Do Not Adjust Your Eyeballs

No, I'm not on anything!

No, you are not tripping!

Yes, I went a bit mad with these cards...lol

Honestly, sometimes I sit back after making a card and wonder what the bloody hell I was thinking.

The idea in my head was brilliant...but somewhere between my brain and the final result I clearly inhaled something 'groovy-man' .

I started by stamping the cat stamps (a freebie from an old magazine) onto my card base, then created masks with Post-it notes to cover them.

Then I went a little (Cough!) crazy with my Altenew inks in a mad, frenzy of bright colours.

The flower & foliage images are from lots of different mini Majestix stamp sets from Card-io Crafts.

I made a few of these cards, simply stamping the little images and then removing the masks.  

On the one above I drew collars and added a little jewel name tag.

On the one below, I just added some random gems.

No need to adjust your eyeballs...these cards are as mad as they look.

Butterflies & Foliage

It's a cold but gloriously sunny day today!

Stand in the right place in the garden & there's definitely some warmth in the sun...spring's coming!

For today's card I used images from Altenew's 'Leaf Clusters' stamp set and some really pretty, fussy-cut butterflies from Lemoncraft.

I love VersaMagic Chalk inks - such beautiful, creamy, rich colours.

A really simply design...3 sets of leaves falling from the top of the card, one left plain, the middle given some Gelly Roll pen leafy veins & on the third some glittery highlights. 

If you like butterflies then I can't recommend Lemoncraft highly enough. 

A few glass gems and this card was complete.

I hope you have a great day, stay warm but embrace those rays when they appear.

Back again soon.

Altenew - Cattleya & Weekend Doodles

Ahoy and welcome back!

I'm a sucker for anything 'planty', be it real, ornamental or in stamps and Altenew are great at feeding my floral addiction.

This is their gorgeously, delicate Cattleya stamp set, which, if you're not a plant-addict like me, is an orchid originating from Central & South America. 

It's a layering stamp so I used some Altenew inks that I got for Christmas. I kept ummmming n' arrrrring over these inks for ages... put in a request to Santa, got a few sets and fell in love (with the inks, not Santa...although he's a fairly decent chap when it comes to gifts...lol)

The beauty of these inks is that the thinking about what colours go well together is taken care of for you. If you're not familiar with them, each colour comes in a set of 4 shades from light to very dark, so using them with layering stamps is easy-peasy. 

The leafy wreath behind my floral image is from Altenew's 'Weekend Doodles' set. 

So my resolution to remove my crafty stash from it's packaging and actually start using it has begun. In fact I'm on such a roll I made 5 cards the other day... I know...Shock! Horror! 

Thanks for stopping by, have great weekend & I'll be back soon.

Layout 'Special Friend'

Hello there!
Welcome to 2020 chez moi.
Today's project is a 12" x 12" framed gift that I made for someone for Christmas using a selection of beautiful papers from AB Studio, Lemoncraft & Fabrika Decoru.

Fussy cutting on these cold, grey, winter days has become my way fav' way of cosying up & keeping myself entertained and trust me, there was HEAPS of fussy cutting on this one.

So this project all centered around the recipient's beloved hound, Harvey.

To start, I spent about 5 years (lol) pontificating over the background sheet of paper and where on the paper to place the photo. 

Then came the easy & fun bit...

...decorating.

I started by stamping some leaves from Altenew's 'Leaf Cluster' set with 'Wheat' Versamagic ink for a subtle kinda shadowy backdrop behind the photo. I also stamped & embossed the same images with WOW's 'Mojito' glittery embossing powder, die cut them, then started piecing together the layout with my fussy cut flowers & leaves from AB Studio's 'I Love You' & Fabrika Decoru's 'Sentimental Story'.

Getting the layout just right takes slightly less time than choosing the background paper...about 4.5 years. Then it's a case of sticking it all down before adding the 3D embellishments of flowers, pearls, glass gems, art stones & thread.

The finishing touches included glittery highlights and fussycut butterflies from Lemoncraft, then the whole piece was framed. 

Ta-Da!

50th Wedding Anniversary Gift

Oh I LUUUUURRRRVVVVEEEDDDD making this.

The brief was '50th Wedding Anniversary & Anything Goes (colourwise)'...Brilliant!!

There's something quite magical about black & white photos and on this occasion I had one from the couple's wedding day itself as well as a more recent colour photo to work with.

I spent a lot of time on this piece...A LOT! 

I spent a lot of time just looking at the white piece of paper.

I then spent ages just looking at the photos.

Then I had my usual...

'HELP!!! 

WHO'S NICKED MY MOJO???'

When 'IT' finally appeared I needed restraining from adding everything AND the kitchen sink...lol.

It's easy to get carried away.

So what did I use?

A 12"x12" white card base, foliagey stamps & dies from Altenew, paper flowers, stencils, beads, glitter, flower arranging accessories, ...

.... wired flower stems, inks, embossing powder, Finnabair butterfly stamps, vellum & glitter stickers.

The final piece was then mounted in a white, box frame to protect it.

Happy 50th Anniversary to this couple.

What an amazing achievement.

Altenew Washi Tape - Teal Shadow

Just a quickie today using Altenew's 'Teal Shadow' washi tape.

I'm full of cold at the mo' and my brain has turned to mush so I can't remember what stamp set I used behind the fussy-cut washi tape.

But basically I stuck the washi tape onto some white card, fussy cut the bits I wanted, roughly laid out the bits on my card front, lifted and stamped underneath where I wanted the stamped leafy outline to show, re-positioned the washi tape pieces, ummmmmed n' arrrrred a bit (lol) then stuck the whole damn lot down!

There!

Think that was it....oh...except I missed out the bit where I stuck a strip of green glittery card across & stamped the Dearest Friend sentiment (from Altenew's Dearest Friend stamp set) .......aaaaaaand blobbed a few blobs of Key Lime Nuvo drops......aaaaaand added a few random dots (think I was losing the plot at this point) and finally...yes FINALLY... stuck some gems to the flower centres.

That's it....that's definitely it!

Love is All You Need - Mixed Media Project

This was a commissioned piece that I sooooooo enjoyed making.

The brief was based around the love for these 2 sweet girls.

The colour theme was green so I decided to go for subtle tones. I used black & white photos as the originals had other colours that would have been too distracting. 

I used a mixture of elements... wooden lettering & heart shapes, stamped & embossed vellum...

... paper flowers, wired crystals and glass stones.

I love using white embossing powder on vellum ... such a delicate feel.

I could make these all day .

Altenew Washi Tape - Misty Meadows

Coooooeeeey!

I'm back with a card made using Altenew's Misty Meadows washi tape and a selection of their fabulous stamp sets.

So I started by sticking about 8 inches of the washi tape onto white card and fussy cut some of the images. I then stamped the outline flower image from the 'Beautiful Day' set onto white card, fussy cut that too, and a couple of the leaves, which I white heat embossed on vellum.

On the card base I added a glittery strip, stamped my sentiment, also from the 'Beautiful Day' set and a few leaves from Altenew's 'Focus on You'.

Then it was just a case of arranging the washi tape bits (some with foam backing for a bit of dimension) and adding a few Pretty Pink Posh jewels for additional sparkle.

Altenew - Leaf Canopy

Another card featuring the beautiful images (and dies) from Altenew's Leaf Canopy stamp set.

This time I dusted off my Gansai Tambi paints and went for the most delicious turquoise colour in the box. 

I started by white heat embossing the outline image, then 'painted' each leaf with clean water before adding a tiny bit of turquoise paint and letting the colour move around.

After it had all dried, I die-cut the image, adhered it to my card base, added glittery highlights with a Wink of Stella clear pen and finished with a birthday sentiment.

Nice and simple.