Sailing

Are you slowly getting into the mindset for the Olympics? I always like this over-indulgence of sport events - and I just love the patriotic sport images, which are part of the London Line collection by Trimcraft. The artwork is once again by Helz Cuppleditch.

One of my favourites is the clear stamp 'Sail Away', which I used for the card above. I coloured in the image using Spectrum Noir pens. And this cute character stamp is also great with more rustic embellishments. In this case I opted for eyelets and simple household string to give the card a more nautic feel.

A full product list and step-by-step instructions for this project can be found in my Trimcraft gallery.

I hope you like this card.

To have and to hold

Yesterday I was working on a commissioned wedding card for football fans. I decided to use the colours of their football club as inspiration, so it is mainly held in maroon and white.

Regarding the cardstock I opted for white linen textured cardstock from Southfield, the Tim Holtz and Ranger Distress Collection by Core'dinations and Neenah card for the stamped image. A Darice border embossing folder, decorative dies and a corner rounder helped to bring the cardstock into the right shape. The Distress cardstock is partly distressed, which can be achieved with a distressing tool or simply a nail file.

For the image of the bride and groom I used the small wedding couple stamp by Crafty Stamps, which I coloured in with ProMarkers. I highlighted selected areas with the help of a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in Clear Star.

For the embellishments I decided on a round sentiment stamp. I added this with a good amount of silicone glue, so that I could arrange heather (for a Scottish touch), rose buds and a decorative heart pin. Finishing touches are an organza ribbon bow and clear adhesive gems.

Reviving Old Jewellery

Many of us have probably items of jewellery lying around in a box or corner, which we have not been wearing for ages - and I am no exception. Especially when these pieces are made from precious metals parting with them is not easy. Even selling the jewellery will never bring a price close to the real value.

I had a pair of large sterling silver hoop earrings, which I had not been wearing for at least 15 years, in a box. So the best option seemed to be to give them a bit of a twist and a new lease of life.

After thoroughly cleaning the earrings with a silver polishing cloth and in an ultrasonic cleaner I added lightweight 4mm jump rings in sterling silver and 9ct yellow gold. After a final bath in the ultrasonic cleaner they are now nice and shiny and as good as new. And the weight is with just 2.2g per earring still very good for comfortable wear.

And the best thing:

It is easy to change the design, if I ever want to give them a new look again.

Tea Party

Today is actually a dry and sunny although a bit chilly day here, but the last couple of days the weather was simply atricous. It was freezing cold with temperatures in the single figures, windy and wet. It felt much more like November than May.

So I decided to cheer myself up with the gorgeous Dovecraft Tea Party products by Trimcraft.The goregous pastel colours and yummy treats really lifted my mood - although it was hard not to go to Starbucks and organise some real treats ...

For the card above I used the Tea Party decoupage paper pad. I created the flowers with Card Candi, which is shapped around tweezers - a technique I saw demonstrated at the recent Sincerely Your papercraft show in Edinburgh. The leaves are cut with a Marianne Design die.

My products of choice for the next cards were the Tea Party glitter stickers. I added again Card Candi flowers. This time I used a Crealies die for the leaves.

Product lists and step-by-step instructions for both cards (with exception of the Card Candi flowers, as I created the projects for Trimcraft) are in my Trimcraft gallery.

I hope you like these two cards.

Crafting on the Wild Side

It was time for a bit of fun crafting time and getting out my beloved Clarity tiger stamp. These big cats are so beautiful, powerful and majestic - although I prefer to keep a bit of a safety distance once they are no longer cubs ...

I stamped the image onto a piece of kraft cardstock using black VersaFine ink and coloured it in with Derwent Coloursoft pencils before mounting it onto black cardstock. I combined the tiger with Kanban Safari cardstock, tiger Card Candi and foliage die-cuts from Tim Holtz Kraft-Core cardstock that I created with a Marianne Design die. All these are arranged on a square kraft card blank and layers of textured black cardstock and embossed kraft cardstock.

I hope you like this different style of card.

Sincerely Yours Papercraft Show 21 April 2012

It was a long and busy day at the Sincerely Yours Papercraft Show in Edinburgh yesterday. And the place was buzzing with crafters.

It was a great experience, but I must admit that my feet are still recovering a bit. And when it comes to the preparation of yesterday's dinner I did not manage more than shoving a pizza into the oven and opening a bottle of wine ... But it was well worth it. And thankfully I still found the time to treat myself to some goodies, so unpacking and playing with the new toys is on the agenda for today.

Here are a couple of photos that I took of our stall. It was lovely to see so many of my cards on display.

Only one more sleep ...

... until the Sincerely Yours papercraft show in Edinburgh. We do not have many of these events around here, so it is really something to look forward to. A good craft shopping spree, soaking up new ideas and inspiration as well as meeting other crafters that is what I call bliss.



And I even found the time for a card with the small Scottish wedding couple stamp by Crafty Stamps last night. For the groom's kilt I inked up that particular section of the image, stamped it onto tartan paper, cut it out and fixed it to the image.

Here is what I used to create the card:

• Scottish wedding couple (small) by Crafty Stamps
  
• White textured cardstock
• Lilac pearlescent card
• Tartan paper
• White glass-smooth cardstock by Southfield
• Black Memento ink pad
• ProMarkers
• Darice embossing folder
• Marianne Design die
• Ribbon
• Adhesive gems
• Adhesive
• Die-cutting machine
  
• Toolbox essentials