Relish the day

This is a card I made for my Sister's friends Birthday. They love to cook so I thought this would be fun.

My first piece of quilting - A mug rug

WOO HOO, my first even piece of quilting :) I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out. I had a lot of fun making it as a gift for my Niece it is her first wedding anniversary soon and the colours will go nicely with her kitchen.

The squares are 2 inches finished with stitch in the ditch quilting. The instructions are available from a free Craftsy class called "Piece,Patch and Quilt:Basic Quiltmaking Skills" by Gail Kessler (www.craftsy.com).

Steam Age

My Nephew-in-law loves trains, so I thought it would be fun to make him a train themed Birthday card. I went a bit to town given it is interactive and a shaker card too. I used the Tim Holtz stamps which were really good as you could circle the date on the ticket which was of course his birthday. This is my first attempt at either an interactive or a shaker card. I have a fair few projects on the go so haven't been making many cards - I am working on a crochet blanket that needs 195 pieces so that has been taking most of my craft time. 

Materials:

Card:
White CardSotck
Cream Cardstock
Black Cardstorck
Watercolour Paper

Stamps:
Stamper's Anonymous - On The Railroad

Inks:
Versafine - Onyx Black
Distress - Pine Needles
Distress - Vintage Photo
Distress - Fired Brick

Pens:
Sakura Stardust - Silver
Sakura Stardust - Brass

Extras:
Acetate
Hobbycraft Fun Foam
Die Cutting Machine
Circle Dies
White Card
5 pence piece
Table Sprinkles - Black
Stix2 - White Beads

Method:

1. Stamp the train onto watercolour paper using the versafine black ink and allow to dry before colouring using water pens with the distress inks (pine needles for the engine, fired brick for the cab and vintage photo for the track) when dry add the brass effects using the Sakura stardust pen

2. Stamp two sets of the track onto white cardstock using the versafine and allow to dry, then colour using water pens and the vintage photo, use the sakura stardust silver pen.

3. On the cream card stock print 2 tickets and circle the date of your choice.

4. Print the background of your choice (I chose an old map from 1855) TWICE

5. Matt the black Cardstock on to the card blank and then matt one of the backgrounds onto the black cardstock.

6. Using the same circle die cut a circle out of fun foam (you want the frame rather than the circle), trim the edges so that none pokes outside the edge of your background.

7. Using a circle die cut, cut a circle in the top right - align the cut background and the one on the card and draw around the circle - place the foam frame around this circle on the background on the card.

8. Stick acetate to the back of the background with the circle cut from it.

9. On the circle cut background layout your track which you have fussy cut and work out where to put the cut into the card so that the train will move along the track, make the cut smaller than the diameter of a 5 pence piece. Trace the cut onto the background on the card.

10. Place a 5 pence piece on the background on the card where the pencil marks from the cut are - create a foma frame to hold the 5 pence piece in the "track" - remember the frame will be bigger than the pencil cut as it has to fit the 5 pence - the top piece is smaller to hold the 5p in place.

11. Place fun foam at the corners.

12. Put the stamped tickets and some sprinkles into the circle foam frame on the card and put the 5 pence piece in it's track.

13. Overlay and match the top background gluing it in place

14. With a decoupage foam pad, stick this on top of the 5 pence piece and then adhere the train to the 5 decoupage pad.

Fan of peacocks

I love the extravagance an opulence of peacocks so I have tried to capture it in this card, which is a submission for the Chocolate Baroque Challenge 11.

Materials:

Card:

White Card stock A3
Watercolour paper
Scrap card
Vellum

Stamps:

Chocolate Baroque - Tangled Peacock
Chocolate Baroque - Peacock Parade
Chocolate Baroque - Peacock Fan 

Ink:

Versamark
Distress - Mowed Lawn
Memento - Grape Jelly
Memento - Angel Pink
Distress - Picked Raspberry

Embossing Powders:

Green Glitz 
Blue Glitz
Purple Glitz

Quilling
JJ Quilling Pink 3mm

Extras:
Quilling tool
Quilling board
Stencil brush
water pens
PVA Glue

Method:

1) Start by printing the Peacock parade peacock onto some scrap card to make a template for the centre piece. I made mine "egg" shaped

2) Turn the template over and draw round it in pencil cutting it out of watercolour paper. I flipped it over so that the pecil marks would be on the back

3) Stamp the peacock on your watercolour egg shaped paper using versamark and then sprinkle with the blue glitz embossing powder. Shake off excess blowing where necessary and then cure with a heat tool. When set place in a heavy book to flatten it.

4) Cut 65 strips of 3 inch quilling paper and quill into 8mm coiled circles, use a quilling board to help with the sizing and glue - leave these to dry.

5) Take the fan piece from peacock fans and load up with versamark stamp this onto the vellum and cover in blue glitz, using the heat tool to cure. Remember not to scorch the vellum, repeat until you have 5 blue pieces.

6) Load up the "feather" from tangled peacock and stamp this onto vellum using versamark. Sprinkle with purple glitz and cure with heat tool. Do this until you have 10 pieces of the purple feathers

7) Take the small leaf shaped feather from the peacock parade set and stamp this in vrsamark 6 times onto vellum, sprinkling green glitz embossing powder. Cure the powder with the heat tool.

8) Fussy cut out all the blue, purple and green pieces from the vellum paper and slightly curl the purple ones so that they have some dimension. I gentle squeezed them in half.

9) Retrieve the egg shaped watercolour stamped paper from the heavy book and then blot some of the mowed lawn ink onto the back of an acrylic block, pick up the ink from the acrylic block onto the nib of the water pen and colour and shade the peacock as per the image.

10) Add the grape jelly purple colour in the same way as the mowed lawn colouring the segments as in the image

11) Clean the acrylic block and blot some angel pink onto it, load your stencil brush with the pink, practice swirling on some scrap paper and then move the swirling so that there is a border of light pink around the peacock which is heavier towards to the edge.

12) Run the edge of the egg shape over the distress ink picked raspberry (think of the edge of the card as a knife so it is at right angles to the ink pads) and lightly coat the very edge

13) Let the peacock dry and then flatten again using heavy books

14) Take the quiled circles and using your fingers shape them into tear drops. If you use the "join" where you stuck the paper as the point of the teardrop then it gives the best results.

15) stick the blue fan pieces behind the egg shaped template as per image, next glue the image onto some A3 card, and then add the purple and green feather of the peacock tail.

16)Put the quilled teardrops as a border around the egg shape leaving space at the bottom

17) Cut the outline around the peacock tale leaving a flap at the top (this is to fold over to add the back of that card as it is a custom shape

18) Make the back of the card, using the front as a template - you can skip the blue pieces if you like - it is an "igloo" shape. Stick the back onto the folded flap you created in step 17.

Beach huts

The lovely weather has had me thinking of the British seaside and the sand and beach huts as well as fish and chips by the sea. The beach huts and bright colours make me think of summer, so I will also be submitting this to the WOW embossing challenge for June which has the brief of "Summer".

Materials:

Card:

White Cardstock

Sandpaper

Stamps:

Chocolate Baroque: Seaside Dreams

Ink:

Versamark

Embossing Powders:

Primary Lagoon regular

Primary Apple Red regular

Primary Lemon regular

Paper strps:

JJ Quilling kit pack

Method:

1. Stamp the beach huts on to the white cardstock, using the blue embossing powder shake this over the first hut and then using the yellow shake this over the last beach hut (use different scrap paper to capture the excess so you don't contaminate your colours) and use the heat tool to cure

2. Stamp the huts again, this time using the red powder to cover the middle hut, and heat emboss using the tool.

3. Cut three pieces of sandpaper that measure 5.5cm by 6.5cm, cut out the beach huts and then adhere them to the sandpaper

4. Cut 3 piece of card stock measure 7cm x 6cm, dab versamark around the edges directly from the ink pad, add blue powder to one, red to the next and yellow to the last one. This creates the backgrounds. Use the heat tool to cure the powder.

5. Matt the sandpaper huts onto the embossed backgrounds

6. Lay a strip of quilling paper horizontally behind where the matted huts will sit and adhere to the card, placing the hut over it.

Set sail

A notelet for a friend who has a surname of viking origin. I thought this was appropriate and fun to make.

Materials:

Card:

Black Card Stock

Paperado Chocolate Card Stock

Watercolour paper

Stamps:

Sheena Douglass A Little Bit Sketchy A6 Stamp Set - Be Strong Stamp

Ink:

Ranger Archival Jet Black

Memento Dandelion

Distress Aged Mahogany

Distress Gathered Twigs

Distress Faded Burlap

Distress Vintage Photo

Paints:

Aquatints Landscape

Method:

1) Cut a rectangle of watercolor paper that allows for a 1cm border on the card base.

2) Load the long ship stamp with the archival black ink and stamp it so that it is about 1/3rd of the way from the bottom of the paper, set aside and allow to dry.

3) Next load up the celtic circle with the black ink and stamp it once onto the watercolour paper.

4) Using the landscape aquatint inks apply the dark blue as the start of the sea, then layover it with the green, adding a further payer of the dark blue

5) Use the light blue to create the sky, use the faux bleaching technique to create the clouds. Allow to dry and then "squash" flat using heavy books.

6) Using water pens colours the celtic circles with the dandelion ink, and add a highlight in aged mahogany (water this down first)

7) Returning to the ship, use the frayed burlap to highlight the loops of the sails and then highlight with yellow.

8) Use the gather twig to cover the boat, darker at the front and paler towards the back

9) Use vintage photo and gathered twigs to create the shields on the boat.

10) Matt a black background onto a white card and then cut a piece of paperado chocolate that is 1cm less the width and the breadth and matt this on to the card.

11) Cut the celtic circle into quarters and then add to the corners of the ship scene

12) Matt the ship with corners on to the brown background leaving roughly 5mm at the top, bottom and both sides.

Ring of roses

This card was inspired by the Chocolate Baroque Challenge 11, I wanted to make something that was reminiscent of the stained glass windows in cathedrals but that also went beyond the card, so the leaves of the long roses and the ribbon roses are "off the edge". The bottoms ones are folded to make "feet".

Materials:

Card:

White Card Stock

Stamps:

Chocolate Baroque Mackintosh Windows

Chocolate Baroque Mackintosh Beauty

Ink:

Versafine Black Onyx

Versamark

Pens:

Spectrum Noir alcohol markers

GT2

TB5

PL4

BP3

FS1

TN8

Embossing Powders:

WOW! Embossing powder Metallic Silver - regular

Extras:

Scissors

Craft Knife

Compass

Method:

1) Load up the ladies face from Mackintosh windows with Versafine Black Onyx and stamp onto white card, allow to dry.

2) Next load up the small roses from the windows set and stamp 21 onto white card using the black ink

3) Get the "long" rose from the beauty set and stamp 8 of these, again using the black onyx versafine

5) Finally get the rose and ribbons from the beauty set and stamp 4.

6) Colour the face using FS1 and the hair using TN8, then use the other 4 pens to colour in as per the picture above.

7) Using compasses draw a circle with a radius of 5.8 cms and cut this out

8) Stamp the versamark ink on the circle and then cover with the silver embossing powder, use the heat tool to cure the powder.

9) Next you want to create a ring start by drawing a circle that has a radius of 6.3 and then around that draw one that has a radius of 7.8cm cut this out so you have a ring and colour with GT2

10) Next to create the blue ring you need a circle with a radius of 8.3cm followed by 10.8cm

12) Finally draw a square that is 20cm x 20cm and the draw a circle (starting at the centre) with a radius of 11.3cm to create the purple corners

13) colour in the roses as per the image above (small ones in BP 3) long ones in a combination of BP3 in centre with PL4 and then use GT2 for the stems

14) Colour the rose and ribbon using BP3 and GT2

15) Cut out the face and all the roses using a sharp craft knife

16) Assemble the card as per the image (face on the silver circle, pink roses on green circle, long roses on blue, and the rose and ribbons on the purple)

17) Fold the ribbon roses on the bottom to make "feet" for the card

Old as the hills

This is a 50th Birthday card for a male friend, people think that it is hard to do cards for men, but I think this is a nice unisex card applicable for either.

Materials:

Card:

Black Card Stock

Watercolour Paper

Paperado Chocolate Card

Inks:

Spectrum Noir Aquatints: Landscape

Stamps:

Cherry Pie Art Stamps - P430 Two Celtic triple knots

Cherry Pie Art Stamps - R515 MONOLITH (Stonehenge)

Ink:

Distress Aged Mahogany

Memento Bamboo Leaves

Memento Gray Flannel

Versafine Black Onyx

Embellishment:

Rope on a Bobbin (woodware) from Chocolate Baroque

Method:

1) Load up the stonehenge stamp with versafine Black Onyx and stamp onto the watercolour card, allow to dry

2) Take the celtic knot and load the stamp with the aged mahogany - stamp 3 times (you might want to do a few spares)

3) Next matt some balck card onto the white card base covering it, then matt the chocolate coloured card on top of this - I left 5mm either side. 

4) Allowing for a 5mm indent from the mated chocolate card stock, cut a rectangular piece of watercolour card

5) Using the landscape aquatint inks create a back ground. At the bottom I used the dar brown and the honey brown and then overlaid the green on to this.

6) The sky was done using a combination of the two blues and the grey, the clouds use a "faux bleach" technique. Set aside and allow to dry

7) Returning to the stonehenge print, load up a water pen brush with gray flannel and then use this to colour in the henge, set aside and wait for it to dry.

8) Clean the nib of the water pen brush and load it with bamboo shoots (stamp the ink pad onto an acrylic stamp board and pick the ink up from there). Colour in the white parts of the celtic knot with the bamboo laves green.

9) Carefully cut out the henge and the celtic knots.

10) Using PVA glue seal the rope on a bobbin at both ends and apply to the card (mine is roughly 4cm in from the left) and then attach the knots

11) Matt the henge onto the card.

Dancing Dragonflies

This is a submission for the Chocolate Baroque Challenge 11. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it!

Materials:

Card:

White Card Stock

Scrap Paper

Watercolour Paper

Inks:

Spectrum Noir Aquatints: Perfect primary

Stamps:

Chocolate Baroque - May AYOS

Ink:

Versamark
Memento Grape Jelly

Distress Picked Raspberry

Versafine Black Onyx

Pens:

Sakura stardust silver

Quilling Paper:

JJ Quilling Opal Green 3mm

Embossing Powder:

WOW Silver super fine

Method:

1) Load up the stamp with versafine black and stamp onto scrap paper, this is to be used as a template for husking the dragonfly wings.

2) Place pins around the "clear" dragon flies wings and husk using a triple wrap, do each wing individually using the opal green paper. Repeat this until you have done all the wings on all the dragonflies. (husking involves wrapping quilling paper around the pins to create a shape).

3) Once you have constructed all the wings, cut 1 and 3/4 inch strips of the opal green quilling paper and create S scrolls to fill the wings. 

4) Put all the quilled piece in a box, arranging the wings in the order on the stamp (so you don't get confused later)

5) Using versafine black load the AYOS May stamp and print onto white cardstock, once dry cut out the dotted background.

6) Get some watercolour paper and using the two blues from the perfrect primary aquatint range, apaint a background to look like water (I alternated and used water to blend), allow this to dry.

7) Once the watercoloured background is dry matt the cut out stamp on to it, colour in the background of the plain dragonflies using the silver sakura pen and start to mount the quilled dragonfly wings, I did all the wings and then added the scrolls. Make pegs (tight circles) for the bodies using the opal green.

8) Using versamark, load up the stamp and imprint onto the watercolour card and emboss using the silver powder.

9) Using water pens colour the embossed wings using the grape jelly and picked raspberry inks to colour the wings, cut them out.

10) Mount the embossed dragonflies at different heights using the decoupage foam and the quilling to create depth.

11) Use the grape jelly ink to create a border with the water pens.

Head in the clouds

I am calling this called "Head in the Clouds" it is for the WOW embossing May contest.

May WOW embossing winner

Materials:

Card:

Black Card stock
White Card stock
Paperado Amerena
Paperado Orange
Paperado Lilac

Stamps:

Chocolate Baroque - Tranquility 

Ink:

Versamark
Memento Summer skies

Embossing Powders:

WOW Primary Ebony superfine
WOW Metallic lilac ultra high
WOW Metalline violet regular
WOW Primary Indigo Super fine
WOW Earthtone grape regular
WOW Primary Bark regular
WOW metallic pink ultra high
WOW Fluorescent pink regular
WOW Fuchsia Regular 

Pens:

Spectrum Noir Alcohol Pens
OR2
OR3
TN4
TN5
TN7
LG5
FS9
BG2
BT1
BT2
BT4

Dies:
Xcut Extra Large Dies 13.5cm diameter circle

Stencil:
Clarity stamp clouds

Extras:
Compass
Ruler
Scissors
stencil paintbrush

Method:

1) Using the 13.5 cm diameter circle die cut a white circle

2) Load up the tranquility Buddha with versamark and stamp onto the circle, sprink the ebony black wow embossing powder and cure with a heat tool.

3) Using the FS9 pen add the skin tone to Buddha

4) Use OR2 and OR3 to colour in the robes 

5) BT1, BT2 and BT4 are used to create the pool of water

6) TN7 is used for the bullrush heads and also for the hair

7) LG5 is used for the leaves

8) Apply the cloud stencil over the top of the image and load a stencil brush with Memento blue skies and apply clouds to the image

8) From white card stock cut 4  rectangles that each measure 5.5 by 12.5 cm, two of these will be used for the cherry blossom and 2 for the wisteria.

9) Load up the wind chime stamp with versamark, and orient one of the rectangle so it is in portrait (up right) and stamp at the bottom. Apply the Bark coloured embossing powder, remove excess and cure with a heat tool. Repeat this on another rectangle. Colour in with TN4 and TN5, set aside and let the alcohol blend.

10) Take the remaining two rectangles in landscape view and, load the cherry blossom stamp with versamark and add WOW metallic pink ultra high, repeat this again so you have two metallic print stamps. Cure between each re-inking.

11) Next add at least part of the cherry blossom stamp and this time using WOW Fluorescent pink regular, cure the powder between each re-inking

12) Next add the WOW Fuchsia Regular cherry blossom to the rectangles.

13) Using the cloud stencil and the memento blue skies ink add the clouds to the two cherry blossom rectangles.

14) Taking the portrait rectangles with windchimes start to layer the wisteria starting with WOW Metallic lilac ultra high, emboss and cure between each stamp, the next layer is WOW Metalline violet regular, followed by WOW Primary Indigo Super fine and finally WOW Earthtone grape regular.

15) Using the cloud stencil and the memento blue skies ink add the clouds to the two wisteria/wind chimes rectangles.

16) Using a pair of compasses create a 14cm diameter circle on the Paperado Amerena card and cut out using scissors

17) Next cu 2 rectangles measuring 6cm by 13 cms from the Paperado Orange card, and another two of the same dimensions Paperado Lilac card.

18) Mount the cherry blossom onto the purple card pieces and the wisteria on to the orange, and mount buddha on to the circle,

19) Cut a piece of square card that is 20cm by 20cm

20) Assemble the pieces of card as per the image above