A Card for a Friend

Hello my lovely visitors and welcome to my blog and a very warm welcome too to my new followers.  So pleased you decided to tag along on my creative journey.  Thank you.

I hope everyone is having a lovely day.  It's supposed to be Spring here in Adelaide but it's
cold and wet and miserable!!  Can't even take the dogs for a walk .. don't like it!! 

So, now that I've had my little gripe, I'd like to share a card with you.  It's been a while since I posted and I had actually forgotten about this one as it was made for a friend and I couldn't show it until it had been received.  Was reminded about it when she showed it on facebook .. forget my head if it wasn't screwed on .. LOL!!

This is another instance where, I made a tag, and then simply attached it to folded cardstock and turned it into a card.   I also seem to be stuck in a loop with the colours but I love this combination .. light and fresh and very 'Spring' (wishful thinking)!

The papers are from Megs Garden's 'English Rose Garden' Mini Paper Pack.  As you can see, I used three layers and attached a strip of dry wall tape on one side.  I also tucked some strips of lace in between the layers.  The seam binding was coloured with watered down acrylic paint.

The roses are the 'Puffy Paper Flowers', also from Megs Garden (and my fave flower) which have been sprayed with watered down acrylic paint. 

Added a stamen cluster, twine and strips of gauze to my cluster and also scattered some seed beads around.

A closer look at the metal trinket.

The inside with a pocket on the right hand side for a little note.

I dry-brushed the flowers and the trinket with gesso and my card was done!  Hope you like it!!  My friend did .. she said so on facebook .. thanks Linda!!

Well, as they say in the cartoons, 'That's all folks'!!  For now anyway .. he!he!

Thank you all so much for paying me a visit and do enjoy the rest of your day. 


Take care and God Bless.

'English Rose Garden' - Cards for Megs Garden

Hi everyone and a very warm welcome to my bloggy space and a very special welcome to my new followers.  Thank you so much for joining me.  Hope you are all having a wonderful day. 

I'm back again to share my projects for the Megs Garden DT.  This time I have created two more cards with the lovely 'English Rose Garden' papers.  I think I mentioned in a previous post how much I love these papers.. they are so pretty and simply perfect for anything 'shabby chic'.

It is winter here in Australia and it has been bitterly cold and wet and I, for one, have certainly had enough of this weather.  I made these cards with some lovely summery colours just to brighten up the day a bit.

Megs Garden Products used

Papers

English Rose Garden Mini Paper Pack

Flowers

Lace

For the base paper I've used 'Leaves &Foliage' and then added some scraps from 'Bouquet of Roses' and 'Roses & Flowers'  plus a small scrap taken from the Butterfly Book Kit to add a little contrast.

I added a little texture with a Prima Damask Stencil and some paste and cut a small metal trinket in half and inserted it in between the paper layers.

The 'Puffy Paper Flower' (one of my favourite flowers to use) was coloured with acrylic paint.  I usually buy my flowers white and then mix my own colours of acrylic paint to get the shades I need.  Place them in a spray bottle, fill it up with water and the paint will spray quite easily.  I used the same method to colour the small paper roses.

The gorgeous lace was attached with a glue gun.  I simply gathered it slightly as I was glueing it down.

Used a couple of strips from the 'Pink Rose Vine' paper to decorate the inside of the card.  The left side was edged with Martha Stewart's Floral Vine Deep Etch Border Punch.

Added some seed beads, some twine made into a bow, some pieces of gauze and even a twist of cotton thread in and around my flower clusters.  Once everything was assembled, I dry brushed some gesso in random places to create some highlights.

So, that was card number one, and this is card number two ..

Megs Garden Products used

 Papers

English Rose Garden Mini Paper Pack

Flowers

Tim Holtz Studio Keyholes

For this card I used two pieces from the 'Roses & Flowers' sheet.  Cut them to size and distressed the edges with a distressing tool. 

My fave flower again .. the pretty 'Puffy Paper Flower' sprayed the same as on my previous card.

This bloom is the 'Ivory Primula'.  It is a lovely creamy white fabric flower which has been altered using watered down 'Peeled Paint' Distress Paint. 

Megs Garden also sells some Tim Holtz products.  This is one of the 'Keyholes'.  I simply glued it down and swiped it with a little gesso. 
 

The seam binding was sprayed with the same colour as the Primula then crumpled up and dried.  Wrapped it around the top paper layer and simply tied it in a bow.

Added some gauze in between the paper layers, some seed beads in a few spots and some strands of twine to the cluster.  Swiped some gesso in random places and my card was done!!   Adding these little touches just adds so much interest to a card .. well, I think so anyway .. LOL!!

If you wish to take a closer look at the products used here simply click on the product pictures and it will take you to the web page.  Also, why not go over and take a look at the wonderful projects created by my Team mates .. I know you will be inspired.  HERE is the link.

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

oxox Marg

Flowers - Just for Me!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a fabulous day!!

I have another card to share.  Haven't really been in "the crafting zone' lately and was getting a bit down about it but things have picked up again and I decided to make something 'just for me'.  Didn't care if it was good or bad, just wanted to get my fingers dirty so to speak.   I had started another Art Journal page but got stuck and it's still waiting for me to finish it so, in the meantime, I made this card.

The papers I used are from Meg's Garden's 'Gentlemen's Collection' and, though they are certainly wonderful for masculine projects, they also work just as well for feminine ones.

Did a little bit of stamping  with a text stamp and black archival ink and also added a bit of texture through a stencil.  I actually wanted to drizzle some paint over the papers, but had a lot of trouble getting it right so used the stencil instead.  Also sprinkled the background with watered down Black Soot D.I.

The wooden flourish is from Kaisercraft.  Coloured it with Distress Inks and lightly swiped it with gesso.

The large flowers are from Kaisercraft, the small roses from Meg's Garden and the rest are from my stash.  The metal leaves were lightly swiped with gesso.

The ticket was fussy cut from Prima's Engraver Collection, edged with Distress Ink and, again, swiped with gesso.  Love that gesso!!!

The inside was decorated with some strips of the same papers and stenciled with Tea Stain D.I.

I may have to make a few more of these 'random' cards just to perk up the old 'mojo'.  It didn't take a lot of time to do and I just went with the flow and did whatever I felt like.  Must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the process.  Sometimes you've just got to please yourself!!

Thank you so much for visiting and I do hope you like my little floral make.  I'll probably give it away to someone but, for the moment, it's there to remind me why I love crafting so much.

Take care, lovely people and enjoy the rest of your day.
God Bless.

A Little on the Shabby Side #2

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog, so pleased to have you here.

Well, I am back again to show the second of my little Shabby Cards.  Don't think I mentioned this in my last post, but this is my favourite of the two.  Once again I've used Pion's Flower Frame Papers and of course I've just ripped and torn and curled them as I did on my previous card.

As you can see the composition is quite different from the previous card but it is still only a fairly basic card and yet the tearing and curling of the papers make it look just that little bit more special.  

A mix of flowers with some added stamens and a gem spray.  The small blue rose was originally white, but I felt the cluster needed a little extra splash of colour so I used some Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink mixed with water and painted it blue.  I also added a little of the colour to the grey flower as well just to give it some extra shading.

Here is a better view of the blue rose.  The colour turned out a little uneven but I think that also adds to the interest.  The two flower clusters are basically the same.  

As in the first card, this one was also simply lined with strips of the same papers.

The mesh underneath the layers was actually a flower meant to be made into a Fascinator.  I'm not sure what it is made of but it feels a bit like straw although it is quite flexible.  I simply pulled it apart and ended up with lots of bits of mesh to use for texture.  The belly band is made up of paper with some gauze stretched over the top and then tied up with some twine.

I am really happy with the way these two cards turned out but this one is definitely my favourite!!  Hope you like it too!!

Thank you once again for visiting  and I would love it if you could leave a little note to let me know what you think of my shabby little cards.  I treasure each and every comment made and really appreciate you taking the time.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your day.  Please take care and God Bless

oxox Marg

A little Spring in my Step

Hi everyone and a very warm welcome to you!!  Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and that the weather in your part of the world is being kind to you.  We've had quite a lovely Autumn day in Adelaide today.  Nice and sunny with the temperature in the low 20s.  Could handle a lot more days like this one.

So, with our weather heading into winter, I thought I would take a step back and make a spring card.  Does that seem a bit on the silly side?  Well, I just felt like making something bright and sunny, and this is what I came up with.

 Have I told you that I really like making step cards???  Yeah, I think I might have mentioned that!!

 This one is a variation of my previous Crossover Step Card design.  Instead of using the pocket for tags, it has been closed and simply become part of the card itself and the crossover has been done in a double layer.  The papers were border punched with Martha Stewarts' Doily Die Border and some lace was inserted in between.  The papers used are a mix of Pion's Flower Frames and Maja's Vintage Summer Basics and I've done some stencilling with texture paste as a bit of added interest.  

 I've also tucked a few branches in between the card layers here and there.

 Added a couple of Vintage Brads at the bottom ...

 ... and here is a sideways closie of the flower cluster to which was added a twine bow.

The inside was lined with a sheet from Prima's Ledger Pad Paper pack and I made the pocket from a scrap piece of the Maja papers.

Thoroughly enjoyed making this card and it came together really quickly.  Love it when that happens.

I've decided to enter this one into the following Challenges -
Allsorts Challenge Blog - Spring Flowers
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg