Saturday 31 March 2018

Easter Egg


Easter Egg

Hi There!

The daffodils are out, 
the crocus and hyacinth
bulbs bursting forth, birds
singing their little heads
off  Spring must be on the
way.  Wonderful. 

Here is an Easter Card for you
today from Angela Radford


 "Hi all I'm here to show you how 
I've made this Easter card using one 
of the Jofy stamps Jofy53 by Paper Artsy. 

As you can see I have only stamped
 the flower section of this stamp and 
not the stem. 

I used Versafine Black Archival and
 then embossed with clear powder.


 I know they are not meant to be eggs 
but I'm sure you'll agree they do look 
like them. 

I coloured these with brush tip
 ink pens and added highlights
 with a white pen


 Before completing this card I splattered 
Distress ink onto the card blank. 

Just smooth some ink onto a craft mat 
and add a little water then use a brush
 to flick it onto the card. 

I played around with the eggs and 
decided to use just three and
 also added the little birds from 
Kim Dellow stamp EKD02 stamping a
 little towards the back of the card.

 I coloured these yellow so they looked
 like little chicks.



The background was made by applying 
Distress Oxides straight to the card ,
 one colour at a time, spritz, drip and dry.

 The large sentiment stamp is by 
Woodware and the Easter text is one
 from my stash. 

I stamped around the edge with a 
stamp from a Lin Brown set ELB33 and
 completed the card with a few coloured sequins. 

The lines around the edge were drawn 
free hand with a black felt tip pen and
 that's it, all done. 

Have a lovely Easter, Angela xXx"


And you have a lovely Easter too
Angela.  Thank you for the
beautiful card too.  

So bright a colourful - really brings a
smile don't you think? 

Of course, if you don't celebrate
Easter then this card could be used
for any other celebration - just use
the "eggs" the other way up and
they become Balloons!  
Finally add a greeting appropriate
to the occasion.  

I'll leave you with that 

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx



Friday 30 March 2018

Easter Egg



Easter Egg



Hi There!

Hope the day is bright and
cheery but worry not if its
downcast, cold and dreary
the whole family can get
involved with today's
bright and colourful project
from Helen Chilton




"Journal page using Lin Brown stamps,
 Dylusions sprays, rub ons, words 
and lots of colour!



Had the stamped and coloured labels 
already for another project and 
decided to use them up.



Added more background stamping.



Stamped the flowers and birds then 
painted all over in white and stamped 
again over the top."



Many thanks Helen for this
lovely page


Certainly shows how it is possible
to become completely engrossed
in journalling doesn't it?

A quick tip from me too : if you
leave your journal open on your
desk you will automatically add
to it.  If you keep it away on a
shelf or in a draw you will rarely
do any work in it

"Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Thursday 29 March 2018

Easter Egg


Easter Egg


Hallo Everyone!

With the Easter Holiday rapidly
approaching I was delighted to
find this lovely project from
Craftyfield in my in box.

The perfect answer to the
dilemma of how to carry all
the little eggs found on the
Easter Egg Hunt ........



"A drawstring fabric bag, like this one
is ideal to wrap up awkward shaped items
 and, as a bonus, you get 2 sides to decorate!
 The bag is roughly 15 by 20cms.



It's also a lot easier to buy ready mad
 than to make the bag yourself, which I 
now know since this is precisely what I did.
 Given the choice, let me tell you, I'd
 rather spend the time on the fun
 decorating part rather than the 
construction of the bag!

No step by step today, especially on how 
to cross-stitch, as I'm a complete beginner
 myself, but I will give you ideas to 
decorate fabric bags.

 The bravest crafters might want to 
paint or draw on the bag, otherwise
 try stamping with textile paints 
(SoSoft, Starlight Textiles, Setacolor) 
or any of your permanent inks. 
I would recommend Brilliance inks 
because there are so many colours available 
but Archival or Versafine will work too.

 Remember to place a piece of cardboard 
inside the bag to give you a firm 
surface to stamp on and protect the 
reverse of the bag from the ink or paint 
seeping through.

If stamping is not your thing how
 about stencilling? Just make sure the
 fabric of your bag is stretched and 
held in place with masking tape before
 applying the paints. 

Use one stencil for an overall pattern 
or several to create a scene.

 Create stripes with masking tape or 
die-cut shapes out of acetate to stencil
 specific areas of the bag. 

If you are not confident decorating 
your bag directly you can use a separate 
piece of fabric and sew it on
 to the bag later. 

Other ideas: use image transfer with 
gel medium, collage rice paper, sew 
a printed fabric piece or several 
pieces to make a shape or pattern...

You can add embellishments too,
 flower shapes, buttons, shrink plastic 
items (don't forget to punch the holes 
before srinking...), ribbons, twine etc... 

Like me you can use felt die-cuts motifs
 to the bag, and I would advise you to 
sew them on to be sure they won't move. 

You could die-cut initials or a complete
 name, word or phrase.

 Steel rule dies (the thick Sizzix dies) are 
best for this but I have had success with 
thin dies too, just as long as the shape
 isn't too detailed.

Only a few ideas here, but really the
 world is your oyster! 

Share with us in the comments if 
you have ideas of your own.



These little bags will make it so easy
 to wrap up the Easter eggs or Bunnies 
and make nice keepsakes too!"
Thank you Craftyfield - lots of ideas here
especially for those of us who like to
make individual bags for each family
member


These bags would be good for
a little person's ballet shoes
or gym pumps too

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Wednesday 28 March 2018

Mother's Day the Sequel

Mother's Day the Sequel


Hi There!

Yes, I'll admit.  I had a brainstorm
(before anyone goes all pc on me
that is a technical term) and for all
I had created some articles specifically
for Mother's Day; I omitted to post
them...............Duh!

You don't have to be crazy to
live my life but it does help.....

As you will see, each card lends
itself to more than one
occasion all that is required is
to change the greeting 

I have three such projects for you;
the first is from Hazel Harler
and it goes like this:



 "For the background I placed a stencil 
on some white card and sprinkled it with
 Cosmic Shimmer Pixie dust and then
 sprayed it with water. 

I dried the card with a heat gun and 
stamped the Paperartsy Hot Picks flower 
and coloured it with a felt tip pen. 

I then edged the card with a black pen and
 added the ribbon then adhered the 
decorated card to a card blank.




I stamped a butterfly onto card 
that I'd coloured with Pixie dust, cut it out 
and adhered it to the card and then
 finished with the sentiment and some sequins."

-0-

The next card is from Jane Castle and it
goes like this:

"Here is a fairly quick and easy card to help
 with any ideas if you are struggling with 
what to make.

"For my base card I used a linen textured card 
and cut a paper heart template to work my
 Gelatos off to form my outline.

Then using the blending tool worked around
 the heart before removing the template
and added buttons following the 
shape of the heart.  There's lots of
lovely buttons on the Craft Barn website
if you need to stock up


Some I added thread to for added interest. 

Then using the same 3 colours of Gelatos
 coloured a piece of card and added a die 
cut Mum, a couple of Tim Holtz die cut wild 
flowers at the bottom and finally some 
Ranger Liquid Pearls to enhance the 
shape on the outside."

-0-

and finally, here is a card from
Claire Jackson

My card uses water soluble pastels 
(Gelatos or Distress Crayons) and
 embossing folders.

First I scribbled on two pieces of card
 and blended the colours with a damp 
baby wipe.


Then I coloured an embossing folder using 
the lighter colour first. I did both sides 
and then spritzed lightly with water. 
I put my coloured card pieces back
 to back in the folder so that I could emboss
 both at the same time, ending up with 
one side embossed and one side debossed.

There was still some colour on the folder
 so I spritzed again and ran two 
pieces of white card through.



Using a different folder I embossed and
 die cut some flowers.
 I had enough pieces for two cards


Thank you Hazel, Jane and Claire
for a lovely set of cards


Some good techniques here too
and I really liked the tip from
Claire on using two pieces of
card in an embossing folder.

There's always something to 
be learned isn't there?

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx





Sunday 25 March 2018

Easter Egg



Easter Egg



Hi Everyone!


It hardly seems a moment since
Christmas and here we are about
to celebrate Easter - four days off
work, how lovely.  The first holiday
of the year and much looked 
forward to I don't doubt........

Jane Castle has brought in a
delightful card to start us off:

"The card I'm sharing with you today
 could be used for so many different occasions
 it's one worth having ready made as 
a stand-by. ( maybe more than one!)

I began by colouring a 15cm x 15cm card blank
 with paint and ink. 


Next using the Toad Hall I painted a piece of 
smooth white card.

 Once dry I brushed on some matt medium 
and added some scrumbled tissue paper. 
To make sure the tissue paper was attached 
without any air bubbles I brushed over the top
 with a little more matt medium.

When this was completely dry -- (it's easy to tell as
 it will no longer be sticky!), I made a wash with
 1 part water to 1 part Chartreuse paint 
and brushed this over. 

Being a translucent paint the darker
 colour underneath still shows through. 

Finally when this was just dry I brushed over 
some Cosmic Shimmers Mica Powder.


This is what I stamped my chickens and sentiment
 on but first I decided on the size I wanted my
 embellishments to be. 

They all measure the same 5.5cm x 4cm, 
2 landscape and 2 portrait.

 I made a paper window of the size so
 I could choose where I needed to cut after 
stamping and heat embossing.


The 4 pieces of card were then mounted onto 
some black mirri card before attaching to the card.
 A flower was added from my stash of 'ready-mades', 
to break up the greens.



I like the texture the scrumbled tissue paper 
gives and it's good fun to get a little 'inky 
and messy' now and again!

Thanks for stopping by today, 
hope you have a good week and 
enjoy your crafting X."


A really effective card Jane,
than you very much

would be fun here, as indeed
PaperArtsy.  Both sets are
half price too!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx