Fuchsias

Fuchsias are one of my favourite flowers, and I have a few in the garden. So, as this week I am working on "F", I decided I wanted to include them in my project. That way I cover flowers and the colour! I also decided to make a Fold Over Box, following the sizing guide from Beccy's Place.

I have never made fuchsias before, so found a great tutorial from Archana Joshi. I was surprised at how straightforward they are to make, and how effective they look.

So, you need a rounded petal flower and a pointed petal flower. Archana uses punches, but I don't have them and after rummaging through my dies, I found these old Crafter's Companion Classiques dies called Forget Me Not. The most Fuchsia colour I could find in my inks was Picked Raspberry, and I decided to use Distress Oxide. This is for the outer part of the flower and needs inking on both sides. For the inner part of the flower, I used Spun Sugar, but only inked the central part.

    

One of the interesting things from the video, is the detail for the stamen. One of the stamens needs to be longer than the rest - and this one should be white. I used a bit of wire to secure them together, and wrapped it in a bit of green floral wire. This might be better done afterwards, but I though it might give a bit of stability. The inner part of the flower needs to be like a cup - and although she used foam, she didn't heat it. I did heat it as it kept the cup shape better. The outer part is shaped using a very small ball tool. I didn't have one that small so used the end of my Crafter's Companion quilling tool. You move the ball from the tip of the petal to the centre of the flower.

  

I love that she showed how to make a bud too. I started with some green floral wire as this is much stronger than the wire I used for the stamens. I didn't have any white floral tape, so used (as she suggested) white tissue paper. You then thread on the flower top, and use glue (I used a hot glue gun) to stick down each petal in turn. 

 

  

The next step is to wrap the piece just below the flower in white floral tape or, in my case, white tissue paper. This is then coloured with the same ink as the flower. The same is done with the white part on the bud. I would highly recommend watching the video as it was so helpful and I am so pleased with how these turned out. I shall definitely be making them again. And also checking out more of Archana's tutorials.

  

For the fold over box, you need a piece of card 10"x10" and two pieces 6" x 9". I used A3 Centura Pearl Hint of Gold.  The two smaller pieces are scored at 3" on one side. The small panel provides an overlap for the spine, and these are stuck together.  The box is scored at 3" on all sides, and cut and folded up.

      

For additional F's (and E's) I used a Fairy topper from Crafter's Companion Faerie Poppets CD, and Fussy Cut a couple of the layers. The Embossed card is (although it doesn't show very well) the paler pink card that I mat and layered with.

 

In her tutorial, Beccy shows a way of fastening the box, but I chose to go with fuchsia ribbon. This was taped onto the inside of both sides, and the covered with the decorative mats and layers. including the fuchsia coloured card, the pink embossed card, and a patterned paper from the Faerie Poppets CD.

    

The outside of the card , and the outside and inside of the box were decorated in the same way.

 

The Faerie Poppet and the Fuschias were added to the front, with a bow and some pearls.

So, there you have my Fuchsia Fold over box with Fuchsias, Flower Forming Foam, a Fairy, Fussy Cutting and elements from the Faerie Poppets CD. 

Happy crafting!

Cxxxx 

Hats - Go Large!

There's always fads and fashions and trends in any area - and one of the most recent in the craft world was the hat easel. I resisted for a while, but then decided to have a go myself. I found some instructions on Positively Papercraft - with two different posts sharing instructions and videos for construction and for two different hat boxes.

I decided that I wanted to go much bigger than this, so I have adapted the sizes  - but pretty much followed the assembly. I didn't bother with the fancy boxes - but did make a box to deliver it in - more details later. I really relied heavily on my Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle dies - both the ordinary set and the Grand set - which I have had in my stash for a very long time. The measurements that I mention are in relation to these dies. 

To make this (at this size - which is just over 7"), you will need 2 sheets of A3 card for the easel base. I used Centura Pearl card from the Pastels pack. I used one sheet and cut a long strip off - 15 1/2" x 2 1/2" - you will need this later. The rest of this piece of card was scored and folded at 8 1/4" and then the base was cut with the largest Spellbinder circle die that I have - 7 1/4".  Once cut,  one side of the easel was cored a 3 5/8".

Please note: some of the photos are of another hat easel I made as I didn't take many photos while making this.

The strip that was cut needs to be scored at 1/2" and 2", and then notches cut into it as shown below.

This will form the sides of the hat, and is attached to a circle of 4 3/4" diameter as shown below.

It's then all about assembly. I started by decorating the hat top as I found this easier to do before sticking in onto the large circle. I used strips of patterned paper 1 1/4" wide to go around the hat top, and then went round with ribbon. I added a 4 1/4" circle in a patterned paper to the very top

You need another 7 1/4" circle for the top of the easel card - which serves as the brim of the hat. On this one I added a 7 3/8" scalloped circle in green, a 6 1/4" circle in orange, a 5 3/4" circle in the patterned paper, and a 5 1/8" scalloped circle in the original Centura Pearl. Onto this, you glue the hat top.

For the easel base, I used the same size circles and scallops as above, but added another green 4 5/8" scalloped circle. In other ones I have made, I have added another 3 3/4" circle on the top of that - but didn't do that here.

For the sentiment/stopper, I used a green 2 3/4" circle, an orange 2 5/8" scalloped circle and the sentiment was stamped onto a 2 3/8" circle of the Centura Pearl. For other ones I have made, I started with a 3 1/8" scalloped circle of the original card I made the base from.  The sentiment was stamped in Stazon - Cactus Green and sentiment is from an old Crafter's Companion Sentimentals stamp set.

I then decorated the hat brim with bow in the same ribbon as I used before, and then some flowers I made using Flower Forming foam (see my post here).

I did make a very simple box for this. I used two 12x12 sheets of Core'dinations card and used my Big Score to score at 2 1/4" all the way round. I have made 5 of these in total, and I will share the other designs as and when I give them to the recipients throughout the year - one is not until December - but the next one is only a few weeks away. 

Happy crafting!
Cxxxx

Birthday Tea

It was my lovely sister-in-law's birthday a few days ago. I made her this card using Hunkydory Pick and Mix - A Tea-licious Day.  

Behind the topper, I used Crafter's Companion 5x5 Tea Party Create a Card, cut in pale blye card. The other matts and layers are matt gold card, pink dots from Sara Signature Little Angel, and some pink Core'dinations. The flower is Sara Signature English Country Garden Lazy Daisy and Grand Floral.

I also dug out some Card Candy, and added a few pearls. 

Will be back in the next couple of days with the new challenge over at Use Your Craft Stash.

Happy crafting!

Cxxxx

The start of something ......

A new decade is upon us, and the last year of the previous one saw lots of change for me with my crafting. I stepped down from my Design Team and Demo work with Crafter's Companion, and took on more in the realms of the teaching day job. It all became very busy and I lost track of crafting just for me (and this blog), and I was just keeping on top of cards for family and friends. 

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed making my Christmas Cards with my absolute favourite product from the past couple of years - my Foilpress. But that is all past and it's time to get back to where I was before DT's and Demonstrations made crafting feel harder and more pressurised that it needed to be. 

So, here is my first card of the year - and indeed the decade - a birthday card for my Mother-In-Law made using Hunkydory's Square Little Book of Florabunda. There's nothing quite like a bit of fussy cutting to create your own decoupage!!

I love the colours of this topper - and reflected that in the mats and layers - and the sentiment (Crafter's Companion Essentials Sentiment Dies).

Will hopefully not leave it a whole year this time, before posting again.

Take care,

Cxxxx

Catching Up!

Afternoon. Am on a catch up to blog the backlog of cards I have not shared. So, I have a quick post today. 

This card is made from a Hunkydory topper and card collection - can't for the life of me remember the name at the minute. 

I've used a ribbon and sparkler for embellishment - and cut the letters using Crafter's Companion Essentials Only Word Alphabet dies. 

As I said, short and sweet today!!

Hopefully back fairly soon!!
Cxxx

A Little Blue

More playing with Imagination Crafts products - and an outing for my Gel Press - to create this blue card. 

The list of the things I've used is:

Sheena White Stamping Card

Core'dinations Card - Blue

6x6 Gel Press

7x7 Mega Mount (Clarity Stamp)

Imagination Crafts:

Starlight Paints - Heather, Mint, Clotted Cream, Mediterranean Sky

Starlight Wax - Dark Orchid

Stencil - 6x6 - Grungy Ledger

Rice Paper 198

Art Stamps - Distress Set 1

Magi Bond Decoupage Glue

I started by painting Heather, Mint and Clotted Cream Starlight paints onto Sheena White Stamping Card.

I spritzed over with water and smoothed the paint out.  

This was then run through my Gemini with the Grungy Ledger stencil, 

 And Dark Orchid Starlight Wax applied over the top with a bit of cut and dry.

The next step was to apply the paint to the gel plate. This time I used Mediterranean Sky instead of the Mint. 

I got a bit carried away with the paint and put too much down, so had to work in off onto some paper. 

Once I had it at a reasonable level, I then used the script stamp to remove the paint from the plate. 

I then pressed this onto another piece of Stamping Card, and used it to cut a frame (as ever I managed to miss out a few steps!!

 I edged the stencilled piece with more Dark Orchid wax, and mounted it onto the card (made from more stamping card.

I cut more frames out of stamping card and blue Core'dinations card, and mounted them over the stencilled piece.

 The image is a cut from the Rice Paper, and attached to the card using Magi Bond decoupage glue. It was then mounted on blue and white card. The whole things was finished with a bow.

Back with more later.

Cxxx

Applique House

Here is the third in my set of sewn applique card. They are for a group of friends - seven in total - so four more will appear through the rest of the year!!

This one uses Crafter's Companion Cottage Applique die set, with lots of little scraps from my box. This was ironed onto a piece of calico, then quilted onto patterned and plain cotton. 

The frame is cut with Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Squares from a 12x12 sheet of DCWV Luxury Cardstock Stack. It's finished off with flat back pearls, paper roses, and printed and satin ribbon.

Cxxx 

A Pink Thank You

It's getting to the time of year when lots of people are looking to say thank you to teachers and other school staff. I was asked to make a couple of thank you cards - this is the first of them.

The base is a 7x7 scalloped card blank. I started by adding a piece of pink paper (I think from Kanban Love and Marriage paper pad), and softened it by adding a piece of the printed acetate from Sara Signature Flutterby collection. The outer pink frame (cut with Spellbinders Grand Squares) and the inner pink mat are from a very old Create and Craft Textured Card pad.  

The patterned papers are from pads bought at The Works. I then used Crafter's Companion 5x5 Country Garden Create a Card, to cut the decorative mat from Centura Pearl Snow White card. For the coloured parts, I re-cut the die with pink papers and fussy cut the pieces out. 

The sentiment is Crafter's Companion Classique Only Words, and the circle mount is the centre of Crafter's Companion 6x6 Aurora Create a Card die. I finished off with paper roses from The Range, and organza ribbon. 

Back soon (hopefully)

Cxxx

50th Birthday Teacup

It was my lovely sister-in-law's 50th birthday recently, and I made her this card for the big day. The card is 8" x 8", and I used a topper and backing card from Create & Craft's - Birthday Celebrations Pack. Both were mounted onto red card for an extra "pop". The numbers are cut with Crafter's Companion 1" dies, and the name with Essentials Alphabet dies. 

I added a massive bow made of red organza and a co-ordinating pinky satin, topped with a Hobby House Sparkler. A very simple - but hopefully very effective - card.

Cxxx