May Fairies

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a few projects to share with you today featuring our May Fairy set of stamps that were showcased on this month's shows on Create and Craft. 

My first project is a simple card using some of the May patterned papers designed by Lesley. I trimmed the paper slightly and added it to a DL black card base. I stamped the fairy and a couple of butterflies onto some smooth stamping card, and coloured them with pencils to match the patterned papers. I cut them out and attached them to the background. I popped the fairy into a flower, as if she was resting there, and added some shading under her foot using a green pencil. I stamped a sentiment from Words to Dazzle and Sparkle to complete the card.

I have used a mixture of stamps to create my next card. I found a background paper designed by Lesley from my stash, and used the colours as the basis for the colour scheme. I added a dandelion head from Not More Flowers! and some dandelion seeds from Seasonal Fragments. The foliage stamped in green and heather tones is from Autumn Hedgerow, stamped in first and second generation stamping. The fairy blowing the dandelion appears to be making a wish, so I have used the same sentiment as before because it fits this card so perfectly.

I have used a couple of the smaller stamps from the May Fairy stamp set to create a little bookmark. I cut a rectangle of Drawing Cartridge and stamped the iris and butterfly from the stamp set. I added a sentiment from the Mindfulness stamp set. I painted the images with watercolour paints. I created a border with black card, punched a hole at the top and bottom and added some ribbon. This was quite a quick project, and you could make several of these in a session to give as gifts.

I made a pretty Floral card using the main image from the new Floral Abundance stamp set. I stamped this using a heather coloured ink for a change onto smooth stamping card and coloured the image with pencils. I created a background by stamping the Mindfulness word cloud repeatedly over a Distress Ink background. I used the same Heather coloured ink for the stamping to tie everything together. I used the Mindfulness stamp loose in my hand, rather than on an acrylic block, so that I could partially stamp the image in the little gaps between the circles, thereby creating a complete background.

Finally, I am sharing a quick progress photo of my concertina book. I am making this throughout the year using the patterned papers that Lesley designs each month, and using the fairies from each month's stamp sets. Once I had constructed the book, and added the black matting layers to each page, all I needed to do each month was to create the individual pages. The covers are designer papers from another set that Lesley created. I have decorated the front cover with stamps from the first half of the year, and intend to decorate the back cover with stamps from the second half of the year. It will be great to see this project through to the end and to look back at all of the designs once I have finished my book.

Thanks for stopping by, your visits are always much appreciated. xx

Floral Collages

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a couple of projects to share with you today, featuring stamps from our most recent TV shows on Create and Craft. We had a great mixture of brand new stamps and some fabulous useful favourites on the show, alongside some beautiful papers and some great little tools.

My first project is a journal page spread featuring lots of the stamps from the show. I started by stamping Rosella, a lovely large poppy stamp onto one of the pages, and masked this using Masking Tissue. I stamped a large circle from Make Your Mark, and masked this as well. I then started to build up the background, adding images from Numeri, Edgy Edges and Make Your Mark. I stuck to a colour palette of bluey purple, green and grey. I love this colour combination, and will definitely use it again. I added splatters of watered down watercolour paint over the background, and stamped the Rosella image twice more onto the opposite page.

I stamped the flower heads four times onto some scrap drawing cartridge and coloured these with watercolour paints. I cut them out and decoupaged the layers in sets of two and added them to the two flowers on the left hand page. I removed the circle mask from the other flower and added a circle frame mask so that I could add some colour to the circle shape itself on the page using some green ink. I removed the frame and the poppy mask. I coloured the flower using the watercolour paints.

Finally, I stamped some sentiments onto some scrap card that I had coloured when making a previous project. It toned in really well with my colour scheme. I also used masking tape to cover up parts of the Mindfulness stamp to leave a couple of the big wors, which I inked up, removed the tape, then stamped these onto some of the same coloured background. I added the sentiment strips onto the pages in a balanced way.

I really enjoy making journal pages. They are a great way of trying out ideas, that you can often adapt to cards at a later date. For example, the single flower with the circle highlight would make a great CAS card. You could use the flower with a single background stamping of the Numeri stamp on a card, or go for a more colloaged effect using a combination of these stamps as I have done in these pages. You can vary the colours, go for a monochrome colour scheme, opt for a traditional red poppy, or use similar colour to this layout, the sky really is the limit. If your ideas don't work out, just turn the page and start again. It's only a piece of paper, after all.

 My second project is a tag card. I used a plain white tag, but you could use the really useful Acrylic Tag Template Tool to create something similar. I stamped Blossom Spray twice onto the tag, and masked the images with Masking Tissue. I added some background colour to the tag using Distress Oxide Ink and a blending brush. I then stamped Scripted Fragments with grey Versafine Clair ink over the top before removing the masks. I coloured the flowers and leaves with coloured pencils.

I used a piece of black card to make a card blank, chopping off the corners to echo the shape of the tag. If you used the tag tool to make your tag, you could do the same thing with your folded black card to make your card blank, simply by using one of the circles around the tag template to get the larger size.

I will be back later in the month to share more projects with you. Thanks so much for stopping by, xx