Say it with sunflowers

It's all about the sunflowers at the moment, and the card that I am sharing was the birthday card that I made for my friend's birthday in March, to go with the mdf shutter artboard in one of my previous posts.

It's also the start of a new blog challenge this month at Daisy Chains and our theme is to add some ribbon. As with all our challenges, there is an ATG option.

I have used:-

• Kraft card 
• Dreamees - Ray of Sunshine 8x8 paper pad
• Tattered Lace - Design Team - A wreath for all seasons - sunflower dies
• Dreamees Sweet Sunflowers stamp set
• Antique gold satin ribbon
• Dreamees 4mm olive pearls

I like working on bigger cards but as I make envelopes/boxes for my cards, I have found it easier to work with 7inch cards as that works better with the size of card that I have to make my boxes.........which I don't normally think about until the card is made.

So, on a 7 nch kraft card base, I have used the same design paper from the pad to form the layered panelled design on my card. This particular print of the sunflower would  have looked beautiful just in a frame untouched. 

I did think about using my stamps but, I remembered how beautiful these die cut sunfowers were from Tattered Lace's Design Teams collection - A wreath for all seasons; with their matching charisma papers.

So I inked the edges and layered them up adding with some stamped leaves from the Dreamees sweet sunflowers stamp set and thought they went quite well together. The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.

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

Ray of Sunshine birthday

I'm sharing a birthday card that I made for my sister in law today using the Ray of Sunshine paper pad by the Dreamees.

Sunflowers are such a bright happy flower and this paper pad is full of luscious prints to use. On my 8x8 inch 300gsm chocolate card base also from the Dreamees,  I die cut two of the contrasting papers using my square dies from the Fine Filament Portofino collection by Tattered Lace.

Using another sheet of the same sunflower design paper, I backed it onto a piece of thin card and then fussy cut around the larger sunflowers, top and bottom. Then added this to the card as a dimensional panel.

I die cut my topper for my sentiment using the Loops & Lace oval die set and stamped it with the sentiment from the Sweet Sunflower stamp set.

Looking at one of these beautiful design papers and my dies from this stamp and die duo, one of the dies was a really good match for the flowers on one of the papers.

I only needed 3 to really match as the others were going to be layered up as flowers. I cut into some of the petals to give them some shape and inked the tips of the petals with my 2nd gen sparkle honey dinky inkie to tone them. I thought they worked really well.

I had some leaves saved from a previous project that I had stamped on my favourite cream velour card using the stamp set. As these had already been coloured with my dinky inkies, I just needed to add these to my project.

I try to get the most out of my craft products, although saying that we all forget what we have as crafters sometimes but try not to accumulate a lot of the same thing.

You can make some beautiful projects using  The Dreamees paper pads in your crafting and they have been colour matching their sparkle dinky inkies so that they all work together.

Have a good day, whatever your plans are. 

Happy Crafting!

Music script birthday

Today I am sharing a birthday card made for one of my friends using an A5 background music script stamp by The Timber Boutique.

It is also the beginning of a new challenge for us at Daisy Chains and we are running a monochrome theme this month. As with all our challenges, there is also an ATG option.

Using black and cream card to make up my monochrome card this stamp leaves a fabulous crisp image and I added some organza ribbon to define the layers.

For my flowers, I used this stamp on cream paper and then die cut flower shapes using my Dreamees Sweet Sunflowers flower dies and one of the larger flower dies from their Loops & Lace collection also. 

At this point I was really having a play with these dies to see how well the larger Sweet Sunflower dies would make rose-like flowers as I had already made a few with the die from the Loops & Lace collection.  I was really happy with how they turned out.

I didn't have any black pollen stamens which I thought would go well, so I coloured some myself using a Dreamees sparkle 2nd gen dinky inky in lurex. The ink pad needs to be quite juicy and I only gave them one coating, which gave them a more charcoal look and also added a few of their interchangeable Autumn leaves in sage card.

As these flowers are quite full I made a box for the card in cream and black, using up what was left of my music stamped paper for the front of the box.

A simple card to make really. One stamp has created my backing paper for my card as well as the design paper for my flowers. This stamps will also be a great one to use for Christmas too.

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!

Dream Catcher

I have got a little collection of birthday makes to share today for one of my friends that I made for her just before Christmas and these are all gothic themed.

This is quite a large mdf dream catcher that I made for my friend from the Dreamees.   I didn't have black gesso so I used black acrylic paint, applied with one of those dome sponges shaped like an egg. Mine happens to be makeup sponges from Primark as they are cheaper than the proper craft ones you can buy, but they are great to apply paint to mdf like this as I find that you don't get brush/streak lines on your mdf when dry.

I found some go-to beads in my stash that have a good mix of black, silver, smokey and clear textured shaped beads for projects like this and threaded some onto some clear twine, using some large studded gems for the front of the feathers.

I decorated the dream catcher with flowers made from Fleurs flower forming foam using the Dreamees Sweet Sunflower dies. I used the crocus patch colourways for the foam and a purple faber castell oil pastel on the edges of the petals to add tone to the flowers before moulding the foam to give them some shape.

I used a mix of black and purple stamens in my flowers and added some foliage from the Fretwork Fronds also by the Dreamees in purple card and adding black feathers that I purchased from Hobbycraft.

I used a silver acrylic paint pen the mdf wording and added some black braiding to hang the dream catcher up.

To go with the dream catcher I also made a frame card using paper and graphics from the Beliza Mortals CD by  Magik Graphics. The flower was made using the Build a Peony flower stamp by the Dreamees, which has been heat embossed onto black vellum using silver Wow embossing powder.

The image on the inside has been decoupaged into the curtained disc on the topper.

To finish with, I added an 8x8 card to match which was printed onto glossy cardstock when I made it, hence the reflection on the card, which always makes taking photos a challenge when you have a light background also. 

Magik Graphics have some amazing gothic, pagan, mystical graphics and more and there is no loss of definition when you print your images and design papers off even on regular printer settings.

I really enjoyed making these and it's to have a change of genre to craft with.

Happy Crafting

Hello denim card

For this months blog challenge on Let's Craft and Create I am sharing a card to say Hello"

As our theme, this month is paper strips instead of ribbon, I remembered that I had bought a  card kit from Hobby House called Mia Bella. As with all Hobby house kits, you can make so much from them and they have the best collection of embellishments if you are looking for an around kit to start off with.

This is just a selection of some of the card that I am using from the collection. I will still have enough left over to make another project.

Today I am really focusing on this sheet of denim card which will form the basis of my ribbon strips.

I used the Dreamees divine doily die on the denim daisy card stock.

For my flower I used some Fleurs flower forming foam with the Dreamees Sweet Sunflowers dies.

I inked the edges of the petals with an oil pastel, scrunched and shaped the petals a little before layering them up with a tiny drop of hot glue

In the centre of the flower I added a tiny drop of hot glue to stick the little white button down.

I used a rectangular stitched dies to cut my denim faux pocket out and used the card strips to edge the as ribbon. I did the same with the centre panel. The border strip along the base of the card worked really well as a stitched hem.

A few pale blue pearls and button to match my flower for the faux pocket with a "hello" sentiment to finish my card off.

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!

Birthday Book Card

For this months blog challenge on Let's Craft and Create, I am sharing a Birthday Book card made with Dreamee products and a Tattered Lace die set for our "friend" theme.

First I printed the wood grain backing paper, double sided onto hammered card for a little more texture using The Dreamees Sweet Sunflowers cd

Die cut the larger book dies twice and then join the spined dies together using a strong pva based glue like cosmic shimmer. The smaller of the large die can be used for pages inside your book or for panels as I have used them on the top and bottom.   I've also die cut the label using peach satin board by Create & Craft.

I stamped the sweet sunflowers onto the Dreamees velour paper, which has a lovely suede feel to it, using their dinky inkies to colour them in with one of their water brushes.

This card/paper takes the ink really well, whether you stamp onto it or colour.

I then die cut the flowers and layered them up.

Velour paper

I had a small zip and decided to cover it with some cream cotton lace to give the book front a prettier look to it with the sunflowers bursting through the centre. Pinflair glue gel is a perfect glue for this sort of project.  Using the Dreamees dotty alphabet stamps for the name in the label.

Dotty Alphabet stamp set

I stamped some white tissue paper with the largest stamp in the set, which made perfect coordinating paper to wrap it in.

Using the same velour paper I stamped my puppies using the Dreamees Pretty Pets stamp set.

I included the little mouse from their Autumn Days stamp set and used my Pearlescent dinky inkies to colour them in with the water brush again.

Onto cream card I have printed a leaf and sunflower backing paper (double sided) and made a box base to fit inside the book.

Using a piece of green lacy webbing for the grass and the sunflower leaves as foilage behind and around the puppies which have been adhered with pinflair glue gel, giving great dimension.

I used red liner tape to fix the box in place into the box but a strong pva glue like cosmic shimmer would also work well.

I have also stamped the Dreamees Friendship Dish recipe stamp onto coordinating wood grain card to form the plaque for the inside of the book. The Friendship Dish stamp was one of the first stamps I bought from The Dreamees.

A little Ranger glossy accent on the puppies eyes and nose to finish them off.

I have to say I love this precious nested book die by Tattered Lace, it has so many uses.

Pop over to the Let's Craft and Create blog page and see what the rest of the design team have been making. There is a $10 gift voucher for the winner.

Happy Crafting