Crafty As L

My Mother-in law had bought some glass vases from the charity shop and wanted to transform them into lanterns to sell at a WI fundraising event.   She then realised that she had no equipment to decorate them with so asked me if I would mind doing it instead.   Of course I didn’t! Two of the lanterns were straight-sided and I’d seen some YouTube demos showing how you could glue the top layer of patterned napkins onto glass.   I wanted to make my own panels so started by cutting white tissue paper to fit and sprayed it with Distress Spray Stains. Once dry, I stamped a variety of silhouette stamps from Lavinia across each piece. Next, using Ranger Multi Medium Matte, I attached each piece of tissue to the vase.   This was rather more difficult than it looked with napkins, maybe because the tissue paper is so delicate. I ended up with a couple of holes and wrinkled areas but there was little more I could do whilst they were wet so they were set aside to dry. ...

I just can’t stop making cards using the new Love of Nature release and for this week’s Design Team post, I’ve made a shaker card using the Brighter Days stamp set. To make the pond, I sprayed a half A4 piece of card using Cracked Pistachio, Chipped Sapphire and Salty Ocean Distress Spray Stains together with Peacock Feathers and Uncharted Mariner Distress Spritz.   I stamped the circles using Uncharted Mariner Distress Oxide and then spattered some metallic chameleon watercolour for a little sparkle. After trimming the panel to 5¼” square, I blended Uncharted Mariner around the edges. Next, I used a craft knife to cut a freeform shape.   After attaching heat resistant acetate to the back of the hole, I white heat-embossed the circles. I glued the back of the pond to a piece of navy card and applied foam tape to the back of the top piece.   After adding sequins onto the back piece, the top section was stuck in place.   The navy card was then trimmed to size...

Sadly, I recently needed a sympathy card for my friend who lost his Mum.   It is difficult making cards for such occasions but I find inspiration knowing that the card I send might just help ease their pain a little.   To make this card, it was a first outing for Visible Image’s Forever In Your Heart stamps and matching die. To begin, I made a couple of inky panels using the ink smooshing technique.   I pressed Shaded Lilac, Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord Distress Inks onto my craft mat, spritzed on some water and dabbed my card into the puddles. Once I’d finished the brighter one that I was going to use for the feathers, I spritzed a little more water and pressed the second piece of card into the inks.   As there was less ink and more water, the colours are more muted. I stamped the feather using Versamark ink, added bronze embossing powder and heat set it before cutting out the feather with the matching die.   Even though the ba...