Flutterby Moments

I took the opportunity today to try out my Kanban Butterfly stamps which I'd purchased some time ago, along with some butterfly glittered acetate.  They really are lovely stamps and very versatile. The set consists of the main butterfly/script stamp, together with an additional three individual butterfly stamps.

For this project I stamped the main stamp onto lavender pearlised card, using black archival ink.  I also stamped the individual butterflies onto the same card.  I then cut out the individual butterflies to use as embellishments on the card.

The main image was mat and layered onto black glittered cardstock and purple pearlised card.  This is the first time I've used acetate, but it seemed to work quite well. I used a Kanban card blank and then folded the acetate sheet in half and placed this over the card.

To finish the card I added some ribbon and pearl embellishments, then placed the main image on top of the ribbon using double sided tape.  The individual butterflies were added to the card last of all, using foam pads to give the card some dimension.

Once again the insert was made using Pink Petticoat's 'Elegance' digital paper, printed in lavender, which complemented the acetate perfectly.

Here's the finished card. Hope you like it, and thanks for stopping by!

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." ~ Maya Angelou

Flower Power

Well, since my last post (April Showers) I have to say that the weather hasn't improved! I can't believe it's May already! Sadly there's little sign of any Spring sunshine today.

So I thought I'd share the following easel card with you, which I've made today. I hope it brightens your day, given the gloomy weather we're having!

I'm entering this card in the Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog, the current theme being 'Flower Power'.  I love the image of this little mouse travelling along on the Gerbera - is this what is meant by 'Environmentally Friendly Transport'?

The very cute House Mouse image was stamped and coloured in using my faithful Letraset ProMarkers. I then layered the image onto a  pink scalloped circle mat, which was cut using my CraftROBO Lite.

I raided my stash of ribbons and luckily found one pink ribbon which seemed to complement the colour scheme nicely. The ribbon was then woven around the circumference of the scalloped circle.

Once again I turned to my supply of Pink Petticoat digital papers for the backing paper and the base of the easel, this one is called 'Elegance'.

Finally the sentiment was cut using my Grand Calibur with Spellbinders Moroccan Accents.

I hope you enjoy the card and hope we have some sunshine soon!

April Showers

It's been a while since my last post, but given the awful rain today, I thought I'd take the opportunity to bring the blog up to date with my latest cards.

I've had a few cards to make this month, the first being an anniversary card for my aunt and uncle.  Being relatively new to card making I haven't yet built up a big collection of stamps, so once again reverted to my 'Love Is' stamp by IndigoBlu which I stamped and heat embossed in gold embossing powder. I found some lovely foiled 'Happy Anniversary' in my local craft shop, which worked well with the ivory base card and gold mirri card.  I always feel my card inserts look a little plain with just a verse or sentiment, so this time I used a beautiful paper called 'Elegance' downloaded from Pink Petticoat, together with a sentiment from verses4cards.

I have to say I love the Pink Petticoat website, it's full of beautiful printable digital image stamps and papers. Best of all the papers come in both positive and negative designs, in a beautiful colour palette. I'd definitely recommend visiting their site!

My next project this month was to make a birthday card for a friend. I've just purchased my first House Mouse stamps and instantly fell in love with these cute little characters.  I chose the 'Birthday Cupcake' stamp and set to work with my Promarkers (after watching the very talented Joanna Sheen's Promarker & House Mouse tutorial on You Tube).

On the first card I used the Fairy Dots backing paper from Pink Petticoat. The same paper was also used for the insert.  The sentiment was cut using Spellbinders Moroccan Accents.
 
The second card used the same stamp, but this time used the Ice Cream Curls design in negative format for the backing paper and positive format for the card insert.

There will certainly be some more appearances from these cheeky little characters on the blog soon, as I can't wait to try out my other stamps!

Here is the final card of this month's blog. It's a card I made as a 'Thank You' for a friend at work.

For this card I used the Taj Mahal stamp from Clarity Stamp and had a little experiment with Craftynotions gilding flake, double sided adhesive and some acetate sheet.  I was pleasantly suprised by how quickly this card came together.

The Taj Mahal image was stamped onto the adhesive sheet using black archival ink and then covered with the acetate. The gilding flakes were then stuck to the reverse of the double sided adhesive. The excess flake was brushed off and then buffed with Scoochy Foam, so they appeared behind the stamped image.  The image was then layered onto some gold mirri card. The card was finished off with some Dotted Swiss Cardstock from Bazzill Paper, plain black paper and a few Kanban self adhesive pearls.

I have to say that I love the gilding flakes, they give such a luxurious finish!

Well, I think that's about all for now. I'll hopefully have some more time for crafting soon, and a little sunshine would be nice too!!

Spring into action!

It's a beautiful sunny day, the birds are singing, the flowers are in bloom and it really feels like Spring has arrived!

Had a fairly productive day yesterday, having finished making this month's birthday cards I was able to finally concentrate on making my cards for Mother's Day. The two cards were made using Clarity stamps. The first card used 'Primroses' and the second using 'Snowdrop' and 'Cornflower'.

Here is the first card, which I have decided to enter into Joanna Sheen's 'Spring Is In The Air' challenge blog:

I took my inspiration for the second card from Barbara Gray's demonstration on Create & Craft recently, where she made a card which included a book mark as the main centrepiece.  I loved the idea, so thought I'd have a go myself! The only thing I've done differently is to stamp an image behind the bookmark, so when the bookmark is removed it still looks like a complete card.

Here it is again in another colour:

Hope you like them. Happy Crafting!

Gone Fishing!

This is the latest birthday card I've just made. It's for my cousin's 18th birthday.

He enjoys fishing and for his birthday last year I used  the Clarity Stamp 'Fishing'. However this year I wanted to do something different, so used my Craft Robo instead.  The beautiful silhouette of the fisherman was found on the UK Scrappers site and the file is attributed to Lumpyfoo - so many thanks for sharing this file!

It was a quick card to make, with the fisherman cut out of black cardstock, the numbers cut in silver mirri card and then mat and layered onto green pearlescent and black glittered cardstock.

Well, that's all for now. It will soon be the weekend and time for more cardmaking and blogging!

With Love

It's February 29th, so what better date to do something different and write my very first blog!

I thought I'd start off with a card I made for Valentine's Day.  It's a very basic card, using a beautiful stamp from IndigoBlu called 'Love Is'.  I simply stamped the image onto pearlescent card, then heat embossed with gold embossing powder. The sentiment stamp 'with Love' is from Clarity Stamp, and was again just heat embossed. A quick bit of matting and layering, and here it is!

As a newcomer to crafting and card making, I have to say that I was pleased with the final result. 

I'm loving the new hobby, and seeing other crafters' accomplishments is really inspirational!!