Fairy frame 2

Back in the autumn I created a fairy frame using the copper coloured pine cones. When I bought the embellishments in the spring summer catalogue from the 'Falling in Love' suite I knew how the next Fairy frame would look. The daisy is mounted on florist wire wrapped in Washi tape. I have tried to give the impression of being very close to the ground using ribbons to create the grass. The background is embossed with the wood grain embossing folder then covered with a number of different ribbons including some of the in colour lace and sprinkled with die cut leaves. To the front ribbons have been tied in bundles of three  with linen thread then wrapped around to the back, leaving the ends showing to add more texture.Then up front some green card cut with the fringe scissors.Lastly we have the fairy sat on the toadstool, fussy cut coloured with the marker pens. The close up pictures give you more detail than with the naked eye...... hence to the eye my colouring in looks fine in these pictures it looks a bit iffy..... I have painted the frame as the whole thing looked a bit dark. It has turned out just as I pictured it.

These are a close up of the 'Falling In Love' embellishments. So pretty

 In the background are die cut leaves from the 'Stylish Stems' framelits set. This are stuck to layers of ribbons.

These are close ups of the ribbons and  grass cut with the fringe scissors.

 You can see the lace in the background on this one.

Well I love it, hope you do to.

This is the previous frame.

Last day for Sale-a-Bration today.  For every £45 you spend you can get a free item of your choice.
Use the hostess code at the top of the page if your order is between £25 and £149.  In April I will send you a small Stampin'Up goody bag as a thank you.  Check out my online shop here

Dragonfly

This is the third card and has the dragonfly stamped and die cut on the front. All other elements of the card are from the Awesomely artistic set.

I love this colour combination, its Mint Macaron, Always Artichoke and Soft Sky, I feel its another fresh spring combination.

Together the three cards look like this:-

Bumble Bees

This is the second card from yesterdays class. This is one that I found on Pinterest here and immediately knew I had to have a go. Its beautiful, so simple. Plus I knew that the ladies in class would love it too.

The stitched framelits are great and this is the largest oval in white. An ideal size for the coloured bee and the sentiment.

Shopping
Stamps
Dragonfly dreams                 142924
Card and ink
Crumb cake A4                     121685
whisper white A4                  106549
Memento ink                         132708
Other
stitched framlits                     145372
crushed curry marker pen.     131264

Please use the hostess code at the top of the page when placing your order. In April I will send you a small gift of Stampin'Up goodies as a thank you.

Tuesday Class

Dragonflies and bumble bees have been requested and we always aim to please. The first card is a continuation of last weeks class where we inked the block, spritzed with water and then put the block onto the card, you could also use the wet wipe technique to get the same effect.

The top layer is cut 1/2 cm smaller than the inked layer then die cut with the cloud of dragonflies. I have removed the die cut and attached this layer to the inked sheet. The die cut is then attached with glue just on the bodies of the dragonflies which are then placed back in position, the wings have been gently pulled upwards to give a view of movement. 

The sentiment is from the 'Best Birds ' stamp set.

I am really pleased with how this has come out it feels very fresh and spring like.
















Shopping
Stamps
Detailed dragonfly thinlits dies  142749
Best birds                                    141525
Ink and card
Whisper white A4                       106549
Tempting turquoise A4               108598
Tempting Turquoise ink              126952
Daffodil delight ink                     126944
Bermuda Bay                               131171

Please use the hostess code at the top of the page if your order is between £25 and £149 if you order online. I will then send you a small thank you gift of Stampin'Up goodies in April. Happy shopping.

Pearls or no pearls

As I told you last week I have been working on making a stack of Thank You cards, so that when I have orders to send out I have cards ready, this is not my usual way of doing things as I like to make my cards specific to the person its going to, so I am trying to do a wide range of cards. Here is the last one I made, I have four of these but I have a query, pearls or no pearls????

Although the card needs its sentiment I felt it needed something else. 

A little bit of detail.....

This is the one with the added pearls. What do you think? I'm still not sure

Dragonflies

A week tomorrow I am running the class to make this beautiful home decor item. Today is the last day to order the stamps and framelits in time for the class. You can of course just book on the class and use my stamps and dies.

By ordering these today or tomorrow you will also get a freebie from the sale a brat ion, plus a gift from me in April as a thank you. Ensure you use the hostess code below when placing your order.

These are the stamps. The dragonfly and the bumble bee can be a 2 step image Te dots are a great background stamp and the sentiments are lovely. 10 stamps in total.

In the pack of dies there are 7 dies. The largest one does not have a matching stamp, it is much larger than the stamped image. The dragon fly stamp size die has a delicate intricate die as well as an outline which makes them very flexible. Then you have the little 'cloud' of dragonflies, when these are die cut you have 5 mini dragonflies all joined together, You can trim these and separate them out. Then there is the bumble bee. Stunning. Of course you do need a die cutting machine to use these.

Given the number of people who have shown an interest in the class I would love you to have your own sets of stamps and dies so you can go home and make more goodies.  The online shop is here use the hostess code NFHZVM9T 

stamps

dragonfly bundle, stamps and dies 144729

dragonfly stamps                            142924

dragonfly dies                                  142749

Remember if you spend £45 you can choose a free item. Happy shopping.

Lots of thanks

Its very busy in the Den with lots of little jobs that are important, take time but tend to get left as we create new ideas for classes.
The big one for me is creating a bunch of Thank You cards. During the last couple of months I have had quite an upturn in online orders which is great. It means my customers get their goodies delivered directly to their door enabling them to  get crafting quicker. Win win.
Today I have created a whole bunch of thank you cards. I like to send cards out when I know your order has arrived and I send another one when I send out the goodies bought with the hostess benefits at the begining of the following month.
Today I have also added a new hostess code. I closed the other one last Monday night but on Tuesday Stampin'Up announced a third batch of products for free with a minimum £45 spend. So for every £45 spend you get to choose something for free. There are only 8 days left for this offer.

These are two of today's Thank You cards.

This little mandala stamp is also one of the free sets. Isn't it stunning.

These are the third phase free items. 

Please use the hostess code if you order is between £25 and £150. I will send you one of these thank you cards and a small gift at the beginning of April as a thank you.

Roses

A quick post about a quick make. I have a young friend who runs her own business and recently moved into the unit next door to my studio. Check out her business here  She makes gifts using cut vinyl, she is brilliant at coming up with new ideas. We were talking about one of the little shops in Haworth that stocks her items and she mentioned the roses frames she makes as she hasn't done any this year but did loads for Mothers day last year and that got me thinking......
I still have my flower die and I had a small box frame that didn't have a back! It was something that looked interesting in Ikea for 99p so I bought one, like you do.

This is only 10cm x 11cm so very small but I really like it, what do you think?

The colours are sweet sugar plum, blushing bride and melon mambo. Don't they look great together...

Spritz watercolour

The pencils haven't come out today, this time I have spritzed with water. This is a great way to create your own backgrounds as every one you create will be different from the last.
Unusually this time I have used three colours rather than two. Just to give it a bit more light and freshness.

HOW TO

Take a block the size you want your background to be. I have used block I

Ink up the block with the stamp pads of your choice. I have used pool party along the top, cajun craze along the bottom then using the corner of the pad crushed curry along the middle.

Once the block is mostly covered in ink spritz with water. I do find that not aiming at the inked block but aiming upwards so the water falls (like rain) on the block gives a better result. Experiment!

Turn the block over and lay it down where you want the ink to go. Leave it......leave it.......leave it.

I love to watch, you can almost see the ink jump off the block onto the paper. When you lift the block it should be clean.

I have stamped with Lovely as a Tree. Its rather autumnal when we should be thinking about Spring I am going off to make another one with some green in it.

If you would like a catalogue to shop from drop me an email or a message.

And again

This card is very different and I have used one of my favourite pieces of kit. About 10 years ago I bought a roll of low tack paper and its still going. In general you never need to use very much but it can make such a difference.
For this card I cut off a 2" wide strip.... so not much then tore it in half to give a wavy line. I stuck the bottom half down then tore the other half into 3 pieces so that I could arrange them them to give different waves on the top, I didn't want a mirror image.
Once the low tack paper was stuck I got going with the pencils, starting with the brown on the bottom edge and Pacific Point on the top, followed by Bermuda Bay and Calypso coral. Then I have followed the way I wrote about yesterday being careful to clean the brush but still mixing the colours at the edges of each one. For this I have used a small paint brush but don't those pencil colours look good.

For the stamping I have used wetlands for the wading birds and wheat stand then High tide for the flying birds.

Shopping

stamps           

Wetlands            126697

High Tide           143006

Other

Watercolour Pencils 141709

If you shop in my online shop and spend between £25 and £150 please use the hostess code below then in April I will send you a small thank you gift of Stampin Up products.

Watercolour pencils again

OOOOoooooh I just love these pencils. I run a regular class on a Tuesday afternoon and we are going back to the watercolour pencils again this week but to make backgrounds. They are great for mixing colour and so easy to move around the paper with a damp brush.
For the first card I have used the flowers from the 'In the Meadow' stamp set. and glimmer paper, which takes the water well.
To get this water colour effect:-
start at the top with the Pacific Point pencil, start with heavy colour then lighten as you go down the page.  Then
start at the bottom with the Old Olive, start heavy colour the lighten your pressure to give a very light colour as you go up to meet the blue.
With a fine paint brush or a quality aqua painter, (one that has good control of the waterflow) start at the top, go over the lines until then merge to look like they are painted, you can pull some of the ink down the page if you need to but the colour in the centre should be very pale, clean your brush and repeat for the green. If the colours mix a little in the centre this is not a problem.
Leave the card to dry. For the stamping I coloured the stamp with the Old Olive and Pacific Point marker pens. I also used the grass stamp to take the grass out to the edges of the background square.

I don't often do a one layer card but I am rather pleased with this one.

Shopping

stamps

In the meadow            140754

Other

Watercolour Pencils    141709

Shimmer  paper            121717

If you do shop online and spend between £25 and £149 then please use the hostess code below then in the middle of April I will send a small 'thank you' gift of SU goodies.

Spring Frame

Quick post today as its The Tuesday Ladies class. This class started as a beginners class, now 8 months on the ladies are independent crafters, they have learnt to use the trimmer, daub with effect, use the big shot, make a decision about colours and many more skills. We laugh, eat cake and put the world to rights.  This is todays make, next week we are going back to watercolour backgrounds.

Dragonflies

Today I have a very special make for you. Its been formulating in my head since the middle of last month. I somehow knew I had to use pink and pale blue for the dragonfly make but what format it would take I wasn't sure. So last Thursday I settled down with a handful of card, some neutrals paper, the neutrals ink with pink and blue, the dragonfly stamps and dies and my Big Shot. This is what I produced...... along with a lots of bits all over the carpet!

I wasn't sure about the brown wood frame but the white ones looked even worse and now its been on the side a couple of days I think it adds to the vintage look.

This is the large die cut dragon fly. There isn't a stamp to match this so I stuck the die cut onto a piece of white and daubed with the pink pirouette and soft sky. The background cycle I hand cut after drawing around a saucer as I didn't have a die that big. This has been stamped with the Timeless Textures in pink pirouette, soft sky and crumb cake.

The printed paper is from my stash of retired stock as is the music but you could use pages from an old book or similar. All the little blocks have been daubed with crumb cake on both layer one and the top layer. I always use the grid paper on my table and when I daub I start on the grid paper and pull the ink onto the card, this gives a darker edge, this means that all the layers don't blend into one shade .









I have used all the image stamps and all the dies to create this frame. The sentiments are more useful for cards.

What do you think?

We are going to be making this is the Den on Saturday April 1st. No fools allowed!!!!  Although not difficult it is time consuming. Book online here

Shopping

stamps

Dragonfly dreams stamp set and die bundle   144728

Timeless Textures                                           140517

Card and Ink

Pink pirouette A4                                            116203

Soft Sky A4                                                     131292

Crumb Cake A4                                              121685

Very Vanilla A4                                              106550

Pink Pirouette ink                                            126956

Soft sky ink                                                      131181

Crumb cake ink                                               126975

Other

Lace                                                                141672                                            

linen thread                                                     104199                                                   

sponge daubers.                                              133773

You can place an order online here  or click on any of the links beside the items. I f you do place an online order between £25 and £150 please use the hostess code below. Then in the middle of April I will send you a small gift in the post as a thank you.