poppy design

There are quite a few poppy designs around at the
moment so I thought I'd have a go at one myself.

This flower is made from red copy paper. I drew a
"fat-bodied" 8 shape twice, cut it out and screwed
it up. Then I inked the edges. I punched out 2 daisy
shapes in black and attatched them to the centre
of the flower with a diamond brad. I then
mounted the flower onto some patterned acetate,
and a diamond of white card. ( I used the brad to
attatch all of these pieces together) I took a
14cm square card blank, and added a brown
"speckled " mount. I added 3d pads to the
white diamond to attatch it to the card. I then made some leaves and a stalk to finish off the project.

Hope you like it!
Happy crafting, Pat x

mache butterfly

I think that this is the most unusual way of using a rubber stamp that I have ever seen!
You need a "solid" image not a decorative one for this project. Mix a small amount of P.V.A. glue with twice as much water. Take 7 sheets of tissue paper ( I used make up tissues) and glue them one at a time to your stamp. Once all the tissue has been used gently remove the paper from the stamp and allow to dry overnight. Colour the image using ink pads (I used cats eyes chalk pads from Colourbox) and a cotton bud. How simple is that!
A couple of tips I'd like to pass on;
1. In order to ensure that the design is as clear as possible push the stamp into the paper mache before you remove it for drying.
2. Put the image onto acetate while it dries so that it can be removed easily. If you dry it on paper, the paper will stick to it.
3. Add the finished piece to your card with brads so that the image does not get flattened.

Hope you'll give this a try sometime.........I' love to know what you think and how you get on!
Happy crafting
Pat x

exploding box

Helen (the traveller at the beginning of this blog) has recently got a job as a Marketing Account Executive! I wanted to make a special card to mark the occasion, so I chose an exploding box.

This one was made up of 3 layers, which were decorated with flowers and peel-off centiments. Then extra flowers were added to the centre and side to give a more explosive effect. The lid had a concertina-shaped flower with a loop in the centre to make it easier to open the box.

I really enjoyed making this card and I just wanted to say, well done Helen and all the best for the future!

Until next time, Happy crafting,

Pat x