Design Team samples "A Wreath for all seasons"

Design Team are a new brand launched by Stephanie Weightman and with the input from the design team. For their second launch, this months collection was inspired by Anna Higginbottom & Kathleen Turner at the Innovation Hub.

I was very excited to be involved in creating some of the samples for this new collection and hope you find them inspirational.

Using a small brown rattan grapevine wreath purchased quite cheap from a local  floristry wholesaler, I chose to use a mix of textures for my wreath using the  mini wreath die set  
       

I used a mix of flower forming foam with the charisma papers.  I loosely wrapped the wreath  with wired hessian, added a few green frosted berries and some glossy accents to the leaves for morning dew.

I chose some cream flower foam inked with peach oil pastels using the Christmas rose dies to create roses to coordinate with my Autumn wreath and some yellow stamens for the centres.

Finishing off with a large taffeta orange wired bow.

I used the mini wreath die for the card shape and then layered it up to create dimension. Entwined some thin embroidered gold ribbon between the layer of the wreath and then layered the foliage dies around the wreath card before added the butterflies which have been printed onto vellum.

I used the hessian backing paper from one of Tattered Lace's collections and decoupaged the egg dies with their matching charismas (printed onto the glossy card) for a Spring/Easter inspired card.

I particularly loved the butterflies and foilage from this collection as I can incorporate it into so many projects.  My focus this month was mainly on different projects that can be made using these lovely dies.

I love decorating my notebook/diary covers and thought these beautiful sunflowers would be ideal for the cover.  Notebooks/diaries also make great stocking fillers, so why not decorate it before gifting it.

Onto kraft card I used a wood panel backing paper, edging it with some gathered twigs distress ink by Tim Holtz.  I used the Spring blooms sunflowers and tulips along with a mix of the foliage and mini wreath foliage dies. The "hi" wording was cut out using chocolate craft foam.

I made a start on the inside of my notebook using some of the dies on the inside cover.

It's amazing what you can find in your local charity shop when you are looking for something inexpensive to craft with.  I found a rather tired chalkboard to upcycle.

I gave it a lick of paint using a fawn crown matchpot tube of paint I bought in Homebase in the reduced to clear basket. These little matchpots are perfect for small projects as they are just enough upcycled an item.

I used the fruits die set, large single ivy from the ivy die set, sunflowers from the Spring blooms and smaller eggs from the eggs die set. The leaves I used with the sunflowers were die cut from a darker green card using the mini wreath dies.  It just needed some ribbon, strings and piece of chalk to finish it off. I thought it would brighten up a kitchen wall nicely as a shopping list/memo board.

My summertime mdf gate stand ( from the Dreamees) decorated with the garden tools dies, the wellington boots from the splish splash die set and flowers from the Spring blooms die set.

The ivy dies fitted in so well climbing up the edge of the gate. This project reminded me of my second love, gardening. Sunflowers standing proud with their glorious heads waving in the sun and an array of flowers drinking in the warmth of the sun.

I added the ladybird from another Tattered Lace collection which is peaking out from one of the flowerpots. The sentiment s from one of the Dreamees new stamp sets and was very apt for my project as well as adding some drops of glossy accent for the waterdrops from the watering can.

The artificial grass I picked up from a shop called Tiger Tiger (I love that shop) you can find all sorts of cool & quirky things in there and knew this square of artificial grass would come in handy.

I really liked these shell dies as combined with the matching charisma papers and printed onto glossy card, they look so lifelike.  I used a strip of sandpaper for the sand on the base panel of my beach plaque. The mdf are from my stash by the Dreamees.

The panels have been painted with corinth blue Cosmic Shimmer chalk paint, which dried really quickly.

I also used a large flat backed blue pearl in the clamshell to mimic an oyster shell.

This card was an idea that I had in my head. It was based on the birdhouse in my garden.  I looked at the lovely birdhouse die and thought wouldn't it look nice with the Autumn ivy climbing up around it. So making a tall Dl shaped card from a piece of A4 card, I decided it needed to be dimensional.

I created a cuboid shape using kraft card and inked around the edges with gathered twigs distress ink by Tim Hotz to match it up as close as possible to the actual birdhouse.  I found it a lot easier to use a fine tipped glue gun to stick the foliage down, as I wanted the leaves to still keep their shape and look as natural as possible.

I padded the birdhouse out with som natural sisal and placed the trio of nested eggs in the centre of the nest. Using the hombre backing paper from last years Tattered Lace easter collection, I was really happy with how this one turned out and think it would also look nice in a box frame.

Another thing I love is flowers and these poinsettias are so pretty, so to thought, I would layer them up to give as much dimension as possible.  I also used the pine cones and mistletoe from the Winter blooms die set with the mini fir tree branch from the mini wreath die set. 

The base panel of the card is from the Tattered Lace fine filament Portofino collection and I thought that the stencil from the Designer Vintage collection also worked really well with this die.

I used some glossy accent on the berries for dimensional shine.

A large festive card for the mantlepiece at Christmas. Behind the flower, you can just see some gold festive wired ribbon and the gold pearls just finish the card off nicely.

I love experimenting with different mediums and here, I have used some film & Angelina fibres which have been fused together with the heat of an iron so that I could die cut my butterflies.

I used the Tattered Lace Heavenly Hexagon nested dies for my double easel card.

The backing papers are from Stephanie Weightman's designer collection and have been printed onto centura pearl pearlescent paper.

All the detail from the dies are captured in the film & fibres and love how the light captures the butterflies iridescent colours.

Finishing with an oval small Christmas Card with the Christmas cactus and the bell jar from a previous collection. Flexi snowflakes have also been added to the edge of the card.

The charisma papers to match the dies can either be downloaded directly from Create & Crafts website:-

https://www.createandcraft.com/gb/tattered-lace-downloads?q=tattered-lace-downloads

or all the free downloads for backing papers and charisma papers for Tattered Lace can be downloaded directly from their website

https://www.tatteredlace.co.uk/downloads/artwork/

I really enjoyed tis collection. It has a bit of everything to take you through all the seasons of the year.

Happy Crafting!

Christmas/Winter card

Sharing my DT card for the challenge over on Daisy Chains blog challenge for our Christmas/Winter theme this month.

 

Apart from my samples, this is my first Christmas card of the season and yes, its a Dreamees card (apart from a few bits and pieces).

By the fire

Whilst having a sort through my craft stuff I rediscovered lots of my favourite stamps and thought that I really needed to make more use of these.  With new craft designs constantly coming out, we are inspired to want to try something new and before you know it you are running out of space!

As crafters, we are constantly evolving and moving on to something new but I always come back to where my enjoyment of stamping started.

For this project I have used:-

• Dreamees By the Fire stamp set
• Dreamees Wonderful Wintertime (for the Holly)
• 6 x 6 square cream scalloped edged card
• gold glitter card
• Tattered Lace Christmas backing paper (from one of their magazines)
• red card stock from my stash
• red satin gingham ribbon
• green organza ribbon
• red bakers twin
• bead and christmas tree lights from a broken bracelet
• square nested stitched dies to layer up the square panels
• scrap of weathered wood backing paper from the Dreamees Textures cd
• Dreamees dinky inkies (sparkle and pearlescent inks)

For the holly I used the Dreamees Wonderful Wintertime stamp set  and the "Joy" stamp for the centre of the wreath from the Dreamees Reindeers and Rocking horses set. All these stamps work together.

I always have a stash of unusual or odd bits and pieces saved along the way and knew my (once) flashing Christmas lights bracelet would come in handy when it sadly got broken last year.

They made a handy Christmas light embellishment for my card.

A little frosted lace stickles on the stocking tops, glossy accent on my clock on the mantle and glitter pen on the flames and wreaths to finish of my Christmas themed card.

Pop over to our Christmas/Winter blog challenge this month on Daisy Chains blog challenge and take a look at the rest of the inspiration from the design team along with the creative inspiration from the rest of the entries.

Happy Crafting

Thank you card

Sharing my DT card for the challenge over on Let's Craft and Create blog this month with a  "Thank you" theme.  

Every now and again I have a rummage through my craft stash and rediscover what I have.  One of my favourites to craft with is Debbi Moore's Bookazines.  I can't emphasize enough just how great these are for inspiration and especially new crafters.

The topper and oriental paper for this particular project was from the Inspiration Bookazine - Issue 3. I have had this particular one for some years now and still haven't used it all up....I think because I wanted to keep it with all its lovely papers and toppers as it is one of my favourites.

I have made a lot of cards from this bookazine and in the past, Debbi Moore put a lot of these collections on disk/usb. With each magazine, there would be a free gift and I have collected many cd collections over the years.

I think these beautiful images speak for themselves and all I have done is mount it on a combination of gold matt mirri card and black card, doing the same with the sentiment.

For the card base, I used the Harlequin die set by Tattered Lace, just the right size for my thank you card. I matt and layered one of the embellishments on the sheet and added some coordinating ribbon with a few metallic gems to finish it off.

Have a look at the inspiration provided by the rest of the design team on Let's Craft and Create Blog this month and the entries for this months challenge.  There is a prize for the winning entry.

Happy Crafting