Lovely Lili for mum!

Lovely Lili for mum!

I was really happy to get the free Lili of the Valley pictures in a magazine. I thougnt this image was perfect for Spring colours and I used some ideas from their great ideas to inspire.

As ever I coloured with Promarkers and I used glossy accents on the balloons and nose.
The punches I used were all Martha Stewart.

The ribbon was another magazine freebie. The LOTV sentiment was decorated round the edges with a flexmarker to look like petals. The embossing was done freehand.

I made up the card design made up from a couple I had seen and using acette for the window.
The flower gems were also freebies and all the flowers were Wild Orchid Crafts.

I decorated the back with another LOTV image from the magazine coloured with Pro and flexmarkers. I added a panel with my message.

I would like to enter the following challenges

Lili’s Little Fairies – Anything Goes
Wags ‘n Whiskers – Flowers
Lily Pad – Flower Challenge
Fairy Fun Fridays – Spring
Moving Along With The Times – Cute and Cuddly
Rainbow Lady’s – Butterflies
ColourQ – Color Challenge
Mosaic- tutorial

Mosaic- tutorial

I had a decent amount of crafting time for the first time in ages today. I wanted to make a thank you card for a friend.Time to try a new technique to use up scraps! I’m really pleased how this worked out as it is perfect for using small scraps.
I started by deciding I’d use pink and brown and sorted out some scraps in those colours and some cardboard packaging.

I took a piece of cereal packet. I tore up pieces of brown scrap papers and stuck them down with Mod Podge I used similar colours in a circular pattern. I then coloured the torn edges with brown distress ink.

I then used various scraps with two pink patterns on them to make my union jack patterned mosaic.  I coloured the torn edges with pink distress ink.

I covered the mosaic patterned paper with two layers of Mod Podge.

I used a die cut from Lili of the Valley. I cut it out and highlighted the flower, mirror and pearls using glossy accents. I added some pearl embellies to the bag. I mounted them using foam pads to get some lift.

I would like to enter the following challenges
kaboodle doodles- thank you
papertake weekly- happy highlights
card makin mamas- something old
crafts 4 eternity- clean and simple
crafters cafe blog challenge- CAS

I believe

I believe

If you follow my blog you will know I’m having a storecupboard January- using up stash and trying out moneysaving ideas as I go. I’m also playing with my new Cougar!

My money saving tip of the day is using cheap baby wipes to clean your craft mat if you’ve been using glimmer sprays/ distress inks etc. When they dry out you can use them as a textured background. I sprayed this baby wipe with home-made glimmer sprays (I made these with a few drops of pearlescent ink in water in a mini mister) to give an impression of  sky and grass.

The beautiful cutting file was one that had been made by Linda using a pattern found at this web site.  Linda has a great web site with free stuff as well as some great files to buy. Her site is here. I used my Cougar to cut a copy in black card and one on lilac pearlescent paper (both scraps!) I then layered them as if there was a shadow.

My stamp was fairy on tiptoes from Lili of the valley. I coloured with Promarkers, mounted on a scray of lilac pearlescent card and lightly embossed the edge by hand. I also added 3 pearl gems.

My sentiment is also LOTV mounted on a circle punched from scrap card and decorated with pearls.

 I also used pearls on a couple of the swirls.

I would like to enter the following challenges
2 sisters challenge- things with wings
Crafting for all seasons- fairies
Flutter by wednesdays- open
Card Caravan challenge- sparkle
I brake for challenges- simple
Crafty sentiments- love and romance (plan to do this for hubby as he starts a new project)
Truly scrumptious challenge- shabby pastels and paint
Aud sentiments challenge- any sentiment but must use scraps
Just inspirational challenges- Inspiration picture

My storecupboard January- tutorial 1!

My personal challenge for January is to have a stash ban and survive by crafting from my storecupboard. Several of us on the Money Saving Expert forum are having a stash ban. I thought I’d have a go at writing some tutorials as there are a couple of newbies who might find them useful. Hopefully the Top Tip Tuesday team will be ok with the tip being a bit long 😉

Today I’m using a technique that I think I saw on Split Coast Stampers with a couple of adaptations. I deliberately made a lot of my Christmas cards with matching papers so that I could utilise the scraps.
This is a post with lots of my bulk Christmas makes!

1. Get your scraps together! Take a big sticker (I get A4 sticker sheets from Poundland) or some scrap paper and cover it with spray adhesive.

2. Sort out the scraps into matching patters. Since I used the same size cards and papers when making my Christmas cards I had lots of scraps of the same size. I wanted to use the pieces cut from my background mats which were all about 1cm wide.

3. Choose 3 patterns that contrasetd well to use. Lined them up on your sticker. In my case green, red, holly…ad nauseum or until I ran out of paper or sticker!!

4. Place on paper trimmer so that the parallel papers are running at ninety degrees to the blade.

5. Cut equal size strips. Since my strips of paper were 1cm wide I cut 1cm strips!

6. Have a play and decide on a repeated pattern to use.Here are a couple of the ones I tried.

 7. Take another piece of sticker and put the strips onto it in your chosen pattern.

8.  Trim the ends. Keep for another project (keep an eye out for them on my blog this month as I try and use up my scraps!)

9. You should now have a backgound paper which is useable instead of lots of scraps in the bin!! In fact these are large enough for me to cut in half and use on my cards.

So here are a couple of the cards I made using this technique. The die cuts are from Lili of the valley and I highlighted them with stickles.

 Thanks for reading!
I would like to enter the cards for the following challenges
Top tip Tuesday- anything goes
Phindys place challenge- scraps
If the shoe fits scrap it- use your stash
52 Christmas card throwdown- anything goes
Delicious Doodles challenge- anything goes
Card crafters circle- anything goes
The secret crafter saturday challenge- anything goes
One stop craft challenge-Winter wishes

Magical trifold

Magical trifold

Thanks to Top Tip Tuesday I was able to make this trifold card. It was for my brother and family. There will be a new addition to the family this year so I wanted  their card to represent each of them at this point.

 I designed the papers on craft artist. Each section has the appropriate name (blurred for privacy).

I used this LOTV die cut for my brother who enjoys mountain biking. I made the background using Versamark dazzle and Perfect pearls.

This second LOTV die cut was for his OH who loves baking and made our wedding cake last year- background as above.

The last image is for my nephew who loves Harry Potter.

I coloured with Promarkes and used Versamark dazzle and perfect perals to make the background.
I would like to enter the following challenges
Top tip Tuesday- anything goes
Deep ocean challenge- surprise us
Everybody art challenge- anything goes
Stamp-n-doodle- Christmas
The pixie cottage- for someone special

Rest of my bulk Christmas card LOTV makes!

Rest of my bulk Christmas card LOTV makes!

I  have so much catching up to do on here. I was so busy getting all my makes done for Christmas that I didn’t have time to blog most of them. I went with a green, red and Kraft theme using LOTV die cuts and this has enabled me to make some cards with the matching scraps. I was really happy to make every card different and so easy I got them done in a couple of hours as I’ve only been doing this for a few months! I made quite a few so this is a really picture heavy post so remember to at least scroll to the end to see the challenges I’ve entered with some wonderful inspiration photos!

I used brilliance dew drop pigment ink to ink the die cut backgrounds. I decorated the inside of the cards as well so even more piccies!!

 You can’t see the second paper that well- it is in diamond orientation!

 I had planned to use various ribbons on several cards but I ran out of the glue I use at this point!!

On some of the backgrounds I painted snow with silver brilliance ink.

Hope that wasn’t too boring! I’d like to enter the following challenges
The playdate cafe challenge- colours as photo

My time made easy- colour challenge

Cupcake inspirations- photo

Raise the bar- it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Card crafters circle- Christmas
Fairytale challenge- something easy

Christmas craziness!!

Christmas craziness!!

I’ve been completely manic with last minute Christmas makes and haven’t had time to blog them. I’ve got about 13 cards ready to blog!! Now I’m not at work I’m going to try and catch up with the blogging!
Here is the first quick and flat card!!

I went for square Kraft card for my quick cards. I used a pearlescent green dew drop ink to colour the edges and background of the die cut. The die cut is from Lili of the Valley. Papers from stash. Here is the inside!

I would like to enter this to
Charisma Cardz challenge- last minute Christmas makes
Creative Card Crew- ’tis the season

Pretty in pink

Pretty in pink

A friend is about to have an operation so this is for her.

 I used a LOTV die cut and distressed the background and added perfect pearls (doing the same to the edges of my card and layers). The background paper is Nitwits (as is the card inside) teamed with a flourish paper I made.

Used a lovely pink ribbon which I added glimmer mist and pearlescent paint to. I absolutely love the embellishment- very vintage. I used textured card underneath and a MS flower punch to make the border.

This is the paper and frame I used inside from Nitwits Beraly Mine

 This is the whole thing.

I would like to enter the following challenges
Lili of the Valley- anything but Christmas
Do you stack up challenge- ribbon
Victorine stamps- ribbons
Southern girls challenge- ribbon
Craft your days away- buttons or bows
House of Gilli- flourishes

Christmas post

Christmas post

Another Christmas card and another cute LOTV die cut. I made and printed the papers, used lots of stickles and glimmer misted my snowflakes.
I would like to enter the following challenges
Lili of the valley- anything goes
Rainbow Lady’s Challenge blog- cards for men
4 Crafty Chicks- snowflakes
Charisma Cardz challenge- snowflakes
Totally Papercrafts challenge- Christmas
Our Craft Lounge- cute critters