Wildlife Coasters

It's been a long time since my last blog post so there's no time like the present to share a project that I made for a friend for Christmas. This was one that I made early as it had to go across the water.

I had these wonderful wildlife/nature stamps for my birthday this year from Visible Image which I absolutely love. This Nature collection is really up my street and something very close to my heart.

While in my local charity shop I came across another lucky find, a brand new MDF coaster kit which I thought would be perfect to experiment on with my fab stamps. This is my first attempt at coasters using stamps.

Like all my projects, I have a sort of plan in my head and then it's a case of let's see how it goes and where we end up. 

I gave the MDF a light coat of DecoArt coat clear matte medium and then stamped and heat embossed my Totally Toadstools stamps in black Verafine Clare ink and clear embossing powder. 

I masked my stamps before adding the antique linen distress oxide ink to the coaster holder and giving it a mottled look so that the background would not look so plain. I coloured the toadstools with distress oxides and made up the holder once all the paints were fully dry. I then used a glossy varnish to add a protective seal.

These are a few of the coasters from the nature stamp collection. Behind the Totally Toadstools stamp, I also used one of the Visible Image stencils - strobes, highlighting the spots on the toadstool with a marker pen. The other stamps used here are Erika's Maple and Hedgehog Hugs. I did actually use the Nuts about squirrels stamp set too in my coasters and thought I had taken a group picture of that coaster too.

One of the stamps I added to this coaster set was the skeleton moth - from the Glimmer of Light stamp. Using the Strobes stencil in the background gave it a more dramatic effect and I know my friend likes this particular stamp.  I used a mix of distress ink for the coasters but this moth needed some micas for that extra shimmer.

For the edge the coasters I decided they needed gold gilding wax to give them a more finished look and lift that dull brown edge.

I sealed these with a few coats of clear varnish and although I think they would be more suitable for decorative use, I did tell my friend that I wouldn't recommend using them with hot drinks.

I was really pleased with how these turned out as they could have gone either way, to be honest, but as my crafting is pretty slow anyway I quite often change my mind by the time I pick a project up to carry it on.

Although I have given up all my crafting commitments, I will try and keep my blog going. Perhaps I need a new crafting focus for next year. This past year has been challenging for me in more ways than one, putting aside what is going on in the world.

Apart from crafting I spend a lot of time in my garden. Before Christmas, we had to cut back a tree that was getting too big. I try to put as much as I can back into my wildlife garden so lots of branches get chopped into logs, canes, and sticks for the garden, bug homes, and anything else I can do with them.

Our resident robin has been none too amused with the disturbance in HIS garden. All our robins have always been very friendly over the years but this little one is very anti-social, especially to the other birds who try and feed in my garden and we often witness them getting rugby tackled off the bird feeders if they dare to be on there at the wrong time as our feisty robin.

I have a very long way to go yet with my chopping, (note I have the easier job) but it's a start and in the meantime, the birds seem to like bouncing off the mound of branches in the middle of the garden.

Have a great day whatever you have planned 

Happy Crafting

Dream Catcher

Today I have a dreamcatcher to share that I made as a birthday gift for a friend to accompany the card that I had made. This follows on from my last post Friendship & Flowers.

Using one of the mdf dreamcatchers from my A4 carrier sheet and mdf words from the "Inspiring words" embellishment sheet by The Dreamees, I gave them both a coat of matt medium before painting them with my dinky inkie reinker in lemon drizzle by The Dreamees. 

It gave the mdf a golden shimmer.  I did give them a few coats, letting them dry between each coat to make the most of that shimmer.

I repeated this process for the mdf feathers using my dinky inkie sparkle reinkers and actually managed to get a picture with the shimmer which isn't always easy to capture. It's one of the reasons that I love these inks, especially in reinker form, they give just enough shimmer to a project without overdoing the sparkle.

As my dreamcatcher is about 95cm in diameter and 2cm thick I needed to be mindful about what I was going to hang on it. So I thought the organza ribbon would be perfect as I had lots of charms, beads, and gems that would catch the sunlight, adding a little twinkle.

To balance the dreamcatcher out and so that the ribbons would hang better, I added an embellishment to each side of the ribbons. This also covered up any glue from attaching the ribbon.

I die cut some tiny flowers from pearlescent card to sit on the base of the dreamcatcher and stuck a ring of gems in the centre of the dreamcatcher.

I also made sure that the back of the dreamcatcher was finished off neatly and added the same row of die-cut flowers. I then thread some metallic silver yarn through the holes in the dreamcatcher, making a hanging loop at the top and adding a few seed beads to the ends for decoration and to stop them from fraying.

I wanted the dreamcatcher to be light enough for the gentle breeze the catch the ribbons and the light reflect of the shimmer in the paint, along with the embellishments.

I made a box to match the card that I had made earlier, saving a few of the pink peony flowers that I had stamped and embossed with white embossing powder for the top of the box.

I didn't actually get around to making my own dreamcatcher, which was intended for my garden this summer, but there's no hurry for that one, as there's always next year now and it will be one thing less in my garden at the moment to keep that squirrel out of mischief.

Have a great day whatever you have planned

Happy Crafting

Friendship & Flowers card

Its been a little while since I have updated my blog so thought I'd share one of the birthday cards that I made a little while back. I started to make it and then there was a large gap before I was able to finish it off, along with something else that was supposed to go with it.

On the  8x8 inch white card blank I used a layer of sage green card followed by one of the design papers from The Dreamees Rose Garden paper pads. Along the edge of the card,  I decoupaged a few leaves and petals of the roses to define the design and add a little dimension.

I also added one of The Dreamees MDF paintbrush embellishments, which I decorated with white jute ribbon to mimic the brush head and a little piece of the luxury wallpaper that I had saved (obtained as a sample) on the brush.

My thinking behind the paintbrush was simply, paint a garden of flowers, friends are the flowers in the garden of life. Instead of paint on a paintbrush, lots of flowers in all shapes and sizes that will be carried in the wind.

For the flowers, I used a mix of Fleurs flower foam, card, vellum, and random snippets from my Dreamees papers.  I wanted my flowers to be quite varied in type and texture and this is where those little dies come in really handy.  From my Dreamees flower dies I used:- Delicate florals, Beautiful Babysun petals, Fancy Florets, Loops & Lace embellishments. I  didn't use a die for the rosettes.

I've added glossy accent for dew drops on petals and a sparkle pen to add a few dots of twinkle here and there.

I created the wording and backed it onto the same sage card and attached it to the antique pink satin ribbon. I also added a flat-backed pearl string and a flower pearl charm onto the paintbrush. 

As these flowers were quite small I had to be careful not to introduce too much heat when finishing the foam flowers, as they had the tendency to keep shrinking. I used a mix of pollen stamens, pearls and gems for the centres.  I love making flowers.

Using another one of the design papers from the Rose Garden paper pad I decorated the gift box I made to put the card in and added a flower that I made using a peony flower stamp.

To go with this card I decorated a dreamcatcher, which will follow in another blog post.

Have a great day whatever you have planned

Happy Crafting

Lots of Layers Birthday Wishes

It's been a while since I have posted anything as unfortunately, I have had to have a break from crafting, so have some catching up to do. We are already venturing into September and it's also the start of our blog challenge at Let's Craft & Create with a theme of Lots of Layers. As with all our challenges, they are also ATG.

For my 7x7 inch card I decided to use the design papers from the Dreamees Aquamarine pad. I know I am biased when it comes to Dreamee products, as I love using their products but there are so many gorgeous double-sided paper pads, it's difficult to have just one favourite but really easy to make a card, even if you just use the paper pad alone.

I used a few of my Tattered Lace square shaped dies to build up the layers, using the Timber Boutique script die with my silver dinky inky to add interest and highlight the layers.

I used the Tattered Lace Vintage Tag die and layered it up with flowers using the same paper pad and the Dreamees Fancy Floret flower dies along with the smaller dies from the delicate florals in navy cardstock.

Using my Ultimate Pro by Crafters Companion I made a handbag box. I have had this since they first came out and still use it all the time for my box/envelope making. The box has been decorated with matching papers and I've used one of the flowers from the Delicate florals die set by The Dreamees. 

The sentiment is from one of my  Dreamee stamp sets and I have found a fab little haberdashery shop that sells lots of remnants of ribbons. Just what you need for projects like this and this ribbon was a great example of what I had found in the little shop.

To finish off, I used one of the design sheets inside my card along with one of the Dreamees Recipe sentiments. This card was for a friend's birthday over the summer.

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

Wild Wishes

It's been a while since I have posted anything as unfortunately, I have had a break from crafting, so have some catching up to do. September is here already and it's the start of our blog challenge at Daisy Chains with a wildlife theme. As with all our challenges, they are also ATG.

Over the summer break, I did visit the zoo, one of my favourite places as there is always so much to see and always something new each time I go. So I thought I would make a birthday card using some safari fat quarters that I had been given which are just the perfect size for cards.

I chose the zebra and created a small aperture card with a little wadding to pad out the fat quarter, which was to form the topper on my card.

I used some zebra print backing paper from my stash and some tropical leaves with I downloaded online and inked the edges with one of my dinky inkies in crocodile. These did take me quite a while to cut out as I didn't have any die cuts but I'm a pretty slow crafter these days anyway so what was leftover I will keep for another project, which will be really handy.

I  used an off white 6 x 6-inch deckle edge card blank to match the aperture topper and found my label printer (which I wish that I had found ages ago!) to create the sentiment.

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

Woodland Wonders Birthday

Another birthday card to share today and I really enjoyed making this one with these wildlife wonders that  I carried the scene into the inside of the card.

It's also the start of our blog challenge at Let's Craft & Create and the theme for this month's challenge is to use your punches/dies in your project. As with all our challenges, they are also ATG. 

I have been finding 7 x7" cards a better size card for me to work with when I have to think about sending it in the post as I know that I can make an envelope using my 12x12" card, which just makes it a lot easier.

I used my Dreamees chalk dinky inkies to create the background on the white stamping card base and the cloud stencil from the Dreamees Treasured Stencils set with structure paste.

I die cut the Dreamees Essential Tree die from a piece of their chocolate card that I had leftover from another project and the little flowers from red card. This die set also comes with tiny leaves and little autumn leaves, to cover all the seasons.

The Heartfelt Hedgehogs is another favourite stamp set of mine, retired now and these adorable critters have been stamped onto some Neenah desert storm card that I found, now that was a lucky find!

The young lad I made this card for loves his animals and I have made him a few animal cards in the past and my Dreamees stamps have always been perfect for these cards.

I felt that there was more that I could add and make this birthday card into a picture card. so added the stamps from the Dreamees retired Winter Woodland set. It has the most adorable owl and the squirrel reminded me of the one that visits my garden and hangs upside down on my bird feeder to get the sunflower seeds out..... The same squirrel that has chewed all the features of my wicker owl's face and left it with just a wonky eye ha ha.

I have coloured all these in with promarkers. I needed a tree for the squirrel to throw the acorns down at the owl so used one of the stamps from another retired stamp set Mischievous Monkeys.

A lovely blogger by the name of  Mamawcindy commented about trying to make use of stamps that she had forgotten about and had started making cards with again.  I have been trying to do the same. New products come out all the time as crafting styles, ideas, and inspiration flows and changes, which are difficult to resist at times but I do actually stop and think if I really need it.

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

Cute Bun Birthday Wishes

I have been doing more stamping lately and realised that I hadn't shared some cards that I had made last month, so thought I would start with this one.

Our blog challenge at Daisy Chains this month is running a dies/stencil theme and as with all our challenges they are ATG. My card for our challenge this month has an even mix of both.

On a 7 x7" white card base I added a pale blue mirri card layer and then on the white stamping card topper I used the Dreamees sparkle dinky inkie in periwinkle for the base colour and then a mix of their colours through one of their circle stencils from their Treasured Stencils set.

The Dreamees stamp Cute bun was coloured with promarkers and I added the square frame from their Loops & Lace die collection, inking the frame to match the background. Another one of my favourite character stamp sets, I have quite a few favourites. I stamp with what I love and it's as simple as that really.

I also used the Dreamees Fancy Florets flower duo stamp/dies. These were coloured with periwinkle, watermelon and lemon drizzle sparkle dinky inkies and finished off with gold pearls. I love the sparkle from these inks. A great shimmer, never overpowering. 

My birthday card was for a little girl growing up fast. I have been making a conscious effort to make more use of stamps in my stash. When you make cards for family and friends, you find that you need something different each year and at the moment I'm in a stamping phase.

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