Pretty Papers

Morning Peeps.

Thought I'd share a couple of cards I've made for some 'big' birthdays. I wanted to do something with Lili of the Valley papers for their September 'Pretty Papers' challenge

This first one is for a 50th Birthday

I die-cut lots of butterflies from two of the lilac papers in the 'Timeless Victorian' paper pad, creased each one in the centre and dipped them in PVA glue before placing them on the background paper in the shape of the number 50 (the background paper is from the same pad).

I've finished off with some Prima flowers with pearls glued into the centres and some lilac organza ribbon

My second one is for a male 21st birthday and uses papers from Lili of the Valley's 'Father Knows Best' pad. Not 'pretty' as such, but lovely papers nonetheless.

I started with a landscape A5 card and folded the front in half.  I embossed some of the light brown paper with the 'A Stitch in Time' folder from Crafters Companion and glued it to the front panel.

The letters are die-cut from the black dotty paper in the pad, which I've also used to cover the back panel.

I've used the Happy Birthday from LOTV's 'Handwritten Phrases' clear stamp set to decorate some chipboard letters from my stash

 

The man putting up the letters is  LOTV's 'Lick of Paint' stamp but I've cut off the paintbrush and paint pot. He's coloured in with Promarkers (mostly Umber, Khaki and Pastel Beige)

I might add some buttons to it yet, but being a firm follower of the 'less is more' camp, I'm fairly happy with it. And who knows, maybe I'll get picked out of the hat (fingers crossed).

'Bye for now and have a great day.

Under the Sea

Evenin' All !

It occurs to me that my blog posts are like buses, nothing for ages then 3 come along at once :)
Now that our cardmaking club has restarted after the summer break I hope to update this more regularly (but I wouldn't hold your breath).

Here's the card I'm entering for the current Clarity Challenge Blog. 

The theme this month is 'Nature' so I was spoilt for choice in which stamps to use (I'd say about half of my MAHOOSIVE collection of stamps are trees, flowers or animals). But since I borrowed the large seahorse from my Mum way back in May I figured I'd better get on and use it!
 

We had a play with shaving foam at cardmaking club last time and I was pretty pleased with one of the blue pieces I made, it's just right for an underwater scene.  I stamped Clarity's 'Neptune' stamp along the bottom a few times with Honeydew metallic ink and then sprinkled with Enchanted Gold embossing powder before heat-setting.

Then I coloured in the strands with a green pencil

Next I stamped the large Clarity Seahorse stamp with Versamark and dusted him with yellow, green and blue mica powders.

I love the extra 'wings' he has coming out of his back (even more so because it was a complete accident!)  

I did the same with the smaller seahorse on the left-hand side of the paper. This was when I realised that I had put my hand right in the mica from the first one. Oops. I dabbed some more mica powder on in the (not very great) hope that it would repair the damage, and amazingly it still stuck to the Versamark. Phew.

(Note to self:- next time, work from left to right)

To make the bubbles 'pop' I filled them with Cosmic Shimmer pearl PVA

 then waited overnight for it to dry (an agonising wait but I wasn't taking any chances after the 'hand in mica' incident)

It needed something along the top to balance it out, so I spent half an hour trying out rows of different colour buttons (I've got to start using them up, I'm sure they're breeding).

But they're not doing it for me, so back in the box they go. Instead I dig out some mulberry paper and a leaf die (this one's part of a 3-set from Cuttlebug). I've dabbed a bit of Icicle Stickles on them with my finger. I wasn't sure what to stick them down with as they're so see-through, but Collall photo glue seems to have done the trick.

Well, that's about it for now, I hope to catch up with you soon.

Dabbling with shaving foam

Morning Peeps, hope you're all having a good weekend. 

 

We had a play with shaving foam at club last time - messy but fun!

The cleaner's mind must have boggled on finding the bin chock full of foamy kitchen towel.

 

 

This first background is using yellow, pink and green alcohol inks on white linen card.

 (Alium and sentiment stamps from Inkylicious)

 

 

This one was made with blue and green Distress Ink reinkers onto smooth white card. I've added icicles and snowflakes die-cut from thin white card then mounted it all onto a blue card blank.

 

(Christmas sentiment from Clarity Stamps)

 

 

The tag and background here were made with green, blue and purple inkydinks from Imagination Crafts.  My first attempt at stamping the thistle didn't come out very well as the shaving foam makes the card less absorbent. This second attempt was stamped with black archival, which came out much better.

 I've finished it off with blue and purple gems and organza ribbon.

 

 

 

Watch this space for what we're doing on the 25th ...