Altered Pegs

Today over at The Stamp Attic I am sharing a little project I made using wooden pegs.  I’m really pleased how they turned out.  I’m going to have to make some more of these.  So much more fun using pegs like this than using them for washing!

To see all of the details just pop on over to The Stamp Attic blog.

The papers looked a little bit too bright too so just by adding a bit of Ranger Distress Tea Dye ink everything looked a little bit shabbier.

Thanks to my teamies over at Paper Issues I’m trying to expand my horizons by doing things other than cards.  Their work is just absolutely outstanding, you can’t help but be inspired by them.

I’m entering this tag/peg into Top Tip Tuesdays where the challenge is to use patterned papers and create your own handmade flower.  I know there are a lot of these little handmade flowers flying around on blogs but I just wanted to show you how I use my curved tweezers.  I really find they help me get a better shape.

1. For my little flower I just cut out a circle (well let’s just say a circle even though as you can see it’s a very raggedy one!!) I wanted the flower to be a bit shabby so I wasn’t bothered about it being perfect
2. Starting from the outside I cut a raggedy spiral shape until I got to the centre. 
3. Using my curved tweezers I picked up the outer end of the spiral
4. Working towards the centre of the flower I wound the spiral around the end of the tweezers
5. Keeping the bottom part of the spiral level I continued towards the centre of the spiral (this makes it easier to stick once complete)
6. Once wound I gently removed the flower from the tweezers and let it unravel slightly to create a flower
7. You will see that the centre of the spiral becomes a base on which you can use some glue to hold it together
8. Once glued I squashed the flower down a little to age it

Hope you like!  Have a go, they really are fun!

I have issues – Paper Issues!

Guess what!!  I made it onto the Paper Issues Creative Team!  I’m SO excited. Woohoo, I’m doing the happy dance!  I am joining some really talented girls so thanks Cassie for inviting me to join the team :o) Pop on over to the blog to see who else is being added, you’re in for a treat. I’m looking forward to joining in on the fun!








The latest challenge theme is to create something red, white and blue, so I thought that I would make a card for the US girls that will be celebrating Independence Day on Monday.  I have worked with lots of US teamies during my various DT roles, and wanted to celebrate with them somehow.  I know there are a lot of US gals on the Paper Issues team, so this is for you too!

I thought I would play around with the idea of rainbows.  I won a gift certificate over at DeNami a while back and haven’t got around to inking this up yet.  My rainbow’s colours are a bit random but that’s one of the things I love about card making, it doesn’t matter does it?!  They say we are the artists so anything goes!

This close up shows a bit more of the dimension..



For this card I started off by tying a big blue bow around the card and then created the little panel.  I stamped a cloud on the top right, added a paper pieced rainbow over the top of it and then added another cloud and the little Copic coloured chick in the balloon, with pop dots to give added dimension.  I’m not sure if everyone calls them ‘pop dots’, but basically they are the little foam pads, I somehow got into the habit of calling them pop dots and the name has stuck!  (I've had a few people give me puzzled looks wondering what I'm talking about when I mention them!)  To finish I stamped the sentiment, rounded the top corners of the panel and attached it with more pop dots.  I also rounded the top corners of the card base to match.

Tip: I didn’t have the right blue to match the ribbon, my blue was a bit dull,  so I just stamped my rainbow onto white cardstock (suitable for Copics) and coloured it in with a blue Copic to match.  I just put a dot of each of the closest colours down onto a piece of scratch card and then held it against the ribbon to see which was the closest match.. voila, your own hand coloured cardstock. I love that you can use your Copics for more than just colouring images.  Have you tried colouring in embellishments yet, or your ribbon?  It’s great to be able to colour co-ordinate ribbons and things with your cards.

So if you’ve got nothing to do pop on over to the Paper Issues blog and check out some of the talent over there!

Happy blurfing!

Supplies:
Stamps: DeNami Design ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Chickie in Balloon’ , Hero Arts ‘Sky’s the Limit’
Accessories: Ribbon from stash, assorted cardstock scraps
Copics:

Follow Your Dreams

Happy Sunday!

It’s been a lazy day here for us today.  I seem to have done nothing all day lol.  Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing!



I wanted to make a CAS card for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge for which the theme is graduation.



I decided to use the bike from Lawn Fawn ‘Cruising Through Life’ set. I wanted to move away from the traditional graduation type card with a mortarboard and do something a little bit different and thought this little sentiment says it all.  Lawn Fawn images are always such good fun to colour in too. 

I was inspired by Kelly Marie Alvarez’s one layer card with the bike and thought I would have a go.  I’m not sure I’ve actually made that many one layer cards.  Yay, another thing ticked off my to do list! I used one butterfly from ‘Blissful Botanicals’ and another from ‘Critters in the Burbs’.  I love how you can mix and match all of the sets with a bit of thought. I added grass from a Hero Arts set, Stamp a Garden.

I’m also going to enter this card into Just Some Lines for their graduation theme.

I’m not sure if any of you have seen it, but we’ve been watching ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.  The start of tonight’s show made me wonder if we have lol.  Do any of you watch it?  I’d love to hear what you think!

Etsy Inspired Challenge #137– Imagine Studio

Hi again everyone.  It's time for our Etsy Inspired Challenge.

This week we are playing along with Imagine Studio.  The winner will get a prize of any 5 x 7 print of their choice, and you will be spoilt for choice!  This is the picture that inspired me.  The dress reminded me of the wings of a butterfly so I chose to use some stamps from Hero Arts, Antique Engravings and an old text stamp, a few copics, B91, B93, B95, E25, E27, R81, R83, R85, some Stickles and finally a piece of pink ribbon to finish it off.

 

I just LOVE the images in this shop, absolutely gorgeous.  I found so so many that I could use to inspire me, it took ages to dwindle my list down to this image.  Here are some that I love too..



We are being sponsored by EAD Designs but unfortunately my Stickerz didn’t arrive in time, I will have to use them when they get here.   The winner prize is a $25 Gift Certificate.  Some of EAD’s design team will also be playing along, so check out more on their blog here.

Don’t forget to pop on by to our DT too to see some more projects inspired by this fab shop.

Angi Barrs
Carole Chesser
De Swanick
Emily Branch
Jackie Bowman
Joy Stagg
Kerry Angeles
Kimme Leach (April Guest Designer)
Ruby McGuire (that's me!)
Savannah O'Gwynn
Sherry Campbell
Virginia Lu
 
Deadline for entries is Friday 6th May at noon PST. If posting to an online gallery please use EIC#137.

So join in the fun for a chance to win a fun prize.