The Boys turn 17........

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY

NATHAN, ADAM & JUSTIN

The boys next door are 17 today...not one, not two, but three...Yes 'TRIPLETS'!

Their mum gets me to make cards for her regularly and making them for the boys is absolutely brill.....one theme and three colourways is my usual strategy. 

Knowing they are to receive their provisionals as a birthday gift I chose cars/driving as the theme this time.

Having completed the SON cards, I had to do three Brother cards but mum and I decided to personalise these with their names rather than using Brother. The campervan compliments the VW Beetle embellishment used on the Son cards.

Hope you have enjoyed looking at these.

Bye for now

Karen

FATHER'S DAY ...CONTINUED

Hi Folks....

Here are a few more Father's Day cards I was asked to craft for various guys...

KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY...... 

 FOR THE DAD OF THE BOYS....

 FOR THE MATERNAL DAD/PAPA

FOR THE FRATERNAL DAD/PAPA.....

Five days after Father's Day, the boys mentioned above are the topic of another blog. Follow the blog entitled 'The boys turn 17....' not one, not two, but three .... TRIPLETS!

ANOTHER FAMILY SAID.... 'DAD JUST LOVES TRACTORS ....'

Thanks for popping in ...see you soon

Karen

FATHER'S DAY......

'GOLF' LOVING DAD'S

FROM 'DADDY'S GIRLS' -

                           SHARING THEIR LOVE OF MUSIC

 FROM DAD'S LADS -
                     SHARING THEIR LOVE OF FOOTIE

THE LOVE OF MOTORHOMES

- SPANS TWO GENERATIONS WITH THESE

Hope you have enjoyed looking at this selection of cards...another selection of Father's Day cards will follow soon

Happy Crafting 

Karen 

THE BIRDHOUSE

Hi Folks .... Thanks for popping in. I recently posted photos of this on facebook and the response took me by surprise, so I have decided to blog how I transformed the birdhouse.

Firstly I coated all of the project with Decoart Dove Grey for a base to work on. I added cosmic shimmer texture paste to the sides through a stencil. I added blue acrylic paint to the front edges of the roof and to the grooves on the roof. From my Pinflair paper pad stash I cut strips for the roof and glued them in place with Pinflair book binding glue which I also used to seal them. I used an EK Success stamp on the front and then used silver Buff-it to enhance the texture paste areas and also the remainder of the project. I distressed it all a little with distress inks. Using a Pinflair pearl wand Beads were added to the roof. Gems were added to the front eaves.

A spray of Sweet Lilac flowers were glued in place on the front along with a ribbon bow and a heart gem from my stash. 

Finally. I colored a tonic metal butterfly with the same acrylic blue paint I had used on the roof.

Hope you have enjoyed this....and thanks for poppin in.

 Take Care and Happy Crafting!!

Karen x

'My heartfelt wish...'

My Heartfelt Wish....

Courtesy of Papercraft Essentials magazine, I have put the Lavina Stamps cover gift to good use.

Using a piece of 200gsm Stamp & Colour Card (Stamps Away) I took a circle mask and blended tumbled glass distress ink around it. Then I blended around this with faded jeans distress ink, removed the circle mask and used spiced marmalade to blend the sun in the background. I then used a spritz solution containing gold mica powder to add a nice speckled effect. having dried this with my heat gun I was ready to start stamping.

After trying several black ink, I opted for Ranger Black Archival, though the stamps seemed to be greasy, so I cleaned them and tried again. (A little more practice required with this image...possibly too much pressure as the images are not as crisp as I would have liked).

Firstly, I stamped the fairy centrally over the sun and then the two groups of fairy wishes. I then stamped several groups of ivy below the fairy as if she were walking on ivy. I dried the images then using a Sakura pen added the birds in the background (right).

Using a quickie glue pen around the wings and on the wishes I added Hunkydory Diamond Sparkles - Midnight Black.

Once dry I trimmed the image and matted it onto black card.

The verse was stamped onto the same white card with Archival and then matted onto black card.

The image was then matted onto a 300gsm Adorable Scorable (A5 Portrait) base card and I finally added the matted verse piece.

Thanks for popping in ...

Happy Crafting!

Karen x

"STAMPS CARVED FROM A POTATO!"

"STAMPS CARVED FROM A POTATO!"

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge

MAY 2014

Hi Folks.......

Smashing....lol

This challenge really took me back to my school days, I remember potato printing, but also cabbage, onions and other items when I was a child?                                                                                                            
(I really enjoyed carving the potato, easier than I recall, perhaps the knife was sharper.)

Having cut my potato into three parts, I punched a butterfly template using a Martha Stewart punch and carved around this from the potato. For my second stamp, I placed a punched circle onto the potato and again carved around this. While for the third I used a scrap piece of card from which I had previously punched a star and carved the centre from this, though I decided not to use the star in my final piece.

At this point I decided to use a Stamps Away stencil to create the background, with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink; punched six more butterflies and two cherubs from copier paper to use as masks and created the background. I then took Mustard Seed to create the centre circle behind my sun having used a punched circle as a mask.

The next bit was fun, giving potato printing a go ....the potatoes (in picture above) are Dusty Concord (butterfly) and Spiced Marmalade (sun/circle) Distress Inks.  

 I dried the background a little with my heat gun and stamped the potato butterfly in the areas I had previously masked. Having dried them, I did the same with the circle (sun).

As all entries MUST have real stamping too, I decided this should be minimal on this occasion and felt an appropriate verse would suffice. So I stamped the 'Love  is like a butterfly... ' verse stamp from CraftiDevils.

I then layered the finished piece onto black card. (Right)

On the left is a section close up of the butterfly, sun and verse.

Thank You for reading my blog...Happy Stamping!

Take Care .... Karen Gartland x

"SWEET DREAMS" PLAQUE

"SWEET DREAMS"

Evening Crafters...

"You're never too old 

to set another goal

or to dream a

NEW DREAM."

                                 - C. S. Lewis.

 Here I have created a wooden shaped plaque (one of several plaques created recently) - creating these can be addictive! I've used the Pinflair Buff It and Buff It sealer in the background.  Onto this I added a 'Gorjuss' decoupaged image and also 'Gorjuss' Alphabet stickers, both were twice sealed with Pinflair Glaze. I used a Pinflair Pearl Wand to create the pearls around the edge. 

I added a few Sweet Lilac Flowers which I also glazed (once) and added a heart shaped gem from my stash to the centre of the white flower.

Finally, I added the 'Gorjuss' stripped ribbon which matches her tights.

My thanks for the lovely products go to:

http://www.sweetlilac.co.uk/

http://pinflair.co.uk/

http://www.bgpaynecrafts.co.uk/

and to my Kraft Kave stash.

Thanks for dropping in and Happy Crafting!

Crafty Madness: All Ballooned Out!

Crafty Madness: All Ballooned Out!: After one of my samples was shown on Barbara Gray's TV show on Create & Craft the other week, I have had some requests on how I mad...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARDS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HUSBAND & DAD

CARDS

 These cards were ordered by a friend and neighbour, who incidentally is my best client, always gets me to make cards she needs and is always over the moon with what I produce. I have on this occasion stuck to stamping...no computer or pre-printed stock.






I began by stamping the large butterfly (wood mounted rubber stamp from stash) on to 200gsm Stamp & Colour by Stamps Away http://www.clevercut.co.uk/ with Momento Black Ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder (Stamps Away). I used Promarkers: Metallic blue, green, violet and silver to colour the image. I then secondary stamped to a piece of copier paper and cut out the image to create a a mask.
Using 'That Special Touch Mica Mask- Leafy    http://www.clevercut.co.uk I sponged Joycrafts warm winter colours - green through the mask. From the same ink collection I blended blue around the edges towards the centre.

Using the 'Distressed Alphabet' Stamps Away I stamped 'HUSBAND' onto Stamp & Colour card and embossed with clear powder. just above this I stamped 'Happy Birthday' using a wood mounted red rubber stamp from my stash and again clear embossed it. I then cut his out freehand. I distressed the piece with the blue used earlier from edges to centre.

Using an EK Success border punch I punched two smaller butterflies and cut from the card.

I glued with Pinflair the sentiment and the butterflies to the card. Them edged with black Promarker. Finally I spritzed with both pearl and copper mica sprays (Stamps Away). I mounted the piece onto scored and folded 300gsm Centura Pearl with a hint of silver.

Inside I compiled a sentiment from clear word stamps reading 'Love Beyond Words' 'Happy Birthday' and stamped this in Momento - Black. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - DAD

This card used similar items to the previous one:

Base Card:                   Centura Pearl Hint of Silver - scored and folded A5

Mat Layer:                   Black Pearl Card

Top Layer:                   Stamp & Colour 200gsm

Inks:                            Joycrafts - Warm Winter Colours Collection - Green, Blue & Yellow

                                   Momento - Black

Stencils:                       Patchwork Templates Collection - Stamps Away

                                   Aperture Collection Stamps Away

Stamps:                       Elegance Alphabet Stamps Away

                                   Wooden Mounted Red Rubber 'Happy Birthday'

                                   Wooden Mounted Red Rubber 'Golfer'

Pens:                           Promarkers -Summer sun (LE), Silver Metallic, Almond, China Blue, Green Shoot                                        and Cinnamon

                                   Micron 0.5 Black

Embossing:                 Clear Powder Stamps Away

I sponged through the patchwork template Stencil, dried with heat tool, edged with Micron pen, stamped 'DAD' with Momento and dried this. I stamped the Golfer with Momento embossed with clear powder and coloured with Promarkers.

I stamped the sentiment with Momento, embossed and distressed from edge to centre. Once dry I used the apeture stencils to draw round and then cut out the sentiment. I mounted this with foam tape. The edges were distressed with blue and then mounted to the mat layer. All was then mounted to the base card.

Thanks for popping in today. Hope you have enjoyed your read.

Happy Crafting....

Bye for now.

Krafti Karen x

ON THE WINGS OF LOVE

SWEET LILAC CHALLENGE

'BUTTONS and/or LACE'

also

Sunday Stamper - Week 290 - On The Wings of Love

CHALLENGE

Hello Everyone, Thank you for popping in to have a look at my latest project and how I achieved the final result pictured above.
In my last blog I joked about my memory '(Oh! Memory is failing me a little...guess I am gonna need to start keeping notes lol!)' ...well, you guessed, I have my note book right here this time lol.

This project was completed in various stages

Firstly, I gently sanded and cleaned an MDF 7"X7 Plaque and based coated it with white matt emulsion. I took a stencil from my stash and layered Cosmic Shimmer 'Gold Pearl' Texture Paste through it. Once dry I gently buffed it. I took a selection of Distress Inks and blended them over the stenciled image into the background and again gently buffed the image.

The background paper and tickets were left over from the MDF Owl Project done previously. I tore a section and cut out a few tickets. I took my EK Sucess punch Pairings Large Punch & Coordinating Stamps Just For You http://www.oysterstamps.co.uk and punched three label squares, distressed them with DI various. I then used Momento black ink and stamped one of the Tim Holtz 'Words for Thought' stamps onto them  https://www.craftobsessions.co.uk and then secondary stamped the background paper with the same stamp. I had previously printed The cherub from images on The Graphics Fairy website http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ and had cut this out.

I assembled all and glued them in place with cosmic shimmer and hot glue. 

Now came the Christening of my Melt Pot.... I emptied a small amount of bees wax into my project pan (and boy was I nervous) turned the guage to Utee, placed the lid on and waited. I had a brush and kebab sick (wooden) at the ready as advised by Hels Sheridan https://www.facebook.com/hels.sheridan Once melted I lightly (or so I thought) coated the whole area with bees wax. It dries quick so I used my heat tool to even out the finish and remove excess bees was back to the pan with my brush. Once dry, again I gently buffed the whole image.

Background complete, I turned to the themes of the challenges....

'On the wings of love' ..at this point, I could't stopped singing the Jefferey Osbourne track...

Using Craft Artist and my Daisy Trail Digikit - Steampunk Curiosities I designed the Butterfly, flower and text layout, grouped them, but proceeded to enlarge the butterfly and print in individual elements. I cut them out and added colour to the butterfly and flower with Promarkers and to the text with distress inks. I also added a touch of glossy accents to the butterfly. All were then attached to the plaque with Pinflair Gel for dimension. 

The small butterflies were punched from vellum using an 'Anna Griffin' punch and were coloured using a Promarker 'winter berry' Limited Edition. They were attached with Pinflair using a cocktail stick.

'Buttons and Lace' - Having chosen my flowers for their vibrancy, I had to find lace... but oh! The piece I wanted to use wasn't the colour I needed...with a search through my Promarkers I found 'Oasis' and what a perfect match...so I coloured the lace..(and my fingers too lol) Then I searched my stashed and found the heart shaped buttons. Time to assemble, the lace was tied into two bows and all were glued in place using hot glue, finally adding a small butterfly to a bow with Pinflair.

To finish off I used a black Promarker to edge the plaque and a length of black organza ribbon the create the hanging cord.

Hope you have enjoyed reading how I created this project and thank you again ..

Happy Crafting ..... Bye for now

Krafti Karen x

IKEA MIRROR

MIXED MEDIA 

(SWEET LILAC FLOWERS!)

I bought this mirror way back in mid November with good intentions.......eventually a week or so before Santa was due I thought of a Dear Friend who I felt would love it but well it was just a bit too plain and though she dislikes fussy it needed 'jazzed up' a tiny bit, without that printed machine production line look, which I am sure we all hate.

After sanding it lightly along the false grain, I took a stencil from my stash (Oh! Memory is failing me a little...guess I am gonna need to start keeping notes lol!) Strangely though I recall next picking out of my box the lovely flowers from Sweet Lilac http://www.sweetlilac.co.uk which adorn the project  mmmm well they really do add that bit o' class to it.

With Versa-mark I stamped through the stencil and gently dusted mica powder over the area, repeating this a section at a time. I glued the large and small gems in place with hot glue. Then glued silver organza ribbon bows to opposite corners and added the flowers on top.

Finally, I masked the mirror and sprayed a gentle coat of Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine.

I made a shallow tray from hammered 12x12 white card to present it in.

Recently, knowing that before Christmas I had completed this project, I was further inspired when another crafter Karen Clare https://www.facebook.com/KarensLittleGiftsandCards also used the Ikea Mirror for crafting, but alas a bit more professionally than myself. I recommend you pop over to see Karen's work with these and please note that she will be running a workshop on 26th January using these.

I feel another wee trip to Ikea is needed.

Happy crafting folks... and Thanks for popping in.

Bye for now

Krafti Karen x

Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers: ANNOUNCEMENT

Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers: ANNOUNCEMENT:     ANNOUNCEMENT      We have some extremely exciting things happening in the new year and so we have decided to do, what will b...