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 :(
