Paper roses... pa-a-per roses...

Well OK, they're not roses but since the paper blooms competition was launched on Just Bex, I can't get that song out of my head!

I took the instruction to make a bouquet 'ready for summer' rather literally and went for the sunniest flower I could think of!


I made a paper mush for the centres by liquidising torn up scrap paper with a load of water and then draining it and squeezing into a sort of clay consistency. I used a pastry cutter to keep the edges of the circle while I pushed the mush into a firm blob. I rounded the edges off with a wet finger and then left them to dry out (here's where having an Aga helps - nice warm spot to dry your paper mush projects!). I inked with brown and black ink and then painted over with the bronzey colour from the cheapo H2O-alikes from The Works.

The petals are cut on the CraftRobo - it's actually a water droplet from a dingbat font called Mostly Waves. I chalked the tips and stuck two layers round each centre.

The leaves are stamped with a big foam stamp onto glossy green cardstock and then cut round them. Flowers are on bamboo skewer stems and a few narrow strips of green paper got shoved in the vase to make frondy foliage bits. The bud is a spun paper ball with the yellow and green papers scrunched round it.

I'd had this square olive oil bottle for ages because I liked the shape but hadn't found a use for it. A few glass nuggets and a bit of raffia tied round to give it a more rustic look made finishing touches.

I decided I quite liked the way these turned out so I didn't tie a gift label on cos I'm keeping them!

Shape shifting

Yay! I've joined the Cuttlebug Embossing crowd! The folders I ordered from the USA arrived this morning and I sat straight down to make a card for the Friday Night Challenge over at the Just Bex forum. The challenge is to make a shaped card - no squares or rectangles. I knew what I wanted to do but desparately wanted the embossing folder to do it!



I used the D'vine Swirls folder to emboss smooth white cardstock then cut three rectangles and rounded off the top corners with a punch. The 'ribbons' are cut from silvery Moondust paper (which doesn't photograph well but has a lovely sheen IRL). Sentiment is heat embossed and the hearts are punched shapes - one triple embossed and the other from the Moondust paper raised on little foam pads.

Right, I've more folders to play with so I'm off!

Raise it up

Oooh, I love embossing! Lythan has set this week's dare over at DCM and it's an embossing theme. Any kind of embossing will do! I've got a load of Cuttlebug embossing folders on order but they haven't arrived yet otherwise you'd probably have been overwhelmed by Cuttlebug textures. Instead, I've done two cards with some DIY embossing plates I made ages ago:



The Bundle of Joy sentiment is embossed onto pale pink cardstock with the trusty old corner rounder and chalk ink in Rouge swiped round the edge. I punched holes in the star, covered in lots of layers of silver sparkle embossing powder to make a 'button' and attached it with a bit of ribbon. A border of machine stitching and a bit of gingham ribbon finish it off.



Same basic techniques here but the embossing is on DCWV cardstock so I've distressed it a bit with a Silkimitt. The big flower is a Bosskut die and the little ones are the QK flower doodads. I used chalk ink and a freebie foam stamp to do the border pattern.

If you fancy the DIY approach all you need is some die cuts and a die cutter plus an embossing mat (or funkyfoam at a stretch). Stick your diecuts as you want them onto a piece of card stock cut to a size that will go through your die cutter. If you're using shapes made of reasonably lightweight card then you can build up a couple of layers to give it a bit more 'bite'. Then just plunk your cardstock on top, add your foam layer and put it through your die cutter. You can have any sentiment or texture you want and it will be unique to you. I've given mine a coat of paper varnish to give them a bit of protection but they'd probably be fine without.

Little green men

Sorry, I seem to have faded from view in Blogland - never could keep a diary! I just made a quick card for this week's Daring Card Makers dare though.



It's Keryn's turn to set the dare and with a little help from her son the theme is 'Celestial' (or 'Space' if you're going for the simplified version!). Chris on the BubblyFunk forum collects together cards for use at a children's hospice. I don't often get to make kids cards so I'd decided to make a few and already had the bits and pieces cut out for this one. The alien is designed in Inkscape and cut with the CraftRobo - inked with two shades of green chalk ink and has wiggly eyes at the top of the eye stalks. I find it difficult to judge kids' cards - hope this is OK!

Two in one

I've combined two challenges here: the DCM 'Start from Scratch' challenge set by Tracie and the first of the challenges over at the Crafts by Carolyn 2007 Big Challenge (a card with a buckle or shrink plastic - I've actually done both!).



Tracie said no premade embellies allowed but I think ribbon probably counts as a basic - hope so anyway!

I made the buckle by wiping Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid over a piece of Shrink Plastic and then overstamping with flowers with a Rouge Cat's Eye Chalk Ink pad. Corners are rouned off with a corner punch and I cut the slits with a knife and ruler. The greeting is stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black (and I used alphabet stamps to make up the greeting so I even started from scratch there!).

The background for the card is the same flower stamp I used on the buckle stamped in the Brilliance Orchid ink on a pale pink card blank (the top part masked off so that stayed plain) and the buckle is mounted on pistachio green DCWV cardstock with rouge chalk ink swiped round the edges.

Dad's birthday

It was my dad's birthday a few days ago. I always find cards for him a bit difficult as he doesn't have any of the typical hobbies to theme stuff around (football, golf etc). He's very practical though so wood and metal make good elements on cards for him and I knew I wanted to use my CraftRobo in making it as Dad gave me the money to buy it (just on a whim - wasn't that lovely of him?).



Woodgrain paper for the background came from The Papermill - I cut 'planks' and inked the edges for some depth. Lettering is cut with the CraftRobo and I've stuck a couple of layers together to give it more body. They're painted with gold acrylic paint and then dabbed over with Caramel Delight and Chestnut Whispers inkpads for a coppery effect. A final touch of Violet and Azure gave more of a weathered look. I love the way copper changes with the effects of heat and age.

The tag is a BossKuts ribbon slide with one end cut off, 'aged' with some inking and a light sprinkle of embossing powder to grunge it up. Stamped/embossed greeting from the Woodware Tiny Phrases set. I raised the D with tiny foam pads and tied the tag around it with jute string.



Dad liked it - that's the main thing!

Food, glorious food

It's Kathy's turn to set the dare over at DCM this week and she's asked for cards featuring food. As it happens I just discovered that a friend had an op yesterday and is expecting to be home tomorrow so I needed a 'hope you soon feel better' kind of card. A bunch of grapes seemed like a classic subject for that!

I found a photo of a grape vine (you wouldn't believe how many of those we have in our collection!) and traced a leaf in RoboMaster then cut out a load of little circles, a frame and a wiggly bit for a tendril. I cut them all from plain card and then dabbed inkpads over them - leaf in two shades of green and grapes in two shades of purple. I used an embossing tool to 'draw' the leaf veins. A few grapes are coated with clear embossing powder and the frame is painted with gold acrylic and has a few random gold sparkle EP highlights.

Didn't think I was going to get time to craft today but if a poorly friend needs a card then you just have a squeeze it in, don't you?

With wings on

By 'eck, where does the time go? I'm sooo behind with blogs and challenges and stuff - I promise I'll try to get around some of them later. Here's my very last minute DCM challenge card for Jane's dare. Jane wanted to see wings so here are mine...

Most of my friends would probably think of me as a words person rather than a visual one so I decided to play with the idea of uplifting words/ideas as feathers for my wings.

I've dabbed Chestnut Brown Whispers ink onto DCWV textured card stock and then fed it through my Dymo and sanded the surface. Dark background square is from a pack of handmade papers bought ages ago in The Works. The swirls were a bit 'bright white' for what I wanted so I've used a bit of blue and grey chalk to tone them down. Swirls on the card itself are freestyled with chalks and a pompom applicator.

I've just realised I haven't blogged my dad's birthday card and notebook. He's seen them now so I'll try to do that tomorrow.

New toys

I've never really got into rubber stamping. I often admire the style on other people's work but just not got into it myself. Well, I've decided to give it a whirl and on Sunday I won a bargain bundle of stamps on eBay to get me started. Postie delivered them this morning so here's my first attempt with one of my new toys.

There's a challenge on the Crafts by Carolyn forum to cut your stamped card somehow so this one has a section cut away at the top, where the black section stops. Main image is a Hampton Arts stamp and I just swirled a bit of chalk on there for the coloured bits. Stamped thank you on a handcut ribbon slide threaded onto orange grosgrain to finish it off.

It's a big stamp (that's a 5x7inch card) and I found it a bit tricky to get the image to stamp properly all the way out to the edge but since this one was only my second attempt I think I did OK. Any hints or tips greatfully received though!

Why didn't anybody warn me?

OK, why didn't anybody warn me that starting a blog is dangerous? I've been tagged already! Hmmm, thanks Sheila (maybe!)

So, the rules are: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to blog about their 7 things and post the rules as well. At the end of your blog you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

Here are my random facts:

1. I cannot crochet to save my life.
2. Most luscious takeout ever: sushi and sashimi in lacquerware containers delivered by a man on a moped to a house in Tokyo.
3. I am a yarn snob ;)
4. I still have the cuddly rabbit given to me by my Godmother on the day I was born. He sleeps under my pillow.
5. As a proofreader, I've had to fight hard not to change all those 7s in the rules of this game into sevens (numbers below 10 are words!).
6. I hate making appointments to get my hair cut. I usually just go in get it done on the spot.
7. I read a lot. Probably more than is good for me! Current reading: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.

I'm tagging Gillian, Kathy, Dollydimps, Rainowgirl, Turtlestres, Nickynoo and Rein.