Waterlillies

Here is another idea for using up your 6 x 6 papers.... cut the picture out and re-use it. The basic format is the same except that I added a dragonfly peel-off and text as an embelishment.

Hope these last few posts will inspire you to use up some of your old bits and bobs too. Happy crafting!

Just add a stamp!

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I had some really lovely hand-made cards! One of these was a design made from a paper with butterflies,(just right for me)and it became a scource of inspiration for my latest card.

There always seem to be a few papers in a pack that I can't find a use for and that get left to one side. The ones that I chose were from a black and white set that I had some time ago. It has a large flower surrounded by smaller daisies. I have stamped it with butterflies (using one from the "20 best friends stamps" by Royal and Langnickel) and added glitter to the stamen, then I cut it into strips to form 2 "different" sized cards. The finished effect is very simular to the one on the original birthday card,and I am really pleased with the result!

So next time you are left with some papers that you don't know what to do with, try adding some stamped images to embelish the design!

Just had a look at this post and I've noticed that you can see how the picture was taken...I had to prop the cards up on a cushion on the table! It gave me the clearest image. If you have posted blogs yourself you will know how difficult it can be to take a good photo so please concentrate on the main picture and try to ignore the surround!

Bye for now!

Something for Easter

I have been crafting for some years now and my friends often ask me what to do with spare backing papers, especially those that remain unused in 6 x 6 and 8 x 8 packs. Well, here's one idea which may come in useful for Eastertime.

I drew out an egg shape and copied 12 of them onto 2 different coloured pieces of 6 x 6. I cut them out, and folded each piece in half. Then I glued them together with the folded edges in the middle. The last half was stuck to the first one, to form a sort of "circle. " When the sections were opened up the egg was completed. Finally I wrapped a length of acetate ribbon around the egg and tied it in a knot.
If you made a few of these 3d shapes, they could be hung onto twigs and used as a decoration.

There'll be more ideas for spare papers comming up over the next few weeks, so watch this space!

nectar card

Anyone who follows this blog regularly will soon come to realize my passion for butterflies! I just love them. I even kept a moon moth for a few months last year, and I reared it from a coccoon. Anyway back to my latest creation.

I stamped a butterfly image onto white card 3 times to give me different shades of black and grey. Then I arranged the images onto a piece of holographic card starting with the lightest colour first, then the medium, and finally the black. I completed the design by adding some little punched butterflies, and mounted it onto a piece of white deckle-edged card. This was then added to a 14 x 14 cm card blank in black. I embelished the card with silver corner peel-offs.

I hope the photo will give you some idea of the detail of the design because it took ages to do!

More moveable decoupage

Here is another of the moveable decoupage designs which I
made for Valentines Day. She is quite saucey and moves her
hips from side to side. She looks absolutely nothing like me
but I'm sure she got the message across! Isn't it amazing
how versatile paper can be!

I really love Mary Rahder moveable decoupage

but I was a bit nervous when I made this card

because I hadnt used the design before and wasnt sure how I would extend the pattern to incorporate the boot!

In the end I drew in more reeds and water to

lengthen the picture so that the boot didnt hang off the edge of the card.I was really pleased with the result and I hope that "Jack" liked it too!

something for mum

I recently discovered a book called "Iris Folding" by Michelle Powell (published by Search Press who I love!) Its full of really original designs.
This one is called "Pretty Pink Parcel"Although thats really appropriate, I actually used different papers from the one in the book. They are from a range called "Sweet Nothings" by Papermania. I also enlarged the pattern a little as the one given is really small

The design is a sort of streached square, and takes 4 different colours to complete. (although one colour could be
used throughout) It comprises of numbers as well as symbols which is a bit more challenging than usual, but as long as you concentrate, it's still quite easy to do.

I decided to use a gatefold card with a topper (attatched to the left-hand side only) When the iris folding was complete I created a deckled edge, put a brad in each corner for effect and stuck it to the topper with foam tape. The "bow" is then added, together with any embelishments (in this case peel-off dots and small punched flowers)
The tag was still quite small but just big enough to take the word "MUM" which will make it ideal for Mothers Day! (another problem solved!)