Bee's Dancing Daisy

Morning. I am sharing a nice little 3D plaque today. You could use it as either a card, wall-hanging or just a nice piece for a shelf or mantelpiece. For this project, I have used an embossing folder and stamps from Leonie Pujol's new launch on Hochanda. I have also used words from Leonie's Heart Die Collection.

To start with I cut my card to size, approximately 5 x 7''. I used Whitewash Coredinations  card with a green core from Crafters Companion. I ran it through my machine with Leonie's  'Forever Swirls' embossing folder. I used my sanding block to highlight the pattern and let the core colour show through. I wiped over the card with my magic cloth from Crafters Companion, it makes a real difference to your embossing.

I then cut out the heart in the middle of the embossed card.

I took my backing board which was the same size and placed my embossed card over it to mark out where my design needed to be. I stamped the flowers with black Memento ink so they would show through the heart aperture.

On a piece of velvet card I stamped the flowers as I wanted them to decoupage on my design. I stamped quite a few as I wanted the design to be quite deep.

I took the backing image and coloured it with a selection of alcohol markers and did the same with the flowers for the decoupage. I masked of the flowers in my background and coloured the sky with Memento Ink 'Summer Sky'

On black pearl card, I cut out the words 'My Friend' from Leonie's die collection. Then stamped and coloured 3 of the Bees with alcohol markers.

I layered up my decoupage using 3D glue gel, secured a bee to the background, I secured the last 2 bees with spiralled coloured wire, to give the effect of flight.

Finally I added foam on a roll to secure my embossed front, I used four layers of 2 mm foam because of the depth of the decoupage.

I hope you like the project today along with the step by step. Thank you for visiting and I hope that you will visit again. Take care xxx

Flowery Dream Cushion Cover

Morning, Here is today's project, Something little bit different again using Leonie's Die Collection. I have also used stamps from the Brand New Launch from Leonie on Hochanda. When the new dies were launched, I had quite a few e-mails asking if the dies worked with fabric and if I had tried. I hadn't so I decided I would use this as the project for this post.

I started by cutting the material for the cushion cover, The width of the fabric needs to be approximately an inch or so wider than the cushion pad. This was to be a very simple envelope cover so The fabric needs to start at 2/3 the way down the cushion pad, right round to the front and overlap by approximately 1/2 to 2/3 again.

To colour my fabric I wet the material thoroughly and wrung it out, I wanted to keep as many creases as possible for colouring to add to the effect. I then took a selection of Brusho's, Emerald Green, Cobalt Blue and Violet. I hung the dripping wet fabric up and sprinkles in patches with the Brusho's, spritzed with more water and let the colour spread through the fabric. I then turned the fabric and repeated the process until I was happy with the result. I then left this to dry.

I selected 2 fabrics for the design, a plain black cotton and  a Downton Pattern fabric from the Lady Mary Collection and ironed on some Heat n Bond. I cut out three of the 'Folk Heart Base' in both colours and two of the fine outlines in black. I also cut a stem and leaf from the black cotton. In addition I cut out the word 'Love' in both colours and added them to the opposite hearts.

To pin the cushion cover I placed the material (wrong side) around the cushion pad and pinned one side in place, being careful not to pin to the cushion. Then I slipped it out, pinned the other side and sewed down both sides with a very close straight stitch. I turned it the right side out and pressed.

Then I arranged my flowers design using the die cut fabrics and ironed with a very hot iron (no steam). Either side of the main design I added and pressed the fine heart outline and stamped a word in each of them from Leonie's collection.

I hope you like this project, it's nice to do something a little different and answer the questions that were asked at the same time. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit today and I hope you will come again. Take care xxx

Metallic Roses

Morning, I am sharing an easel card today. I used  Leonie's beautiful Die collection to create this project. Please take the time to watch the launch shows via Hochanda's website before they go. You can find the shows via the TV Schedule and picking the date (8th & 9th June).

I cut out the Funky Heart Base in red silk art card and secured it to my backing card using Cosmic Shimmer Glue from Creative Expressions. Then trimmed around the heart. This is double sided as the top will show from both sides once assembled.

Then in black card, I cut out the Big Heart 'Floral Cascade', three times as I wanted the sections of flowers to build up my design.

I then gilded these using Renaissance gold, Empire Gold and Silver gilding wax by Pebeo from Crafters Companion.

Using 3D glue gel, I decoupaged the extra pieces onto the heart.

I edged the base and top of my easel base with Black Nuvo Embellishment Mousse from Tonic. It gives a much softer look that black. It also gives a lovely metallic sheen and also save the lack cardstock.

I cut my matching backing card to layer on to my base and front leaving a 5 mm border.

I added a strip of ribbon across the backing card before securing it to my base. I secured it with Red Liner Tape. Then adhered to the base using Cosmic Shimmer Glue.

I made some ribbon roses to match my project. I have a tutorial video which I added to the blog last week. I hope you will take a look if you haven't already seen it.

From Black card I cut out the Big Heart 'Entwining Branches'' to act as the foliage for my base.

I gilded the black roses and the foliage using the same three gilding waxes as before. I cut out the word 'Love' from the collection in Black card and gilded this in the same way.

I then assembled the card as shown in the photo, using 3D Glue Gel to secure the embellishments.

Thank you so much for taking a look today, I hope you have enjoyed the step by step I have shared. Take care and I hope you will be back soon.

Autumn Sunshine

Morning. I have called this card, Autumn Sunshine. It's made using the Big Heart, Entwining Branches from Leonies' Collection of dies. I have also used the leaf stamps from her new stamp collection launched on Hochanda on June 8th.

To start with I cut the die into copier paper to act as a mask and also cut four of them from Cream,Satin Gold,Satin Bronze and Burgundy cardstock.

I cut some cream card to a 7'' square and cut the die out of it. I placed it slightly off centre towards the top left hand corner to allow for the embellishments I was adding later. I took a smaller sheet of velvet white card large enough to fill the mask and still allow for securing to the back of my die cut sheet.

I started creating my landscape with hills and mountains. I used Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, and Aged Mahogany to achieve this.

I then added some tress, using stamps from Sheena Douglas with Black Archival.

I then placed a circle in the sky, slightly overlapping the mask I had made and blended the sky colour using mostly Scattered Straw Distress Ink, With a little Wild Honey around the edges.

I then peeled off the circle mask and slightly shaded the sun using the smallest amount of Scattered Straw so it wasn't stark white. I secured my die cut aperture to the landscape using Cosmic Shimmer glue. Then layered up my die cuts, each slightly twisted from the last to add dimension, using 3D Glue Gel. I then set these aside.

Next I stamped a selection of leaves and added autumn colours randomly blending to make them more natural looking once cut out. I used Scattered Staw, Wild Honey and Aged Mahogany.

Then cut out the leaves.

I then arranged the leaves around the bottom right hand corner and secured them with 3D Glue Gel.

Lastly I stamped the banner stamp and added the word ''Wonderful'' with black Archival ink. I blended this using the same selection of Distress Inks, keeping it lighter in the centre to give a curved 3D look.

I used 3D Glue Gel to secure the sentiment and finished the card by adding Glossy Accents to the Leaves and sentiment Banner.

Thank you so much for joining me today and seeing the step by step I have included for how I made this card. I hope you have enjoyed it and will visit again soon. Take care and hope to see you tomorrow. xxx

I just found out that they are now taking nominations for the International Craft awards and they have a category for best blog. If you think I deserve a nomination I would be over the moon and extremely chuffed. If you could take a minute or two to nominate, the link is: crafts-beautiful.com/award You could also win a nice prize in the draw. Thank you ever so much xxx