Shabby in Blue

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  I hope you are all having a lovely day.  

It's a beautiful day here in Adelaide.  A little bit cool, which suits me to a tee, and beautifully sunny.   It is Autumn though, so that could change at the drop of a hat.  In the meantime, I will simply make the most of it.

I have made another step card that I'd like to share with you.  

 The papers used are Kaisercraft's Hidden Treasure.   The only ones I have actually cut are the doily, which was cut in half and placed diagonally across opposite corners, and the base paper.  The rest have simply been torn to the sizes I wanted.  It gives them a wonderful distressed edge and a lovely shabby look.  

 
This lovely little flower is a gardenia which is available from Meg's Garden as are the copper leaves.

This chipboard piece is from Little Birdie .  I simply painted it with gesso and, when dry, randomly applied some Helmar glue and sprinkled clear glitter over it.  

The papers were curled using a Kaisercraft Tool and I also wrapped some different sized twines around the bottom and tied it in a bow.

I fully lined the inside with paper from the same collection and decided to place some contrasting strips on the stand for some extra strength.

Just a closie showing the layers.

I really love this paper, especially the one with the tiny floral pattern.  Took a while for me to actually use it and now it's gone.  Ah well, I hope whoever gets this card will appreciate the sacrifice.  hehe!!

Thank you so much for visiting and for any comment you might leave.  I really do appreciate you taking the time.
Please take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

... And a Step to the Side!!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

  So pleased to have you visit, and I hope you are having a lovely day.  

We've got some beautiful weather here in Adelaide today.  After a couple of very overcast days, the sun is showing it's face again.  It is very pleasant outside.  

So, what an I doing here, inside then???  Well, I wanted to show you my latest card. 

 This time, as you probably guessed from the Title, it is a Side Step card.

 The papers used are from Pion Design.  I so love the subtle patterns on these papers, they are gorgeous!  The top layer was curled at opposite corners and I coloured the back a little for contrast but, as I wanted to keep the monochromatic colour scheme, I just distressed the edges but didn't ink them.   

 Placed some gauze down first and then adhered my flower cluster on top.  The little velvet flowers are available from Meg's Garden, the small rose from Kaisercraft but the rose bud, the white flower and the tiny pale yellow ones are from my stash.  The stamens are also available at Meg's Garden.  You can find the store HERE.

 The two flower clusters are a mirror image of each other.

 The bit of texture was added using The Crafter's Workshop's 'Mini Ferns' Stencil and home made texture paste.  I originally coloured it the same as the back of the curled paper, but it didn't stand out as well, so I simply painted over it with gesso, although I did leave some of the colour on the paper.  I do sort of like that shadow effect.  The chipboard border is from Little Birdie and I simply painted it with white acrylic paint.

 The stenciling on the side panel is the same as on the front of the card except that I didn't colour it this time.  The tiny gems were added randomly around the card for a little bit of bling.

 The center strip is simply some gauze attached to a strip of the paper which was then tied with a twine bow and wrapped around the top layer.

 View of the card taken from each side to show how the Side Step looks. 

... And there you go ... all done!!   

I expect a lot of you probably like the clean and simple approach to card making, but I love distressing the edges and manipulating the paper to look like it's been used and abused.  It just adds so much interest to it ... well it does in my opinion anyway.   Don't get me wrong, I have seen a lot of totally gorgeous cards where the paper was lovely and flat and new looking but I for one simply love it when it's a bit messy and grungy, even on light coloured 'pretty' cards like this one.  I actually feel I haven't crumpled this one up enough, but I do love the way it turned out so it will have to do and, regardless of how you prefer your cards, I hope you like it too.  

Thank you so much for visiting  and I do hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Please take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Cards for Meg's Garden # 1

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  

A very warm welcome to my new followers too, so pleased to have you here ladies!!

My DT post was up on the Meg's Garden Blog a few days ago but then I forgot to post it here ... duhhh!!!   Thought I'd better catch up on that before I do  anything else and forget again!!  lol

I actually made two cards this time and I'll show the first one here.  The papers are from the Dreaming in the Meadows Mini Pack.  I'll actually give you a list of the products used at the end of this post.

I used white cardstock for the base and layered the papers with some netting in between to give it a softer look.  I then machine stitched around the edges. 

 This corner was curled over and held down by a piece of bling cut from the Daisy Silver Trim to which I've added some tiny beads for extra colour.  I love that pretty lace and just had to add a little piece peeking out from the edge as well as the strip across the middle of the card. 

 The stunning flower is the ivory Heirloom 6.5cm which is, of course, also available from Meg's Garden as is the gorgeous lace.  The two die cuts underneath are Marianne Creatables Frame & Swirls Die and Couture Creations Starburst Doily Die.  The Starburst die cut was trimmed a little to fit in with the design.  The leaves were cut on my Silhouette and edged with white puff paint.

 The wooden flourish is from Kaisercraft and was coloured with Versa Color 'Olive' and I added another piece of the Daisy Silver Trim with the beads in the centre.

 The inside was lined with two more sheets  from the same collection.  These papers are so pretty you don't really need to add anything to them.  I love it!!!

As I said at the beginning of my post, I actually made two cards for my project.  This being the first  and I will show you the second one at a later date.

In the meantime, why not visit Meg's Garden and check out the amazing projects from my other Teamies.  You can find it HERE.

Here is the list of Meg's Garden Products used:

S118 - Dreaming in the Meadows Mini Pack

9213iv - Ivory Heirloom Flower

RBY36 - Daisy Silver Trim

L2920 - White 1.6cm Lace

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Ribbon & Lace & Pion Design Papers

Hello everyone!!  Welcome to my little blog!!

  Are you still recovering from Christmas???  I know I am.  Hope you all had an awesome day!!  Not long and we'll be celebrating the New Year!!  Is it just me or are the years flying by a lot quicker these days?  Getting scary how it all just slips by so fast!  

As you can guess I have a card to share with you.  This one was again made with the Pion Papers I won a little while ago.  Adore these papers, they are awesome and so easy to work with!!

 I used the 6' x 6' papers again for this.  Cut the base paper and tore a couple of strips for the layers.  Distressed them all and did a little doodling with my white gel pen, then layered the lace in between.

 The leaf flourish is from the Kraft Expression range from Little Birdie.  They are available at 'Cheap as Chips' here in Australia.  

 The small rose is from Kaisercraft and the other flowers came from Seriously Scrapbooking.

 I also added some gauze underneath and the small pearl stamens.

 The ribbon used here was actually wrapped around the papers.  It is so pretty I just had to use it too and popped in a couple of stamens when I made the bow.

 The strips inside were edged with Martha Stewart's Doily Lace Border Punch.

There you have it!!  As I said before, I simply adore these Pion Papers they are so lovely and so easy to work with.

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Love having you visit and would love it too if you could leave me a little comment and let me know what you think.
Before I go, I would just like to thank all of my followers, especially those of you who visit and comment on a regular basis.  I really appreciate you taking the time and giving me such wonderful and heartwarming support.  Love you all. ox

Do take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

In the Pink

Hello again everyone and a very warm welcome to my blog.  Lovely to have you here.

I want to share another card with you.  This one is made with some gorgeous papers from Meg's Garden.  I love these papers, they have such a lot of pretty detail in them.  Lots of flowers and different images and the colours are so pretty too.

 No inking around the edge this time just a couple of rips and some sewing.   I added a little texture with a TCW Mini Tile stencil and some texture paste and then started doing a bit of inking.  Unfortunately  I didn't like the result and decided the extra colour wasn't needed anyway so then I had to cover it up again.  This was where a bit of watered down gesso came in very handy.  Covered up the 'whoopsie' very nicely and the little butterfly completed the camouflage.    

 I used a doily and some diecuts under the flower and added a little tag from G45.  The flower is from Prima and it was originally yellow and white which wasn't really right for this card so I sprayed the centre with Sugar Plum Glimmer Mist and also added a vintage brad.   I love how it turned out.

 The flower sprig die is the Honey Blossom Sprig from Memory Box.  The crystal sprigs are from Magnolia Ink.   

 The inside was decorated with more  dp from Meg's Garden.  You can see here what I mean about all the detail on these papers, you really don't have to add a lot to them.

 And there you have it!!  Another card finished.  I have more to show you, but they are for another day.

Thank you so much for visiting and for any lovely comments you might leave me.  Much appreciated.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg 

 

Working from a Sketch

Hello everybody, welcome to my blog.

I'd like to share a card with you which was created by following a sketch.

This is the sketch I followed.    

I found this sketch, along with a few others, years ago when I first started making my own cards but have never actually used any of them.   I thought it was about time to dust off the cobwebs and give it a go.

The papers used are Kaisercraft's Curiosity.  I have distressed all the edges but this time have not used any inking except just a little on the leaves.  Matted the strips onto some white cardstock and sewed around the edges.  

 The white cardstock frame which I've used instead of the geometric shape was created with Marianne Creatables Frame & Swirls Die.  I cut out a second frame in the Curiosity paper and trimmed off the swirly bits for the little mat in the centre.

 The large  rose is from Prima and the smaller ones are Kaisercraft.  The leaves were cut with my Silhouette Portrait and I've also added a couple of patches of small beads for a little bit of shine.  The little spray of white berries came from my stash.

Here is a close-up showing the beads.

 Decorated the inside with pale green dp.  I've had this paper for quite  a while and have no idea where it came from.  I doodled around the edges with a white gel pen and faintly stamped a butterfly swirl top and bottom.  Unfortunately it doesn't really show too well in the photo.

 Not so many layers on this card but I am pleased with the result anyway.  Would love to know what you think.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and have a great weekend.

Thank you so much for visiting.

Please take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Challenge ... Black with 2

Hi everybody and a warm welcome to my blog.  

I have another card to share and this one I am entering into the Challenge at Black with 2.  

Here is the colour pallete for this month's challenge.  You can choose any combination that you like or all of them if you want to.  I've chosen orange and green.  The papers I've used are not quite the right shades but, hopefully,  it will still meet the criteria.

 
 The papers used are from Kaisercraft's Curiosity and also a small piece from Periwinkle.   There are quite a few layers again, I think I am now addicted to lots of layers ... it adds so much to the over-all look of the card and I love it.  The die-cut below is Memory Box's Honey Blossom Sprig Die.  I've added a little more interest with a little doodling and cut a small piece off it to place on the other side of the frame.

 The chipboard frame is from Little Birdie.  I've coloured it with Versa Color Charcoal and Kaisercraft Sweet Potato stamp pads.  It's been coated with Mod Podge which gives it a light sheen.  The image inside the frame is a label from Kaisercraft Curiosity.  The die cut behind the frame is Die-namics Duo Doily Die.
 

 Did quite a bit of machine stitching on this card as you can see, and all the papers were distressed with Prima's Distress Tool and edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

The gorgeous flower is from Prima.    

 I've used some paper from my stash to decorate the inside and glued a small strip of the Curiosity DP on the edge for contrast. I've stamped an image in the top corner but I'm not sure where the stamp came from.  I've had it for quite some time and unfortunately hadn't taken note of it's origin.

So, now I'm off to enter this into the challenge.

If you wish to join in with this Challenge the link for Black with Two is HERE. 

Thank you so much for visiting.  I do hope the weather is nicer where you are because, at the moment, it is pouring here in Adelaide and the day has become quite dismal.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg