Home Birds 2

Morning, Thank you so much for stopping by today. I am sharing a new card that I have made using Leonie's stamp and stencil collection. I have also used the beautiful House Martin Stamp from Clarity. This is a fairly large card measuring 10'' x 5''.

Using Stick n Spray from Crafters Companion, I stuck down the 'Home' mask to my cardstock. I added the birds using Black Archival ink. I also made masks for these using copier paper and used the spray to secure them over the image.

I used a couple of the flower stamps and added them in areas around my design, masking them in the same way as before. Then I took a variety of solid stamps from Leonie's collection to complete my design, hanging some of them in a string from the letters. I used the swirly foliage to connect the flowers.

I coloured the background blending, Cloudy Sky Adirondack, Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire, keeping it darker around the edges. I wanted to highlight one of the birds so kept it very light in that area. I took of my masks and coloured the birds using a selection of alcohol markers, in red,orange and yellow.

Then I coloured my flowers using a selection of alcohol markers in various shades.

I took some plain white card to make my mat and coloured around the edges with Nuvo Mousse from Tonic Studios, the colour is Black Ash. It gives a really nice tone and shimmer, saves using black card but above all it's less harsh than black while still giving that extra drama to your finished card or project.

Finally I mounted onto my card and this is the finished piece. I do hope you like what I have shared today.

As you may know I am running a draw via Facebook today. Good luck. The winning comment will be randomly drawn on Sunday and the winner announced on my Monday Morning post and receive my lovely handmade Art Journal.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and thanks so much for all of your lovely comments, I really do love reading them all and try to keep up to date with replies. Take care 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

Decoupaged Ink Pad Holder

Morning, I have to admit that I am hopelessly addicted to Graphic 45. It started a few years ago and I have a lovely selection. But the biggest pitfall is that I am loathed to used it. Like a lot of crafters out there, I do like to look at it every now and again.

After assembling my MDF project, I decided to use a selection from the Le Cirque Collection, here a variety from the borders and tags. I did get a few of them so I don't think they will be missed too much.

Firstly I gave two coats of black Gesso, leaving the first coat to dry in between. Normally I would have given just the one coat, but because the unit will be in use most days I wanted it to be hard-wearing.

I popped out the tags and borders from the sheets and removed any pips remaining. Then using Tacky glue, which I had let down with a little water I applied my decoration. Wherever possible trying not to overlap, where pieces joined I used my nail to mark and trim. In some areas I decoupaged the figures to add a little more interest. I trimmed around the edges and finished with a sanding block.

I left this to dry overnight and then applied  a coat of Vintage Crackle Basecoat (Tonic) in one direction. When this was completely dry I applied another coat in the opposite direction. When this had dried, I applied a coat of Crackle Top Coat and again left overnight.

The effect was great, but to make it more obvious I used brown shoe polish and a soft cloth to rub it into the cracks.Hopefully you can see from the photos. I didn't seal the project as I think the crackle medium and polish were sufficient.

Thank you so much for popping by and looking at this project.

I do love reading your comments and try to answer everyone of them if possible. I am so happy that you are enjoying my blog and what I share on here.

I am thinking of  adding a little about life here and stuff like that, maybe once a week. What do you think?

Topper and Die Birthday Card

A whole week of Blog Updates. I am so pleased and to celebrate I am sharing another post later today.

For this card I used:Tattered Lace Westminster Die Collection.HunkyDory Die TopperDouble Satin Ribbon 1'' wideSilk Smooth Glitter & Coordinating CardTonic Swirls DieRose LeavesCream ribbon for making ribbon roses.

I love this card, I think the Westminster Die collection really suits this style. On the front layer of the card I cut the largest part of the die, leaving it in the card. Also on the front I used an edger die, again leaving it in the card. Behind this I used an adhesive sheet (Single Sided) and applied glitter polish through the die cut areas.

On the second layer, I cut the next die in the collection. This time using coordinating card behind the die cut. The topper was then cut to fit inside the inner circle.

For the base of the easel, I cut some leafy swirls using a tonic die and some emerald green silk art card. I made some silk ribbon roses using some cream ribbon to use as decoration and also to act as the stopper for the easel.