November Postcard swap

My postcard swap for November. I decided to use a mix of stamps for my 6 x 4 postcard on watercolour card.

The stamps I have used are The Dreamees Binky & Bo, Inkylicious Delicate vines and Reach for the Moon and a free spring garden stamp set from a craft magazine for the grass.

After stamping my bunnies I used my handmade circle stencil (made from acetate using various die cut circles) to ink a moon by using a white Docrafts Artiste pigment ink. As soon as I stippled the ink through the circle using dauber, I added some clear embossing powder so that it would stick to the ink. I know you can't see this on the white card at the moment.  I heat embossed it to create my glossy moon.

I made a mask for my bunny using a some of my Stix 2 masking sheets. I didn't bother for the moon as it was embossed and I wanted a slightly smudgy look around the moon for a bit of shadow.

I used the blue dinky ink from The Dreamees Autumn winter set and inked my card. When dry |I took my bunny mask off and coloured them in using The Dreamees grey inky from their Spring/Summer set. As the watercolour card is slightly textured it also shows a little texture on the bunnies once coloured.

Then I heat embossed the sentiment stamp Reach for the Moon by Inkylicious using black versafine ink and then very quickly covered it with clear embossing powder and embossed it. This is a good technique to avoid stray speckles of embossing powder that you can get from embossing sentiments.

I used the Inkylicious Delicate Vines around the moon and the grass stamp from my free stamp set. Finishing it off with a few stars made with a sparkle gel pen.

As this postcard was going in the post, I was given a very good tip to coat it with a matt varnish to protect it from the weather and getting damaged from handling.

I used some waterproof Mod Podge varnish/glue that I had.

https://www.inkylicious.co.uk/inkylicious-stamps/cat_31.html

http://www.dreamees.org.uk/

I hope you've enjoyed my postcard walk though.

Happy Crafting

Upcycling cherry trays

A trip to Tescos proved more fruitful than expected when I eyed up some delicious 1kg cherries that were in a very nice plain wooden tray. Not only were they on offer, but I thought I could make use of the box they were sitting in once we'd eaten all those cherries!

When I realised these trays were stackable, I decided another trip to Tescos was needed and was delighted to see that the cherries were still on offer. These trays are slightly smaller than A4.

I used 2 coats of  duck egg chalk paint and then decided to use one of my Dreamees flower stamps to decorate the trays. I finished it off with some Dovecraft clear glitter glue for the centres of the flowers, which took the colour of the paint below to give a lovely aqua sparkle.

I was really pleased with the finish.



Dreamees - A Charming Cascade Flower Stamps

http://www.dreamees.org.uk/

All it takes is a little of imagination to create something different or breathe new life

into something old.

Happy Crafting



The Glitter Girls Embossing Boards

Finding The Glitter Girls along my crafting journey has formed a staple part of my crafting.

 I watched Barbara Scarlet & Kathy Mills on Create & Craft one day and was mesmerised by the stunning cards they produced.

By using a special embossing tool that fit in the channels of the board you created dimensional layered cards of different shapes by embossing onto cardstock. This is especially effective when using pearlescent card.

Even though The Glitter Girls are no longer trading, these very talented ladies are still very much crafting and giving inspiration to others as they have always done. As for the boards, certain ones are still very much sought after.

Once these layers had been cut out, you would then start layered up your card as some of the examples below.





This was one of the earlier cards I made using the Fanciful Embossing Board. It consisted of 5 layers and was embellished with a decoupaged garden fairy by Debbi Moore. I have used a mix of mirri board and embossed Hunkydory cardstock for the back layer of the card which has been folded back.



These boards are double sided so you can make  two styles of cards and this particular one has a corsage  panel on the side.

I made the little shoes out of patterned paper using a template I found on Pinterest. I have used Crafters Companion centura pearl cardstock in baby blue and white.

With this card I have used different colours and a personalised verse, along with one of The Glitter Girls cards stand templates. I also used the Illusion box board Embossing Board to make the box. I have used blue and white Crafters Companion centura pearl cardstock

Another card with a personalised verse using the same boards but this time I took an Anne Geddes image, pyramaged it  and made a watermark of the image on the back of the verse. I have used pink and white Crafters Companion centura pearl card stock.

The most popular and I think most used of these embossing boards is probably the Bookatrix embossing board and is still a very firm favourite with Glitter Girl fans like myself.

As you can see it has layers like a book which would be joined together using red liner tape along
the spine.

Definitely the most used of all my embossing boards and as intricate as it may look to make a card with one of these, you can actually put it altogether quite quickly as there are no fiddly bits to cut out.

I often put an acetate layer on these cards as I like to find a verse, change it, add to it and then print it onto heat resistant acetate which in this case is Crafters Companion.

I have used Crafters Companion white & Turquoise centura pearl cardstock as I wanted to theme it along with Tiffany colours.  The flower frame is a stamp by Chloe Endean - Stamps by Chloe, which has been heat embossed a few times onto off white pearlescent paper using super fine silver Wow embossing powder and then layered up to give the flower ring dimension.

This is a very similar style of card using the Lavender centura pearl card, an acetate top layer again

with another verse and the same Chloe Endean - Stamps by Chloe flower frame stamp.

This time it has been heat embossed a few times onto heat resistant acetate using bright white Wow embossing powder and I have fussy cut a layer of the flowers to give dimension to the flower frame.

With this card made with the Bookatrix board I added an easel base to the card so that I could add a large handmade embellishment. I made the flowers using The Dreamees A Charming Cascade Flower Stamp set which was embossed onto vellum using fine bright white Wow embossing powder.

I specifically wanted a converse boot for this card so found a shoe template on Pinterest which I had to adapt to make it look more like a boot. I used a piece of canvas for the toe and edge of the shoe to give it texture and shrunk the logo to fit on the boot.

This time I have made a wedding card, used peach and white centura pearl pearlescent card,

 an acetate panel and inked up some paper flowers to co-ordinate with the cardstock.

On this birthday card I have layered the centura pearl pearlescent card with vellum layers which have been printed from The Dreamees Sensational flowers CD.
I have heat embossed one of The Dreamees Recipe stamps onto matching pearlescent card using superfine gold metallic Wow powder. I managed to find a piece of lace to co-ordinate perfectly for the spine of the card and for the flowers.
I used a mix of Dreamees flower sets to make my flurry of blooms which have been heat embossed with the same embossing powder onto papers from their Sensational Flowers & Pretty Pets CDs

• A Charming Cascade Stamp Set
• Sensational Flowers Stamp Set
• Blossoming buds Stamp Set
• Recipe Bundle Stamp Set



  

http://www.dreamees.org.uk/

I love this image. Its from the Glitter Girls Vogue collection but can also be found on the Just Ladies CD and these images were made to fit perfectly on the embossing board collection. This embossing board is the The big Screen.

I have used black centura pearl pearlescent cardstock, burgundy Kanban Candy Core brocade card and an acetate layer.





The Big Screen Embossing board, Vogue topper, Chocolate centura pearl cardstock, gold mirri  board, embellishments to finish off.

This card was made with the other side of the Big Screen Embossing Board and the lovely topper is from The Glitter Girls Vogue collection CD (also on the Just Ladies CD). This style of card is still a show stopper but as it is flat makes it ideal for posting, finished off with some pearls, it really didn't need much added to this card. The image has a Grace Kelly look about it.

these days and still very sought after. This board has 3 templates on it and is a fair sized board.The finale of boards to showcase has to be the special edition Once Upon a Time Board, which appears to be very rare.

I needed to make a vintage wedding card and this board fit the bill perfectly. I used 5 layers of this board and a mix of white & Ivory centura pearl cardstock with ivory wedding print themed vellum.

A card like this needs to sit on a stand and used some ivory vintage wedding lace down the centre of the spine.  I added some cream/peach vintage paper roses which I glittered the edges of the petals with a Spectrum Noir clear overlay pen to make them glisten a little and finished it off with some embellishments and a printed personalised acetate verse.

I made the box using by Crafters Companion Box Board but used the Bookatrix embossing board to make the panel in the box. The box was made from some A3 Crafters Companion double sided Timeless cardstock which has a beautiful coated finish.

https://www.crafterscompanion.co.uk/


With die cut machines being the way forward and metal dies readily available to create these style books now, like many Glitter Girls followers, I still use my boards and have no intention of getting rid of them anytime soon!

I hope you've enjoyed an insight into some of my favourite makes using these boards.

Happy crafting.