Flowering Flourishes stamp set

Introducing a fabulous stamp set from Stampin' Up! called Flowering Flourishes and I love it!!!

This set is available in wood mounted £21.95 or clear as here £17.95

I have chosen the clear option, which is red rubber mounted on foam for the best stamping but no wooden block, all this in a dvd style case for quick and easy storage. As you can see I don't stick the enclosed stickers onto my stamps and I find they stick to the acrylic block better without.

This set includes 3 stamps, one large, one medium and one smaller design.

I have a workshop coming up using this stamp set and have made a selection of samples to show the versatility, more of that to follow soon. If you are interested in joining us for this workshop contact me for details, dates are either Friday 8th March 7pm or Saturday 9th March 2pm, both dates are making the same items, a couple of places left only.

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Dawn x

Betsy's Blossoms Tag

Today I have a quick post showing a tag I made recently.

Lots going on but quick and easy. I started with a die cut tag and stamped over the background with a variety of colours.

A quick rolled ribbon flower with a pearl in the centre.

I added a piece of ribbon, a small border and a leaf behind the flower near the bottom and the same matching ribbon through the hole at the top. I finished by using flakes around the edge for a little subtle bling!

I hope you like this quick make.

Until next time, Happy crafting, Dawn x

Happy Valentines Day

Wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is a very simple card I made.

I started with a white gloss card blank, then layered half the card with real red and the other half with whisper white. I die cut the letters from both the white and red card, cutting them down the centre and sticking the white on top of the whole red letter. I punched a couple of sparkly silver hearts and added a faux stitched line around the outside and here it is...finished, a quick and simple card.

This second photo makes it look more like pink, in real life its definitely red!

Is this your kind of card or too simple and plain?

Leave a comment to let me know you came by.

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Dawn x

Summer silhouettes cheat!

Here are the photos I promised on my last post.

This is my summer silhouettes stamp set in the clear option.

Although as you can see by this photo they are not traditionally clear stamps, they are mounted red rubber but with no wooden block.

They come with matching stickers, which I chose not to use as I don't think they stick to the acrylic block properly if I use them, but that's me!

Here is my cheat to help line up this stamp, I have carefully cut three small "v"  shapes, one on each side and one in the centre. This does not damage the stamp at all.

Then after you stamp the first section you can use the "v" to help line up the next section, I found the top of the "v" points to the pattern from the line above, it took a couple of tries to get it how I wanted but was much easier than without the "v" shapes.

I hope this helps you line up your background stamp. Please leave a comment below to let me know what you think. Thank you for visiting, until next time, Happy crafting, Dawn x

Summer silhouettes

Another busy and strange day, I'm having a few of them recently.

It started by setting up for my afternoon workshop.

Here are the piles of bits lined up on the table.

Here are the tables all set up.

Everyone gets the same...

This is the first card we made.

I used an A5 card blank in bravo burgundy, a strip of whisper white for the left hand side, stamped with the border stamp from summer silhouettes stamp set, inked in rich razzleberry ink, lined up by eye to make a continuous pattern (I will show you my trick for that when I take the photo of the stamp set, hopefully in the next couple of days)

A crumb cake layer and a whisper white mat for the stamping, this is the best card for stamping on in my opinion! I started by stamping the two size stalks in a random fashion with old olive ink, I then added the burst of flowers in rich razzleberry ink and the smaller flower in marina mist ink, trying to line them up with the stalks, this set is quite easy to do this with, you don't need a stamp positioner. I stamped one of the tiny filler stamps, from the same set, in crumb cake around the whole layer to fill the white space. Some crumb cake ribbon to add a bow, I died this ribbon as it was vanilla to start with, I used a crumb cake ink refil. A couple of drops of ink on your non stick mat, add a few spritz of water and run your ribbon through it well for an even coverage, dry with a heat gun and to get it flat and neat I used my hair straighteners to iron it, well I don't like ironing!

I stamped my greeting from tiny sentiments stamp set onto marina mist card and punched with the versatile modern label punch, I tucked this behind my top layer slightly.

Our second card was also using summer silhouettes stamp set.

I started with a riding hood red A5 card base.

I cut a piece of crumb cake card for the mat, I stamped the leafy branch twice in old olive on to this layer. I stamped three flowers on to whisper white card using riding hood red ink and cut them out by hand, leaving a narrow white edge, I glued the flowers on after shaping them a little and finished them with a rhinestone in the centre.

I stamped using basic grey ink on to whisper white card and a stamp from my stash for the newsprint look near the bottom.

I stamped my greeting from tiny sentiments set with riding hood red ink again on to whisper white card and punched it out using my modern label punch.

For the border I cut baja breeze card with my adorning accent edgelit die, I used both the positive and negative parts, one above my panel and one below.

What do you think?

Is this your cup of tea?

Would you like to join us at our next workshop, making cards like these?

Leave me a comment below or contact me for more details of my next workshop dates.

Until next time, thank you for visiting and happy crafting, Dawn x

Testing couple days

Firstly I'm sorry for not blogging for a while, I have lots to show you but other things have got in the way, this time it was a huge worry. One of my gorgeous dogs ate something he shouldn't of, he has done this before and the item follows the usual natural path and causes no real problem, not this time!
I didn't actually see him eat it, but my small dish cloth went missing, I guessed what had happened and all seemed ok at first, then Saturday morning I went to feed him and he didn't touch his food, this is unheard of for Nanook, so a visit to the vet swiftly followed. Where they suspected a blockage, an xray would help give more information so we had to leave him there, it was so painful walking away from my baby, followed by a wait for a phone call where I was told it was going to have to be surgery. A long and impatient wait on my part, I had another call explaining that it wasn't a straight forward procedure, they had to cut his stomach, bowel and intestine open to remove the object, that turned out not to be my small dishcloth at all. A major operation for him, poor thing. I had a very anxious night waiting for the next phone call, one where I didn't get any sleep. Our home was very empty without him and Kodi was behaving strangely, she obviously missed him too!

Nanook being himself I had the next call saying he was ready to come home as he was quite anxious being in the kennel, he had eaten well and was becoming quite vocal, it's funny, do you know chewbacca on star wars, they used an alaskan malamute for his voice and that is what Nanook sounds like, super cute! He has now had two check ups and everything is healing well so I can now breath properly. Will he learn from his traumatic outing?....no I guess not, but boy am I glad to have him back where he belongs, so is Kodi and the rest of the family. The picture above is of him in his full glory, taken before the incident, I couldn't post a photo of him with his shaved parts, its just not fair to see him like that.

Anyway back to craft, today is my workshop that had to be postponed from January due to the snow. I hope to bring you details of that soon, until next time Happy crafting, Dawn x

Flitter flakes

I had this gorgeous stamp by IndigoBlu as a gift for Christmas with some flitter glue and flakes and this is what I made.

The greeting was printed on the computer.

I hope you like my card.

Please leave a comment below.

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Dawn x

Flowering Flourishes stamp set

I have a few birthdays during January and straight after Christmas I was looking for some inspiration, I was looking for something different, something I haven't done before to start my year with a....bang...ping...I don't know what to call it. Then I was looking through a craft magazine (Craft Stamper) and there it was, although my card is different the inspiration came from there and then I put my twist to it.

My all time favourite die from Stampin' Up! is the top note die, I just love the shape, size and versatility of it and here it is being used in a way I had never tried before. I cut a template from the centre of a piece of card and kept both parts. I held the negative (often seen as the waste) over my card blank, this time an 8x8 inch square (mmm what a surprise, me using a square blank) and inked through the die cut, I used brushes for this, I graduated my three chosen inks across the die shape moving from bottom left to top right, I dried my ink thoroughly.Then using the positive part, the die cut itself I placed it roughly over the inked part and using a fine black pen drew around the die, lifting carefully and then replacing slightly differently, I did this three times in total and then added some hand doodles. With the die cut still covering the centre panel I inked up one of the flourishes from Flowering Flourishes stamp set and stamped off the top right hand corner and lower left corner. I added a stamped greeting to the lower left. I die cut two swirls from tissue paper and added these poking out from a cluster of paper flowers, one in the top corner and the cluster of flowers in the bottom left. A few pearls added to the stamp flourishes and tada, complete. 

Look at the gorgeous flourish and die cut flourish, you can also see the pearls here too.

The greeting and my attempt at doodling.

What do you think? Is this your cup of tea? Did you see the card I was inspired by in Craft Stamper?

Thank you for visiting my blog, until next time Happy Crafting, Dawn x 

Wooden frame

Happy New Year to all my visitors!

It was last year, December I think, when I promised to show you something different and here it is...finally.

There is a story that goes with this, the shortened version is, my daughter likes 3D crafting but she's not really a crafter and one evening she was sat with me in my craft room whilst I was making something or other and she was pawing through my stash, she said things like ooh I want this on my birthday card, and this, and one of these and some of this etc (you get the idea) well if I put all the things she wanted on a card it would of looked....well I wouldn't of put it on here, it was scary to hear as I'm quite a minimal crafter most of the time.

So with this in mind and the fact shes very tactile I chose to make a frame instead.

Here is the finished item.

This is how it started out.

I used picket fence distress stain to paint the frame, like this.

I then added a gentle pink ink, (pink pirouette from Stampin' Up!) which you can't see very well on the photos, just on some areas.

I cut a layer of pink pirouette card and 16 whisper white squares, using a punch.

I inked around the edges of the layer and the squares, also with pink pirouette ink.

I cut pink butterflies and embellished them when I fixed them on.

I stamped images from the fabulous Flowering Flourishes stamp set onto the squares, I did this by putting all the squares lined up next to each other, stamping and then moving apart to make this design.

More flourishes and tiny butterflies.

A 3D flower with fine ribbon tails, pearl pins and leaves to embellish further.

And it had to have a sparkly 17 on it as it was her 17th birthday.

The square with the 17 is mounted on foam, where all the other squares are stuck flat with tombo glue.

Some super sparkly glitter to accent the flourishes.

A close up of the 3D flower, to show the depth. The flower sits slightly down, I stuck it with gel glue by the petals on one side, the pearl pins were stuck under the flower, I put something under the flower and pins to hold the weight whilst it was drying.

A close up of the sparkly 17, pink rhinestones!

You can see the pink ink here, its quite subtle.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this project, hiding it whilst it was drying was a little more tricky. I'm pleased to say my daughter loved it so that was a bonus, even though it didn't have all the things she wanted her card to have on it.

Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you like what you have seen here, please leave me a comment below so I know what you think.

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Dawn x

Thank you's

I have had a busy day making lots of Thank you cards, so I needed a quick and simple design or it would of taken me until next Christmas to make them, write them and give out.

Here is my quick card design.

These cards are 4x4 inch bases, I doodled around the edges and stamped my thank you greeting to the left. I punched two mittens using a punch and attached a small piece of white bakers twine to them, one end with double sided tape, the other with foam tape to add dimension. A sparkly rhinestone completes the look.

A close up of my not so good doodling, although I think I got the hang of it after these and another batch I made in a different colour.

When I lined them up to take a photo I must admit to being quite impressed with my efforts.

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Dawn x