Altenew Beautiful Lady cards

Good morning! I'm back to share some more cards that I've made using Altenew's Beautiful Lady stamps and matching die. I found myself needing a lot of cards in March and April - and I didn't have a lot of time to make them all. So I came up with a basic design and made sixteen different cards by varying the colours, backgrounds and sentiments. All of the flowers were coloured with Copic Ciao markers. This post is rather photo heavy, but I wanted to show you all sixteen cards as they all have variations in spite of using the same set of stamps and die.

The first three cards were made in the same colourway, but I used different patterned papers for the background. The first had a stamped sentiment (all sentiments are from the same Altenew stamp set) on a Waltzingmouse stitched rectangle die. The next two had diecut sentiments by Spellbinders and the flowers were raised on foam tape.

My fourth card was a slightly different shade had an embossed hearts background and a stamped sentiment on a My Favourite Things stitched fishtail flag die.

My next card used the same hearts embossing folder for the background, but this time in a jade colour. The sentiment was stamped onto a Lil' inker stitched sentiment flag diecut. I love this little die and use it loads!

 

Next we have four similar pink cards, all using a Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossed background with various sentiments.

 

I also made four cards in a golden yellow and green colour combination. The backgrounds are made from a lovely green vellum with a gold sheen and were done using another Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossing folder. Two of the cards have Spellbinders diecut sentiments and two have stamped sentiments.

Finally I made three blue cards, this time using the Burlap Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossing folder for the backgrounds. Again Spellbinders dies were used for the sentiments. I found that the addition of some "Stick-It" to the back of the card before I cut the sentiments made it so much easier to adhere them to the card fronts - it's wonderful stuff!

I have to say that I am in love with Altenew's gorgeous stamps and dies, so you can expect to see a lot more made with their supplies here on my blog in future.

Lynn x

Seven Hills Crafts April 2016 Colour Challenge

Hello again! Today I am taking part in the Seven Hills Crafts monthly craft challenge - you can find all the details here. The April challenge is a colour one, with three inspiration photos to choose from, all including blue.

                                
    
  I opted to go for the third photo and chose the two shades of blue and the green for my three colours.

Here is my take on the challenge. I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Fades embossing folder for the background and layered it onto a darker blue card blank. The flower focal image is from Altenew's Beautiful Lady stamp set (available here), coloured with Copic Ciao markers and I used the co-ordinating die (available here) to cut it out . The sentiment is from the same stamp set and was popped up on some foam tape to add a bit more dimension. 

I'm really happy with how this turned out! Thanks for looking.

Lynn

Altered box with Altenew stamps

Back in February a group of my crafting friends and I decided to have a secret gift swap for Valentines day. We were each assigned a recipient to make something for, to show them that they were loved and appreciated. We christened it our "Palentines" swap!  We have only just done the reveal, so I'm now able to show you the little altered box that I made. 

Here is the finished box, which I filled with a bag of heart shaped chocolates. Yes, I know that I should have taken them out of the bag, but this way it stopped me from eating them all before I posted it off to my friend!

 

 I started out with a small wooden box (about 8cm square) and some pretty co-ordinating papers from the Dress Shoppe NitWit collection from Lili of the Valley. I carefully removed all the hardware and the thin acetate covering the inside of the lid, to make it easier to cover.

 Next I applied some Victorian Velvet Distress Stain to all of the edges. I also used the matching Distress marker pen to colour the joins inside the box, so that there would be no bare wood showing when I covered it with paper.

 I used the ditsy floral print paper to cover all the outsides of the box and the dress paper for the insides. Just before I covered the inside of the lid I replaced the acetate with some that was a bit thicker (taken from some die packaging), then added the paper to cover it so that the edges of the acetate didn't show. I added a couple of die cut stitched heart borders (from Wplus9 design studio) to the bottom edges of the box, then I replaced the hinges and clasp. My, those tiny screws were fiddly and I dropped them on the floor several times before I succeeded in fastening everything back on!

 Now came the fun part - decorating the lid with some pretty stamped flowers. I used the gorgeous "Beautiful Day" stamp set by Altenew and Antique Linen distress ink, so that I could do the no line watercolour technique. I chose colours that matched the paper I'd used and scribbled ink from the Distress markers onto an acrylic block, before picking up the colour with a wet paintbrush and painting the flowers, berries and leaves. After they had dried I went back in with the markers and added extra detail, then I fussy cut everything out (fiddly but so worth it)!

 I used clear foam tape and glue dots to adhere the flowers, leaves and berries around the heart shaped aperture on the lid, which gave them more dimension.

 Below you can see the finished box (without the chocolates).

I really enjoyed making this and have since bought another box, so that I can do it all again!

Thanks for looking!