Anniversary Blog Candy

Time flies as we all know, days become weeks, months become years - but still it never ceases to amaze me.

The 23^rd March is the 1^st Anniversary of Crimson Cloud. We would love you to celebrate along with us by joining our blog and hopefully becoming the lucky recipient of our Blog Candy Stash which includes:

2 sets of brand new clear stamps - exclusive to Crimson Cloud

2 yards of wrinkle edge ribbon,

1 yard of ribbon rosettes,

3 yards of vintage ribbon,

1 pack of handmade paper roses,

1 pack of triple layered butterfly embellishments

Spring and Easter are just around the corner and this little goodie bag is perfect for the season.

For a chance to win the first anniversary blog candy, become a follower of the blog, and leave a comment on this post by Friday 6th April. The draw will take place on Saturday 7th April. 

Good luck to you all and thank you for your support during the last year.

Cheers!

Mel and Linda

xxx

Sweetie, if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up space!

I love these colours, they are so bold - as is the sentiment. Typical of the ‘Roaring Twenties, a time to be bold!
The Cloche Hat and sentiment are from our Hats and Roses Collection:

 I stamped and embossed in black to give a lacquered look and cut out and embossed two squares in black card, and one in beige card. I stamped the hat out again (or like me you can use the first one which didn’t work out so well!) I then cut out the flowers and painted them using Cosmic Shimmer Dazzle Paint (Rich Gold).

The tri-fold card base was made by using an 8 inch wide piece of card, with both sides folded in at two inch intervals to meet in the middle.

Decreasing increments of co-ordinating papers brought some interest to an otherwise plain background.

The card was matted and layered - making sure that the top square panel was only glued on the left, and the bottom square panel was only glued on the right to ensure that the card can still be opened.

Using  three different texture and widths of ribbon I tied a bow from which to ‘hang’ my pictures. The bow and hat pins

were stuck down with strong double sided Wonder Tape. 

Finally I fastened the remaining painted flowers to the bottom of the ribbon - making sure I only attached them to one side of the card.

After a life time’s philosophy of ‘less is more’ I decided to finish the card with just a subtle touch of black glitter glue to the flower centres. Unfortunately at this point my card chose to face-plant itself onto the white sheet which it was standing to be photographed. But hey! Here it is.
Enjoy! Linda xx

Guess who arrived home with a new toy?

Hi Everyone
This is Linda - just back from my trip to the UK.


I have waited months to visit the UK to collect a Grand Calibur (as well as to visit some trade fairs, see the family and do some work of course) and to collect some of the wonderful new Spellbinder dies. Being the only woman on the planet, apparently, who has managed to break her Cuttlebug, it has been a long wait.


To celebrate I have made this very ‘blingy’ card

 from one of our new range of hat stamps. There are four sets in total ranging from demure to sassy.

 So, let’s begin with stamping the front tipped hat in black Memento as I coloured the roses with Promarkers . Then, feeling like a little girl on Christmas morning, I cut out 6 different sizes of the Spellbinders Grand Nesties Labels Twenty Three die

 plus one extra of the largest to make the back of the card. This I folded about 1.5 inches down from the top and glued to the card of the same size. Using mounting tape I then layered them up - so quick and effective. 
The Pearl Swirls were cut and stepped down the layers to give an illusion of 3D.
Then having cut a more Labels Twenty Three from the smaller coordinating Spellbinders set, I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from our Hats and Roses Collection.

Grey satin ribbon was fixed to grey sheer ribbon using double sided tape, and then a second strip of double sided tape applied to form the ruffle. I used a pencil to equalise the ruffle but that is because I am a little OCD! 


Now the sentiment needs a little support so a small piece of the same card about .5”wide folded into three forms a perfectly disguised little support bracket, it worked a treat! 


I hope you enjoy this new range of hat stamps half as much as I have enjoyed making this card with them. Now I must find someone really special to send it to!
Linda xxxx

The new Spellbinders dies have just arrived!

We have just had a delivery of the stunning new Spellbinders dies! No chance to play with them yet- so keep checking back for samples.
Here are a few of the new designs we have in stock -

I will try to get some samples together and on the blog for you as soon as possible!

Mel xxx

Vintage Just Rite

This card was made using the coordinating Just Rite Vintage Floral Stamps

and the Spellbinders Labels Thirteen dies

The dies have been cut out three times, inked and layered behind each other to give dimension.

I used one of the dies from Spellbinders Fancy Tags Three

behind the sentiment to give the lacy effect.

The card was finished off with some Wrinkled Edge Ribbon,

a couple of hat pins,

and some pink pearls

I hope you like this card. Using the coordinating stamps and dies really gives the card a professional finish.

Mel xxx

A Host of Golden Daffodils

This stamp is exclusive to Crimson Cloud and is from our new Easter/Spring range.

Spring is my favourite time of year and daffodils my favourite spring flower.

They stand in defiance of the cold winter and trumpet the heralding of spring.

Naturally, then, one of my favourite poems written by William Wordsworth is “Daffodils”. The sentiment in this stamp is a line from this poem.

“Ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance”

Add these all together and you have the inspiration for this symbolic stamp.

I coloured the image with Copics, and matted and layered using the Creative Expressions Foundations range paper. I love the yellow and green - such cheery colours for Spring!

Hope you like it!
Linda x

Free SVG of the month

This month's free svg is of a dog's head - my dog's head in fact!

The svg came about due to a major economy drive in the Quin household. I was scrabbling around for a birthday present idea for my husband and Mum came up with the genius idea of silhouette portraits of our two mutts. So a quick scan of their pictures, some computer wizardry and the silhouette svg's were born!

This is the final project which my husband loved:

The other silhouette svg (Ollie) is also available on Crimson Cloud under digital downloads.

I think these will make some excellent man cards - I may even stick a Santa hat on each one and turn them into my christmas cards for 2012!

I hope you have fun with them xxxxx