Time for something a bit different

Its my grans birthday next week and this week I spent a couple of evenings planning and making her Birthday card.

I decided I wanted to try something a bit different and rather then using stamps with animals or people in them I would use a floral stamp. I ended up getting a digi stamp from Tiffany Doodles which is a website I have never used before but will definitely be using again.

I found a stamp with a pansy in a pot which I thought my nan would really like, it took a bit of experimenting to work out the shading with my pro markers but after a few attempts I managed to get it right. I decided to keep the card quite simple and used a recycled card blank teamed with some floral patterned paper and a piece of colored pattered paper at either corner. I then cut out the stamped image and mounted it on the card using silicone glue to give it some dimension. I printed my own greeting and distressed it using the Tim Holtz distress ink pad.

Overall I really like this card it's very different from the other cards I have made but I certainly will be using this style again.

Easter Cards

I had a few last minute easter cards to get finished before the bank holiday weekend and a lot of my crafty pals have told me how good craftsuprint.com is so I decided to give it a go.

There are a huge range of printable cardmaking products and kits on there and I found a huge selection of easter related bits so it was hard to make a choice. In the end I found these super cute pig decoupage and pyramid card sheets.

All you have to do is cut out the bits once you have printed them onto a good quality cardstock and then piece them together.

The website provides a huge range of different kits from simple ones like the two above to more complicated moving cards. I also made one of these and was super happy with it but I will be posting about that later in a separate post.

But yes if you are looking for a quick make card if you have left it a little too late or if your just looking for a fun and simple project I would advise checking out the craftsuprint website.

Finished Teapot

I planted up my Decopatch teapot that I made earlier this month today. I picked a pretty pink flower, I'm afraid Im not very green fingered so I have no idea what type of plant it is but I thought the colour went well with the design of the teapot.

Really hope it survives the drive to devon in one piece and my nan likes it :)

I think the teapot looks fab and cant wait to get started with another Decopatch project.

Decopatch Teapot

As I have mentioned in previous posts I am a craft magazine addict and a few weeks ago I purchased the womans weekly craft special.

One of the projects which I loved was a teapot made into a planter, in the magazine they had covered the teapot in strips of fabric. I decided to adapt this a little to make a gift for my Gran for Mothers Day.

I used 'Decopatch' papers to cover my tea pot and a cheap tea pot from wilko. I picked out three different papers that I thought went together, be warned decopatch papers seem to be super pricey I paid 3.79 per pack and each pack contains three sheets. The paper actually does go really far I havent finished one sheet of any of the three patterns on this project.

I cut up the papers into little squares, covered sections of the teapot in decopatch glue (I think PVA would work just as well) and put the squares on I then added another layer of the glue. I did this all over the teapot making sure to get into all the nooks and crannys.

I then left it to dry before adding to layers of glossy varnish to give the project a shine. I plan to put compost in the teapot and then plant a small pansy in it. As Mothers Day is a few weeks away I haven't planted it up yet so when I do I will pop and post and photo up of the finished article.

P.S again apologies for the quality of the piccys cant wait to have my camera back

Teddy Bear Card

Today I spent my day reorganizing and tidying most of my flat, yes it is as boring as it sounds. The flat is super tidy and organized now though so I rewarded myself with some chill out craft time this evening.

I have been colouring in a few of my digi stamps so I have a supply of ready coloured images to use when wanting to make a card quickly. I made one card tonight using a cute teddy bear stamp.

I coloured and shaded the bear using my pro markers and then cut him out using my scissors and craft knife, Im thinking of investing in some of those special decoupage scissors as it so fiddly doing it with the big scissors and knife. I also cut out the heart shaped balloons separately. I used some of the airmail style paper from the Portobello Road collection and cut this to form a large strip down the centre of my cardstock.  I stuck the bear on and then used 3D foam pads to attach the balloons so they had a sort of floating effect. I then found some old elastic that I had laying around in my sewing box and stuck this on with pva glue to make the balloon strings. Overall I am happy with this card I really feel like I am getting better at this whole crafting thing :) Not sure if this card needs something else though, it just feels like something is missing from it not sure what though, any suggestions?

I am going to be entering this card into the I love Promarkers challenge which this week is an anything goes theme.

Decoupage for Beginners

Today I have made two cards using a combination of coloured digi stamps and some decoupage techniques.

I had two identical images and coloured them both in, I then decided on the elements of the image that I wanted to have raised. For the single robin I decided this would be the hat and the holly branch. I then cut one image out as a whole and cut around the edges, I think a better effect could be achieved if the image was a uniform shape for example an oval but to achieve this I would need some sort of die cut machine which as of yet I don't own. On the identical image I cut out the hat and holly branch I used the scissors to cut out the basic shape and then the craft knife to do the more intricate bits, it was a bit of a faff but I got there in the end. I then affixed them to the matching image using foam pads, I used two foam pads on top of each other to make sure I got a really good 3D effect. I then stuck the whole thing onto a A5 card.

The second image I did was from a digi stamp of some love birds, I decided to try and make it more christmasy by changing the love birds into robins and adding some snow effects. It's not as Christmasy as I would like but I think the 3D decoupage effect on this card is really good.

3D Robin (camera doesn't show 3D hat or holly very well) 

As you can see I only made one or two elements 3D in these cards and stuck with quite simple images, I really enjoyed the technique and the effect it gave so may give it a go with some more complex designs in future.

Lovebirds changed to Robins (camera doesn't show the 3D effect well)