3 for £10 - part 3

Here is part 3 of the "3 for £10" challenge. As I mentioned yesterday, the challenge assumes you have some basics such as ink pads, cardstock, dies etc.

My third card for the challenge is the Wild Hair Easel Card.

Take a 6" x 6" card blank. Score width ways at 3" and 6" and fold  to create your easel.

Using the Pink A4 Foundations patterned paper

 attach a panel to the front of the card.

Take one of the Wild Hair die cuts (which are 4" high) 

and ink around the edges.

Die cut some circles from white card and patterned paper ( I used Spellbinders Circles and Butterfly Circles) 

and matt and layer onto the front of the card.

Use more Paper Roses

 gems

and the "waste" butterflies to decorate the hair.

* Why Not Try - If you do not have the Butterfly Circles die or a butterfly punch, then decorate the hair with more roses or gem stones

Tie a strip of Vintage Ribbon around her neck.

Cut another panel of patterned paper and attach to the base of the card.

Cut a thin strip of the A4 patterned paper lengthways, about a centimetre wide.

Score width ways at 2cm, then 1cm intervals, all the way along. When you fold along these score lines, you will end up with a pleated strip of patterned paper.

Attach to the card base on foam pads - this will be used as your stopper for the easel card. Decorate with butterflies or flowers and gems.

I hope you have enjoyed these three projects - it has certainly been a challenge to keep to a budget (not my strong point!) but great fun too!

Mel xxx

3 for £10 - part 2

Here is part 2 of the "3 for £10" challenge. As I mentioned yesterday, the challenge assumes you have some basics such as ink pads, cardstock, dies etc.

My second card for the challenge is the Crystal Butterfly Stepper Card.

Take a 12"x12" sheet of white card stock and cut lengthways so you have a sheet that is 6"x12".

Score lengthways at 5" and 10". Fold along both score lines. You will be left with a 2" strip along the bottom.

 From your other piece of card, cut a strip that is 4" x 6" and score and fold in half at the 2" line.

Attach this smaller piece of card to the 2" flap on the main card base. You will now have a stepper card.

Take your A4 sheet of Lilac Foundations patterned paper

 Cut a square and mount on the large front face of the card.

Print off the digi stamp of the Gemstone Butterfly at 4.5" high on lightweight cardstock. 

The circles of the digi stamp are ideal for using as a template for the gems from the Crystal Wheel

 Cut out the butterfly and ink around the edges. Using small dots of glue, attach the gems to the butterfly.

*Why not try - using glitter glue, or pearl pva instead of gems on the butterfly template?

Attach the butterfly to the front of the card and use some die cut shapes to matt and layer. Attach two Crimson Cloud small paper roses

to the corners of the card and glue gems to their centres.

Cut a small rectangle of patterned  and attach to the small front face of the card. Cut another smaller strip and punch holes along the length using a ribbon strip punch.

Using the same method as yesterday's project, dye a length of Vintage Ribbon

with a lilac ink pad to match your patterned paper. Thread the ribbon along your punch strip and tie in a bow. Decorate with the hat pins

and attach to the front of the card.

Check back tomorrow for the final part of the "3 for £10" series.

Mel xxx

3 for £10

This month we were asked to produce three cards for £10 for Creative Cardmaking magazine - quite a challenge!! The challenge presumes that you have some basic products - card blanks, ink pads, dies etc - but stamps and embellishments must come out of the budget.

I decided (rather optimistically looking at the weather today!!) to give my three cards a spring theme.

The first card is called "Spring Swallows":

Fold A4 white cardstock in half to create your card base.

Cut Creative Expressions Foundations range Aqua patterned paper slightly smaller than the front of your card and attach.

Print out your  "Swallows"   digistamp onto light white cardstock.

Die cut an oval and blend some inks around the edges to create your Spring sky. Colour the swallows (I used Promarkers).

Matt and layer your image with die cut ovals and swirls.

Take half a yard of the Vintage Ribbon.

Rub some ink onto your craft mat and spritz with water. Rub the ribbon in the ink to colour it. Dry ribbon with heat gun.

Tie the ribbon into a bow and attach to the top of the card.

Decorate the card with some of the hat pins

and Crimson Cloud paper roses

* Top Tip - use the same ink you used for the sky to dye the ribbon to make sure your project is colour coordinated.

Check back tomorrow to see part two of the "3 for £10" challenge.
Mel xx

Celebrations

This week we are sponsoring Trimmies Craft Challenge. The theme is "Celebrations" and I decided to go with the wedding celebration theme.

I am a huge fan of Penny Black stamps - especially this one “Pinnacle”

which I used with Spellbinders Lattice Rectangles

and Spellbinders Grand Ovals

I cut out some flowers from some patterned paper and embossed the background with another of my favourites - the Couture Creations Walrus and Carpenter embossing folder.

Eggshell vintage ribbon gave me the opportunity to create a colour match with Copic Pens. 

When ‘stuck’ for sentiments try printing them out in Word as I did and then just cut them out!

The little leaf punch is from my own private collection but of course you can use which ever you have to hand. 

Crimson Cloud Miniature Roses

finished off the bow and project perfectly as they can also be colour matched.

My feeling is that the result is fresh, contemporary and young as most of us were when we married!

Enjoy!

Mel x

The Happy Couple

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I made this card for the Gallery of the February edition of Craft Stamper - which is out now.

To create this card, stamp image using Penny Black's Bride and Groom

 and die cut with Spellbinders Heart Squares:

Create a “faux nestie” to back onto your image by drawing around the die and cutting out.


Stamp the image again onto patterned papers. Cut out the bride's dress and the groom's suit and attach to the original stamped image. Colour the remaining parts of the image.


To create a patchwork background, cut three sheets of patterned paper into 1 inch strips. Attach these side by side lengthways onto an A4 adhesive sheet. Turn the sheet 90 degrees and cut into one inch strips - so each strip has a column of 1 inch squares. Peel of the backing of the adhesive and stick the strips onto a piece of card. You can adjust the position of the strips to create a pattern you like.


Decorate with bow created using Creative Expressions Red Wrinkled Edge Ribbon,

Creative Expressions Crystal Hat Pins,

and button made using a Martha Stewart Embossed Button Punch

punched from patterned paper.


Matt and layer your image. 


Die cut another Heart Square from red card, cut into 4 to create corner accents. Use the “waste” hearts to decorate the edges of the card.


For a final decorative edge, use CosmicShimmer Teal Sky Pearly PVA Glue

 to make faux pearls.


Why not try making a patchwork sheet to give a new look to your projects?
Mel xx

Handbags Galore!

We are sponsoring the “Allsorts” blog challenge this week - the theme is “Paper Piecing” and is the inspiration behind this project.

Handbags Galore, every girlie girl's dream. Except this time it is the range of Creative Expressions stamps and sentiments we have used to create this very cute card, resisting of course the instinct for pink!

The Foundations paper range ‘dots and stripes’ also helped not to overdose on the girly part.

Spellbinders Nestabilities Twisted Metal Tags and Accents create some interest in the corners. 

Along with the Spellbinders Heart Squares providing the layers as background for the purses. 

We also used the Spellbinders Ribbon Tags Trio

to stamp the sentiment and tied with the beautiful Creative Expression Wrinked Edge Ribbon in white:

For the finale we used our own Crimson Cloud Black Roses

Good luck and remember we would love to see and comment on your interpretations.

Mel xx

Vintage Dressmaker

This week we are entered a card into the Top Tip Tuesday blog challenge.
The theme was "Anything Goes" so a chance to try something different.
This is my entry:

I used one of the new Couture Creations embossing folders - Vintage Dressmaker:

I embossed the image three times on different coloured card, cut the images out, inked them and layered them up.
The background papers were embossed using the Replacements embossing folder:

I embellished the card using Black Vintage Ribbon:

And some black gem swirls:

Quite a different card for me style-wise - hope you like it!
Mel x

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone - hope you have recovered from the festivities!
This week we are sponsoring the Penny Black at Allsorts challenge.
The theme is Love and Hearts.
Here is our submission:

I decoupaged the main image - the beautiful Penny Black "Love is the Message" stamp

I matted the image onto a die cut layer using Spellbinders Nestabilities Heart Squares

I threaded some Vintage Ribbon around the edges:

The flourishes were die cut using Spellbinders Bird Flourishes:

They were cut from the Creative Expressions Foundations Paper range:

I layered my topper onto white card which was embossed using one of the new Couture Creations embossing folders - Vintage Plumes:

 I stamped a sentiment and die cut it using Spellbinders Fancy Tags Three:

I hope you like it!
Mel x