Perching Bird

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I challenged myself a little while ago to make a card inspired by each of Jean's Facebook Live demos. This is only the second I've made, from Jean's demo on 6th April, using a contemporary style with background stamps designed by Flo Langley, and the CI-507 'Perching Bird' stamp. Jean used her lovely kingfisher stamp for her version, but I don't have that. This works just as well, though, and I love Flo's stamps:

CI-539 'Abstraction'
CI-540 'Fragmentation'
CI-542 'Mismesh'

Brayered Butterfly

This is another card inspired by Tracy Evans' demos from the AALL & Create ODS shows on Hochanda. In fact, this is virtually a direct copy. I'm just practicing techniques, and knowing Tracy and her generous nature, she won't mind a bit. Her card is much neater and more polished than mine. Mine looks as though the decorators have been in my craft room and sploshed all over my craft desk! Lol ;-)

I brayered two of IndigoBlu's matte acryclic paints, and ended up making half a dozen backgrounds from the two blobs I put on my glass mat!

Once dry, I used That's Crafty! Light Texture Paste through AALL & Create's 'Human' stencil #22 by Autour De Mwa (Abs), and left that to dry.

Next, I stamped the butterfly, dragonfly and hexagons from AALL & Create's stamp sets (#45 and 'Hexagonal Stem' #206, both designed by Tracy Evans) onto one of the spare backgrounds I made, cut them out, blackened the edges to get rid of that raw whiteness, and glued them in place, raising the wings up. The hexagons were given dimension using a strip of recycled cardboard.

I splashed Daler Rowney 'System 3' white acrylic paint all over the card (and me!), and added the sentiment, also slightly raised, which I'd stamped onto some scrap that already had some stamping on from a previous session, but I think it looks cool like that.

Mounted onto a black mat and then white card. I think that does it.

Minty Madness

A nice simple card from about a decade ago, made using digi-papers from a Funky Hand download called 'Minty Madness'. (Sadly, Funky Hand products are no longer available.) The paper is layered onto black, and then mounted on pink Bazzill cardstock. The sentiments are computer-generated using a font from a Lisa Bearnson scrapbooking CD-rom, and set on black cardstock. Apart from brads and gems, the main decoration is fabric flowers, satin ribbon bows and a fabric-covered button from an old jacket in the centre.

Butterfly Birthday

This is a 6" square card and co-ordinating box.

The card: I used a stripey border stamp by Elzybells, stamped in dark brown Chalkeyes ink, with panels of dotty and tiny hearts decorative paper, layered onto olive green Bazzill cardstock. I stamped the 'Friendship' word onto the bottom mat, and found a lovely sentiment to go on the corrugated card panel on top, and decorated with faux gems. The butterfly is a gorgeous die-cut, and I've used my signature rosebud for its body. Can't remember how I made the antennae, but they have tiny faux gems on the ends.

The box: I used a pre-cut and scored flat-packed box from Craft Creations (just recently closed down, sadly), folded and secured into shape. So simple. Same mats and layers as with the card, some faux gems, and I picked up the corrugated card as well, to go under the pretty punched butterfly. I've used two rosebuds and a punched sprig of leaves.

When my building work is finished and I have restored my craft room and found these materials again, I'll let you know who the stamps, dies and punches are from!

Shadow Stamp Rosebuds

Two ridiculously simple A6 size (4" x 6") cards here.. both using a Hero Arts shadow stamp and Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide ink. The leaf is a Crealies die-cut from an inky green background scrap and smeared with a touch of Craft Planet glitter glue. Oh, and there's a white rosebud.

Same shadow stamp, same die (has several leaves on it), same glitter and a freebie sentiment stamp from last month's Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine, #189, stamped in Black Onyx Versafine.

Funky Christmas Candle

This one was made using Funky Hand digital papers, some gold peel-off borders, a red satin bow, panel of embossed gold card, a fussy-cut stamped, painted and glittered candle, some curled gold wire flourishes, glittered holly leaves and metal floral embellishments. Aaand breathe.

Mother's Day 2008

Lots going on with this one! 'Mum' is computer-generated, using Wordart. The light green in the layers is vellum, and the silver is my all-time favourite embossed cardstock. There is a dark green satin ribbon down the centre of the panel and border punched vellum at top and bottom. The panel is raised slightly from the background on low profile foam pads. The background is a decorative paper, with a little stamping; the 'Love' word is stamped, for example. I have cut flowers and foliage from more paper and stuck it randomly to the panel and painted it with slightly diluted Craft Planet glitter glue. The green organza ribbon has a sparkly quality, too, and there's a touch of sparkle on the rosebuds. There is also a little metal dragonfly on the tail of the bow.

Green Golf Birthday

This is one of my earliest cards, made around 17 years ago, and can't you tell?! I stopped using peel-offs many years ago. Mainly because I prefer using rub-ons, or stamps or creating my own on the computer, using text boxes or Wordart. Although I prefer other methods, I still think that - used well - peel-offs or stickers can look very effective. The other tell-tale sign, I think, is that I hadn't learned at this point about smoothing down the raw edges of cut mirror card. Making cards with mirror card now, I place the cut card onto a surface like a glass mat, or my Rotatrim which has a metal surface, and then run an embossing tool around the edges. This smooths down the roughness of the raw edges, which makes a difference, in my opinion.

Umpteenth Recycled Xmas Card

The focal image on this card is recycled from a handstamped card that I received. I inked the edges and mounted it on a 6" square card that is embossed with a holly spray folder.. Cuttlebug, most probably, which has been lightly stroked with green Stickles and a touch of red. I've tied some string around it, and decorated it with some red tinsel miniature pom-poms and punched holly leaves using my large Woodware punch and some old music sheets, inked around the edges with dark brown Chalk Eyes ink.

Seahorses

I adore seahorses.. who wouldn't! They're so cute. Here is a small collection of cards I made about 15 years ago, focused on a die from Sizzix from back in the day when they had three thick die sizes, but these were small (green), medium (yellow) and large (red.. the equivalent of today's Bigz dies). The seahorse die I used is a yellow die.

In all of these cards, I've used a large ball embossing tool to sculpt the die-cuts and give the seahorses some 'body'. I've used vellum, reflective mirror card and glittery papers in sea colours, wire, beads and netting to complement the theme. I think what I've done is fairly obvious, but love to get questions, so feel free to ask away if something is not clear.

Sharron's 40th Birthday

Landscape A5 (5" x 7") card made for my old friend some years ago, using Funky Hand digital papers, including the flower, the numbers, the brackets and the circle sentiment. The only bits that aren't Funky Hand are the strip across the middle (Basic Grey), the little flowers, the brads, the Elegant Flourish stamps from Rhonna Farrer, the scalloped fancy-edge scissors, the faux stitching (stamped) and my little doodled flourishes on the brackets. And a partridge in a pear tree!

Little Butterfly

This is an A6 (4" x 6") card. I have recycled a piece of scrap.. the grungy text piece behind the focal image, which has some sparkly micro beads in the centre of one of the flowers. The butterfly is from a Martha Stewart punch, and has a couple of tiny pearls on its back. You could add a sentiment if you wish to, or use this as a notelet, or an any purpose female card.

TIP: When using a thread wrap, I make holes just behind the spine to poke the thread through. Using a needle-threader makes that easier! I also make tiny nicks in the sides which help to hold the thread in place where you want it.

Bloom With Abandon

Pretty floral image mounted onto pink Bazzill cardstock, edges inked, then dressed up with a Prima flower + faux gem centre and Ash Branch foliage punch, and waxed cord wrap and bow. Sentiment is stamped.. Stamoin' Up, I think. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch, with Stickles and a couple of tiny sparkly stickers.

Birthday Card - St Pat's theme

Another one from a while ago for my sister-in-law. She did her doctorate at Dublin University. Hence, the shamrock/clover theme.

Kraft notebook page set askew, rub-on 'Happy' with a dimensional sticker 'H' and stamped 'Birthday'. Stamped flourishes, green stamped shamrocks/clover leaves.. 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation, a shot of green satin ribbon on the diagonal through the middle, decorated with a paper flower and button (both subtly glittered), green rosebud, silver thread bows folded and tucked in on either side of the button. The metal embellishment in the corner completes the design. Wish I had bought more of those; they don't seem to be available any more.

Spring Fairy

This is an old one, again. I struggle to like this one. I think it's the edging. I wish I'd used a background paper, or if I was making it now, I think I'd lose the eyelash fibre, and set it on a grungy inked background with a few splatters. Feedback welcome on this one.

The daffodil stamp, by the way, is from The English Stamp Company, and I've used Glossy Accents on the flower and on the enlarged 'SPRING' text. I think the spring words stamp might be Hero Arts, possibly. Not sure about the butterfly, and the metal fairy is from some obscure, random craft show.

Stripey Tags

As you can see, I made this one up as a wedding invitation. I think it's rubbish for that purpose, but I'm showing it as - with a few tweaks - it would make a nice birthday card, or for another occasion. The wedding vows text could be replaced with some other quote or poem extract, or something.. scripture, maybe, and the 'wedding invitation' words could also be swapped for something more relevant. (The font, by the way, is from a Lisa Bearnson scrapbooking pack I bought once. There was a CD with fonts and downloads on it.)

This stamp is one I made by cutting some funky foam into a square with deckle-edged scissors, mounting it onto cling-mount and then it works with an acrylic block like any other cling-mounted stamp. Perfect! The possibilities are endless.

The rest is pretty self-explanatory, so I will leave it there. If you have any questions, I'm always pleased to hear from you. x

Sweet Lilac

This is a blast from the past... one of my very earliest cards from the early noughties when using long, floaty fibres was all the rage! I love purple and green together, lilac as a bush and tartan, so how could I resist? So.. bottom to top.. tartan paper and purple cardstock, punched with a fancy corner punch. The top layer is vellum. I traced through it and embossed it to produce the white words in a lovely script, and went over the embossing with a white crayon. The lilac sprig is a stamp, but I haven't seen it for years, so no idea of the make, sorry. The image is matted onto embossed silver card, with narrow margins around the edge. The little tag has a K&Co flower die-cut. The eyelash fibre and ribbon drape, the silver thread wrap around the focal image and a few purple faux gems complete the design.

Red Rose Valentine

This was inspired by one of my favourite colour combos, red and green. Deckle-edged green paper panel on hammered card, with some tiny holographic hearts underneath. Crossed rosebuds, red craft wire, twisted into a bow shape, and finished with a pretty heart sequin.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Garden Rose wedding invitation

This is one of my all-time favourites for its colour combo, the fact it's a rosebud (obvs), and all the white space. The words are computer-generated and printed directly onto the card. The rest is obvious, and here's a close-up of what I often do with rosebuds.. push a crystal bead right up close to the calyx, and glue it in place.

Mod Roses Save the Date card

I called this 'Mod Roses' because of the sharp geometric shapes, inspired by the reflections in the holographic card. Red and green together is a favourite combination for me, especially when there are bright, jewel colours involved. Once again, the simplicity of this card doesn't need explaining, but please do contact me if you have any questions. x