Crafty As L

A few weeks ago, I attended a 3D Wired Embroidery workshop taught by Ella Richards, one of the ladies from Solent Textile Group .   Ella had brought along some gorgeous examples of her work, featuring leaves, insects and fuchsia flowers which were very inspirational.   I had never done any stumpwork before so it was a baptism of fire. The idea was to make a 3D flower in the style of an evening primrose and we were set homework to complete beforehand.   I chose to make a pink and white variation and after tracing the petal and leaf outlines onto white cotton fabric, I painted the fabric using watered-down ink-pad reinkers.   The flower only has four petals but I added another to be my test petal.   The fabric was mounted into an embroidery hoop and made drum tight. The next step was to couch wire around the edge of the petals.   Couching is the term for attaching a thick decorative thread or wire onto fabric using a series of tiny stitches, sewn perpendi...

It’s time again for my Design Team post and I’m making a bright and bold spring birthday card.   To begin, I stamped and clear heat-embossed the large tulip from SketchedTulips , sprayed them with Distress Spray Stains and Spritzes and set aside to dry. For the background, I stamped a 5¼” square panel with the rest of the stamps in the set, using Versfine Onyx Black so that I knew it would be waterproof.   Putting the panel into my spray box, I used the same colours as above to add colour. Next for some texture, I used the new Logic stencil and applied Distress grit paste in areas around the panel.   Whilst the paste was still wet, I sprinkled on gold embossing powder and heat set, allowing the paste and powder to bubble up. For the topper, I gold heat-embossed the sentiment from Birthday Wishes .   I tore around the edges and dragged the edges through a Versamark ink pad and heat set with gold embossing powder.   I fussy-cut some of the tulips and glue...

This is not just another Design Team post!   It’s my first using Visible Image’s brand-new Grunge Florals Collection.   This is another awesome release comprising six stamps sets and three stencils – I hope you’ve seen the gorgeous samples made by Mark and the DT - and you can see and shop the whole range here .   To begin, I used the Rotation stencil as a stamp to colour the background for the large rose stamp.   I sprayed Distress Spray Stains in Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord onto the stencil… …and then pressed it onto the card.   To absorb any overspray, I placed some tissue over the stencil whilst I pressed it onto the card. After drying the printing thoroughly, I stamped and clear heat embossed the rose from Rose Moments .   I used my MISTI for this so that I could repeat stamp as necessary as this is a big stamp. I used a nesting set of octagonal dies to cut out the rose plus black and silver foil layers and glued them together.   (...

Welcome to my DT post where my brief was “Spring Birthday” on a DL card.   I wanted to use the Golden Daffodils stamp set so having the DL card in landscape format suited my plan for a field of daffs.   When I started the card, it was sunshine and blue skies but as I’m writing it up, it’s torrential rain (again!) so the sentiment seems even more appropriate. After cutting a panel, I stamped and clear heat-embossing the flower bunch, varying the height for interest. The single daffodil head was stamped in the spaces, and I masked one so I could stamp the stems and leaves from the main bunch beneath it. As I’d clear heat-embossed the stamping, I was free to choose my colouring medium so I decided on selection of alcohol markers. I fancied the background being a bright blue to contrast with the daffs and was going to watercolour it but, as I’d chopped my panel to the required size, I couldn’t tape it down.   Instead, I found a couple of little used alcohol markers a...

For today’s cards, I fancied doing some die-cutting so dug out a couple of Spellbinders sets to play with.   For the base of the arrangement, I die-cut the one of the Essential Circles and the pierced circle.   I appreciate that I’m using a circle and the post refers to corners but you get the idea! For the floral element, I used some left over die-cuts from Be Bold Blooms, adding to them as required.   For this card, I decided to add a silver accent using silver foil card for the foliage. After silver heat-embossing the sentiment from MFT Greetings Galore I arranged the foliage and flowers and then glued them in place, attaching the final flower with thin foam tape. I was going to mount the circle on a 5” square black card blank but my first attempt at drawing a border with a white Posca pen was awful where the paint had run under the ruler.   The silver Edding pen worked much better so I chopped the card blank in half and used the back as the mat layer. ...

This week, I had a play with a new purchase, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Botanic Collage.   I didn’t really know where to start so decided to dig out one of my gel plates to create a background and go from there. Using a small brayer, I applied Distress Oxides to the gel plate, sprayed with a little water and then pressed onto squares of white card. This was repeated with a variety of ink pads. Next, using stencils from Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencil Set #24, I added the same colours used with the gel plate through the stencil. After stamping the botanic stamps on each panel and onto a scrap of card, I die-cut the main focal image from each panel.   The scraps of card were coloured and the image fussy cut. I sprayed each panel with some Shimmer Spritz but I still felt that they needed something more so I dug out my Black Distress Paste, applied some through the stencil in various spots on the panel and the cut out.   Whilst the paste was still wet, I added s...