Daisies

Here are two more cards using flowers made from silk ribbons.

Today's flower is the humble daisy.

For the card below I used fancy edged scissors to give the white paper a wavy edge. I then stuck it over the purple cardstock. The purple cardstock is actually a document file which I chopped up. Loved the colour.

Supplies:

Pattern: Silk Ribbon Greeting Cards by Ann Cox

Cardstock: Pink, Purple nas mottled stone

Ribbon: 2mm silk ribbon in pink and yellow

             Bow: 5cm satin ribbon in pale pink

Green and yellow thread for the french knot in the centre of each flower

Border Punch: Make unknown

Fancy Scissors: wavy edge

Happy Christmas

Photo Credit: Audrey Woolens Urbanic

Happy Christmas. Hope your day is filled to the brim with family, good friends and happy memories.
I pray that you will never loose sight of the real reason for Christmas.

Baby Cards part 2

Earlier this week I showed you four baby cards I made for a charity Part 1. Today I will share the other four designs.

I always enjoy making this pattern. Unfortunately I have absolutely no idea where I acquired it originally, sorry.
I made four cards but only sent the yellow and white ones as part of the charity drive.

This is an old favourite which I have made many times. It is always well received.

The mouse is another free pattern from Berg Kaarten

and finally just for a bit of fun I took my inspiration from Barbara over at AddInktive Designs and made this really cute elephant. He is hand drawn and cut. The word is computer generated and distressed around the edges for definition.

Supplies:

Patterns: Stitching Cards Pram.
              Words 101 Ideas for Embroidery on Paper by Eric Fortgens
              Bergkaarten bottle
Thread: All with unknown brands and numbers except for the gold which is DMC metallic effects in E436 

Blue Button

Green spotted satin ribbon, spotted blue satin ribbon, white, rabbit in yellow and pink. All scraps

Wobbly eye

Paper: Hearts Crafty Ferret
           Swirls in green and blue gingham Paper Pizazz soft tints

           Pink gingham Activity Village
           Yellow interlocking circles Phillip Martin
Cuttle bug embossing folder daisy

Gold Bostick glitter glue

Gold peel offs for edging

Baby cards part 1

Earlier this year an appeal was made at Sharons Kardz Korner for baby cards which where going to be donated to a charity. I was game so made eight different designs which I will show you over two posts.

The brief was to make the cards unisex hence the use of a lot of apricot, yellow and greens.

For the first three cards I used the word baby from a design by Erica Fortgens.

The tags are hand cut and distressed around the edges.

The balloons I designed myself

The next two cards feature free patterns from a blog called Berg Kaarten

This is my all time favourite baby pattern. It looks so calm and serene. 

For this charity I stitched one in pink and one in pale brown to cover all race groups.

Supplies:

Patterns: Words from 101 Ideas for Embroidery on Paper by Erica Fortgens

               bottle and face
Paper: Apricot interlocking circles free download fromPhillip Martin  
            Gingham free down load fromActivity Village
            Swirls Paper Pizazz Soft Tints

Bibs: Satin motive from applique

Flat backed gems in champagne, yellow and green

Ribbon: scarp

Baker's Twine in green and white

Punch: Xcut 4cm Border punch        

I'm away

At the moment I'm away visiting my sister in New Zealand for three weeks and then I'll be spending a week with a friend in Australia so I have scheduled some posts to cover this period.

I hope you'll enjoy viewing the cards I have chosen for you. 

I had a lot of fun making this card as it was a good excuse to try out my new foil art foils. I attached a strip of double sided tape to the wrong side of the foil. That is how I got such a lovely straight line in the left hand corner.

There is a fair amount of layering going on in these cards which is rather unusual for me but I like how they turned out.

... using a different background paper

and a smaller version 7.5cmx6cm.

Supplies:

Pattern: Easy Embroidery on Paper by Joke de Vette

Flat backed gems in blue, pink and clear

Rolfes Metallic marker in blue

Fine liner in black for faux stitching

Paper: Blue Gingham Paper Pizazz in soft tints

           Stripes: Free down load from Google

           Flower paper i blue and pink: scraps source unknown

Sentiment: silver peel offs
Foil Art: Blue

Present time

I am sharing something a little different with you today and that is the gifts which I have wrapped for Christmas this year. I was busy this last weekend and here is the end result.

 I always have some kind of theme for my gifts. This year it was green and white. The idea was to wrap using white paper and decorate with the green ribbon and button tree. Somehow I miss calculated horribly with the white paper and ended up running short. I really needed to get this job finished and not carry it over into the week, so I went scratching in my paper stash in the hope that some white paper was lurching there, but no luck. I did however find this dotty paper which was perfect.

Sorry this photo seems to be a little out of focus.

The little button trees are an idea that I saw on Pintrest. I made a fair dent in my collection of green buttons but as they needed to be specific sizes I ended up having to buy some too.

The stars on the top are beads that I have left over from my jewellery making days. (Am always pleased when I am able to diminish my craft stash in some way.)

Now all I need to do is put them under a Christmas tree. It won't be one in this household as I am away for the celebrations. Hope the gifts survive being packed in a suitcase and flown half way around the world!!!

Happy wrapping everyone

Saying Thank You

This time of the year for me involves a lot of thank yous. So today I am going to share some of the cards I will be using this year.

As you know it was my birthday recently so I'll start with the thank yous for that.

I decided to go with a notelet this time instead of a card and as you can see I stuck to the same colour palette and repeated the butterfly theme. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss a border down the side of the card stock. Quick but pretty I think.

This next card is for my colleagues. It's to say thanks for a great year and wish them all the best for the holidays. (the continued butterfly theme is totally unintentional this time!)

I tried to print the sentiment straight onto the card stock but my printer kept on making it crooked so I cut out the 'mistakes' and stitched them on with my sewing machine.

I was inspired by this lovely card

Edited 23/2/2015: I have entered this card in the butterflies and ribbons challenge over at Butterfly Challenge

Supplies:

Embossing folders: Top card Spellbinders Pebbles and bottom Cuttlebug Swirls

Cuttlebug machine

Sizzix 8 circle die

Martha Steward butterfly punch

small flat backed pearls

Pale green thin satin ribbon

Card stock 160gsm

Envelopes: Activity park

A Bunch of flowers

It was my birthday recently and I received some stunning flowers. An exquisite white orchid from some friends living overseas and several bunches of roses and lisianthks. I love having flowers around the home so was in my element.

Here is a bunch of flowers of a different kind.

I used the smallest circle die and then pricked the flowers ( omitting the centre holes ) once I had cut them out. It was a bit tricky stitching something so small but I felt that this was the most accurate way of getting the flower in the centre of the circle. I used foam dots to pop them up on the base. Added a black flat backed gem to the centre of each one, hand drew the stems in black and the frame in purple and then stuck on a satin ribbon bow.

Here was my inspiration.

Supplies:

Pattern:Stitching Cards Free Bookmark Flower
Thread: scarps in purple, mauve, cerise, peach, aqua and blue

Flat backed gems in black

Black fine liner

Purple gel pen

Mauve and white satin ribbon

Wrapping gifts

I enjoy receiving gifts and I like the suspense just before you open them. I need to be honest and say that I enjoy giving gifts too. Selecting a gift for a loved one is something I take very seriously and wrapping that gift is a ceremony all in itself. I have a box of ribbons and another box of embellishments. I start with the card, which I have made in advance, hopefully. Next I get out my envelopes and gift-wrap and see which can be used together. If nothing matches then I select a white envelope and insert a liner, which complements the card. Finally I open my boxes of ribbon and nick-knacks and try things out until I am happy with my combination. As I said, it’s a whole ceremony and cannot be rushed. 

I have another butterfly card for you today. You know how I love my butterflies!

It was inspired by Lydia over at Understanding Blue
For this design I reduced my pattern to 50% of it's original size. This made the holes very close together so I reinforced them by adding sticky tape to the back of the design. I pencilled in the position of the square cut outs and then pricked the butterflies so that they would be displayed exactly where I wanted them. To finish I added enamel dots. 

Supplies:

Pattern: Stitching Cards free Butterfly
Thread: Variegated in peach, green and blue. Charcoal for body and feelers.

Enamel dots in green, pink and blue

Cuttlebug

Die: Sizzix 8 square die

Card stock 180gsm in white and a strip of cream