Angelic Spring

If you saw my last blog post, you'll have seen the vintage Easter postcard and poem that Sandy Redburn was giving away on the Crafty Secrets/Heartwarming Vintage Blog.

I had another idea for these (while trying to get to sleep, obviously!) and had to make another card for the contest. Two thoughts combined:

• In days gone by, poems were often published as pamphlets in their own right - wouldn't it be great to make the poem into a little book?!
  
• This kind of sentimental image would have been popular in the 18th century and the Victorian era for decoupage techniques so why not cut out the angel and use her in a different setting?
  

Here's what happened (photos are clickable for the bigger version):



Of course, modern technology helped a little! In the original image, the angel's left wing has the tip cut off by the line of the surrounding oval. I wanted her to spill out of my oval frame so I needed a complete wing. I copied the tip of the wing on the right in Photoshop, mirrored it and pasted over the left - voila, a perfect wing! The poem also got some digital copying and pasting so that I could have four verses to a page as that seemed about right to get the page proportions right.

The little book is an 'interactive' element. There's a large brass paperclip fastened to the back so you can lift it off the card and turn the pages easily to read the poem.



I'm absolutely delighted to be able to tell you that my card won the contest! *happy dance* Thank you so much Sandy and your judging team - you had a tough task as the other ladies entered some beautiful things too (they're all on the blog and definitely worth checking out).

Supplies: vintage Easter postcard and poem printables (Heartwarming Vintage blog), Tim Holtz Distress inks (Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen, Tea Dye), Beautiful stamp set (the Rummage Bin collection at Cornish Heritage Farms), Barbedor script stamp (Ma Vinci's Reliquary), Versamark, gold lustre powder, copper gel pen, oval template, Xacto knife, sponge, plastic food wrap (Clingfilm/Saran wrap, depending which side of the Atlantic you're on!), large brass paperclip

Thanks for taking a look today - hope yours gets off to a great start too!

Ephemeral Easter!

And now for something completely different, folks...



Sandy from Crafty Secrets is giving away a downloadable vintage Easter postcard and poem on the Heartwarming Vintage blog. I thought it would be fun to play with this and in turn it became a sample for today's challenge at CBC - to use ephemera on a card or other crafty project.

I love the idea of ephemera - for us card makers I think it's perfect, the idea that something is important just for a short while. I bet the designer of the Easter postcard would be surprised to see the image still in circulation so many years later!

I used the first verse from the poem, tore it from the sheet and inked the edges with some Distress ink before pinning it to the image panel with a tiny pin saved from shirt packaging. I thought the little paper roses went well with the vintage look and with the idea of the garden.



I stamped a paisley background onto the card blank with Shabby Shutters distress ink, just for a bit of background interest.

Supplies: vintage Easter postcard and poem printables from Heartwarming Vintage, Paisley backgrounder (CHF), Tim Holtz Distress Ink - antique linen, tea dye, shabby shutters, paper roses, vintage crochet trim, pin

Thanks for dropping by, Happy Easter everybody!

Oriental acetate

On CBC, Jackie has challenged us to use acetate on our cards. I've been scratching my head since the challenge was launched on Sunday, trying to think of something where the clear acetate would be effective.

Then today's Tanda Teaser asked for an Oriental theme and the two things came together to make this...



The dragonfly (one of the stamps I got in Sheila's fund-raising bags for Ellie Wiseman's Trust Fund - thank you Sheila!) is stamped on acetate with Stazon and the wings are coloured on the back with alcohol markers. I used a bit of gold paint on the body section and then backed with a piece of black card to make it properly opaque. The Chinese character means beauty which I thought went well with a delicate dragonfly image.

The dragonfly is raised on tiny foam pads and the wings are angled up away from the body so you can see through them, not sure how well that shows on the picture. I sponged on three shades of green ink to make the graduated background on the rectangular panel.

Supplies: dragonfly (RubbaDubbaDoo), beauty (unknown maker), silhouette blooms I (Cornish Heritage Farms), Adirondack Willow, Ranger Distress Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters, sponge, Brilliance Graphite Black, Stazon Jet Black, Versamark, gold lustre powder, gold gel pen, acetate sheet, foam sticky pads

Thanks for taking a look - hope your day has had its fair share of beauty.

Pssst... birdy secrets

My crafty treat to myself for this month was a set of stamps called Bird Notes by Crafty Secrets that I've been coveting for several months now. Since ordering them, I discovered I'd won $25 at Cornish Heritage Farms in the online referral program so I get extra treats this month but I've only just ordered so those haven't arrived yet. In the meantime, this is my first Bird Notes card:



Crafty Secrets are a member company at Splitcoaststampers and once a week they have a challenge so I played with this one as the starting point for this card but simplified the layers significantly and switched the colours so that the green is dominant rather than the pink.

While I'm here: a toot for the eBay seller I bought from: fantastic customer service and shipping for this medium set was only $2.70 - I reckon it would have cost that for UK postage! The seller is fourcreativeseasons and she has lots of scrapping, stamping and papercrafting items - worth a look!

Supplies: Bird Notes set (Crafty Secrets), Gingham Backgrounder and Hello from Silhouette Blooms I (both Cornish Heritage Farms), Tim Holtz Distress ink Antique Linen, Clearsnap fluid chalk ink Rouge, Dark Brown, Warm Green, Bazzill Monochromatic blue-greens pack, piercer, Nestabilities Classic oval die, chalk, Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump

Thanks for taking a 'peep'!

Take a break

This week's DCM dare, set by Mel, invites us to 'Take a break' and incorporate a tea bag or coffee sachet into our cards.

My Tanda Retro Ladies stamps had to make another appearance - two weeks running they've had the perfect stamp for the dare!



I made a little tea bag holder using the "Tea Lady" stamp. It's an Earl Grey tea bag and as they always seem slightly citrusy to me, I stamped some lemons inside the holder, too. I've left the inside of the front flap blank for writing a little message.



Supplies: Retro Ladies Plate 2 (Tanda Stamps), lemon stamp (unknown maker), Quiet stamp (Alluring Impressions), Classic Little Alphabet stamps, tiny tag punch, brown marker pen, Clearnsnap fluid chalk ink Dark Brown, Tim Holtz Distress ink Old Paper and Antique Linen, Prismacolor pencil, piercer, Prism paper Birchtone Light

Time to take a break, I think - thanks for taking a look!

Under the Weather

This week's Tanda Teaser is a challenge to make a get well card. I thought I'd make one to keep in my box of cards so I went for a unisex approach since I won't know who it's for until I need it!



I've always felt a bit odd about the phrase "Get well soon" - it sounds a bit like a command, I guess! So I used two sentiment stamps from the same set here. One is the single word 'Wishes' and I didn't ink the final word of "Get well soon" before I stamped.

Supplies: Stampin up! Gorgeous Grapevine, sentiments from a HOTP set, Whispers inks (Savoy Green, Sugarloaf Green, Rio Purple, Violet), Tim Holtz Distress inks (Antique Linen, Tea Dye), Clearsnap Fluid chalk ink (Dark Brown), linen texture paper.

Thanks for dropping by - hope none of you are feeling under the weather yourselves!

I am woman

Well obviously, I am a woman but it's the title of this week's DCM dare, set by Lythan who says our cards must feature at least one feminine image. I had no trouble with the 'extra' rules since I don't own a single Tilda, Sugar Nellie or Bella image :o)

I was lucky enough to win some stamps from Tanda Stamps recently and I chose the Retro Women 2 plate which I thought would offer a perfect image for this dare. Click through for a bigger view if you want it...



I thought it would be fun to add just a little splash of colour for the shoes and although you can't really see on the photo, I went over the legs with a glaze pen to give them the slight sheen of silk stockings.

Supplies: Come Up and See Us from Retro Women 2 plate (Tanda Stamps), Paisley backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms), Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Distress Antique Linen, ivory and black grosgrain from stash, flower punches, seed beads and pin from stash, corner rounder, foam tape, decorative scissors, Sakura Glaze Pen, Prismacolor pencil.

Thanks for taking a peep - do let me know what you think if you have a minute!

It's a wrap

Rhi is the darer for the Daring Cardmakers this week and she's sending us all on a recycling mission. It's our plastic packaging she's after and after a couple of disasters fit only for the bin, I managed to use two sorts of plastic in producing this...



The little swing tag is acetate cut from our Christmas cracker packaging. I stamped with Stazon and coloured with Sakura Glaze and Souffle pens. I ended up backing it with a matching white card circle to make the colours look more vivid. It has a more stained glass effect in real life but it's a bit dull up here this morning so it doesn't really show on the pic!

Did you spot the second use of plastic? The bottom polka dots are not designer paper or a rubber stamped background - they're done with bubble wrap *smile*

Supplies: Scribble flowers stamps (unknown maker), Stazon Jet Black, Ranger Archival Jet Black, Prismacolor Pencils/OMS/stump, Sakura Glaze and Souffle pens, grosgrain from stash, bubble wrap, acetate, split rings, Nestabilities Classic Circle

If you haven't checked out the Bubbly Funk auction for Ellie, new things have been added including a "LO promise" from Kirsty Wiseman herself. So if you've ever fancied owning a Kirsty Wiseman original, this could be your chance. Click below to find out more about the auction and how you can bid. Pictures and short descriptions are available on a Fotopic site if you are not a member of the Bubbly Funk forum.

Click here for the auction details

Black & white Bon jour!

The Just Bex forum has a big challenge going on at the moment. Thirteen different challenges were launched over the weekend and are 'live' for a week with points to be earned for each one completed. Not sure I'll find all that much time to play but I've managed one for the Black & White with one other colour challenge



I kept it bold with a big single paisley stamp that came in a batch of UMs I got on eBay. The dewdrop colour didn't seem quite intense enough for this design so I coloured the backs with a Copic marker to deepen the shade a bit.

Supplies: single paisley (unknown maker), Bon jour (Alluring Impressions), Brilliance Graphite Black ink, dewdrops (fire), Copic marker (Lipstick Red) scoring board, corner rounder

Au revoir!

Brayered Birthday Wishes

I've been admiring Michelle Zindorf's work with a brayer, both on Splitcoaststampers and the Cornish Heritage Farms gallery. I remembered using something similar as a kid when I made a lino block for Christmas cards one year and Dad let me use a "roller thingy" to apply the gloopy printer's ink.

Sure enough, Dad can be relied upon not to have got rid of such things and I've borrowed the brayer - thanks Dad! It's probably half a century old but it still does the job!

Not easy, this brayering lark but after a lot of faffing about trying different cardstock and rolling actions, I think I might be getting somewhere.



Supplies: Adirondack Willow, Tim Holtz Distress Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters, Clearsnap Fluid Chalk ink Dark Brown, brayer, Single Black Eyed Susan (CHF), sentiment words from HOTP set, Prismacolor pencils, French curve template, fine point brown marker, sewing machine, acrylic nailart gems.

Because I wanted longer stems at a different angle than the stamp, I stuck tape over the stem when I inked up and just stamped the flower head. Then I used a French curve template and drew in stems with a fine brown marker.

I was inspired to do a green background to fit with Claudia's blog challenge to create something using your favourite colour. My favourite colour varies from time to time but I always seem to gravitate back to greens, especially soft or olivey tones.

Thanks for dropping by - hope your day is a good one!