Box card

Do you feel, like me, that you are wasting those beautiful double sided 12x12 papers by only using one side?

If so, this fairly simply constructed shaped card is for you... it allows both sides of the paper to get seen and only requires your basic crafting tools.

Age is...

It has been so hot over here that I couldn't even lift a stamp! Which is why it's been so quiet these last weeks on my blog. But, today there is a break in the weather and I have managed this item:

Tropical heat

Hot, hot, hot... a taste of the tropics!

Wildlife in my garden

Today I'm showing my second inspiration piece for the Country View Challenges on the Summer Garden theme, hosted by the lovely Jane.

Wild flowers in my garden

Our new challenge starts today at Country View Challenges and this time the theme has been chosen by teamie Jane, Summer Garden.

Roses are red

Today for my second Crafts U Love inspiration make, I created a card with a new stamp from the Studio light So Spring collection. The main stamp is a lovely big rose with whimsical leaves, perfect for those who enjoy colouring.

I stamped and embossed the rose before painting with watercolours.
To get the variation of tone in the petals, I find the easiest way is to first paint the petal with water and then apply the colour where I want the darkest tone.
Whilst the watercolour is still wet I can pull out the colour and fade it out to the edge of the petal where the colour should be the lightest.







I painted the leaves and traced the branch with the same colour along the embossing.

The butterfly was painted in the same way and I used a fine liner in black to highlight the antennae.

Finally I added adhesive stones at the end of the antennae, along the swirls and also in one corner of the card.

I matted the image on blue cardstock to match the blue of the butterfly.

You will find all these supplies at Crafts U Love:

Studio Light So Spring stamp set n0 285 Rose
Emboss Embossing Stamp Pad
Tonic Studios Glacier White Nuvo Embossing Powder
Prima Watercolour Confections Watercolour Pans - The Classics
Manuscript Black Fine Liner Pens
Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue 125ml
WaterArt Watercolour A4 Paper Pack
Papermania 2mm Adhesive Stones - Silver

The rest of the design team is also posting today and will be featured on the Crafts U Love page.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday, Paperbabe challenges.

In the Spotlight at Stamplorations

Welcome to a very special Stamplorations post!

This June marks the 5th anniversary of Stamplorations and Shery has several surprises for you to celebrate.

To read up on all the details click on the image above to find the post. This month, instead of our regular challenges, we are having only one with the theme "CASE the STAMPgirls". All month long STAMPgirls get to be in the spotlight and pick 3 of their favourite projects as well as create a new project (or a few!).

For those of you who aren't sure about what CASEing is, we loosely take it to mean that you copy something from our projects in order to create your own. It can be the colour combination, the layout, a particular element.

You can CASE any project shown this month although, of course, I'm hoping that you will choose one of mine...

Dare to Dream

The written word, our theme for the Country View Challenge this month, is perfect for Journalling, after all journals are originally all about words! Today I'm showing a journal page featuring stamps for my journaling instead of handwriting as I don't like my own…

Engagement card

The announcement have been made in Facebook but if you missed it... I have the honour of joining the Craft U Love Design Team!!!

For my first make I decided to create a romantic card, appropriate for newly engaged or married couples. And since in the UK we had a wedding that attracted much interest across the world, I used a photo of our royal couple for illustration purposes.

I made a stepper card from an 7"1/2"x12" piece of card and cut 5 pieces of paper from the Studio Light 6"x6" Memories of Summer paper pad to decorate the steps and central panel.

I created several embellishments from the Studio Light So Spring die set (SS78). This set is perfect for weddings and engagement cards and will also be perfect for Valentine's makes and all year round whenever you need hearts!

I die-cut 4 flowers and gave them a Glitter Gems centre.
The frame, arrow and fish tail tag have been given a distressed gold foil treatment by applying Hot foil and rubbing with a scoring tool whilst hot.

I threaded the arrow through the intertwined hearts and glued both down.





To make the vellum enveloppe I drew a rectangle within a square on a scrap piece of vellum as shown, then scored, cut and folded. To glue the flaps down I used Cosmic Shimmer Glue  because it has a fine nozzle.
I filled it with a mix of sequins  and glued it shut attaching the heart "waste" from the die-cut frame.  I used classic sequins in Mermaid Tail mix but the Tonic Studios Nuvo Pure Sheen Confetti pack is fabulous for this as it has 4 different kinds in the pack and exists in several colourways.

Side views of the card:

Supplies:
Studio Light Memories Of Summer 6" x 6" Paper Pad No.77  NOTE: link is to 78 not 77
Studio Light So Spring Cutting & Embossing Die Set - No.78
Eleganza Craft 8 mm Glitter Gems - Light Pink
Couture Creations Foil - Gold Vintage Matte Finish
Creative Expressions White A4 Vellum
Sequins
Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue 125ml

I hope you'll like my first make for Crafts U Love, I will be back later this month for a second piece of inspiration.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenges.

The written word

New Month, new challenge at Country View Crafts and our theme for June has been chosen by the lovely Teresa as "The written word". Time to show you my favourite script stamps I thought...

Crafty Individuals Project 6 - Landscape

For my final  GD make for Crafty Individual this month, I created another scene but this time on a bigger scale. I have aimed to make it look like a watercolour painting, but without any need for drawing!

Words and music

Just managed to create this tag and write the blog post, having battled my PC which is giving me headaches. Talking about problems, have you had email notifications of comments posted on your blogs lately? Mine have stopped since the 25/05, I suspect this is related to the GDPR implementation but Blogger didn't put out any notification so who knows...

The inspiration for the tag is words and music, in particular a song by Diana Ross and the Supremes, Reflections.
The background started with a printed paper by Studio Light Memories of summer. I stamped with the large Musicality stamp and applied some crackle paste around a few edges, highlighting the crackle with Distress Ink in Walnut.
I added my feature stamp fading out the edges and the Reflection stamp, which you will note has lots and lots of words behind it, making it so perfect for both Words and the song I'm illustrating!

To finish I added a bit of faux stitching with a pen, having realised that my tag was too thick for my sewing machine!

Stamps used:
Docrafts: A5 Clear background Musicality
Paper Artsy: ESN07
Lost Coast Designs: Head in Hands

I'm off trying to fix my PC and if all goes well I'll be able to drop some of your blogs to leave comments (which you won't be notified about!)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

I am entering the SSS Monday Challenge, Paper Artsy, SSS Wednesday Challenge, Vintage Journey, That's Crafty challenges.