Shaker card and more

Shaker card made using Al Fresco paper set - made to look like a picture within a Polaroid! Inspired by prettypinkposh (you tube). I also used the 'candi' to make a flower! 

And another very simple card using the same set 

I also used the inspiration cards to make this dress card using the paper couture set 

Paper couture

LOVE, love the new Paper Couture pad by craftwork cards ( big fan of their pads as you can tell lol) i love the papers and the quality is brilliant 

I just wanted to share a couple of cards I made today:

Think I'll enjoy using this pad also x 

Madame Payraud: Lace, flowers and butterfly

I created this card using Madame Payraud papers. I bought this set of papers some time ago and havent really used them so after some purchases of new paper pads yesterday I decided i would try and use up some of my old stash before they arrive! I really liked this set when it first came but struggled with inspiration on how to use them. I made this card so i could enter it into the floral challenge on the docrafts blog. I  was going for a shabby chic look! I didnt plan how this card would turn out and kinda went with the flow. It is unusual for me to create this look but really enjoyed it.

I also enter this card into the following challenges:

Dream it Up: Floral and Fauna challenge

DL Art: Thankful Thursday challenge: anything feminine

Crafty Girls Challenge: Anything goes

Delightful Challenges - Petal Power

Craftwork cards - Botanica papers

As you can tell by now I do love this collection. I don't have many paper pads and this has become very much my go to paper set as it incorporates all my fave things - butterflies, flowers and birds! I promise I don't work for them! 

Here is another quickie I knocked up today - I just die cut lotsa squares then distressed the edges and added the sentiment. 

The Gorjuss Girls

I really love the Gorjuss collection by Santoro especially their stamp collection. I find the images are easy to colour and have fun with. I thought i would write a post to share some of my 'gorjuss' cards.

I created the above card for a friends birthday. I used one of the toppers from the paper pack and chose an identical paper for the background. I used a deep red ribbon to highlight the colour in her top. I also die cut and embossed with clear embossing powder the florishes to add some detail to the background. I added some florishes to the ribbon and sentiment. I highlighted her hair using glossy accents which made her hair look shiny and added some texure and dimension.

For my second card I wanted to create a summery look using one of the gorgeous girls. I used a background from the craftwork card paper pack, added some lace and some flowers. I think the yellow really gives this card a nice summer feel.

I love experimenting with different colours on this stamp and decided to match her dress to some beautiful blue heart papers i had in my stash. I added a dolie to the background to bring out the purple in her dress. The flowers were from an old topper - i removed the flowers from the topper and stuck them behind so that it looked like she was holding them behind her back. I then added a couple of sentiments and a ribbon to finish the look.

GORJUSS!

Dandelion stamp - distressing practice!

Today I took my indigoblu stamp for a run and made a few cards. I wanted to create a distressed look to the cards and tried out a few different styles. I am not great at distressing & always end up with blotches so invested in some brushes at a recent craft fair. I'm not sure yet if I prefer them to cut n dry foam as still went back to the foam to get a 'deeper' colour. 

I am quite happy with the result and managed to distress with only one blotch which I trimmed off. 

Card number one - pinky colours

For this look I used a mix of pink and purple inks. The purple ink is a Dew Drop Brilliance pearlescent crimson and has a lovely shean to it. The original image was square but I blotched the corner so trimmed it off. Think it turned out better! I die cut circles to decoupage the dandelion head 

Card number two - sunset dandelion

I am in love with this distress ink combination - orange marmalade, mustard and barn door and think it looks really nice mixed on the dandelion. I then distressed the edges with mustard and vintage photo and finished with a lovely verse stamped in Momento 'rich cocoa'.

Card number three - sunset background

Again I use the same combination as card number two for the background. I then stamped the dandelion with versafine and embossed it. I matted the card on black cardstock and then onto a red base. 

Thank you for reading this very long post x

Flower crazy

Just a quick post to show another 'just a note' card i made today. This is quite heavily embellished which is not usual for me but something i am growing to like more and more.

I made this card using flowers from the craftwork card Botanica collection again. I used a freebie backing paper I got with a magazine and added some lace. I distressed the edges of all the flowers and added a gold gem in the middle. I also added a few pearls to the finished card.

Pink Fairy!

Good afternoon.. Today I decided to explore the world of challenges which was also another reason I decided to start a blog as it looks such good fun. I have been working on a card today which I am going to enter into a few challenges.

However, before I bore you with the details of my card I must share some exciting news (well exciting news to me lol). Today on create on craft they were demonstrating the new Craftwork cards range so I decided I would email in a picture of the card featured in my first post as this was made using their Botanica papers. I was so chuffed when it was shown by the presenter and received some lovely comments from the demonstrator and presenter - I know they have to do this but still I was chuffed!

Ok, so back to the card. I decided to resurrect one of my old stamps I've not really used in a while. This is one of the first ever stamps I bought from one of the first ever craft shows I attended. I cant remember which company it is from but i think its one of the Lily of the Valley stamps.

I stamped the image using Memento rich cocoa then went colour and glitter crazy! I coloured the image using spectrum noirs and added the glitter using some stickles. I then die cut two squares and a rectangle and matted this to my card blank.

 I die cut the sentiment then use stickles to dot around the edges

I then added some butterflies I die cut and jazzed up with some gems and some flowers.

The finished very pink card:

I would like to add this to the following challenges:

Card Mania - Fairies
Craft your passion challenge - Up in the Air, thing that can fly
The Crafty Blogger Network - Die Cut or Embossing

If someone finds I have done something incorrect with linking to challenges please let me know.

My First Post

I have debated starting a blog for sometime and after joining the docrafts forum and meeting the wonderful ladies on there and seeing their fabulous blogs I decided it was finally the time to start my own. I am not a very advanced crafter but hope to continue to grow and progress with my card making skills. This is the longest hobby I have kept to (and in the past there have been quite a few) and I still enjoy learning and trying new techniques.

I decided that for my first post I would post the card which has received the most pins on my pinterest! This card was inspired by a card made by Julie Hickey on Create and Craft when craftwork cards was promoting their botanica range. For her demo Julie cut butterflies out individually from one of the butterfly papers and pasted them around an aperture. For my card I also cut out the butterflies individually, however not as many and I also decided to emboss my butterflies. I used clear embossing powder to give them a different texture/feel. I then stuck the embossed butterflies around one of the sentiments. Prior to this, I highlighted the sentiment by distressing the edges with vintage photo distress ink.

Here's a close up:

The background is another of the papers from the set. I cut down the paper to the size I wanted and distressed the edges, again using vintage photo distress ink. I highlighted the flowers using some glossy accents for the centers and glitter on the petals. I was really pleased with the outcome.

Here are the flowers up close:

Here is the finished card!

Thank you for reading my first post and visiting my blog xx