Twin Stags

This card was inspired by one of Sue Wilson's masterpieces which I adapted using the new Crimson Cloud Christmas stamps.

 To start, I stamped and embossed twice the stag from the Elegant Stag and Sentiment set and cut out.

 I then took a piece of card and attached to a double sided adhesive sheet, I cut the sheet to create two hill shapes and added glitter for my "snow".

Taking another sheet of white card, I embossed it with the Wild Poinsettia embossing folder

I stamped and embossed a sentiment in gold and die cut using the large star from the Spellbinders Holiday Tags die set

I then drew around the outside of the star die and cut out by hand to create a shadow for my star.

I layered up my snowy hills and poinsettia background onto an 8x8 inch card base.

The stags were attached using silicon glue to ensure a good hold on the glittered card.

I tied a bow using the Champagne coloured wrinkled edged ribbon

and decorated with the star sentiment and a button from my stash.

To complete, the outside edge of the card was decorated with the Cosmic Shimmer Golden Pearl pva glue

I hope you like my interpretation of Sue's card.
Mel xx



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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

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Have a Ball!

This week I have been exploring the versatility of the new Creative Expressions Kraft Paper Pads.

These are 6x6 inch pads in either Black/Ivory or Kraft/Black and can be coloured with distress inks, shimmer sprays, alcohol pens etc to perfectly match any project.

The paper in the packs is almost card weight so can take a lot of ink without tearing or breaking down.

For this Harlequin card, I started with the Ivory/Black pad - using a script pattern and a diamond pattern.

I inked both patterned papers with Wild Honey distress stain and set aside to dry.

I stamped my Harlequin onto cream card, coloured him in with copics and cut him out

On another piece of cream card, I stamped the sentiment  from the Venetian Mask stamp set

and die cut it using one of the Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two

and blended with Wild Honey Distress Ink while the card was still in the die.

From some black card stock, I die cut the largest Spellbinders Fleur De Lis rectangle

and the border from the Spellbinders Persian Accents set

I trimmed the border as I only wanted to use the narrow beaded strip.

I trimmed the script patterned paper to fit the inside of the fleur de lis rectangle.

On a black 6x6 card blank, I matted the diamond patterned paper and layered on the die cut shapes, Harlequin and sentiment.

The corners were decorated with Cosmic Shimmer black pearly glue

A fun party card I think!
Mel xxx Pin It Now!

Elegant Stag

I am in the midst of making my Christmas cards using our newest set of Christmas stamps.

This card is very Sue Wilson-stylee - quite simple but luxurious.

To start I took some pink cardstock, and used a corner rounding punch.

Laying the largest die from the Spellbinders Persian Motifs

onto the card, I ran it through the Grand Calibur using the embossing plate and mat. This embosses the snowflake-like shape into the card stock without cutting it.

I stamped out the Elegant Stag and stars

onto a die cut circle and mounted onto the centre of the Persian Motif with foam pads.

Using a lot of patience, I laid the Creative Expressions Gem Swirl

across the centre of the card - only pressing it into place once I was happy with the position of the swirl.

Once I had stamped out the sentiment I mounted the panel onto the card base.

The outside edge of the card was embellished using Black Pearly PVA glue.

I placed the larger dots first, then randomly filled in the gaps with smaller dots and left to dry overnight.

Mel xxx

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Ascension

I was inspired to make this card for my nephew who has been through a very rough time for the last few months. Now he has recently become a new dad and it’s his birthday so I hope this lifts his spirits.

This how I made it:

With the Couture Creations Ascension embossing folder 

I embossed 3 sheets of white card and one in the turquoise. 

I then cut out the 3 white largest balloons to decoupage. I used a promarker pen to highlight the lines on the balloon but it would work just as well with an ink pad if you don’t have the patience or the right colour pen. I used the Broken China Distress Ink Pad to highlight for the edges as there are some limits to my patience!

 Once I had decoupaged the layers up I then had fun with Cosmic Shimmer PVA Teal Sky 

making little pearls all over the balloon. 

The basket I actually painted with the glue to get the draped effect, but you must work quickly for this part!

 I didn’t have a tag that was big enough, to take the sentiment, so I cut rectangles in different sizes and layered them up to emphasise the 3D effect. 

A few more pearl dots I thought and some fancy string and then I was quite happy with the result.

What do you think?

Linda

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Create Your Own Summer

This card is so fresh and full of the sights and colours of summer and best of all it’s easy to make.

Using the same method as our last triple easel card, you can create your own summery card just by changing the paper and dies that you use.

You will need:

1 sheet of Foundations Paper Dot and Dash in Red and White 

1 sheet of white card stock

1 sheet of red card stock

Cosmic Shimmer Pearly PVA 

Creative Expressions- Sincere Sentiments ‘Sending you Sunshine, Laughter and Hugs’

Spellbinder Hearts Circles

Spellbinders Rose Creations

Spellbinders Fanciful Flight

Spellbinders Foliage

Versamark Pad

Brilliance Pearl Poppy Ink Pad

Crystal Embossing Powder

2 Brads of choice.

Now fold the Dot and Dash in half vertically and place the three largest dies just on the fold so that they hold together when you die cut them. 

Open your largest folded Heart circle, and score and fold one panel in half to create an easel card base - this will be the anchor for your cards.

Cut out your flowers, foliage and small butterfly from the scrap and save the little hearts that fall out from the big circle.

From the white card stock, cut out three further matching Heart Circles to mount on your folded paper ones.

Cut out the large butterfly from a piece of red card stock whilst it is in the die colour through the die the parts you would like to be white with a white pen. 

Now ink the whole die cut butterfly with Versamark and emboss with crystal embossing powder. 

Use the Pearl Poppy ink pad to stamp your sentiment onto the large white Heart Circle and mount onto the largest heart circle mini easel. 

Layer up the remaining white card heart circles onto the two smaller mini easels.

Arrange your flowers, foliage and butterflies using a brad for the centre of the larger flower before you glue and some Cosmic Shimmer Pearl to decorate the smaller butterfly.

For my last and smallest flower I used some of the scrap to die cut the smallest heart circle.

There - I told you it was easy. Enjoy!

Linda x

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Fleur De Lis Butterfly triple easel

Take it from me - this intricate card is much easier to make than it looks - which of course is the secret!!!!

Take an A4 sheet of light cardstock and fold it lengthwise. Now line up three Spellbinder Fleur De Lis Squares dies (in decreasing sizes) so that they are just over the edge of the fold. This will keep them joined together when you die cut them.

Next cut the same three Fleur De Lis squares out of card stock in the same colour. Then you need to cut three plain edged squares to fit just inside. Emboss these plain squares with the Creative Expressions Flourish embossing folder and layer onto the Fleur De Lis squares.

Open your largest folded Fleur de Lis square, and score and fold one panel in half to create an easel card base - this will be the anchor for your cards. Attach your largest square to the folded panel. You have now created the first part of the triple easel.

Repeat this twice more with your two smaller sizes so that you have three mini easels in decreasing sizes.

Choose your embellishments and sentiments to decorate each of the mini easels.

My sentiment was from the Just Rite Forever Friends cling stamp set

I chose the butterfly and dragonfly from the Spellbinders Fanciful Flight die set 

and the leaves from the Spellbinders Foliage die set

The little gold rose comes from a pack of Crimson Cloud Roses

Stick each easel base to the one behind lining them up as you go. With Nestabilities this is easy as they are all proportionally to scale. 

Add your embellishments and get busy with your pearly glue

to bring a little more femininity and decadence.

I hope you enjoy making this delicate and intricate card. 

Linda xxx

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