CASED: Vertical Sticky Note Pad & Pen Holder

Earlier this month I went to a crafting Play Date held by the lady that runs the monthly Stampin Up class I go to, and we played with the new Peaceful Poppies suite. I was in a bit of a daze and only really did some stamping and die cutting whilst everyone else was making full cards. partly due to the fact that I'd forgotten to take card blanks with me and my watercolour pencils doh!

I bought a selection of the 6" x 6" papers from the collection to bring home to play with, and brought home the bits I stamped and cut and over the past week I've been playing with them to make cards.

I was browsing Pinterest looking for some ideas at the weekend and this lovely project popped up by Rachel Tessman of Stamp Your Art Out using the SU Peaceful Poppies papers, I decided to have a go at creating one. The first one didn't turn out so well because I did the measurements wrong and the resulting project was slightly narrower than it should be, luckily it still allowed the post it notes and pen to fit in so I used it anyway.

All the measurements and info can be found on Rachel's blog post for the Vertical Sticky Note Pad & Pen Holder and in the video below. I've ordered some fun mini pens in a variety of colours off Ebay for making more and some more post it note pads as well. These can be made in all colours and for lots of different occasions.

A point to note though, in the video Rachel uses sheets of card that are US sized 8½" X 11" and she gets both panels needed from her sheet. However if you are in the UK and buy your card stock from a UK SU demonstrator (or use any UK A4 card for your holders) your sheets will be A4 (8.3" × 11.7") so not long enough width ways for the job. You would need to use two sheets of card stock and cut it lengthways to get the same length that Rachel uses.

You can get round this by cutting your panels at 8.3" (which is almost 8¼) and for the back piece cut at 8" all the other measurements are the same. The amended measurements for UK A4 card stock are as follows: -

• Front Piece that forms the pocket and front of the holder: 5½” x 8.3" scored parallel to short end at 2¼” and 2¾” and scored parallel to long end on each side at ⅜″ and ⅞″
• Back Piece that forms the back and stand 3½″ x 8″ scored parallel to short end at ½″, 1½″ and 2½″

All the other measurements are the same, what you will end up with is holders that are approx 8¼" high instead of 8½".

As well as the holders I did make some cards this week using the stamped panels I made and papers I bought at the Play date.

This first set were really simple to make, I just cut a sheet of 6" x 6" Peaceful Poppies paper up and added the larger section to a card blank I made from Rich Razzleberry cardstock and stamped a simple sentiment on it.

The remaining piece I used to make a bookmark and trimmed it with some wool scraps, again a stamped sentiment and the finished bookmark is good to go. Both were very, very quick makes and perfect for when you have flagging mojo.

I stamped one of the poppy images several time, coloured with SU watercolour pencils, the top one is stamped direct to the card panel, I added a sentiment and matted the panel on to black and then a silver card base then added a few black iridescent gems to the centre.

The second card I stamped the leaves in water based dye ink and then used a water brush to pull the green out from the edges to colour the leaf. I stamped the other poppies on a separate piece of card, coloured them and then fussy cut them out.
I made a card blank from Old Olive card stock and added a mat of black card and I stuck the leaf panel to the top of both.

I then adhered the sentiment panel to the card and added the fussy cut poppies to the card, again adding some black gems to the centre. I really love this poppy collection, its so versatile, when I first saw the dies I thought I wouldn't want all of them, but now I've had a chance to use them I can see that I do, I'm looking forward to next months play date already and craft class this week :)

Bears, Bears and More Bears!

How are you today? Its been an interesting few months here at "All That I Am" towers and life is certainly being a lot more upbeat, I've dropped a jean size, discovered I like prawns, started making the back garden granddaughter friendly, spent more quality time with said 22 month old granddaughter and acquired 10 of the 12 new alcohol pearl inks by Tim Holtz and I'm smitten, more on them soon I promise! I've been spending lots of time getting healthier lately, more on that later, but the extra time spent walking and doing workouts has given me less time to craft, and crafting helps relax me and keep me sane, so I've been trying to balance things to make more time to craft and unwind and as a result I'm trying to set some time aside to craft at weekend.

My craft desk currently has some yupo rainbows on it and an assortment of bear themed projects and a few dinosaur affairs, I seem to be yo-yoing between dinosaur themed projects and bear themed projects this past few weeks and I'm loving it, although I do need to change my themes up a bit because I have a few female friends with upcoming birthdays that I have to make cards for, one is a crazy cat lady like me, so guess what her theme will be?

This weekend along side finishing the Easter wreath cards I posted recently, I also managed to finish 4 new baby cards for my box. I'm trying to get more use out of my stash and think of other ways to use dies, stamps and embossing folders and these baby cards are classic examples.

The 'cable' embossing folder came with some freebie Xmas stamps at the end of 2018 and the cute little bear is from a Christmas themed Stampin Up set called 'Cookie Cutter Christmas' that I acquired recently. I have the matching punch as well which makes making these little cuties a doddle! The set also makes gingerbread men, Rudolph, an eskimo and a Santa as well as the bear, the punch can also be used with another set of cute little halloween characters but I haven't been able to find them yet as they've been discontinued by Stampin Up sadly. The bears and the gingerbread men can be used for a few different themes and I've seen the Santa worked as a soldier and also a little leprechaun 😁

I have a few Stampin Up stamps and a couple of punches, I went to a class run by a lady who lives not far from me in June 2018, I resisted buying SU stuff at first, and I've been to a few classes since and have become a regular, its been a great way of meeting people who live local to me that love to craft and I've bought some SU inks and some of the stamp sets, I do find SU stuff a little expensive, but the quality is good and as long as I buy sets that I know I'll get a lot of use from its fine.

I admit most of the sets I've bought so far are cat themed or floral, big surprise there lol! In fact my next purchase will be the cat punch that goes with the 'Spooky Cat' set I got last year and the 'Nine Lives' set I got recently and hopefully they will release other cat sets to go with the punch in the future.

I joined the monthly Stamperette's club that Tracey runs, I spend around £15 a month and as well as my goodies, I get some little freebies, last month it was some butterfly papers that I turned in to this project, the colours in the papers are so vibrant.

I'm rather chuffed with my fussy cutting on the butterfly. I do like these floating pop cards, I first made some of them them in November last year and I've made them a few times using different themes, I think a birthday bear version is on the horizon, I sure have enough bears to make it happen 😁

Another bear card completed recently was for a challenge in a group I take part in on Facebook and is now in my box ready to send to a male recipient, I used a stamp and die set that I got free with a magazine last year and had never used, something else I'm endeavouring to do this year, play with things that I've got as free gifts but never created anything with! It's silly the number of things I liked and had to have but have never used!

This colouring on this card is the first time I've used my Copics to colour, I tried to create a fur like texture, not sure if I succeeded or not, but I'm really pleased with how this furry little chap turned out. I have 36 Copic Ciao's at the moment, they are very expensive but I've been buying a couple each month and Si has agreed to buy me 6 pens for every stone I lose as an incentive, gets my vote and I got my first lot of 6 last month. They do colour very evenly and blend like a dream, but I do need more practice, so I'm going to stamp some images and take my copic's when I go on holiday and do a little colouring in the evenings.

One of the other projects on my desk that need completing are these cute little bookmark bears, which are part of a bookmark project I'm making using Mama Elephant dies and stamps. So quick and easy to put together and I have the dog, bunny and cat dies to play with yet. The plan is to make some bookmark gifts for friends and family and to make some cats sets to give to the Cat's Protection to sell.

Finally before I go, I thought I'd share a quick health update... I have now lost 8.5kg since starting the Livewell programme on 4th Feb 2019, and this week my blood pressure is down to an average of 123/87 which the Doctor said was good, and I'm pretty damn pleased with the reduction I've achieved in just 2 months, a big difference from those earlier readings on the 4th and 5th of Feb!

My cholesterol levels were good, a reduction to 5 from 5.5 last year, all the other levels were fine save the triglyceride's which are just over the acceptable range at 2.1 but the doctor is happy that the level will come down by next year as I lose more weight. She was so happy with what I've achieved so far that she said I didn't need to go back for a follow up appointment, she has asked me to keep checking my blood pressure once a month and report back if it starts to increase, but for now I can proceed as before and continue to get thinner and healthier.

My positive progress is down to being active at least 30 minutes a day, eating healthier, I have 1,850 cals a day and I make sure that I burn that amount plus another 500 cals worth of calorie burn through exercise every day and its working. I have a lot more energy, I'm walking a lot faster without feeling like I can't breathe and I am a lot happier in myself, and because my blood pressure has come down so much, I'm now allowed to take part in the Livewell exercise sessions, its taken a few months to get there but I am and can't wait to get started 😁

Happy Easter Wreath Template Cards

These 6" x 6" cards are not traditional 'Easter' colours I know, but I started playing with some Altenew ink cubes and random Altenew stamps just making wreath's late on Friday night when I couldn't sleep not really intending to make any particular kind of card and these cards kind of evolved from that play.

When I began I was going to make some simple one layer cards, but when I finished stamping the green wreath I managed somehow to get a paper cut and got blood on the edge of the card. I used my sand eraser and managed to sand so much I ripped the card, swear words drifted in to the late night air and I drummed the table wondering how to fix the problem. Cutting the offending mess off seemed like a plan, so I reached for a circle die that would go over the wreath.

Once I'd done that, I spotted a pile of bunny die cuts on my other desk and a stamp set recently bought but not yet used which had a Happy Easter sentiment and my sleep deprived brain decided that I could make some Easter cards.

The gingham backing papers were printed off and I used the edge of the square that I die cut the scalloped circle from as a mat, waste not want not huh? The leaves are from an Altenew set called "Happy Dream" and the small star like flowers from another Altenew Set called "Crafty Friends". The large flower is from a DoCrafts Creativity A6 stamps set called "Trad Floral".

I've started taking a look at stamp sets in my stash and finding the small stamps that don't get much use and using them to create wreaths. On their own small and tiny stamps can leave you with a "how do I use these little monkeys?" kind of feeling, but take them and combine them with other small stamps to make a wreath and they come in to their own and you can create any kind of wreath for any kind of occasion.

Something I discovered whilst stamping these backgrounds, it should have been a no brainer and is certainly something I will do moving forward when making wreath backgrounds. It's something very simple really and I don't know why I didn't twig to it before now, but to get a better result, start your design using your lightest colour ink first, add the mid tones, then stamp the darkest colours on top, and the wreath builds up with more perspective.

I stamped the sentiment using Versafine Clair ink in "Nocturne" and once I'd layered the 4 cards up, all that was left to do was add some 'Dandelion Yellow' Nuvo Crystal Drops to the centres of all the flowers, save for those that are directly under the Happy Easter sentiment, and add the little bunny die cuts and I had 4 cards ready to send. 😀

3 Sisters for Halloween

You know yesterday I posted about not being able to finish projects, well guess what? Despite having a pile of unfinished projects to finish, my brain had a bright idea to make a set of Halloween cards, that has morphed in to making more of them with different sentiments and colour ways and from there I fished out a santa & sleigh silouette die and I'm going to make a set of Xmas cards using xmas colours and sentiments.

I got the dies a while back and hadn't gotten around to using them (nothing new there lol), whilst I was sorting out some things I came across the unused dies and thought it would be good to make use of them with Halloween not being far away now YAY! I sat for a while wondering what to do with them, I new I wanted a bright background utilising distress inks, but I wasn't sure what to do beyond that. I have a couple of small drawers with embossing folders in, I started to look for suitable Halloween style embossing folders and guess what? Tim Holtz aside - which I didn't want to use for this project - I discovered that I had absolutely NO halloween folders, tons and tons of Xmas and floral affairs but no halloween!

Not to be put off I looked again and found several tree embossing folders, the one I chose is by Darice called 'Tree Trunks', it was still in its packaging and had never been used! I wanted to have a moon in the background, but wasn't sure how, I didn't have any circle stencils large enough, so I cut a circle free hand from a Post It note. I inked Mustard Seed Distress Ink on 3 pieces of card if different places, then I popped my Post It Mask on the yellow and inked around with Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink.  I added some Wilted Violet Distress Ink to the bottom layer and was pleased with how it looked, I gave each panel a spritz with water and blotted it off and whilst still damp I ran each piece through the Big Shot in the embossing folder.

The sentiments I used are from two sets the 'Happy Halloween' sentiment is from a Craftwork Cards set called 'Spooky' and the other two are from a My Favorite Things set called 'Witch Way Is the Candy?'. I stamped in Versamark and used WOW! 'Opaque Bright White Super Fine' embossing powder.

Of the 3 cards I like this one best, not sure why, although I put the wrong sentiment on it, this one was meant to go on the card with the witch holding the raven lol! I was going to put dimensionals behind the witches but it created too much shadow which made the focal points lose their clarity, so I glued the images to the card front after first giving the 'moons' a covering with Nuvo Aqua Flow Glitter Gloss pen to add some shimmer.

The best thing is I now have 3 cards for my box and all of them were started today and FINISHED today and I have ideas for making other cards using the same techniques. I have a couple of Flying Witch dies and a Halloween village style die, so I'm going to have a play with them tomorrow, I'm already working out in my head what colours to use. I may make a few birthday cards in this style as well, not everyone likes flowers and cute cats after all 🐱

The Crazy Cat Lady Makes A Purrmaid

I finally finished this card last night and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I created the topper back in January and its been sitting in my 'Maybe Someday' box ever since because I couldn't decide what to do with it. Yesterday inspiration hit me and I decided to turn it in to a circular easel card.

I got the 'Purrmaid' die, at least that's what I call it, off Ebay, I've done lots of searches and cannot find it as a branded die, I have seen graphics of a similar style but never any dies. The crazy cat lady in me fell in love with it when she saw it and couldn't resist. The die itself is rather large at 12.5cm wide by 10cm high so it makes for a rather substantial piece for a card. The die removes all the pieces in the tail scales and fins, so I cut it twice and inlaid pieces of Tonic Craft Perfect 'Midnight Topaz' Glitter Card in the spaces.

I cut the whole piece from a piece of black card stock and then used a set of Arteza Metallic Markers to colour the greenery, tail and details on the cats face. I mounted the inlaid and coloured image on to a circle of water colour card, which I'd first inked with Mermaid Lagoon and Salty Ocean Distress Oxide Inks and spritzed with water to give the tiny bubbles effect.

Originally as you can see on the photo of the topper itself, I mounted that panel on a frame of gold metallic card but when I came to put the card together last night I decided the card worked better without the gold, so I removed the piece from the back.

I cut the base for the card from a sheet of 'Pacific' A4 Centura Pearl card and used another sheet to cut a circle the same size as the base to add the topper to and a smaller circle for the stopper. After cutting all the pieces I embossed them with an A4 Sizzix embossing folder by Debi Potter called "Happy Texture", it looked a little like the greenery on the card so I thought it would be a nice finish.

The sentiment is from a Tonic die and stamp set called "Cat's Whiskers", I used Tonic Clear Embossing Ink and Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Embossing Powder in "Brilliant Sparkle Blue Zircon" to echo the glitter on the purrmaid tail for the sentiment. I love the way this card turned out in the end, and its reasons like this that I have my Maybe Someday box, I can play when I don't have time to do much else and save it for another time and if I need a bit of inspiration for finishing a project, I have a look in the box and 90% of the time come away with just the right thing to finish the project.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks here, the hot weather made it difficult to do very much in the craft room, so I've been getting lots done since it cooled off a couple of days ago, but apparently the temperatures are going to climb again very soon. Tomorrow we're off to collect our new car tomorrow, the bathroom is almost finished, just the carpet and the finishing touches to do now and we're getting ready for my 14 year old niece to come and stay for a week very soon. I'm looking forward to her visit very much, she's asked me to show her how to use Distress Inks and we're going to be making a Tim Holtz Village Mansion together and we have lots of places to visit  with her ear marked.

Purple Hi-Top Boots Card

I made this card for my niece for her 14th birthday, hard to believe that she is growing so fast, it doesn't seem but a moment since I held her in my arms the day she was born, time goes by so very quickly!

My niece isn't a pink girlie, girl so pink, lipstick and tu-tu frills for a card for her would go down like a lead balloon, she's what would have been called a Tom Boy in my day, but I'm not sure that's politically correct these days. She loves Batman, anime, bacon, chocolate, and the colour purple!

I like to think she gets the love of anime from me, and I may have helped influence her love of purple along with her Mum. I watch her and see a few other things that are me in her, she plays Skyrim like her auntie does, we like some of the same music and has my sense of humour, watch out world lol!

I was a bit of a Tom Boy when I was younger and I'm not a huge fan of pinks and princess colours. Still today, I'm more comfortable in jeans, t-shirt and a pair of hi-tops than skirts, dresses and high-heels. When I was my nieces age, I wore hi-tops all the time, but back then they were called baseball boots and I had several pairs in nice bright colours. So when I saw the My Favorite Things 'All Star High Tops Die-namics' die I couldn't resist it, partly nostalgia and partly forming an idea for my nieces card. Although I think it would work equally well for a card for a teenage boy if you change the colours and background to something more grungy or gamey, although that would work for girls as well in my world.

The die is fabulous, but putting those eyelets in can be a little fiddly, in the end I hit on the idea of using my pokey tool as a positioner. First dab some glue on the back of your hand, skeewer the eyelet on your pokey tool or something that is thin enough to go through the eyelet hole. Add a dab of glue then holding the boot piece with one hand, position the eyelet around the hole using the pokey tool and press down.

I was amazed at how quickly I got through the job once I'd hit on that method of adding the eyelets, the rest of the pieces layered together very quickly. I did try to use some thread to make laces but I couldn't get it through the holes in the boot without it fraying and looking messy.

I made this one a an easel card using black card and used the same purple glitter card I cut the boots from from some of the mats and layers. I cut several silver stars and slightly larger stars out of black card to mat the silver stars on to and used them as simple embellishments for the card.

The happy birthday sentiment is cut using a Sue Wilson 'Scripted Happy Birthday' die from the same 'Nebula Purple' Tonic Studios Craft Perfect Glitter Card that I used for the mats and layers and boots. I love Tonic glitter card, it die cuts like a dream, it doesn't shed its glitter like some types of card and the range of colours are so rich and lush! I'm delighted to say that my neice loved her card, it always makes me smile when I make something that makes someone else happy, it makes it all worthwhile.

Entering A World of Mixed Emotion Media

Hey lovely blog people :) today I'm posting something a little different, I dabbled with mixed media in a way a couple of years ago when I attempted to start an art journal. I bought a lot of supplies, had a go, but despite getting enthusiastic it went nowhere.

I tried to do two more journal pages after the one in the article linked above and they were unsuccessful, so the supplies gathered dust. In a way it was like when I first tried card making all those years ago, I tried, it didn't work, so I gave up!

Then recently the lovely Jennifer Kray showed me a couple of her mixed media projects and I was in awe. Jen took a cardboard Bisto pot and turned it in to a stunning floral work of art.

We had a conversation, it went something like Me: your project is stunning, but I can't do that because I'm not good with mixed media. Jen: I disagree, just go for it! She encouraged me to have a go, pointing out in a nutshell that everything is art and it doesn't matter what others think, its the fun you get out of it whilst you create, okay I'm paraphrasing but that's what it boils down to. So I found a tin and a pot of gesso and then I chickened out again and the tin loitered in my room glareing at me every now and again daring me to touch it.

Earlier this week Jen posted another mixed media project, this time a card that she'd created for the launch of the new Nuvo Diamond ink cubes and it took me back to France 2 years ago.  I was right back in the Musée des Impressionnismes at Giverny, and fondly remembering standing in Monet's studio and weeping like a baby with joy, yes one creation triggered all those memories and feelings!

Jen's work was stunning but I was still convinced that I couldn't do mixed media. Jen explained what she did to create the card and it seemed so easy, not much different to creating some of the backgrounds I create for cards. Yeah those things that I'm getting rather good at now, because I found my papercrafting feet and kept practicing how to walk! I wound up, with Jen's encouragement thinking that maybe I could do mixed media, so I dug out the tin and the gesso and I started playing.

I painted the tin with gesso, then covered it with angel hair paper before painting it with gold starlight paint. At that point the ideas flew out the window, I couldn't and still can't decide on whether I want a steampunk, bee or botanical theme for my up-cycled tin, so that project is on pause. It would have been easy to pack it all away and forget about it, but I decided to check one of the boxes under the bed to see what paints and things I had. In that box I found a little decopatch cat I'd bought to decorate and a pack of six 5" x 7" canvas boards I'd bought from The Works for about £2 when I was going to have a go at mixed media a while back.

So instead of giving up and whilst I wait for the muse to hit me for the tin, I decided to give the cat and one of the canvas boards a coat of gesso. More on the cat in the future, but for now, I'll concentrate on the board, because I now have a finished project under my belt, okay it isn't as grand as some of the creations that you can marvel at on Youtube and on an array of mixed media blogs out there, but it is created by me and I finished it whooo hooo!

I must admit that where the project went is not where I expected it to go and there has been a lot of covering up mistakes throughout the process. Step one, I added gesso, all good, then I added some paper strips and put mod podge over the top, again all good. I added some aqua flow pens and the lovely olde world lavender bottle image completely disappeared! So I painted over the papers with pearlised acrylic paint and added patches of metallic gelatos in pinks and purples, I then randomly stamped a Stampendous script stamp over the paint in Jet Black Archival Ink, although on the finished project its barely noticable, you can see it more on the photo below.

I wanted to give the canvas some texture but the only texture paste I had in was Ranger Transparent Texture Paste which dries clear, I added the texture paste you can see it in the picture above, it goes on white but dries clear. Once it was all dry I used my finger to add some Pebeo Gilding Wax in 'Empire Gold' and added some more gelato in darker purple on the edges of the canvas.

I checked my bits box and realised that I'm not really that well kitted out for mixed media, I haven't got lots of cogs, wheels, bits of jewellery or any of the other things in the stunning designs I've seen created. So I took a step back and BAM my Sizzix Tim Holtz Bigz dies hit my eye and I decided that the wish sentiment would be perfect. So I found some scrap packaging card I'd saved and die cut the sentiment out 3 times, glued the layers on top of each other and painted the whole thing with Black Sparkle Pen, then added a thicker coat of the gilding wax on top. The flowers are also Tim Holtz Bigz dies, but I made these almost 2 years ago and they'd been sat in a box with some others waiting for the right project to come along.

The leaves were made around the same time as the tattered flowers and sat in the same box, so when I opened it up I guess I did find some treasure, but the paper kind. The butterfly I got from The Range a while back in an assorted pack and it felt right for this project, so it got glued on along with the flowers and leaves.  After seeing so many stunning mixed media creations posted by highly talented and brilliant people like Jennifer I feel pretty nervous putting this project out there, but its my first and I actually rather like it!

It looks NOTHING at all like it did in my head when I began the project, but I do like the colours and the textures. The most important thing is I did it, I started a project and finished it, and I learnt things about myself. I also learnt that mixed media is VERY forgiving, and I discovered that I have lots of paints and other items in my stash already and the projects I've done over the past few days have encouraged me to use those items and other stamps and dies for the first time.

Now if I can just discover the difference between modelling paste and texture paste and figure out if I need soft gel medium and which glue is best for mixed media projects I think I can learn to embrace this new creative venture. So if any of you have tips on books or sites to find out more please leave me a comment. I've acquired some larger canvases that Si got to explore oil painting but never did so he's given them to me to give me more chances to create a masterpiece lol! More from me soon, I'm off out to enjoy a rare day of sunshine now, take care and thanks for stopping by :)

For the Love of Pets: Kitties & Bunnies

I'm on day 7 of no spending this month and day 9 if you add the last 2 days of Feb, and I'm loving finding treasure of all kinds in my stash, thank you to all of you who commented on my Miserly March post and were so supportive, it means an awful lot to have the love and support of such a super talented bunch of lovely people. I'd like to give a special shout out to Shabneez of Happy Hijaabi's Papercraft Creations for her kindly nominating me for an Altenew giveaway such a lovely surprise 💖💋.

This morning I completed a couple of cards using some digital images from the 'Lovely Jessica Collection' a free download back in January from Making Cards Magazine, you have to sign up to get the downloads but its so worth it, each month you get a email newsletter with a link to something to download, usually additional backing papers to go with the cover gift but sometimes something different. MCM is now the only magazine I subscribe to monthly, their free papers and downloads are brilliant and I can always find a use for the free gifts.

The backing papers on both my cards are from the collection, and they work fabulously together. I had to play with the images in Corel PaintShop Pro x8, I captured the image I wanted to play with and saved it as a jpg file.

I then took the jpg into the paint program and removed the surrounding images and resized it for my card and then printed it off, finally die-cutting it out with the largest die from my Wonky Nesting Ovals die set from Craft Stash.

I used another die from the set to cut an oval for the sentiment and the sentiments for both todays cards come from the "New Best Friend" stamp set from 'My Favorite Things'. I'll be using the actually images soon from the set, they are soooo cute, I'm going to make some cards for the craft fair in May for people to send when someone they know gets a new furry friend 😸 I used a leaf and the flower dies from a Crafters Companion set from their 'Floral Delight' Collection the die set is called "In Bloom".

I decided to make these cards a little bit special by adding a surprise inside in the form of a bookmark, I've done the same thing before in September 2017 using some cute 'Barry the Book Owl' images from Making Cards Magazine. I detailed how I did it in that post so I won't repeat myself, but you can follow the link if you're curious.

The bookmarks are super quick to make, and these images were just the right size. There's a cool bit of upcycling in these cards as well, I cut the ribbons off tops I buy and save them in a jar and use them for adding to bookmarks and for gift tags.

I think a bookmark card is the perfect accompaniment to a book gift voucher and its something to keep once the event the recipient has been given the card for is over. I've found lots of images for making more for young and old, I'm also going to make some with stamped images and attach the bookmarks to the front of the card like a topper. 

Before I go I thought I'd share a tip and I know this will be old news to most of you, but for anyone that is new to the world of alcohol markers and card making I thought I'd share... You can use  alcohol markers to colour sticky gem stones to match your project. Whilst working on these cards this morning I found the perfect gem for centre of the flowers for the pink version of the card, but I didn't have them in red. So I used one of my red Nuvo Alcohol Marker pens to change the pink to red et voila, the flowers got red gem stone centres!

I have clear gems in my stash just for this purpose, you can also use the markers to colour white ribbon and lace so it matches your project with your pens. I always colour my gems off the card on the acetate backing, that way you won't accidentally catch the card or paper you're working on, this I learnt from experience. Once you've coloured the gems set them aside for 5-10 minutes so that the ink dries totally, then attach the gems to your project as you normally would. Clear gems are better but if you are going for a similar tone pink to red, yellow to orange, light blue to dark blue etc. then any colour works.

Eclipse Cards A New Obsession

I hope you're staying in a keeping safe and warm if you're in the UK and gripped by the current winter weather from the 'Beast from the East'? It's currently -3 here, this time yesterday it was -5 so its warming up a little. the bad weather is set to stay for another few days according to the weathermen so its looking like this weeks Young Roboteers session will be cancelled, so I'm going to have some extra crafting time this weekend, which is a good thing, although I have to tidy the room first.

How does it get so messy every time I work on a project? I think its the craft room pixies, they come into the room when I'm not looking and throw everything everywhere, and they hide things, usually the exact stamp or die that I NEED to finish a project which causes chaos when you upturn the room trying to find the missing item, least that's my story and I'm sticking to it lol!

I thought I'd share a coupel of cards from my new found obsession today, which  all started a couple of weeks ago when one of the ladies in my favourite craft group posted a card she'd made using the eclipse technique. Suffice to say almost all of us that are members of the group have now a) become eclipsaholics, and b) invested in a 5cm Alphabet die set lol! I already have a couple of die sets, but they were too small and too thin for this technique, so I picked up a set from China via Ebay.

Not wanting to not be able to start until the full alphabet set arrived, I used the only die that I did have to hand, a HUGS set that was again from China and came inside a double letterbox style frame, the letters are 3cm tall and 2cm wide, the die cuts all 4 letters at once so you don't have to worry about spacing them out, its fabulous for making quick eclipse cards, I've used it to make a couple of quick cards already. For this first rabbit card above, I used an image from a free set of Woodland Animals that Making Cards Magazine provided last year. The images are so cute and they make lovely simple cards.

The rabbits and teddies above were in a free printed papers booklet with an issue of Making Cards last year, when I posted these photos on my facebook page I got lots of lovely comments which I was pleased to receive, but I did feel a little guilty because all I did was use a couple of dies and the toppers and added a bit of ribbon, its the gorgoeus images from making cards that make these cards look so lovely. Of all the card making magazines I much prefer the free papers and downloads that making cards give the readers, moe on that in another post soon.

Just before I finished writing this post my dies arrived from China, so I couldn't resist making another couple of quick cards, I had a few problems lining up the loose letters, but I managed it sort of. I've since thanks to a tip from a crafting lady bought a t-square ruler, waiting for it to arrive from China, so eclipse cards are on hold until it arrives.

I made my own card blank again using the Tonic 'Victorian Frame Layering Die Set', the image was a free paper download from Hunkydory from the 'Shimmering Watercolours Collection'. Note you have to be a member of the club to be able to download the papers, its free to join and you get lots of other benefits. I've seen some fabulous examples of eclipse cards in groups that I belong to on Facebook and on Pinterest, so I'm fueled with lots of ideas and as soon as my t-square arrives I'll be making lots more eclipse cards. Time to go an appease the craft room pixies now, I also need to bake something nice for the weekend, I can't decide on Red Velvet cake or Chocolate Orange Muffins, whatever it is I better do it soon or it'll never get done! Until next time, stay safe and warm and enjoy your crafting :)

Colourful Monsters

Hi everyone, outside the window its bright blue skies and sunshine, but go outside and its blinking freezing, that said I noticed more of the Spring bulbs are pushing their way through the cold, damp soil which must mean that Spring is in sight? Think I'll dig out some Spring and Easter stamps and dies and have a see if I can create something that will encourage the Spring along in the house.

I posted the other day about having a day off and spending it mostly crafting, I went a little nuts printing off things from CD's to use after Si installed a new DVD drive for me. The old one gave up the ghost and refused to even open anymore, apparently the bearings had worn out that allowed the drawer to open. The shiny new one means I can print things off again with a relish.

I have lots of CD's with images for toppers and backing papers, I've been using papers I print off to make cards for a while now, and I love the fact that if the images are not the right size or colour I can take them into Paintshop Pro and tweak them to get the colours I want.

These two cards are a perfect example, the purple distressed background was a free download - and I can't remember from where! - I decided that I wanted to make the same card but using the different monster toppers in colours to compliment both, but the background paper came only in the purple variant.

So I took the image in to my paint program and tweaked the colour, hue and intensity and shifted the colours over from the warm (red/orange/purple) side of the spectrum to the cool (blue/green/white) spectrum, it worked perfectly and looks almost like it was made to match in the beginning.

The monster toppers are from a "Making Cards for Boys" CD that came free with Making Cards Magazine in March 2017, it has over 120 papers (an assortment of backing papers and toppers) and includes the lovely dinosaur set that came free with the magazine last year. Again I made my own card blanks for these two cards, I can't believe I'd not done this before, I've made stepper and easel card bases so its amazing that I didn't, I really have to stop thinking that things are too complicated because each time I try something new, I realise its not as hard as I think it is!

To create these card blanks I used Lavender and Xmas Green centura pearl card stocks and a die from the Tonic Studios Bowscale die set. I cut the toppers and sentiment circles using the Creative Dies Plus Wonky Stitches Nesting Circles Die Set and backing it with a slightly larger circle cut from a plain circle in the same colour centura pearl that I'd used for the card base.

I'm trying harder this year to make more cards that can be given to male recepients, I find when I create without an intent or project in mind that I gravitate towards making cards for female recipients. So when I enter a challenge or I create a random card I'm going to try putting a male slant on the challenge or making cards that can be given to either a male or female recipient.

Altenew Build A Flower - Carnation

Hello out there in blogland, I hope you're all well and the crafters amongst you have been finding time to create and play? We had a fun filled weekend of teaching youngsters about robot making, visiting my adorable neice and nephews and I also managed to fit in some crafting and I'm full of ideas for some other projects that I've made a start on.

I've been waiting to get my hands on the Carnation Build-A-Flower set by Altenew since I first heard it was being released back in January, it took me a while to get hold of it, but when I did I began the process of making lots of flowers and leaves in a variety of colourways. I've used shades of Altenew inks for all the carnations that I've stamped so far, I love Altenew inks because they smooth out over as they dry making the colours more even. I have a very soft spot for carnations because they are my birth flower and because it was another close relative of the Caryophyllaceae (Dianthus) family the Clove Pink that first got my interested in flowers which led to a passion for herbs.

When I was about 6 my Nanna had a vase of clove pinks on her windowsill when I went to visit her, the scent was so heavenly I kept going to smell them, I was smitten, so much so I recall asking my Nanna if I could have the pretty flowers and she wrapped them in paper for me when I was going home. I kept them on my windowsill in my bedroom for as long as they lasted and after first finding out what they were, I then started to find out more about the plants that grew locally, I got interested in growing things and identifying flowers and my love of plants blossomed from then. Now everytime I smell the distinctive perfume of a clove pink or a carnation, it takes me back to my childhood and brings back lovely memories of my Nanna.

The Altenew carnations measure almost 7cm across and 5cm high, the die does leave a white border around the edge of the flower, but I've been using the lightest of the 3 colours of ink I stamp each flower with with a blending foam and colouring the white which I think makes the flower look a little more realistic.

If you have a stamping platform or a MISTI or similar stamping tool its easy to make lots of flowers at once. I cut pieces of card to just bigger than the die cut image will be and then stamp all the bases, switch to the next layer and repeat until all the flowers are complete. I've made lots of flowers and leaves so that I can create a variety of cards, the top card I made my own card blank using the largest die from the Tonic Studios 'Victorian Frame Layering Die Set'. The technique for doing this is so easy, and despite having seen other people do it, I've only recently started doing it myself.

My second card is a simple A6 card blank, layered with some pink card and a white piece that I ran through an embossing folder. I added a die cut white panel that I stamped with one of the sentiments that come with the Carnation set and added some Pink Champagne Nuvo Glitter Drops to finish off the design. I have more cards planned using the carnations, I want to make add some of the other flowers from other Altenew sets and make some floral wreath cards on homemade shaped card blanks. I can paper garden with this colourful and bright 'flowers' whilst I wait for Spring to come along. I wish that the flowers had the same heady fragrance as the real flowers, I'm going to having a play with fragrance oil and see if I can imbue any scent to the die cut flowers without messing up the ink. I'll keep you posted!

Bee Happy Card

It's been another crazy hectic week, but its got round to the weekend and this morning when I should have been cleaning I had an idea and this is the resulting card!

I also sorted out my cardstock now, everything is all in one place, well at least all the A4 stuff is, I couldn't believe how much watercolour card, assorted colours of centura pearl etc I have! At least its easier to get to now and I now know just what I have, I don't need to buy any white card, acetate or vellum for a very long while as well lol! Despite being busy by day, I've managed to pack in a fair bit of crafting this week by night.

Thanks to the lovely ladies on a fab group I belong to over on Facebook, I've become addicted to making Eclipse Cards and this week I got a proper set of alphabet dies, more on those in a post very soon. Back to my Bee Happy card, sadly the lighting in my room is not so brilliant so the gold frame and sentiment aren't standing out as well as I would have liked, but it really does shine :)

I actually made the bee in May last year when I got the die from Hobbycraft its from the Intricut range, I cut it out in black card and then added yellow card behind the body and vellum behind the wings that I'd coated with some clear sparkle pen. The bee sat in my maybe someday box waiting for the right project to come along and although I've nearly used it on a couple of occassions, none of the projects were right, until this morning.

I bought the Sizzix hexagon framelit dies in the 2017 January sales and until today I hadnt used them, this whole card started with the backing paper catching my eye. I'd printed some papers off to use and put them to one side and whilst sorting the craft room out yesterday I came across them again. This one is called Honeycomb and if you're a DoCrafts member you can download it here, if you're not a member, its free to join and there are lots of papers to download and lots of inspiration on the site.

This card is the first time I've made a card blank from 2 pieces of card where I've 'hinged' the back piece with a fold and glued the top piece to the fold to make the card blank, a technique that I learned from the lovely Jennifer Mcguire :) I was so chuffed with how easy it was, I can see me making lots of cards like this in the future, in fact I already have one sketched out in my head for some flowers I've just stamped and cut out.

The flowers and greenery on this card were cut using a Crafters Companion Die'sire set called 'Lace Bloom' and I inked through the die with 'Wild Honey' Distress Ink and finished them off with a small golden orange pearl that I picked up at The Range today. They're from the 'Simply Creative' range, they are 6mm in diameter and have 7 colours in the pack and a total of 372 pearls in the pack. They have larger and smaller sizes as well and are just £1 a pack, I didn't go for them though, I went for the Dovecraft ' Bee Happy' die set for the sentiment for the card, I picked up some lovely pink and blue buttons to add to some baby cards I have planned.

This card was really quick to put together once I'd decided what I wanted to do, I've decided I need to stop over thinking what I'm doing and just go for it, sometimes I spend so much time thinking about what I'm going to make and looking at Pinterest for ideas that my craft time gets eaten and I have nothing to show for it. It's also time to start using things from my stash and bits box and stop stock piling lol! That's all for now, I need to put crafting things away and have some chill time with the hubby, we have a nice chilled weekend planned after tomorrow, the sun is apparently going to shine, I hope it shines on you to and you have a lovely weekend!

Crazy Cat Lady Strikes Again

Hello to you and thanks for stopping by, its been a bit manic here as I rewrite and prepare for a course on robots that I'm teaching along with my husband to a group of children starting next month, so I haven't had much crafting time but this last few days I've put paid to that and I've been making lots of cards thanks to a challenge that was set up on a lovely, friendly card making group "Victoria's Crafty Friends" I belong to on Facebook headed up by the lovely Victoria Dalziel, one of the designers for Tonic Studios. I've made some lovely crafting friends via the group who are amazingly talented, supportive and beautiful souls. You can share your latest project, have a moan and be inspired all in one place, if you're not a member then I'd recommend that you join.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I'm a crazy cat lady in training and that I like to support my local Cats Protection by making cards that I can then give to them to make some money to help care for the cats. I make all different kinds of cards for them, but this year I thought I'd focus on cat themed cards. During a recent tidy and organise of my craft room and stash, I managed to fill an entire box with cat dies, stamps, stencils and embossing folders. Seeing how many cat craft products I have (and some unused!) has made me determined to use them all during the course of the year for cards for the CP. There's an added incentive this year as well I've been told that I can sell my cards at Maker Faire Derby in October, so if I get my skates on I could make some extra crafting pennies to boot!

 This batch of cards in the above photo turned out nothing like my initial idea, initially I was going to arrange 4 of the toppers on a 6" x 6" card blank each with a cat in the centre. I tried lots of combinations, paper backgrounds, embossing folders etc, but nothing gelled, then I decided to stamp a suitable kitty sentiment in the middle of each "stamp". I already knew that I wanted to include my little cats die cuts by Impression Obsession on the project and I'd already cut them in scraps of black card stock.  No matter what I did I couldn't get the idea for the card background to gel, so I started going through my cat stencils and embossing folders and found my Hunkydory Perfect Paw Print Mask that I'd bought from Craft Stash during their December 2017 Advent deal.

It didn't take much to connect the dots once I had the mask in my hand, and I picked out a selection of Distress Inks that co-ordinated with the papers in the centre of the stamps, and I set to taping down the mask and inking the cards with my chosen Distress Ink colours and several hours later I had 7 sets of 6 4" x 4" cards, each set contains 1 of each of the sentiments with a cat silhouette.
When I make more soon I'm going to use lighter colours of paper for the 'stamp' centres as in hindsight the black sentiment seems to get lost on the darker coloured papers. But I do like the way these cards turned out, it was rather relaxing inking and watching the latest videos from 2018 Creativation in the background. So many new goodies to come, I've already ordered the 3 batch of Distress Oxides, which I'm very excited about and the Distress Resist Spray.

There's also a whole bevy of beauties in the form of craft tools and mediums by Tonic Studios in their Nuvo range to come, including shimmer sprays, new colours in aqua pens and ink pads as well as shimmer powders and brushes. My craft stash is starting to have a decidedly Nuvo look to it, glitters, glues, embellishment mousse, colouring pens and so much more. Tonic excel at tools like guillotines and of course the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform which has been a game changer for me since I acquired mine last year, no more stamping errors or ruined projects when I mess up, because with the stamping platform I never do! I'm looking forward to using more of the Nuvo range in 2018, it will be interesting to compare the Nuvo products with some of their competitors like Cosmic Shimmer.

That's all from me for now, I'll be back with some more kitty cards very soon, I now seem to be on a roll and have lots of ideas as well as products I want to try out so watch this space. Thanks again for stopping by, I really appreciate it and your comments and support, much love to you all and happy crafting :)

Step Into An Enchanted Wood

Back in June I became aware a company called Craftwork Cards thanks to the massively talented and creative wonder of a woman Jennifer Kray, she designs for CWC and Tonic Studios, if you haven't checked out her blog I urge you to do so, I checked out the wealth of projects made with CWC products and I fell in love with the 'Enchanted Wood', 'Hedgerow', 'Pampered Pets' and 'Potting shed' designs to name a few. Suffice to say, I acquired a couple of the pads, but some of them are no longer available I found to my chagrin, I missed the chance to play with the Botanica collection sadly.

The first collection to turn up was the 'Enchanted Wood' paper pad and I got a set of the toppers off Ebay of all places, as the Enchanted Wood set is no longer available on the CWC website. The designs that resonate with me most are the ones that appeal to my inner gardening, herb and wild flower loving crazy cat lady, so naturally I wanted to play with these beautiful papers. I was so happy to raid my 'Maybe Someday' box for bits of water colour paper scraps I've kept that were perfect for die cutting ferns to echo the ferns on the papers.

The papers are fabulous, I've since bought the 'Winter Woodland', 'Pampered Pets' and the 'Festive' USB stick which is cram full of lovely papers and toppers, so far I've drafted out a couple of cards that need to be put together mostly for Christmas, I just need to get round to finishing them.

Both the cards I made in the photo above use the 'Enchanted Wood' collection and were very simple to put together, I made a stepper card and an oval easel card and used the backing papers from the set. The flowers are made from cheap craft foam that I added some Nuvo Drops to the centre of. I used a selection of Tattered Lace (fern), Tonic Studios (scalloped circle), Spellbinders (white oval frames) and Crafters Companion (flower and leaf) dies.

The hardest part about putting these cards together was deciding which of the lovely papers to use, I have a problem with collection paper pads, once I buy them I then struggle to use them, because when I do I don't have it anymore!? Ironic as I buy them to use them, but some papers are just so lovely it seems wrong to rip them out of the pad to use them! That's why designs on USB sticks are brilliant because you can print them off as often as you like and never use them all up!

Ken Oliver Tree of Life Cards

I just realised that I made these cards a few months ago now and totally forgot to post about them! I saw this Ken Oliver Tree of Life Die and Stamp Set on the cover of Simply Cards & Papercraft Issue 160 back in February and loved it.

At the time I couldn't find it in the UK so I ordered it from Amazon via a USA supplier and waited patiently for it to arrive.

When it did I couldn't wait to get started, I stamped the first image on to white card stock and coloured it in with my Zig Real Color Brush Markers and added a little sparkle with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen and finished the centre of the flowers off with some Nuvo Drops.

The beauty of the die set is it not only cuts the fine detail of the tree, it also cuts the shaped background panel, and its really easy to line up so you cut it accurately. I folded a piece of white card and used the die to create a card blank by over shooting the fold of the card with the die. See this step by step Papercraft Inspirations video on How to Die Cut A Shaped Aperture Card if you're unsure how to do it.

Once I'd cut the card blank I used Mowed Lawn and Broken China Distress inks to colour the background and added the tree to the base with small foam pads.
I decided to experiment with a different medium on black card stock, my inner would be Goth seems to favour black card to white when making cards, in everyday life I tend to go for black, purple, dark blues and browns, my 'invisible' colours.

I made another shaped card blank to attach the finished tree to using black card and coloured that with a layer of Broken China Oxide Ink which gave the card base a look of a black board which I loved.

This time instead of stamping in black ink, I elected to stamp in Versamark ink and heat emboss the image with some WOW Rich Gold embossing powder. I then coloured the tree with some Metallic Gel Sticks which are primarily aimed at children and are a little cheaper than a set of Metallic Gelatos.

Both products are made by Faber Castell and I have both sets but when using the metallics, I actually prefer the kids Gel Sticks because they seem to have more pigment in them and thus give a richer, more vibrant colour. If you're on a budget, the Gel Sticks also offer better value for money in that although they are about £1 more than the Gelatos, you get 6 Gel Sticks, the same colours as the Gelatos, plus a gold and silver gel stick.

Once I finished the darker tree of life card, I added a gold and black sentiment using the Avery Elle Hugs Elle-Ments dies, in my head there was a reference to tree hugging but it didn't translate as well on the card lol! I love this stamp and die set so much, I've been working on some seasonal versions.

If I could change the set in anyway I would have left off the flowers and added more leaves. Whilst the flowers are pretty it would have been nice to colour just leaves for an autumn tree of life.

Sometimes Size Really Does Matter...

Cute little pop up box isn't it? This is one of my 'bargain' China dies that turns out to not be that much of a bargain, insomuch as the die itself isn't the same size as the true Lawn Fawn die. So when I thought I was getting a bargain at £2.70 and saving myself around £25.00, I wasn't. Not if I want to make actual Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box Card Pop Up to add my Lawn Fawn stamps to, so that everything is to scale.

It's a shame really as the die cuts really well and all the bits are included but sadly the width of the box is supposed to be 3½ inches it's only 2½ inches. It's usable if you want to make a small pop up and the dies that come with it will be useful like the hello die and the small hearts and stars, even the little banner dies will be useful but size wise its not big enough. Hubby took pity on me and treated me to the full size one so I  can proceed with my Xmas card pop up ideas and I've chalked it up to experience, at least I was only £2.70 out of pocket.

I had the same problem with the Lawn Fawn Fancy Box set, this one is supposed to be 3½ inches by 2¼ inches but in actual fact its 3 inches by 2 inches, it makes a cute little treat box but it isn't big enough to fit a gift card in. Its about the size of 2 match boxes side by side to give you an idea, just a fraction too small to take a gift card 3⅜ inches by 2⅛

This time the size wasn't as big a problem because I'd bought the die set to hold sweets and small gifts like jewellery which will fit comfortably and the word sentiments 'Thanks' and 'Yay' and the label dies will be very useful, so worth the £3.80 paid for this one, but if you are expecting to get the full size die you'd be disappointed.  The quality of both dies is really good for the price, its just a shame that the scale is wrong, but for the price I guess it would be daft to expect it to be the same.

I also picked up a Lawn Fawn Leafy Tree Backdrop: Portrait and also Landscape for less that £3 each, again a big saving and whilst the die is the same quality as the Lawn Fawn one and even the right size and has all the right additional bits (stitched hill or tree background and leaves), it cuts to put the tree on the right hand side of the die cut, whereas the Lawn Fawn cuts with the tree on the left, unless all the card examples I've seen are turning the die cut about.

Again though its something I can live with, the Landscape clone version of the die is the same, the tree is on the opposite side of the original. I have tried die cutting and flipping the cut image over, but sadly the back is dull and the edges look as crisp. It's something to be mindful of though and I'm wondering what will happen with the other dies I've ordered will look like, will they be reversed as well? The Lawn Fawn 'Little Town Border' die certainly appears to be, again its not the end of the world, but its worth noting that the images are reversed? It's probably how they manage to get away with looking so much like the real deal dies?

A Halloween Luminaire

I had the tree die for making this because it arrived from China yesterday, the rest of the dies are Halloween dies I already had. The Witch and Haunted House dies are by Impression Obsession and the bats are from some mini dies by Xcut called 'bats' believe it or not lol!

The Luminaire is constructed from 2 pieces of card stock that are 6" tall and 10" wide,scored at 4½" and then again 1" to create the flap that you will use to glue the two panels together. I used black card, but you can make your luminaire in any colour. Making the whole project was easy, at least it was after I found the vellum that had somehow gone AWOL in my room! I finally found it in a box with some A4 embossing folders and dies, no idea why it was in there but I was relieved to find it.

I originally saw a luminaire similar to this one on YouTube where Chari Moss demonstrated how to make one using Lawn Fawn dies. (See the video below).  Missing dies aside, its always nice to be able to see a project you want to make and be able to make it straight away because you have all you need to hand.

When I first started card making, almost every project I saw required me to buy a piece of equipment, some form of media or a die or stamp. These days I have a good supply of items that I can make just about anything, and I'm learning that if I don't have something specific that is required for the project, then I can substitute it for something else.

I'd coloured acetate and gloss card stock with alcohol inks before, but never vellum, but it was so, so easy to do and in no time at all I had four panels of vellum inked and dry ready for the next stage. I won't go in to detail with all the steps, instead I'm adding Chari's brilliant video for her Spooky Halloween Lantern project she did for Lawn Fawn, which gives all the measurements needed and she talks you through the steps to make the project.

I made some changes to the construction compared to Chari's design, I added strips of black card stock to the inside of the luminaire to cover where the insert 'tree' panel met the frame, this stops light coming out of the gap when the seams don't line up you can see what I mean in the video example.

On the next one I make I'll put strips of black glitter card on to the inside top panels of the luminaire to hide the glued vellum lines so that it looks neater and more decorative. I'm also going to make a card stock base for it to sit on, again it will stop unwanted light getting out at the base and will finish the project off nicely. My base will be separate from the rest of the luminaire though because if I permanently attach it, 1 won't be able to fold the luminiare flat when not in use.

I already have ideas for making a couple of different luminaire's, one with purple and blue alcohol ink backgrounds and an assortment of fairy dies and stamps. Plus I have a few more halloween dies I'd like to use, I think they will look good on the window ledge come Halloween to help decorate the house, won't need a pumpkin that way 😉

I think a 'falling leaves' autumn version may well be on the cards and I also want to make some for Christmas, I have a small flying Santa and Reindeer die and some of houses and village scenes, so I'm going to play with those. I dare say you could make one for every season of the year. I think I may even have a play with some of the silhouette cat dies I have and make a cat themed luminaire.

The top photos were taken without a flash so didn't show up the black glitter frames I added to the panels, so I used the flash on my camera to take a photo that does show the frame, sadly though the flash made the black card look a lot paler than it is lol!