Groovi parchment baby card

Hello again

I've been fascinated watching Barbara Gray and her 'parching' cards, using her Clarity Groovi system.  I have always loved the Clarity stamps and I've made several cards using them.  However parchment itself is very time consuming and you need to be exceedingly accurate.  I am neither patient nor accurate so Clarity's Groovi system was perfect for me.  I bought the Groovi starter kit which came with some plates.  I had quite a few practices, all of which started off well but I usually made some errors, like being too heavy handed, splitting the parchment, putting the pricking on the wrong side, using water to colour in and warping the parchment etc etc.  However I did learn from my mistakes!  Anyway I persevered and finally made a sheet of parchment that looked reasonably decent.

I had an occasion to make a baby boy card earlier on last week and coincidentally Clarity had brought out some baby plates earlier last month.  I watched some of the demonstrations on Hochanda and thought I'd like to have a go with this, so sent off for the baby plates from Crafters Companion. 

I can't take credit for the design of this card.  I used one of the Hochanda demonstrations for the inspiration, but had to adapt it slightly as I didn't have all the plates they used.

 I loved the little feet, bottle and dummy and they came out rather well, I thought.  You have to work from the back of the parchment (which I found out to my cost!).   Once you've drawn the pattern, which is already engraved onto the plate, making it much easier and more accurate, you then can colour it and also use some 'white work' to emphasise different aspects of the plate.

I added the hearts myself and glittered them from the front and also added the words 'Baby Boy'.

As you probably know parchment paper is notorious for being difficult to fix on to card as the glue or sticky tape will show.  Clarity have come up with a solution which is a punch which makes slots in the card to insert the parchment paper into.   I haven't quite got the hang of it as the parchment in this card is a bit lumpy bumpy but I think its not too bad.

Hope you like it.  Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Accordion Card

Hello, me again!

Today I'd like to show you a card I made using the Accordion Die from Crafters Companion.  

I used the square die and the flower decorative die that goes with the square accordion.  The concept of the accordion die is to cut the main card out of plain card first of all.  Then using a contrasting colour card cut out the decorative die.  You have to cut the decorative die twice to fit  each square and it joins seamlessly in the middle.

I cut two complete squares, which meant cutting the decorative die eight times, front and back.  You can use wet glue or 'Stick It' on the back of the card to stick the decorative diecut on the card.  

I then cut two different sized squares using the dies included in the square die to matt onto the plain square.  I cut a flower using a Crafters Companion die to attach to the front of the card.  I also used a butterfly die cut and a sentiment die.

The beauty of the accordion die is you can make a card with as many accordions as you like.  You could spell out a message, putting a different letter on each square.

The accordion dies come in different shapes and sizes, circles, oblongs, rectangles and squares.  You can also get different patterns but they are not interchangeable, they fit the individual shapes.  I find them very versatile but they do take a long time to make; however I do think they are very effective.

Thank  you for looking.

Liz x

Teddy Bear card

Hi

I thought you might like to see this little card.  

The stamp is from Meadow Cottage Bears - Teddy Bears Picnic - Crafters Companion and the papers are from one of their CDs, but I can't remember which one!!  I think it may be from Makey Bakey Mice. 

I matted the card onto dark blue Bazzil card stock and used the same card stock for die cutting the 'Happy Birthday'.  The die was from Crafters Companion Die'sire range.

I hope you like the card.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Little make-up bag

Hello

Today I'd like to show you a make-up bag I made using WhoopsieDaisy Designs at my sewing class near Horam.  I go every Monday morning and we have so much fun.  Sharon Gammon is such a good teacher.

The top of the bag (the pink bit) uses a material called faux leather, which I bought from Debbie Shore on the Crafters' Companion website.  It comes in various colours and I must admit I love using it.  I plan on using it to make some handbags soon, so watch this space.   The bottom part and the lining are made from Tilda fat quarters.  

The faux leather is really soft and feels just like leather.  It is also very easy to sew with as the back is just like normal fabric.  It can be ironed (but only on the wrong side) and treated just like ordinary cotton.

The bag has a zip and Sharon shows how easy it is to insert a zip into a bag.  The pleat in the bag, both inside and outside, allows you to put much more into the bag than you would think as it expands.  

I really enjoyed sewing this bag and I have already made a couple more, one of which my eldest grand-daughter 'snaffled' for her make-up!  

This one I made for my friend Sue and I think she was pleased with it; she certainly said she was!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Kimono

Hello

I bought Marilyn Robertson's beautiful Kimono Papercrafting CD, together with a fan and a peacock die from Crafters Companion a few months ago.  

Both the papers and the dies are really beautiful and I have enjoyed using them very much.  The first card I made was for my daughter and son-in-law on their fifth wedding anniversary.  I do love white on white cards and I felt this worked out very well but I did use a little silver gilding wax.

I used the Diesire A6 Create a Card Daisy Dreams Die and Centura card.

This card was made using papers from the Kimono CD, the Kimono Paper Moon stamp. I used silver embossing powder and decorated it with Liquid Pearls.

I also made the same card but using different backing papers and was surprised at how different the cards looked.  The backing paper was in my stock otherwise everything is the same.

With my last card made using Kimono products I used the lantern embossing folder, paper from the CD and the Butterfly Silk stamp set.  Again I used my watercolour pencils to colour her in.

Thank you for looking

Liz x

Double tri-fold card

I saw this sample of a double tri-fold card some while ago on the Crafters' Companion's project web-site and fell in love with it. 

So I decided to make one to welcome my new grandson into the world.

I used my Crafters Companion Humphrey stamps and CD in this card.  I have used some decoupage and hand-painted the rest of the images.

This one worked well so I thought I'd make one each for my grand-daughter and grandson in Australia as I wouldn't get to see them. 

Here is the one I sent to Emma, my grand-daughter and actually was the first one I did.

I used Jayne Nesterenko's Winter Adorables CD solely on this one, some decoupaged and some straight printing and then quite a lot of glitter!

For Adam I couldn't use anything fancy so I used Jayne Nesterenko's many Cute Companion stamps and hand-painted them.

I used the stamps from various of Jayne's stamp sets and they all seemed to mix together well.

They took for ever to decorate but I think they were worth the effort in the long run. 

I haven't heard back yet what the children's reaction was to them, but I enjoyed doing them. xx

Appley Dapply card

Me again!

One of my girls at work is celebrating the 1st birthday of her daughter, Emily.  I have just bought the Crafters Companion Appley Dapply CD Rom and stamps and needed an excuse to use them, so I decided to make Emily a card.  This was actually one of the projects on the CD but I was very pleased with how it came out.  I shall certainly make it again.

It is a gatefold A5 card with a decoupage plate in front which then becomes an easel card to make it stand up.  Clever, isn't it?

This is the decoupage plate which has five or six layers.  Fairly easy to cut out, except for the tails!!

I printed out the alphabet from the CD Rom which is different from the project, but I thought it made the card more personal.

And finally the insert also matches.  I hope she likes it. x

The Glitter Pot

Hello back again.

Last Thursday I took the day off work as it was my friend Sandie's birthday.  She and my other friend, Sue try and do something special on our birthdays.  This year we decided to go and have 'brunch' at the Limes in Lindfield - it is a beautful place where everything is home made!  After a very lazy meal and catch up, we went onto the Glitter Pot, as you do!  We hadn't been to the new place - we got terribly lost but that is part of the adventure, isn't it?  Wow is was worth it though - what an improvement - much more space - in fact you just don't know where to start.  Anyway I bought lots and lots of things - spent far to much, but hey who cares?  It was Sandie's birthday after all!!!

Anyway here are a couple of samples I made with some of the stamps I bought:

This is my new  Hero Arts stamp.  Isn't it beautiful?   I can't really take credit for the card as it's partly copied from one on display there, but I couldn't resist giving it a try.   I'm going to give this to my daughter on her birthday in September.  But I've got lots of ideas, just using different colours.

 

This is from a Penny Black set called Make a Wish.  Again I've used a sample for inspiration but isn't it cute?  There are so many different stamps in this set which I can't wait to use, so that's my next task. 

I have to admit I have started making a few Christmas cards (I know I've used the 'C' word but there are some beautiful ideas out there already) so here's a couple of examples:

This is from Kanban's Patchwork Pals and the kit has both front and back pictures:

I do love Kanban.  Their designs and colours are brilliant and the quality is next to none.  I have to admit I just hate using it - the paper is just so lovely to stroke!!!  How sad is that?

This was a card using a template  from Crafter's Companion DVD - it looked quite fiddly but in fact it was quite straightforward.  It took a bit longer to decorate but again I used the Kanban Patchwork Pals kit.

It does look as though we've had our summer - what a shame - mind you it was so very hot - we're never satisfied, are we?

Hope you're all enjoying your holidays or time with the children. 

I'll be back later. xxx

Me again!

Hello, back again!

Whilst I've been off line I've not stopped buying stamps and things - well you can't can you? :o))

So being a member of Crafters' Companion I was offered Souffle the Duck CD and stamps using some of my loyalty stamps.  Too good an offer to miss.  So this is a card I've made with that.

I already had a Popcorn the Bear CD and just made this card from some bits left over from some of the decoupage.

I also had some freebie papers from Creative Cardmaking magazine, which I love, so I made this card for one of the girl's birthdays at work.  She was chuffed with it and I felt a bit guilty as I made it out of freebies, but you couldn't tell.

I even used a bit of the freebie 'ribbon' to embellish the insert page too.  Well I could afford to, couldn't I?

Then, of course I HAD to buy the new Jayne Nesterenko Duo's Stamp sets and here are a couple of cards I made with them.  They really are lovely and I am very pleased with them. 

Using the Wishing Line set of stamps,  I stamped  the trees in the background direct to card and coloured in with watercolours.  The the little mice I stamped, coloured, cut out and stuck onto the card and then I stamped the little mouse again, coloured him in, punched him out with a circle punch and then used glossy accents to give a sheen to it, and then matched the circle with the rest of the card.  I have to admit, the circle bit took me longer than I thought, but it'll probably be easier next time!  The flowers I just sparkled using Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle and then glittered as well.

I was very pleased with this one and shall experiment a bit more using other stamps.  What do you think?

Finally using the Crafting Companions stamp set I made this one.

This one is so simple but very effective.  Again this can be used in several ways and different colours but I think this looks very elegant.

Well I'm off to do some more card-making.  Enjoy your weekend.  xx

Happy Christmas everyone

Hi Everyone
I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and Happy New Year.  I have had a lovely one which I'm surprised about as I'm not a great lover of Christmas.  I did no planing - in fact I thought I would just see my two children and grandchildren to open presents and then everyone would be off, but I was told by my daughter only a few days ago that 'of course they'd be coming to me for Christmas lunch'!!  Anyway no panic - I couldn't be bothered to get worked up so I just did chicken, vegs etc.  I already had everything in so didn't need to do the horrendous Christmas shop.  The family had decided to do Secret Santa for the adults so I only had to think of one present, and my daughter sorted that out for me!

I am taking my daughter and grand daughters to Australia in February, so that's their birthday, Christmas and birthday presents all rolled into one - obviously my daughter knew but the girls didn't so we did a Treasure Hunt around the house ending up with labels I'd made giving them a return 'ticket' to Australia.  This is the moment Chloe realised what she had found -

priceless!!  

When Emily realised too her reaction was just as good:

Emily said "I've always wanted to go to Australia Grandma"  Just as well really!!

I made them some thank you cards for them to send off, which I put under the tree - I'd seen the idea on C & C with Sara Davies, Crafters' Companion, and used my Cute Companion stamp and CDs, no change there!!  This is Emily's

This is the box:

Here are the cards with inserts and matching envelopes. 

And these are Chloe's:

I think they quite liked them.  I know Kate, their mum, did!!

Right off now to top up my glass (hic)!  Enjoy the rest of your day and what's left of the holiday!

Love xxx