Trees

This card was made using various products from Chocolate Baroque - background paper from the Essence of Nature CD; stamps from Tall Trees and  matching ones from the Teeny Tiny Meadow set which has smaller versions of the same trees as well as tiny grasses etc.  The small stamps and sentiment were stamped onto Tim Holtz die cut tickets.

Boys, Boys, Boys

The challenge this month on the Get Funky blog is 'boys, boys, boys' and as usual there is a great freebie download suitable for the theme. I decided to use this robot which is on the Craft the year Away CD - after all what boy of any age doesn't like robots?  Two papers from the January Blues section of the CD were used, the robot was printed onto scaled down versions of the papers and cut out for paper piecing. Now I've seen it on the screen I think I will add a couple of buttons at the bottom right.

Make My Monday challenge 8

Over on the MMM blog they are still on a vintage theme but this week they are asking for lace and pearls and there are some great DT cards for inspiration if you take a look.  I've used background paper with pearl buttons, a Cuttlebug button strip embossing folder and some lace which was white so I coloured it to match the rest of the card. The image is from Crafty Individuals and I've popped it into a frame made using a Nestie with a Nellies die. The larger die cut shape (courtesy of my friend Anne - thanks) is a top note die from Stampin Up (by Sizzix) and it has been overstamped using Stampin Up Strength and Hope set which is where the butterfly came from too and I just added a few matching pearls to complete the card.

Froggy Treat

When is an owl not an owl?  When it's a frog!  I'd made a little treat holder (similar in shape to a book of matches) and it has a little window inside to hold a chocolate treat - or any other treat really.  (Tutorial on Split Coast Stampers). The obvious thing is to pop in chicks for Easter, Santas for Christmas and so on but when I called into my local branch of M & S to see what was around I found some little foil wrapped chocolate frogs but hadn't got around to using them yet until I was thinking of other ways in which I might use my cute Stampin Up owl punch.  I've managed to turn him into a frog of sorts - I've not taken a picture of the inside because the foil on the chocolate is extra shiny and reflections are causing a problem.

Bah humbug Challenge 29

My lovely owl punch arrived from Stampin Up and I really wanted to have a play so I worked out a way to incorporate owls and the requested BEADS for the Bah Humbug challenge this week.  I turned two of them into Santa owls and sat them on chimneys - fine but how to use beads?  Then I had the idea of die cutting and embossing some trees and decorating one of them with tiny beads so now these two Santas are sitting on the rooftop with their own tree relaxing after delivering all the presents.  The sentiment is from a set of Joanna Sheen owl stamps which I remembered I had lurking around somewhere - I do love owls!!

Forgotten Friday 26

Friday again and time to visit Judith's Forgotten Friday blog - well worth a visit as she has made a beautiful bird card.  For my card this week I've visited an old and almost forgotten technique (temporarily forgotten by me anyway!!) using decorative paper napkins.  The traditional way to do this is to use 'mod podge' or decoupage glue to adhere the top picture layer onto a piece of card but I tried the modern way with some cling film and an iron but be aware that not all cling film works (there are tutorials on the web).  Doing it this. way gives a very flat smooth result and I'm not sure I don't prefer the slightly textured effect you get when using the 'messy' method.  The background paper is some which I've had for some time, months in fact ever since a friend asked me to pick her up a couple of sheets from my local craft shop and naturally I couldn't resist buying some for myself, promptly stored it away and forgot I had it!! The flower was made with a Marianne die and a flower punch using up odd scraps from my HUGE bits box - why is it I just cannot throw out anything unless it's smaller than a postage stamp??

Bear with Flower

The other week I spotted a give-away on a magazine of some Lili of the Valley images on card  to colour and cut out so I couldn't resist - pity the magazine wasn't as good as the images but I reckon it was worth it because there were 20 different images..  This one has been coloured with Promarkers and Copics.  Background papers are from my stash, sentiment was computer generated using My Craft Studio and I added a Marianne die cut butterfly.