Thank You Cards for a Boy and a Girl.

Hi Guys',

Seems ages since I last posted, but firstly I'd like to give a great big welcome to my new followers.

I've been a bit busy celebrating my BIG birthday this week and what a fantastic week it's been. The celebrations started wednesday and finished on Saturday, with a show in London, courtesy of my lovely Son  and Daughter. I was thoroughly spoiled and so todays cards are to say 'Thank you' to them for such a fabulous treat. 'Phantom' was awesome.

The first one is a nice girly one for my daughter Tracy, because she is girly. I used a lilac theme throughout, for this card.

The backing papers are all from the Docrafts 'Especially For You' CD, all coloured in the lilac theme, using the colour changer. I used lots of different shapes for this card and added faux stitching around the top two layers. The digi topper is a pink gem design from the Jodie and Josh range, coloured with promarkers. I'm loving these designs, they're so cute.

I haven't added a sentiment to this card, because the Dovecraft ribbon actually has 'Thank you' printed on it. I layered the ribbon over some lilac rafia lace from my stash. To finish I cut swirls and a flower, in the same backing papers, using the spellbinder floral flourishes and daisy topper dies. Next, a lilac button and twine to the centre of the flower to finish. All the shapes were distressed with Tim Holtz milled lavender, to add detail and definition.



I'm entering this card into the following challenges :-

Fab 'N' Funky Challenges - Using fabric.

Glitter Geeks Blog Challenge - Polka dots.

Panpastels UK Challenge - Pastel colours.

I Love Promarkers - Anything goes.

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Buttons and bows.

Oo La La Creations - Ribbon and twine.

Bunny Zoe's Challenge Blog - Anything goes.

 

My second card would appear to be a lot more simple, but is infact quite complex. I had a nice play with this one. 

The topper is a technique that Barbara Gray did on her last C&C show. I first cut a shape with spellbinder labels twenty-two and double sided adhesive sheet. I took off the white protective layer  and stamped directly onto the adhesive with  black Stazon ink. The stamp is Woodware, from the Egyptian Treasures collection.  Onto the adhesive (on the stamped side) was added a piece of acetate,  cut into the same shape as the adhesive sheet. I coloured the image from the back with gel pens and then added  'Lancashire Rose' gilding flakes to the whole thing. The next die was too large for a mat, so I made a faux mat in gold mirri, by drawing round the same die and cutting it out. The topper is mounted with foam to give dimension.

The backgroung was created using Panpastels, with a quick spray of cheap hairspray to set them. Have you succumbed yet? They really are great to use. The sentiment is a stamp from my stash, stamped again with black Stazon ink.  To finish I wound some bakers twine around the spine and added some card candy.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:-

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Clean and simple.

I hope they like them, and I hope they don't look at my blog tonight. They don't usually, but it's that law of sod, isn't it?


Thanks for visiting, hope you enjoyed my blog. Do leave a comment, then I'll know you popped by and then I can visit yours.

Cheers,

Jools. xxx

Pan Pastel labels and gilding flake teaser.

Good afternoon blogging buddies,

Well it's taken me a while to create anything half decent, but here they are (as promised Eileen)  My first publicised attempts at using Pan Pastels. My bin is full to the brim with failed attemps, my craft room is a tip and my fingers are covered in ink and stuff,  but I have to say, I really enjoyed myself. They're not perfect, I like to call them a work in progress, but hey. This first one is my favourite, probably because it's the best. :)

 

I decided to follow the lead of quite a few crafters out there and do my first ones on labels. I can decide what to do with them later. I must admit though, they are quite effective, especially while I'm practicing. I stamped with versamark and a floral swirl for a resist effect background using blue and lemon pan pastels from the tints range. I must say, they go on like a dream. The image is a magenta stamp that I picked up in a craft outlet shop. I used Versafine ink and then clear embossed before colouring with promarkers. The butterflies are spellbinder Wonderful Wings , with the same resist effect as the main image.

This next one is done in more vibrant colours and I learned a valuable lesson doing this one. If you use strong coloured pan pastells you can't then use promarkers, it doesn't cover, just transfers onto the promarker.

So what I did instead was to glitter the areas I wanted to highlight, with a quickie glue pen and glamour dust. I think it's quite effective. I might have a go at using gilding flakes instead. The flower is the spellbinder   daisy die, coloured with the same pan pastells and a fancy button in the centre to finish off.  ( Over inked a bit on this one, but you didn't notice did you?) Hope you like 'em.

Now for my little tease. I've had gilding flakes for a while now and not really done much with them, so I went onto youtube to see what I could find. Look at this beautiful technique.

All you need is a piece of double sided sticky sheet cut to the size you need, strips of backing paper and gilding flakes.  I made this one last night.

Can you guess what I'll be doing for the rest of the day?

I will be entering these pieces of work into the following challenges.

Colour Create Challenge - Yellow, blue and white.

Joanna Sheen challenge blog -  To someone special.

Thank you for visiting, hope to see you again soon. Do leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Jools. xx