Paula Pascaul Workshop

I had a fabulous weekend away at The Gentleman Crafters workshops in Godalming. If you get a chance to go on one, you're sure to have a fabulous time - you can check the itinerary here

On the Sunday we  had a class with Paula Pascaul and made three projects. This is the card we made:

We used lots of Tonic products and it was good to try the mouse and pastes

I really like this layout and this is what we'll be doing in my class on Wednesday so I've made another one just using inks.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Butterfly Challenge - Not Square and/or Navy
Pixie's Snippets Playground - snippets of blue and silver mirror card for the butterfly and swirl

Butterfly Quote & Quicksilver

The latest theme at The Butterfly Challenge is Quotes and/or Quick Silver. For this card I've used a technique that my friends Pam & Cally introduced me to a little while ago and I know that they got it from a class they did with Clair Matthews. It's great for masculine cards but I thought I'd try a more girly approach and this theme suited it perfectly

The basics are silver tape and plasterboard tape, both of which can be found in DIY stores (or hubby's toolbox) but I got mine in In-Excess:

The other things you need are die cuts and alcohol inks. You basically stick the die cuts to a sheet of card adding pieces of the plasterboard tape for texture and then cover with the silver tape, go over the whold thing with an embossing tool to make sure the tecture comes through before colouring with alcohol inks. For this one I then used the blending solution to remove the colour from the butterflies and flower (the butterflies and flowers are cut from snippets so I'm taking this to Pixie's Playground too. And the new challenge st PaperArtsy is Alcohol Inks and Pens so I'm entering this there too

For masculine cards I usually use die cut cogs and screws / hinges cut from cereal boxes:

This one just has some odd chipboard shapes that I would never have used because the colours were awful

So thanks Pam, Cally and especially Clair for this great technique

Hoops and Harebells At The Butterfly Challenge

This fortnight's theme at the Butterfly Challenge is Hoops and Harebells. I always intend to get my card for this challenge done early but it's always well into the second week before I get one done. I've gone for the purplish end of the harebell colour range and this sketch form CAS Colours & Sketches

I made my own backing paper using the smallest swirl die in the Stampin Up Swirly Scribbles set and cut it from funky foam to use as a stamp. My harebell colour comes from Shaded Lilac distress ink:

I had to take a picture at an angle to show the glitter on the butterfly but the stamping is a lot lighter in real life

Th butterflies are cut using Stampin Ups Butterfly Wings Embosslits folder using scraps of lilac card so I'm also taking this to the Pixie's Snippets Playground

White on White and or Wire

White on White and/or Wire is the current theme at the Butterfly Challenge. I've made a very simple card using up snippets of white card from making card blanks. The border on the left is cut with the Treading Water Fiskars punch and added some wire threaded with beads. I also added a bead to the butterfly body with wire

I'm also entering this into the Playground - hopefully Miss Di and Mrs A have a fabulous morning at the craft show and a safe journey back

Something Sweet

A couple of girls in my card class bought the latest copy of Die Cutting Essentials which had a great die and stamp set based on ice cream and wanted to use it for a class. And the new challenge at The Paper Players is Something Sweet so I'll be entering the cards there

This is a very quick and easy card using the dies, embossing folder and one of the sentiments and lots of snippets so I'll be entering this into Pixie's Snippets Playground

A couple of them don't have a die cutting machine so I also came up with a couple of ideas that didn't use a machine

 (Not sure the proportions are right for this one)

My favourite one and my favourite lolly too

I Really Shouldn't Be Doing This!

I'm in my craft room to make my hubby his 60th birthday card but despite weeks of planning, I just can't get started on it. It's not until 2nd August but we're off to the Czech Republic first thing tomorrow so I really must get it done. But then I came across some eggshells left over from another project and thought it would be great for the Less is More challenge which is Tactile. I coloured the egg shells using a mix of Buff and Mocha Fresco paint (best I could find to make a Tip Top Taupe colour), Ocean Teal gilding polish and Banana Fresco paint to match as closely as I could the colours at Colours and Sketches this week:

I cut a strip of double sided sheet and stuck one side onto the card before sticking the eggshell to the other side. I then added white glitter to catch in the cracks. (the stray teal pieces are actually deliberate in case you were wondering). The sentiment is computer generated

I'm counting the eggshells and snippets and taking this over to the Snippets Playground
And because I've mixed the Buff and Mocha Fresco paints I'm entering this into the Party Artsy colour mixing challenge

Now to get back to that card - I wonder if he'll really mind if I buy one at the airport tomorrow!

Texture and Teal at The Butterfly Challenge

Today is the start of a new challenge at The Butterfly Challenge and I'm honoured that Mrs A has asked me to be guest designer. I chose the letter T and Mrs A chose Teal and Texture

My first project features Teal and uses some beautiful wrapping paper with shiny teal and chalk white butterflies. The sentiment is from Stampin Up's Butterfly Prints set and I've cut a couple of butterflies as embellishments

 My second project features Texture and is a Powertex notebook cover. I started with a black notebook and this metal hanging butterfly which came in a pack of three from Poundland. I put masking tape over the butterfly before adding some netting material covered in black Powertex and set it onto the book cover with another piece of material underneath. Once dry I used a combination of turquoise and green powders to add colour to the butterfly and silver to the material

 For my third project I've combined Teal and Texture. I covered my die cut butterfly with pva before adding broken eggshell and painting

Paper Artsy fresco dusty teal paint

Cosmic Shimmer teal gilding wax

Stampin Up Gorgeous Grunge

Stampin Up Loving Thoughts

Gilding flakes

I'm counting the eggshells as snippets so I'll be taking this over Pixie's Snippets Playground. (Just realised I've entered this week and it's too early for next)

Fuchsia and Butterflies

Once I'd posted my folded butterfly for the Butterfly Challenge I remembered my stamp and stencil sets and knew there was a fuchsia in there and low and behold it had a butterfly on it as well

I love these sets but naughtily I rarely get them out but was surprised how quickly this card was made. I used a snippet of Rymans smooth card and stamped the fuchsia and butterfly with Momento ink before colouring with Promarkers. Then I used the stencil to add the glitter highlights using GlitzCraft frosting paste which cries in minutes. Once I'd done this, I wasn't sure how to put the card together then I remembered the Less Is More challenge this week is Use 3 Stamps so I added the sentiment from Stampin Ups Bloomin Marvelous set and raised the panel on a white card blank

I'm entering this into the following challenges
The Butterfly Challenge - Fuchsia and/or Fancy Folds
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Snippets
Less Is More - Use 3 Stamps

Spotlight Stamping

My craft class is doing Spotlight Stamping this week so I had to come up with a couple of quick cards as samples so I've made two very similar using Hero Arts Flower Wood Background stamp.

The first one I use just stamped in black on white card then with white ink on a snippet of black card for the spotlight so I'm entering this into Pixie's Snippets Playground

The second one I've just coloured some  of the spotlight with blue Promarker. The blue card for layering and the ribbon are also coloured with the Promarker as I didn't have anything matching. I'm entering this one into Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge which this week is Stamping and/or Sapphire (and of course butterflies)

Stickles, ribbon and a butterfly greeting finish both cards

"Q" Is For Quadruple

The current theme at The Butterfly Challenge is Q is for Quadruple. For my card I've used a layout of a card I did at a workshop with Jenny Mayes of Hobby Art quite a while ago. It was at the Worthing craft show which sadly finished a few years ago as although not quite local for me it was always a great show. I've moved things round a little but it is basically the same layout and it works so well for so many images. Apart from the main card everything is snippets so I'll be showing it in Pixie's Snippets Playground

As usual, the glittering on the flowers and butterflies is very hard to capture

Build a Snowman And a Quiz for You

OK, this is quite a long post for me but bear with me and there could be a prize at the end of it for someone

When I saw the challenge at Freshly Brewed Designs. I remembers a page I'd bookmarked a couple of years ago - remember when we used to bookmark pages rather than Pin them? THIS is the page that I got the idea from and there are a couple more I'll be trying too

This is quite a simple card so I can't believe it's taken me three days to make it. I knew what embossing folder I wanted to use but could I find it? Of course not. It took the whole of Wednesday afternoon to find it but my folders are now nicely organised. Thursday, I cut all the pieces out of snippets and went to emboss the blue card when the cat came into the craft room demanding food. He's not one to be ignored so I took him downstairs, fed him and went straight back to my craft room to find the embossing folder had disappeared! I know I'm not a tidy crafter (I often think about entering at What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday but it's more like what's not on mine) but that was ridiculous. I went back downstairs assuming I'd left it on the side while feeding the cat but no sign of it there either. Back in the craft room I thought if I got on with the rest of it, the embossing folder would appear from it's hiding place. I glittered the edges of the circle with a hologram embossing powder and stuck the face on. I was quite please with his face but then realised that I'd stuck it to the un-embossed side . I managed to cut the nose off and turned it over to start again. Sticking the pieces on again, he looked quite grumpy so I added a couple more dots - now he just looks gormless but I'm not doing it again. Still no sign of the embossing folder so I put all the bits in a bag and got on with the handbag charm in my previous post (I couldn't find my jewellery tools for that either but that's another story)

By the time I found the embossing folder I needed some food and as OH is away, cooking was down to me so I left it until today to finish. I got the bag out, embossed the blue card and set about putting it together. Blow me down with a feather - there was only one arm! I couldn't find the same colour snippet so had to cut another two.  Finally the finished card

Well, if any of my followers have made it through all that and would like to guess where I found the embossing folder, I'll put a little prize together for the first person to get it right in the comments

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Workshop - Snippets
The Sisterhood Of Crafters - In The Meadow We Will Build A Snowman
Colour Throwdown - Chocolate Brown, Orange and Blue

Many Thanks at Cuttlebug Mania

Our new challenge at Cuttlebug Mania is Many Thanks and our sponsor this time is

Crafty Sentiments Designs

I've based my card on this layout from CAS(E) This Sketch

I always forget that this Thanks die stays in the card but I think it works well. I've used Ken Oliver Colour Bursts to colour the tag butterfly and letters and sprayed the tag with some shimmer mist

Crafty Individuals Butterfly die
Memory Box Thanks die
Tag die free with a magazine
Embossalicious Chevron folder

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

The Butterfly Challenge - Z is for Zig Zags

Less Is More - Fire Colour Challenge 

Pixie's Snippets Playground  - the tag and butterfly are both cut from snippets
CAS on Sunday - Use a Tag

Okra Anyone?

When I first joined Slimming World, I tried quite a few new (to me) vegetables and one of them was okra. It didn't taste of much but it was something different. We had a stir fry at lunchtime and I remembered seeing somewhere about stamping with them so I kept the offcuts and I've just had a play. Oh my, such pretty little flowers and you can have a lot of different sizes from just one finger

I've used my Brilliance Rocket Red Gold ink pad. This is one of my all time favourites as it's such a rich colour with lots of shimmer and I've got a couple of them so I've used the oldest for this. The splatters are Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Mist

Difficult to capture in a photo but this shimmer is why I love this ink pad

If you do give this a go, I wouldn't recommend using your best ink pad. Okra has a slightly slimy inside and despite wiping it away, it still oozes a little. Also, for the better definition, it's best to remove any visible seeds although they can add detail to the petals

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Okra snippets
CAS on Sunday - Use a Tag
Less Is More - Fire Colour Challenge

K is For Knots

The current Butterfly Challenge is K is for Knots. I've been having a real clear out of my crafting stash with a view to getting rid of quite a bit but I came across these embossed frames from Craftwork Cards. I've brushed it lightly with pink chalk and raised it on foam pads above the sentiment by Inkylicious. My knots are three snippets of ribbon which I've coloured with the same ink that I stamped the sentiment. Some Robert Adams butterflies to finish

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Snippets

Nordsalten Hobbyklubb - Pink Ribbon

No Squares at Cuttlebug Mania

Our new challenge at Cuttlebug Mania is No Squares. 

Our sponsor this time is

This was quite a challenge for me as most of my cards are square and then I remembered I had some shaped card blanks. I drew around this one on white card and then trimmed around to make a mat for the light purple card. The sentiment is from an older Hobby Art set called Flower Bear. The flowers are cut from snippets of dark purple card and centered with gems

Joy Craft Branch With Flowers die

Robert Adams Leaf Flourish die

Marianne Design Christmas Leaves die

I'm also showing this at Pixie's Snippets Playground

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Cardz 4 Guyz - T Is For ..........

It's time for a new challenge here at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week our theme is "T is for ....."

My T is quite obvious and I've used the ties from the Stampin Up set Best Dad Ever stamping onto some offcuts of blue paper. The sentiment is from a Taylored Expressions set called Punny Man.

I'm also taking this over to the Snippets Playground and to the Less Is More challenge which is Snippets and where the lovely Di is so appropriately the guest designer - well done Miss x

We'd love to see what your T stands for but don't forget to make your card suitable for a male

Gems at The Butterfly Challenge

The current theme at The Butterfly Challenge is Gems. For my card I've used a Sizzix Stamp and Die set. There's lots of bling on my card but it's hard to photograph it. The background is made using splatters of shimmer mists (thanks Kate). The butterfly is stamped on the card base with perlescent ink and then again on a snippet of perlescent vellum and of course the gems on the butterfly and in the corner. The sentiment is by My Favourite Things

I'm also entering this into the Snippets Playground

Father's Day at Cardz 4 Guyz

Time for a new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week our theme is Father's Day

I've not done a card but a book folding using one of Crafty Hana's patterns. I've coloured the edge of the folds with blue and black inks to make them stand out. The paper's inside the covers are from Papermania's Wellington collect which I've used Faded Jeans DI to make darker.

The cover is painted with a silver metallic paint over some cogs cut from scrap card. I've added some blue wax and some mixed gilding flakes randomly over the raised parts. Holes are cut with a Cropadile and the clock ribbon threaded through

We'd love to see what you come up with for this challenge - there's plenty of scope

I'm also entering this into the following challenges

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Snippets (card for cogs)

Anything But Cute - Masculine 

Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes

Creative Moments - Man In Your Life/Father's Day

Really Reasonable Ribbon - Masculine with ribbon or trim

More Sequins for the Butterfly Challenge

I'm trying to get ahead with cards in advance of my holiday at the end of the month. This is for a blogging friends daughter. I don't really know her so wanted to keep it quite simple. The stamp is Butterfly Fountain by Honey Doo Crafts and I've stamped it in lilac. I was looking for something to add to the swirls and came across this packet of flower sequins by Doodlebug. Gorgeous

colours but it wasn't until I looked closer that they are Halloween themed

The die cut numbers are stamped with one of my favourite flower stamps - Delicate Vines by Inkylicious

I'm entering this into the following challenges

Butterfly Challenge - Sequins
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Snippets (butterfly and numbers)
Addicted to CAS - Butterfly

Sequins at the Butterfly Challenge

This is my entry for the current Butterfly Challenge which is sequins. I've wanted to try this for ages even though I'm not a high heel kind of girl but the technique can be used for lots of shapes. I started with a high heel shoe from the charity shop bargan box - 99p for a brand new pair of shoes - obviously not very comfortable though

You cover the shoe with cling film folding and pressing it around the shoe shape and then cover with a few layers of cellotape and it looks like this

Next you have to cut the tape down the back, front and sides and ease it off the shoe. Once off, tape over the cuts and your left with a cellotape shoe

Left like this, they are fabulous with fairy lights in making them look like a glass slipper. But I've decorated mine with some book pages that were left over from a book folding project. I've then painted it with a translucent paint and filled with Kusudama flowers in black and white paper. I was going to put buttons in the centre of the flowers but decided I quite like the open look. The butterfly is made from a snippet of card and I've added sequins to the wings and body and then a row of sequins down the back of the shoe. So here's the result:

If you want to have a go, do a search for sellotape shoe and a Utube tutorial will come up. There's also a FB group called Sellotape Crazy (sticky moments) where you'l get lots of inspiration - thanks Darren. I used some really cheap tape from Wilkinsons at 20p a roll but it does loose it's stickiness so a layer of proper Sellotape as the last layer and it is fine

As the butterfly is from my snippets pile, I'm also taking this over to the Playground

I'm also entering it into the following challenges:
Allsorts - Flower Power
Crafty Time Challenges - Girls, Girls, Girls