Perfect Summer Day

These cards are along the lines of yesterday's, but I've used decoupaged images and sentiments in place of the flowers and gem swirls. Some tiny stickers in the corners look like nail heads in a picture frame.

 

"Perfect Summer Day"

I added some colour to the stamped images using distress markers to match the background. Oh for a perfect Summer day when I can sit in the garden on a recliner, sip a glass of Cava and listen to the birds singing :-)

"To a Wonderful Friend"

That blue tit is a sticker. I just couldn't resist adding him to this card - I love birds! I'm not so sure about the sentiment, but as you know I don't use pink much so found it hard to find something to match! To me, the red is a bit overpowering on that sentiment diecut but c'est la vie.

Time to Remember

Here's another card inspired by Sue Wilson. I loved the arrangement of the diecuts on the right hand side so much, that I ended up making a pile of cards with a similar layout, although you'll see the cards come out looking quite different in different colour schemes. I actually chose this layout to do justice to one of Lee's gorgeous flowers, which I've used in the bottom left corner together with a handmade stickpin that was also a present from Lee. Each of the stamped images on the right hand side is stamped in black archival and heat-embossed in clear, then diecut with the matching die and layered using foam tape. That gorgeous lace was from Brenda (thanks Brenda!)

N.B. I like to add PVA to both sides of foam tape and foam pads when using them, so the card doesn't fall apart when the tape dries out.

"Time to Remember"

The ticket says "Time to Remember". I thought this would make a nice sympathy card.

 

"Buterfly"

It's amazing what a difference it makes changing the colour scheme to red! I used a butterfly gem swirl in place of the bird, though it's a little hard to see in the photograph, and another of those gorgeous flowers (thanks Lee!).

Inspired by...

...Sue Wilson! For the next few days I'm going to share some cards of mine that were inspired by Sue Wilson. Whenever I get really stuck for inspiration, I love to have a look at Sue's blog and create a few cards inspired by her, and it soon gets my creative juices flowing again.

"Courage, Determination, Strength"

I want to dedicate this card to my cousin, Stephanie, who died recently. It has one of my favourite sentiment stamps, from IndigoBlu. The background uses a couple of Sue's favourite techniques - using two diecuts joined together to make a frame, and covering a stamped or patterned background with microbeads. That gorgeous flower centre was handmade by my best friend, Lee aka craftyloops who is a dab hand with a hot glue gun! I used it to cover up the bow knots, another of Sue's predilictions.

 

"Yesterday is a dream"

Here's a similar card using another of my favourite stamps, this time from Chocolate Baroque. I'm no good at those punched borders that Sue does. Mine always come out wonky so I don't bother :-)

Altered Domino Books

A box of cheap dominoes provides lots of scope for fun making altered dominoes and turning them into covers for little books. These are concertina-style books with lots of inking and stamping on the folded pages.

The covers are decorated by heat-embosssing in gold and adding gilding waxes, and ribbons are glued between the covers and end papers.

Here's another one...

It's a great way to display some of the smaller and more unusual stamps in any collection.

Use those diecuts and punches - an Easter pop-up box

This month at Stamping Sensations we are asking you to use those diecuts and punches! As usual, we have a fabulous prize on offer for the winner, and this month's prize has been donated by PDA who sell quality cardstock, pre scored cards and envelopes, essentials such as Spellbinder dies and embossing folders, Imagination Crafts beautiful Sparkle Medium, and some cute charms and crystals from Hobby House.

Since it's April, I thought I'd make an Easter card and I used the pop-up box card construction for plenty of dimension.

 

"Sending You Easter Wishes"

The patterned paper is from a free pad that came with one of my magazines. I chose some matching distress inks and stamped all the flowers using a Sizzix Framelits stamp and diecut set, which makes it easy to diecut all the stamped flowers!

"A Box of Flowers"

Although not the first I've shown you on my blog, this was actually the first card I made with this type of construction and I was pleased how it turned out. I just added a peach-coloured satin ribbon and bow for a finishing touch.

 

"It folds flat!"

Best of all, the whole card folds flat for postage - how good is that?

DCWV Spiced Cider & The Green Stack Paper Pads

This series of cards is made using the DCWV Spiced Cider & The Green Stack 12" x 12" paper pads together with diecuts from matching card, ribbons, wooden embellishments and embellishments made from paperclay using Martha Stewart moulds.

 

"Cards made using  DCWV Spiced Cider & The Green Stack paper pads"

 

"A lil' Gratitude goes a Long Way"

 

 

"Wonderful World"

 

"Home Sweet Home"

 

"Give Thanks"

 

"When in Doubt Make a Pie"

 

"Smiles are Contagious"

 

"Give Thanks"

 

"Apples"

 

"I Pick You"

 

"Wild and Free"

 

"Sharing is Caring"

 

 

 

 

Ribbon Storage

My best friend Lee aka Craftyloops saw me drooling over the Kaisercraft ribbon storage at the Belfast Craft Fair last year and bought me one for Christmas. Thank you so much Lee, it was a lovely surprise! I have finally got around to decorating it. I used the Graphic45 Birdsong papers so it would match my ink pad box because I have a feeling this will be living on my desk :-)

 

"Kaisercraft Ribbon Storage"

 

"Rear View"

 

"It's So Pretty :-)"

While I'm sharing this project, I thought you might like to see some of my other ribbon storage methods.

 

"Boxes of Reels"

Ribbons on similar sized spools or reels are stored in tailor-made cardboard boxes. Some day I'll get around to decorating them!

 

"Boxes of Bags"

Shorter lengths are collected togather in bags of similar colours and stored in boxes. I use a lot of these CD / DVD boxes for storage - they sit neatly on bookshelves.