A Friend's Birthday Card

Hello sweet crafty peeps.  So pleased you took the time to stop by and hope you are having a wonderful day.

I have another of my girl  cards to share with you today.  This was made for one of my best friends' birthday and I really hope she likes it.  I have no problem posting this before I give it to her because she doesn't actually own a computer (I know!!!  Amazing isn't it??  Especially in this day and age) and gets along very well without it!

The papers I've used here are from Kaisercraft.  Not exactly stash busting because they were purchased just recently, but they were left over from a previous project so, in a way, still stash busting I guess!!

Got the inspo for the die cut piece taken out of the side from the new Tim Holtz  Mixed Media Thinlits dies.  I purchased a couple of those recently too and thought that idea would work equally well with other dies.  The one I've used here is the Framing Flourishes from Die Namics.

The twirly bits ?? (not sure what to call them) are some long stamens I purchased ages ago from one of our cheapie Variety Stores.  They are about 8" long with tiny glass beads at one end and just white paper wrapped around the other.  I've just cut them in half so I could use both ends, and gently twisted them around a thin wooden skewer.  I re-discovered them just recently hiding in my stash and really love how they look.  Unfortunately, the store has closed down so have to use them wisely because I can't get them any more.

The large white bloom and the tiny rosebuds are available from Megs Garden.

The usual on the inside ..

.. and, because it was a bit front heavy, I added some of the same paper to the back.

I really love the subtle colour of these papers .. unfortunately I have now used them all up!!
Good for the stash busting .. not so good 'cause' now I have no more!!  Ah well, can't have it both ways I gues!!

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a look.
Have yourself a wonderful week.
Take care and God Bless.

Hop to Stop!!

Hello dear crafty peeps and welcome to my blog.  Hope everyone is having a fabulous day!!

So, a couple of weeks ago my dear crafty friend Lizzy Hill shared a post about the Hop to Stop.  This Hop is run by Becca Cruger and is about raising awareness for Domestic Violence!  

As well as the Hop there is also the opportunity to help by making cards to donate to Becca's local shelter.  They are looking for birthday, thank you and encouragement cards and for them to be left blank inside to make them more usable.

Well, this is such a worthy cause that I decided to join in with the Hop and also to make a few cards to send on to the shelter.   Unfortunately I didn't make as many as I would have liked but I did managed to do about 5.  My biggest problem with these was that, for ease of posting, I felt they needed to be clean and simple! Well, anyone who knows my work knows that I don't really do clean and simple.  Most of my cards are reasonably loaded down with layers and embellies which make them quite heavy so, not cheap for posting.  Anyways, thank goodness for Pinterest.  Had a look around, got a few ideas and came up with these.

Now, for the Hop, you have to use purple on your card so, I hunted around for purple stuff to put on these cards, and came up with .. virtually, nothing!!  But, I managed to find just enough to be able to create these.

I had made a background ages ago that was just sitting around doing nothing, and had a touch of purple in it so, I cut it up and used part of it here.

 I also found a purple VersaColor stamp pad so have used that on almost all of these cards ..

.. along with a small amount of purple Maja papers.
(I received a very generous gift from my dear friend Heather Jacob a little while ago .. it was a pile of Maja papers which, luckily, had some purple ones among them.  Thank you so much Heather, you are such a sweet and generous person and I am so Blessed to be able to call you my friend!!)
I possess only four Gelatos, which I have never used but, luckily, one of them was purple, so the bit of colour under the stamp was created with my Gelatos!  Love them!!

Went hunting for some purple embossing powder but, no luck, so had to use black which actually balanced out the washi tape quite nicely.  I have decided that heat embossing is not one of my skills!!  (One of many I'm not good at!) Every time I try it, I mess it up one way or another.  Very frustrating that I can never get a crisp, clear image but, I guess that's what happens with hand made stuff .. adds character, I say!!  LOL!!

 Stamped the butterflies twice and fussy cut them to give the card above some dimension, and messed up the stamping on the card below but used it anyway, 'cos I quite like how it looks!

I will be sending these off tomorrow.

Now for the Hop.
As I said before, you have to use purple in your card and these are the wonderful sponsors for this Hop.

So, here is my card. 
I made this for a friend's birthday .. killed two birds with one stone and got back into my comfort zone!

The papers are from Maja (more  of that fabulous gift from Heather)
Did a bit of stenciling with transparent texture paste ..

.. and added some Scrapmatts chippies.

The flowers are from my stash and the leaves were cut with my Silhouette.

Along with a piece of netting and a twine bow, I also sprinkled around some micro beads.

My usual pockets on the inside.

Done!!

I know there's not a lot of time left but, if you can manage, it would be lovely if you could create a card for the Hop, it closes on the 30th October.

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

Watercolour in Blues - Cards for Megs Garden

Hello sweet visitors and welcome to my blog. 

Hope you are having a wonderful day.

I'd like to share two cards with you today created with the beautiful Watercolour in Blues Paper Collection exclusive to Megs Garden. 

I have to say, one thing I really love about the Megs Garden papers is that they come in so many different sizes.  There's the Mini Paper Pack (which is what I've used here), the Papercrafter Mini Packs, the A4 papers, the 12" x 12" Scrapbooking papers and also the Mini Book Papers.   On top of that you also have the matching ephemera papers and they all come in either a printed version or a digital downloadable version.  So, whatever you choose to create, you will find a Megs Garden Collection which is eminently suitable for your project.  I think that is awesome don't you??

For my first card I used the Watercolour in Blues 03 paper.

Added a touch of stenciling with texture paste and also did a little stamping.

The flowers used are all from Megs Garden. (I will pop a list of all Megs' products used at the end of this post)  I just added some colour to the puffy paper flowers to match in with the papers.  The frame was made with a mould and some hot glue and then painted with acrylic paint.  

I was asked by a couple of people to do a tutorial on these frames but there's not really very much to it.  You simply need a mould and then just squirt the hot glue into it.  One little tip I can give you though is, make sure you place the nozzle right down into the mould so the glue can run into all the little details before it cools.  It took me a couple of tries before I realised this, so my first few frames had a few bubbles and missed detail.     Also, make sure you don't overfill the mould as you want to keep the back nice and flat.

The doily is also from Megs Garden.

The small lock came from my stash.

Watercolour in BLues 04 is what I used to create two pockets on the inside.  One is for a Gift Voucher and the other for a tag with a personal message to the recipient.

My second card was created with Watercolour in Blues 01. 

In between the papers I layered some gauze, some lace and a doily cut in half.

The large bloom is from Megs Garden and I have again added another small frame.  To make the frame this time I used some Mod Podge Melts.  I have discovered that they are much easier than hot glue to fill the moulds with.  Once heated they are a thinner consistency than the glue and they fill the moulds better.  Plus the sticks come in different colours so may not need to be painted.

I added a few micro beads and some die cut leaves ..

.. and some cotton for more interest and texture.

As I prefer to add my personal message on a tag or journaling card I usually create at least one pocket for the inside of my cards.  Here I have used Watercolour in BLues 06 and Martha Stewart's Floral Vine Deep Edge Punch.

As I stated at the beginning of this post, I love Megs Garden papers.  Apart from the fact that you can get them in either printed or downloadable versions  they are also totally gorgeous. 
  
Thank you so much for dropping by and taking a look at my little creations.
To see more projects made with these beautiful papers why not take a stroll through the Megs Garden blog and see what the rest of the Team have created.  HERE is the link.

Megs Garden Products used
Watercolour in Blues Mini  Cardmakers Pack  
(Printed version)
Puffy Paper Flowers
Azaleas
10 cm Doily
1.2cm White Lace

Take care and God Bless.
Marg xoxo

Cards with Chantilly Cream and Rose Quartz for Megs Garden

Hello lovely visitors and welcome to my blog.  It's been a few weeks since I posted anything and I am so happy that you dropped by.  I hope you are all having a wonderful day.

I'd like to share two cards with you today.  One was made with the beautiful Chantilly Cream papers and the other with the gorgeous Rose Quartz papers, both of which are, of course, exclusive to 

Megs Garden.

Card # 1 - Chantilly Cream.

Unfortunately, our weather has been quite dull lately (lots of rain) and because the light was quite bad, the colour didn't photograph too well.  It is a lot creamier than it looks here but I couldn't leave it for another day because this had to be posted Interstate.
This card measures 4" x  5.5".

The doily and the lace are both available at Megs Garden.  I will leave a list of Megs products (and links) at the end of this post.

This is the lace I used.

As I wanted to  tuck it in under the paper layers, I didn't need the full width so I trimmed off the top section and used that at the bottom of the card and then the remainder was inserted at the top.

This way you don't waste lace that you don't see.  Much more economical.

The leaves were cut from cardstock with my Silhouette Cameo and I also sprinkled a few seed beads here and there. 

The frame was made with air dry clay and a small mould.  The lovely rose graphic glued to the center came from the Rose Quartz cut and create pages.

The flowers are from Prima .. had them in my stash for ages.  The ribbon is from Megs Garden.
I did wipe a little white acrylic paint around the card when it was done.

The inside has two pockets cut from the Chantilly Cream papers and edged with Martha Stewart's Floral Vine Deep Edge Punch.  One pocket is for a gift voucher and the other will have a personal message written on a journal card or tag.

That's the Chantilly Cream card done, and now for

Card # 2 - Rose Quartz

This one is quite tall .. it measures 3.5" x 7".  Don't think I have ever made one that size before, but I quite like it so I'm sure I will do it again.

I have used the same lace as on my first card.

I love these blooms.  They are available from Megs Garden and have not been altered in any way.  Once again, the leaves were cut from cardstock with my Silhouette Cameo.
 

This lace is just so gorgeous .. I love it!!  I didn't cut it apart this time though.

The tiny frame was made with hot glue and a Mod Podge mould.  First time I have used the hot glue .. works a treat, once you get the hang of it. 

Two pockets again on the inside cut from the Rose Quartz papers.  I don't always need a pocket for a voucher but it's handy to have one, just in case.

Thank you so much for dropping by to see my latest Megs Garden project.
Why not pop over and take a stroll around the 'Garden' to see the creations by the rest of the Team .. they are gorgeous and are sure to inspire you.  HERE is the link.

Megs Garden Products used
Rose Quartz Book Kit
Chantilly Cream Book Kit
Puffy Paper Flowers
Burgundy/Cream Open Paper Rose 
Lace 5cm White
10cm Doily

Enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg