I think, but this time I have added some die-cut butterflies from my Spellbinders dies. Again simple and quick to make when that is what's needed!

The last 2 cards are made using some fab 'Flutterbye Garden' stamps from Hunkydory again, and based on some designs from the compendium (with a few changes). I really liked the etherial feel to the stamps and they seem to work well with lots of different colouring mediums (the bottom card was stamped using Flitterglue and silver glitter placed over it!).
Thanks for looking!

Hunkydory First!

Ok, here is my first attempt at 'kit crafting!'. I purchased the Hunkydory Compendium which came with a papercraft kit and had a go... I have to say there is something pleasing about making cards so quickly! The quality of the cardstock is also good so I may be tempted to get some more in the future. Always good to have some 'quickies' to run up I suppose!

This one, also from the same kit, was perfect for a lady who always makes cakes for my husband at work! (He is a nurse and she is a volunteer at the hospice he works at!). Very sweet of her and i'm not complaining!!