Hello everyone.
A warm welcome to all my new followers of my blog. I hope that I can inspire you to go and create your own masterpieces. I also enjoy looking at your amazing blogs in return. I love that we can share and inspire each other.
While I was waiting for Close to My Heart to come to New Zealand my Aunt and I have been doing some experimenting. We had just had a fashion competition and show using toilet tissue to create beautiful fashion to wear. My Aunt works in a rest home and the residents were curious about how this would work and so she and I got together to see what art we could create out of toilet tissue. I would like to credit my Aunt for the idea but we worked together to see what we could do with the tools and materials I already had.
Firstly we used adhesive glue to glue several layers of tissue together and discovered by trial and error that we needed to let it dry overnight. So we had to make another date to finish off the die cutting.
Some dies cut better than others including the English Rose die from Marianne Creatables. These were easy to roll up into roses, and in fact they came up really well. Leaves and the little Memory Box Pippi Butterfly were also really good to die cut.
Here are some photos of us and our handiwork.
Here is my Aunt very busy getting all the flowers sorted. I did all the Cuttlebugging and she did all the rolling up of the roses. To finish these she bought small canvases to put the die cut ovals on and then she was going to get the residents to help choose which flowers and embellishments they want to make a little wall hanging for their rooms. She has based this on some cards that I have done and I will include a link at the bottom to give you an indication of what these may look like.
The dies I have used are:
Marianne Creatables LR0107 Flowers and leaf
Marianne Creatables LR0162 English Rose
Marianne Creatables LR0151 Branch
Marianne Creatables LR0206 Ivy
Marianne Craftables CR1205 Butterfly
Marianne Craftables CR1204
Memory Box Pippi Butterfly
I will try to get some pictures once the residents have done their artwork. I am really looking forward to seeing what they look like as the toilet tissue was challenging to work with, but in some ways the tissue was easier to manipulate into a nice shape.
Have a great day and Happy Crafting
Patricia
Welcome back to a short and simple post today.
The earthquakes have settled down and I have continued to make some more cards while waiting for the launch of Close to My Heart in New Zealand on the 1st September, and the opening of Make Shift.
Today my theme for cards is the lovely Marianne Craftables CR1205 butterfly. I have tried to use a lot of different colours and techniques with these cards to show off the gorgeous butterfly.
The materials I have used here are:
Mariannes Craftables CR1205
Cuttlebug and embossing folder – Swiss Dots
Marianne Creatables Branches LR0151
Marianne Creatables LR0107
Fiskers small and medium flower punch
Creative Memories Custom Cutting System – ovals
Kaisercrafts greeting stamps
Close to My Heart Pink Glitter Gems
Kaisercraft Blue Pearls
Metallic paper from the local Variety Plus shop
Bazzill Bling cardstock – Diva
Peelcraft stickers
Scrap paper and cardstock from my stash
Base cards from http://www.cardmakers.co.nz
Marianne dies from http://www.kalsbeek.co.nz
I thought I might leave a couple of cards without greetings so people can use the card for whatever reason they need.
I hope you enjoy my offerings.
Happy Crafting
Patricia
Hello there
I felt this title was really appropriate after being shaken about over the last day or so. We had another big earthquake – this time it was 6.6 yesterday afternoon and then we had a series of aftershocks of over 6 about 5.30 pm. Very unsettling! The aftershocks have continued today and although I don’t feel most of them there are still some good sharp jolts. I am getting to know the light fittings in minute detail as they are a good indicator that we are having another shock.
However, we cannot live waiting for the big one to come so hence the mantra “Keep Calm and Keep Crafting” so I have continued to keep crafting. We are very close to making a special announcement for Make Shift so I have to keep working hard making cards. Today I am going to focus on one card and show you how I have made it.
Here is the completed card:
For the base card I have used a lovely cream linen finish card from www.cardmakers.co.nz.
I then embossed an A5 sheet of cream metallic cardstock with the Nellie Snellen embossing folder HSF005.
The embossed card was then trimmed to 10 cms by 14.5 cms to fit onto the base cardstock with a small edge around it. I find that my CM personal trimmer is great to get a good square cut. The cardstock I buy from the Cardmakers is slightly larger than the A5 cards, which is good as I like the layered look of the embossed card over the base card. It gives it an extra texture and dimension.
I then die cut the lovely oval frame from Marianne Craftables CR1204. This is a beautiful frame that comes with a flower as well. It sits in well with this embossed folder.
I then die cut all the embellishments out of the cream metallic card. I have found a heavier weight of card better for most of these embellishments. I have used Metallic quartz board from Direct Paper 285 gsm for these die cuts. For the roses I have used a lighter weight metallic paper from the local $2 store as this paper is much easier to roll up for the flowers.
The dies I have used are:
Marianne Creatables Branches LR0151
Marianne Creatables Ivy – LR0206
Marianne Creatables English Rose LR0162
To adhere the branch I have used my CM adhesive pen as it has a fine nib but any good adhesive pen would work.
I trimmed the bottom of the branch and placed it to follow the curve of the oval frame.
Unfortunately the photo of this placed on the frame has been corrupted and I am unable to show you this step.
I then placed the ivy over the flourish and here you can see the flourish on the frame.
The rose leaves were then placed over the ivy and branch.
The roses were made by using my quilling tool to roll the die cut flowers into a rose shape and using a quick drying glue to hold them into place.
The roses were then glued into place over the rose leaves and ivy. Here are some close up images.
To finish off the card I have placed a Peelcraft greeting on the oval. Here I have used a ‘happy anniversary’ greeting as I need to make some anniversary cards to add to the range of cards for Make Shift. But an elegant Happy Birthday would be lovely as well.
Once again here is the finished card:
Depending on the greeting used this card could be either a landscape or portrait card.
Before gluing everything together I played around with all the elements to ensure that I ended up with a pleasing arrangement.
I love the simplicity of the cream on cream and the metallic finish makes this card very elegant. It could be suitable for a lot of occasions depending on the greeting and die cutting numbers in gold could personalise this even more. (I am so looking forward to getting my Cricut and CTMH Cricut cartridges to add a greater dimension to my cards – couldn’t resist putting this in as we have a date to start on 1st September).
Here are another couple of variations including a cream and gold card using a gold base card:
The dies have been purchased through www.kalsbeek.co.nz. They have a great range of the Marianne Creatables and Craftables products and many more products to make fabulous cards. I have found their after sales service to be excellent.
Despite a couple of reasonable aftershocks I have finally managed to finish this post so I hope that you have found it useful and easy to follow.
So don’t forget to Stay Calm and Keep Crafting
Patricia
Welcome back to my blog and thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and leave comments. I really enjoy getting your feedback.
Here is some more cards for Make Shift and this time I tried to keep to a very simple colour theme. I love the look of cream on cream, gold and cream and white on white with lots of different textures and shapes. Plus I have added a little bling with some gold glitter cardstock to add some sparkle to a few cards. My Cuttlebug has had a good workout with the embossing folders and die cuts to create the different textures and patterns. I have also purchased some dies to make my own flowers and find that they add a different dimension to my cards.
I have used a few different companies to create these cards and the materials I have used are:
Memory Box dies – Cherry Blossom, Chloe, Pippi Butterfly
Spellbinders dies -Fantastic Flourish One, Fancy Framed Tag Two
Fiskar punch – flower
Marianne Creatables – English Rose (LRO162), Branches (LRO151), Ivy (LRO206), Lord and Lady (LRO211)
Marianne Craftables – CR1204
Embossing Folders – Nellie Snellen – HSF004 (oval frame) and HSF005 (rectangle frame)
Peelcraft Stickers
Kaisercraft pearls
Stampin’Up greetings
Ribbon from my stash
I hope that I have remembered all the materials I have used. As I have said before I am working through all my stash so that I can start fresh with Close to My Heart products.
I hope everyone has a great week.
Happy Crafting
Patricia
