Another Makeover

I wanted to do another makeover on a card and picked this CAS card I made a little while ago.

Stamp set (Hero Arts) - Missing You

This time I wanted to stick with the same basic design but decided to add a blast of colour and include some hand stitching. After cutting a card front from kraft card, I stamped the sentiment and funny bird. Once the stamping was completed, I hand stitched a frame using embroidery thread. As I wanted some dimension on the card, I stamped the bird again on white card, coloured with Promarkers and added it to the card with foam pads.

Next it was time to add some sparkle and sheen to the bird with stickles on the crest, glossy accents on the eyes and wink of stella on the body.

I'm submitting this card into Hero Arts Makeover Challenge.

Making Roses out of the Messy Bits

Recently I bought a beautiful set of Spellbinders dies called Tudor Rose and used a couple of the dies on a card, gift bag and set of cards for a friend's upcoming birthday.

I have lots of what you could charitably call experimental pieces but in reality they are messed up inked or painted backgrounds that didn't work out and could never use in solid pieces!

Anyway over the years I've found that these kind of yucky panels can look okay if used in smaller amounts rather than in big solid pieces. Because of this I never dump my inking disasters as they'll always get used up in some way.

For the flowers I used the die cut inlay technique which I always enjoy. This is the card I made for my friend

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamps (Hero Arts) - It's Your Day & Be Happy

and this is the matching gift bag.

Dies - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders) & Goodie Bag (Lawn Fawn)
Embossing Folder - Textile Texture (Cuttlebug)

Since I was enjoying making the flowers and clearing out some of my messy pieces, I continued making flowers and put together a little set of cards to include with my friend's birthday pressie.

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Making the World a Better Place (Hero Arts)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - It's Your Day (Hero Arts)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)
Embossing Folder - Butterfly Corner (Darice)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)
Embossing Folder - Butterfly Corner (Darice)

It's hard to see in the photos above, but each flower is layered in the centre and I've applied Wink of Stella (love that stuff!) on the flowers for some lovely shimmer.

I'm submitting these cards and gift bag into Simon Says Stamp Friends or Superhero Challenge.

Moo-tiful Birthday

Barb over at the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Group has come up with a yummy colour combination for Flickr Challenge #17. Here are the colours we have to use -



The colours don't have to match shades exactly, so in the end I substituted a hot pink for the rose pink as I have lots of hot pink card which I never seem to use and thought it might go well with the other bold colours. Hopefully the bold colours I used won't hurt your eyes too much! I wanted to make a colourful background for the fun cow from Simon Says Stamp's Birthday Farm Animals set and made it with scraps of card and a die from WPlus9's Quilt Cuts 2 set. Instead of messing with a glue stick I find adding a large sticky label behind the frame of the quilt block is a quick and handy way to adhere the small pieces.

Stamp - Birthday Farm Animals set (Simon Says Stamp)
Die - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9)

After stamping and cutting out the cow, I added some colour and shading.

Then I paper pieced the birthday banner and birthday hat. These days I can't seem to make a card without adding clear Wink of Stella and on this card added some shimmer to the hat and banner.

I'm Nuts About You

I thought it would be fun to join in on Simon Says Stamp's Clean and Simple Challenge and as I wanted to make a card for my hubby, pulled out one of the cute animals from Hero Arts Missing You set.



Stamp set - Missing You (Hero Arts)
Die set - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

After die cutting the rectangular panel with a die from Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes set, I stamped the sentiment. I then punched the tiny heart, applied a layer of clear Wink of Stella and adhered it to the card. The squirrel was stamped twice. I coloured the first image fully and just coloured the main body of the second image. After cutting out the pieces I needed, I layered the images with foam pads to add some dimension. Then I stamped and cut out the nut, and again used a foam pad to stick it onto the squirrel.

Dotty Gift Bag

I'm joining in again on the Spots n Dots Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp's Flickr Group.

I wanted to make a little gift bag so had a rummage through my patterned papers and came across a Recollections set called Today Tomorrow Forever which has a lovely mix papers including dotty and wood papers that I wanted to use for this project. Recently I bought Lawn Fawn's Goodie Bag die and used that to die cut the little bag. It's such a quick and easy way of whipping up a bag in no time - love it so much! Then I cut a panel of wood patterned paper, and from it, die cut the goodie bag handle and used the banner from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes to finish the shape.

Stamp - Birthday Farm Animals (Simon Says Stamp) Die - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

After adhereing the banner to the bag I stuck a little branch on the banner and tied the bag with raffia. I stamped the chicken from the Birthday Farm Animals set, coloured it with Promarkers and did a bit of paper piecing.

As the paper I used for the bag has glitter on some of the dots I thought I'd add a bit of sparkle to the chicken using clear Wink of Stella. I tried to capture some of the sparkle on the chicken's head in the photo below.

After having very mild weather over Christmas, it looks like we're having our cold snap now. It was -3C this morning when I went out and we're due some snow tonight - brrrr!