A more colourful accordion card

If you liked last week's accordion card but prefer things a bit more colourful, then this might be the one for you.

"Our Back Garden"

 

The inspiration for this card has definitely come from our back garden, which is buzzing with wildlife at this time of year, and we even heard our first cuckoo of the year a few days ago. It reminds me of a poem my Nan used to say:

"The cuckoo comes in April

He sings his song in May

In the middle of June he changes his tune

And in July he flies away"

 

I grew up in the South of England, but where I live now in Northern Ireland, people have a slightly different version...

 

"The cuckoo comes in April

He sings his song in May

He lays his egg in another bird's nest

And in July he flies away"

 

I love all the old country sayings don't you? Anyway, back to today's card.

 

 

"Live Every Moment"

  

The background for each panel is inked with distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Tattered Rose and Bundled Sage (this is my favourite combination of colours for nature-themed cards).

 

 

"Laugh Every Day"

 

Next I did loads of background stamping with tree stamps, and coloured with green and brown Perfect Pearls.

 

 

"Love Beyond Words"

 

Then diecuts are added from white card coloured with distress inks.

 

 

"The far side :-)"

 

 The other side is decorated more plainly with inks and stamping, but no diecuts. This side uses the same free IndigoBlu stamps as last week's accordion card.

 

"The Box"

 

Lastly, here's a pic of the finished card sitting on its box. The covers and box are decorated with dry embossing and Pinflair-Buff it.

 

Here in the UK it's a bank holiday weekend, so I'm wishing you all a great long weekend. Hope there is lots of good weather to get those barbies out! Maddy x

 

Accordion Card using the free IndigoBlu stamps from Simply Cards and Papercraft

Oh, I do enjoy working with IndigoBlu stamps and this month's free gift from Simply Cards is just perfect for an accordion card.

The inside is made from a full length of A3, about 42cm, folded and diecut as in the tutorial. You can use many different shapes. but you really need a steel rule die like the Sizzix Bigz.

The butterfly on this left hand double panel has an acetate layer stuck over the top with some glossy accents down the spine. Small gems are used to hide the adhesive.

Flower-shaped gems are added to the hair of this stamp. Have you noticed the gorgeous colour all the stamps have? I used one of the new archival inks called "Hydrangea". It has a beautiful vintage blue hue.

The background is inked in Tumbled Glass distress ink and some gold edging is provided by Pinflair Buff-it.

A sizzix birdcage folder is used to emboss brown card for the front and back covers, and blue, red & gold Pinflair buff-it is rubbed on to highlight areas.

There's more stamping on the other side, so this type of card is ideal for people who love to place their cards on a windowsill.

 

Here's a photo of the finished card sitting on its matching box.

Entered for the following challenge:

Feeling Crafty - One for the ladies

A Salt Pot

Entered for the following challenge:
2 Creative Chicks - food container

Whenever I think of salt, it reminds me of my Nan. If even the tiniest bit of salt was ever spilt, we had to draw a cross in it and throw a piece over our left shoulder to "hit the devil in the face". It was bad luck to spill salt. It was also bad luck to walk under ladders, put your shoes on the table, put an umbrella up indoors, take your clothes off to turn them the right way if you had put something on inside-out, turn back if you'd started your journey and forgotten something, etc. etc. But she always maintained "I'm not superstitious" lol! If you know Terry Pratchett's writing, you can think of my Nan as a cross between Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax. In fact, I swear Terry Pratchett must have based the characters in his books on half the people who lived in my Nan's road when I was a kid. There was even a "Nobby Nobs"! So, bearing in mind that salt is not to be wasted, how about recycling the salt packaging to make this...

"Paintbrush Pot"

OK, I admit, it's not my best work, but it was free :-) Well sort of, if you don't count the money I spent on the pretty papers...

"Empty salt pot"

This is the type of salt container that I started with. Just get someone to cut the top off and make a nice neat job...

...a good pair of scissors should be all that is needed.

Cover the outside and inside with patterned papers and cover up the join with some hessian ribbon before adding some flower trim. Keep the decoration fairly simple if you want to be able to use the pot!!

Hi Chickadee!

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A sprinkle of imagination - a sprinkle of colour
The artistic stamper - in the garden


Here's another card using from more of my bargains from the Sizzix Mega Sale. This one is just for a bit of fun :-)

"Hi, Chickadee!"

The "stamp and diecut" pieces are backed with red card using a technique learned from Sue Wilson, diecut the red card using the same dies and cut in half before fixing to the back of each diecut so that the card is showing.

A "stamp and emboss" set was used to make the central white flower motif (do you recognise it as the same one used to make yesterday's card? It looks so different with a different colour scheme!). I also used a Stamposaurus stencil to ink through to make the rays of the sun and the lattice marks in the grass.

Thank you

This should have been a quick card to make, but after creating the main stamped and embossed panel I ummed and ahed for days trying to decide on a layout. I'm still not happy with it, but wanted to share it with you since I like the colours and the main panel. It's the first time I've tried one of these "Stamp and Emboss" sets from Sizzix, and I loved playing with it! The stamping is done using a clear embossing ink-pad and embossing enamel to create a resist for the inking. Plenty of distress ink is added using my favourite method of rubbing with pieces of cut 'n' dry foam, then the panel is spritzed with a mist of water to get the droplets.

Oh that reminds me, I got this fabulous little spritzer bottle from Sainsbury's which is just perfect for spritzing! It was in that section that sells empty cosmetics containers for flights. It is soo much easier to use than those misting pens, although if you had a bunch of them I guess they'd take up a lot more room on your desk...

...where was I? Oh I'd better show you the card before I forget :-)

 

Fly

Following on from yesterday's card, I used a similar technique to make today's framed collage. The frame is painted with Viva Decor Ferro Gold. My pot is thick and crystallised and makes for some great texture.

"Fly, Feather, Frame"

That feather is from one of our Barnevelder hens, they have the most beautiful plumage.

 

The bird and butterfly are vintage images shaped and dipped in UTEE...

 

...before fixing onto tiles with Pinflair dimensional glue.

My take on Tim Holtz' May Tag of 2014

Have you seen Tim's tag this month? It's just great inspiration for using up those little treasures of odds and ends. The tiles make things match together so nicely! I gathered some bits together and came up with this...

I couldn't find any shadow stencils I liked, so diecut some letters from chipboard and patterned paper using one of the Tim Holtz Bigz dies. That little cherub is from the Love Struck die, I cut off the wings (is that bad?) and replaced them with some feathers from our hens. He is running along trying to catch that bird (the one set into UTEE - he's not very bright that cherub).

 

 

 

I love the dimension you get from arranging the items on chipboard tiles.

 

Sorry for not making a tag, but I couldn't wait to try out this Tim Holtz easel die I bought in the Sizzix Sale. No more toppling card fronts, it's a great job!

We have had a glorious day in Northern Ireland today with the Giro d'Italia visiting our shores (that's a bike race to you and me). Everything has been painted pink and we were all out lining the roads cheering the riders on in the pouring rain, and now that it's all over the Sun is shining! Maybe you saw some of the coverage on the tv? If not, you might like to check out some of the videos on you tube, especially the ones featuring our beautiful coastline. Tonight is Eurovision night. It's not a big thing in our house but it's always good for a laugh when Graham Norton is commentating :-) Have a great weekend everyone. Maddy x

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Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 - May