Busy, Busy, Busy!

I know I haven’t posted quite as regularly recently,but I can guarantee you you that I have been busy working away!  Today I’d like to share one of the bigger projects that I have been occupied with!  A month or so ago, a friend asked me to help with her wedding invitations.  I was her Plan B as she had hoped to make them herself, but things changed and I’m glad I got the chance to help out!

The bride-to-be needed to include lots of information for her guests, so it soon became clear that a chequebook style invitation would be the best layout.  The colour scheme for the wedding is fuchsia and silver; I love the bright, summery combination!  Now I hope you’ll understand when I say that I can’t share the inside of the booklets, but I can let you have a peek at the front cover….

The front and back of the invitation are cut by the Silhouette from a fairly heavyweight linen marked card.  The border on the cover (by Jamie Koay via Silhouette Online store) was also cut on the Silhouette.  Then, I popped a layer of fuchsia cardstock behind the cover to show through the border, without overpowering it.  The words were cut from Bazzill Basics Mercury cardstock and glued by hand.  A fuchsia satin blow was the final touch!  Inside, the pages are printed on 300gsm smooth white card, with the edges of each section staggered.

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Crafting At The Weekend Launch Day

At last!!  Crafting At The Weekend launches today!!

My first project for this new challenge blog is a project that I have had in mind since buying my Silhouette last summer!  We moved house in March last year and have been (very slowly) decorating and modernising the house.  The living room was the first room to have paint inflicted on it, as it was a gaudy yellow (as is most of the downstairs!) , and just wasn’t a room you could relax in!  So, I attacked it with several layers of Dulux Buttercream to keep it light and fresh, but without the need for sunglasses.  Finally, a year on, the room has a lovely bespoke cast iron curtain pole, curtains, sofas that fit and some furniture and I’m down to the little touches to finish it off!  Which is where my project comes in….

I recently received a freebie butterfly cut file from the Silhouette Online store, which I have adapted slightly.  Now, instead of cutting the butterflies out completely, the middles are uncut which allowed me to pop the wings forward and give the butterflies more depth.  I chose to cut the butterflies from a piece of aqua Bazzill cardstock that was leftover after a wedding commission last year – it has a lovely, but subtle texture to it and cuts easily.  Finally, I popped it in a Ribba box frame from Ikea, and hung it on the wall!

I hope to see your papercraft creations over at Crafting At The Weekend – it’s a month long challenge, so you’ve got plenty of time to get crafting and using up your stash!

I’d like to enter this project into the following challenges:

CRAFT Challenge – Anything But A Card

One Image, Two Cards

I’ve been busy making two very similar, but obviously different, cards today.  Both feature Abi Ballerina from All Dressed Up; Abi is an old favourite of mine – my daughter even had a top with her picture on when she smaller!  I also based both cards around the same sketch from the current challenge over at Sketch Saturday:

For the first card, I coloured Abi in shades of lilac and purple, and gave her brown hair.  There are little touches of sparkly Stickles on tutu and hairband.

I used a patterned cream and lilac paper from the Dovecraft Back to Basics III paper stack, added a little Bazill card circle with daughter welded to the edge and popped it on a final layer of cream card, embossed with the X-Cut quilting folder.  I cut the wording out twice and added the second layer on top, just to create a little more depth.

The final touch was the band of lace across the centre – I have been dying to use some lace on a card, but haven’t yet been brave enough….hope it looks OK!

The second card features little Abi again, this time coloured in light greens, with touches of Stickles on the tutu and hairband.

This is for a little blonde girl, so I changed Abi’s hair to reflect the intended recipient!  The layout is the same as the first card, but as I kept the colours much simpler, choosing to add texture to white cardstock instead, I feel there is a much cleaner look about the card.  Unfortunately, the coloured mat hasn’t come out too well in the photo – in reality, it is Celtic Green by Bazzill, and is a much springier green, which is similar to the colour of the tutu.  The band of ribbon across the centre should look a few shades darker….but again, hasn’t been treated well by the photo, despite my best efforts to digitally redress the colour balance!

Which do you prefer?  For me, it has to be the first one – I prefer Abi with darker hair and I’m so pleased that I finally managed to use some lace 🙂

I’d like to enter these cards into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday – Challenge 291: see sketch above

Thanks for reading x

Keira’s birthday card

I’m popping in today to show you the card I have made for Keira, who will be 5 next week.

I followed the sketch for this week’s Seize the Sketch Challenge: 

I used the cute little “Annie’s Prezzie” stamp from Tiddly Inks.  I coloured Annie using my ProMarkers, trying to use the blender pen more effectively this time, as I didn’t have a pale enough pink.  I laid down a coat of the blender on the skirt, then some Pale Pink on the areas I wanted to keep darker; then, using the fine nib of the blender, I drew some ink from the chisel end of the Pale Pink and then worked the paler colour into the skirt.  I was so pleased with the outcome that I used the same technique for the spots on the dress and hair bow!

The pink mat is “Slipper” by Bazzill Basics.  The white scalloped piece was simply cut from a piece of cardstock and embossed using the Swiss Dots folder for the Cuttlebug.  The rose was made using one of the Petal Pairs punches – I’ve been having great fun with these recently, using YouTube to create various flowers!

Finally, I added plenty of Star Dust Stickles to give the dress, present, shoes and rose some sparkle!

Thanks for reading x

Challenges:

Seize the Sketch – Challenge 4

Seize the Birthday

In the Pink – Challenge 28: Bling it up

Passion for ProMarkers – Embossing