Art Nouveau Pop-up and some hints on finding Free Artwork

Today's card uses some of the work of Alphonse Mucha, a truly inspirational Czech artist of the Art Nouveau movement. If you want to learn more about him, there is lots of information on Wikipedia and a whole gallery of his images, all now out of copyright and freely printable, on Wikimedia Commons.

"Art Mystique"

The front of the card features a woman from a very famous travel poster "Monaco - Monte Carlo". All the women have been cut from printouts and shaped before attaching to the card. The backgrounds are made with distress inks, stamps, perfect pearls and lace.

"Inspiration Tree"

The trees are diecut from old cat food boxes and embossed with a woodgrain folder before decorating with distress inks and distress stickles. Only the trunks are attached to the card, leaving the branches hanging free. Tiny tags are inked and stamped with inspirational quotes before attaching to the branches. I love the way the branches form an arch above the woman's head in a form reminiscent of the Art Nouveau style.

"Pop-up!"

Tom tells me he like a card with a "wow" on the front, and a "WOW" inside. I hope this one does the trick! There are three separate pop-up elements and the two groups of people at the back are attached to the background with Pinflair dimensional glue to bring them away from the blue-green background.

"Ladies!"

The central figure in this group reminds me of my niece (hi Abs!). I just love the plate of chips amongst all the glamour :-).

Ingredients:

Sizzix Bigz XL pop-up tree

Sizzix Bigz Scallop pop-up

Sizzix Bigz Tiny Tabs and Tags

Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels

Distress Inks

Distress Stickles

Vintage Images by Alphonse Mucha from Wikimedia Commons

Adhesives: PVA, Pinflair Glue

Jump rings

Lace

Epilogue

Some time ago I was working on a card with some Graphic 45 stamps, and did some internet research wondering what colours would be good for trapeze artist costumes. I happened upon Wikimedia Commons which has thousands of copyright-free images, and came across a lot of the artwork upon which some of the Graphic 45 papers are based. If, like me, you like the papers but find them expensive, you can print off a lot of these images direct from Wikimedia and use them in your art comfortable in the knowledge that you are not breaking any copyright rules! I was surprised just how much of Graphic 45's "Le Cirque" artwork resembled real vintage circus posters such as this one, which you might like to compare to the artwork in the background on Graphic45's website here:

"Vintage Circus Poster from Wikimedia Commons"

Having discovered Wikimedia Commons, I carried on with my research. A lot of the images in the Graphic 45 "Steampunk Debutante" papers bear striking similarities to artwork by some well-known Art Nouveau artists, including Alphonse Mucha and Henri Privat-Livemont, and sadly I haven't noticed these artists being credited. If you're looking for good artwork to include on your cards, why not start with a trip to Wikimedia Commons and see what you can download for free?

Entered for the following challenge:
Gingersnap Creations - Last Century

Eggs Don't Grow on Trees

Here's another Easter card. I made this one for a lady on Docrafts who sent me some gorgeous lace - thanks Kathy :-)

"Greeting at Easter"

The tree diecut and tag were both embossed with a woodgrain effect and coloured with a mixture of Dylusions sprays and distress inks. These inks are all water-based, so you can mix and match!

"Eggs Don't Grow on Trees!"

Distress stickles add a little vintage glass glitter effect to the tree. Tiny tags are coloured and stamped with eggs before attaching to the tree branches with jump rings

"Easter Bunnies"

This fabulous vintage Easter graphic was printed from the Graphics Fairy's blog, then decorated with Glaze pens to highlight the eyes and add an eggshell effect to the egg. Pink glitter pen was used on the flowers, and some white pen on the white rabbit's fur. After drying, the image was shaped and adhered to the card with Pinflair for a little dimension. The greeting at the top of the card was cut from the same image.

The background is coloured and stamped with distress inks. The lace at the top of the tag was also coloured with distress ink to match the rest of the card. I've had a bit of fun with colour lately and quite enjoyed the orange and blue colour scheme. Perhaps all that sunshine has influenced me recently. Hope you are all having a great Spring.

Ingredients:

Sizzix Bigz XL:  tree pop-up

Sizzix Bigz: Tag diecut (thanks Lee!)

Sizzix Bigz: Tiny Tabs and Tags

Sizzix Embossing Folder: Woodgrain Effect

cardstock: white, 300g & 160g

vintage image from the Graphics Fairy

Distress Inks: Spiced Marmalade, Tumbled Glass, Fired Brick

Dylusions Ink Sprays: Pure Sunshine, Postbox Red

Hero Arts Stamp: Bloomin' Meadow

Crafty Individuals unmounted stamp set: CI-234

IndigoBlu unmounted stamp set: Wild Meadow WM1

7Gypsies clear stamp set: Conservatory

Jump Rings

Entered for the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - a Tag!
Joanna Sheen - Spring / Easter
Gingersnap Creations - 4th Annual Copper, Ginger or Rust Challenge

Easter Wishes

Just a quickie today; I made this card for the Easter swap on Docrafts.

"Easter Wishes"

The gorgeous ribbon was sent to me in another docrafts swap and provided the starting point for this card. The background colours were chosen to match, then the stamping just seemed to follow naturally.

"Easter Wishes"

I've kept the design really simple to show off the gorgeous stamps from Indigo Blu and because the colours are a little unusual, with an orange sky! A little picket fence distress stain was added behind the area where the sentiment was stamped to help the wording stand out. The sentiment is stamped in sepia archival ink and heat embossed in clear. The other stamping is all done with distress inks in the same colours as the background. The ribbon is wrapped around the inked card and secured at the back before adhering to a dark green card blank. A second ribbon is added on top of the first with some very pretty, delicate flowers inked with distress colours to match the project.

Ingredients:

Indigo Blu unmounted A5 stamp set: Wild Meadow WM1

Indigo Blu free cover stamp from Craft Stamper magazine

Distress Inks: Dried Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint,

Distress Stain: Picket Fence

Ribbon

Entered for the following challenge:
Joanna Sheen - Spring / Easter

Buzzin'!

Woohoo - the new Dylusions sprays have arrived in the Izzwizz household, and it's inky fingers galore. I spent all last night playing with sprays, stencils and stamps and went to bed with honeycombed hands! Anyway, this is my first creation, hope you like it! Tom thinks it would make a good label for his honey jars :-)

"feel the BUZZ"

I sprayed the background, added some water with a tiny bit of Perfect Pearls, and sprayed through some sequin waste, then flipped that over and pressed down on the other side (hence the inky fingers!). The bees and letters are stamped in archival with a white pen highlighting.

Ingredients:
Dylusions ink sprays: Crushed Grape, Vibrant Turquoise
Archival Ink: Jet Black
Inkssentials opaque pen: white
bee stamps, various
Hero Arts alphabet stamps

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... Create Your Own Background

Enjoy the Journey...

This is one of those projects that will never be finished, but I've been working on it on and off for four months now and it's about time I showed it to you! Without further ado, my first configurations box...

"Enjoy the Journey..."

First off was to cover the box using Tim Holtz paper and tissue tape. A sheet of patterned paper was cut into pieces to fit the back and base of each aperture.

"Stamped tissue paper"

The tissue tape was homemade by stamping distress inks onto tissue paper then cutting into strips. Lots of masking was used in order to get the effect of lots of layers of travel labels, and each label was stamped in its own colour, keeping the colours consistent for a more realistic look. The colours were chosen to match the backing papers. The strips of tissue paper were used to join the boxes and cover the edges of the papers by applying with a very thin coat of PVA. All the horizontal edges are done first, followed by the vertical ones.

"Paris"

The boxes each have a theme based on travel. "Paris" has an eiffel tower charm and vintage postcards with handwriting, printed in miniature and aged with distress inks.

"Treasure Chest"

This is what the traveller is looking for! The miniature treasue chest was made from card and covered in wood-effect papers then filled with beads and trinkets. I dug that tiny gold-coloured bracelet up from the garden so thought it was really apt for this project :-)

"Books"

I always take plenty of reading matter when I'm travelling - it's great for passing the hours in airports and hotel rooms. These little books are handmade by stapling tiny bits of paper and a cover on the spine, then giving each a title with a fine promarker. My favourite is "If they don't understand, just shout!" :-)

"Treasure Map"

Here's the map showing the location of that chest, and a lovely pen nib that was used to put "X" marks the spot! In the foreground is one of the embellishments made from stamping shrink plastic with black archival ink, cutting out with scissors, shrinking with a heat tool and gluing to the box with Pinflair or glossy accents.

"Medicines"

Every traveller needs a well-stocked first aid box, and these pills should come in really handy! I couldn't resist adding the funny looking cat, just the sort of weird animal you might come across on your travels abroad :-)

"Beach Fun"

I love the figure of the surfer in the background in this box, so this one had to have a beach theme with shells and sea creature charms. That bracelet came from a buddhist monk in Thailand and I wore it for years. This seems like a fitting home for it now.

"Vintage aeroplane"

This little vintage aeroplane is another embellishment made from shrink plastic.

"Don't care was put in a pot and boiled 'til he was done!"

Did this worry the weary Victorian traveller? Being eaten by cannibals? As a little girl, if I ever said "Don't care" to my Nan, she would say "Don't care was made to care, Don't care was hung, Don't care was put in a pot and boiled 'til he was done!". Perhaps that was the inspiration behind this main scene, which is the end of our interpid traveller. Lee sent me these fantastic stickpins and I knew immediately what I would do with them. They look so scary, they just had to be cannibals. There's a cooking pot full of skulls, skulls and fish bones strewn on the ground, bats peeking out from the rafters, a strange mask hanging for the main character to hide behind, and weird decorated poles (empty lipstick cases covered in gold peeloffs!). Could this be some sort of strange religious ceremony?

To the traveller I say. "Enjoy the journey, for who knows what you'll find when you get there!"

Ingredients:

Tim Holtz paper pad: Lost and Found

Graphic 45 paper pad 8" x 8": Tropical Travelogue

free vintage printoffs from the Graphics Fairy

wood effect patterned paper

scrap card & paper to make treasure chest & books

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz stamp set: Travel Labels

Tim Holtz clear stamp set:The Journey

Creative Expressions stamp set: Vintage Aviation

Distress Inks, various

Archival Ink: black

adhesives: PVA, pinflair

Shrink Plastic

gold peeloffs

charms & metal embellishments: skulls, bats, cat, used lipsticks, eiffel tower, fish, starfish, fish bones, drawbridge, shells, braid bracelet, beads, chain, decorative pins

two small vials of seed beads with stoppers, decorative stickpins, pen nib (all thanks to Lee)

Entered for the following challenge
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes
The Artistic Stamper - Travel

Wearin' of The Green

Good luck on St. Patrick's Day!

"Wearin' of the Green"

We live within sight of the mountain of Slemish, where St. Patrick minded his sheep as a slave boy. This is a really beautiful part of the world with the green Glens of Antrim, waterfalls a plenty and a fabulous coastline with a road at the foot of the cliffs and miles of golden sands on the beaches. Things are looking up for Northern Ireland and I wish everyone a fantastic weekend.

Ingredients:

Distress inks: Pine Needles, Bundled Sage

Vintage images from Magic Moonlight Studios

"Good Luck" sentiment stamps from Dovecraft and Papermania sets

"Irish Luck" and "Blarney Castle" images from junk mail!

Entered for the following challenge:
Wags n Whiskers - Luck of the Irish (use green)
Simon Says Stamp - A Bit o' Green
Pile it On - St. Patrick's Day and/or Shades of Green

Colour

I've been having lots of fun with some new IndigoBlu stamps from Joanna Sheen. It's amazing the different feel you can give to a project by choosing the colour scheme carefully. Now someone sent me some fabulous ribbon in a swap and that was the starting point for this project. I chose colours to match, and the rest flowed from there.

"Colour"

It's funny that there's not much of the ribbon left on show now! I like to use pieces of cut 'n' dry foam to blend the distress ink background, it's great getting your fingers good and close to your work. Splodges of picket fence distress stain are used on the main panel before stamping the sentiment to make it stand out better against the background.

"Butterfly"

Watercolour paper makes a great medium for butterflies. It takes lots of colour well and soaks up any amount of distress stickles you want to add; it's easy to cut out and shapes nicely when dry.

"Flower trim"

Plenty of flower trim left yet - thanks Lee! It's so easy to colour with distress inks to match your project.

"Dimension"

This angled view makes it easier to see the dimension.

Ingredients:

IndigoBlu unmounted stamp set: Wild Meadow

Distress Inks: Pine Needles, Bundled Sage, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Barn Door

Distress Stain: Picket Fence

Archival Ink: Cobalt

Cardstock: thin white for inking and stamping, thick red for card blank

Ribbon

Flower trim

Entered for the following challenge:
Joanna Sheen: Spring / Easter

A bit of silliness...

The Altered Alice blog challenge this month is a strange one to say the least. "Best Butter"!!! I've had this old ad in my head ever since seeing the challenge. Anyone my age in the UK will probably recognise it immediately as being for Country Life English Butter. Anyway, since I couldn't get rid of it, I thought I'd just go with the flow!

"Mad March Hare"

You really can't beat a good bit of inking for colour! I'm waiting on some dylusions and can't wait to try them, but in the meantime this is coloured with liberal amounts of distress inks. The stamping is all from Indigo Blu's Alice I set. I wanted it to look a bit ghostly, so stamped off the first images and used the second ones (same colour distress inks as the backgrounds).

"Best Butter!"

The hare is adapted from a Dover Publications free clipart image - he's one of those paper dolls. I added lots of little bits of glaze here and there and touched up the image with some pens. Glossy accents was used to make it look like real butter on the toast. After decorating, he's cut out, shaped and stuck on to the background with Pinflair for some added dimension.

Ingredients:

Indigo Blu unmounted stamp set - Alice 1

Distress Inks: Barn Door, Stormy Sky, Pine Needles, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo
Mad March Hare image from Dover publications

Cardstock: thick red for card blank

Adhesives: Pinflair, Glossy Accents

Sakura Glaze pen

Inkssentials opaque pen: white

Gold pen

printed labels

Entered for the following challenge;
Altered Alice - Best Butter!

Mother's Day Card Number 2

Here's the second of my two Mother's Day cards for this year:

"Happy Mother's Day"

This card has an acetate tunnel construction (for details of the construction method, see my tutorial under the heading Project three - fish tank). The back has patterned paper, and the front is stamped with distress inks to match.

"Deer"

An antlered deer was cut from patterned papers and adhered to the acetate, and a Graphics Fairy image was cut up to make the deer's family in the background.

"Images"

Images were cut from the patterned papers, shaped and adhered using Pinflair. Lace edging was coloured to match using distress inks and fixed to the top and bottom of the card with glossy accents.

"Butterfly"

The butterflies are stamped in clear versamark and heat-embossed in gold before colouring with distress inks, cutting out, shaping, and gluing in place with Pinflair.

"Box"

The box is made from kraft & stamped to match the card using Distress inks.

Ingredients:

Kaisercraft Secret Bird Society 6" x 6" paper pad
Sizzix Framelits: Circles

Graphics Fairy image

Meadow stamp set (can't remember who made this, if anyone recognises it please let me know and I'll edit!)

Butterflies stamps

Distress Inks: Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Tumbled Gladd, Bundled Sage

cardstock: white, thick

acetate

lace

sentiment "Happy Mother's Day" from a swap

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Mother's Day
Dream Valley - Mother's Day
Pan Pastel - Girly / Mother's Day
Penny Black Allsorts - Springtime
The Stamp Man - Vintage
Joanna Sheen - Spring / Easter
Crafty Ribbons - Celebrate your Mum
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Vintage / Shabby Chic

Townscape

Sorry, I'm getting abstract again. Slap my wrist! I was playing with some stamps yesterday. Now, I don't use stamp cleaner of any kind. Mostly to clean my stamps, I just stamp the ink off on some scrap paper. But that sort of wastes the ink, so I thought I'd stamp off the excess ink onto a nice piece of white card and use it to make a background. This is what I made with the result...

"Safe as Houses"

The background is from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th stampings of archival ink. After stamping, it was coloured with distress inks, and clouds added by splodging with Picket Fence distress stain. The houses are coloured with inks and overstamped with the butterfly before adhering to the background with a little glossy accents at each edge, bending the centre of the diecut out to create a little dimension.

"Front view"

All that was left to do was a little matting and layering onto deep red and pale blue card. And yes, that is sunshine and shadows in the photo - we have Sun in Northern Ireland, woohoo!

Ingredients:

7Gypsies Stamp set - Conservatory

Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage, Aged Mahogany, Pumice Stone, Chipped Sapphire, Pine Needles

Distress Stain - Picket Fence

Archival Ink - Cobalt

Cardstock - white, red & pale blue

Entered for the following challenge:
Polkadoodles - Let's Hear it For the Boys
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

Floral fluffiness

We have four more fluffy little chicks at Bally Farm - woohoo! The older ones have gone out to their new accomodation in the greenhouse and are happy as larry in all the space, and the spare room now has the four tiny tweeters who are just gorgeous little balls of fluff. It's amazing how quickly they grow, but great to enjoy them while they're so tiny :-) Anyway, if you want to read any more about our flock, you should check out Tom's blog Bally Poultry for all the latest news.

All this chick hatching just keeps inspiring me to make Spring cards. Forget the bad weather and think of all the flowers! This one is for my little sis:

"Happy Birthday Kimberley"

You might recognise some of the flowers from my good mate Lee's blog. She makes fab flowers and has lots of tutorials. She made the pink fabric flowers on the bottom and the two big white ones with pearl centres on the main panel, and was kind enough to send them to me (thanks Lee!). The others are all from my flower box - there's a handmade organza one, a Tim Holtz rosette with a frilly lace edging dyed with distress ink, a small lace flower with a pearl centre that I made using one of Lee's tutorials, some pink paper ones made using the Tattered Florals die and distress inks, and a couple of tiny pink ones from a small bunch from "The Works".

"Front view"

The stems are made with lace fixed to the background with glossy accents, and the backing papers are gorgeous "Websters Pages" that came free with a mag this month. I cut an extra layer of flowers from a second copy of the top paper and decoupaged it onto the first, but its hard to make out in the photo.

"Card in box"

Of course, every dimensional card needs a box, so this is one I rustled up from some strong white card, more Websters pages, lace and distress inks. If you make your easel card 6" x 6" and not too dimensional, so that's it's only 1" thick when folded, then you can make the box from A4 card. Just cut two squares, one  8 1/4 " and the other 8 1/8" and put creases in 1" from the edges.

Ingredients
Sizzix Decorative Strip Die: Tim Holtz' Rosette

X-Cut round corner punch

Lace

Distress Inks: Victorian Velvet, Tattered Rose

Websters Pages (free with Simply Cards & Papercraft 94)

Sister Sentiment (free with Simply Cards & Papercraft 94)
Other Sentiments from Henbury Lane decoupage packs

Cardstock: white, 300gsm

Tim Holtz Seasonal paper pad (to cut rosette flower & for matching backing card)

Lots of scrummy flowers

Adhesives: glossy accents (for box & lace), PVA (for matting), Pinflair (for flowers & decoupage)

Entered for the following challenge:

Joanna Sheen - Spring / Easter
S J Crafts - Flowers
Let's Ink it Up - Show Us Your Flowers (there are stamped swirls on my pink card flowers)
CES Challenges - Flower Frenzy

Spring is Sprung

I'm off to visit a lady in her 80s today. She has dementia and is in a residential home, but is happy enough living in the moment, and living in the past. It's her birthday and this card is for her.

"Happy Birthday Maggie"

I've used the fabulous Crafty Individuals set for the background, with delicate shades of distress inks and Perfect Pearls for plenty of Spring colour with a little glamour.

"Backgrounds"

The background panel has green patina Perfect Pearls while the main panel is overstamped with the same colours used to ink the background. Both are matted onto dark green cardstock.

"Sentiment panel"

The sentiment is stamped in black archival ink on white card and heat-embossed in clear before diecutting and inking to match the background colours. The matting layer is stamped in distress ink and brushed with blue patina Perfect Pearls.

"Mad March Hares"

This fab stamp was free with "Craft Stamper" magazine this month and was designed by IndigoBlu. It is stamped in black archival and heat-embossed in clear, then doubled at the bottom by stamping again for a slight shadow effect.

"Lace & flowers"

Lots of pretty lace is added (the blue lace was coloured with distress ink to match the project), together with delicate embellishments.

The Sun is shining here again this morning, I hope you all have a "beautiful" day.

Ingredients:

Crafty Individuals unmounted stamp set CI-234

Free cover stamp from "Craft Stamper" April issue
Papermania Birdsong sentiment stamp

Spellbinders Nestabilities: Labels

Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage, Tattered Rose, Milled Lavender, Pine Needles

Perfect Pearls: blue patina, green patina

Archival Ink: Black

Embossing powder: Clear

Cardstock: dark green

Embellishments: paper flowers

Entered for the following challenge:
Joanna Sheen - Spring / Easter
Craft Room Challenge - Vintage

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!

I know it's only March but, well a girl can dream :-)  I've had this tiny bottle for ages and when I saw the theme for Simon Says Stamp and Show this week, I just couldn't resist.

"Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!"

I do like tissue tape, but it is so expensive! It's easy to make your own - just stamp a sheet of tissue paper, cut into strips and adhere with a very thin coat of PVA.

"Side view"

The beach scenes really make me wish for a hot, Summers day. The rain is back here. Ah well, it is what makes things so green here in Northern Ireland!

Entered for the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... Bottle it up!
Simon Says... Anything Goes

Glorious Green

This time of year, you really start to notice the green everywhere, and I'm sure that's truer here in Ireland than anywhere else in the world. Today's card is for a man in his 80s who has spent his life as a farmer. I've used my current favourite Crafty Individuals stamps (yes, again!), which gives me the excuse to tell you that one of my cards was picked as a winner on the Crafty Individuals blog this month - woohoo and thank you!

"Happy Birthday Bobby"

As you can see from the shadows in the photograph, we have sunshine again today :-). The background & main panel were created by applying distress inks to white card with cut 'n' dry foam. After drying, both panels were stamped and brushed with Perfect Pearls, before matting and layering.

"Bottom border"

Lots of texture & dimension was added with layers of dark green angel hair, inked lace, and diecut & stamped images (these are from the Hero Arts set).

"Birdcage Charm"

This charm is covered in melted UTEE. When cooled and set, the back is inked to match the project using alcohol inks, and the charm is glued using Pinflair.

"Sentiment"

The diecut dragonfly is inked with distress inks and dried. A versamark pen is run around the edge and Perfect Pearls brushed on to give some shimmer. The sentiment is stamped and heat-embossed in clear, and gems are added along the body for a bit of added sparkle.

Ingredients:

Crafty Individuals unmounted stamp set: CI-234

Hero Arts Stamp & diecut set 657774

Dovecraft Sentiment stamps

Spellbinders dies Fanciful Flight

Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass, Pine Needles

Perfect Pearls: Green Patina, Blue Patina

Versamark Ink: Charcoal

Stampendous Embossing Powder: clear

self-adhesive gems

Cardstock: white for stamping & diecutting, dark green for matting & layering

bird charm

UTEE, clear

Adirondack alcohol ink: Stream

Lace, various & dark green angel hair

Adhesives: PVA, Pinflair dimensional glue

Entered for the following challenge:
Joanna Sheen - Spring / Easter
Paper Sundaes - Green or Good Luck
Penny Black and More - Springtime
Crafty Calendar - Spring Clean
Secret Crafter - Green for Go
The Pink Elephant - Let's See Those Layers

And now for something completely different... Triple Stepper Card

It's been a glorious, sunny, beautiful weekend here in Northern Ireland, and it is really starting to feel like Spring. I'm in the mood to make something colourful so here's a birthday card for one of my teenage nieces.

"Happy Birthday Lisa"

A few weeks ago, some bargain packs of A6 blank cards just fell into my basket while I was walking around Dunelm Mill (those slippery shelves, they really need to do something about them!). They're a bit thin for normal card blanks, but are great for gluing together to make these stepper cards.

" 3 x A6 cards with folds"

These particular cards are exactly 8 inches (8") along the longest side (4" when folded), which makes the measuring nice and easy. The first card is folded in half as normal. The second has extra folds 1" in and parallel to each of the shorter sides, and the third has extra folds 1" in from one short edge, and 2" in from the opposite edge, as shown in the picture.

"Glued Blank"

The three cards are folded and glued together to make a single card with three peaks: 4", 3" and 2" high. The blank is now ready to be decorated.

"Edge Diecuts"

The opposite short edges of a piece of white A5 card were diecut with "On the Edge" dies, before cutting the card to fit the front and middle sections. I used the "Iron Gate" die on the front, and the "Townscape" die on the middle, cutting and gluing the card in such a way that the die-cut edges stuck out over the top of the mountain folds. Each piece of card is decorated with distress inks and a Hero Arts stamp from Joanna Sheen's website.

"Front panel"

The bird is diecut from white card using the "Caged Bird" die (thanks Lee!) and decorated with distress inks. I love watching the blue tits flying about choosing their nest boxes this time of year, so just had to make him into a blue tit. The butterflies are punched in two sizes and decorated with inks & tiny self-adhesive gems.

"Middle Panel"

The flowers are punched using a tiny six-petal punch and coloured with distress inks. A slit is made between two of the petals into the centre, and a tiny blob of glossy accents used to glue the two petals either side of the slit on top of each other. This makes a tiny five-petal flower with a bit of dimension. A tiny self-adhesive gem is added to the centre of each flower. Notice that the butterflies, flowers & houses are all decorated with the same colour distress inks so that whilst the card looks colourful, there is still some colour matching going on!

"Back Panel"

The final panel uses a piece of white card with a "wiggle" cut into one edge to simulate rolling hills. A couple of die-cut trees are added, and a length of lace along the bottom, all coloured with matching green distress inks. A few gems are added to the pine tree for a bit of sparkle, and the other tree has "word fruit" in the form of "Tiny Tabs and Tags" diecut from white card, decorated with distress inks, then stamped with words in black archival and heat-embossed in clear. When heat embossing over an inked background, remember to dry the background before the final stamping or you will end up with embossing powder stuck to everything :-) The tabs have jump rings attached to hang them from the branches of the tree. The diecut letters are from a magazing freebie.
I spent the morning sewing the zip back on my husbands veil (he keeps bees in case you were wondering :-)), and am really looking forward to our afternoon walk with the in-laws' dog. Let's hope the Sun stays shining. Have a great day everyone!

Ingredients:

3 x A6 card blanks

Cardstock: white, for diecutting & stamping

Hero Arts stamp: Meadow

Kaisercraft stamp set: Life Sentiments

Sizzix On The Edge Dies: Iron Gate, Townscape

Sizzix Bigz Dies: Caged Bird, Pine Tree, Tiny Tabs and Tags

Sizzix Bigz XL die: Tree pop-up

Punches: small butterfly, medium butterfly, tiny flower

Distress inks

Self-adhesive gems

Jump Rings

Entered for the following challenge:
Joanna Sheen - Spring / Easter
Fashionable Stamping Challenge 16 - make it for a child