Blooming birthday!

It is my friend's birthday this week and she is going through a pressurised time at the moment with things in her life. I made this card as a reminder to take time for herself. We have been talking a lot about mindfulness lately and it seemed appropriate.

Once again light conditions before getting it in the post did not help with taking a nice pic of this one. It is actually a really simple construction, put together after faffing about with all sorts of stamped and stencilled bits and giving up on those ideas. I have been feeling a bit under the weather lately and there is no doubt it saps the creativity somewhat!

The main papers are from a Prima 6 x 6 pad which has a strong nature theme and the sentiment is from a matching ATC pad. I added the strip and butterfly from a lovely K & Co set of embellishments that have been languishing unused in my stash for about a year if not longer. It's all mounted on a 6 x 6 card blank. After all my fiddling about I am quite pleased with the result.

On Sunday I went to a craft show in Portsmouth. It is always lovely to see what is on offer and get far too tempted by goodies. I always mean to be good, but I never quite succeed somehow. So I came away with a couple of dies, a few stamp sets, some ink pads and paints, card blanks and a bargain rack for my distress inks. You may recall I made myself a rack I was very pleased with, but for the time being working in my tiny crafty space, the spinner takes up too much surface space, so this one is a flat one which is perfect for now, not least because it only cost me £10!

Thanks for popping by!

Elaine

Mirabelle easel card

I had another family birthday recently. They are hard to keep up with at the moment. This was for a great niece who was 11.

 

It was pretty tough to get a decent pic of this card before it got posted. My main image is one of the new Leanne Ellis Mirabelle stamps from Trim Craft, coloured with Prisma pencils. I cut her our carefully and mounted her within an arch made by embossing a gorgeous Stamp Camp stamp in gold on purple card. This stamp was purchased on my one and only trip up to Port Sunlight to Happy Stampers in September 2012 and I think this was its first inking which is shameful for such a beautiful image.

The backing paper for the main image is from the Prima Firefly range, an offcut from another project. I also stamped the sentiment onto the same paper, the stamp is designed by Leesa Gibbons for Prima. This time I  embossed in purple moonglow powder and matted onto a scalloped oval die cut that had been embossed around the edge in gold. The finishing touches were some Prima paper hydrangeas a recent purchase at Sandown Park craft show.

Thank you for leaving comments, they are very much appreciated, all comments give me so much encouragement.

Elaine x

Sweet Madeline!

Well, I have just finished work on some DT deadline projects and other secret squirrel stuff, so I indulged myself playing on this card for a work mate and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Sadly the pic looks a bit washed out thanks to the dull and gloomy day we have here. These papers are from the Prima 6 x 6 Madeline pad which was recommended by my dear crafty friend Jo.  They are really delicious and these browns, teals and greens just got my imagination into overdrive really quickly. You know how it is when you are inspired by certain colours and you put stash together from around your craft room and somehow it comes together so comfortably.

The only stamping is the sentiment which is a Bild Malarna stamp from Sweden that I bought from their stand at Ally Pally mounted using the oval nesties. I used the leaf and Flutterby punches from Papermania and added these vibrant green paper roses that were a pressie from one of my other special craft friends Judith. I finished off with cream and green gingham ribbon, some teal and olive rick rack and some buttons and brads. When I showed my OH the card he said "what do the buttons do"!

Hope you have had a better day weatherwise than us as it has been virtually non-stop rain all day here.

Thanks for popping by!

Elaine x

Tags and butterflies

I have never really got into making tags before, but decided to have a few experiments.

First of all I wanted to use some of my leafy backgrounds. Actually I have mostly ended up covering them up, but never mind! The first two are part of a set of seasonal themed tags, inspired by the Debbie Moore set of seasonal defintion stamps which I have had a while, but used here for the first time. This one is autumn and the main feature is a lovely stamp of a wren from Crafty Individuals. Wrens are my favourite bird and they often visit my window box.

The other materials include a gold embossed and stamped chipboard dragonfly, Paper Artsy and Artylicious papers, Prima leaves and a jewelled beaded edging.  

This is my winter tag.

This one is a bit more sparkly! The main stamp is another lovely Crafty Individuals stamp that I heat embossed in a Moonshadow Turquoise Angel Wings interference powder that I love. Plus various brads, dewdrops, bling, Artylicious paper and snowflakes cut with a Papermania punch and backed with glitter paper and a beaded edging again. I have spring and summer tags underway and will post if they work out.

The next tag was one I quickly put together this morning. This one uses a Prima clear stamp I bought at Ally Pally last weekend. These stamps are very reasonably priced, so I was delighted with the quality of the image. The stamp is the frame and word, the butterfly image is another Crafty Individuals image.

This was a blue card tag which I inked with white pigment ink and then added blue disress ink around the edge and overstamped with flourishes in a blue Versamagic ink. The main image is stamped in teal Versafine and left paler to try and make it stand out. Leaves added have been cut out of Artylicious paper with a Woodware punch, plus a dragonfly button and a lovely paper flower I bought on the LB crafts stand at Ally Pally too.

Lastly, this lovely butterfly stamp is from Imagination Stamps- better know for their Rollagraph range (this was another Ally Pally purchase and a special offer bargain too).

This image is embossed in black and then I used Cut 'n Dry foam and a stippling brush to add several diiferent Adirondack dye inks to the background. This isn't a finished card yet, but I couldn't resist sharing this lovely stamp.