Using up scrap paper....

.....on this weeks That's Crafty piece.....well we never throw anything away do we! Anyway pop over to the That's Crafty blog for full details and more pics but in the meantime here's a little peek....

Donna xx

Lots and lots of little paper rosettes....

....for the Country View Crafts 'Paperchase' challenge......

I used up some old sheets of scrapbook paper that were lying in my drawer and several medallion/rosette dies...... Medallions by Brenda Walton, Paper Rosette by Tim Holtz and also the Mini Paper Rosette by Tim Holtz. I cut loads of the strips and then folded them all up, stuck them and then layered them up mixing up the sizes and designs as I went. Then I simply glued them in place on a ribbon....would be a fun and slightly unusual decoration for the front of a table at a wedding maybe or if you used lots of bright colours they'd be great at a childrens party.

Donna xx

Stop Clowning around.....

.....its time for me to host another challenge over at TagAlong.  I picked the theme of 'Circus' and for my tag I've used the Artistic Outpost stamp set 'Send in the Clowns'.........

Why not pop over to TagAlong and join in the fun 

Donna xx

Last project of the month....

....for Creative Expressions using their lovely little perfume bottle stamps. This little card features
the Art Deco bottle.....

Started off by creating a backing sheet with some shaded distress inks.......Peacock Feathers and Pumice Stone.....and then some a bit of stamping using the Scented Corner Stamp which was then embossed with gold. 

  Then I stamped the bottle three times and embossed again in gold, before cutting them all out.  Once they were cut out I painted them with a little pearl mica to give the bottles a little shimmer. Before assembling I stamped the sentiment that comes with the bottle onto a scrap of card and coloured to match.

Then it was simply a case of arranging and gluing everything together....

Thanks for popping by, see you again soon :)

Donna xx

This weeks card....

....for That's Crafty, pop over to the blog for full details.....

Donna xx

Time for challenge No 2.......

....over at the That's Crafty challenge blog.  Don't forget there's a £20 voucher up for grabs for one lucky participant of the challenge so make sure you head over to play.  This time the theme for the challenge is 'Inky Antics' so it was time to get out the distress inks, a mask and a few stamps for a little inky fun.

Here's a quick little how to, for all those who are interested.........firstly using a That Special Touch Mask as a guide add some distress ink direct to card front with a bit of cut 'n' dry.  I've used Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn, a combination I discovered the other week and I love it!!

Leaving the mask in place, drop a little water onto the ink and blot to do a spot of faux bleaching and then add a little stamping.  I've used a couple of Kaisercraft stamps......Grid and Script

 Stamp one of the quotes from IndigoBlu's 'Live, Laugh, Love' set direct to the card front...

Then stamp some of the flowers and leaves from the same set and colour them with a little distress ink, I used a bit of cut 'n' dry to do it with and then a damp paintbrush with some more of the ink to add a little more depth of colour.

I also stamped the dragonfly and added colour in the same way before arranging and sticking all the component parts together.....

Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to play

Donna xx

A box full of flowers and butterflies.....

....and a little how to make it.  I've had a few people ask how I made the below 'card in a box' which was done for Sheena's latest stamp release.

Right so first off I must say this wasn't my idea......had seen loads of this style of card on Pinterest and when I saw these new flower and butterfly stamps I knew it was a perfect vehicle for them. So did a bit of research and found a tutorial on YouTube but the card would have been way to small for these big stamps so taking the basic idea I reworked it to a size that would work with the stamps.

Okay this is actually really easy to make, first of all cut two pieces of card 8" x 8.5"

 Then with the 8.5" side to the top you need to score at 4" and 8", then turn the card around and score at 4"....

 Fold along all the score lines and then cut as shown below......

 Apply some wet glue along one of the small flaps......

 ...and attach to the other piece of card.

You've almost got a box now......just repeat the last step and your fold down box is pretty much complete. 

 Now to make the little struts inside you need to cut yourself two strips of card 5"x2", then score and fold half an inch from each end as shown below.....

 Using wet glue again (it's stronger and has a bit of slip to start with) position the first strip as shown...

 repeat with the second strip and you're done....

 Try and keep one of the flaps upright because this will be the back, you'll be covering it but it's still helpful to keep it as straight as you can.

Now you can either use different coloured card or backing paper to decorate the sides of your box, the choice is yours.  I created my own panels by inking each one with distress inks and then stamping each one. However you do it you will need one piece approximately 3.75"x 7.75" and 10 pieces approximately 3.75"x 3.75"....just check the measurements of your box to check the exact size you need.

Stamp out a large variety of flowers and butterflies and colour using the medium of your choice. I've used silks on mine.

 

Once coloured glue them all into place as and where you want them. You might find it useful to cut yourself some little stems of card onto which you stick the flowers before attaching them to the struts inside the box.....just enables you to get a greater variety in height etc. Attaching them onto acetate strips would work well as then you could get extra movement.

Just keep checking whilst sticking the flowers in place that the card is still folding flat ok.

So there you go.......pretty simple isn't it? Not overly quick if you make all your side panels and you're colouring all your images but definitely one of those makes that looks harder than it is!

Donna xx

Perfume Bottle time.....

....in the form of this weeks card creation for Creative Expressions.

Right so a quick how I did it......first to create the background I used the Scented Corner stamp along with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink for a bit of very random stamping.....and I do mean random! Then I just shaded the edges a little.

Then I stamped the Engraved Elegance bottle onto a piece of white card cut with the Spellbinders Gold Labels Four die and embossed it with Denim Lilac embossing powder. I added a little colour using some more Shaded Lilac. 

I created the backing paper to make the roses in the same way as above but this time I coloured the paper with Shaded Lilac before stamping. 

Didn't use a die to make the roses but hand cut them instead. In case you haven't done rolled roses I thought I'd put in a few pics to show how I did them (apologies if you can do these in your sleep!!). So first roughly cut a circle... 

Then cut into a spiral....... 

Then roll the spiral up either with your fingers or with a quilling tool if you prefer. Then a nice big dollop of glue, I used Cosmic Shimmer, and glue into place.....you will probably need to hold it a few seconds but the cosmic shimmer grabs quite quick...... 

Then die cut some leaves using Spellbinders foliage dies and assemble all the pieces together to make your card.......

See you again soon 

Donna xx

You are the hero......

...here's a little look at my project today over on the 'That's Crafty!' blog.  Pop over and have a look :)

Donna xx

Another little look....

....at Sheena's new stamps that will be launching this Saturday on Create and Craft at 3pm. Today a little plain wooden box decorated using some of the flower and leaf stamps......

Donna xx

Flowers and Butterflies......

.......are on the way in the form of some lovely new stamps from Sheena Douglass. They will be released on Saturday at 3pm on Create and Craft and there are some lovely big, and I mean big butterflies, and some lovely funky flowers. Here's one of the samples I've made for the show.....

Be sure to tune in and see the rest of the Inkoids samples and to watch Sheena's dems.

Donna xx

A simple little tag....

....with quite a bit of sparkle for this weeks Creative Expressions piece.  I decided to create my own little 'crystal' perfume bottle for this tag. First of all though I added a little gilded border using the Scented Border stamp, some flake and glitter glue and Summer Meadow gilding flakes.

Then to create my 'crystal' bottle I stamped the Art Deco Delight perfume bottle onto a piece of heat resistant acetate and embossed it in white, then backed the piece of acetate with some double sided adhesive sheet and cut out the bottle.

Now I peeled off the adhesive backing and covered the sticky side with Iced Snow Glitter Jewels, pressing it well onto the adhesive and then shook off the excess........

 ....which left me with a sparkly 'crystal' bottle.

Then I simply stamped the sentiment and glued everything together adding a little ribbon to trim.

See you all next week,
Donna xx

A Wise Old Owl....

....for my weekly That's Crafty piece, full details of stamps used etc are on the That's Crafty blog but here's a quick pic........

Have a lovely weekend :)

Donna xx

New Challenge Site......

....That's Crafty! Challenge blog launches today with it's first theme of 'Anything Goes'.  The challenges will run for 2 weeks, a winner will be picked for each challenge and they will win a £20 voucher to spend at the That's Crafty! online shop.........and there's certainly lots of goodies to spend it on!!

So for my piece I've gone a little bit oriental and used Sheena Douglass's Oriental Lanterns stamps. Started off by creating my background by blending Peacock Feathers, Wild Honey and Pumice Stone Distress Inks, spot of faux bleaching, some background stamping with stamps from the Ageing Beautifully set and leaves from the Lanterns set.

Then I stamped some of the smaller lanterns directly onto the background and coloured with wild honey distress ink. 

Then stamped the three larger lanterns onto some card coloured with Wild Honey and embossed them with gold embossing powder. 

They looked very 'flat' though so added some shading with Rusty Hinge and Pumice Stone Distress Ink and then covered the whole lantern with embossing ink and embossed with clear powder. 

Then it was just a case of assembling it all and adding a greeting from the 'From the Heart' words set.

Don't forget to check out the challenge blog and join in the fun.......remember there's a chance of winning a £20 That's Crafty! voucher.

See you again soon

Donna xx