Cards

 I've made a few cards this week, all for reasons you'd prefer not to have for making cards.

First, a card I made for a friend who's due to go into hospital for surgery:

I used a Sizzix die set for the owl, and an Elizabeth Craft set for the oval. The papers are from a magazine. I cut an aperture out of the paper-covered front of the card and placed the mounted owl into the space.

And the inside of the card. Paper is the reverse of the piece I used on the front of the card. Excuse my fingers in the top photo. I couldn't get it to lie flat enough!

And then, a couple of sympathy cards.

In both cards, the focal image is from Lavinia and the sentiment is Woodware. I've also used a couple of Aall and Create stencils, and in the top card, also a Woodware background text stamp. I masked the sentiment panel with removeable tape before adding Distress Ink. The top image was stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear powder. The lower card has the image stamped in Versafine Clair, as were the sentiments in both cards.

Hand Made Flowers, Frame and Stitching

 I recently treated myself to a couple of the discontinued Elizabeth Craft/Susan Tierney Cockburn die sets, and I wanted to make something a little different with them. One of the sets is actually an oval nesting set, but with some bigger dies than I have. I got the original sets of Spellbinders Nestibilities, but the problem with them was always that the format was too small. I think their US bias got stuck on that odd 'A2' size card they use which isn't standard anywhere else. So, even for A6 cards, their dies just didn't look quite right. But enough of that.

The first part of the project was to cut out the frame elements. For them, I used an Elizabeth Craft die I've had for some time. It's smaller than I'd like, so I stretched the pieces to approximately 9 and 11 inches long giving me a frame with a 7 by 9 inch aperture. I always get it wrong when I do this - one piece of card ends up in the bin during the process, and this time was no exception.

Because the black card I used isn't the best quality, I reinforced the underside of the front panels with strips of the same black card before pricking out the stitching pattern. The pattern I used came from a book I've had for many years called The Art of Decorative Paper Pricking by Janet Wilson. It's not really intended for stitching, and it's not even one of the patterns in the book - it's actually used as page decoration. But, with a little resizing in Photoshop Elements, I got it to a suitable size, and printed out a strip for each frame edge. I used Sulky Blendables to stitch the pattern.

Another recent (bargain) purchase, is the embossing folder I used here. I don't use A4 embossing folders often, but when you want to emboss a bigger area, smaller ones won't do the job. I got his folder (from Crafts Too) at Crafterama at Ally Pally last weekend. I embossed a bit of Coredinations Whitewash card I've had for ages. (I don't even know if it's still on the market.) I sanded the surface after embossing. I had to add another layer of card behind the Coredinations as it was a bit floppy - especially after embossing.

The next stage was to cut some corners for the frame (Spellbinders die - it's one of their debossing range that never really took off. I definitely found them very hard to cut with - fortunately, there's not much actual cutting needed for this corner die. I then cut another piece of the satin gold card and used the Elizabeth Craft oval die to cut the aperture. I then embossed the gold card using the same folder, and attached it with foam pads doubled up for extra height.

Then, I got to the really fun part. I cut pieces for three dahlias in white card and coloured using Promarkers. I added some striping (white on the shocking pink flower and magenta on the yellow) using fine Posca pens. The peach coloured flower has some added magenta promarker added to the petal tips for a bit of added colour.

That's about that!

A little word about Ally Pally last weekend. It was the first time I've been back since Covid lockdowns, and, of course, since it changed ownership. I think it's a real shame many of the exhibitors who used to go to Ally Pally haven't continued. Craft shops in London are pretty much limited to Hobbycraft - especially since Blade Rubber Stamps closed down. It's strange that such a large conurbation can't support a bigger show than this. I know it's probably more expensive because of generally higher London prices, but it's a real shame. Having said that, I did buy a few bits, and it was lovely to see a stall with just Aall and Create which was definitely something new for me. Unfortunately, my daughter wasn't well enough to come with me :(

International Art and Soul Challenge 123

 The theme for the next four weeks, set by my team mate Maggie, is to use dies or punches. Other that, you can do whatever you want to do.

In April this year, I was very happy to take part in a workshop on spring flowers by Susan Tierney Cockburn. I've enjoyed using her dies for some years, and even have a copy of a book she wrote before there were any dies. There, she showed how to use punched shapes to make a variety of flowers which were remarkably realistic. So, for this challenge, I decided to make a floral arrangement using some of her dies old and new, along with a frame die.

I started by colouring card for the frame. I used a range of blue Distress Oxide inks, and did another sheet for the back board. The frame pieces were cut using a die from box Elizabeth Craft. I bought it quite a long time ago, and have often considered buying another similar die which would allow me to make bigger frames than this die is designed to do - up to 8in end to end. But I've always thought it would be possible to extend the Elizabeth Craft die, so that's what I did here. The frame is 11in end to end, so that I could cut it from A4 card. It took me a few attempts to get it right, and I discovered I need to use a score board rather than my usual trimmer to score the extended fold lines, but in the end, it worked well enough.

The central part of the background was stamped (again in Distress Oxide ink) using a Clarity solid frame stamp. 

That done, I cut a range of pieces for various flowers and ended up using about half of them (as usual...) The orange flowers are Kerria Japonica which were included in the April workshop. The large white flower is a Gerbera Daisy, and the cream/yellow flowers are Forsythia and also uses a Susan's Garden branch die.

And another one - this time using a Tonic hexagonal frame in shades of green, and the flowers this time are Cattleya, again from Susan's Garden.

And that's it. I've no idea what I'm going to do with the results, but I'm fairly happy with it. I think I managed to stop myself adding too much - that's my usual problem.

I do hope you can join us for this, our last challenge of 2021!

International Art and Soul Challenge 83

Our challenge for this fortnight is one I'm sure you'll want to enter. Any project, and colours. It just hast to contain flowers and butterflies.

I made something for my sister when she was feeling down.

I made the frame using an Elizabeth Craft die, embossed the card with an Embossalicious folder and added detail with some gilding wax then finished with some Modge Podge. The backgroudn was created with a couple of stencils, Versamark ink, Perfect Pearl powder and some embossing gloop I've had for many years. The fowers were made using a variety of dies, including ones from the Sizzix Susan's Garden range, Memory Box, Joanna Sheen and shaded with Pan Pastel, and the butterfly used some Spellbinders dies.

I hope you can join us.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 246

The challenge for this fortnight is to do away with patterned paper. Leave your stash of pretty papers alone, and other than that, any project is allowed!

I made a card and matching box for a friend who retired last month.

I started with some white card which I coloured with Distress Oxide ink in several of my favourite shades.

Then, I embossed two roughly 8in by 8in pieces using an Embossalicious folder. I then added a little more distress ink on some of the embossed areas and finished with a little gilding wax.

I made some flowers using dies from Sizzix's Susan's Garden range, Elizabeth Craft's Susan's Garden Notes range and finally a die from Printable Heaven along with some greenery cut using a Sue Wilson die. To complete both the box and card, I put together a label in Photoshop Elements which I die cut using Spellbinders dies. After photographing, I removed my friend's name from photos of both the card and box because I don't think it's fair to include that sort of detail in public without permission.

And that's it!

I do hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 232

The theme for this fortnight's challenge is Dragons. I decided to use an image from the Josephine Wall/Joanna Sheen CDRom Enchanted Dreams.

First, I sized and cropped the image to 6in square. Then, I took the area of pinkish flowers in the bottom left of the image, and arranged them in an overall pattern in Photoshop Elements and added a green textured background. I printed both this paper and the image onto Ryman Matte Photo Card. (I understand they don't do that card any more, so I'm going to have to hoard my supply.)

I used an Elizabeth Craft die to make the frame. To finish, I made some flowers using Sizzix Susan's Garden dies. I added shading using Pan Pastels.

The dragon is quite a small part of the image, so here's a close up.

And that's it. Not a card, more just a way to display one of these gorgeous images.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 160

This time, the challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is to make something inspired by Easter.

For this, I've made the first of this year's Easter cards.

I started by making a border using a set of Sue Wilson Gemini dies, although I used both edges rather than just one! Then, I tried out a new (to me) die. It's another Susan Tierney die, but this time, produced by Elizabeth Craft. it's designed to be flatter than the Sizzix range, and that's definitely something I'd welcome. For the image and greeting, I've combined a cropped image from Joanna Sheen's Pamela West CDRom with a greeting. the embossed background was done using an Embossalicious folder.

I hope you can join us this time.