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 133

 The challenge for this fortnight was set by Jane, and she wants to see projects where there are three of something. That could be three embellishments, three images, three ribbons, whatever you like.

I've been working on backgrounds a lot of late, and after some inspiration on You Tube, I came up with this:

The background started with Distress Oxide inks which I blended together, Then I added some more detail with Pan Pastels before stamping the Lavinia fairy, foliage and words. I added some further detail with a glitter gel pen, a white gel pen, and some Posca pens.

It's not obvious from the photo, but the black background is quite twinkly. I embossed it using a Crafter's Companion folder, then applied some Versafine Clair ink with a brayer too the very fine leaf detail. I had hoped for more colour transfer, but when it didn't happen, I heat embossed using some clear holographic powder.

To finish, I added three flower gems and three tiny clear gems I've had in my stash for a very long time. I suspect it's about three years since I last even opened the box where I keep sticky gems, so it was nice to get them out.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 114

 The challenge for this fortnight is a mode of transport, and it was chosen, and will be hosted, by my team mate Hazel.

For this, I delved into my box of Hunkydory toppers again!

The background was created using some Crafter's Companion layering stencils and distress ink. I added an embossed panel, and matted the image, so this ws a fairly simple card.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 101

 This time at International Art and Soul, the theme of the challenge is Hearts. You can interpret that as you wish. I decided to make a card using a Gorjuss stamp I bought a few years ago.

I coloured the image with pencils - my newly-purchased Koh -i-Noor Polycolor pencils. I'm by no means an expert at colouring with any media, but I was reasonably happy with this effort. I envy those who can see where to shade darker and lighter and do it successfully, but I do struggle with that.

The bacground uses plain black card and a piece of embossed and Distress Oxide shaded card which was left over from a previous project. I do hope you can join us this time.

A Christmas Card

This project should have been for a Crafty Cardmakers challenge. That blog has ceased to exist, but I had posts scheduled and decided to continue to post my projects on the scheduled dates..

I made a Christmas card using an stamp from Woodware that I coloured with Promarkers. I added a stitched frame. I pierced the holes using a template I recently got which is actually intended for pricking holes in leather. There are some basic frames and a grid of holes too, although because it's intended for robustness, it's about 5mm thick and therefore quite hard to hold in place. Having said that, it worked fine for this frame. I completed with a layer of mirror card and I embossed the base card with snowflakes to add a little more texture.

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.

International Art and Soul Challenge 77

For this challenge, we want you to follow a sketch. You can make a card, layout, or anything else you can imagine, and you can turn it or change relative dimensions, so long as the original sketch is recognisable.

And I used it to make an anniversary card.

The central image was stamped using a stamp from Creative Expressions, and the papers are from Papermania. I embossed two pieces of card, one using a Sizzix folder, and the other, one from Design Objectives. I used some Memento ink for the image and for shading the embossing, and added a little colour to the image with coloured pencils.

To complete the card, I triple embossed a card heart. I had intended to give it some texture with a celtic knot work stamp, but didn't like the result, so I re-melted the embossing powder. That left a ghost image which I did rather like, so I let it stay!

I do home you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 58

The challenge for this fortnight is ecology/environment/conservation. That's quite a wide-ranging theme, and there are lots of possibilities.

I decided to go for a 'weather' theme; something close to my heart coming from the wettest part of the UK (by some measure for some time period.)

The girl and umbrella images are freebies from Creative Stamping magazine and the background was embossed using an Apple Blossom folder.

To add some further detail to the background, I added some Pan Pastel in white to the clouds, some shimmer to the wavy section using a Sakura Stardust pen and some glitter to the raindrops using a Quickie glue pen and some Glamour Dust.

The images took a bit of combining. I wanted the umbrella in the foreground, but I needed the handle to be behind the girl's hand. It took me a couple of goes to get it right, but I finally got something close to right. The only issue was that I had to use a dark colour when colouring the umbrella handle as the end of it wasn't properly masked!

I coloured the result with Promarkers and cut around the combined image.

I do hope you can join us this time!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 226

The challenge for this fortnight is to add some texture to your creation.

I immediately thought of embossing folders, and since I've recently got some Apple Blossom folders, I started with that.

I used a die and stamp (also from Apple Blossom) as we as the folder. I lightly inked the embossing to bring out the detail, then added some lace and a few flowers cut using a Crafter's Companion die set.

I hope you will join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 224

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers for this fortnight, and indeed, over the Christmas period is Christmas!

I've used a Woodware stamp set, and coloured the image with Promarkers. I really do like the image - it's simple, yet complex with the knot-work pattern.

I've framed the image and sentiment using a die set from Cheery Lynn which I've had for a long time and used less often than I expected to.

I actually tried several options for this card before I decided on this option. The base card is one I bought at Ally Pally several years ago. It's a beautiful perlescent dark green colour, but I think they'd been badly scored, so I always have to trim a bit off to get a square card. I embossed the side panel using a folder that was a magazine freebie some time ago. To try to accentuate the snowflakes, I gently applied some Versacolor yellow ink to the panel, which had the effect of slightly warming the tone there, but that isn't obvious in the photo.

I do hope you can join us this time, and whether you do or not, wish you and yours a very happy Festive Season.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 207

Our Challenge this fortnight is to Go Green. You can make anything you like so long as the predominant colour is green.

The background is one of the digital backgrounds from Crafts and Me, and I enhanced the centre  using a circular layer of pale green over the image and darkened the outer areas before printing. Then, I stamped some fairies and a toadstool (Clarity), and a sentiment and added some glitter pen (Crafter's Companion). The background was created with Crafter's Companion Glitter Pens as a watercolour wash and then embossed with one of their embossing folders. I inked the embossed areas and edge with Distress Ink. The ribbon and lace flower are from one of my ribbon boxes. (I really need to use ribbon more often!) All the ink used was in various shades of green even though it looks fairly black.

I hope you can join us!

International Art and Soul Challenge 27

Our challenge for this fortnight is to Use Something you Already Own. That's definitely good advice - especially if, like me, you're running out of storage space!

I've really loved seeing all the snow globe dies that appeared last winter. I've been on the verge of buying one more than once, but saw (probably on Facebook) that someone had used a Tonic handbag die to get the same effect. I didn't make a note of it when I saw it, so I can't attribute.

And there it is! I've used circle dies for the globe and moon, and a panel from one of the Tonic Handbag dies for the base. For the pattern over it, I used another die I already had - this one cuts a rectangular snowflake pattern. The background was embossed mirror card, and I've used various dies from my collection to make the hills, trees and houses.

I've edged bits with ink and glitter, and added glitter to the globe before sealing it with glue-gel.

I hope you can join us! Let's see what you've used.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 205

Our theme this fortnight is Love and Romance. So, what better than a Valentine card.

I wanted to do something a little different here. I'd recently made a card for a commission for which I'd used one of the bi-fold cards I ordered by accident several years ago. While looking at one of those, I decided to make a box-style card.

The sides of this card are about a centimetre. I've used paper I've had for a very long time. It's a pad from Papermania which is very pretty but the colours are quite muted and rarely seem to work with what I've got planned, but this time, the romantic softness seemed perfect. I used a Sizzix die to cut a heart out of both some paper and the card. Then, I did a colour wash on some watercolour paper using a glitter pen, and when it was dry, embossed the card, before die cutting a large and small heart, and the letters for the sentiment. I also cut some pale grey 'shadow' letters to give the text a little more depth.

And that's it. Quite simple and plain really, but the dimension makes it a little unusual.

I hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 26

Our challenge this fortnight is to incorporate some texture into your project. It can be a card, or pretty much anything you like so long as it's got some texture.

I decided to start with an embossed background and see where that took me. This is the result.

 Before embossing, I used my new Creative Expression Chalk Cloud inks to shade a piece of Clarity card. Then I took some textured watercolour card, and stamped the arrangement (stamps were magazine freebies.) I had to mask the bunch of flowers before stamping the stalks. then I used the same inks to watercolour the image. The only exception is that I had used the Subtle Sage green ink in the background, but when I used it to watercolour, it was hardly any different from the blue shade, so I added another layer of colour - this time using Sweet Apple. I ran a black marker around the watercolour paper and grey mat, before completing with some grosgrain ribbon and a crochet flower from my stash.

The colours are a lot more subtle than I usually go for, and watercolour techniques are definitely not my strong point! I do find that the ink doesn't seem to blend as well as I've seen demonstrated. I used Clarity card because a shiny card is recommended and that's what I've got. I definitely need to spend some more time using these inks. I'm not sure how long they'll last. I bought several at Ally Pally in September, and one of them was obviously dried out when I opened it. My credit card receipt was from Creative Expressions, so I emailed them.It took a very long time for them to get back to me - something I experienced once before when my Ally Pally tickets didn't turn up on time. The did eventually get in touch and sent a replacement, but I was disappointed with the fact that it took several weeks, and definitely made me less inclined to want to play with the inks.

I look forward to seeing your seeing what you come up with!

International Art and Soul Challenge 24

The theme for this fortnight is White on White. Now, that's not something I'm comfortable with. I like colour, and if anything, tend to over- rather than under-do that. So, this was quite hard.

I decided to use both some plain and pearlescent white card, alternating layers to give a little more definition. I embossed the background and used dies from Tattered Lace and others to make the flower and foliage. I completed the flower with a sticky gem and some white pearl strings I've had for ages. My ex-next-door neighbour was a hairdresser and when she was moving out, gave me some bits she had and they came in handy for this project.

I hope you can join us this time!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 182

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers our challenge is to make something with lots of texture! Other than that, it's up to you.

I chose to make a card using the leftovers from another recent make.

The patchwork background is made using a Sizzix die, and I've embossed or debossed each of the squares using s Cuttlebug folder. The flowers were made using Tattered Lace Ditsy flowers dies, and I love all the texture in those layers. The background leafy bits are made using a Sue Wilson die set.

I hope you can join us.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 180

For our first challenge of the year, our theme is New Beginnings. This can be any new beginning you want, although most of the design team seem to have gone for new babies! And, not to buck that trend, so have I.

I've used a range of die cuts. The main image is and word are from, I think, Marianne, while the patchwork in the background is from Sizzix. Each of the squares has been dry embossed to give a more varied patchwork effect without introducing any more colour.

I hope you can join us!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 177

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers, the challenge is to use embossing: heat or dry - it's up to you!

Of course, if you're like me, you get a word in your head: embossing and you have to try all of them, and about now.

So, the image has no embossing! It's a stamped image using a Debbi Moore stamp I've had forever, and I've coloured it with Sharpie markers. It was really just an 'I wonder' moment, and there's no finesse in the colouring at all, but I liked the vibrant result. I've added a little glitter to the butterfly using a Spectrum Noir glitter marker.

For the background, I first dug out a Spellbinders Impressability plate. I inked it using a Kaleidoscope ink pad, then ran it through my Big Shot Pro. The result is techinically debossed, but it definitely adds some texture. Then, I embossed some green card using an embossing folder, then applied some of the same ink to the result with a brayer.

I've triple embossed a chip board flower. The main part uses UTE powder, and the centre is standard, both Cosmic Shimmer. The sentiment was stamped in Versamark ink and embossed with the same standard embossing powder.

I hope you can join us this time!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 167

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers, our challenge is Shabby Chic/Distressed. And we're sponsored by

See the challenge blog for details.

I must admit, I don't get 'shabby chic' as a style. It always seems like a contradiction to me, and I'm definitely not a fan of distressing or ageing techniques. So, this challenge was definitely a challenge for me, and I just hope that what I've come up with fits the bill.

I've used a vintage image from a CDRom from Crafty Computer Paper, and mounted it on a mat cut using a Spellbinders die, through which I threaded some ribbon. For the background, I've used some Coredinations card - some from the Chocolate Box collection and some from the Whitewash pad. I've used the same warm pink inner colour in both cases, and, in fact, used an offcut for the mat (turned the wrong way round.) I embossed both pieces together so the pattern was continuous, then sanded both pieces of card. To finish, I've used some sticky lace and some flowers and bits from my stash. When I did a sort through of my craft stash I found so much stuff that I've bought and then found out how to make for myself. As a result, I don't use the pre-made bits, so I'm on a mission to actually use pre-made embellishments and papers!

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 166

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers, our challenge is to make something for a special man. In this case, that's my husband, who's put up with me for 30 years!

The image is a lovely stamp from Crafty Individuals which I've had for a while. This time, I stamped it in Versamark ink, and then coloured it with Perfect Pearls in blues, coppers and golds. I mounted it onto a mat cut with a Spellbinders die and added a sentiment. In the background, I've used a pretty paper from the Me to you range which brings out the greeny blues in the image. I've then added a piece of card which I embossed with a pattern of vines.

I hope you can join us this time.