Crafty As L

My creative mojo seems to have deserted me 😧.  I am feeling rather unsettled due to the uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus outbreak although I’m lucky that I have no family or friends that are infected.  Whether it’s this or something else entirely, I don’t know but I can’t seem to get my creative juices flowing and think of anything new.  So, this week’s mother's day cards are a remake of an oldie; the eclipse card but with new papers. I used the Magnolia Lane and Parisian Blossoms DSP for these cards with coordinating mat layers and card base.  I make 2 cards; one each for my lovely Mum and lovely Mum-in-law. I began by decorating the card liner and envelope using the strip trimmed off the front piece of DSP and stamped with the sentiment from Tea Together. Next, I used the (retired) large letter framelits to cut out MU. Once this was done, I replaced the M and cut that out and then glued the DSP onto the mat layer. I adhered foam strips onto the back ...

  Whilst surfing around on Pinterest the other day, I saw a really cool easel card in the shape of a grand piano.  I was looking for ideas for an anniversary card for Mr L and was planning on using Stampin’ Up! Music From The Heart so this fancy fold was the perfect match.  Most grand pianos I’ve seen are black but I made mine cream, well Vanilla actually! After I’d cut out my card base and a 5½” square piece for the piano lid, I set to work making the keyboard.  I cut 10 pieces of Whisper White card ½” wide for the white keys and 7 pieces of Basic Black card ¼” wide for the black keys  I glued the white keys onto a piece of black card and then fixed the black notes on with foam strips as these would form the ‘stopper’ for my easel. Next, I repeat stamped the wavy keyboard image onto the top of the front section of my easel card base.  This would only really be visible when the card was closed. I stamped the treble clef, stave and some notes on a scrap...

My challenge to myself this week was to make a masculine card.  I used the skeleton leaves from Stampin’ Up! Rooted In Nature for my background design but didn’t fancy the trees as the focal image.  Instead I opted to make the sentiment the focal image and add interest with texture with heat and dry embossing. First, I random stamped the skeleton leaves with Versamark, added copper whisperembossing powder and heat set.  Texture 1 complete! The second texture was created by using copper glimmer paper and the hammered metal 3D embossing folder.  The third was Old Olive paper and the Subtle embossing folder. Many of the Stampin’ Up! sentiments are quite scripty and not necessarily what I would use for a bloke’s card; I prefer thick brush script or block lettering.  Instead, I used an Avery Elle set which always makes me smile.  I stamped with Early Espresso ink and then applied clear embossing powder over the top to give some extra oomph since it was the...

Well, it doesn’t seem like a year since I was creating an anniversary card for my parents’ golden wedding but clearly it is, so it’s also time to create another one!   I had in my mind a floral frame featuring dandelion silhouettes with some lettering on top.  It was clearly a job for the Cricut. I started in Design Space by adding various dandelion, floral and leaf elements and arranging and rearranging them into a square to create my background floral frame. Next, I added two cut out sections so that my letters would stand out more and then added the text.  I went for a bouncy alignment as this allowed the words to be cut as whole pieces (more or less!).  I then cut out the frame and two white versions of the sentiments. I also cut a purple version of the sentiment for the top layer. The reason for the white layers was to build up dimension so the sentiment stood proud of the frame.  I glued the two white sentiments onto the frame and then stuck the pu...