Lili of the Valley March Challenge - Crafty Bingo.

The March challenge over at the Lili of the Valley blog is to play along with their Bingo card theme and make something incorporating three of the nine elements - as long as they are in a straight row! You can see what I mean here http://ideastoinspire.blogspot.co.uk/p/challenge.html . I went with a diagonal line from the bingo card and opted to use Ribbon, Lace and Charms. You can get a better view if you click on the photo below to enlarge it.

 

 

I started with a square kraft card blank and added a slightly smaller layer of textured red card. The vertical panel down the right side of the card is made from two different papers from the LOTV NitWit Country Lady paper pad. The main image, LOTV "Love Grows" (ST149), was stamped onto smooth white card using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then coloured with Copic markers. I cut out the image using a Spellbinders Labels one die and then layered it onto some beige patterned paper, which I had die cut using a Spellbinders Decorative Labels one die to match. This panel was then stuck to the card with foam pads for added dimension. The "With Love" sentiment is from the LOTV clear A5 stamp set 26 - Simply Sophisticated. I stamped it onto a scrap of the beige patterned paper using Potting Soil Archival ink and layered it onto a piece of brown paper from the LOTV NitWit Country Gent paper pad, cut a fish tail into the end and added to the card with foam pads.

I added a pretty length of fine cream lace to the left side of the card and topped it with some red seam binding ribbon and a double layered fancy bow. Two leaf shaped pins and a fancy silver heart charm finished everything off nicely.

I hope you like it!

Paris in the Spring - Artful Times Challenge 50 - Anything Goes

This winter has felt particularly long and wet and I am finding myself longing for the start of Spring now! I decided to make a card using spring colours and stamps from JustRite (available from Oyster Stamps).

I started with some pale lemon yellow card and stamped the large Paris Background stamp (CL - 03790) with Ranger Jet Black Archival ink. I stamped the portion with the Eiffel tower a second time onto the lemon card, so that I could cut it out and layer it up for more dimension. I also stamped the crown and fleur-de-lis onto smooth white card (for the same reason). I stamped the small label shape from the Bon Voyage stamp set (CL - 02185) onto some pale green card (again with black Archival ink) and cut it out using one of the Spellbinders Labels six dies (S4 - 230).

Using a Ranger ink blending tool with Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters Distress ink pads I blended some colour around the edges of the main image and the second Eiffel tower, which I then fussy cut and mounted on the main panel with foam pads. I used the same colours on the small label and then cut a hole in the top to turn it into a tag. The word "Paris" from the Greetings from Paris stamp set (CL - 02195) was stamped in black Archival ink and I used an extra fine black Faber Castel Pitt artist pen to add the words "in the Spring". The frame part of the tag, both the crowns, both fleur-de-lis, the laurel wreath and ribbon bow were all coloured in with Tim Holtz Distress Markers - I used Tumbled Glass, Shabby Shutters, Mustard Seed, Spun Sugar and Shaded Lilac.

I layered the main panel onto pale green card and then onto a white scalloped card blank (it looks a bit pink in the photo, but I think that was because the light was poor as I took the photo at night). I fussy cut around the extra crown and fleur-de-lis images and added them to the card with foam pads. Finally I cut three pieces of seam binding in lemon, pink and lilac colours and stapled them to the top of the tag, which I then mounted onto the card (again with foam pads).

I think that the finished card does have an air of spring about it. I have never been to Paris, but would love to go one day - I can dream! I have sent this card to a dear friend for her birthday. She seems to travel quite a lot, so I hope that she likes it!

I would like to enter this into the Artful Times Challenge #50 - Anything Goes. You can find out more about it here http://artfultimes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/challenge-50-anything-goes.html . It's the first time that I have entered this challenge, so I hope I've done it correctly!

Waltzingmouse November Pajama Party - Challenge 3: Tag you're it ....

Yesterday I made a set of three Christmas gift tags using Waltzingmouse stamps, which I intended to enter into the November Pajama Party over at the Waltzingmouse Makes blog. However I missed the deadline as the software which I use to download my photographs wouldn't load correctly. I managed to get it to work this morning, so I thought that I'd post them to my blog anyway!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDYXOWJohUAEoDx8-zh7pk3A3CfhT5zzl1rRPWb3TSk2Tf7GqhipTIGT9-v1FX2jMWYMLLL8nwCLvGMlr1cjlBLspuWLLqInJx8OjIv2TDEmp4jLryF1hI7_N-HxWqQmT3EjYM6bd9Os/s1600/PAJAMA-PARTY-LOGO.jpg

 

 

The challenge was to create a tag that Claire Brennan (owner of Waltzingmouse stamps) would like herself. There were so many lovely Waltzingmouse stamps to chose from, many of which have fun and quirky sentiments, but in the end I decided to use mostly stamps from the "secret set" - Santa Was Here. I wanted my tags to be from Santa himself - and after all, Claire had designed all the stamps herself, so she ought to like them!

 



 



 I started by cutting three large tags from cream, mottled beige and red card stock using the Tim Holtz Tags and Bookplates Alterations die by Sizzix. Then I used the smallest die from the Waltzingmouse Opera Tags die set to cut two tiny tag toppers from each colour card and stamp them with the corresponding stamp from the Opera Tags stamp set. For this project I used just two inkpads throughout - Memento Tuxedo Black and PTI Pure Poppy. I used strong double sided tape to stick the tag toppers in pairs to the tags, punched a hole through each with my Crop-A-Dile and added a pair of red card washers to the cream one, before trimming the tops level with the top of each tag.

 

On the top  right of each tag I stamped "Ho! Ho! Ho!" from the Nutcracker Sweet stamp set. The stamp is actually set out horizontally, but I wanted to stamp the sentiment vertically to save space, so I just inked up the first "Ho!" and stamped it carefully three times beneath each other. I did the same thing with the "You're on my "Nice" list" sentiment (From Santa Was Here) to fit it onto the bottom left of each tag.

 

A lot of the Waltzingmouse stamps have been designed to fit with existing Spellbinders dies. This is such a good idea and makes it so easy to get a professional looking finish! I used a Spellbinders label die to cut three labels from cream card and then stamped them with the Santa's Workshop stamp from the "Santa Was Here" set using Pure Poppy red ink. I also stamped a further three images in black ink on cream card, fussy cut the central shaped area and layered them on top of the full labels using foam pads. I also stamped the smaller label a few more times in red and black on the cream and the mottled beige card stock and cut the different layers out - again stacking them up with foam pads. The red and beige tags actually have five layers to each of the labels (and there are four layers on the cream tag).

 

I have quite a few Spellbinders dies, so I had a look through them all to find a pretty circular shaped one that would fit the Chief Elf badge stamp (from Santa Was Here), together with a small plain circle die for the centre sentiment part of the badge. I cut four of the pretty circles from the red card, one from cream card and one from the beige card. Then I cut two small circles from cream card, one from beige card and three larger circles from the cream card. The three large cream circles were stuck to three of the pretty circles and the remaining die cuts were all stamped with the Chief Elf badge stamp and layered up using foam pads. I wanted to create a "dial" effect to show "Naughty" and "Nice" so I used a fine liner pen to write on the cream circles and made an arrow shaped pointer using one of the elf footprint stamps from the "Santa Was Here" set and the narrow chain effect stamp from the "2011 Holiday Ornaments" stamp set. I trimmed away the lower part of the dial to avoid too much bulk then stuck everything down to the tags using double sided tape. Finally, I added ribbon to the tops of the tags - printed cream twill ribbon stapled to the red tag and red seam binding tied to the other two tags.

 

Although these tags were very time consuming to make they were so much fun to do! They are also just that little bit different from anything else I've seen so I can't wait to use them on my Christmas gifts this year!

 



Welcome Little One...

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, our second grandson Joshua! He was born on 5th November, on what would also have been my dear Dad's birthday - and there were plenty of celebrations that night! Here is the lovely little man himself - the photo was taken when he was just a couple of hours old.

We went to visit Joshua and his proud Mum and Dad in hospital the following day. I took this photo of a very happy Grandad holding baby Joshua for the first time ...

 

 

Of course I had to claim a cuddle too! Baby Joshua is adorable and I was very reluctant to hand him back to his Dad (who took this photo) when it was time to leave.

 

 

 

This momentous occasion called for a special card from his Grandparents to welcome the little man. I had done my usual trick of crafting late into the night (or the early hours of the morning to be more precise) to create this card which we took with us to give to his Mum and Dad.

 

 

 

 

I  started with an eight inch square card blank, added an outer layer of pale blue card then two rectangles of floral and striped patterned paper from the Petal Fresh collection by NitWit Collections for Lili of the Valley. I used a Cottage Cutz lace border die to cut a long strip of white paper lace which I stuck across the full width of the card to cover the join in the different patterned paper (although you can only see a bit of it on the right hand side). I tied a double bow from "Queen Blue" coloured seam binding using my "Becca's Peg Bow Maker". This is one of the best gadgets I've ever bought! It makes it really easy to tie pretty bows with multiple loops etc. You can read more about it over on the very talented Becca Freeken's blog here http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/today-is-kind-of-special/ . I added a small nappy pin charm to the centre of my bow and adhered it to the card on top of the paper lace using double sided tape. 

 

The main stamped image is "Special Delivery" from Lili of the Valley http://www.liliofthevalley.co.uk/acatalog/Stamp_-_Special_Delivery.html , which I stamped onto smooth white card with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I coloured the little bear with my Copic Ciao markers and blender pen then used one of my Spellbinder dies to cut the circle shape. This was layered onto a blue scalloped circle (also a Spellbinders die) and then onto another Spellbinders die cut circle - this time using the smallest die from the Grand Stately Circles set http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/products/p-907-grand-stately-circles.aspx. before adding it to the centre of the card.

 

The sentiment and flourish at the top of the card is from the Papertrey Ink "Boutique Borders: Birthday" small set https://www.papertreyink.com/index.php?p=catalog&mode=search&search_str=boutique+borders+birthday and the blue card I used to stamp it onto was cut with their co-ordinating die. I used two blue pearls from the Hobby House to embellish it either side of the sentiment.  The circular calendar image at the bottom is from Lili of the Valley http://www.liliofthevalley.co.uk/acatalog/Stamp_-_Calendar.html and I cut it out with a small Spellbinders circle die before customising it with Joshua's date of birth. Finally I die cut the letters to spell out Joshua's name using the same blue card and the "Classic Upper Alphabet Set" of dies from Memory Box http://memoryboxco.com/product_detail.asp?id=98361 . I also have the lower case and numeral sets and they are so useful for personalising cards - I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more of them on here in the future! I used a Zig 2 way glue pen to adhere the letters to the bottom of the card and it was finished. 

 

I don't know what Joshua thought of his card, but he certainly looks peaceful here!

 

 

 

Welcome to the world little one!