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.

Adventures in Nuvo: Mousse

Hello there and thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate the lovely people that visit my blog and leave comments, sometimes I forget to say so which is very remise of me, so I thought I'd correct that before I say anything else. 😀

I did manage to sort out the stuff that was blocking access to my work desk, which means that I've been able to sit there and get my craft on, I've been playing with Nuvo Mousse thanks to a fab video tutorial that my friend Jennifer Kray did via a Facebook Live.

She gave some brilliant tips for using the mousse including one I'd tried before, when I tried it I coloured first then embossed, but Jen's technique involved embossing first and then adding the mousse with a smoothie. Jen used a couple of embossing folders but the one that blew me away was the example Jen did using her We Are Memory Keepers Next Level Geometric embossing folder, I don't own any of the WAMK's folders yet but I now have my eye on a few, thanks Jen 😛 I do have some 3D embossing folders, a couple by Sizzix including the 'Woven' one above and the 'Leaves' one below both are by Lynda Kanase for Sizzix.

I do have a selection of Crafters Companion 3D folders as well and I'm waiting for a the new Botanical 3D Tim Holtz folder to arrive, can't wait either, my Nuvo mousses have gone a little stiffer than when I first bought them and Jen showed us how to revive them.

I got a 2.5 litre bottle of de-ionised water from Wilkinson's for the princely sum of £1.25 a real bargain, its in the section where they have the stuff for cars if anybody is interested.

My camera isn't picking up the subtle changes in colour, I used 3 different colours of Nuvo Mousse to create the background, I think some highlights of gold would have been perfect but I don't have that colour yet, its on my list of things to acquire now 😉

On both of my cards I used a My Favorite Things border die from their 'Scallop Basic Edges 2' set, I just bent it round the embossed panel and held it in place with a couple of small pieces of washi tape before I glued the panel to my card base.

The Hello topper is done using a set of dies I picked up on Ebay a while back, both of the hello toppers were made from the cards we were sent at Christmas by friends and family, they look fab from this side but the reverse of them which nobody sees you can tell that the toppers are recycled, but nobody sees the back of them once they are glued on right?

The set has a matching stamp and if you use it the O is more clearly defined, I used a variety of inks on the backs of the cards, the foil and glitter ones were die cut from cards that had glitter and foiled sections on them. I did find that some types of card didn't take to ink so readily if you look at the blue 'Hello' I used a Hero Arts Ombre Ink which is a dye based ink, on the glossy card the ink went on splotchy, I was going to throw it away but I left it to dry and discovered I liked the mottled effect that it made and to anyone looking they'd think it was intentional, it was a happy accident 😂

I used distress oxides as well and added some water to create splashes, some inks didn't work very well and in the end I stuck to oxides and dye based inks, any pigment inks I tried just refused to dry, I think thats because most of the recycled cardstock is coated some how which makes it repel certain forms of ink. I ended up making about 30 of these from the Xmas cards and I'm down to my last 6 now. It's a good way of recycling cards, I have some birthday cards that I need to do the same with, some of them will even make toppers for other cards as well. I'm off to make a birthday card for my Sister-In-Law now and then to make a start on the annual christmas card pile, making some for the Cats Protection to sell as well so I need to make lots!  Enjoy the rest of the day and thanks for stopping by :)

Bird Silhouette Tag

This mixed media lark can certainly become a bit addictive, I've been playing with lots of ideas since I last blogged, but they've not been going to plan, this weekend I found out why, I was using the wrong mediums for the job.

I've also discovered that the gesso from The Works is not the best medium for the job and if you want to use distress inks, neither is Modge Podge, because it acts like a resist and won't take water based inks! You can still use archival inks, but I don't have as many colours of archival as I do distress. Another downside of Modge Podge is it leaves your project feeling 'sticky' and as if it isn't dry and yes this time Jennifer I waited, a whole 24 hours!!! lol! 

So I invested in some Pebeo mediums thanks to Jen's input, she's becoming my mixed media guru if I'm stuck she offers advice and gives me her invaluable insight and product recommendations and ones to avoid. So based on what Jen recommended I picked up some Pebeo clear, white and black gesso and some gel medium. I still want to get a few other mediums, like Phosphorescent Gel, DYNA Bindex and Crackle Paste/Glaze but that will come with time as I learn more about playing with the mediums.

What mixed media is doing is encouraging me to use more of my Tim Holtz stuff of which I have an awful lot of but I don't often use because the style isn't suitable for sending cards to people I know which sucks! But mixed media gives me the chance to make home decor, journals, tags and so much more using my precious Tim Holtz stuff that its making me giddy!

This tag project didn't turn out exactly as I planned as you can see from this photo, I originally coloured the bird with Peacock Feathers and a touch of Fossilised Amber but on the parts that had been treated with Modge Podge the ink wouldn't stay put.

I decided that the bird didn't pop (I originally typed poop lol) enough because it was coloured too much like the background. So I added black sparkle pen over the distress ink and used some 'Buttercup' Archival Ink to colour the tail edge, under belly and the face and throat. I think it worked out a lot better although I think it may have been better in hindsight to use brown rather than black. Another change was the decoration at the base, originally I was going to attempt to create a nest with hessian strands and place some polystyrene egg shapes I picked up cheaply at Hobbycraft but I couldn't get the next effect right. I decided instead to use flowers made using my Tim Holtz Small Tattered Florals die set and coulour them with Mustard Seed distress ink to tie in with the yellow parts on the bird.

I added copper embossing powder to the feet, beak and tail tip using a Quickie Glue pen and some 'Copper' Darice Whisper Embossing Powder and then used an Indigoblu flourish scroll that came free in a set with a magazine to add some detail. The backing papers came from a 'Classic Elegance' pad by Melissa Frances that I won along with some pearls when I had a letter printed in one of the card making magazines a few years ago but I hadn't got round to using. I looked over to the side of my desk and I saw a feather I'd cut using the feather die from the Tim Holtz 'Feathers & Ravens' die set and it just cried out to become a wing on the bird, I tried it and it worked perfectly, so I gave it a bit of sparkle and a gold spine and added it to the bird.

I wanted some sparkle so I decided to use some Tonic Studios Nuvo Glimmer Paste in 'Peridot Green' through a Bo Bunny stencil, it did the trick, adding sparkly translucent texture to the tag. Once the flowers were attached I added some Nuvo Glitter Drops in 'Honey Gold' which finished them off nicely. The sentiment comes from one of my Tim Holtz sets "Life Quotes CMS227", which I have only used one of the stamps on one previous occasion. I seem to collect Tim's dies and stamps and then don't use them, because taking them out of their packets and using them somehow sullies them, OMG I'm turning in to my brother with his Star Wars collection lol! 😂😂😂

In an seemingly unrelated, but related occurence, Simon had a long weekend off work which gave us a rare chance to get out on a weekday to visit our local National trust place 'Calke Abbey' and whilst there I noticed something I must have seen many times before but hadn't really registered, an example of 19th century mixed media!

When I got back I did some research and discovered that the Three-leaf Draught Screen at Calke has a wooden frame which had been covered in canvas. On top of the canvas a vast assortment of images have been stuck down including cuttings from books and magazines, coloured prints and caricatures from publications of the 19th century. The screen is double sided, both sides can been seen in better detail on this National Trust Draught Screen page. On one side there is a large print of a little girl in the centre, each panel showing a different image and above the images of the girls a romantic country scene, other smaller prints arranged around them included Father Christmas, Kittens and a lot of flowers and butterflies.

One side includes a print of Sir John Everett Millais painting "Bubbles" originally known as "A Child’s World" which featured the painters Grandson William and was painted in 1885. Millais sold the painting and copyright in 1886 to Sir William Ingram, the owner of the London Illustrated News, he reproduced it as a colour plate and included it in the Christmas issue of the weekly magazine. The then managing director of Pears, Thomas J. Barrett, who by all accounts was a pioneer of modern advertising methods in the 19th century, saw the colour plate and realised the potential of the picture to his company. He contacted Ingram and purchased the original painting and exclusive copyright for the princely sum of £2,200, he then contacted Millais who at first was reluctant but eventually gave his permission to add a bar of Pears soap to the painting so that Pears could use it for advertising purposes.

The collage technique used on things like the Draught Screen was and is known as decoupage, a crafty pursuit that survives to this day, and whilst this version at Calke Abbey isn't the best example, it does make me wonder about the girl or woman that created it, where she got her images and why she chose those ones in particular? Apparently the art of découpage dates back to the 12th century when Chinese people first started to use paper cut outs to decorate windows. Although it didn't get the name we know it as today until the 20th century the word is derived from the French word découpeur which means to cut out.

According to this History of Découpage page, Victorian Nannies taught the girls in their charge the art of découpage, and some of the old examples of the technique used 30-40 layers of varnish built up over the collaged images, each coat sanded down to a beautiful smooth sheen to protect the images. Some even had gold gilding added and images were sometimes hand coloured by the découpage creator. Who knew that seeing an old screen would lead to discovering so much, not only does it have links to crafting, it also links my love of Pre-Raphaelite art and botany, I'll have to be a lot more observant in the future, who knows what else I'll discover?

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.

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!

Birthday Bargains 2018

This is my first post for 2018, I can't believe that we are already over a week in to the new year, where does the time go? I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and you are fueled with lots of creative ideas for 2018? I know I am, one thing I've promised myself that I'd do is to stop watching so many videos of other people creating things and use the time to create more things myself! I can sit for hours watching super talenetd people create and then its time to go do the ironing or feed the hubby and I my crafting 'me time' has gone! I watch for inspiration but one video runs in to another and before I know it hours have passed. I also need to try to blog more and catch up with my crafty friends blogs more regularly than I did in 2017! I have plans, I just have to make them a reality :)

It was my birthday on Sunday and I got spoilt rotten, I got some lovely cards including some from my talented crafty friends, and lots of birthday wishes and smiles over on facebook which made me feel loved :) Birthdays since 2015 (the first after I got in to card making), mean that I get a wadge of cash that I get to spend on whatever crafting goodies I desire. As part of the birthday tradition my hubby has the day off and takes me to some crafty places that I can't easily get to as I don't drive myself, but as my birthday fell on a Sunday this year hubby announced I could have a birthday weekend and not just one day!

The festivities began on Saturday with a trip to Coleman's Craft Warehouse for their first Sale and demo day, at which I picked up all the Tonic Nuvo Brush Script Pens, the Aqua Flow Pens and one of the sets of the Nuvo Glitter Markers. I also found the other Tonic Festive Friends bauble die and stamp all reduced by a considerable amount, and I was chuffed to find the 2017 re-issue Lamp Post Bigz die by Tim Holtz for £7.49 :)

There are few good things about having a birthday in early January, its after Xmas when everyone is skint and the weather is cold, usually wet and dismal and most places are shut until the spring, so there are not many places to visit as there would be in you have a July birthday. But January sales make January birthdays a lot brighter, because it means that my birthday money goes twice as far. If I'd bought all the items in the first photo at RRP it would have cost me £121.37 as it was it cost me £63.51 almost half price!

The experience was similar the following day when I visited the Crafters Companion Store in Chesterfield and got a lot of goodies for just over £40 these included some Yupo paper reduced to £3, the Sheena 'Sown with Love Thin Metal Die' RRP £12.99 for £3 and the Waffle Flower 'Pattern Play' stamp set with an RRP of £12.49 I got for £3. I did buy some full price items but as a member of Crafters Companion Inspire Club, I got 15% off the prices of the non sale items and also off the sale items which made the Waffle Flower stamps for example cost me just £2.55.

I topped the weekend off with a visit to Hobbycraft, as a member of their club they sent me a £5 birthday voucher to get some money off my next shop, whilst there I got the Sizzix dies in the photo above and 4 Faber Castell Polychromos pencils 3 metallics (Silver, Gold & Copper) and White for adding highlights to stamped images. With my voucher the Sizzix 'Animal Portraits' die set was free, its earmarked for making some get well, easter and baby cards and I'm looking forward to playing with the cat die set.

The weekend wasn't all about buying crafting goodies, we went on some lovely walks, ate cake, lots of cake actually and did a lot of snuggling on the sofa watching TV, I even got to have charge of the remote! Also whilst I was in Hobbycraft I met a lovely little girl and her Mum, the girl was just starting out on her crafting journey after being given a card making kit for Christmas and she wanted advice on die cutting machines for beginners. I chatted to her for a while and told her about the difference between pigment and dye inks, how you use a die cutting machine, gave her a brief idea of the wonders of distress ink (she'd seen a YouTube video and was curious) and explained a little about heat embossing and embossing with folders.

As she lives not far from me I've promised to look through my stash and pass on things I think she could use and have promised to be on hand if she has any questions in the future. It was such a lovely feeling to be encouraging a young new crafter that it really made my birthday weekend feel complete. All I have to do now is start using the goodies I got for my birthday, my head is already full of ideas, and 2018 I want to make many more cards to donate to Cats Protection and also maybe sell some myself at Maker Fair events we'll be attending with K9.

Newton's Nook - Sweater Weather Card

I've not been doing a lot of card making lately, I'm rewriting a course to teach youngsters about the history of robots and been off visiting Oxford and doing the Christmas present shopping lark.

It hit me the other day that I was VERY behind on making all the cards I need to send to friends and relatives for Xmas, so I started yesterday making cards in earnest. I have 60 cards left to make and some gifts also eeek!

I'm entering this card in to the Newton's Nook Inky Paws Challenge #60 'Add Some Sparkle' it was fairly quick to put together, the easel card I'd made last year and never used, so lay in my 'Maybe Someday' box. It seemed like the ideal backdrop for using with the Newton's Nook Sweater Weather stamps and dies.

My colouring still leaves a lot to be desired in terms of shading, these images are coloured simply with Zig Waterbrush Pens and then given a layer of Clear Sparkle Pen, I added more sparkly touches with Tonic Craft Perfect glitter card which I used to cut the snow bank and all the snowflakes. I also used gold metallic cardas the base for the easel layers, to cut the frilled edge to go behind the main image and for the sentiment stopper for the card and the gems are very sparkly as well, but sadly the photo doesn't show them at their best.

Proud As A Peacock...

I'm really pleased with the way this card turned out, and its the first of what will be a long line of peacock cards that I'll be creating over the next few months, not because I've acquired this die, but because I've been acquiring lots of peacock related stash from embossing folders to stamps, dies and paper backgrounds.

It seems I have some affinity with the peacock, although I'm not sure what or how aside from the fact that the stunning colours that they display has appealed to me since I was a young girl.

The die on this card is another of my cheap Demiawaking bargain dies from Amazon its a lot like the Tattered Lace Peacock die but the Demiawaking Peacock is just £2.99 with free postage. It took a little while to arrive but the cash saving was so worth the wait.  It's different insomuch as the tail on the TL die is longer and points to the left and the the beak and feather crest are more elaborately defined, but for a saving of around £16 I don't mind the detail not being as good. I have to point out that the TL die that is similar to the cheaper one is now retired by TL and they've replaced it with a different peacock which in my opinion isn't as nice.

On to the actual card construction now, I've added 10 different colours of Nuvo Mousse by Tonic Studios to my stash over the past few months, but as yet hadn't played with them. I have seen other people use them including Christine Smith from Crafti Potential and decided I wanted to create some of the lovely silky metallic goodness they seemed capable of, and I wasn't disappointed. I love adding texture to my cards, so I often use embossing folders and I like to add some metallic shimmer and until now have used gilding wax to achieve the result like on these fairy cards I made last year, but as pretty as the effect is, its a bit uneven. The beauty of Nuvo Mousse is it can be used in so many different ways, as a wash, a paint even put in a spray bottle to make a shimmery mist.

I started with a piece of white card in the case of the wood-grain and feather backgrounds and used black card for the rose and script panels. I applied the Nuvo Mousse using a mini blending tool - the kind used for distress inks - it went on smoothly, some colours I noticed seem to sink in to the card a little more than others, but I think that was down to the cardstock I was using.

For the peacock feather background I first applied a band of 'Spring Green' Nuvo Mousse followed by 'Aquamarine' finishing with 'Pacific Teal' blending each colour in to the next to create a smooth blended look. I then let the panel dry, it dries very quickly but if you're impatient, you can use a heat gun to dry the mousse off. Once dry I ran the panel through my Big Shot inside a Crafters Companion embossing folder from the Kimono range aptly called 'Peacock Feathers'. I went over the embossed area with a little 'Peacock Feathers' distress ink to help bring out the pattern on the feathers even more.

I knew from the start I wanted to give the die some colour and I'd been saving something for just the right purpose and I'm rather pleased with the result. I can't take the credit for the idea I picked it up from my card making friend Jackie Trinder from Tiny Rose's Craft Room who makes some fabulous cards. I think Jackie may have got the idea from someone else, that's how this crafting lark works, we learn from each other. When I first read what Jackie wrote, I could have kicked myself as I'd been throwing this things away for ages!

And what was my light bulb moment? Don't throw away paper towels that you use to clean up inky messes generated when you clean your craft mat after making inky messes using things like Pixie Powders that have mica powders in them.

Instead put the paper towels to dry and use them to back die cuts, or glue them to the front of a card and then embossed it to create a really fun card that looks like you've used a piece of fabric. Simples!

The end results are fabulous, I have a box now, full of paper towels pieces in an array of colours some single colours, others in multi coloured tones like this one that I used for the feather background.  To add the coloured piece to the gold foiled card die cut I traced round the die cut with a pen and cut the shape out. Then I added glue to the back of the die cut and put the coloured panel in place and trimmed it to the exact shape where there was any over hang.

If you hold the peacock up to the light the effect is stunning, almost stained glass like, I've tried die cutting the paper towels and whilst it will cut in basic shapes like circles and squares, some of the more intricate detailed dies don't have the pressure required the paper towel doesn't always cut.

I made my own card blank from a piece of dual coloured card from a 12" x 12" pad from The Range and cut a circle from the lighter side to emboss a sentiment from the Wild Rose Studios 'Circle Greetings' stamp set using Metallic Gold Super Fine WOW embossing powder, which seems to be my embossing powder of choice at the moment. I backed the sentiment on to a piece of gold card the same as the die cut after die cutting it out with a die from the Presscut 'Round Dies Stitched Holes' set.

After adding the sentiment I thought that the card still needed something, I tried adding some white feathers I bought for another card but they were too big, then I remembered a die set of small feathers I got recently by EK Success from their Cutter Bee range and after colouring a scrap of white card with some more 'Pacific Teal' Nuvo Mousse, I die cut a couple of the smaller feathers from the set and attached them with a little glue under the sentiment. To finish the card, I added a small blueish green coloured gem to the peacock's eye and there it was my first peacock card of the year created.

Pixie Powdered Roses

Hello everyone, I hope life is being kind to you and if you're a crafter like me, you're getting some time to create. There has been some highs and lows at Warts n' All Towers recently, I didn't even get an interview for the job I applied for and I was pretty confident that I'd at least be interviewed, there has been a couple of family things happening as well but we seem to have survived. It's not all been gloomy though, hubby surprised me by booking tickets to go see a rock band we both like, and there have been a few other positive things happening that I'll talk more about if they become 'a thing', but for now life is good and today we had sunshine and I went for a lovely walk in the sun with my hubby, bliss :)

I have been doing lots of card making recently, a couple of commissions still to do and I've made a few cards for my family which I'll share soon, I've also been playing with my Altenew floral stamps, again a post on those cards coming soon. It occurred to me though that I forgot to share some cards I made earlier last month using some Tonic and Sue Wilson dies and of course my beloved Pixie Powders.

I think its pretty safe to say that I love a bit of sparkle and lovely bold colours and when I get chance I add something glittery or shimmery to my cards, and Pixie Powders give shimmer and vibrant colour to a project so they are a win, win.

I started these cards after having a few hours playing with Pixie Powders and creating backgrounds in a lot of different colour variations, some for these projects and some for future projects. On this background I used Sun Yellow, Mango Blaze and a little Burnt Orange to create this gorgeous sunny yellow piece.  For the green leaves I used Olive, Spearmint and Emerald Green.

Once I'd mopped up the excess liquid with paper towels and put the paper towels to dry for a future project and the pieces I'd created had dried thoroughly, I set to die cutting the roses using the Sue Wilson 'Blushing Rose' die set, on the yellow card I used white 220gsm cardstock to cut the frames for the roses and for the layers, and the gift tag. I also used some bright yellow card stock I got from the Range in a mixed pack, the layers were cut using a selection of dies from the Tonic Bowscale set. The tag was cut using the Tonic 'Memento Frame Die' and the Best Friends die was cut from the Pixie Powdered piece from another Tonic die called 'Best Friends'.

I did exactly the same thing for the pink colour way this time using Candy Pink, Lava Red and a little Aubergine Dream. The frames for the roses were cut from White with a Hint of Silver Centura Pearl card stock.

All the die cutting aside they were really easy to put together, a little cosmic shimmer glue and I used 3D foam pads for the roses to give them some dimension. I made the tag and card as a set to send with little gifts to my good friends. I really do love the rose die though, I think I may be a rose addict.  That's all for now my crafty friends, I'm off to play some more with stamps and inks and markers to see what other floral delights I can create and to count my blessings. I hope the week ahead for you is full of sunshine and laughter, happy mothers day to those celebrating it this weekend and hugs to all those, like me who miss their Mum's at this time of year.

Beautiful Day Rocker Card

I'm entering this card into the February Win & Tonic Monthly Challenge, first time I've entered a challenge on their blog. The colour chosen was kraft card, this is the first time I've used craft card in a card design and as luck would have it I purchased some of the Tonic Studios Craft Perfect Brown Kraft Card a few days before I saw the challenge. I'm pleased I did buy it because it die cuts like a dream, its 280gsm so perfect for making card blanks and for die cutting, everything I cut from it come out of the die easily and beautifully cut.

I used a couple of dies from my Tonic Scalloped Circle Layering Die Set to make the rocker card base. This is the first time I've made a rocker card and it won't be the last, my card making buddy Emma sent me a stunning handmade rocker card for my birthday and I've wanted making a card of that shape since.  The other dies I used to make the topper for the rocker all come from a new die set I got last week also by Tonic, its called Sew Pretty - Have A Beautiful Day Circle Frame the set has 4 dies in total and it cuts beautifully.

Originally my topper had a white 'stitched border', but I wanted the edge to be kraft card to match the card base. So I used a circle die slightly smaller to cut out the centre of the piece I die cut in kraft card and glued that to the top of the white stitched piece. Using the stitched piece on its own creates a full circle with a stitched edge. I cut the doily piece in white card and the floral centre and then coloured the flowers and leaves with some of my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. Finally adding a coat of Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen to make the floral elements sparkle.

The final touch to the topper was to add the sentiment which comes with the set, in to the centre in between the flowers and give the centre of each flower a touch of Nuvo Drops to create some dimension. I used English Mustard and Ripened Pumpkin, I would have liked a brighter yellow, hopefully there will be one in the future! I used 3D foam pads to raise the floral pieces and to attach the topper to the card base.

I'm becoming a bit of a tonicaholic, a little late to the tonic party but so far I haven't had a bad product from them. All the products are a dream to use, I'm looking forward to adding more to my stash in the future :)