Masquerade

Hello
I cannot believe that it has been that long since I posted on my blog!

Life really is so full of busy things and good intentions.  I have been crafting all year with my crafty friends and enjoying lots of new products and trying out different techniques.  I cannot promise to bring you everything that we have done, but here is our project for tomorrow.  It was created after going to a demo day earlier in the year at IndigoBlu.
The delightful masquerade mask was on show, created by the talented Mike Deakin.

I fell in love with this and thought that this is the right time of year to complete one for myself.... for the crafty showcase:)

You start off with a plain brown paper mache mask that you can buy from most craft shops, and mix with a box of trinkets, buttons and stash, black gesso, metallic acrylic paints and here you are.

For exact instructions pop along to the site of Mike Deakin.

I have included pictures here of the before and after for you to see how mine turned out. Can you spot the word 'MAGIC'?  I thought I would add this for fun.



 As you can see almost anything can be used for decoration, I have used some metal charms and also created some little embellishments using the modelling clay 'hearty soft' used by Katy Sue.

Once all your decorations are firmly stuck down, it is advised that you use a hot glue gun for this.  Do be really careful with the metal and heat combination - health and safety!
You should then give it all a really good coat of black gesso to cover all the shiny surfaces and to allow the paint to adhere properly. This can be heat dried.

I have used the english cottage range of metallic paints from IndigoBlu.  - Blue - sleeping beauty, Green - emerald city and Purple - aladdin.
Once this was dry I brushed gold and sliver highlights over the final mask and embellishments to make them 'pop'.

I couldn't call it finished until I had added the 'girlie' touches of lace and feathers.  I hope you like this, I am really quite proud at my first attempt.
Thank you for having a read... I hope to be back soon X x

A couple of close up pictures would be lovely too.

'Yummy' shaker card

Moving on from Christmas cards it is nice to celebrate birthdays... and what better way of doing that than with a cupcake.  I love this paper, it goes so well with the house mouse picture provided on Joanna Sheen's project book CD volume one.

The card has been decorated very simply with wooden words from dovecraft "yummy", these have been covered in versamark and then dipped into embossing powder to give them that lovely turquoise colour.  I have used card candy, swirls cut with sizzix die and pearls.  The shakers are balloon table confetti.

To make the actual shaker card prepare the card with your pink card and stick your chosed picture to this.  then you need to cut out the cake paper frame with a spellbinders die then stuck acetate on the back using double sided tape covering the aperture. Then on top of the acetate use double sided foam tape all the way the frame on the inside without leaving any gaps, this will enclose the table confetti when stuck to the front of your picture and give it the depth to move.  Place the table confetti on the centre of the picture then hover over this with your frame and lower down and stick.

I hope that you have as much fun making your card as we did ours.

Till next time, thank you for popping by, X x

New Home Embriodery Hoop

Hi
As promised I am back with another embriodery hoop project.
This time the occasion was a new home. The stamps that I have used are from lavina.  I have cut around the mushroom houses and put one in the background and stuck the other to the front of the hoop to create dimension.

Again I have followed the same recipe as before with a sentiment and stamping in the background, lavinia's fairy washing line, then decorated the ring with butterflies using glitter card and the die beautiful wings from Stampin up.
As the family have two little dogs, one a black pentland terrier and the other a dauchund I thought it appropriate to add the puppies from Richard Addams.  I loved the 'together' die from sizzix.

Flowers and a ribbon finsh this perfectly, with a small key charm just hanaging in the centre.

I have shown you the back view too as I think the little verse from lavina stamps is perfect.

I hope you love this as much as I do.

 Thank you for popping by, I will be back with a couple of shaker cards I have made soon X x 

New baby embroidery hoop

Hi to you on a wet and rainy Monday morning.  But here to make you smile is a new baby project that I have recently completed for our friends who have become very proud grandparents of a little baby girl.

I got the idea from crafty Lou when I was at sir stampalot in Peterborough for our crafty get together before Christmas.

Instead of using a card blank as the base for your stamps and embellishments we have used an embroidery hoop.

You start with a 4 inch hoop, I have used a spellbinders scalloped circle die to cut the right size of background paper and card.
Then stick the embroidery hoop on top of the paper - really sticky white glue will hold this firm.
I have used many different embellishments to decorate, tiny alphabet beads spell out 'baby girl' the pink teddies were braid left over in my stash.

I made the rosette from the same background paper using a sizzix die  - the kind that you cut out straight then concertina and stick into a circle. The wooden embellishments I have covered with versamark and then embossed them with sparkly wow embossing powders.  The baby, washing line and words were from a lily of the valley stamp coloured using pro markers.                                                              
A little bit of ribbon and a sliver charm finish the project.

This is the back of the ring, as I said the pink card is just the right size to cover the edges of the embroidery hoop nicely.

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at my photos and that this might give you an idea to use for your next project.

I will be back soon with another hoop idea..... this time it is for a new home :)
Enjoy your week and thank you for popping by.

Stampin up party

Hi ladies
I just wanted to show you the pretty little makes that I created at Tracey's Stampin up party last night.
I met some lovely ladies, made new friends and shared cake and a natter... it really was a lovely evening.

We all came away with some really pretty little projects.

The first I would like to show you is a card and tag.  The bow was made using a bow builder punch, this is absolutely fab - I think I might have to buy one of these myself, it was so easy!  What do you think?

I think this is so clean and simple.  You could add all sort of decorative embellishments if you would like to have something more fancy.

 

The other two little projects were a tiny post note holder and a small card.  The stamp on the card is called lotus blossom.  It is a two step stamp.  Meaning that you stamp the lines with the textured stamp of the flower with a dark colour ink first and then stamp over the top of this with a lighter colour using the solid stamp.  It really is not difficult and gives a wonderful 3d effect to your flower.  I do hope that you like the projects as much as we enjoyed making them. If you are interested in knowing more about Stampin up then please follow the link to my friend Tracey's blog.

 

Thank you for stopping by on this nearly dark Saturday afternoon :)

 

 

 

Alternative agapanthus

I have seen that the previous post has been so popular, using the sweet poppy stencil and paste that I decided to post another that I have made.



This time I have used white paste on a slate gray background cardstock.

I have also used a matching agapanthus stamp to give the white border a little interest.  Black gems in the shape of a butterfly and small dots add the final touches.

I really hope that you like this card as much as the first.

I will be back soon, enjoy the rest of your week end X x

How to create the flag book christmas album

I thought that you might like to know how to make the flag book in the previous post.

It really is very easy to make this.  I have used 4 inside pages for this album.

The front and back pages (red sheets in the photo) are 14.5 cm by 15cm as are the inside pages (white card in the photo).  The back spine (chocolate card in the photo) is 14.5 cm by 5inches wide.  This is scored at 1/2 inch intervals and folded concertina like.  The gold ribbon is added for decorative purposes.

Once you have scored and folded the spine, this needs to be really crisp folds to make a good book, all you have to do is to stick the outer covers and then the inside pages.

I actually used red double sided tape to put mine together as this is much more sturdy.  But for the purposes of this post I have used white tape so that you can see which side of the folds to stick your pages.

This is a closer view, I stuck the covers in first then the inside pages, I have used a little piece of tape to show that you need to stick your inside page all the way down to the bottom on this side of the fold.

The following photo shows you a birds eye view of the completed book.

I have finished off the outside by adding the ribbon, sticking down on the outside of the front and back covers.

I do hope that you manage to follow the simple instructions and enjoy making your mini scrapbook albums as much as we did ours.

Thank you for passing by.. Elizabeth X x

Christmas Memories mini album

Hello... and Happy New Year

I cannot believe how quickly time has gone, so many things have happened since I last posted, but I am hoping that I will be able to post again on a regular basis.

 

This week end I have had the most wonderful Saturday crafting with friends.  We created a Christmas Memories mini album, we had lots of fun tea, cake, lunch and more crafting.

 

I have posted below pictures for you to see.  The album was a flag book, made from scratch using paper from papermania called fun and frolics , we have also used contrasting plain paper and card to break up the many patterns going on!

 

This is the back cover on the left and the front cover on the right.  You can just see the concertina spine in the centre.  The tree is cut from glitter card using a Marianne die.  The envelope was made using a woodware envelope punch, vellum and then embossing it with a dotty embossing folder.

 

 

The next two pages include a vintage recipe found by googling 'vintage Christmas' and a spellbinders film strip die.  The snowflakes were made using a Martha Stewart punch. 

 

 

The pink mittens were die cut using a Marianne die and then embossed and gently smudged with white ink over the raised areas to pick out the detail.  They go really well with the little red and pink outfits of the robins I think you will agree.

We have stamped and smudged the edges of the lined paper ready for journaling to accompany the photos to be added to the chocolate die cut shapes later.

The stamps were many from my stamping up stash of Christmas's past :)

 

Again Marianne dies have been used to cut the sleigh and the fir branch from glitter card.  You can just make out the embossing on the plain pages here to add more interest.

 

I have cut up a Christmas card, winter wonderland to put behind the film strip die, the circle with snowflakes also came from the same Christmas card.

Many of the additional embellishments that you see came from a  papermania scrapbooking pack.

The stocking, sweet and parcel were die cut from mirror card using a cuttlebug die, one of the first ones I ever bought many years ago.  They have been coloured using permanent marker pens.

 

The 'let it snow' sentiment came from a set by Katy Sue and the poinsettia a spellbinders die.

 

 

I really hope that you have enjoyed looking at the photos and that it might have given you some inspiration to try something like this for yourself.

 

I will post some simple instructions later in the week, however I think you will find that there are many tutorials on the internet that will give you good advice.

 

Thank you for reading my post today.  I hope that you have a fantastic week and can drop by again soon. X x