Crafty As L

  You’ve probably noticed that I’m quite a fan of the Anita Jeram stamps by Colorado Craft Company.  My latest purchase is this really cute (and large) stamp set, called Home Sweet Home so it’s ideal for new home cards but what I love about this one is its versatility as it’s useful for masculine cards, with a suitable colour palette. As I was using watercolour, I stamped the scene and the individual elements then taped them to a board to stop any warping. I painted the scene but didn’t bother with the parts the individual elements would cover.   The small elements were painted and then die-cut.   As I couldn’t find a suitable place on the front of the card to put the sentiment, I stamped it on the card liner and added one of the small stamps, which was also stamped on the envelope. After mounting the scene on the card base, I popped up the elements on foam squares for some added dimension. I love how these simple line drawn ...

My cards this week use Altenew Rolled Roses dies and are a two for one: the roses I die cut for the first card gave me left overs that I used to create a second. To begin, I adhered a sheet of adhesive to the back of some cream, red and green card before die-cutting several of the roses and leaves.  I wanted to use the outside frame of the cream and inlay with the coloured cards. After infilling the roses, I realised that I could use the coloured frames to create another card.  I used coloured roses and leaves to be the focus images but added cream frames to fill the gaps. For the inside, I used an offcut and stamped the envelope with a cute little Anita Jeram stamp I got free from Seven Hills Crafts with a recent purchase. To finish, I heat embossed some gold dots on the panel.  The sentiment was also heat embossed in gold and mounted on a piece of gold card. The second card was finished with some gold coloured rhinestones and a senti...

These days, when you buy a voucher for someone, particularly if it’s purchased online, you get an emailed voucher for you to print out.  Giving someone a sheet of paper for a gift is not very inspiring!  So, when my friend and colleague, Stu, retired recently, I was asked to create a presentation folder for said sheet of paper.  Inspired by the London skyline pop-up card I made my friend a few weeks ago, I decided to try an air traffic pop-up card.  I made it airfield themed, even though we are Area Controllers, as an Area Control building is not quite as interesting or recognisable as a control tower! First, for the front of the card, I repeat stamped and heat embossed the bi-plane and clouds from Avery Elle’s ‘Fly By’ stamp set and stacked several die-cut ‘congrats’.  I popped one of the bi-planes up on foam tape. To begin the inside, I cut out a control tower, some random airport buildings, a city skyline, some fighter aircraft, smoke trails, an ...

Do you remember the wedding invitations from a few weeks ago?  This week’s blog post is the card I made for the actual wedding.  For my card, I used Waffle Flowers Slim Lacy Layers Dies and Colorado Craft Company Happily Ever After stamps and dies. After cutting out the white layer, I decorated it by blending through a randomly placed heart template. Next, I stamped the bride and groom and a selection of flowers and coloured them with Copic markers. The final job was heat embossing the sentiment and assembling the elements.  I glued the flowers onto the card but popped the couple up on foam squares.  Lastly, I added a few white heart embellishments around the bride and groom. Lastly, I used the smaller stamps to make the card for the gift vouchers.  This card was not as wide as the slimline dies so the panels were cut down using the partial die-cutting technique.      

Together with my friend and my sister, I recently attended a workshop run by Driftwood & Daisies to learn how to create a beautiful floral topiary tree arrangement. The session began with a demonstration from Jo and a cuppa before we were let loose to create. To begin, the ball of oasis was positioned on top of the pole and marked lightly into quarters vertically and then in half horizontally.  These lines were the starting point to begin inserting small sprigs of foliage and lavender. Once all the lines were complete, the next stage was to begin to fill the areas between the lines with more foliage and to start adding some flowers. This process was repeated, adding more flowers to fill gaps, interspersed with standing back to assess the shape and check for bald spots! Eventually, you have to stick a fork in it and call it done!  Knowing when to stop with these kind of things is always a challenge. The final task was to decorate the t...