Scrap Butterfly

One day recently when teaching stamping and embossing I demonstrated on scrap paper using a stamp set which I had never used before and I fell in love with the results and couldn't bear to throw it away as I normally do with my demos on scraps so I built this card around it and am really pleased with the results. If you would like a video or blog entry posted up about stamping and embossing please let me know and I will oblige. :-)

Products Used

Crafty Impressions Clear Stamps "with love on"
Acrylic block
Brilliance Ink in Pearlescent Orchid
Scrap paper & card
Creative Expressions Sue Wilson Herald Square
Sakura pens in green star, red star, Sky star,  fuchsia sparkle, mauve sparkle and metallic gold.
Stamps by Chloe Crystallina Glitter
Kanban Crafts Pastel Bling
Clear 3mm gemstones
A shaped card blank from stash
                                                                                    Quickie glue pen
                                                                                     Zig 2 way glue Jumbo

1. Stamp the butterfly onto scrap blue paper then set aside for just a few minutes to ensure it is fully dried.
2. Go around the outside of the card blank with the Zig jumbo blue pen and then cover in glitter to create the effect of having covered with glitter card but fora lot less expense. 
3. Use Fuchsia Sparkle Sakura pen to colour in the cut out elements of the card blank 
4. Colour in the butterfly as desired with the Sakura pens then colour in certain parts with the quickie glue pen and add the glitter and clear gems down the body
5. Select two scrap papers which coordinate well together and choose which shows off the butterfly best.  There are 4 dies in the Herald Square set and we will use all except the smallest.  Use the detailed die to cut one square from your selected middle paper and the 2 piercing dies out of the other paper. 
6. Add the largest square to the card blank using tape, then rotate the middle square and layer on using 3D pads to add some dimension then rotate the top layer to match the first and stick with 3D pads again.
7. Cut a 3D pad to small pieces and attach only to the body of the butterfly so the wings have movement now attached to the card.
8. To finish add Pastel Bling in pink and blue to opposing corners. 

1. 

Review: Bloom Impression Tool

I have made my first ever YouTube video!  It's all about the Marion Smith Bloom Impression tool.  As I am new to posting videos if you have any hints and tips or there is a product you would like reviewed please let me know.

Using my stash

Hi bloggers,

Sorry for a delay in a further post, I had relatives from Australia over last week and went down south with them then had loads to catch up with.  But the good news is I came back really inspired and have made loads since my return so if the timer thing works on here there should be a few posts this week.  

So to the important stuff, like most crafters I have a stash and I have a habit of taking things I really like and hiding them away to never be used as they are too pretty or you don't have quite the right accessories to do them justice.  When I was away I bought the "Botanicals" paper pad from DoveCraft and some of the papers are just wow! I want it in every size -I would seriously reccomend you check it out, particularly the first papers.  Anyway my mission was to use one of my favourite papers from the pad and as the paper was so stunning I wanted it to be very simple and let the paper take centre stage.  Here is the finished card and a list of items used:

Products used

Dovecraft 'Botanicals' 8x8 paper pad
Vellum
Efco small flower punch
Stepper card blank and envelope
Peel off borders and corners

Pinflair peel off sentiments

Small gems


Instructions

1. I selected my favourite part of the paper (the rainbow rose) and placed the card blank over it and drew around before cutting out leaving a little extra space all around to allow wiggle room.
2. A double sided tape runner to cover the front of the card blank then stuck the cut paper on, I used my paper trimmer to trim the excess paper. 
3. I then used my small flower punch to punch out 13 flowers from the left over paper, making sure to move the punch around to get different colours.  I wanted the front of the card to be the main focus so also punched out 13 vellum flowers which I stuck on top offsetting the petals.  This made the flowers a bit more delicate so it complimented the front, but didn't steal the attention. 
4. Silver and gold border peel offs framed the front of the card with some matching corner flower designs added for a little bit more detail. 
5. As the paper pad was double sided, with the pattern on one side and plain white pearlescent on the other and the peel off separated into the sentiment and the frame I decided to mount the frame onto the white side with the greeting on the floral. 
6. Finally I added gems to the flower centres then stuck 5 of the flowers going down either side of the stepper and the final three on the back of the envelope so it coordinates.

I hope you agree the card is very effective and shows off the paper.  Well that's all for now, I will be posting quite a few times this week, including another project or two from the same paper pad to show how versatile it is so keep your eyes open. 

Finally, Happy Halloween

Wooden heart

Well it's obvious I'm new to this blogging thing, I set some posts to come up automatically and not only did it not post them it didn't save them so I have lost 6 blog posts.  I have been very busy this week, my favourite craft company Creative Expressions and are looking for Design Team members so I have been busy applying.  One task was to express yourself in a project so I made something very special that people who know me would look at it and know I had made it.  But it's been really exciting so if you can cross your fingers for me that would be great.

Anyway back to the main reason for this post, how to make a wooden heart.  The charity where I teach on a Friday (https://www.facebook.com/St-Margarets-Centre-MDF-Craft-Suppliers-980968768594579/timeline/) recently got a CNC machine so sell high quality MDF shapes, even personalised ones, and they are cheaper than anywhere else I have seen and they asked me to make some samples up to show people what they can create with a bit of imagination and when I saw this MDF heart I thought straight away of swans and these would be great for a wedding or anniversary, not only do swans make a lovely heart shape when their necks are together they also mate for life, this became a important symbol in my family as it represents my parents marriage and was part of a message he left for my mam to have once he was gone.

I started off by painting the whole shapes gold and once it was dry I went around the inside with a thin coating of pva glue and added a iridescent glitter.  Nicola at the centre then created a sunset effect with paint and a sponge and once dried I printed out two copies of swans,the first set I stuck straight on the second set I just cut out the feathers and created texture cutting into them then used collall glue to layer them up.  I used white ribbon to attach the two hearts together then added a pretty bow.  I finished it off by adding some peel off flowers and a little banner saying forever.

What do you think? Have you found your swan?

Hello and Welcome

For about 2 years I have intended to start a blog and finally got around to it.  Here you will find photos of some of my makes and instructions on how you can recreate them, reviews on any products I buy and probably lots of other things I don’t even know about yet as I am just getting acquainted with what a blog can actually do.   As I am a qualified craft teacher you may also see some makes by my students as I am immensely proud of them all.  I have added a few photos of the sorts of things you can expect to see and my first ‘proper’ blog post will be posted tomorrow.  Thanks for reading it means a lot.