Make Your Own Embellishments

This week we are sponsoring the CRAFT challenge blog - where the theme is "Make Your Own Embellishments".

 

For this card I made my own felt embellishments using the new Spellbinders Fall Foliage dies.

These dies cut through felt so easily!

Firstly I embossed my card base with the Creative Expressions Brick embossing folder and blended some ink around the edges to highlight the embossing.

Then I layered up some green and burgundy cardstock onto my card base.

I stamped my frame and sentiment from the Just Rite Fancy Labels stamp set

and die cut the frame with the coordinating Spellbinders Labels Thirteen dies

Using the Spellbinders Cherry Blossoms dies I cut three twigs.

Once I mounted my frame I arranged the die cut foliage and twigs around it and decorated with some pins from my stash.

I used the Creative Expressions Dark Bronze pearl pva glue for the faux pearls around the edges.

Hope you like it!
Mel x

Holidays ....

We are on holiday from 26th September until 18th October.

We will still be posting on the blog so please keep checking back.

Any orders placed while we are away will be posted from 19th October.
xxx

When Angels Whisper

 Eau de Nil is my favourite colour at the moment and here I have combined it with black to create this striking card.

It is made primarily from the Spellbinders Blossom Four set of dies

which shows you how versatile they can be once you think outside the box.

Cut the second largest blossoms die from the centre of two pieces of black cardstock . Then emboss the black card with the Couture Creations Adagio embossing folder. 

Now on your Eau de Nil or chosen colour cardstock stamp and emboss the sentiment ‘To hear the angels whisper you must listen with your heart’ and the beautiful girl who seems to be daydreaming from the Creative Expressions Fantasy stamp sheet 

I used Versamark and Cosmic Shimmer Lapis Black which has a green hue to it and is softer than black. 

Then place your largest Blossom die and the second largest onto some card and cut out twice to create two frames. Emboss with the Adagio folder and lay them over your sentiment and the girl's head.

Finally, cut out the second largest blossom die and run through with the Adagio embossing folder. Trim the petals to use as corners on your card.

Fold an A4 piece of Eau de Nil paper in half, trim if necessary to square up. Line up your stamped panels inside and out. Not as easy as it sounds - so be patient!  Fix them all in place along with your frames and your musical corners and decorate to choice.

I used some black jet beads but you could use Cosmic Shimmer PVA Glossy Black.

Worth little extra patience, I think,

Hope you agree,

Enjoy,

Linda

British Wildflowers

The inspiration for this card comes from my continual amazement at man’s quiet competition with nature. Man builds a wall,  leaves it neglected for long enough and Mother Nature comes along and reclaims it. The smallest crack of soil and she puts her seeds down and claims it back as her own.

For this card you will need:

 

Creative Expressions British Wild Flowers stamp sheet

Spellbinders Grand Large Labels

Spellbinders Labels Twenty One

Creative Expressions Brick Embossing Folder

Vintage Ribbon Amber

American Seam Binding Moss Green

Cosmic Shimmer PVA glue - Olympic Gold

Cosmic Shimmer PVA glue - Dark Bronze

Encore UltimateMetallic Copper ink pad

Cosmic Shimmer Copper Bronze Lustre Embossing Powder

Here’s how -

Cut and emboss 2 of the 2^nd largest Grand Labels. Score and fold back a quarter of an inch to the top of one and fix together to create your card blank. Cut and emboss the 3^rd largest Grand Label die and mount onto the card with mounting foam. 

The last Grand Label is the 4^th largest which after cutting I ran through the Grand Callibur with the brick embossing folder which I had lightly covered with Metallic Copper to give it that aged look.

Now using Nestabilities Labels Twenty One cut out and emboss the second, third, and fourth sizes and run them through with the brick embossing folder lightly coated once again. Remember to put them in the right way up to line up with the wall! How do I know this?? - you may well ask!  

Lastly cut three of the smallest Labels 21 for your butterflies. 

Stamp out your flowers and sentiment - I chose ‘Love is like wildflowers - it’s often found in the most unlikely places’ in Encore Ultimate Metallic Copper and heat emboss with Cosmic Shimmer Bronze Lustre powder. Using the coloured ink pad and coordinating embossing powder gives the colour more depth I feel.

Using double sided sticky tape attach to your main wall and using the ribbons create a little ruffle above and below your two largest labels. Layer up your label shapes - lining up with the lines of the wall. This makes it look as though the flowers are growing against the wall. 

Mount your sentiment with foam tape to offset and add a couple of pretty brads.

Attach your butterflies and you're almost there. Use a little of the Cosmic Shimmer PVA glues Olympic Gold and Dark Bronze to ‘ground’ your flowers and to pretty them up a little. This ties up nicely with a few pearls created from the same colours in the corners.

Have fun with this one,

Linda

Memory Like An Elephant

Since our darling Grandad died it had become very obvious that Nanna was, shall we say, if not losing then seriously, misplacing her marbles!

For this reason Melanie and I discussed the possibility of bringing her on a trip of a life time to South Africa. "How hard can it be?" I say. "So what if we have the same conversation over and over again!" 

So, it is agreed and the day comes when I must pick Melanie and Nanna up from Cape Town Airport, some five hours drive from the Wilderness.

On the drive back to Wilderness, Nanna nods off in the car and awakes two hours later declaring, "That was a lovely holiday, are we going home now?".

We all laugh except Melanie who has had a 12 hour flight having the same conversation over and over again.

Now Nanna is a feisty old girl and is very game for most things. So, we decide to take her to meet the elephants, which she loves and is totally taken care of by a young Guide from Botswana who says she is just like his Grandma! 

On the way home and another cat nap in the car. When she awakes I ask did she enjoy the elephants and her new 'toy boy'? The response was "what elephants?".

As a treat for Melanie I enquire about shark diving just for the two of us and my dear sister will Nanna-sit.

I take the shark excursion leaflet around to Melanie and Nanna who are relaxing in the sunshine to ask what they think. Melanie's face lights up and she shows the page to Nanna who says" I think you may be pushing me a bit too far this time dear, I am not swimming with sharks!” 

We are most relieved to be taking a break from the test of our patience. Driving off like two naughty schoolgirls and full of enthusiasm only to be dashed by a phone call to say the water isn't clear enough and they must cancel. "No!!" screams my normally level headed daughter. So, retail therapy to the rescue. 

The next day Nanna remembers the elephant’s - ahhhh!  Patience now restored we are feeling guilty and decide to take it a step further and book to take Nanna for an elephant ride. She was accompanied, of course, by Melanie just in case either Nanna and or the elephant collude to make a bid for freedom.  How wonderful to see this feisty lady of 85 years climb on top of an elephant and squealing with delight(?) off they go through the bush for an hour and return looking for the next thrill! 

On her return to England Nanna told her carers and neighbours that she had a wonderful time but that she had been sent off on an elephant all by herself and that she hadn't been fed for two weeks!

It was to be her last holiday before she went into full time care but what a holiday and what wonderful memories for some of us!!

Linda xxx

Layers Challenge

This week we have entered the Allsorts blog challenge - the theme was "Layers"

This cute little card was made with my daughter in mind, and all Mother and Daughters separated at Christmas time.

I cut three of squares in decreasing sizes using the Spellbinders Grand Squares.

Having folded all the squares in half to create triangles I set about blending one of the squares with Tim Holtz Dried Marigold Distress Ink and edged the reverse side. 

The card stock I used is textured so it gave a nice uneven look to it.  

I cut three more small squares (about 2 inches wide) and blended them with ink on the reverse and sides.

Using the tree from Crimson Cloud Script Trees Stamp Set 

and the Dried Marigold ink I stamped the top half of the third largest square which you see standing up. 

The three largest squares were layered together to create the card base.

Using the sentiments from the same stamp set I stamped “WITH LOVE – FROM FAR AWAY” on one of the 2 inch squares and attached the point of the triangle - making sure only to glue the bottom half.

The other two 2 inch folded squares were attached behind the greeting. I created some little parcels from card stock and tied them with string (tip: for the sake of your sanity, fix down with a sticky dot whilst you do this!).  The parcels were arranged and attached to the upright backs of the orange squares.

Along the crease, to increase the 3D effect I cut out a strip from Edgeabilities laid and glued behind the parcels.

On the outside of the card, I punched and attached a decorative border and embellished with gems.

With another sentiment from the set I stamped a tag with “Darling Daughter” once again with Dried Marigold and tied with more string – done!

My Darling Daughter unfortunately cannot have this little card now as she will have seen it!!

But I hope the rest of you enjoy it?

Linda xx

The Spellbinders Dies have landed!!!

The newest range of Spellbinders dies have landed at Crimson Cloud!
Here is just a taster of the new range xxxx

Joy and Peace

I think the design of this card must have been inspired by a trip to The Vatican some time ago which is actually where the little cherub on the bow comes from.

Using some of my very precious gold and silver flakes I covered a double sided sticky sheet which I fixed to an 8 x 7 card. 

Then using Crimson Cloud’s free SVG for September of the Arch Window, I cut out two arches on my Cricut - 

 scaled it to fit my Guardian Angel from the Crimson Cloud Guardian Angel Stamp Set. 

I stamped the smaller arch with the "Noel" stamp several times to create a background.

My Guardian Angel was stamped with Encore Ultimate Metalic Silver pad 

and embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Silver Shine Metallic embossing powder onto gold paper which I cut out carefully leaving a slight gold border to give depth. Then I layered them up using mounting tape.

I stamped the "Joy and Peace" sentiment from this set  onto a small tag using the same pad and powder. This in turn, I mounted onto a small rectangle to match the background of the arch and fixed a few metallic gems.  

With the "Glorious Christmas" sentiment also from the Guardian Angel Stamp Set I used Versamark to stamp the ribbon and embossed with the Silver Shine Metallic. Be quite quick with this as you must not let the ‘glue’ sink into the ribbon before you get the embossing powder on!

I cut out some Spellbinders Heart Circles

to place under my carefully draped ribbon and finally added my little cherub.

Very Vatican I thought?

Linda xx

Christmas Greetings from around the World

This year Crimson Cloud brought out this beautiful Language Background Stamp which says Merry Christmas in languages from all around the world from Japan to Africa - this is surely what Christmas is about?

I used it to make this scroll card here’s how:

Stamp and emboss the Language Background stamp in onto a piece of card stock much wider than the stamp with enough excess card to make the scroll ends. Age with a little of Tim Holtz’s Stormy Sky Distress Ink.  Attach Blue Wrinkled Edge Ribbon to the both ends of the card and roll the card  to create your scroll.

Glue in place with Cosmic Shimmer clear glue - you will only need to hold in place for a few seconds to allow the glue to hold.

Cut out two Spellbinders Fleur DeLis Rectangles  

and overlap and glue in the centre. This you will lay onto a piece of cardstock embossed using Creative Expressions Crackle Folder. 

This should also be ‘aged’ with Stormy Sky. 

Tap your Versamark ink pad over the scroll and rolled edges and sprinkled with some crystal embossing powder. Heat to ‘glaze’ the background sheet and highlight some of the scrolls. 

Layer up using mounting tape arrange your Blue Wrinkled Edge Ribbon and secure with Crystal Hat Pins from Creative Expressions. 

A few gem stones to decorate the glittered cardstock and you are there - your own "Starry, Starry Night".

Linda x