Congratulations

Welcome to my first Tutorial using the amazing 'Rustic Wedding' Collection by Sara. What an amazing launch it was, I do hope you saw the shows. For my card today, I have used Foamiran to make the rose, In fact the first time I have ever used a quilling die with Foamiran. I do hope you enjoy the tutorial I have shared today.

For this card you will need:

Always and Forever Rustic Wedding Stamp Set

Rustic Wedding 6 x 6 Pad

Rustic Wedding A4 Printed Kraft Card

Rustic Wedding Bridal Bouquet Die

Rustic Wedding Hope Die

Rustic Wedding Newlyweds Die Set

Rustic Wedding Self Adhesive Hessian

Black Card

Versafine Black Ink Pad

Peeled Paint Distress Ink

Pale Peach or Pink Oil Pastel

White Foamiran

Green Foamiran

Adhesives, Tacky Glue, Foams Pads

Hot Glue Gun

Step 1: Cut out the White Foamiran with your die, then in green cut the leaves from the coordinating die. Colour the ends of the  petals sparingly at the ends and  then stretch and shape. For a fuller bloom use 2 of these die cuts. (For more Information of using the foamiran see LINK).

Step 2: Create you rose using a small amount of hot glue on the base of each petal in turn building up your flower.

Step 3: Cut a Calyx shape from green Foamiran, I have detailed this in my flower forming blog (See Post for more information) Colour using peeled paint Distress Ink.

Step 4:  Twist the leaves together and turn too and fro to give a more realistic look.

Step 5: Secure to the base of your rose with hot glue.

Step 6: Stamp the banner and sentiment from the collection onto Centura Pearl. Cut out.

Step 7: Cut the Hessian, using the heart die from the Newlyweds set. Onto mat black card draw around the same die and cut out, this creates the perfect thin mat for your hessian heart. Secure together.

Step 8: Cut out 'Hope' from Centura Pearl and position onto your layered hearts.

Step 9: Select a sheet from the 6 x 6 paper pad and layer it onto black card, leaving a narrow border.

Step 10: Create an 8 x 8 card base from the same Centura Pearl card. The taking a sheet from the printed Kraft card layer onto your base.

Step 11: Using foam pads add your decorative paper layers to the card, as shown.

Step 12: Arrange the heart in the centre, finally position your rose and banner to finish your card.

Thank you so much for joining me today, I really hope you have enjoyed the tutorial I have shared along with the finished card. Please join me again to see what I have to share. I would love to have your comments so I know that you like what I am sharing or not. Take care and Happy Crafting.xxx

Life's an Adventure

Create a rustic look with these fantastic 3D Embossing Folders launched on Hochanda by Crafters Companion. There is so much Depth and Dimension in these folders that they really hold their own. I have really enjoyed designing to show just how detailed they are.

For this card, I wanted the finished card to be larger than the embossing folder, but also wanted the folder to be the main focal point, so I cut 2 which I would join together later. I inked my 'Regency Swirls' folder with Rich Cocoa Memento Ink and ran through my machine. This coloured the lowest part of the design to highlight the different levels of emboss. The card I used here was Neenah Dessert Storm.

Next I trimmed the design, both pieces to 6 3/4'' x 4 3/4''.

I took a strip of hessian, which I frayed at the edges. Then I joined the embossing folders to give me a 7 1/2 x 6 1/2 piece. I wrapped the hessian around horizontally and secured at the back with red liner tape. I did the same with some raffia, then again vertically, where they crossed I tied a knot.

I backed the piece onto red pearl card to give a narrow border, then attached to my 8 x 7 base card made with Ivory Centura Pearl card. I stamped the sentiment and cut it with a basic circle die, distressed with Antique Linen and layered onto some matching card cut with a larger basic circle die.

I hope you have enjoyed this step by step and the finished card, I hope it has shown the depth and detail of the folder, which is what I wanted with this card. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and hope to see you soon. Take care and Happy Crafting.xxx

Wake Up

Morning, Today I wanted to share one of the samples I made for the Bee Crafty show on Hochanda. This was from the show when Bev brought us the wonderful Steam Punk Paper pads. The beautiful Feather stamps were also a feature of the show.

For this card I decided to use Kraft card for a different look and feel. I started by stamping one of the feathers letting them overlap, using a mask I had cut from copier paper. The colours I have used here are Shaded Lilac, Pine Needles, Festive Berries, Squeezed Lemonade and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks.

On another piece of Kraft card I stamped the 'Wake Up' stamp with Gathered Twigs Distress ink. This is a really fun sentiment that suits lots of occasions, I think it's especially good for teenagers.

To create the background I stamped the smaller Swirly Feather using Gathered Twigs Distress ink, allowing some to fall off the page.

I blended around my sentiment, background and main piece with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink to soften the edges.

Next I cut a piece of hessian approximately the same width as the background and frayed the edges quite heavily.

I layered my background onto brown Centura Pearl card and secured the hessian in place using Cosmic Shimmer glue.

Using some of the longer lengths of hessian thread, I wrapped them around my main piece and secured at the back with tape. I then layered this onto the same brown card.

I used another hessian thread to thread through a wooden button to act as an embellishment. Then layered my sentiment onto the same brown card.

To finish the card, I assembled, I secured the main piece to my background using foam tape to raise it, then 3D glue gel to add the sentiment, lastly I added the button, again with 3D glue gel.

I hope you like the finished card today and the step by step I have shared with you. Thank you ever so much for joining me. Take care and Happy Crafting.xx 

Butterfly Wreath

Good Morning and thank you so much for stopping by again. I hope you are well and have a good Bank Holiday weekend. Well I have something completely different using stamps from Leonie to share with you today, So I am hoping that you will like it.

I have lots of grape vines here, when they are pruned, there are lots of long lengths to get shot of. A lot of them go into the stove, but I thought it would be nice to find a different use for some of them at least. I decided I would like to try and make a grape vine wreath.

After some research online, I found out that it is in fact fairly easy to do, I took three equal lengths of vine and formed them into a rough circle shape. Then brought the ends through the centre, wrapped and repeated. Before running out of length I added some more until the wreath was about the right size, any loose pieces can be tucked in or trimmed back with pruning sheers. I was really please with the finished result, at the same time cursing, thinking about the money I had spent in the past buying them in the past. I put this aside while I got everything else ready.

There are quite a lot of elements to the wreath, so It's best to go through them one by one.

I cut about 10 x 1 1/2'' strips of calico, approximately 36'' long and when bunched together I concertina folded them and tied them together with garden twine about 2/3 of the way up. I dyed one part with Slate and one part with Lavender, Quick and Easy Dyes from Forest Fibres on ebay. When they were dry I cut them in half and rolled them into roses. I will do a post on this at some point soon, to show how. There were a couple of strips left over that I tied into messy bows.

On a separate piece of calico, I stamped some of Leonie's stitched hearts from the new collection with archival waterproof ink. I stamped inside the hearts with 'Love' & 'Dreams', again with black Archival Ink. I dyed half of them in Slate and half in Lavender at the same time I dyed a square of calico in Slate to become my backing. Once they were dry, I roughly cut out the hearts and backing and stitched around leaving a gap for stuffing. I then stitched up the gap and frayed around the edges.

I took some 2'' strips of hessian, approximately 18'' long and made 3 large roses. I wrapped some garden string around paint brushes 3'' long, secured with pins at either end, covered in PVA and left to dry.

Then I made a few Paper roses, I took half a sheet each of Tim Holtz Core-dinations cardstock, Tattered Rose and Dusty Concorde from Crafters Companion. I cut various size circles, using my circle cutter, then run them through the Textures Leaf Vein embossing folder by Crafters Companion. I then sanded them back to reveal the core colour. I cut these into spirals, wound them to form roses and secured them with Cosmic Shimmer Glue.

Taking an MDF tag, I coloured it using Cornflour Blue Nuvo Embellishment Mousse by Tonic Studio's. I applied 2 coats and polished it once it was dry. Then using Indigo Blu Flitter Glue, I used a sentiment stamp from Leonie's New Stamp Collection and covered it with Gilding flake.

Finally I assembled the wreath, using a hot glue gun. I  started off by placing the MDF tag and building up around 3/4 of the wreath leaving some bare vine.

I have really enjoyed making this project and I sincerely hope you have enjoyed the step by step. I know it was a long one but I really thin it is worth taking the time to make such a nice piece. Thank you so much for your continued visits and wonderful comments, I do read everyone of them and try to answer. Thanks for your support. Take care xx

Butterfly Mixed Media

Morning. I hope you liked the share yesterday. Today I thought I would share a Mixed Media project that I made with Leonie's new Stamp collection. I chose the butterflies again from the Flight To Freedom Set. I have really enjoyed using Mixed Media and loved making this canvas, so I hope you like it.

I took a piece of canvas board, approximately A4 in size. To begin with I stamped branches and trees over the project as a guideline for building the illusion of a view within a forest. To achieve this I decided on a mixture of garden string for the thicker stems and embroidery cotton for the smaller branches.

Then I took the other elements that I had chosen, some torn corrugated cardboard, ripped and embossed card, a tube I made using garden string wrapped round a paintbrush and coated PVA glue. I also used some hexagonal die cuts that I snipped into along with some ribbon roses I made and some simple paper roses.

When I had arranged all of elements, I painted my project with black gesso and left to dry. When the first coat was dry I felt it needed something else so I destroyed some polystyrene to make some balls and corner element.

Then painted these black also. It's very strange before painting the whole project it started to look too busy, but when it's painted it is less than you think.When the black gesso was dry I stippled around the majority of the board to add more textured with Dyna Acrylic 356 (Violet Blue) The around the paper roses and ribbon roses I added Dyna Acrylic 354 (Red Blue).

Around the edges of the board to about 3 inches in I used Mediterranean Blue gilding polish and then around the edge added Teal Gilding polish both from Creative Expressions. I used the Rich Red gilding polish on the ribbon roses and then built up layers of all the colours throughout the canvas to add more depth.

To finish the colouring of the background and to highlight the trees and branches, I applied Pebeo Gilding wax in both Silver and Renaissance gold. 

I stamped out a selection of butterflies from Leonie's Collection, coloured them with my alcohol markers and sprayed with Crafters Companion Silver Spray and Sparkle. I secured them in place with 3D glue gel.

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you have enjoyed this step by step of how this project came about. I hope you will be back again very soon.Take care xx