Sariah's Birdhouse Card!

Well, i just had to pop back for my second post of the day to show you what Sariah has made just now!

She was looking at my Birdhouse shaped cards and I reluctantly gave her one! She found a Papermania Spring Collection of papers and chose this one with the crosses on for Easter (She asked me to cut the paper as its a difficult shape!). She raided my candi drawers and has used pastel candi with gold stars on and a Happy Easter peel-off sticker. Sariah then asked me to make her a green bow - she even found the ribbon she wanted and pulled out the bow maker so it was all ready for me to do!!!

To finish she popped another candi on the centre of the bow.

A very cute card - I'm sure the recipient will love it, Sariah!
Mo xxx

WOYWW #198 & Birdhouse Shaped Cards

Well my little crafty corner looks pretty much the same as always - bit messier than usual as i didn't tidy away all my bits when i was finished last night - just went to bed! You can stop by and have a nosy at crafty tables across the world with Julie over at Stamping Ground!

Only noteworthy things on there are my birdhouse shaped cards - I made two yesterday afternoon while the babies were napping and a Christmassy one last night while catching up with The Walking Dead! Also, on the desk are two sheets of Tsunami Rose Designs Vintage Rouge in Black for my next project with them - you can buy your paper here. Have a wee look at yesterday's blog post for some exciting news about me and Tsunami Rose! I like to have things around me to inspire me and figured if I have the paper ready to go I'll come up with something interesting to use it for!

I was inspired by a recent Craftwork Cards Blog entry by Marie Chillmaid who had created a St Patrick's Day Card using the Craftwork Cards Birdhouse Shaped card blanks and lots of green and white card Candi! I have made a couple of birdhouse cards before now but made another three yesterday! And now my daughter is hovering over my shoulder asking if she can have a go at making one... I might relent and let you all see the outcome in a few days!

So here are close ups of the cards I made yesterday -  This first one uses the Sweet Pea paper pad and flowers with a 'Special Day' sentiment. Lots of crushed candi in Sweet Pea and Vintage Dots (Honey) .

I've layered up flowers from the pad and added candi centres.

I then discovered some Craftwork Cards retro daisies in my embellishment box and realised i had candi to match!

The card blank was covered with some black/gold shimmery paper and i've used candi again in the bottom left corner to make another flower shape. A new black and silver sentiment in the centre finishes the card.

And finally here's the card from last night - I love making my little flowers while sitting watching the tv - I can keep my hands busy and spend time with hubby! 

As much as this is traditional Christmas colours - red, green and gold - the 'With Love' sentiment doesn't necessarily tie it to Christmas. 

Ok.... so for those of you who did have a look at yesterday's blog post... you will know that my daughter made a card using the Tsunami Rose Vintage Rounge in Black and Pink that I used on my card yesterday and a few of you said you'd like to see it... so here goes...

I had covered the base card with the Vintage Rouge paper and cut a doily and attached it at either side the rest of the work is Sariah's (age 7.5years).

She coloured the doilies, wrinkling the edges to distress them, then added lots of glitter glue in red and silver. She's also added silver 'present' peel offs and a black birthday peel off at a jaunty angle in the centre. She's finished the card with a red bow that she asked me to make for her and she attached a flower gem onto. And, of course, some pink card candi with silver glitter completes the card! 

Mo xxx 

A Very Exciting Announcement!

I am freezing!!! There a mountain of snow outside and it hasn't stopped in about 14hours! Its crazy snowy here! But I have some fabulous news to warm my soul!

I discovered Tsunami Rose Designs via Pinterest a few months ago - I found a pin board full of card sketches including some that i've used on the blog here before and a load from Tsunami Rose. I hopped over to follow them on Facebook and love looking at the myriad of inspiration on their blog. The designs are digital papers to be downloaded and printed to your heart's content! Journal kits, 6x6 and 12x12 papers, mixed printed ephemera, beautiful stunning designs - they are mixed with your stash... ribbons, buttons, pearls, glitters, lace to make vintage inspired cards, layouts and altered art - totally yummy designs!

So imagine my excitement when Tsunami Rose Designs put out a Design Team call on their Facebook page! I sent them a message and heard back from the lovely Daisy Collins - designer extraordinaire! I've been accepted! So watch this space in the next few weeks for Tsunami Rose DT duties!

Today though, I have a beautiful paper to show you all - Vintage Rouge in black and Pink - available for download from Tsunami Rose Designs here.

I really wanted my first effort to be fab and i'm not entirely sure this is! I started a couple of projects with this paper and my 7year old daughter has actually made a better card than mine i think! Maybe if i'm brave enough I'll show you some of her work tomorrow!

This is a 6x6" square card blank tinted round the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink and stamped using Black Tuxedo Memento using stamps by Craftwork Cards. The tag started out life as lilac which i again tinted with vintage photo and some black round the edges. I cut the Vintage Rouge paper to match the tag, distressed the edges with a Tim Holtz paper distresser tool and more Vintage Photo. Curled edges add to the effect.

I added some lace ribbon and white opal Liquid Pearls and a segment of a paper doilie. I cut a few spirals of Vintage Rouge and some black paper so make into flowers and adhered - adding more liquid pearls in the patterned paper and Star Dust stickles in the black flowers.

Some black satin ribbon was added along with a few crystal accents and a distressed sentiment in the same colours. I then adhered the tag to the base card.

Another shot of the finished card from the side i an attempt to show the depth of the embellishments. I didn't put the tag on 3D foam as the flowers are quite deep already.

I really hope you like this, my first make for Tsunami Rose Designs! I very much look forward to joining the team and creating more inspiration for you with their fabulous designs.

Mo xxx

You can find Tsunami Rose Designs here and join in with their weekly challenge on a Wed!

Tsunami Rose Blog: http://tsunamirosedesigns.blogspot.com/
Tsunami Rose Zibbet shop: http://www.zibbet.com/tsunamirose
Tsunami Rose Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TsunamiRose
Tsunami Rose Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/tsunamirosegraphicdesign
Tsunami Rose Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/tsunamirosedesigns/

Gorjuss Altered Board Book

I have been exploring the phenoma of Altered Art this week and in my travels I came across this Altered Board Book by Lydia Levy a DT member over at Tsunami Rose Designs. She uses a child's board book - the thick pages and excellent binding make it very good for altering, it is thick and sturdy and you dont need to bind it yourself - check out her YouTube tutorial and see what you think!
She has used a gorgeous set of printable papers by Tsunami Rose called Life Abloom - a beautiful set!

As you may know, I have four children and we are surrounded at times with books - many of which have been chewed by one or more of said children - but I took myself off to the bedrooms in search of something to use! I found a small book, only 10 pages, inclusive of the covers, - the kind you get in a small 'library', maybe with 6 in a box.... this one used to be a tale of Piglet and Roo! It had been altered somewhat already - ie someone took a colouring pen to it!!! But no signs of chewed corners - all still smooth and straight so I took it to my desk and pulled out the Ultimate A4 Die-Cuts pack and my 6x6 papers - all from the new DoCrafts/Santoro Gorjuss range.

I covered each page with the papers and added some stripey Gorjuss paper to the spine, with a ribbon detail. The edges of the book were painted with black acrylic as were the fold lines between each page, some paint was added to a couple of the pages for detail too.

 I embellished the front with some crushed card Candi and some die cuts, and added 'with love' to a banner.

As I started to add ribbons and images to the pages, I was inspired to make this a creation to give to my neice. Her name is Sky and she's having a hard time right now - I added her name in Gorjuss sticker letters and made it say 'The SKY's the limit!'

I added polka dot ribbon pulls for opening the pages. And added some wording on a few tags inside. 

I found a few quotes that I think she will appreciate and hand wrote these on a couple of the pages - using the lines of the papers as a guide.

This is, in my mind, a very simple example of an altered book. The board style book leaves no room for 3D work inside - otherwise the book will not close. I thought about adding a pocket and tag but may put something like this on the back with a tag that pulls out - I will update this post if i do decide to add that.

I am happy with how this has turned out and I am very much looking forward to doing another altered book project - perhaps a notebook/journal, something with more scope for 3D work, pockets, embellishments throughout. Watch this space!

Mo xxx

Gorjuss new Gorjuss-ness!!

I love all things Gorjuss Girls - the artist who created these quirky is from Glasgow and her paintings have made me smile for several years now. I have a few bags, lots of buttons, emery boards, prints, calendar, dairy, tins, and more tins. And lots of decoupage and toppers sheets, and now new 6x6 and 12x12 papers, A4 decoupage, ribbons, buttons and mini notelets and a list of more Gorjus stuff i want to get next month! The new papers and embellishments are from DoCrafts and I want them all!!

I love the papers and found it very hard to start cutting! But, I started with a tunnel card blank from Craftwork Cards and took it from there. The inside was covered with a red paper and another red paper used to cover the shape from the front of the card. The topper I used is called 'I Found My Family In a Book' and I thought the black Card Candi with white writing was apt for use here! I crushed it and stuck it around the edges of the shape, added the toppers and some ribbon and some tags were added to accent the 3D effect inside the card.

I tinted the front of the card with Tim Holtz Distress ink in Fired Brick and added Vintage Photo to the edges. A black fine liner gives faux stitching effect around the apperture and iconic Gorjuss stripey paper was distressed and added down the outer edges for detail.

I hand cut some spirals in the same red papers to make 3D flowers for the front and added twirly bits!
More crushed candi and some ribbon along with a tag and Gorjuss letter stickers finish the card.

I think its quite Gorjuss! I hope you do too!
Mo xxx

WOYWW #197 and my first Tunnel Card!

I had a productive day yesterday and here's hoping today is similar! I took this wee photo of my desk last night before putting away yesterday's makes and cleared up ready for today - i'm popping this photo onto today's 'What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday?' over at Stamping Ground. I'd also like to direct you all over to Kath Stewart's blog!! Kath is a design team member for Craftwork Cards and she also takes part in WOYWW.... and today she's got a fabulous Craftwork Cards giveaway too!!!

My first Gorjuss card with my new papers is there, and the 'Thank You' card from yesterday's blog post. I'm slowly building my collection of distress inks and i have a 'reference' card on my cupboard door there - it has samples of the colours with the name under for quick easy choice - i have the same strip of colour on the base of each ink pad so i dont have to rummage through them all - quick and easy! My daughter's school homework is there too as she likes to sit at my desk to work!

But my favourite make from yesterday is my first attempt at a tunnel card! I have gotten a whole truck load of inspiration this week from the Craftwork Cards blog - Tina and Mel both posted several amazing cards on the blog yesterday using the Floral Fusion papers and tunnel cards and kraft flowers and I was totally inspired to go do one myself!

I played around with distress inks and my foam blending tool on the new kraft flowers and posted this piccie on my facebook page yesterday. I've used 'crushed olive' on the leaves and cut them apart and glued them to the back of the largest flower - its coloured with 'brick red' as is the smaller flower. The others are coloured with 'Dusty Concord' and I used that same colour to tint a length of jute.

I popped this onto the centre of a tunnel card and used a Craftwork Cards birthday sentiment and more coloured kraft flowers and my new favourite Card Candi - purple with pearly white stars!
Here are a few close ups of the finished card from my table!

I have glittered sections of the flowers and added a card candi to the centre and mounted it on the die cut piece that i covered with purple gingham paper. I've used 'Dusty Concord' to tint the edges of the gingham paper and the edges of the card. I've also used a fine liner to edge around the aperture.

My purple ribbon was white and ive tinted that with the same Dusty Concord.

This bottom left flower is the pop out segments of the flowers and some extra purple candi!

I hope you like it!!!
Mo xxx

Thank You Card

A quick blog post from me today! I got some fabulous new Craftwork Cards goodies at the Hobbycrafts craft fair at the SECC last Friday and couldn't wait to get stuck into the goodies! I've got lots more to show you including some absolutely gorgeous Gorjuss papers and toppers but that will have to wait till i've got a bit more time on my hands!

So for this quick card today, i've used the new gingham papers from the Floral Fusion papers at Craftwork cards - these were included in the Guys and Dolls Goodie Bag that i picked up on Friday - you can get the papers and other elements over at their website. 

This is a quick easy card, using a 6x6" card blank, some white pearl paper on the background, with the gingham papers matted onto kraft cardstock, a 'Thank you' sentiment matted the same way and some fabulous kraft flowers and of course candi! A length of black twine is wrapped around the blue papers and lots of dimension by using 3D foam and pinflair glue gel to layer the big flower.

 

Here's a close up of the main flower - i've put some crushed kraft candi in the centre and used Star Dust Stickles in the middle of each. Each petal has been bent out of shape to give extra dimension - i think my next card wil have even more layers!

Well, this card will be winging its way to a special lady who has been very generous with her time and talents and has been a big inspiration to me in recent weeks. Will let you know her verdict!

Mo xxx