ATCs & Inchies for the March group swap

 The theme this month for the group swap is flowers, so I went with the traditional springtime
daffodils for my ATCs and springtime inchies to match.

 

 For the inchies I used a mini stamp by Inkadinkado.  An adorable set of stamps, comprising of  16 inch square stamps, 6 mini stamps and a 2 inch square stamp.  This set is  all bird themed. They may be small stamp beautifully.

 I stamped them with a versafine ink pad in toffee and used a little glossy accent on the eggs. I used an inch stitched die for the base onto some chocolate centura pearl cardstock, adding a little hessian for texture to the cards.

For the ATCs I used Tim Holtz distress oxides inks in lucky clover & twisted citron to make the background

For my flowers, I used The Dreamees flower shower fuschia stamp set to make my daffodils. There is a tutorial on how I made these flowers in a previous post.  I stamped these onto some vibrant yellow card I had with the same toffee versafine ink.

These flowers have been cut out by hand and assembled. They are not a hard flower to make and definitely worth the effort to make them I think.

I used a strong tacky pva based glue like cosmic shimmer to adhere them to the card.

I finished the cards of with the little criss-cross stamp from the same flower shower stamp set.

Happy Crafting

MDF Memory Book using Dreamees products

For a monthly group swap I decided to use some of my mdf to make a memory book.

For the memory book i used the following:-

• Dreameese mdf scalloped edge memory book 
• Dreamees something blue paper pad
• Dreamees A charming cascade stamp set
• Dreamees flourishes and butterfly dies
• Dreamees pale blue pearls
• Dreamees blue dinky inky from Autumn Winter collection
• Dreamees sensational flowers backing paper for flowers (from the cd)
• Create & Craft satin board in blue and turquoise 
• Greyboard to make the pages for the middle
• Crafters Companion Classic alphabet dies
• blue eyelets
• white lace
• photo corners

Once I chose  how I wanted the papers to go together (which wasnt difficult as they all work really well in the paper pad) I drew around one of the mdf pieces (not forgetting to mark where the holes needed to be as I like to punch them out for a neater finish.  I did the same with some greyboard  I had left over which was slightly bigger than A5. the greyboard will make the pages in between.

 After sticking my papers to the mdf and greyboard I used my blue dinky inky (which is a sort of french navy) to ink the edges using  dauber. The Dreamees made their ink collection to match up with their paper pads and backing papers on the cds, which make it so much easier to find an ink to compliment the papers when you just need a hint of colour..

 I added the eyelets and two strips of lace across the front of the mdf, using red liner tape. I thought this particular piece of lace looked nice overlapping.

I then stamped and heat embossed the flower stamps from A Charming Cascade onto a pale grey and white patterned backing paper from the Dreamees Sensational Flowers cd using super fine silver Wow embossing powder.

Using 3 different sized flower shapes I layered up the flowers and made 3 of these to stick on the front of the memory book.  When I cut them out I like to leave a very slim border around the petals so not to loose any detail from the flower.

I used the satin board for the butterflies and flourishes.

 You can just see the photo corners that I have used on the inside pages of the memory book and as the pages are a little bare until they have some pictures in them, I have added a few butterflies to the centre of each page.

I then put the finishing touches onto the memory book with the lettering die cut from Crafters Companion classic alphabet die set using Hunkydory mirri board and adding  the pearls.

 The 2 inner pages are made from greyboard.

 As the rings are hinged, they can be easily opened and more pages added.

I made my usual Dreamee bookmark to accompany the swap using the same papers and the Stamping Up bookmark punch with the Dreamees Calligraphy alphabet stamp set.

Dreamees.org.uk

Happy Crafting

Monochrome Mens Music Birthday Card

For my men's monochrome music themed birthday card I used the Visible Image Jazz it Up and The Ripple Effect stamp set.

To make this card I used:-

• Visible Image Ripple Effect stamp set
• Visible Image Jazz it Up stamp set
• Sheena Douglass Music & Dance stamp set
• black & white striped vellum
• Hunkydory 250gsm white stamping card
• Crafters Companion matt black card
• Xcut circle dies
• Xcut cog dies
• black embossing powder & versamark ink pad
• black versafine ink and glossy accent

I stamped and heat embossed the trumpet players from the Visible Image Jazz it Up stamp set with black embossing powder.and then I used Sheena Douglass musical notes from her stamp set to stamp a faint background on the card.

This stamp set was free with Issue 52 of the Creative Stamping magazine.

Then I used the keyboard from the Jazz it Up stamp set to stamp the keyboards with black versafine ink. Once the ink was dry I went over the black keys with some glossy accent to give a little texture.

I also created a few vinyl records for the card.

The vinyl records were made with The Visible Image - The Ripple Effect stamp set, which has been heat embossed onto a circle die cut piece of black card with black embossing powder. It has then been finished off with one of the cog dies to make it look like an old 45 inch vinyl record.

It was just a case of planning where I wanted everything to go, combining all the different textures on the card. I used a hole punch to cut out 3 white circles of white card and added some glossy accent to them to make them look like brads.

I added a name to one of my records as this is one of my friend's favourite groups. Being a music lover, I thought he would like a music themed birthday card.  I don't always put a birthday sentiment on the front of my cards even though I always add an insert to them as the card doesn't always need one.

I am entering this into the following blog challenges:-

Mix It Up - ATG
Monochrome Magic - ATG twist of black & white 
We Love2Create - ATG
As you Like It - ATG CAS or Layers? I love adding layers to my cards to add dimension and texture such as heat embossing or glossy accent.
Simon Says - ATG

Happy Crafting

Springtime Birthday Card

My DT card for the March Blog Challenge  over on  Daisy Chains   is themed  " Springtime "
A birthday card with handmade daffodils.

For my springtime card I used:-

• Dreamees Flower Showers Stamp Set
• Tattered Lace Pretty Pearls circle die
• Crealies square stitched die
• Rectangle stitched die
• Versafine Toffee ink pad
• Dreamees pearls
• yellow stamens
• Lemon spotty ribbon
• yellow cardstock to stamp on
• Dreamees backing paper
• mini peg & wooden ladybird
• cream 6 x  6 scalloped card 

There were a few things in the picture that I chose not to use in the end, one being the swirl die as I had originally intended to use acetate swirls to attach some butterflies but decided the card didn't need anything else added to it once assembled. I also chose the yellow ribbon over the mint gingham.

I have in the past made fuchsia flowers from this stamp set but wanted to show you how versatile this stamp set is and how you can make lovely dimensional daffodils out of them also.

First the flowers. I normally estimate how many flowers I think I will need and then make a few extra as there's nothing worse than assembling your card only to discover that you have not made enough. In this case, I knew that I would only need 5.

I stamped 10 of larger plain flowers to form the outer blooms and 5 of the medium sized defined flower stamps to form the trumpet of the daffodil.  You will also need 2 double ended stamens per flower.  Make a hole in the centre of the smaller flower stamp and one of the larger outer flower shapes for each flower.

Using a ball tool and a foam mat, I shaped the outer flower shapes so that one curled in and the other slightly out. For the smallest flower shape forming the trumpet, curl the flower inwards and then add a little tacky pva based glue (which dries clear - I use cosmic shimmer as it works for everything for me when it comes to sticking) to the edge of one of the petals and slightly overlap, holding it in place until you feel that it has stuck. 

 Do this for each petal working around the flower.  I tend to glue 3 together and then glue the last 2 together. The reason I do this as it gives the trumpet part of the flower a more natural shape.

Fold the stamens in half, twist and thread through the flower shapes.  Once I got this far, I used my hot glue gun. Coil the surplus stamen around and add a little glue to the base of the larger flower shape to keep the stamen in place before adding a little a little more glue to place the last flower shape in place ( hiding any scruffy ends).

Shape your flowers a little once they are all stuck down.

This flower was stamped with Toffee versafine ink and the yellow card was the perfect shade of yellow for the daffodils. I love making these dimensional blooms. All stamped and cut by hand.

Using some green card, I cut out some leaf shapes to create the foliage.

It just a case of planning how you want your card to look and adding all those elements to your card.

I used the stamped sentiment from the Dreamees Flower Shower stamp set and coordinated the backing card.  Adding the matching ladybug and pearls.

A springtime birthday card 

Daisy Chain Challenge

Entered into the following blog challenges:-

Crafty Cards - floral delight

Pammies inky pinkies - ATG

Happy Crafting