By Request

A lovely lady emailed me asking how I made my Butterfly Birthday Wishes card, so I thought I would share it here. For me, this card was all about texture, it is a little time consuming but gives you a very stroke-able card in return!

To make the card
1. Cut a piece of thick card half the size of your card blank, cover with wet glue, apply a layer of batting and allow to dry
2. Cover the top half of your card with patterned paper, I used flocked paper by Making Memories. Cut a frame from Bazzill, stamp with the stamp of your choice and apply perfect pearls. Mount the frame over the flocked paper.
3. Cover the batting with fabric, pull the fabric taut and glue in place. Evenly stitch over the top of the fabric and pull tight, tie ends in a knot and fluff the end of the thread.
4. I sewed small seed pearls along the bottom edge of my lace, then glued the top edge of the lace on the back of the fabric covered board then flipped it over to make a seamless finish. Glue the board and slip it under the edge of the frame so it slightly overlaps then stick in place.
5. Add your sentiment.

To make the butterflies
I used some K&Co chipboard butterflies which I traced onto grungeboard and then cut out. There are lots of digital templates or dingbats that you could use to create yours, or run it through a die cutter with your favourite die to make it even easier!
1. Cut out your butterflies, sandwich in your chosen embossing folder and run through your die cutting machine. I used Cuttlebug D'vine Swirl.
2. I painted mine white with acrylic paint, you could paint a coloured layer of base coat, then paint over with white paint and lightly sand to reveal the colour underneath.
3. Once dry, lightly smooth versamark ink over the top, don't press too hard as you only want to ink the raised detail. Dust over the top with perfect pearls, I used interference blue for a nice lustre.
4. Lightly ink the edges, then apply small blobs of distress stickles around the edge (a little goes a long way!) and smooth around the edge with your finger.
5. Gently pull the wings together to create a more 3D effect. Embellish with sequins and gems to create the body.
6. Flip the butterfly over and glue ribbon 'tails' on the back and top with a tuille bow. Take a length of wire, fold in half, curl the ends and glue for the antennae.
7. Adhere butterflies to card.

I have also added a list of the supplies I used, it does seem quite long but most things you should have in your stash already, all of my cardstock, fabric and ribbons were offcuts so it's great to use up all those bits and pieces you have lying around.

If you do make your own, please post a link to yours in the comments section, I'd love to see it!

Until December!
p&r

Supplies needed:
Card blank
Patterned paper
Bazzill
Card
Fabric/lace/batting/needle and thread
Ribbon and Tuille
Grungeboard
Glitter/gems/sequins/beads
Embossing folder
Distress stickles/Distress Ink
Perfect Pearls

Drought

A bit of a drought at the moment, i'm in the process of moving house and unfortunately all my crafty stash is the first casualty when packing!

Hope to be back mid-december with some new bits and pieces!

Spooktastic

I am rather accident prone at the moment, from hurting my back, tripping over my own feet and now I have 2 fingers strapped together which makes typing and crafting a rather slow process!

I have been working with the latest Crafty Templates kit Autumnal Treats and it is scrummy. Filled with papers and embellishments that work for both Autumn cards and Halloween Treats . As soon as it landed I had so many ideas and the templates that come with it are adorable, unfortunately I have been hampered somewhat by my unbendy fingers so I only managed a couple of cards and a mini book by deadline, but I'm hoping to work on some more cards later this week!

Apologies for the small pictures, they are clickable for a large size, Blogger seems to be stretching out my pictures if I make them any bigger!

How cute are the halloween characters? I added the apple, candy and the letters which die cut from sizzix Wingo Zingo alphabet.

The front of the mini book. The wrap is made from Bazzill Just the Edge wavy cardstock strip with a velcro closure topped with Elle's Studio Halloween Mini Paper.

The pages were die cut with Spellbinders Labels One then backed onto black card. Each page was set with eyelets and threaded with ribbon, I added Elle's Studio Vintage Label cut outs then miniature halloween characters from the templates provided.

Cute little Halloween treat bags. I folded the bag into 3 and stapled the back to make a smaller bag, die cut a label and added a pumpkin from the template and more Elle's Studio paper. I made a few of these to give to my friends kids. I tried making little bags for any trick or treaters that knocked on my door last year, but because we live on a dark, country road no-one dared venture out of the village to us!

Finally, an autunal card using the template for the trees, yummy Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice papers, handstitching on the leaves and as a border and Hero Arts sentiment.

I'm off to rest the fingers after the epic post and look forward to posting some more during the week after I get the splint off. Happy Crafting :)

Christmas is a-coming!

I used to be very bah humbug when it came to christmas but last year felt a resurgance of christmas spirit and threw myself into decorating and baking and loved it (could have also been because I didn't work over the christmas period for the first time in 7 years!)

I've noticed some changes around me recently, mince pies, stollen and family tins of sweets in the supermarkets, plans at work for the all important 4th quarter and finally the christmasalicious September Crafty Templates kit that arrived the other week! What's a girl to do but try to embrace the season so I popped on a christmassy movie and here is what I came up with.

I loved the little stockings, especially coupled with the sweet little bells, made me think of elves which in turn prompted me to watch Elf while making these!

The house template was so cute, I liked the idea of opening the windows like you would with an advent calendar.

I cut the jumper template from felt and embroidered. It's perfect to send to my friend in Canada where it's so very cold.

This is not a template card, but I liked how it turned out. I love using my cuttlebug embossing folders and this one is a firm favourite, it adds just the right wintery touch.

Hope this week has been kind to you all, have fun :)

Zig-a-Zig-GAH!

I am at odds with my sewing machine. I love the look of sewn cards and it took me quite a while to be brave enough to use my sewing machine on a card for fear of ruining it and sure enough I did the first time but I keep persevering with varying results.

I started this card for my mother in law's birthday and decided that I wanted to sew the paper on for a more finished look and with some trepidation started with the sewing. The first inch went well then it all started to go wrong, it started missing stitches, zigging when it should have zagged and so on and so forth. I continued onwards and after i was finished it just looked...ugly. I took some thread and oversewed the parts that had been missed, it looks much better but I can still see where I had to correct it, I just hope the MIL doesn't!

A Special Lady's Birthday

I was going to give my mum a card that I made a while ago that she really liked, but decided she required something a bit more special. So for her birthday this Sunday I came up with this:

My first full acetate card.  I used the same template as the Celebrate card for the inside paper, added a Bo Bunny dotted card strip on the front used with my new Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch (oh how I love it so!) some grosgrain ribbon, a K&Co butterfly, a beautiful paper rose I found on etsy a while ago then added a handmade beaded embellishment and some sparkle stones. I was so pleased with how it came out, almost exactly as I had imagined it!

To while the time away while making some of these recent cards I have become addicted to the Gilmore Girls tv programme and I am working my way through the boxset. Has anyone else watched it? I just want to pack my bags and move to Stars Hollow!

Duly Noted

It's my wonderful Mum's birthday on Sunday and I wanted to make her a little something. I knew right away that I wanted to create a set of notecards after my first attempt the other day with the sunflower ones.

I have a box of gorgeous K&Co Madeline chipboard butterflies and a paper pad that I have been waiting to use so I went ahead and created some simple notelets using the papers, a butterfly, ribbon and a sentiment. I made 2 each of three designs complete with lined matching envelopes. They measure 4 1/4in x 3 3/4 in.

A bigger picture can be seen here. I love them, they are such a cute size and perfect for a quick little note. I also made a box using Chatterbox papers, sizzix die cuts and ribbon which I think she will love.

I want to keep it for myself now! I guess I'll just have to make another one :)