Ragdoll Photos for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps, and welcome to my two new email subscribers xx

I'm popping in with another card made with Leonie's new Typography collection, this time using the stamps and one of the embossing folders.

The 'smile' folder in the Keep Shining set gave me the idea to do some photo style toppers using the sweet little Rag Doll stamp.

So that I could build some scenes behind her, I first made a mask by stamping her onto paper and cutting her out. I put some Zig 2-way glue on the back and let it dry so it became repositionable (it goes on blue and is permanent until it dries clear)

Next I stamped Rag Doll onto some smooth white stamping card with Black Memento ink and covered her over with the hand-made mask.

I added a fence by repeat stamping with one of the Banners and Frames

then covered the fence with a scrap of paper and stamped the Funky Tree behind

After removing the masks I coloured my scene in with Promarkers and a couple of Graph'Its

For the next 'photo' I stamped the top of the Funky Tree around her and drew in straight lines with a black fineliner pen to make flower stems.

To make the photo frames I cut rectangles of card with my paper trimmer and then die-cut square apertures with one of my Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Dies

I attached the photos to the frames with double sided tape at the back and then backed them with an extra layer of card to give them strength.

To make the tag I started with a rectangle of card and ran it through my Ebosser machine with the Smile embossing folder, which I had inked up with Butterscotch Adirondack ink and a brayer.

The first one came out patchy as the ink pooled a bit on the plastic folder, so I did it again but first brayered some Versamark over the inside of the folder before brayering over the Butterscotch. This gave a much smoother coverage.

I inked up a corner of one of the frames and stamped round the edges of my tag, filling in any gaps with a black fineliner pen.

For embellishments I made up some lollipop flowers to match the central photo. I coloured circles of card with the alcohol markers and glued black wires on the back with Collall 3D Glue Gel
(I left these to dry for an hour before handling them)

I layered everything up on a 7"x7" white card blank with some First Edition papers (New Leaf and Boho Chic) and Green Sugar Sprinkles ribbon from The Ribbon Girl

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 Addicted to Stamps and More #232 Make your mark
The Ribbon Girls March any card
Craft-Dee BowZ  CDB47 Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow (always)
Dream Valley Challenges # 151 Lots of layers
Deep Ocean Challenge #150 Dots and/or Stripes
Crafty Gals Corner # 113 polka dots and/or stripes
Colour Crazy Challenge #9 Anything Goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog #319 Anything Goes
Classic Design Team Challenge #12 Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Delightful Daisies for LOTV

Hello lovely peeps, and welcome to my two new followers :o)

Just popping in to remind you that you still have one week left to enter this month's Lili of the Valley challenge, where the theme is Flowers

For today's card I've used the gorgeous 'Delightful Daisies' stamp, and also managed to use a few other goodies that I bought at the Farnborough show.

First I stamped the image onto watercolor card with Black Archival ink, and then coloured it in with Distress Inks splodged onto a tile.

Jug: weathered wood, abandoned coral
Mice: vintage photo
Pot: tea dye
Flowers: scattered straw, shabby shutters, peeled paint

I die-cut the coloured image with an X-cut circle die and cut a slightly larger circle in co-ordinating green card. As I wanted a bit of a shabby-chic look I dabbed around the edge of the green with Titanium White acrylic paint and roughened it with scissors.

I cut down an 8"x8" paper from the Blissful Cotton pad by Anna Marie Designs to fit a 6"x6" card, roughened the edges with my scissors and then coloured them with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink

To balance up the card a little I cut out a couple of the flowers from the scrap

and glued them in the bottom left corner

I only bought 2 metres of this lovely mesh at the show so I'm being very thrifty with it (some might say pathologically so, lol) and only cut off as much as would show on the finished card.

I got this lovely material at the Farnborough show too, it has small white dots and glitter all over it.

 I cut some down to make a strip of ribbon which I then attached over the hessian.

I stamped a couple of Lili of the Valley sentiment tags onto white card and edged them with some Old Paper Distress Ink

I poked holes in the tags and threaded some ivory twine through before glueing them on to my card next to a simple bow (I just tied a knot in a strip of the ribbon material)

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

The Ribbon Girls March any card
Art Impressions Stamp Challenge #203 Let's watercolour
In The Pink #114 For a special lady
Noor Spring
The Crazy Challenge #243 We love animals
Double D Challenges Think spring
Eclectic Ellapu - Spring colours and/or Easter
Artistic Stampers  Springtime

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Funky Tree for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps, hope you have had a great weekend.

This is another of the samples I did for Leonie's Typography launch show, using the small script letters and the beautiful tree from the Funky Tree stamp set.

First I stamped the tree onto watercolour card with Versamark and sprinkled on clear embossing powder before heat setting

I scribbled some green Spectrum Aqua markers (Evergreen, Sea Green, Bud Green and Meadow) onto a white tile and coloured in the foliage with a wet paintbrush.

To get the colours for the tree trunk I scribbled the same greens onto my tile again and mixed each one with Begonia Aqua marker to get 4 different browns.

I cut down my card and inked around the edge with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, before roughening the edges with my scissors. I also flicked some of the ink at the card to give me some splats.

For the backing I drew around my topper onto the back of some old cardboard packaging and tore along the lines. I flicked some more Vintage Photo ink onto the front corrugated bit.

To do the letters I inked up some thin white card and cut it up to place over the small script sections of the letter dies.

This didn't give me quite the depth of colour I wanted so I pressed my ink pad directly over the top of all the letters again

I've finished the card off with white twine and a button before mounting it onto a Kraft card blank.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
We Love 2 Create #5 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
Crafty Cardmakers #183 Go Green
Simply Create Too #125 Lots of green
Creatalicious Challenges #110 - Anything Goes with optional Lots of green
Penny Black and More  Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations Close to nature
Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour)  AG option of smoosh
SSS Work it wednesday green

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Make-It Goodies

Hello lovely peeps

Just popping in to show you what I bought at the Make-It Farnborough show last weekend.

I spent way too much money, but we did have a lovely weekend. Mum and I met Lisa and Laila on the Lili of the Valley stand, watched a fabulous demo at Anna-Marie Designs and did a little workshop at Hobby Art

Of course, I bought loads of stamps (and a border die)

I got a few basic cards and envelopes and some scrummy paper pads

Lots of 'natural' stuff for embellishing (I've no idea what to do with the little wooden discs yet but they looked fab and I couldn't resist)

Tons of ribbon (though I did split it with Mum)

A bit of extra colour

and some things to decorate

As I spent so much I've vowed to use as many things as I can in the next month (instead of just stuffing it all in a drawer). So far, I've used the lemon ribbon on my seesaw card and erm.... well that's about it, but it's a start, lol.

I'm popping in again tomorrow to show you another of the cards I made for Leonie, hope you can join me,

Katrina x

Peonies and Roses

Hello lovely peeps, and welcome to my new follower :o)

It's the first Saturday of the month, so it's time for a new challenge at Crafty Calendar. The theme is "Mum's Day/Special Female" and the sponsor is Wild Orchid Crafts

The main image on my card is from an old Art Pad by Lili of the Valley - this one is now available as a digital download from their Simply Print range and is called Peonies and Roses

I  framed it with a Scalloped Square die-cut from Spellbinders and some chopped up
Catalina Wreath die-cuts from Memory Box

Next I covered a 7"x7" card blank with Raspberry Road and First Edition papers, plus some gorgeous lace from The Ribbon Girls - Charlotte Elizabeth Vintage Style

I've added a cluster of flowers from my stash, including some White Chrysanthemums from Wild Orchid Crafts. The leaves were die-cuts using a set of dies I got on Ebay (from China)

The tag was cut from matching paper using the Elisse Bigz die by Sizzix

and the 'Mum' was added with a Papermania Relations stamp 

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
The Ribbon Girls February Any Image
Deep Ocean Challenge #149 Add lace
Polkadoodles   Anything Goes option ribbon/lace
In The Pink #114 For a special lady
Noor! Designs UK #28 Spring
Double D Challenges Think Spring
A Vintage Journey - All Aboard
Crafting With An Attitude  #24 Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy #182 Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash #292 Colour palette


Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Fly Free for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps

 Leonie is launching a new 'Typography' collection on Hochanda this evening (8pm)

There are some lovely new dies, stamps and embossing folders on the shows, and I'm sure Leonie will have some great demos for you.

My first sample is a z-fold card.

To start off I folded a piece of A4 Kraft card in half to make an A5 card, then folded the front into half again. I cut the card down to 6" high to give me my z-shaped base, and saved the other piece for fixing to the front.

Next I made my 'backing paper' - I stamped one of the 'Banner and Frame' stamps several times onto a strip of white paper with grey Memento ink.

and then stamped in between each gap with the same stamp again to make closer stripes.

For the larger panels I stamped all over with one of the flowers from the 'Fly Free' set.

I grunged up the panels a little by sponging around the edges with weathered wood Distress Ink, then I put some ink on my craft mat and added a little water. I picked up the ink with an old toothbrush and flicked the bristles to add speckles to the paper

I attached the finished panels to my card blank and the extra strip, then turned the strip around 180 degrees and attached it to the base.

I stamped the butterfly from the 'Fly Free' set onto two panels in black Memento ink.
 (I realise I should have done this before glueing the panels onto the card, but with a bit of masking I got away with it)

I stamped the butterflies again onto decorative paper and cut them out to paper-piece over the top

The Fly Free set also has some lovely side-on images of flowers where you can see the tops of the stem. I stamped several of these onto different colour papers and cut them out.

I wanted the stems to reach to the bottom of the card but on the stamps themselves they are quite short (and in one case, curved), so I just inked up the sepal part before stamping onto my papers, then drew in long stems with a black fineliner pen.

I cut these out and attached them in place over the flower petals then arranged them on the stripy sections and trimmed the bottoms off so they were all flush with the bottom of the card.

To finish off I die-cut some letters from dark grey card and glued them to the side panel.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 Tuesday Throwdown #332 Things with Wings
Southern Girls  #154 Nature
Artistic Stampers  Springtime
Noor! Designs UK #28 Spring
Love to Craft #8 Anything Goes
 The Crafty Addicts #34 Anything Goes/CAS
Crafting By Designs March Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper  Anything goes with Patterned Paper 
Classic Design Team Challenge #12 Anything Goes 

Leonie will be back on Hochanda tomorrow (Friday 3rd March) at 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 7pm.

You can watch Hochanda live online, Sky channel 663, Freeview 85 or Freesat 817.

Please pop by to my teamies' blogs if you get a chance 

Nick Roberts

Jane Royston

Elaine Mellor

Natalie Ellis

Anne Richardson

Diane Ingram

Anne Dimitriou

(Claire and Nicola don't have blogs at the moment)

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Spring Seesaw for LOTV

Hello lovely peeps

It's time for a new challenge on the Lili of the Valley Facebook page and the theme this month is
Flowers

 There are fabulous prizes to be won. All you need to do is make something that fits the theme and uses a LOTV image, then post it in the event on Facebook OR email it to lucy@liliofthevalley.co.uk before the close date of 15th March (7pm GMT)

For my card I have used one of the lovely new stamps that was released yesterday.
This one is called Spring Seesaw.

I coloured the bunny and seesaw with a base of Promarkers to speed things up a bit and then coloured over the top with Lyra Rembrandt Polycolour pencils

The base of my card is covered with a Daisytrail/CraftArtist paper and I made a tag with
one of the stamps in the new Spring Sentiments set. A little bow of lemon organza finishes it off.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
 The Ribbon Girls February Any Image
Crafty Gals Corner #111 Add Ribbon
Squirrels Not-So-Random Challenge #4 Spring Fever
Animal Friends Challenge  #48 Animals with big ears
Kitty Bee Designs #89 Flowers 
Addicted to Stamps and More #231 Anything Goes
Creative Craft Cottage Digi Creations #68 Ribbon and/or Lace
Craft-Dee BowZ   Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow
Crafty Awesomeness Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp (Wed) Tag You're It

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you again tomorrow at 8pm for a new Leonie launch. 

Katrina x