I do Love to be Beside the Seaside ..... !

I really do love to be beside the Seaside and feel myself so fortunate to live in Cornwall with beaches not too far away. 

I was lucky enough to attend yet another workshop at Scrapbook Magic in Mullion with a few friends recently.  During this workshop we decorated/altered a Configurations Box.

Here's a few pix of my project and the progress I'd made on it by end of the session.  I didn't want to hurry it just to finish by the end of the workshop and I'll be completing it at home.  I'll share more pix once it's completely finished.

 

I used papers from the Graphic 45 By the Sea range - I love this particular range of papers.  Using this sheet for the front as I figured the configurations box would mostly be displayed open and the inside page would be seen more often.  

Here's the back of the box, showing how I wrapped the front paper around over the spine and part way round the back.

Finally, here's the opened box showing the boxes I did manage to decorate and where they will fit into the configuration.

I will be doing lots of inking around the edges everywhere, adding papers to the empty boxes. embellishing the front cover and adding various items to the boxes, such as shells and other 'by the sea' items that I have in my stash or can find.

It was a fun workshop and I met lots of lovely ladies there, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Feathers

Hi there dear Bloggers, I hope you have a wonderful day, whatever you have planned.

The project I'm sharing with you today is the Birthday card I created recently for a pal.  I know she likes the CAS style and I wanted to use my recently acquired set of stamps and matching dies from Clearly Besotted Stamps, which were perfect for this style.

I love this sentiment and the feathers in the set of both stamps and matching dies are lovely.  I added the flocks of tiny birds using a stamp by Inkyliscious.

The background paper is by Stampin'Up! and I layered the stamped images onto a piece of Midnight Muse SU! cardstock.

A very simple but elegant design I think and I was pleased with the finished card.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit today, leave me a little comment if you have the time, I love to know what you think of my projects.  Thank you. 

Tag-a-Long

Welcome Bloggers, I hope you are enjoying a nice Easter weekend.

A couple of weeks ago I went along to a workshop at Scrapbook Magic in Mullion where we created tags using different techniques.

For the first tag we inked up the dress form stamp then, whilst the ink was still wet, 'kiss stamped' a reverse text stamp inked with Black Soot DI, onto the top of the inked dress form stamp.  The dress form image complete with text was then stamped onto the blank tag.

I then applied colour to the edges of the tag using Distress Inks and randomly stamped the postmark images around the edges.

I used Alcohol Inks to colour all over a sheet of glassine paper, then crumpled it up a couple of times, flattened it with my hands, then dragged a DI pad over the top to emphasise the creases.  I then used Sizzix flower dies to cut out lots of petals, from which I created three blooms, fastened together with a brad in the centre of each.  From the scraps of glassine left over, I cut out two spool shapes, again using a Sizzix die.Lengths of cotton tape were then wrapped around each spool and the spools and blooms glued to the tag.

Tag 2 was created using different techniques.

 

I first sprayed the blank tag with different colours of ink, holding the spray nozzle close to the tag, blotting and drying with a heat gun before adding the next colour.  I then dry embossed the tag with an embossing folder in the Big Shot machine.  I dragged a DI pad over the top to emphasise the embossed image.

 

The butterfly shapes were cut from Grungeboard using a die, I then painted them with white Gesso.  Once the Gesso was dry, I applied DIs to colour each one, applied Versamark all over and clear embossing powder and heated it.  Once cooled I then over stamped them with a crackle image using black Archival ink. 

 

I then attached a pen nib to each as a body and glued each butterfly to the tag.

 

Finally, Tag 3

 

 

For this tag I stamped the fancy flourish image onto the blank tag with Versamark, sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heated it.  I used nice bright colours of DIs to add colour all over the tag and  once dry I rubbed a soft cloth over the flourishes to remove any DI residue and bring out the white outline more clearly.

 

I then stamped various small images randomly over the tag using black Archival ink.  The birdcage and tiny bird were cut from Grungeboard using Sizzix dies.  I then covered them with Versamark ink and gold embossing powder before heating with a heat gun.   I cut a  small scrap of mirror foil to fit behind the birdcage and glued the tiny bird onto the cage.

 

Finally, I wrapped a length of twine around a small bunch of twigs and another length of twine around the tag and glued the twig bundle over the top.

 

I apologise but I'm unable to tell you which dies and stamps were used on the tags as they were supplied by Margaret at Scrapbook Magic for us to use during the workshop and I didn't take notes, just got very inky fingers  ! 

 

Thanks for dropping by to check today's project, I hope you've enjoyed your visit.



Many Good Things Come in Small Packages !

Hi there, I hope you've all had a great weekend, it has certainly felt as if Spring has well and truly arrived in my part of Cornwall, lots of lovely sunshine and clear skies.

As you may have guessed from my post heading, I've got a couple of small packages to show you for today's project.

 

I recently treated myself to the Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations match box die and I have to say I'm really pleased I did !

 

The first matchbox I made is the one on the right using some Stampin' Up! Crumbcake cardstock.  I firstly cut out the shapes using the Sizzix die then embossed the outer cover part using an embossing folder and my Big Shot.   I then distressed it a little using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

 

After gluing the outer cover together I added a couple of pieces of cream lace, a daisy flower which I had created using air dry clay and a silicon mould and coloured with Promarkers and Treasure Gold paste.  I also added some leaves cut using a Martha Stewart punch.  I then cut out a lacy bow and ribbon using dies designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions and SU! Early Espresso cardstock. 

 

Here's a pic showing a close up of the open matchbox, I lined the box with some pretty pink paper and added a scissor charm with a piece of lace tied onto it.  I also put in a small oval plaque and a little bow which I created using the air dry clay and two silicone moulds, colouring with Distress Inks and Treasure Gold paste.  Finally, I made a handle using a scrap of lace and a brad.

 

 

I created the flower matchbox using some materials which my pal Linda had given me a very long time ago.  A group of my crafting pals and I had decided we would take it in turns to provide a set of materials to everyone else in the group and see how different everyone's projects turned out.  The materials Linda provided were a 12 x 12 sheet of kraft cardstock, some scraps of pretty papers, a couple of flowers, a length of ribbon and some buttons.

I used some of the kraft card to cut out the matchbox with the die, then covered the outside using the scraps of paper.  I wrapped the ribbon round the box two or three times and secured it under the flowers which I'd layered up.  I finally added the little buttons to finish off the design.

 



This is the opened matchbox showing the small organza bag of dried lavender I placed inside.  I decorated the organza bag with a small flower punched using a SU! punch and a scrap of the paper used to decorate the outside and a flower shaped gem.  Finally I added a flower shaped brad to the end of the inside box to use as a little handle. 

When you open the box, there's a lovely aroma of lavender, which I love.

Thanks for dropping by to check today's project, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

It's a little early but..... Happy Easter !

Well, actually it's not early it's a bit late actually - my card that is!

The card I'm sharing with you today is my DT project for the Cute Card Thursday Challenge which started yesterday.  This week our theme is 'Easter' and our prize sponsor is Whiff of Joy Stamps.

I needed to get an Easter card made quickly to send to my Grandsons, my favourite method of card making is colouring images, however, I am currently having some dexterity issues and so am looking for other ways to create my cards.  I received an email from Crafting.co.uk offering me free Easter downloads, so I thought I'd use some of these for my card.  Not my usual type of card design, does it work though ? What do you think ? 

To me it feels a bit like 'cheating' to use printed designs on a card rather than stamping and colouring images myself, so I like to add and alter things around and make it more my usual style. 

I cut out and attached various elements from the free downloads and added a few embellishments.  On the 'egg bunny' I added buttons for his eyes and nose and, as I do like a bit of bling, added Platinum Stickles around the edges of the layers.  The sentiment was attached using foam pads to lift it away from the background a little.

I am quite pleased with the finished card and at least it's ready to post in time to arrive with my Grandsons before Good Friday.

Do pop over to the CCT Challenge Blog to check out the amazing creations from the rest of the Design Team, it's well worth it I can tell you !

Thanks for dropping by here today, I hope you've enjoyed your visit.

Spring Colours

Hi Folks, it's been a while since I last posted anything on my blog, I have been crafting a little but just not had an opportunity to share any projects with you.

So, today I thought it was about time to post up something new.  Today's project was inspired by this month's Lavinia Stamps Challenge, which has the theme 'Spring Colours with the stipulation that only Lavinia stamps be used.

When I think of Spring colours I imagine yellows and greens, with just a hint of pinks and mauves as various wildflowers begin to bloom, so I have used these colours on my entry for this month' challenge.

 
I created the background using Distress Inks and overstamped various Lavinia images using black Archival ink.  I used a water brush to lift out a little of the colour in front of the Fairy Houses, among the trees and on parts of the stone path to create the impression of light and contours.  I also used the same water brush technique to create a horizon.

As a finishing touch I scattered Shabby White Frantage Emboss Enamel over the image and heated from underneath to melt it.

I'm enjoying playing with Distress Inks at the moment and having great fun !

Thanks so much for dropping by to check out today's project, hope you enjoyed your visit.