Just for you card - an cascade of Peonies

I am sharing a card made for another crafty friend of mine. Over the first lockdown, we decided to to do a make and swap between us and using two of her favourite colours, this is the card that I came up with.

 For this lovely lady, I decided to go for a cascade of peonies made using Fleurs Flower forming foam and my Tattered Lace Charisma Swift Peony die set.

I used some fabre castel oil pastels on the edges of the petals to tone my flowers to give them a more natural flower look and to accompany the peonies I also used the Fleurs dahlia leaf dies for foliage.

Using a lemon base card (8x8), I added an apricot layer of card to compliment the flowers. One of my favourite Tattered Lace die sets is the Fine Filament collection because of its detailed lacy square panel die. 

Just under the lacy lemon panel die, I also added a white vellum layer which I had smooshed some of my Dreamees dinky inky ink pad in gold mist (using a soft make up brush I had). This ink pad just leaves a hint of gold shimmer on the vellum, just enough to shimmer through the die-cut panel.

After adding my flowers I finished my card with a heat embossed sentiment using gold embossing powder onto a piece of vellum and adding just a few Dreamee olive pearls.

I was really happy with how it turned out and that my friend liked it too. In return, I received a gorgeous card that sits on my dressing table in my bedroom.

Happy crafting!

Marleens Stocking

 I have a festive card to share today which is part of a monthly progressive digi  challenge

The challenge is imaginethatdigistamp.com. To get this cute digi stamp, you need to sign up this month to register and receive Marleen's Stocking free this month.  After you have created and uploaded your project to the challenge before the end of the month you will then be able to do the same the following month with the next free image as long as you continue to enter the challenges on a monthly basis.

I am only using 2 of the 3 papers from my downloads for my card today. I printed the holy backing paper onto a piece of 210gsm A4 white card and used my Tattered Lace precious nested die to make my card base.

With the festive tree backing paper, I decided to make some flowers out of it using my Dreamees flower dies.

Entering a digi challenge isn't normally something I would consider doing as I am not a colourist, but I thought I'd give it a go, especially as this digi image was really cute. I do own a few pens but mostly use my inks to paint. 

I used a mix of promarkers and Dreamees dinky inky sparkle inks for a little shimmer on the hat and stocking. I also added a little highlight to the flowers which doesn't show up in the picture. The clear sparkle in my dinky inkys has replaced the clear sparkle overlay pen that I used to buy from Crafters Companion.

You can just see the texture on the Santa's hat from the stickles glitter glue in frosted lace. One thing I really like about digi images is how easy it is to resize them to suit your project.

Have a good day, whatever you are doing and stay safe.

Happy Crafting

Entered into the following challenges:- 

Creative Craft Cottage - winter/xmas

Sweet Stampers - xmas

ABC Christmas - xmas

Love to Scrap - ATG

Gothic Wedding card

Today I have a wedding card which I am now able to share, that I was asked to make for a gothic themed wedding.

I really enjoyed making this card as it was a break from the traditional colours, using a 

detailed black lace die with accent flowers to match the bride's dress.

For my card base and main structure of my card I used my favourite Tattered Lace die set, the Fine Filament Portifino Square lace dies. I used 250gsm black textured colour core cardstock, layering the lace panels with pinfair glue gel to add a little dimension.

For the insert I used one of the lace-edged dies with a cream paper so that a personal message could be written inside. We agreed that the card didn't need any wording on the front either.

A mix of textures for the flowers. I was fortunate to be gifted some foamiran flowers by my very talented crafting colleague Monika Cohenna, which were perfect for my card. Monika makes the most beautiful foamiran flowers for her projects. I mixed these with two more that I had made from pearlescent paper.

I used mars red pearlescent paper from Stamps by Chloe, which is a thick lustrous pearl paper, holding the structure of flowers perfectly. I die cut these using my loops and lace flower dies by the Dreamees.

Adding large ruby gems in the centres and some rich red frosted berries to my posy of flowers which I already had in my stash from Anna Marie Designs.

I've used some 2cm red satin ribbon on a diamonte ribbon slider across the centre of the lace panel of the card and decorated parts of the die with tiny black pearls which can just be seen.

To accompany the card, I also made a two-tone box saving one of the flowers that I made for the lid.

I used the Dreamees poinsettia embossing folder with some black colour core card to create the decorative panel on the base and lid of my box. This is a great textured embossing folder and think it looks lush as a box liner.

This is my second gothic style card of late and I'm loving the change of theme.

I was really happy that they liked their card. I wasn't initially sure whether do go down the themed route when planning this card or focus more on the colour and flowers, but this die set has definitely made all the difference.

Have a great day, whatever you are doing and stay safe.

Happy crafting

Shabby Chic Birthday

Today's card on my blog is a shabby chic birthday card using the design papers made by the very talented fellow crafter Alysha Sheridan. 

Alysha is a very talented and inspirational crafter and has designed many beautiful papers which she has made available to download for personal use on her own blog.

Please follow the link below.

http://www.simangels.co.uk/author/alysha/

Also this month on our blog challenge at Let's Craft and Create, we are running an add a sketch theme and I have used one of those on my card. As with all our challenges they are also ATG.

I printed the shabby chic paper onto some cream velour paper that I had bought from the Dreamees some time ago. I thought that this paper would be perfect for this project as it has a suede/felt-like feel to the paper, which is ideal for a shabby chic card.

I die cut the design paper and some cream card using the Dreamees Loops and Lace square die from their collection and layered the card using the shabby chic birdcage paper in a card sketch format, inking the edges of the card in powder blue dinky inky chalk ink by the Dreamees.

Using the flowers on the shabby chic design paper, I die cut them using one of the outline flower dies from the Dreamees Loop and Lace collection, as they fit around the flowers on the design paper nicely.

Between the layers, I added a wide strip of cream lace and carefully cut around the key on the shabby chic design paper which I had given a coating of glossy accent so that it made a nice embellishment for my card.

I used some 4mm gold Dreamees pearls to embellish my birthday card and added a personalised insert inside as I don't always add a sentiment to the front of my cards.

These papers are so pretty and will certainly be using more.

Our design team have also been busy this month with projects of their own and there is always lots of fabulous inspiration shared by the crafters on our blog too. If you are interested,  there is a prize for the winning entry, following our theme and a badge for your blog for the top 3 runners up. Just click on the link below which will take you to our blog challenge. 

Happy Crafting!

Christmas Tags

 A little festive offering for you today in the shape of a large gift tag for presents, stockings or just to loop over the door handle to show that "Santa has been"......

Also, this is the last challenge for the year for us at Daisy Chains Blog Challenges, so we are seeing it out with a festive one but as with all our challenges, they are also ATG.

For my topper, I used one of the stamps from the Dreamees Santa Paws stamp set which has been stamped with Versmark ink and heat embossed with bright white opaque Wow embossing powder onto some Crafters Companion Neena Desert Storm card stock that I found in my stash. I used my Dreamees sparkle dinky inky reinkers to colour the image. When my image was dry, I went over the fur trim with my stickles in frosted lace, which is another of my favourite things to use. Also handy for my snowflakes as the stickles leave just the right amount of texture and sparkle. I used the walnut sparkle dinky inky around the edges of my die.

My stamped topper has been die cut using the Dreamees Loops and Lace square frame die. I die cut this again using the outer die, but this time onto a piece of kraft card and then used their poinsettia embossing folder (another favourite of mine) for added texture to the back.

For my pinecones, I used this gorgeous stamp by Skull and Cross Buns. I have had this stamp a few years and Emily designs all her stamps herself, just like the Dreamees.  Its a good sized chunky rubber stamp that comes mounted on a wooden block and stamps perfectly every time. I have stamped on both sides of my pine cone so that you have the detail on the reverse also.

This Crystal branch stamps is faithful go to every year from Stamps by Chloe - Chloe Endean. Unfortunately, this stamp is now retired. I use a lot of Chloe's Wow mix embossing powders too. I have stamped and heat embossed with versamark ink and Chloe's Hollywood Hills Wow embossing powder onto acetate.

For the tag I have used a piece of red textured 300gsm colour core card with some patterned paper from my stash that was printed onto this great velvet paper the Dreamees used to stock, which has a suede texture to it.   To match the stitched ribbon that I had used, I edged my label with a white gel pen. 

The rest of our design team have also been making some lovely projects this month, along with so many great crafters on our blog every month. It's always lovely to see the inspiration everyone shares. Please use the link below to take you to the blog challenge and thanks for the visit.

Happy crafting