Easter Cards

 

I made a selection of Easter Cards for the family, using the new shaped cards blanks from Clarity Stamps.

the backs

and some small ones:

the backs of the small ones

and one for a friend:
This one was masked off and the card blank coloured.  The egg stamp and corner designs were stamed and embossed with silver.  

Simnel Cake and Easter Fudge Brownies

I love Simnel Cake, and so does my son - so I made a dairy and gluten free one this year.   It has almond paste in the middle, and I also attempted a few crystalized primroses as I have so many in the garden this year.   It's been a few years since I did that!   (Probably about 20!)

I also made some chocolate fudge brownies for the grandchildren (ok a cake mix), but I iced then with a little salted caramel water icing and a mini chocolate egg.

 

Silk Flowers - Gypsophila

 

This was a labour of love - each of those little blossoms had to be put on the branches individually - 9 flowers on each branch and 3 branches of 9 flowers on each stalk - so 27 flowers in all.  40 stalks (albeit there aren't 40 here as I was short of some branches in the kit and have had to ask them to send more.  I have 3 more stalks to complete.

It has taken a while, as quite fiddly, and needed the right light with my dodgy eyes!  However, I succeeded.  I will now mix them with the other flowers I made.

Floral Birthday card

 

Experimenting with some Pretty  Gets Gritty stamps from my stash.  I wanted something a bit spring-like.  Background coloured with blue and green Artistry inks to represent grass and sky, with a little purple in the corners of the topper to reflect some of the colours used in the flowers, and topper also edged with purple.

It does look more effective in real life - I am getting useless at take photos!

Birthday Card

 

A simple card for a niece who loves horses and the countryside.  Backing paper from my stash (confess I can't remember the make).  The sentiment is a Clarity diem cut from blue mirri card.  Backing paper edges with a silver peel-off.

Birthday card to go with cake topper

 

If you saw yesterday post - this needs no explanation.  Main image created in Craft Artist, mounted on a card blank with a strip of paper to match the green in the image, and some silver peel

Birthday Cake Topper

No 3 grandchild becomes a teenager this year.   She loves Spiderman, and her idol is the actor who plays him, so I designed this topper in Craft Artist, as she just wants a simple sponge cake.   (Will probably share a picture later once it is made and iced).  

Our little cake decorating shop is no longer going to be printing cake toppers, but as they had a few sheets left they did this one as a favour to me ....... shame - these toppers are a great cheat.   I will have to see if anybody locally who runs their own cake decorating business will print any future needs.

 

Embroidery - Poppies

Having had success with my daisies and foxgloves kit at the weekend, I progressed to the other kit that cam with it.   This time poppies.   Oh wow, another fun one to do.   This one has 3D poppies on it against a background of green chiffon,   The poppies are made from red silk and red chiffon..   The effect in real life is fantastic - the red silk really shines.  I will admit the eyes did have a few problems getting the stitches straight.  My five petal daisies were difficult to space properly, but the six petal ones were ok.   (Note to self next time do 6 petals ones!)  Maybe my ferns are a bit wonky (fly stitch) too, but natures isn't perfect is it?

I am now eager to try some more, maybe a larger one that will take me a little longer to finish.    I am also thinking of finding some of my material stash, and using some stamps to create an image/scene to embroider, as there is still chiffon and lots of threads and beads left over from both kits.   Rowandean certainly don't stint on what they supply.   If you like a bit of slightly different embroidery do treat yourself to a kit.

Embroidery - Cosmos and Foxgloves

 

I have often watched the Rowndean embroidery shows, and really loved the effects achieved.   The fact that you can be as random as you like and alter the kit design if you so wish appealed to me.   I also like the rustic nature of the designs, and the used of pieces of chiffon, sequins and beads and different thicknesses of threads used.

I wasn't sure if my eyes would cope, but decided to try a couple of small kits, on the premise of if I couldn't get on with them, I could pass them on to somebody else in the family to complete.   Well I amazed myself/   I manged to cope ok, and really enjoyed doing them.  I liked the fact that I didn't have to be precise, and didn't have to worry about the neatness of the back!  (As I would have it had been something like a tablecloth - you may recall a few years ago I actually finished a tablecloth that my Nan or mother had started some years back!)   This only took me a couple of evenings to do - and yes I actually managed to do in the evening with the aid of my little desk lamp, rather than having to tackle it in daylight!

The embroider for this kit is done on tweed material.   When finished I added some wadding behind it and put it in a proper display frame.

Resin and Alcohol Inks

I had a play with resin and alcohol inks.   The results weren't quite to plan - there should have been more white on the fronts.   The colours on the back are quite good of course!  However, the effect on the phone holder is quite good as it looks like dark marble.

Back

I also used the left over resin to fill this little fairy house mould.   This went the opposite way to what was intended and was very transparent - but I like the graded effect on the front.

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