Wednesday 11 December 2013

OWL CLOCK COMMISSION

The Owl Clock project began after watching Hels Sheridan around June time during a Creative Expressions show. I missed the opportunity to buy and it took ages to source clocks as everywhere I looked had sold out, but I never gave up and eventually managed to acquire three.

The clock on the left is the first complete project and below is the story of how I achieved this result.






















 Firstly, I had to source the papers I had a vision of what I wanted and happened to come across the perfect papers on the Crafters Companion website (Downloads - August 2013 Parisian Florals) which I went ahead and printed several pages. I ripped a few pages into various sized pieces and decoupaged both the front and back boards using Pinflair Bookbinding glue, also sealing over with the same.

I then used various Staz On inks and wood mounted stamps from my stash to add interest to the front board, and also to distress the edges of both sections. (Having lightly sanded the edges first) By this time my fingers had gone through stages of being sticky, inky and gilded. (And Oh! I loved it)

The pendulum was gilded using flake and glitter glue with Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flakes.
The front base section and the owl pendulum (static)





The face of the clock showing the digit areas
 The (front) face of the clock was also decoupaged but with a whole sheet rather than pieces. Once dry I used the face as a template to create the piece for the numerals. Having traced the face outline and the twelve circles onto pink paper I used gold numeral peel offs to create the clock digits. using my EK Sucess circle cutter to cut out the face section I then glued this in place on the rear of the face. Again, waited for this to dry before adding Glossy Accents to the digit openings. Once dry I proceeded to stamp a butterly onto the face and other images with Staz On inks. I also used Staz On to ink both the plates which join both sections and proceeded to assemble the clock mechanism and the clock which I glued together with hot glue.

The back section left aside to dry before trimming

Once assembled and totally dry, I added some Sweet Lilac Flowers and some Cheery Lyn die cut Flourishes which I again sealed with Bookbinding glue.

                                   The front base section and the owl pendulum (static)



                                     Hope you have enjoyed reading this, as much as I enjoyed making the clock.

                             Thanks for visiting my blog page...Happy Crafting !!!

                 Karen x





















Friday 6 December 2013

CHRISTMAS WREATH EASEL CARD

Have been busy making cards for orders, so have added pictures of items used rather than explaining how I composed the finished card.

'Holly Flourish' - Cheery Lyn 

Wreath Base - Craftwork Cards

Christmas Post Paper Pad
 - Craftwork Cards

Christmas Paper Bows Pad
 - Craftwork Cards

Poinsettia Die - Tonic


Centura Pearl - Hint of Gold

Sweet Lilac Poinsettia (White/Red/Brown) plus other pink/white flowers

Base mat was created using Serif - Craft Artist

'Mum' and 'Dad' from Hunkydory Kit




Hope you like this, Happy Crafting ... Bye xxxxx











Monday 2 December 2013

Christmas Songs 2013 (1hr Mix Playlist)



Thought this would be good for motivation as we prep all the christmas craftie stuff

Enjoy!!!

Sunday 1 December 2013

Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers - Embellished Candle


Oh! How I love these flowers and as I said in my previous blog, my imagination ran riot, much faster than my ability to co-ordinate lol.


Another passion I have is collecting ribbon and recently bought some from Easy Florist (as seen in lower picture).


I wrapped a length of ribbon around a white candle (Ikea) and hot glued in place. I then wrapped Gold organza ribbon around my fingers, having taped the first loop temporarily in place I wrapped the ribbon 3/4 more times, cut from reel and taped this (both taped ends were parallel in the centre). I then snipped the four corners slightly, laid the snipped corners central and wrapped a second length around the centre, double knotted this to make tails, untapped the original ends and loosened the bow loops, finally trimming all four tails.

Having glued the gold bow in place (over the join of the base ribbon) I added the red and brown poinsettias by Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers


I am loving this blog stuff and as my craft space is at the far side of our bedroom, blogging at night when my lovely husband gets beauty sleep is motivation to craft more during the day.

Thank you for looking, Bye for now ...

Karen x


Saturday 30 November 2013

Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers

NOVEMBER BLOG CHALLENGE - CHRISTMAS 

New to the blog challenge world and as I had fallen in love with Sweet Lilac Flowers, I had to make this one of my first challenges.



Having recently bought  some Sweet Lilac Flowers and also Craftwork Cards Christmas Post Kit, I felt they would compliment each other.

ITEMS USED
Craftwork Cards Christmas Post Kit

  • 6x6 white card & envelope
  • Paper Pad
  • Die cut Tag

Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers 

  • 3 x Red Poinsettia
  • 2 x Brown Poinsettia
Embellishments/Die cuts
  • Cheery Lyn Die - Holly Flourish
  • Brown ribbon - From Stash
  • Pearls (Coloured with Gold metallic Sharpie)
  • Gold Mirror Card

 
Picking a backing paper was my first challenge, but once I made my mind up there was no stopping my imagination. I cut a corner from the paper sheet using my Crafter's Companion cutter as it was able to cut a scalloped edge. I mounted this to the 6x6 white base card, attached the brown ribbon (from my stash) and using my hot glue gun, I attached the beautiful Poinsettias.

Using my Big Shot and the Cheery Lyn Holly Flourish die I cut two flourishes from Gold Mirror Card and attached them loosely behind the Poinsettias. I placed the Christmas Post Tag over the flourishes in 3D fashion using hot glue.

Finally, I coloured three pearls with a gold metallic Sharpie.


Hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and I must thank Jo Rice for her support and encouragement when I asked about Sweet Lilac and this challenge.

Best wishes

Karen

Dark of December - Christmas card


This is my first Clarity challenge and I have based this card on  'The Dark of December' verse stamp from Clarity Stamps

'I heard a bird sing...'
I began by die cutting a scalloped circle using an x-cut circle die on black card (from my stash), then I laid some of the Clarity Stamps Snowflakes stencils and sponged around them with Momento Brilliance Moonlight White. I then cut a piece of Hunkydory Snowfall Acetate and fixed this with red double sided tape to the reverse of the black card over the aperture.

For the aperture background, I used versamark and stamped the verse which I then burnished with Perfect Pearls - Perfect Pearl. Using a circle punch, I punched a stencil from a scrap piece of paper and again versamarked the moon which I also burnished with Perfect Pearl. I then took the Clarity Stamp Deerscape stamp and inked with versamark, then burnished with Red Lipstick mica powder (Stamps Away).

I used 3D foam tape to mount the Deerscape piece into the aperture.

I finished the card by adding a piece of white organza ribbon, topped with a red scalloped circle which I stamped with the Clarity Sentiment Stamp 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year' .
Finally, I used Pinflair Silver Pearl Wand around the aperture, Ranger Red Stickles on the snowflakes and edged the card with a metallic silver Promarker. I then mounted the finished piece onto a white base card from my stash.

I also made a piece to compliment the card which could be used as a tag.


This is a close up of the moon on the tag burnished with Perfect Pearls and highlights with a silver gel pen.




Hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and I must thank Emma Burns for her support and guidance in blog techniques.

Best wishes

Karen









Wednesday 13 November 2013

Never trap a Butterfly....



Never trap a butterfly . . .

Designed by Karen Gartland
Here is my first blog entry....I am very busy with family etc so not sure how often I will actually be able to blog, but I will try and add photos of projects and then add details when I find time.

 The card was created by cutting a mat from a piece of black card, then rounding the corners with a corner punch. I used an anti static bag to dust the black card, then inked up a wood mounted butterfly stamp with archival ink and stamped it onto the card. Next I heat embossed it with the clear embossing powder
For the central topper image, I took a piece of white card, stamped another wood mounted image with archival (black) and then took clear boot wax polish onto my foam, dipped into mica and gently rubbed over the image.

I took a DL size piece of centura pearl, using photo glue mounted the black mat, then using foam pads mounted the topper and to finish off the front I embellished the corners using Pinflair liquid pearls.

Thank you for looking and Happy crafting ...