Gorjuss Girl 50th Birthday Pop Up Box Card

Well this is something a little different from me today! It's something I've NEVER done before but will definitely be repeating in the future!!! I just hope that no one is going to judge me negatively (well to be honest if they do then tough cos it's not going to change my mind!!!). So what have I done? Well I only went and bought the Gorjuss Girls Ultimate Decoupage Pack!! No wait, come back, it's not as bad as seems!!! I only bought it because it was heavily reduced and contained some lush papers which would go with the rubber stamps. My plan was to snag the papers and give the decoupage to the kids to play with! However when I opened it I soon changed my mind, the decoupage is stunning and ideal for those impressive but quick makes. Hopefully this pop up box card will show you what I mean? Sorry for the picture overload, it's one of those cards that has way too many details to show in just one picture!

I made this card for my SIL's 50th Birthday and  was really surprised at how quickly the whole thing pulled together. I followed Nikky Hall's video tutorial for the no measure pop up box card which can be found here. The image is from the pack and I've layered it up with Pinflair Glue before selecting my papers and potential embellishments.

I cut the papers to size and attached them to the box and then decided that I wasn't completely happy and that something was missing. So I grabbed the Gorjuss Girls stamp set and used the silhouette branch to stamp and then heat emboss directly onto the papers. I then inked the edges of the box and added some silver embossing powder.

Next I die cut lots of leaves in two assorted colours of cardstock and punched some flowers out of a co-ordinating paper. I also cut some railings (which of you look carefully you can just about see peeking out from behind the image) and attached some numbers to fine wire before adding all of the elements to the card.

Once I was happy with the arrangement I decided to decorate the box flaps with some ribbon and more elements from the decoupage kit and stamped a Birthday greeting on the front of the card. To finish I added lots of sparkle with Stickles and a Shake It Glitter Pen.

So what do you think? Decoupage kits rock? Well I think this one certainly does! You can expect to see a few more Gorjuss makes from me in the future using this kit, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks for stopping by today,

Claire x

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:
Ladybug Crafts Ink - Anything goes
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes/One Layer
Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes
My Craft Creations - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - A product/technique you wish you used more often! Mines the pre-cut decoupage! Paper crafting snobbery has made me totally overlook this fab product!
Sparkle & Sprinkle - Anything Goes
One Stitch At A Time - Anything Goes

Rose Budd Vintage Book Card

It's challenge day again over on the Graph'It Marker blog and today we're all "Blondes". We want to see strawberry blondes, peroxide blondes, infact as long as it's blonde we want to see it! Remember you don't need to use Graph'It Markers to enter.

Whilst I'm here can I also point you in the direction of our DT call, all of the details are on the blog and you have until the 14th July 2014 to decide if you want to apply. I really hope that some you will consider applying.

Anyway, onto my inspiration project. It's been ages since I've been inspired to make one of these book cards, but as soon as I saw the new Rose Budd Collection from Polka Doodles, I knew in an instant that I had to make one as one of my samples for the Create & Craft TV launch. My main difficulty with this card was whittling down the elements to use as there are just so many gorgeous ones to choose from!

I used one of the ready made backgrounds for the main imagery of the card and added some furniture to the room scene using dimensional glue. I've used Glossy Accents on the window panes and Stickles Glitter Glue on the curtain edges.

All of the additional elements on the card with the exception of the ribbon and lace can be found on the CD. The images have been coloured with Graph'It Markers.

Colours used:
Skin: 4110, 4115, 4120, 4135, 4145
Female Hair: 1270, 3245, 3255
Male Hair: 1110, 1130, 1270
Dress: 8250, 8280, 8290, 4170
Suit: 9100, 9401, 9403, 9406, 9501, 9504, 9506, 9909, 0000

Thanks for stopping by this week.

Claire xxx

Materials used:
Ultimate Graphic Paper 160gsm
Graphic Markers
Rose Budd Papercrafting CD from Polka Doodles

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:
Crafty Girls Challenge - Anything Goes
It's all about the vintage - Summer Garden
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything goes
Divas By Design - 3 or more layers
Simon Says Stamp - Friends
Papertake Weekly - Lace/Pearls
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes/Summer Fun
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Layers
Love to create - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

Rose Budd Tissue Box Cover

So did you see the launch show yesterday for the new Rose Budd Collection from Polka Doodles? If not then you really missed a cracker (if you spot it on a re-run I'd highly recommend recording it to watch at some point). The DT samples were awesome and Nikky Hall did some absolutely brilliant demos.

I made a couple of samples for the show including this tissue box cover which you may have spotted on the counter. The CD is so packed with images, papers and lots of beautiful elements that I felt a bit over-whelmed and didn't know where to start, so when I came across the paper rose templates and butterflies I knew instantly that I had to use them! This is what I came up with.

I thought as I was pushed for time that I'd use a template from the internet, but as with all the best plans it didn't come off!! I could only find tissue box covers which were bottomless and I made one of these before and it bugged me! So I had to make my own template, which was actually a lot easier than I anticipated.

I made the plaque on the front and covered it with Crackle Glaze. Once it had dried I swiped it with Distress Ink to age it slightly.

The rolled flowers are dead easy to make up and look so effective. I held the edge between a pair of tweezers and spiraled the flower round to the centre, added a dab of glue and then lightly crushed it with the heel of my hand. I then swiped them with Distress Ink to highlight the petal edges.

I printed the beautiful butterflies out in a variety of sizes, cut them out, shaped the wings with a ball tool and then glittered them, before adding to my project.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Materials:
Rose Budd Papercrafting CD Collection
Lace and Trims - My Stash
Glitter glue

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:
Laurelcraft Dragonfly Designs - Things with wings
A Girl Who Crafts - Anything Goes
Crafts & Me - Wings
Emergency Crafters - Not a card
Stempelgarten Challenge - Floral Dreams

Folk Wedding Box Card

This was a commissioned make for a folk wedding in Poland. The brief was lots of bold colour, flowers, ribbon, vintage and somewhere to put a money gift and the need for the card to travel from the UK to Poland. So rather nervously this is what I came up with. Apologies in advance as this post is picture heavy!

 I coloured the bride and groom using my Graphic'It Markers. The brides dress was given a subtle sparkle with some Stickles Star Dust Glitter Glue.

The flourish and letter die cuts were heat embossed with Antique Gold embossing powder. I added some Glossy Accents to the hearts to make them pop.

The card has an envelope tag to put money in and write a message on, it slots into a concertina sleeve at the back of the card .

The leaves have been die cut and the flowers paper punched.

The paper was an experiment that I'll definitely be repeating! I simply ran it through my Big Shot in an embossing folder and then applied Versamark to raised detail before sprinkling with gold embossing powder.

I wasn't sure if the card was going to be posted or taken in person to Poland, so rather than make a box for it to travel in, I decided to create the card so it could fold completely flat and be popped into the envelope that I created for it, that way it could be posted or stored easily in a suitcase.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Craftitude - Anything Goes/Pop It Up
Crafty Girls - Anything Goes
Bella and Bronte's Challenge - New Beginnings

Graph'It Marker Challenge - Frills and Fancy!

Morning. It's a quickie from me today. This weeks challenge over on the Graph'It Marker Blog is Frills & Fancy. Now I'm not sure why, but this challenge threw me! I think I possibly over thought it and as a result left myself very little time to actually make a project!

I was going to make something using lots of ribbon and lace but decided as it was a colouring challenge I'd try and make my image the "frills and fancy", so this is what I ended up doing....

I printed the image onto Ultimate Graphic paper and then coloured it with Graph'It markers. I added some sparkle to the choker and hemline using the Shake'It Silver Glitter Pen. To make the sparkle subtle I dabbed at it with my finger.

The card base was covered with DP's before adding some web lace and grosgrain ribbon. The image was cut out and then mounted onto designer papers. I then sprinkled some silver embossing powder around the edge to add some texture and interest and attached a piece of lace to the base of the image before attaching to the card.

To finish I added some die cut foliage, bats and punched flowers all of which were coloured with my Graph'It markers.

I really hope that you can join the challenge this time. Remember you have two weeks to submit a project and you don't even need to use Graph'It markers, simply follow the theme.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a lovely weekend.

Claire x

Materials:
Ultimate Graphic Paper

Graph'It Markers
Skin: 4110, 4115, 4120, 4145
Hair: 9100, 9501, 9504, 9506, 9909
Other Colours: 5220, 6110, 6175, 6190, 0000, Shake'It Silver Glitter Pen






I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
A Step In The Dark - Anything Goes/Purple
Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes/ Things with wings
The Paper Nest Dolls - Anything Goes

Altered Sardine Can - At The Beach

Good morning - as summer appears to have vanished again, I thought I'd cheer you all up with this sunny little scene that I've used as my inspiration project for the challenge over on the Graph'It Marker Blog which is Oranges & Lemons! Now we're not meanies, so we're not requiring you to use both colours - just one or the other will do! Remember you don't need to use Graph'It markers to enter but you could win some lush Graph'It goodies if you do!

To make the scene I glued some beads onto the base of the tin for feet and then covered the entire thing with a couple of coats of Gesso. Once dried I used the broad nib end of a Graph'It Marker to roughly colour the tin.

I then created the scene using two of the characters from Work & Play Collection 3 and drew the backdrop and palm trees before assembling the scene using glue gel into the tin. To finish I used a sentiment from the CD and cut it into the shape of surfboard.

I used the following markers to colour this project:
Female:7130, 7160, 5130, 9504, 9506, 4170, 4155, 4135
Male: 7130, 7160, 5240, 5245, 4170, 4155, 4145, 4175, Graph'It Shake It Marker
Sea: 7119, 7109, 7130, Graph'It Shake It Marker
Sand: 1150, 1170, 1180, 1250, 2110, 2150
Tin: 7109

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Ingredients:

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
Milk Coffee Challenge - Anything but a card
Divas By Design - Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafty - Spots and Stripes
Simon Says Stamp - Vacation/Travel
Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes
Just B Creative Crazy - Anything Goes
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes
Tip Top Tuesday - Here comes summer
Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes
That Craft Place - Altered Can

Cross My Palm With Silver........

......and I'll show you my latest Tatty creation!!!

It is of course a Gypsy Wagon designed to house Madame Tatty Twinkles. This is one of the samples that I made for the Create & Craft TV launch of the Fairground Tatty Twinkles Collection. Hopefully you will have tuned into the 10am show and seen the marvellous samples that the team have made, if not then you can catch the other shows at 3pm and 7pm today.

I'll warn you now that this post is picture heavy, so apologies if it's slow loading but I really wanted to try and show you some of the beautiful detail from the Tattered Lace Dies and the gorgeous Tatty Twinkles image designed by Nikky Hall for Tattered Lace.

I think you can probably tell from my samples that I had tremendous fun with these images and had the turnaround time not been so tight then I would've created loads more samples using both the stamps and dies. 

I'm hoping that in the not too distant future that I will have a couple of days free to create a few more projects using the other stamps and dies from the collection!

I made the wagon out of an old dishwasher tablet box, some paint and loads of luscious Tattered Lace Die Cuts.

Now I'll be completely honest when I got the dies I panicked a little cos they are just so pretty and delicate and I thought "Yikes, what on earth am I going to do with some of these!" However, once I got going with the caravan I discovered that there was plenty I could do with them and I will NEVER look at a die cut in the same way again!

I'll list the dies I've used below and you'll see that a lot of them have simply been trimmed and cut about to fit the project.

Unfortunately the die I really wanted to use for the roof (Summer Rose) wasn't in my possession and I didn't have time to order it in, so I had to use a Sizzix Die (which again I chopped to pieces to suit the project) in conjunction with a Tattered Lace one.

I coloured the diecuts up with matt gold paint as I didn't want to use mirri board.

The image is currently available as a stamp set only at the current time and can be ordered from Create & Craft or Crafting. I think this is probably my favourite Tatty Twinkle image ever! Despite the fact that she nearly saw me off with that hair!! Nothing like a few waves and curls to send me into a panic! I added a little ribbon rosebud to her hair as somehow or other I managed to make a mistake - but shhhh I'm sure it'll go unnoticed ;)

The chalkboard was created from a piece of black card and I've written on it with my Graph'It White Shaker Pen. To finish I've added various ribbons and trims.

I hope you like my project - it took an age to design from scratch but I think I'm fairly pleased with the end result!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire x

Supplies:
Ultimate Graphic Paper
Graph'It Markers
Skin: 4135, 4150, 4155, 4170
Hair: 9504, 9506, 9909
Dress, Shawl, Headscarf: 6110, 6140, 6175, 5220, 5240, 5245, 1170, 1180, Gold Glitter Shake It Pen
Earrings and Bangle: Gold Glitter Shake It Pen
Chalkboard - Graph'It White Shaker Marker


All dies are available from Create & Craft or Crafting

 
 













I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:
Kit & Clowder - Flowers
4 Crafty Chicks - Flowers
Crafty Girls Challenges - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations - Anything but a card
Simon Says Stamp - Spring Flowers
Whimsy Stamps - 2 or more die cuts
Loves Rubber Stamps - Anything Goes
Through The Craftroom Door - Anything Goes
Crafting from the heart - Anything Goes
Love to Create - Flowers
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything goes
OSAAT - Ribbons & Lace
Crafting At The Weekend - Anything Goes