Thistle do nicely florists

 Today I made a beautiful card with a difference and thought it would be perfect to share with you

The card was actaully a kit I bought from Crafts You Print - by the very talented Janet Briggs - the kit number should you wish to have a go is 207317_68.

Normally I add just the one photograph but I wanted you to see the card side ways on to get the idea of how its made!

Now to making the card - as this is a kit you have to print out the 3 sheets needed for the card and there is also a matching envelope which is 2 sheets of printing should you wish to do this.

I didnt need to use any cardstock so set to work on cutting out the pieces required - once that was done I decided to add a piece of acetate to the front shop window - a friend had made a similar card and told me she had used acetate so naturally I followed her idea!!!

Although not at all difficult to make the card has to be done in a strict order - so the back wall of the card has to have the shelf added as well as the decoupage attached to the wall, then the panel is scored on all score lines.

Place the back wall onto the INSIDE of the back window - this is easier to do if you line the score lines up - once the back wall is in place you need to attach the front of the shop to the back of the shop - so add a glue - I chose PINFLAIR FOTOGLUE this time so I could move the design around should I need to.

Line the canopy from the front and back together and stick together - you should now have the 3 pieces held around the canopy - that is the back window, the back wall which has the shelf attached as well as the decoupage elements attached and finally the front shop window which has the acetate in the window.

You will see two WHITE stripes - one on the bottom of the front window and the other is on the bottom of the back wall sheet, you need to add a piece of double sided tape to the white section as this is what is holding your finished card together

Not you are ready to assemble your work of art - so peel away the backing from the DST on the back wall stripe and line it up to the BACK of the other white strip and press securely.

Remove the other backing and again line up this section with the front of the card, when happy press firmly.

Your card is complete now - and how pretty it is Im sure you will agree.....should you wish to glitter or embellish the card you need to do it BEFORE removing the backing from your double sided tape stripes!!!

To make the envelope print the 2 sheets and cut around all elements, then score on the 3 sides shown on the envelope back, fold on the score lines and add a strip of double sided tape to all 3 sides, take the front of the envelope, line it up and press securely - all that remains is for you to score and fold over the main flap and HEY PRESTO - its complete.....

A Touch Of Vintage

I have made a card that is so out of my comfort zone this time - I am not at all into vintage or anything olde time like - but - its more to show what can be done!!!

This card was made using the latest Krafty Hands cd - VINTAGE CHIC BOUTIQUE

Its a lovely cd - the colours are quite muted so have that vintage look and feel without really adding much else to it!

Krafty Hands cds generally come with the elements sheet and a backing sheet and they go hand in hand so if you need a quick but pretty card this may be worth looking at!!!

To make my card I chose an A4 sheet of matt black cardstock and after scoring on the eazi score board I trimmed 2cms from the front of the card. Using an EK Success border punch I created a strip of fancy edged green mirri card which I then stuck UNDER the front sheet of my card making it the same size as the back now.

The main backing paper was cut and positioned on the card with double sided tape - then I edged the main panel as well and the inner panel with green holograhic straight border peel offs - this looks like it is matted onto green mirri card - a useful technique to remember when you need narrow borders but dont have the right mirri card!!!

I then used thin sticky pads to place the beautiful scrolled frame in the centre of the design and also for the perfume bottle.

My quickie glue pen was used to edge the bottle and stopper, plant pot and dove, then I sprinkled with the glamour dust.

A large dusty pink heart gem was placed on the bottle neck and I added some green FLOWER SOFT to the tree for something different!

Rather than use a normal sentiment I cut a small piece of the black panel I had removed at the start, and chose a rub on sentiment JUST TO SAY - the corners were decorated with tiny pearls.

And to finish this card I added 2 different shades of green tiny self adhesive pearl to the 3 unused corners!!!

I hope you enjoyed the vintage feel of this card.....

See you next time for a touch of luxury!!!

MORE Tools Of The Trade

Well it seems you all enjoyed my tools of the trade article - I'm really pleased - and I hope it will help you buy wisely if you ever have the chance to invest in something new!!

So I have put together another article on tools - I hope it will be as informative...

My first choice is ACCENTS - as in Ranger Glossy Accents  which costs around £5 a bottle and Enamel Accents which is around £5 for a twin pack

The GLOSSY accents is a clear substance that is literally just squeezed onto the chosen area and left to dry - when dry it looks like a glass covering - it works really well on things like clock faces, headlights on cars, noses on animals - in fact anything you want to look glossy

Its easy to use but be warned, DO NOT shake the bottle or you will end up with tint air bubbles which stop the accents drying glossy! If you get the odd bubble carefully prick with a pin and cross your fingers!!!

The ENAMEL accents come in black and white - turn the bottle upside down and gently squeeze so the liquid is ready to use - DO NOT shake as air bubbles may form and spoil the final appearance.

These accents will dry as they are use so if you peek the dot it will dry to a peek!!! Ideal for eyes or buttons on clothes and perfect for adding corners!!! In fact let your imagination run riot!!!

My next choice is PINFLARE - both the silicone glue gel and the newly released foto glue

The silicone gel comes in a starter set which has a key for the tube and a syringe to store the gel... costing around £6 or tube only which is around £4

The gel is odourless and once the gel is in the syringe provided you keep the cover on when not in use it will not set making it available to use when you need it! This is what you use to build layers and add dimension - the advantage over sticky pads is you get the chance to move your layers if not correctly lined up!

The foto glue costs around £2 a tube and is great for large areas as you can move the paper around before it goes off - and if you happen to get glue on your picture dont worry, it will simply rub away with your fingers making it an ideal glue for all projects

Here is something I talk about with almost every card I make - mainly because I use it on almost every card!!!

Its a Sakura Quickie Glue Pen - approx £3, Deco Art Glamour Dust - approx £3 and the Trimcraft Tidy Tray - approx £3,  Fluffy Blusher Brush mine was from our local £1 shop.

The quickie pen is like a biro - you highlight areas on your card that you want to glitter - this can be a very fine line or colour with it to fill larger areas - its a glue that is blue when you use it but it soon changes to white - and dries clear - simply sprinkle the glamour dust over the design, use the brush to brush excess powder into your tidy tray then it can be poured back into the bottle for next time!! So easy.....

BRUSHES GALORE!

I love to ink the edges of card and to do this I have a range of brushes - Dreamweaver do a 3 brush set for around £9/£10, they have firm bristles and are lovely to use - I get great results every time - dont worry that they are stained - the colour doesnt transfer to the ink pads....

Inkilicious used to do a range of brushes that for all the world looked like shaving brushes - they were available in a 5 pack for £6 or a 10 pack for £10 and the handles came in pine, red, blue, green and black I believe. These brushes were my first and I always had pleasing results with them, however it was suggested they be washed after use - and sadly that was a mistake as the bristles began to fall out in clumps as the adhesive was not suited to water.

So they moved on to the double ended ink duster which are more expensive at around £14 for a 3 pack but WOW what a difference  they are so nice to use and give brilliant results every time - whether it be using brish strokes, circular movements or stipaling.....a must have in my opinion!

My last tools are my shaping tool and foam shaping mat

I bought the tool from Dimension Fourth for £2.50 at a craft show then when people saw these I was asked to order and did so from Dimension Fourth online store - a great service I have to say! Same price and free P&P they treat us crafters fairly!

If you are adding paper flowers to your project simply turn the flower over in the pam of your hand and using the ball end of the tool make circular movements and watch the shape emerge! Or place it on the mat and do the same.... If you have larger pieces of decoupage to shape, work in the same way!!!

The mat is ideal for shaping, pricking and even stamping and cost as little as £2 so worth buying and trying!!!

I hope you have enjoyed reading my thoughts on craft tools that I own and use almost daily - all I will say to you all is - have a go....some things you will love and get on with easily while others may not be for you....

In Santa's Sack...

This really is to be the last Christmas card for a few days at least - seems weird making and then posting these cards on here in these hot weather conditions!!!

So this lovely card was made using a sheet from CHRISTMAS CREATIONS GIORDANO & JOANNA SHEEN

To make this card I chose a green A4 piece of card which I folded to make an A5 landscape card...

Rather than print out one of the many beautiful papers on the cd I found a piece of backing paper that I felt was perfect - it was from my DCVW Christmas Combo 12x12 pad - I can recommend this pad for all year round use!!

The corners were punched using a Martha Stewart SNOWFLAKE corner punch then attached to the card blank leaving a very narrow border which made the corners stand out more as the green of the card shows.

After cutting all the decoupage from the sheet I decided against using the base layer - mainly because I felt it was too big for the card - and basically the excess space around the image was just not needed - so I used double sided sticky pads to attach what technically was the 2nd layer to the left of my card.

I then added the layers of decoupage after shaping - for this I used my favorite large thin pads - I dread the day these run out!!!

Once I had used all the pieces I chose a charm - this was a very pretty JOY charm - the O in the word was actually a wreathe! To attach the charm I used a jump ring from charm to a piece of chain and jump ring from chain to finish - then a red matt glittered brad held the charm in place through the jump ring....

How many of you are sat there now thinking I have jump rings but had no idea what to do with them?

Back to the card - as there was quite a lot of glitter needed I used PVA glue - I put a spot on a plain tile then wet my finger, picked up some glue and rubbed it where I was going to add the glitter - once happy I had it all covered, I sprinkled glamour dust, then tapped the excess back into the tray and finally brushed the card clean using a large fluffy brush

Last thing was to use the Sakura quickie glue pen to highlight parts of the fluffy dogs head and sprinkle a dusting of glitter!!!

As a point of interest the brushes I use for this purpose are make up blusher brushes - from the £1 shop usually - they are perfect for the job as soft and fluffy so they dont damage the designs....

I do hope you like this card - and will give a few things a try - like charms, jump rings - and adding glitter with a wet finger and PVA glue!!!

Santa and Teddy Bear Easel Card

This image is one of my favorite and I find I never run out of ideas when using it!

It is from Cute Christmas CD by Flower Soft - a lovely twin CD with so any beautiful images and matching backing papers - well worth investing in, in my opinion.....

To make this lovely card I folded an A4 sheet of red card stock to form an A5 card blank - then scored one side on the A4 gate fold line and folded it to form the easel base..I then cut another sheet of the red card stock in half then into a 14cms square and put to one side for now.

Back to the A5 card - you need to measure 7cms from the left edge at the top and the bottom and lightly draw a line, cut along this line to the fold.

The remaining section will need the gate fold scoring again to create a sharp fold, then attach the 14cms square to the lower section of the gate fold line. Round all four corners of this and also the actual base card.

I covered the base with a piece of patterned Christmas paper which I also rounded corners of before sticking in place with double sided tape.

A scrap of silver mirri card was cut to measure 3cms x 14.5cms and the sides cut using the stamping blade on the Woodware fingerguard trimmer - I used a piece of the red card stock 2.5cms x 14cms and again cut the sides to match the mirri card. A piece of Christmas printed ribbon was slotted through a silver buckle and then attached to the red & silver panel then stuck to the left side of the card as in the photograph.

The topper had a white edge so rather than use mirri board I used the silver pro marker to edge it, then matted onto red card and then silver mirri card leaving a narrow border on both layers.

The matted topped was then stuck to the 14cms square panel centrally - and silver card candy stuck in all 4 corners of the red card and metallic red card candy stuck to 4 corners of the white topper.

Next I cut out the easy decoupage and layered up with slim sticky pads, shaping the teddy as I went. Because the beard, moustache and hat panel were large white areas I used flower soft PVA type glue to cover those sections then sprinkled with Twinklets Diamond Dust, pressed it lightly to fill all the gaps, left it to dry for 20 minutes then shook the excess back into the pot....

The last thing to do was use the mandala board to create a label shape in silver mirri then a size smaller in red card, matted one on the other and added peel off sentiment. The label shape was mounted on large sticky pads to act as the easel stopper

My printed verse was attached to the underside of the base.

Thank you for looking....

Tools Of The Trade!

So as mentioned in one of the posts, I have taken some photographs of the tools I use most often in my card making in the hope they may help you too!

The 1st and most used tool for me is my Eazi Score Board - there are many different score boards available - I have 3 different boards myself - but I always return to this one - it is marked out for all card sizes, and has gatefold options too! What I will add here is when you butt your piece of cardstock against the butt bar, score it lightly on the desired score line 2 or 3 times and then turn it over and do the same on the reverese - this gently breaks the fibres and prevents the fold from breaking open. While the card is still against the butt bar I fold it over so both top and bottom of the card are butted up, then smooth the score line with your bone tool.

Next is the Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper - this gadget has blue handles - it can round corners on almost any cardstock with ease - even people with hand problems can use this gadget. The chomper can do 1/4" or 1/2" corners - with a clean result every time!! I couldnt cope without mine these days!!!

In the same range is the Crop-A-Dile - this has green handles - it is used for punching a hole through many materials including metal, magnetic sheet, mount board etc - it has 2 different sized hole, and has a sliding gauge so if you need to punch several holes in a row they will be in a row! This gadget also has a sealer unit which means you can add an eyelet or gromit to the punched hole and then seal it securely - like the chomper, it is so easy to use and requires very little effort for maximum results.

Crafters Companion do a whole range of wonderful sprays that are great for all paper crafts. I find myself reaching for the glitter sprays when I have a larger area of my project that needs to be glittered.

The sprays come in gold, silver and irredescent - I tend to go for the irredescent when looking for a snow type covering as the silver tends to be thicker so not allowing the design to show through - but it is a matter of personal preference - have a play and decide - I would be interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on these sprays too!!

Card Candy - WOW - these legless brads are fantastic for card making - they are from CRAFT WORK CARDS and come in sealed bags of colours - with dozens of colour rangers available. I use them a lot and they never seem to go down - the easiest way to attach them is to add a tiny double sided sticky pad to the back - its that easy!!! You are sure to find the perfect colour or contrast for whatever project you are working on!

The clear MANDALA BOARD is a great piece of kit and quite simple to use - unlike the Glitter Girls boards that have chanels leading in and out this board doesnt but believe me it is easier to get perfect results from every time - I use a 6mm embossing ball tool and mirri card - simply decide on the shape and size you want and off you go - once embossed its so easy to cut out without losing that lovely embossed outer line!!! I like to use the labels for adding a sentiment or even peel offs because the embossed border makes all the difference!!

And finally its the TWINKLETS DIAMOND DUST - although it looks like a glitter in the pot dont be fooled - this is actually finely ground glass!!! All you have to do is use glue on your project then sprinkle diamond dust as you would glitter - shake off the excess and leave to set for a few minutes - you really do get a WOW factor with this!!! I will be adding a card later that I used this on and the results are easily noticable!

I hope you have found this run down of my favorite tools interesting - if you need any further help or information on the tools please just ask!!!

Posing Snowman

Another card from the Crafters Companion The Snowman cd - and only because I love the images - they are really easy to cut out and build up - even for a new crafters and children too - but they do, in my opinion, look lovely when completed, and are suitable for all ages to give and recieve!!!

Another thing I like about these - its a chance for your creative imagination to run away with you - the papers on the cd were not to my liking so I have used up oddments I had left over from previous years!!!

So for this card I used the darkest blue cardstock I had, folded to create an A5 card then rounded all 4 corners.

To do that I used my wonderful "We R Memory Keepers - Crop-A -Dile Corner Chompers" I will get a piccy of these for you as they are so easy to use and great for ANY thickness of card or paper - even mount board!!!!

I used the 1/2" corner (there is a choice of 1/4" or 1/2") and used the same on the dark b;ue printed backing paper I used - this was from the Do Crafts Daisy & Dandelion Christmas Collection A Winters tale papers I had from last year - I stuck it to the card blank leaving a narrow border all round.

The image I chose here was far too big to be used on an A5 card, so I had to crop it quite a lot to be able to matt it onto a blue mat - if you look at the image it has a tree to the right but nothing much on the left so I cropped around 3cms from there leaving what you now see in the picture. Rather than a straight edge I used my Woodware Finger Guard trimmer with the STAMPING blade in for a decorative edge and left the blue card mat with a straight edge.

Decoupage here was just the base layer of a full snowman, the next layer he was missing his arms and the it was his head and scarf and finally just his hat! It really was that easy!!!

I didnt shape any of the layers, I just used large slim double sided pads to build up the design and tiny squares for the hat and scarf

A christmas sentiment was matted onto dark blue cardstock and attached at an angle under the topper...

To finish this card I attached a small blue organza ribbon bow to top left corner, 3 pearls going down the top right of the topper and 3 cerise peink pearls going across the bottom left of the topper.

Last finishing touch was a few short blasts with the Crafters Companion Irridescent Glitter Spray!!!

Another card to the collection!!!!

Snowman Wave....

Another card made from the Crafters Companion The Snowman cd

This is a very basic so easy card to make yet looks lovely!

I tend to make my card blanks so I can decide on the colour to suit the image so this time it was an A4 sheet of dark blue which was folded to create an A5 card blank.

I used 2 4cm x 10cm piece of lilac contrasting patterned papers and attached them to the left side of the card leaving a wider than normal border, then added 2 10 cmsx10 cms piece of contrasting blue patterned papers and added to the card again leaving the wider border.

The used some lovely blue with silver edge wavy line peel offs to go round the outside of the paper and also cover the joins from the papers.

Rather than use mirri card for the matting and layering I went with 2 shades of purple card stock which worked well with the papers, the image, and the main card

Once I had matted the base image - again leaving just a narrow border, I built up the decoupage and fixed with large thin double sided sticky tabs, shaping the top layers as I went.

Crafters Companion Irredescent Glitter Spray was used over the image to give a shimmering effect rather than just highlighting with glamour dust as I first planned to do!

Printed plum colour card candi was used in each corner of the topper and finally a self adhesive Do Crafts Magical Christmas sentiment was mattd and layered on the light and darker purple cardstock before adding to the bottom right of the card

Thats 2 christmas cards down - goodness knows how many more to go lol

Snowman Cuddles

This was made in my attempt to get started earlier on my christmas cards - bet we all leave it till last minute then panic as time flies by!!!

As soon as this cd arrived I printed the decoupage sheets and set to work - the cd is

Crafters Companion - The Snowman

To make this card I printed the snowman and boy having a hug, matted the base layer onto a piece of silver mirri card leaving a narrow border all round.

I added each layer of decoupage as I cut it out and shaped it, this time I shaped using the blade of my scissors, then attached using pinflair silicone glue

I set aside my completed topper to dry and started work on the card itself....

A sheet of A4 lilac cardstock was folded in half to create an A5 card blank, then I scored the front piece 4cms from left edge to 10 cms up from bottom right edge and folded back on itself.

I had some left over 8x8 christmas backing paper  so I cut it down to A5 size, sliced off the top corrner which was folded over and used that for the inside back, I trimmed the backing to leave a border all round.

Holographic straight line peel offs were added all around the paper and the fold down flap - take care to mitre the corners if its needed as it really does make a difference.

I have a scrap of mid blue ric rac so attached it to the fold on the fold back to break the bareness and also contrast with the shades used inthe cardstock, backing paper and the image.

The topper was next added to the card - it wasnt centralised so I had enough space to stamp a greeting using lilac momento ink to which I sprinkled glamour dust while it was wet!

To finish the card I added 3 dark blue patterned card candi studs with a tint double sided pad to the top right corner and self adhesive gemstones to the 4 corners of the topper.

And the last job was to spray the entire card with Crafters Companion Irredescent Glitter Spray!!!

So thats my start on my christmas cards!

Vase of Pansies

This is a pretty card that could be used for many occassions - I added a general For You as I was unsure who this would be going to - or when!

I used a sheet purchased from Crafts You Print and if you would like to purchase the number is

75407_123

To make this card I chose an A4 sheet of mid purple heavy card stock, scored on BOTH sides of the card so it creased smoothly rather than split the fibres on the fold.

I printed a sheet from a lovely cd filled with backing papers for every occassion - Kanban Seasons

Then I used a Martha Stewart corner punch - Bubble Bath - to punch the four corners.

This was then added to my card blank leaving a small border of purple showing.

I cut out the base image and positioned onto my backing paper using double sided tape, then as I cut out each piece of 3d decoupage I shaped then using a paper shaping tool and foam mat then attached to my design using pinflair silicone glue

Once I had all my parts cut out and put into place on my card I cut off the shank of a pretty white  raised button with a gem in the centre - and added to the centre of the ribbon around the vase!

The finishing touches were a printed sentiment which I edged with a dark purple pro marker and attached at an angle at the top off centre and then highlighted parts of the flower centres with a Sakura quickie glue pen and irrendescent glamour dust!

A pretty card - dont you agree?

With Sympathy

Hello again - nice to see you!!

Today I had to make one of the cards we all dread having to make and send - but like them or not, when that time comes its nice to know we have the perfect sheet or completed card to send...

The card was made using a sheet bought from Crafts You Print - the number of the sheet is 207263-758 - this is pyramid sheet rather than 3d decoupage

So to make this card I used an A4 sheet of moss green card stock, folded to create an A5 card

The image when cut out almost fills the A5 card blank, so I simple used double sided tape to stick the main panel centrally on the blank, then used a gold wavy fine line border peel off to edge all around the image.

The decoupage was easy to cut out so ideal for new or experienced crafters alike - just 4 tear drop shaped pieces

I used large but thin sticky pads - and rubbed a pritt stick across the pads so I could move the layer around until I was happy it was correctly lined up, then smoothed into place.

Once I had lined up and secured all 4 layers I used a sakura quickie glue pen and highlighted just the flower centres then sprinkled on irredescent glamour dust.

I searched the internet and found this beautiful verse which I printed onto a pale green vellum and added inside!

Those who mean the most to us

Are never really gone

For in our thoughts and in our hearts

Their memory still lives on

So may you find that passing time

Can somehow help to heal

Your treasured memories will ease your loss

And sorrow that you feel

Stunning Leopard Card

Hello and welcome to my card for the day!!!

To start with this is the card - instructions and info to follow....

The image and backing papers were printed from a beautiful new CD by Cupcake Crafting called "A Walk On The Wild Side"

I used a 5"x7" card blank but folded it as a gate fold card to start

I printed the leopard printed paper onto 100gms matt photo paper and cut into 2 A5 piece, adding one A5 piece to the back of the card inside and then cut the other piece into 2 long narrow strips which were then added to the doors of the gate fold,

The CD offers a choice of large or small decoupage, this image was the small which comes on an A4 sheet together with a backing paper so ideal for a quick card!

In this case I made up the simple to cut out 3d decoupage and matted it onto a layer of gold mirri card to leave a small border all round!

The panel was then added approx 5cms down from the top and attached to the LEFT door only - be sure to only add double sided tape to left half of topper!

I also printed off the many sheets of funny captions as well as sentimental verses, chose one that fitted the leopard and matted that onto gold mirri card - this was then attached to the RIGHT door only so when closed the panels overlock.

Finally I printed out a verse onto translucent vellum, trimmed with deckle edge trimmer and attached to inside of card over the leopard backing which still shows through!

So - that was my card for Thursday - please leave me a comment so I know what you think to the card, the explanation - and even the lay out!!

Thank you