Parchment card

I confess I am not that proficient at parchment work - I need to practise more.  Not helped by the fact that my eyes aren't so good these days, even using the Groovi system. However, I wanted to create something in parchment for my daughter's card to go with the Groovi bits I have bought for her birthday.

We share a lot of our parchment bits, and we purchased the McIntosh inspired plates a few weeks ago, and before I gave them to her - I had a little play with one of them, and decided that I would incorporate the image into a card.

I know it is not perfect, and having watched some demos this week, I know where I went wrong!  However, the overall effect is not bad, and actually resembles what I was trying to achieve with the off-centre circles, and the die cut flowers.  (I can't remember which dies I used from my stash for the flowers, leaves and butterflies as they were various makes, and I just grabbed what I thought would work from my stash)!

The circle dies were he stitched circles by Sue Wilson from Creative Expressions.   I also used Nuvo Jewel Drops on the stitching of the dies, the centre of the flowers and in the corners of the card.

Anniversary Card

I received a birthday card from a crafting friend earlier in the year with concentric circles on it.  The effect fascinated me, and I had to ask how she had done it, thinking she had used some special dies - but no the effect was just done with circle dies ........ so I attempted to reproduce a version of it for my daughter's anniversary card.   

I don't have a lot of dies, and only a very small selection of circles - I may have to rectify that, as rather like the effect.  I cut these from gold mirri card.

The background paper was created using distress oxides in cracked pistachio, wild honey and pickled raspberry - randomly applied with a dry wet wipe and blended together.   The rose and leaves were also coloured with the same distress oxides.

I created the sentiment in Craft Artist.  I added Nuvo Jewel drops to the card in yellow, green and pink.  (The ones on the circles are actually translucent green.

Upcycling - Bottle Light

This project has been on the cards for a while, but I couldn't quite decide how I wanted to decorate it.  It is for one of my granddaughters. You may remember I made her sisters a dream jar some weeks ago,  when I used a set of the bottle lights.   She wanted me to do something with this dark bottle that has been lurking in my kitchen since we emptied it at New Year!

Originally I was going to etch into the glass, but was to scared to try in case I ruined it.  Suddenly last night in bed it came to me (why do ideas come when you are just about to go to sleep?).  I had bought the bee and dragonfly dies at the Farnborough craft show last month, as I knew the bee would be very useful with a granddaughter of the same name, albeit spelled differently.

I cut the dragonfly and bees from acetate, and to start with I coloured the backs with Pebeo markers in black and gold for the bee.  I then mixed Luscious powders with "Slap-It-On" and painted the fronts and backs again.  More Slap-it-on was applied when dry and unicorn sparkles applied, with a further coat of S-I-on to seal the sparkles.

I affixed the acetate to the bottle with more Slap-It-On, and then used  Decoart Paper Effects to stick the jewels on the bottle.

It was difficult to photograph the finished project so here follows a few views taken outside and indoors and a couple with the lights switched on.

  

Gnome Houses Birthday Card

I went to Make It at Farnborough on Saturday.  I didn't need much, just a bit of card stock and some double sided tape.  However, you know what it is like when you go to a craft show, you see things you just have to have!

Well I fell in love with this die and stamp set.  The toadstool shapes are the dies, and the windows, door, fence, flowers etc are all stamps.  I had great fun sitting and colouring and creating this card.

The background was created with luscious powders, and everything else was coloured using alchohol marks (Promakers and Spectrum Noir illustrator pens.  I then went over most of the houses and flowers with clear sparkle pens.

The wording was done with the quirky alphabet stamps from Clarity Stamps, and a peel-off from my stash.

close up of the houses