Cherry Blossom

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Many of the streets where I live are lined with cherry blossom trees. We have a tree right outside our house which is on the verge of blossoming. It is a different variety to the others on our road and is always the last to come out. I always think its a shame when the blossom falls from the trees although it does look very pretty to begin with -  a  bit like pink snow, well it is in my world anyway!

The blossom was the inspiration for today’s project which is one of my tags/ATCs and, as before, uses Japanese rice paper to create the flowers.

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I’m sharing this over at City Crafter challenge blog for the current Spring Has Sprung theme an requires the colours blue, pink, green and brown.

I started with white card and coloured it with Broken China and Picket Fence distress stains. I smooched on a little Broken China distress ink just around the edges, then used black Archival ink to stamp the water droplets, using the fab stamp by Ryn.

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I used a Spellbinder die to cut some swirls from paper by Tim Holtz. The paper is plain on one side and stripy on the other. I’d originally intended to use the plain, distressed brown side but rather liked the stripes so opted for those instead.

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The blossoms, stamps by Sheena Douglass, were stamped on to the Japanese Rice paper. For the smaller ones, which are solid colour,  I used Worn Lipstick distress ink. The larger ones were stamped using black Archival and the coloured with a mix of Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick. I added some white highlights and then scrunched them up.

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Although there was green in the stripes of the swirls, I wanted to be sure I’d met the challenge criteria properly and added a little green butterfly. I punched it from green cardstock and then coated with crystal clear glitter.

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The final touch was to pop on an Ideaology chit-chat sticker.

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The blooming of the cherry blossom always signals the fact that spring has very definitely sprung it’s just a shame that the ineviatable spring showers knock it off the branches so soon.

Polka Dots with a side order of lace

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When I saw that the next challenge over at Papercraft Star was polka dots and lace, it was one of those occasions when I knew exactly what I was going to do AND did just that!

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I picked up a few little boxes that were going cheap at Hobbycraft.  I’m kicking myself for not grabbing a few more. I covered the box with “Mushroom Cap” from the Gecko Galz  Butterfly Meadow paper collection. It’s a gorgeous pink colour with a bit of a peach tone.

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I’d originally intended to cover the lid beautifully neatly so the join was not visible to the naked eye. As I didn’t manage to quite pull that off I opted to use some glitter epoxy trim to cover up my workmanship! I might have used pearls, but didn’t have enough in my stash, however I rather like the trim.

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I added some ruffle lace all around the edge of the lid and then used some more to create a rosette for the top and popped on a paper flower.

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The finishing touches were to add a little bee charm and a button topped with a pearl.

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There was a time when I used to create ruffle frills, out of icing, to use on cakes and funnily enough this little box reminds me of a little fondant fancy but without the calories.

By the Seashore

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My obsession with the seashore isn’t going away. I think it’s partly because I have some beautiful sea themed stamps but also I do like the seaside. It’s a shame that Sheffield is about as far away from the seaside as you can get, although it doesn’t take long to get there by train – at the moment a massive landslide is causing major disruption if you choose to head east.

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I’m not quite sure what this is! I’ve created it on cardstock so it could make a card topper. Once again it features beautiful stamps by Ryn and this time I’m using both the water droplets and the sea bubbles. As I’ve used mainly blue I am linking this up for the Sunday Stampers challenge.

The background was created with Broken China, Salty Ocean an Peacock Feathers distress inks, layering them up one by one. Then I spritzed with water to get a mottled effect. I used more peacock feathers to stamp the water droplets and sea bubbles.

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I used a white pen to add highlights . The starfish was stamped using black Archival ink and then coloured with Dylusions. I created a little beach using a smidge of glitter and popped on a couple of pearls, these seem to be a recurring feature at the moment!

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The words are from Artchix. I layered the finished piece onto some black card to give a bit of definition.

 

 

Fairy tag pocket

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Today I am sharing a tag pocket that I am linking up with this week’s challenge at City Crafter. The theme is spring, but incorporating the colours pink, blue, green and brown.

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I used from The Gecko Galz Wild Roses paper collection plus one of the Vintage Labels images. The butterfly is enlarged from Ephemera Days. The pocket is made from an empty toilet roll. I covered it with paper first, before sealing the end. I trimmed the pocket with ivory crochet lace and then adhered the label image. This label is so cute. I used two butterfly images, sticking one flat and then raising the wings on the second.

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The pocket is trimmed with a little aqua bow, coffee coloured paper roses and ivory buttons.  Those rose buds, from Wild Orchid Crafts, are scrumptious.

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I covered the tag with two different papers, again from the Wild Roses collection and added a butterfly to each side.

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I thought it would be fun to pop a little sachet of bath/shower gel into the pocket.

Chasing the blues away

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Seems like I have the Monday morning blues today. I suspect it’s because the day job cranks up this week and I am back to loading and unloading the van, worrying about noodles, catching trains and the rest of the fandango that is my job. In addition there have been numerous complications thrown into the mix which means my Monday has not begun well. However, I need to say focused and remember that I have my workshop with Hels Sheridan to look forward to on Saturday with the bonus that it is a long weekend.

Coincidently, I have a blue themed project to share with you today. A little altered box:

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I realise that this weekend all my projects were 3D which is highly unusual. This started off as one of those very cheap boxes which I painted with acrylic paint. I used my little bee stamp all around the edge and added yellow paint to its body and glitter to the wings.

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The flower was also stamped, cut out and then sprayed with Spray and Shine. I gave it a couple of coats for a high-gloss finish, it also makes it very durable.

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The bee and the butterfly are, of course, images from The Graphics Fairy. I’ve done my usual trick of layering up the butterfly, I don’t know why I didn’t do the bee in the same way – something to try next time. I sprayed both with Spray and Sparkle and then with Spray and Shine. The bee looks quite realistic.

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I popped the butterfly on to some wire to which I threaded on some beads. I tried doing the bee in the same way, but it wasn’t quite right somehow.

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The finishing touches were a little button,  a dragonfly brad and a large dose of pale blue gems. As well as linking this up for the Graphics Fairy Brag Monday party I am also sharing over at  Sunday Stampers for the “blue” challenge.

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Have a great week.

She sells sea shells

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Today I am sharing a card which continues my current sea theme:

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It is made entirely from Stampin’ Up products and you can find the full supplies list over at Mrs Beez Stampin’. I’m loving this stamping technique which I’ve only recently discovered. It’s very simple but very effective.  You are probably already familiar with it but if you Google triple layer stamping you will find lots of tutorials. The tip that I can pass on to you is that I used cheap glue stick to  fix the three layers together temporarily whilst I did the stamping. It bonds enough to hold everything in place but is easy when you come to separate them afterwards.

P1030832 I stamped the main image separately. I coloured a piece of seam binding with the same ink, then cut down the long edge so I could fray it. The finishing touch was to add some tiny pearls.

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I shall be sharing this card over at Sunday Stampers where the theme this week is … blue! I love this shade of blue which goes by the name of Marina Mist. I’m quite tempted to change my name by deed-poll!

I hope you have, unlike myself, managed to treat yourself to some cake this weekend :)

 

Not a tag, but just as rice

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Well rain stopped play when it came to the walk that was planned for today. I did suggest that maybe we could just have the cake, that I was offered if I went for a walk,  but Mr Beez gave me one of those looks that he gives my button fairies! Maybe, like jam, there will be cake tomorrow.

On the upside, I have been crafting and found something that may become a bit of an obsession. I’d planned to do another something with paper to share over at Sunday Stampers, as paper is this weeks theme. My plan involved paper blocking, for which Hels gives a fab tutorial on her blog, but it would seem I’m a bit rubbish at this. I can do the paper bit, but then mess it all up with the painting and then cry because I’ve wasted precious papers. So another plan was required and this was the result:P1030991

I’m not sure what you call these. They are neither tag (no punched hole) nor ATC (outside the legal measurement limit). They will work very well as a topper methinks. But the best bit is my discovery of just how fabulous Japanese rice paper is.This is not the stuff you use in cooking, although it tastes pretty similar (yes, in the absence of cake, I tried it!). I guess like Rice Krispies it must be made from rice.  I have had this in my stash, untouched, for almost a year. Now I’ve used it, I think it will feature quite often. It’s a bit like tissue paper but not quite. If you wet it you can scrunch it up beautifully and when dry it is quite robust.

P1030998The first topper started life as white cardstock and I shaded it all overwith seedless preserves. The picture doesn’t pick up the fact that the shading is graduated – paler at the top, darker at the bottom. I spritzed the colour with water and dried before using black Archival ink to stamp the water droplets. This is the most amazing stamp – another by Ryn.

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I used some flower stamps, by Sheena Douglass, and stamped them on to rice paper. I stamped some in black Archival, shaded them with Seedless Preserves, cut them out, spritzed with water, crunched them up and left them to dry. The others I stamped in Seedless Preserves, cut them out then drew out the colour with a water brush before scrunching and drying.

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I’ve added some white highlights with a gel pen.

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The bee is also stamped onto rice paper and coloured with Mustard Seed distress ink.

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The second tag/topper thing was created using Dylusions. I spritzed the card with green, lime, turquoise and purple then used a different Sheena stamp all over. I stamped the flowers onto the rice paper, spritzed with bright yellow Dylusions and then painted on pink. Depending on where the yellow has landed you get different shades ranging from pink to orange. Love this!

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I added Ideaology chit-chat stickers to finish.

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Can’t wait to try this using lots of different colour combinations. Watch this space!

 

Hydrangea and Lace

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Three cheers for Friday!

Today I am sharing a card I have made for this week’s Papercraft Star challenge which has a photo for inspiration.

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And here’s the card I created.

P1030841Very simple but, as is often the case with simplicity, took me hours! I knew I wanted to use the lovely white hydrangea image from The Graphics Fairy and I knew I wanted to capture the text on the soft furnishings, the roses and a smidge of pink. So I played around with the image, book pages, kraft paper and paper roses for what seemed like a week. Then I remembered I had a new paper pack, En Francais by Prima, which I’d seen used in some beautiful projects by Ros Crawford aka Mikey’s Mom.  They turned out to be just the job.

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After layering up the papers and image I added a strip of beautiful lace which I got from Wild Orchid Crafts, along with the paper roses. I gave the roses a smidge of Worn Lipstick distress stain and the hydrangea a sprinkling of crystal clear glitter.

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The final touch was a ruffle of white seam binding.

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I can’t decided between making this into a card for a wedding or for Mother’s Day.

Mr Baker has requested a walk tomorrow, if the weather is good, however he knows me well enough to know that any request like that must be accompanied by the offer of cake! I’ve been promised coffee cake, my favourite – don’t you just love walking? ;)

Every cloud…

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 I’ve been so used to the steady trickle of packages that has been arriving that today I opened one that wasn’t for me! I shall be in big trouble tonight when eldest son gets home.  And just in case you’re interested it was some very dull looking computer accessory.  That’s how I knew it wasn’t for me.

 Today I’m sharing I’ve made for the City Crafter challenge where this week’s theme is clouds, but also incorporating this colour palette.

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 Here’s my take:

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I thought this would be a good card to cheer someone up.

The cloud was made by drawing freehand and then I’ve simply added a shower of little punched blossoms, but I couldn’t resist giving them little sparkling centres. I thought I’d mount the cloud so it stood away from the card. I originally thought I might attach some threads to dangle down, and then I realised how fiddly that would be.

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I also added a little sun, punched using a scallop punch just to keep a cheery feel.

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All the stamps, papers and punches are from Stampin’Up!

P1030839Appropriate that the weather has been sooo cloudy today that it was difficult to get a really clear picure!

You might also like:

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Toilet roll mini-album

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Today’s I’m sharing a little toilet roll mini-album that I made for a swap and there are LOTS of photo’s:

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 The person I made it for had purple as their favourite colour and fairies, glitter and teddy bears on their list of likes so the pages are decorated with this in mind. I have also added a bee to each page because that’s me!

There are tutorials and examples of toilet roll albums all over the internet so I won’t go into how I made this one, but I will share some of the key things I found out/learned:

  • Paint just the top of the inside of each roll. You only need to do one end as the rest won’t be seen;
  • If you have a die cutting/embossing machine, put each roll through the machine (without  an embossing folder or die) to make them super flat so they are easier to decorate;
  • I found it easier to hole punch each roll before decorating and then again afterwards. That way each “page” is not too thick;
  • Remember where you put your stash of book rings as it is annoying when you can’t find them; and
  • If you are making for a swap, and you have been given at least three months notice, start early or you will get very cross and grumpy!

I used six toilet rolls in total and made a double sided tag to go in each pocket of the album:

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I’m going to share this over at Sunday Stampers where the theme is “paper.” I printed out the majority of my papers from a CD that I have had for a considerable amount of time. I covered each roll/page before going to town with embellishments.

You will see I have done well on craft packages ordered today. One of them is a melt pot – can’t wait to get playing :)