About Me

My photo
Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
I have been crafting since May 2008, when in desperation to find an unusual birthday card for my Mum, I gave up looking in the shops and decided to have a go at making my own. I soon realised that crafting is addictive and I haven't brought a card since. In 2011 I completed my certificate in papercrafting as a result of the work I did as part of the course I started entering challenges on line and in magazines. I applied for design teams and also started making samples for Ooh La La Creations for their shows on Create and Craft. I have now completed my Diploma in professional crafting and most recently been runner up in the Papercrafter of the Year 2013 a competition run by Papercraft essentials magazine, I don't have a particular style I like to use elements from lots of styles and techniques, although I do love all things vintage. In 2014 I started to move more towards scrapbooking to take care of the huge family archive of photographs that were stored in my attic. I have continued cardmaking and Scrapbooking through 2015 and 2016 but have also become interested in off the page projects. I hope to be able focus on these in the future.

Monday 19 March 2012

OLL Design Team Thank You

Good Morning everyone. It's time for a new challenge over at Ooh La La Creations . We had some beautiful creations last time for our On The Move Challenge and well done to the winners. This time the Challenge is Thank You and here is my DT card.


This time I chose to work with one of the bonus images from the Passion for Fashion CD  I loved the subtle colours of this image and decided to go pastel. I used a backing paper from the bonus folder which looks like pink satin, and then mounted this on pale grey card stock. I tied a bow in light grey organza ribbon and fastened this around the panel before fixing the panel to the square 8x8 card blank. I also mounted the image and sentiment onto the same colour grey card stock. To add interest without adding too much fuss I cut some flourishes from the off cuts of the grey using a Marianne creatable die, and stuck these down to the panel before adding the image at an angle. The flowers were really easy to make and are just cut from white 80gsm paper using the Tim Holtz tattered florals die and then coloured in various shades of pink and and cool grey 2 promarkers before being layered and finished off with flat backed pearl centres. I finally added the sentiment to the top right hand corner of the card.

I am entering this card into the following challenges.
http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk - handmade flowers
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything goes

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Something Blue


When I was asked last week to make a wedding card, My initial question to the customer was do you know what colour theme the couple are having. When I received the answer dark blue this idea literally jumped into my head. It is really simple although the flowers took some time whilst I waited for the glue to dry. I really enjoyed making it and it gave me the perfect excuse to use two new dies I had recently purchased - the model T ford from Marriane creatables, I used the rear view so I could add the initials of the happy couple to the number plate, and my new x-cut nesting dies.

I cut a layer of white, one of dark blue and one of silver and then a smaller one of dark blue card using the nesting dies and layered them up. I then cut the car twice using white and dark blue card. I used a white gel pen to add the initials to the blue number plate area and then cut this out and mounted it using gel glue to the white number plate area. The flowers were made using a variety of punched and the larger sets of petals were coated in PVA and white glamour dust. The smaller sets were either left plain white or coloured dark blue. I used the dark blue ones with the addition of flat backed pearl centres as the centre of the larger flowers and the small white ones I added dark blue gems from my stash. I added the sentiment which I mounted and a strip of blue and white card and then popped a small heart charm into the flowers at the top left hand corner.


Finally I printed an insert using one from the Carnival of Colour CD from Ooh La La Creations. I added the initials of the bride and groom to the left hand side of the insert and a verse to the right hand side.


Now all that remains is for me to give it to the customer.

I am entering this card into the following challenges.
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.com - Anything goes
http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com  - charmed
http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com - say it with flowers

Liebster Award

I'd just like to say Thank you to Shirley of Shirley Rose Cards for passing on the Liebster blog award to me, and for the lovely comment she left on my blog when she passed it on.


The word Liebster comes from the German word meaning, beloved dearest or favourite, and is given to bloggers who have small followings (under 200) who I appreciate and who have motivated and inspired me. It also helps to spread knowledge and

To accept this award you need to
1. link back to the persons blog who gave it you, and thank them.
2. Post the award to your blog
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers who you appreciate and value
4. Leave a comment for them telling them you have given them the award.

So here are my five recipients (drum roll please whilst I struggle to open the envelope for dramatic effect.)

1. http://lechicandshabby.blogspot.com - a lady with a brand new blog who has done a great to motivate me over the past 14 years, and who has seen me through both good and bad times.

2. http://wicked-designs.blogspot.com/ - a lady who showed faith in my abilities by selecting my entry for her Design Team when I had no previous experience.

3.http://chillipip.blogspot.com/ - a member of the aforementioned DT who posts some gorgeous inspirational projects.

http://purple-crazy.blogspot.com/ - another member of the DT who again posts some really inspirational projects

5. http://craftylizscreations.blogspot.com/ - A lady who posts some gorgeous projects on her blog.

Thank you once again to Shirley for passing this award onto me.

Friday 9 March 2012

Getting ahead of myself.

I like to keep ahead of the game when it comes to making cards and this is certainly the case with this card. It is for Father's Day in June.

It all started when I saw the 'DAD' stamp from woodware in my local craft shop, my dad is a gardener and almost every card I make him has a gardening theme so this year I wanted to try something a bit different.
I started by painting a piece of thick card with cream acrylic paint and I also painted the tag. I used a heat gun to speed up the drying time ad then used Memento Cocoa ink to stamp the Dad panel. I used Ranger distress ink to stamp the flourishes around the edge of the tag and I didn't re-ink between stamping to get a slightly faded effect.  I also stamped the with love sentiment from Papermania's Book Print range of Urban stamps onto a scrap of cream card using dew drop brilliance copper ink. This stamps as a single sentiment so I cut between the letters and distressed the edges with a pair of scissors and Memento Cocoa ink to get a slightly raised edge and then covered the centre of each letter with glossy accents to get a tile effect. These were then put to one side to dry.

Whilst waiting for the tiles to dry I cut several different sized gears using the Tim Holtz die through the sizzix I used thick card which I then covered in copper ink and clear embossing powder and then heat embossed them. Whilst the first layer of embossing powder was still molten I added a layer of enchanted gold powder and heated them again, the small nuts were some shapes I had in my stash and these were heat embossed to get a rough surface and then coloured using a gold gilding pen.

The background papers are from the Touch of Steam Punk CD from Crafty Catz and they are actually one of the 8x8 inserts printed at full size and then resized to 6x6 and the two have been layered up. The balloon toper is also from the same CD. I added three buttons tied with twine to the top right hand corner, and the 8x8 insert inside the card to finish it off.


And there you have it a fathers day card for my dad and not a gardening reference in sight!

I am entering this card into the following challenges.

http://anythingchallenge.blogspot.com/ boyz to men
http://clearlyistamp.typepad.com/ - anything goes
http://catchthebugblog.blogspot.com - anything goes
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.com/ - anything goes
http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/ - vintage

Monday 5 March 2012

On The Move - OLL DT

Well it's Monday and that means it's a new challenge at Ooh La La Creations. Thank you to everyone who entered the last challenge and congratulations to the winners.

This week the subject is on the move and used images from the Watercolour Memories CD.


I have kept the design really simple this time (not easy for a girl who loves her diecuts and embellies) I printed the backing paper and the topper and mounted them onto dark blue card. I tied a bow in the silver metallic ribbon and wrapped this around the backing paper panel and then stuck the panel to a 6x6 card blank. I printed the sentiment from the computer and mounted this onto red and blue card before sticking to the ribbon . The topper was then added at an angle. The finishing touch was the bright red 'pearls' at the top right, well come on you didn't expect me to complete a card with no embellishments at all did you?

Saturday 3 March 2012

Mothers' Day with a punch

I have been asked by a friend to make a card for her to give her mum on mothers day. I know that the lady in question adores pink and just loves flowers so here is what I came up with.


I decided this card would fit the challenge for March over at Creative Connections which is a great community of people from all aspects of the crafting world. 

This design evolved out of the White on White card I made and posted about a few days ago. I used a pinflair peel off verse as the centre piece, mounting it onto a very pale ivory card and cutting round it I then used it to cut the aperture into a piece of plain pale ivory A5 card and to get the measurements to cut a rectangular aperture in an an A5 card blank. 

I used a pretty patterned pink paper form Papermania's Colour Capsule collection to line the inside of the card cutting a rectangular aperture and folding the edges of the paper around the aperture to get a neat edge. I closed the card and positioned the verse through the aperture to ensure it was central. 


I used a piece of acetate from some packaging to cover the rectangular aperture which I stuck to the front of the card using double sided tape.  The piece of plain ivory card that I had previously shaped was then embossed using a flowers and swirls embossing folder from cArtUs. It is only an A6 folder but after I had embossed the top half of the A4 piece I turned the card round to emboss the bottom half, matching the pattern up so there is no visible join line. 

Whilst I had the sizzix out I also cut and embossed 4 pieces of the ivory card using the Anja border die cut from the Marianne range, and I cut about 12 of the smallest flower on the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die from Ranger just using 100gsm copier paper.

Then the hard work started I cut the leaves using the x-cut punch and emboss ivy leaf die and the flowers using a die I have had in my stash for years and also the daisy shaped punch from a perfect pairs set from Tonic, which I treated myself to recently, and the butterflies were punched using an x-cut dimensions punch. I just used plain white copier paper in 80gsm. 

I then coloured the leaves and flowers using a selection of promarker pens - the advantage of using promarkers for this is that the colour goes all the way through the paper so there is no white left showing. I put an old envelope underneath to stop the ink going onto my table (more about that later). I also used a gilding pen to colour the Anja borders in gold. The gilding pen is on it's last legs and I had to dab the nib several times to get the ink to flow again using the old envelope. This left me with an envelope that had beautifully blended pinks and creams with flecks of gilding and it has now been punched into flowers for a birthday card for my sister-in-law, but I digress.

Now I had all the components for the front of the card I started by layering the Anja Lace borders down the left side of the card overlapping and intertwining the border in the centre, I then trimmed the remaining borders to fit at top and bottom. 

I made up the roses from the small flowers I had cut using the Tim Holtz die, I made up the daisies by interlocking two daisy shapes together and shaping the petals back before using an embossing ball tool to shape them further. I arranged these with the leaves and the tiny blossom shapes around the right side of the aperture and added the butterflies along the Left had border.

I hope my friend likes the card and that it makes her mum feel really special when she receives it on Mother's Day.

I have entered this card into the following Challenges 
http://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/ I didn't have the exact colours specified but I hope the ones I used are close enough



Thursday 1 March 2012

And Now for Something Completely Different

Regular readers will know that my passion is making cards, but here is my latest project to be finished and not an easel or stepper fold in sight.

I recently treated myself to the new Spectrum Noir pens colouring system including the tutorial DVD from Crafter's Companion. I needed somewhere to store my pens that was reasonably portable around the house - as I don't always craft in the same room depending on the light. Whilst on a recent shopping spree my husband spotted a drawer unit made from recycled card which fitted the bill perfectly. the only problem being it was terribly dull. Well not any more 5 days and a few coats of paint, and some decoupage later here it is.


This is the front view I painted the front of each drawer with cream acrylic paint giving it 2 coats. Once this was dry I sanded all the edges and applied Tim Holtz distress ink in Victorian Velvet I then stamped the image of the flowers across the front of each drawer before adding the stamped butterflies these were stamped using a stamp from the Papermania Book Print range and cut out and applied using a coat of PVA glue. Once the glue was dry I rubbed a gold ink pad along all the edges to give a faded gold effect.

The sides of the unit are a bit more elaborate. I again gave two coats of cream acrylic and sanded and distressed the edges using the Victorian Velvet, more stamped butterflies were added with the addition of a stamped bird.

The roses I cut from some free Country Diary papers I had in my stash, again the decoupage was coated in PVA and once this was dry more PVA was applied to the edges and gold leaf foil was added. When the glue had dried under the gold leaf I brushed the excess off using a stiff brush all the bits have been captured in a container and I will use these as gilding flakes on another project. I wanted a shabby chic look to the box and therefore was too precise with the gilding, well that's my excuse it was also the first time I had attempted gilding and I am fairly pleased with the results although I know where the imperfections are.

Finally the top of the box was treated to more of the same but using a lovely image of a fan from one of my Oh La La creations CDs.



The drawers now contain my new pens and I am just waiting for hubby to finish building the pine storage unit for my stash so the drawers can stand on top.

I am entering this project in the following challenges
http://paperplaychallenges.blogspot.com - something Old (the papers) something new (the gilding technique)
http://crazychallenge.blogspot.com - anything goes