Iris Folding!!

Hi

To start with I am all excited after receiving a comment on one of my cards....Debbeescds said she had left a little something for me over on her blog...so naturally I jumped on over to it....and she had been awarded her very first BLOG AWARD...congrats Deb...but what's even better is she had as terms of her award to then nominate 5 other blogs that have inspired her and has less than 200 followers....and guess what? She has chosen my blog as one of them!!

How good is that? I am really overjoyed by it all....I need to now look into what I need to do and how to do it – so keep your eyes open for a BLOG AWARD badge appearing on my blog...

Right then – to today's card – or maybe I should say cards as it's the same card but different!!!

I did this as this weeks project in my classes...Iris Folding....

Some love it – other's hate it....personally if I am in the mood I find it relaxing, if I'm stressed I find I make silly mistakes!!!

The pattern for this is called Southern Belle and was hand drawn and designed by a dear friend over in the States – Larry Downes – he actually drew me this pattern way back in 2006 but I do it over and over again and every time it turns out lovely!!!

So both my cards I used white card for the design, mint green course glitter card for matting and a rusty red A5 card blank.

I traced around the southern belle then transferred the tracing centrally to my white piece of card and then cut the design out to leave an aperture...

The aperture was then placed over the pattern and stuck to stay in place...

I used florist ribbon – personal choice – but I love the vast range of colours, the sheen is beautiful, it will tear evenly length wise and it folds easily!

I have a box that I keep all the scraps of florist ribbon in as well as the rolls – so I decided to use the pink bits – I was pleasantly pleased with the finished result as the shades of pink all look to work well!!!

For the other card I used a chocolate brown florist ribbon

Once all the folding was finished I turned the card over and then using a dreamweaver stencil brush and Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet Distress Ink Pad I used a circular motion, moving from the work top onto the card edge to give muted colour, I did this all around the edge of the white card and also the sentiment rosette which I had cut using my Craft Robo!

So to the inked rosette – it has ribbon slots cut all around it so I took a length of narrow white ribbon, a pro marker to match the iris folding – and coloured the ribbon, then slotted it through all the slots.

On the pink card I cut the ends close to the back of the rosette and secured it then used the remaining ribbon to tie a bow to add to the card – on the brown card I left the tails hanging – both look lovely – so again it's down to personal choice! I used a pretty sentiment stamp that fits perfectly in the centre!

I positioned both rosettes in the same place – top left corner of the card – the pink had the ribbon bow attached to the top right corner – the pink card was finished off with clear AB gems in each corner and the brown card had brown spotted card candy on each corner!

A pretty card that could be used for some many occasions!!!

If you would like a copy of the sheet please click and save to your computer!!

See you tomorrow....

x

Sweet memories!

Hello and welcome to my crafting blog!

Today I am sharing a very special birthday card I made for a very special friend!

Ann & I met at a car boot sale when she came over to look at our birds of prey and saw me sat cutting out decoupage – we started chatting and the rest is history so they say!

So the card is made from a kit by Valerie Dawes and bought through http://www.craftsuprint.com/ it is called

Giant Easel Tableau 3d Card Kit Sweet Memories!

The kit consists of 6 printed sheets....so once they were printed on my 128gsm matt photo paper I sprayed some of the sheets with Crafters Companion Stick and Stay and fixed the sheet to a sheet of lilac card stock.

Then I started cutting out – as you can see from the finished card there is an awful lot of cutting out to be done – and a lot is knife work too....

I have made 4 or 5 of these Giant Easel cards and have to say this one was lovely to make as everything went together perfectly.....I know that when I print I now take the print size down quite a bit otherwise the finished card just wont fit an envelope – even using 14”x14” card.

The card is a standard easel design, so you score in the centre then the top piece is scored across the centre and folded down.

The kit has strengthening tabs that I used on the telephone and the ribbon circle so they stood up perfectly....

There was loads of decoupage to cut out and I used silicone throughout this card – and the petals were all shaped on the flowers!

To finish I used glossy accents on the clock face and on the tiny blue flowers above the clock...

I used a self adhesive blue and gold dot in the centre of the blue bow and some big pink self adhesive gems on the ribbon circle....

I did a verse and used Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet distress ink pad to add some colour and then fixed in place underneath the card.

I had a lovely thank you message from Ann when she arrived home to find the card...she certain appears to like it!!!

I hope you do too...

Thanks for popping in again...

See you tomorrow maybe?

x

Pansy & Teabag

Hello

Today I am sharing another card from my library mainly because I am still all upside down in my room.

I have made a few new ones – have around 8 in a folder just waiting to be cropped and resized and others still waiting to be photographed – I need to get myself reorganised as well as my room I think....

This is a card we made in class last week after someone asked for teabag folding!

The sheet was from http://www.craftsuprint.com/

It is called Purple Pansy Card Front with teabag tiles, item number 297984 and was designed by Carol Lepard

I printed the whole sheet onto 128gsm matt photo paper which was perfect for the teabag folding too...

This card really was quick and easy – it was completed in less than 20 mins so great for a last minute card.

I chose a scallop edged card and used a deckle edge cutter to crop a piece of silver metallic paper – this was stuck to the card leaving an even border all round.

Then the image was stuck in place leaving the border of silver.

After cutting the teabag tiles I did a very basic fold and created the medallion – a large pretty lilac pearl brad was pushed through the centre of the medallion then stuck on my card using a blob of silicone.

I punched a pop up butterfly from a piece of pale pink glitter card and positioned it in the lower half of the card

To finish I added a sentiment that was matted onto a piece of lilac card which had the corners punched – placed it right along the bottom of the card and added 2 pointed AB gems.

As I said – quick and easy – but pretty with it!!

More teabag cards to come soon...

Thanks for popping by

x

Pop Up Card

Hello

Its pretty late tonight – have spent the entire day trying to re-organise my craft room – its looking pretty well organised - but crickey what a mess – so still a lot more to be done!! Who would have thought been given endless amounts of storage could cause so much mayhem....Still when its all done it will be worth it!

To the card....

This is actually I kit I bought from crafts you print as I needed to make a special card for my friend Katie's birthday – the kit and completed card on crafts you print looked amazing so I thought it would be prefect

Sadly as it was being made up I realised I couldn't use it – I honestly saw only Sympathy every time I looked at it....

So I carried on and very sadly then had a message to say a dear friend had lost her mum so the card was sent to Pam.

As I said the kit is from Crafts You Print, it is called Doves With White Flowers Pop Up 3d Kit and is designed by Sandie Burchell

The kit has 4 main sheets and 2 sheets to make up the envelope so quite a lot of printing to do...and as for cutting out – there was loads – I think it took almost 2 hours of cutting out which is a long time compared to usual.

After printing I used Crafters Companion Stick And Stay to attach the main sheet and insert sheet to lilac card as it needed more support than just the printed paper offered.

Once everything was cut out I started on the scoring – there was quite a lot to be scored and slots to be cut out too...the instructions that came with it were spot on – however it was printed out over 13 pages which was quite excessive especially when almost half of that was advertising her other kits!!! I will remember to look out for that next time I do one of her kits!

I didnt add the small pieces of decoupage to the front of the card until I was happy with the centre – this was fiddly – it had a double box which is made up and has tabs that slip through slots in the insert and then get taped down before the insert is positioned – have to say it did all go together perfectly!!

So once I has the insert in place I attached the pretty pop up heart – I was so pleased that the card did close perfectly when it was all in place...

Next I did the decoupage – I used small sticky pads and shaped the top layers.

For decoration I only added spots of glitter in the trails left by the doves and the tiny white flowers – I felt anything more would have taken away the simplicity of the card

There were lots of sentiments that could have been used – for birthday, anniversary, wedding, with love, valentines day, mothers day and sympathy – had this been for any other occasion I think I would have added flat backed pearls around the front and more glitter....

The downside of this card is you don't really have anyway of adding a verse apart from adding it to the small back panel prior to printing – but that means its not really personalised! And the panel was so small it would have only taken 4 or 5 lines bearing in mind I had to also write my message in the panel too!

All in all a beautiful card for a sad occasion – but I doubt I would ever make it again!!!

Thank you for looking....I would be interested to hear what you think of the design too – am I wrong seeing only sympathy – would you make it and use for some other occasion?

Bye xxx

Katie's Birthday Card

Hiya all....

Its been pretty Spring like today – makes such a nice change from the cold wet days of late...roll on summer and the sunshine...

Today's card is something I actually made for my friend Katie – its her birthday today so I know she has the card

I used the Do Crafts Digital Designer Tatty Teddy cd rom

I printed out a selection of papers, the decoupage sheet and then a sheet with sentiments, banners, borders and embellishments.

I used a bought 8x8 square card and completely covered it with a pretty yellow patterned paper then cut a strip from a similar paper in blue – I used a deckle edge blade in the Woodware paper trimmer to take away the plainness of both edges, this was then stuck 1/3^rd of the way down the card.

Using the X-Cut circle shape cutter set I cut the main image from the sheet and then used the next size up inside to cut out a circle in lilac card then the outside to cut a blue circle of card.

Before matting and layering I lightly brushed all the edges with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink Pad by Tim Holtz...and added a length of purple spotted ribbon around the card circles before finally positioning the image layer.

Next I built the decoupage layers and fixed in place using double sided sticky pads – lightly shaping the top layers.

I matted a sentiment onto a piece of blue card and slotted it slightly under the main image so it fitted to the bottom right hand corner of the card.

Last to do was embellish the card – so I used 3 large yellow buttons for the 3 visible corners, and a smaller one for the bottom corner of the sentiment.

Glossy accents were added to the nose, patch and pads of his feet...as well as centres of flowers on the backing sheet.....

Purple Violet Cosmic Shimmer PVA was used to form the dots of colour on the present, small ab clear gems were positioned around the lilac circle and also in the flower centres of the sentiment panel

I used a length of purple dotted ribbon – placed a length of double sided tape along the reverse and folded together to form a piece of double sided ribbon which I then made into a pretty bow with v tails – this was positioned above the main image to finish.

I put an insert in the card with a wonderful verse – I was going to share it but decided against it as it was personal between Katie and myself...

Thank you for looking – and please have a go yourself if you are lucky enough to have this fantastic cd!!!

Cromford Bear

Evening everyone

Today I am sharing a card I made using a My Craft Studio cd rom

The cd was part of the Artist Collection and called Cromford Bear

I have done this quick and easy cards in the past and as soon as I saw this cute bear I just had to go for it!!! The bear is quite similar to the Tatty Teddy is some ways!!!

And I loved the backing paper with its butterflies and touches of orange – unusual colours for most – but I love browns and oranges so perfect to work with – for me!!!

So to make my card I folded a sheet of brown card in half to create the A5 card blank

I then glued a sheet of orange card leaving a border all round....and then the pretty backing paper which I cut using a deckle cassette in my Woodware Fingerguard Trimmer.

This was positioned to leave a narrow border all round too!

The image was matted onto a piece of brown card and fixed to the top half of the card which left plenty of room for the border strips to be placed

Onto the strips I added a Lots Of Love sentiment which I rubbed over with a distress ink pad before gluing in place.

To finish the quick and easy but pretty card I used blue chessboard AB gems in the corners of the topper and then amber chessboard AB gems in the main card corners!

The butterflies were cut out and fixed in place with narrow double sided tape.

Thank you for looking!

A Pirates Life

Hi

Back to the Card Buddy Shaped Cards for today's offering

This is called “a pirates life for me” and is an off set gatefold card

The kit has 3 sets of printing and 2 parts for the envelope as well as a backing paper which is a matter of choice – personally I didn't see a need to use it!

So after printing the sheets and envelope I sprayed the main card sheet on the back with Crafters Companion Stick and Stay then positioned it onto a sheet of A4 card stock.

I cut around the edge of the whole card then scored on the 2 score lines marked – and folded crisply using a bone folder.

I had added a verse to the insert prior to printing it out so after cutting around the edge and scoring it was ready to be attached inside the card....

All that was left was the decoupage – which at times had fiddly bits – like round the waves and a knife was needed for inside the sails and sections of the characters...but it was worth the effort – do you agree?

I didn't bother to shape the top layers of decoupage as I felt this design didn't really call for it...

As yet I haven't added any glitter, glossy accents of gems – I think I was more interested in getting the photographs done in order to share the card with you....but its only a few minutes worth of job when I decide to do it....

As you would expect, the envelope was simply a case of cut out the 2 pieces, add double sided tape to the outer edges and stick together

A great card when finished – would be enjoyed by boys and girls!!!

Thank you for dropping by – see you tomorrow too????

x

Teabag for Men

Hello again....

I'm a little later than usual today – its been one of those days where I have just felt yak all day long – no energy and even less interest in anything so have spent my day just laid on the settee dozing....

But I'm ok now so back to the card of the day...

I used a sheet I bought from crafts you print – it was designed by Carol Lepard and the sheet number is 297328

I made the card using a 5x7 scallop edged card and inked the edges with Evergreen Bough Distress ink Pad by Tim Holtz

I cut out the image and teabag tiles – this sheet has no decoupage at all so quick and easy to make

I stuck the image to a piece of gold metallic paper and cut leaving a narrow border of gold all around the image.

This was then stuck to the inked card with double sided tape.

There was a narrow strip of the gold paper left so I measured it to the width of the width of the image and then used a punch to punch holes at either end.

The sentiment was carefully slit along the outside edges just wide enough to slot the gold paper through making it into a ribbon slider....which I stuck in place.....

The teabag tiles were folded in half with pattern facing in – opened and folded along the other side so when opened I have 4 small squares – then I folded corner to corner with pattern showing – turned and did the opposite corner to corner

After the last fold I pushed the points to the centre which formed a triangle – the top fold was folded over from the tight corner to over hang the long part of the triangle – then repeated on the other side – I did this to all 8 tiles and then tucked in inside each other to form the medallion!!! I pushed a pearl brad through the hole in the centre!

All that was needed then was to decide where the medallion was to be placed – I used PVA glue to hold in place....

To decorate the card I used card candi – 1 gold shiny in the centre of the fold side and then 3 different pastel coloured at the top and the same colours in a different sequence at the bottom!

This is such a simple but pleasing card – it has a seaside theme so ideal for men's cards – Birthday, Anniversary, Father's Day etc....

Hope you like my card of the day....

x

New Challenge Cards

Hi everyone

Today I wont be sharing a card with you all....

Main reason for this is a few of us took part in Debbees challenge so here are the cards we made!!!

Angie

A shaker card

Katie

An easel card

Nicky

Made using textiles

Pat

A scalloped frame

Paula

Embossed using masks

Normal service will resume tomorrow folks....

x