Faux Leather Technique

A few weeks ago I saw Sheena Douglas demonstrate a faux leather technique using kraft card which can be worked into something which looks and feels very much like the real thing by the use of glycerine and water.  There is a video HERE if you want to see how it is achieved.  Of course at the time I wanted to try it immediately but would you believe that our chemist doesn't sell glycerine so I had to wait until I could visit  a larger 'chain' chemist shop.  This is my first effort which is quite basic and the piece I made has simply been glued onto a purchased notebook - said notebook was too tall for my piece of A5 card so I trimmed it down carefully using a ruler and craft knife.  There are all sorts of possibilities with this technique and it is quite simple to do only requiring glycerine, water, embossing folder, some inks and some kind of sealant such as 'spray and shine' although I used some acrylic wax which I happened to have.  Hopefully you can see the effect - not the easiest thing to photograph

Another Bear

I've used another of the Bingham Bear images to make this card.  Background is embossed using a Sue Wilson folder, image cut out with Sizzix (for Stampin' Up) starburst framelit die and some Spellbinder circles.  The lacy border was cut with Spellbinder border dies and the little stamped flowers are Petite Petals from Stampin' Up with punched centres.  Sentiment is a clear stamp which I curved on the block so that it would fit the Bitty Banner die cut.

A Bingham Bear

This card was made mainly from bits and pieces lying around on my working space - you know how it is you try out a die on an odd piece of card, cut a piece of backing paper, print an image or two and then don't actually make them into anything.  Today I decided to gather some of the bits together, match them up and make a quick card.  The image is from Bingham Bears by Serif, backing paper is from a Debbie Moore CD, corner die is a Spellbinder one, as is the plain kraft circle.  The bear was cut out using a Sizzix thin die (Stampin' Up) and the computer sentiment popped onto a smaller zig-zag circle and a punched label (also SU).  That's a few less odd bits and pieces cluttering up my space!!  I know it is officially spring now but today seems quite chilly to my way of thinking, nothing like as nice as last Sunday.

Make and Take

I've just returned from a Make and Take morning presented by the lovely Jill of Jill Stamps Up where we were shown a selection of Stampin' Up products and used some of them to make this pretty card in Spring-like colours.  The background was stamped using a stamp set which is free at the moment if you spend £45 on SU products (not difficult!!) and other stamps, punches and so on were used to complete the card.  Thanks Jill for some great ideas and thanks to Anne for hosting the morning and providing us with coffee and scrummy cake.

Time Flies...

This saying is so true - where has this week gone??  It is almost a week since my last post here so today I'm sharing a wedding or anniversary card which I made recently using die cuts from Marianne  together with a stamped and punched sentiment from Stampin' Up - what did we do before there were so many lovely dies available??

Banners Again

I'm so pleased I got this set of banner dies because I can see they are going to be so versatile and this card uses them in a different orientation with the addition of a shape cut using Apothecary Accents dies and stamps from the Wetlands set - all from Stampin' Up.  Background paper has been in my stash for ages but it seemed right for this card.  We had glorious sunshine yesterday and the same again today so it seems as if the weather is actually taking a turn for the better.

Banner with Roses

Today's card combines some banner die cuts made using Sizzix banner framelits dies (from Stampin' Up) and some roses stamped using their two-step stamp set called A Rose is a Rose - the flowers had to be cut out with scissors of course.  Colours used are Regal Rose and Rich Razzleberry with a couple of greens for the leaves (Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi).  Backing paper is from my stash and the sentiment was a clear stamp of unknown origin but it fitted the little tag strip quite nicely.