Happy Birthday Flower

Hello lovely peeps and welcome to my new follower :o)
Only one more to go until I reach 100 and have a little giveaway, woo hoo!

Today's card is using 'Flower' from Bloobel, I just love the quirky expressions on her stamps.

First I pulled the stamp into CraftArtist and added a background from the Aviary Exotic digikit by Daisytrail before printing onto smooth white card

I coloured the image in with alcohol markers (mostly Promarkers)
Face: blush, oatmeal, sunkissed pink, coral
Eyes: denim, twilight sky, black, white gel pen
Petals: cardinal red, rose pink
Body: GraphIts 8125, 8140, 8160

The sentiment was done on my computer using Troutkings font and I coloured in some white card with a black fineliner to give a stripy background layer for each word

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 Bloobel Progressive Challenge - April/Flower Garden
Squirrels Not So Random Challenge #4 Spring Fever
That's Crafty! Challenge Blog Bright
I love Promarkers #333 Anything Goes 
Creative Moments #116 Anything Goes w/optional twist Spring has sprung
Kitty Bee Designs #93 In the Garden
SSS Work it Wednesday April showers bring May flowers

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Ballet Shoes for LOTV

Hello lovely peeps and welcome to my new follower :o)
Only two more to go until I reach 100 and have a little giveaway.

 Just popping in with a sneaky peek of one of the six new gorgeous stamps being released by Lili of the Valley on 10th May. This one is called 'Ballet Shoes', isn't she beautiful?

I remembered having some ballet theme papers (Hopscotch from K&Co) in my stash, so I hoofed them out to use as the basis for my colour scheme. I'm sure I had a paper with ballet shoes on it but it's either hiding from me or I've already used it all.  The flower paper is pretty though and goes perfectly with the ballet word paper, so I went with that. I roughened the edges of the flower paper with my scissors and cut some of the flowers out to use as embellishments. I tore a strip from the ballet word paper by hand, using the edge of my desk to control the tear and layered up both papers on a 6x6 card with some bands of pink organza ribbon to echo the ties on her shoes.

Next I coloured the image in with Promarkers to match the papers
skin: almond, blush, oatmeal
hair: tan, cinnamon, cocoa
dress: ivory, ice grey 1-3, saffron, apricot
floor: putty, tan, cinnamon

then added Glamour Dust glitter with a Sakura glue pen.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 The Ribbon Girls April any image
Creative Inspirations #273 One for the girls
Love to Scrap  #96 Girlz Rule
I love Promarkers #333 Anything Goes
Allsorts #412 I spy something beginning with B (ballet)
Sisterhood of Crafters  The letter B (ballet) 

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Lily Concertina for Leonie and Blog Candy Alert

Hello lovely peeps, I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

I'm back with the final sample that I made for Leonie's Typography show, this time combining the Pebeo metal leaf AND Sara's Shabby Chic dies

First I'll show you how I did the colourful background. I started by painting some Sheena Stamping Card with white Tinting Base

then I used a wet wipe to apply 3 different colours of acrylic paint

before cutting the card into four equal panels.


I used Leonie's Typography dies to make stencils from white card

and stippled white titanium paint through the apertures with a stencil brush.

with a different letter on each of the panels

I used the yellow, orange and green paints to stencil more letters through and then stamped around the edges with Leonie's Funky Tree stamp

I applied lots of Pebeo Gilding Paste from the bottle around the edges of each panel using a paintbrush, then left it to dry for an hour.

before applying Gold Metal Leaf (shiny side up)

I thought I would have to press quite hard to get the foil to stick but it comes off really easily

To mount my painted panels I cut a 10.5 x 28cm strip of black card and scored/folded at 7, 14 and 21cm, then glued each panel on with Collall Tacky Glue

For the front of my card I used two of the Typography mini embossing folders to emboss another painted panel of card. Remember to leave the edge of the folder poking out over the edge of your platform so you don't get a line across the card.

I used a sanding block over the raised areas to reveal the white card underneath

For the final decoration I made some lilies from white paper using Sara's Shabby Chic Classic Lily dies, coloured with diluted Brushos

Paint the petals with yellow first and then the green once that has dried.

The stamens were tipped with brown once the green was dry

I twirled each stamen around my pokey tool, poked the end through the handy hole in the centre of the lily and glued it at the back with Collall Glue Gel.

They lose some of their dimension when glued down flat on the card but I think they still look fab :o)

So here's my finished piece, all tied up with bright orange organza ribbon

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-

Creative Artiste Challenge #25 Anything Mixed Media Goes
Deep Ocean Challenge #153 Spring
Artistic Stampers  Backgrounds
Noor Design UK  Flowers
We Love 2 Create #8 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
Creatalicious Challenges #113 Anything Goes with optional Birthday
Stemplegarten #60 colourful spring

Now, did someone mention candy? :o)

If you've been following me for a while you'll know that I like my round numbers and I had giveaways for my 100th and 200th blog posts. It's going to be a few weeks yet until my 300th post (this is number 284) but I hope to reach another milestone before then.

I am immensely grateful to have 97 fabulous followers on Google, but I would love to get to 100 so when I reach the magic number I will have a little giveaway.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you again soon.

Katrina x

Miss you for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps

I'm back with another card made with Leonie's Typography collection, this time combined with some Metal Leaf from Pebeo.

To make the background I dabbed some Distress Inks  - faded jeans, tumbled glass and weathered wood - onto my craft mat and spritzed with water

before dragging some Sheena Stamping Card through

I dried each layer with my heat gun before repeating the process to build up interest and texture. On the last layer I added some 'Ice Drop' Sparkle Pen for a bit of shimmer

For the overlay I spread some Pebeo Gilding Paste from the tube onto a piece of Cut and Dry foam, 'inked' up Leonie's Funky Tree stamp with it and stamped onto a piece of vellum

 You can just about see the glue on the vellum :o)

When this was dry I rubbed on some Pebeo silver metal leaf.
It only took me three attempts before I remembered that it has to go foil side up when you apply it :o)

I flipped the vellum over and coloured in the reverse of the tree with Promarkers

then tore the edges of the vellum and I dabbed some Pebeo Silver Gilding Wax along the rough edges. To attach it to the background layer I wrapped the top and bottom of the vellum around the background layer and taped it down.

For the greeting I attached some Stick-It double-sided adhesive to a darker piece of spritzed card and die-cut the small script letters using Leonie's Typography dies.

I peeled the plastic carrier sheet off to reveal the adhesive and applied some more Pebeo silver leaf.

I stamped one of the Banners and Frames stamps onto the darker spritzed card and cut it out with a small border.  The letters were attached with Collall Tacky Glue

The whole thing is attached to a 6"x6" white card blank.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Simon Says Stamp (Mon) Splash It On
My Time to Craft #343 No Designer Papers
Cards und More  #182 - Monochrome 
Stamping Sensations  Anything Goes 
Passion For Promarkers Challenge #391 Going dotty (used Promarkers)
Lost Coast Designs #35 - Favorite Background Technique (ink smooshing)

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Floral Stepper Card for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps

Leonie is back on Hochanda today with her Typography collection and we were asked to make some more samples combining Leonie's products with Pebeo Metal Leaf and/or Sara's Shabby Chic collection.

My first make is a side-stepper card and I used one of the Fancy Card Blanks from Crafters Companion as my base.

I wanted to cover the front of the card with patterned paper and thought the easiest way to get the shape right was to make a template, so I cut one of the card blanks up.

I traced the 'hat' shape on the back of some pink card and cut it out slightly inside the lines.

Next I used the pink shape to trace on the back of some Blissful Cotton patterned paper (from Anna Marie Designs) and cut it out inside the lines again.

The side panels were easy to decorate as they are just rectangles. To distress each panel I roughened the edges with my scissors.

For the sentiment topper I started by die-cutting one of Sara's Antique Frames from white card, the pink card and the patterned paper.  I then took the white 'innie' bit and embossed it with one of Leonie's mini 'Swirls and More' folders

Tip: if you place the folder on your platform so that the edge of the folder peeks over the edge of the platform then you don't get a line on your card from the edge of the folder.

I turned the shape around and embossed the other corner (using the same trick as above to avoid getting a line in the middle)

I fitted this centre piece inside the pink frame/'outy' bit and taped it at the back to hold it in place, then added the patterned paper frame/ 'outy' bit with a slight offset.

The letters for 'Mum' were cut from matching pink card using Leonie's Typography dies.

To make the flowers I used the Aged Rose die from Sara's Shabby Chic collection with some slightly textured white paper, using two die-cuts per flower. I put a spot of glue under the second petal

and laid the second die-cut on top, slightly offset from the first

Once the glue was dry I used a quilling tool to wind it into a flower shape, pinching really tight at the start to give a nice curly centre

and added lots of Tacky (PVA) glue to the bottom to secure it to the base. I held the flowers together for 60 seconds while the glue dried to make sure they didn't unravel.

Everything was then layered up on the card base with some cheesecloth, white organza ribbon and a white 'Weathered Window' die-cut.

Leonie's Hochanda shows are on at 7am, 10am and 5pm BST today. You can watch live online, Sky channel 663, Freeview 85 or Freesat 817. The shows will also be on Rewind for about 10 days.

Please pop by to my teamies' blogs if you get a chance, their links are in my sidebar  ------>

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Crafty Ribbons (on FB)  Use ribbon
Really Reasonable Ribbon #161 Flowers
Noor Flowers
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper  Anything goes with Patterned Paper
Eclectic Ellapu - Shabby Chic/Vintage
A Vintage Journey - The Magic of 3
Deep Ocean Challenge #153 Spring
Shopping Our Stash #29 use a rose
Unicorn Challenge #20 Petal power
Tinker- Dream  #52 Mothers Day/for woman or girl

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x