Tea Dance and Handbag

Bit of a busy week so not much time to craft. I made up for it this weekend though with three cards to show you. I started out by having a go at making some Candi flowers. A friend at work has a birthday at the start of June and she loves animal print so each year I try and create something for her with an animal print theme. This year I had a lot of animal print Candi so I decided to have a go at making some flowers with it. As usual I got carried away and made several in the different prints that I had.(Hold this thought as it will be put to good use later!) My original plan was to make a floral arrangement with them but then I remembered that I had also got a handbag template in the Craftwork Cards sale . . . what better for an ex-model! In anticipation of this annual challenge I had also purchased  a DCWV pad called Safari Chic when it appeared in a Craft Superstore sale so this was also put to good use.

Here is the resulting easel card . . .

Here is the detail of the tassel which I again made with matching candi and a couple of small clear beads.

Also this week I took delivery of the new Tea Dance kit from Craftwork Cards. I love anything musical and so these papers really appealed. I also took the opportunity to use my new flower punch to make some extra flowers although I did use some of the ones that came in the pack. 

Here is a close up of the large flower so you can see the sparkle

Finally I decided to use some of the bits and pieces laying on my craft table and came up with this card . . .

The shaped background piece was removed from a photo card I made last week and the flowers were the extra ones I mentioned earlier so this was a pretty quick make!

Transport

Well this week we took delivery of our new car so what better way to celebrate than with a couple of transport themed cards.
Both these cards were designed and made with the help of my 16 year old daughter. They were both made for her friends' birthdays and, if you have followed my blog, you will know that she has a habit of leaving it until the night before the person's birthday before announcing that a card is needed. Well this week was no exception so Thursday night was spent making a card for a school bus driver ...

We got an image from the Internet to create a template and re-sized it to fit an 8 x 8 square card . We then cut out the pieces from appropriate coloured card and reassembled them. Once the vehicle was assembled we found a suitable background and add a piece of kraft card for the road.

On Saturday night we used the same technique to produce a card for another friend who loves cars and works part-time at the local race track. This time we made a racing car on a 5 x 7 card.

If like me you are not brilliant at drawing, creating a template from a picture down loaded from the Internet is a great way to get a lifelike image without too much stress.

More flowers

Another week has flown by but, as this is a bank holiday weekend and I have an extra day off, I have given myself so time out to craft. But first my VERY EXCITING NEWS. My daughter, Emma, and I were featured in the Talent Spot feature in the new edition of Creativity magazine. You can find us on page 46/47.

But back to the job in hand ... My friend Angie has a significant birthday coming up next month so I decided to make her card so that I'll have time to get it signed by all her friends at work. This 8 x 8 was created using mostly Craftwork Cards products. I started by making up some flowers from the Sugerplum pad. I used one of the papers from the pad for the background and inked the edges to tone in with the backing card. I also inked the edges of a white border. The message and band were from the new Macaroon goody box. The large numbers were created using the Papermania Typography stamps - each number was stamped twice once on the pink glitter paper and once on the texture card. The two images were then cut out and stuck together slightly offset. Finally I added the butterfly which was part of a Kanban paper pack that I picked up on sale at the RSPB shop and some Docrafts pearls and Shimmer Domes to add a bit of bling. Et voila ...

And a close up of the beautiful flowers ...

I hope you can see the Spray and Sparkle.

My second project this weekend was the Floral Heart Easel kit also from Craftwork Cards. This card looked awesome and I love making up the layered flowers. I was a bit surprised that there were no instructions - just a picture of the finished product - but since I have made the flowers before I started by making up the 15 large flowers needed for the card. This was when I came across problem number two; there were not actually enough flowers in the kit to make the number of flowers required as per the enclosed picture. Luckily I had some of the same flowers from goody bags that I had previously brought and managed to create enough flowers to complete one of the two card blanks.

Whilst I waited for the Spray and Sparkle to dry I worked on the rest of the card. I started by covering the card with the paper provided and then started on the base of the project. I found this very difficult as it was tricky to see from the picture how to go about this so I ended up having to improvise. I managed to add the pleated ribbon which acts as a support for the easel part of the card when it is open. I then added a message and cut some hearts from some of the leftover small flowers to tie in with the larger flowers. I managed to make a small pocket and create some small flowers to sit inside it and again decorated it with a couple of hearts.

By now the large flowers were dry and ready to be stuck on to the heart frame to complete the project.

I am sure that you will agree that the finished project is stunning. The remaining card blank will definitely be a challenge though as I have one and a half sheets of 12 x 12 Bohemian paper, a small length of the beige ribbon, some tags, some small flowers but no large ones, a length of twine and a pack of mini candi. I think I will have to do something completely different so it will be interesting to see the end result.

Watch this space!