Felt Flower Card and Tag

I had a birthday card and gift tag to make for an upcoming birthday so thought I'd join in on a couple of challenges while I was making them - Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Use Your Favourite Technique and/or Product.

In the Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe Challenge I picked the line with circles, birthday theme and your favourite colour. My favourite colour would be a toss up between blue and green and I love combining both colours with white. For the Simon Says Stamp Challenge I used a favourite technique, stitching, and favourite product is Hero Arts Stamp & Cut sets.

Stamp & Cuts sets (Hero Arts) - Butterfly and Flowers and Happy

I stamped the flowers and leaves on felt and, after the ink had dried, hand stitched the images and cut out. To finish I added buttons and sequins to the flower centres. The die cut sentiment on the card was cut from a scrapped watercolour background that I made ages ago and the "birthday" sentiment was stamped using faded jeans distress ink. To finish I added a sprinkling of sequins.

After die cutting the gift tag, I stamped the sentiment with faded jeans distress ink, added a flower and some sequins.

Butterfly and Flowers Stamp & Cuts set (Hero Arts), Birthday Messages (Hero Arts) and Pierced Circles Dies (Spellbinders)

Card on a Card Scramble

Yesterday in the Hero Arts Flickr Group Jayne hosted a great Scramble with the theme a card on a card. I don't think I've ever made a card on a card before but I think it's something I'll do again and again.

The ninety minutes to make, photograph and upload a card really flies by so I just tried to make a quick and easy card. To create a mini card I folded white cardstock and then die cut a circle (through both layers) at the folded edge but kept the fold just inside the circle die. After die cutting the flower shape out of the front of the mini card, I added a piece of backing card which had been stamped with the woodgrain pattern. I used shabby shutters distress ink spritzed with water. The flower was stamped on patterned paper and layered.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Butterfly and Flowers Stamp & Cut set, It's Your Day and Woodgrain Background

To finish the flower I added clear Wink of Stella and a button. After adding the flower to the mini card I used foam dots to adhere the mini card to a kraft die cut scallop circle.

I'm submitting this card into Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe Challenge using the circles, background stamp and watercolour.

Making Roses out of the Messy Bits

Recently I bought a beautiful set of Spellbinders dies called Tudor Rose and used a couple of the dies on a card, gift bag and set of cards for a friend's upcoming birthday.

I have lots of what you could charitably call experimental pieces but in reality they are messed up inked or painted backgrounds that didn't work out and could never use in solid pieces!

Anyway over the years I've found that these kind of yucky panels can look okay if used in smaller amounts rather than in big solid pieces. Because of this I never dump my inking disasters as they'll always get used up in some way.

For the flowers I used the die cut inlay technique which I always enjoy. This is the card I made for my friend

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamps (Hero Arts) - It's Your Day & Be Happy

and this is the matching gift bag.

Dies - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders) & Goodie Bag (Lawn Fawn)
Embossing Folder - Textile Texture (Cuttlebug)

Since I was enjoying making the flowers and clearing out some of my messy pieces, I continued making flowers and put together a little set of cards to include with my friend's birthday pressie.

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Making the World a Better Place (Hero Arts)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - It's Your Day (Hero Arts)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)
Embossing Folder - Butterfly Corner (Darice)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)
Embossing Folder - Butterfly Corner (Darice)

It's hard to see in the photos above, but each flower is layered in the centre and I've applied Wink of Stella (love that stuff!) on the flowers for some lovely shimmer.

I'm submitting these cards and gift bag into Simon Says Stamp Friends or Superhero Challenge.

Cow Wrangler

I wanted to join in on a couple of Simon Says Stamp Challenges - the Make it Masculine Challenge and Flickr Challenge #20 with this cute and summery inspiration photo:



The greens in the inspiration photo made me think of the cows here out on the lush green pastures during the summer and the smiley sun in the photo inspired the cartoon cow and circular window. For masculine cards I usually try to keep things fairly plain and simple but like to throw in some humour and texture at the same time.



Stamp - Birthday Farm Animals (Simon Says Stamp)
Dies - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp), Grassy Border (Lawn Fawn) & Circles Nestabilities (Spellbinders)

I die cut the card face using the rectangle die from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes and then die cut the circular window. The die cut grass was layered behind the window and I used a piece from an old pair of jeans for the background. After stamping and colouring the cow I paper pieced the sentiment in orange because it's so often used for stitching and tabs on jeans. Once the cow was complete I nestled him in the grass and adhered the card front to a kraft card base.

Tropical Birthday

Hero Arts has a great Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge this month so when I had a bit of time to get inky this morning I just had to join in on the fun.

With the card I made I (accidentally!) managed to cover two of the lines - circles, background stamp & watercolour and background stamp, birthday theme & die cutting.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Tropical Background & Messages with Flourish
Die (Hero Arts) - Delicate Butterfly Fancy Die

I started by applying distress inks (spiced marmalade, worn lipstick & barn door) to the background stamp, spritzed with water and applied this to cream card. After the panel had dried I stamped the sentiment, die cut the opening and adhered some acetate at the back of the panel. The bright pink backing card for the shaker was also stamped with the same background stamp but because it was stamped in pink on pink it has left a very subtle pattern. After adding a mix of sequins and putting together the shaker panel I adhered it to a cream card base. My good friend Linda sent me the pretty butterfly - thanks again, Linda:)

I heat embossed the butterfly twice using enchanted gold embossing powder and used foam pads to attach it to the card.

My Mam is doggy sitting at the moment so this morning I brought Max, our hairy friend, for a ramble up the hill behind my Mam's house. Here are some photos I snapped along the way.

Enjoy your weekend!