A HIDDEN GEM.

            I had a wonderful clear up in my craft area yesterday and although I have not go too many projects to be finished off there are a few. Today's little gem was not so much about finishing off as just getting it mounted onto a canvas. This picture is one that I did at the Clarity retreat at least three years ago. I loved it when I did it and knew I did not want to make a card with it.Hence why it has been left. Shame on me.  So it has gone on a canvas and will be framed to hang with my other retreat efforts.  

          The background is created with chalk paints on stencil card using a brayer to apply. I vaguely remember Barbara telling us to walk the brayer ie. just apply very lightly. This is probably as arty as I get as my cards are usually parchment or clean and simple.  Perhaps I should get the paints out again. 


        Anyway it is now mounted onto a canvas and I shall go and find a frame next week.  


       Thanks for dropping by and have a wonderful weekend. I am off to the ballet tomorrow, I have never been and have always wanted to. I am going with all the female members of our family so in very good company. xxx

CONCERTINA CARD

            Well I have been longing for some warmer weather and I think we are in for a brief spell later this week. Enjoy everyone whilst you have the chance. 

            I have been enjoying getting into our conservatory and settling down to some craft. I have seen quite a few of these concertina cards and knew I needed to try one out. They look complicated but are surprisingly easy to make. Just a lot of preparation cutting paper and card. 

       

          Not sure my photography skills are up to a lot but I think you get the general idea of the design . There are a lot of good instructions for making these cards on Pinterest so I am not going into lots of detail here. 

         I added one of the Clarity Fresh cut dies on the base along with some more butterflies. I also used a few more bits of paper that were cut off from other projects,only needed little squares to decorate so perfect for using up those scraps. 

  
                       Some more off cuts were used for the butterflies.

               
                     I was tempted to go over the top decorating the top of the card but realised that too much weight would cause it to collapse. It does fold flat enough to go in an envelope as it is. 

      If you were making one this size I reckon one sheet of the new Clarity 12" x 12" papers will do perfectly. It would be easy enough to make the card a little smaller as well if you wanted. 

     
       Have fun if you decide to give this a go. Thank-you for dropping by. xx

       

MAKING USE OF THE WASTE

            No I have not decided to create cards from the rubbish bin but instead I am trying to use some of the off cuts of paper that I seem to accumulate. I have so many little strips of the Clarity paper that I never throw away. It is so lovely and now they have brought out the 12" x 12" pads as well. I have not bought them yet but know that I will. I do enjoy things like tea bag folding and making flowers. 

        For the card I have here I used a small strip of paper and using my Hougie board I scored it every half centimetre. Then by folding in moon and valley folds ( or zig zag)  I created the little fan shape. I just gathered the paper folds together at the bottom and secured a brad through them. 

           The Cherry Blossom stamp was perfect to go with this fan. A little bit Japanese. The little birds are another bit of waste from a die cut, I just snipped them carefully off the branches. 

                                               

             I used the Kuretake gold paste  in the middle of the blossom. Little dip dots. 

            Quite a simple little card and I still have a lot of paper to use up so I had better get folding. 

      Hope you have all been enjoying the warmer weather today, very spring like. Hope it lasts. 

      Thank-you for visiting  xx

       

A NEW DAWN

            Calmed down a bit here today and a least we have seen the sun just for a while. I even put a bit of washing out, it dried quickly. 

       
          Just a quick card today, I used the NDC die from January. Lovely having a die club as well now.

         I cut the die from the middle of a black card and backed it with a piece of the designer parchment. Using the outer bit of a moon mask I rubbed out the colour from the parchment  to make a moon for the little bird to look at. 


         I felt the overall card looked a bit dark so I added a white frame and matching flower. Looking at it now I think I would like to paper piece the leaves in green, that could take a while but think I shall try it sometime. 


        I also added a black frame around the piece of parchment on the back of the card front. Just neatened it up. 


        The above photo was taken with the card slightly open on my desk, looks lighter than when it is closed.

       

           So I think this is the night view and the other one is a dawn view. 

       Now I just have to use my NDC Groovi plate and I will have used all last month's items. Better get a move on before we have the new ones. 

                           Enjoy the rest of your weekend. xx

         

       

NDC STAMP and STENCIL

              My goodness there was a gale blowing last night. Seems to have died down a bit now which is a relief. We had to be up really early as well to get to our son's house which is about twenty minutes away. We knew traffic would not be good as it was school and rush hour time but it took us over an hour. We needed to look after our grandson whilst Hayley went to the dentist, she did get there in time I am pleased to say. Going to have to get it sorted for later in the year though when we have him one day a week. 


           Anyway we had a great time with him and also their dog who was determined to join in any games. 


          Yesterday though I decided to use last month's club stamp and stencil from Claitystamp. I really liked all the items last month and I am determined that I will make at least one card from each item every month.  I looked at the design sheet that came with the stencil and chose to base mine on Dee Paramour's design. Thanks Dee for all your wonderful inspiration.  She used Distress Oxides and my colours are very similar as I do not have very many of these inks. They are great for blending though. I just used the club stamp instead of stamping my own words.

         I think it is going to be a well used stencil and stamp. i have also used the die which I will show another day. Wonder what treats we will have in store this month. 

          Take care in the strong winds as I believe they are returning tonight. 


                    Thank-you for visiting. xx
                                                         

A PLEASANT MORNING

 
         I spent a very pleasant morning on Saturday at Rosliston Forestry Centre which is near to Burton upon Trent in a lovely little craft shop called Kraftiz .This is situated in the visitor centre and I was there to take part in a Groovi workshop run by Hazel Edwards. I really enjoy going to workshops it is a lovely way to learn new things and also meet like minded people. 

          Hazel is fairly new to Groovi but is proving to be a very good teacher. She is very patient and happy to explain to anybody who does not understand what they are doing. Some of the ladies there were new to Groovi but I can safely say they all went home with a finished card and were pleased with their results.

        I needed to finish my card off at home as I chose to do some picot cutting on mine. I love doing this part of parchment work. Anyway I have completed it, so will share with you all. 

   

     We used  Tina's doodle plates,  Art Nouveau spacer plate,  Floral Flourish background plate.  

  

                     This was all of us at the end of the morning. 

                                   

        These were the cards that Hazel designed for us all to copy. 

     I hope that there might be more of these workshops, it is fairly local to me which is lovely. Also if there is and any of you are able to please come along and join us.  Coffee, tea and cake was provided as well ,always welcome. 

             Thank-you for stopping by, back soon. xxx