Winter sparkle

Good Morning fellow crafters! Quite a dull few days here and feeling a bit chilly – feels like Autumn is already in the air! SO time to start thinking about the dreaded “C” word and get cracking making cards to cheer ourselves up!

I follow the lovely Lynnda Worsnop at Oak House Studio and recently saw her delightful English Garden Words stamps and while I was online ordering that I spotted her Winter Words Stamp too. This looked just right for winter floral cards or even for Christmas cards that are a bit different. We’re always looking for new ideas for Christmas themes aren’t we! I some Tattered Lace Winter floral dies which I thought would look just great with Lynnda’s stamp.I just love working with stamps and dies and enjoy the challenge of mixing and matching them to gain different effects.  So here goes…..

The wording s stamped on white stamping card using Ranger Coffee Archival ink then matted & layered with a complimentary colour Co-ordinations card stock. I’ve raided my paper stash (vast!!!) for some subtle green papers which, although not strictly Christmassy, I think work rather well. Using the Tattered Lace Helibore die, I’ve cut out the helibore and coloured with distress inks.The Tattered Lace Christmas Pine die have been used for the branches and coloured with distress inks before being sprayed with Crafters Companion Stick and spray and coated in Tattered Lace fine glitter to give them a lovely wintery sparkle. Oak House Studio’s Winter Words stamp has been placed over the background and adorned with the helibores and winter branches.

 

The copper & bronze card has been created using a background of a Tattered Lace Winter Wishes embossing folder finished with bronze & gold gilding wax.  Once again Lynnda’s Winter words stamp finishes of the card together with Tattered Lace helibores and branches die cuts and with the final addition of a double bow made using the fabulous Embellishment Attic Bow Maker I’m rather pleased with the overall effect.

 

At last I can now happily say I have started my Christmas Card making – a little later than I had planned as, like so many of us, I vowed this year to make so many each week so as not to be caught out by the last minute rush in December! Better late than never I suppose!

I hope you like my finished samples – Happy crafting

Lynda x

 

Floral Garland

Good Morning fellow crafters! Not such a bright day here where I live – hope you’re having some sunshine wherever you are!

So today lets add a bit of sunshine into our lives with a beautiful floral garland using Craftworks goodies!

Firstly to make the flowers – craftwork flowers are a joy to work with as they are all die cut and easy to assemble. The hard bit is trying to decide which to use and how many shapes you can create by mixing and matching! Here’s some examples of different combinations you can make.

    

Using the ready made cardboard ring from Craftworks or alternatively you could create your own using a circle cutter ( ideally the ring needs to be about 5 – 6 ” in diameter and 1/2″ wide, I tread ribbon through punched holes – organza is nice as it keeps the overall look very “soft and elegant”.

Next add the flowers in whatever arrangement you want. I usually add a few die cut leafs or scrolls to add the overall effect. Here’s a picture of a  finished floral Floral Garland. They make super gifts for brides at weddings if done all in white too !

Happy Crafting !

Lynda x

 

Summer Meadow

Good afternoon on this lovely sunny afternoon!

As it’s summer I thought I would make a card that reminded me of walks in summer meadows using some of my Tattered Lace dies and embossing folders.  As a child at a very small country school, our teacher would see that sometimes on a warm and balmy day we would be flagging and finding it difficult to concentrate on our lessons. She would gather us up ( all 11 of us in our year!) and take us for a walk down the local country lanes where we would gather wild flowers, leaves, feathers, berries, nuts – whatever treasure we could find amongst the hedgerows. We would then return to school and place all our treasures on the nature table for all to admire. Of course by then we had benefited from some fresh air and exercise and were raring to get back to our lessons again – wise old bird was our teacher!

The free Summer Pasture die on issue 7 of the Tattered Lace magazine seemed a good place to start with its forget-me-nots, periwinkles and daisies. For this card I started with a 6″ x 6″ white card blank. I used a Tattered Lace Chains embossing folder to create a background for the focal point of the Summer Pasture die. I used Tim Holtz Broken China distress ink to distress the edges of the embossed white card. A piece of blue floral paper from my paper stash was matted and layered with the embossed card onto plain blue card stock. The Summer Pasture die was cut in white card stock and coloured in with promarkers in shades of blue, green and yellow. The daisy centres were coloured in orange and small blue gems were used as centres for the forget me nots. Tattered Lace Margarite dies were used to make the 3 flowers which were placed in the bottom left hand corner of the card. The card was completed with the addition of  blue pearls and a sentiment from Craftwork Cards.

And here’s a photo of my finished card – I hope you like it and I hope it reminds you of a warm summer day in the country too !

Happy Crafting !
Lynda x