Project in Progress

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great start to the long Easter weekend.

Central panel pieces laid out

With the temperature remaining stubbornly low and the ground still frozen, it's still impossible to get going with the allotment so I've still been crafting. I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment both of which I will be reviewing. Lots of companies are putting together kits to make an item these days, but how good are they? What do you learn, do they have enough materials, do they have good instructions, are they value for money, what skill level are they aimed at?
The two I am doing at the moment could both be completed by beginners at each craft but need a little general craft know how. The pictures are of a wall hanging bought from Perfect Patchwork. I'm hoping to finish it over the weekend, but this is just a taster for now.

Adding the Stained glass Leading.

Basting layers together

Adding embellishments.

It's a project that probably could be completed in a weekend, so far it has taken a day.

Have you got any projects under way at the moment? Is the cold weather a good excuse to stay home and craft?

Have a great weekend, and Happy Crafting as always


Janice x

Book Cover Inspiration

Hello all, This is my card make for today. It was inspired by a book cover in one of the challenges I spotted. The cover was so simple and grabbed attention.
It is made very simply using flowers made from double sided sticky sheet.
I peeled the protective layer off the top and added fine glitter to the exposed sticky surface. I then peeled off each flower and added it to a 5" x 5" square black pearlised card. In between I used pearlescent paint to doodle leaves and trailing vines. I was going to add the word Believe to the centre but bottled out and added a butterfly topper.




I would like to enter this in the following challenges

Make My Monday  Book Cover

Sprinkle n Sparkle snssc17  Anything with glitter

The Pink Elephant TPE192 CAS

Avenue 613 Create  Anything goes

CAS on Sunday  Flutterby ( CAS with Butterfly)

Happy Crafting, Janice x

Show it Sunday

Hi Everyone, I hope the week has started off well for you, unlike the British weather.

This is the third time I am writing this post. Hopefully this time it won't disappear into the ether. I have no idea why the last one isn't on here as I even got as far as sharing!

Anyway, I have been busy over the last couple of weeks, pinning and tweeting my shop and my stall at craftfest.  It was a much more comfortable experience to shout out someone else's work than it was my own.  I often wonder how much I can promote myself  without annoying someone or just losing any impact. I think I was brought up in an age where you were told to keep quiet and not attract attention!
I'm sure there are plenty of people like me though, who would like a bigger voice.
This is the idea I've come up with.
Every Sunday I will post a Link tool. If you have something you want promoted, just link it up and I will tweet and pin it for you.
The only rules will be
Maximum 2 items per week.
Must be suitable for family viewing
Must be hand made.
That's it.
Over the weeks the Pinterest board should become quite noticable, especially if everyone follows it and leaves the odd comment. With all the links, we should make an impact and spread the following.

What do you think? Are you a crafter looking for a bigger audience?

Happy Crafting


Janice x

   

Illusion Necklace Tutorial

Illusion necklaces are so called because the gems or beads you use are suspended on an almost invisible thread and appear to float around the neck without support. They make beautiful pieces for brides complimenting lace and veils. Using pearls gives that tradition look without feeling heavy.

This was a commissioned piece using pearls from a broken vintage necklace. The stringing had decayed and a number of pearls were missing. With this redesign the bride was able to wear the pearls worn by 3 previous generations. Pictured here against black, the illusion cord shows up, but against the skin it is all but invisible.

The demonstration uses tigertail so that it shows up better in the pictures. Illusion cord is clear and looks like fishing line but is softer and more flexible. Don't however mistake it for the elastic thread which looks the same. The basic instructions are for a single strand which is easily adaptable for more.

You will need :-

Illusion cord
Beads for your design
Crimp beads 2x Crimp covers.
Clasp of your choice

1. Lay out your design on a bead board or felt mat. Layout your complete design and make sure you are happy with spacing as changes are difficult to make later.

2. Start with the central bead cluster, thread these onto a 24 inch piece of cord. Add a crimp bead each end. Close the crimps with flat nose pliers or Crimp pliers.

3. Measure and mark on the cord the distance to the next bead cluster. Copy this exactly on the other side.

4. Thread on a crimp bead and use your thumb nail to hold it in position over the mark while you close it in place.



5. Thread on your next bead cluster, followed by a crimp bead. Close the crimp.

6. Repeat 4 and 5 on the other side of your central cluster.

7. Measure and mark for your next cluster, continuing as above until you have completed your design.


8. To finish, thread on a crimp bead, followed by one side of your clasp. Thread the end of the cord back through the crimp bead. Adjust the position of the crimp bead to create the length of necklace you want, pulling the excess cord through. Close the crimp and trim the excess cord. Cover the crimp with a crimp cover bead, squeezing gently closed.

To make a multi strand necklace repeat the procedure with cords reducing in size by 2 inches each time eg 22" then 20" then 18".


Did you know that the tradition of a white wedding was started by Queen Victoria? Prior to her wedding to Prince Albert, wedding dresses were traditionally colourful.

I hope this is a useful tutorial,

Happy Crafting

Janice x

You Can't Have too many Bags.

Today is the last day of the Spring Craftfest.
Spring. And here we are with a blanket of snow and more falling.
I was hoping to have made it to the NEC for the Craft show there, but it was not to be. My daughter has made it from Stoke however and she has promised to bring me something to make. She is under instructions to get something from a small British business. I like to show my support for real craft businesses when I can.

I've made lots of new friends at this Craftfest, and lots of new connections. It was my first attempt and I probably wasn't as prepared as I could have been. A lot more variety on my website is needed I think, and much better photography. It wasn't until I saw all the products side by side that I realised the variability. I knew some of them weren't great due to a lack of natural light, most of them being taken in mid winter!

It has been a great experience though, and one I can recommend. Now I need to concentrate on shows and fairs. If anyone knows any good ones in Staffordshire or neighbouring counties please let me know :)

Here's a last few pics to whet your appetite, you just can't have enough bags:)






The first one is from Kwur-kee, a lovely little clutch bag using a textured black silk fabric with handmade flowers in bright colours - lovely spring like design.





Bring the sunshine in with this hot bright patchwork number from Gert Lush
















And finally a cute little clutch in Poppy red leather with a fab matching ruffle flower. This one is from
caramel designs.







I hope you've all enjoyed my little expose of some of the fantastic crafts around the show. I've certainly enjoyed looking through everything and grabbing a couple of things myself.

Whatever you are doing have a great weekend






Janice x

Message in a Bubble

What a Week!

Today is the penultimate day at Craftfest. It has been amazing.

I would firstly like to say a huge thank you to the organisers at Creative Connections for hosting such a fab event. A second massive thank you goes to those who have tirelessly tweeted, pinned, shared and blogged the event quite selflessly. Crafters are such giving people, both of their time, skills and energy. So if you haven't yet, please share the love with all the fab stallholders.

Creative Connections does more than host Craftfest of course, come and have a look at their free online magazine, join in the Monthly Challenge and if you have a spare five minutes why not pop in the chatroom.
My advice though, is to join in the very next craftfest and see what it does for you. Even if you don't have much to sell, you will make hundreds of new connections and learn so much about social marketing alone that you will wonder, as I do, if it wasn't the best £5 ever spent :) Just one statistic, the number of visitors to my blog each day is 5 times the average before Craftfest!

Here are a few more items from this Craftfest, things to make you go awww.

This first one is from Silent Companions who make all sorts of gorgeous teddies. Isn't that a great name for a teddy stall?



The next one, from Pepperpots, reminds me of the little toys my girls Grandma made for them, so it brings back fond memories of when my now twentysomethings were just coming up to school age :)



This tiny needle felted bunny from Blue Shed Crafts has caught my eye right from day one. I could just see this sitting in my craft room, watching the world go by outside my window.



So why not pop along and peruse the shops. If your weather is anything like ours, it certainly isn't a day for venturing outside!
Do any of the items evoke special memories for you? I'd love to hear about it if they do.

I love reading all your comments, so thank you very much for taking the time to leave them,
Happy Crafting,





Janice x

Get what you need :)

You don't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, you might just find, you get what you need.

Keep it in a Frame

I was talking yesterday about inspiration and how Craftfest had suddenly got me bubbling over with fresh ideas. I mentioned one of them in the post - testing out craft kits and writing reviews on them. Straight away I got a very kind offer of having them published in a craft magazine if I took the idea on. So my first project is on it's way to me as I write. It's a great opportunity to bring more people to my blog and to my website. Hence the quote from the Rolling Stones above - I was looking for sales but got a whole new direction to explore instead :)

Today I'm showing a few things from Craftfest with my favourite theme - Dragonflies and Butterflies.
This first one is from Keep it in a Frame, a beautifully elegant wedding album design personalised for the Bride and Groom.

Fairy Elephant Design

Back to Jewellery again Fairy Elephant Design have this fabulous Dragonfly pendant. I love the mixture of colours in that water with the hints of rushes and sparkles of light. It reminds me of a late afternoon in summer, taking a walk with nothing in the world to worry about. Talking about inspiration, I could just see myself doing an encaustic background with those colours and scraping back to get the highlights ...mmmmm



I really wanted to put another picture here from The Very Small Company, but there pictures aren't accessible so a link will have to suffice. Here they have a lovely Steampunk Dragonfly pendant piece, along with lots more steampunky goodies for all sorts of projects. Bookmarking this one :)


Just in case you have missed it so far, Craftfest can be found here

and my own stall is here.

Come back and let me know what you think :)

Happy Crafting or Happy Shopping,



Janice x

Inspiration and Ideas

It's day 5 at Craftfest and the site is buzzing. There has been a huge number of visitors looking at a vast collection of work.
Most of my readers will be crafts people themselves, maybe just starting or maybe crafting for many years. We all get a little isolated at times or stuck for inspiration. Craftfest has been an eye opener for me in that respect. In the world of Art, great masters stood on the shoulders of other great masters as painting progressed through the centuries. In the same way we shouldn't be afraid to take inspiration from fellow crafters - not copying of course but weaving something into our own work which gave us pleasure in another's.

This is the work of Joy at Beaded Bazaar. It is totally different from my own jewellery. I love the fun she injects into her pieces and somewhere in my crafting I want to emulate that feeling too.
Find more photos like this on Creative Connections

She also works tirelessly to promote everyone on Craftfest - if she gets as good as she gives she will have a great response :)


This particular stall Perfect Patchwork on Craftfest also inspired me. I took one look at this craft kit and thought of loads of directions I wanted my Blog to go in. More than just wanting the kit because of those awesome colours (regulars will know my love of Purples especially combined with blue and green :) ) I thought it would be great to do a regular feature testing out craft kits - how comprehensive are the instructions, material quality, enough materials provided, skill level required etc. What do you guys think? Is it something you would like to read about? Does anyone do this already? Are there any small businesses out there who would like the exposure or their kits tested out?



I'm off to see if the bank balance can stand a little more investment - all in a good cause of course :)

Happy Crafting everyone,





Janice x

Craftfest Slideshow

This is a great slideshow showing an item from all the participants in Craftfest. Why not sit back and get a taste of the what's happening :)





Find more photos like this on Creative Connections

Janice x

Bunch of Grapes earrings tutorial.

Welcome back to Tuesday Tutorial. That's as much a message for me as for you, I keep getting caught up in things to do on a Tuesday. Today I should have been off to visit my Mum, but she phoned to say the weather was bad so here I am instead :)

This set of earrings looks really complicated, but it is very straight forward, needing just one technique - turning a loop on a headpin. This item will give you lots of practice at that :)



You will need

30 beads, 10 each of 3 sizes eg 3mm,4mm,5mm
2 x 2.5" chain. Make sure the loops are big enough to thread 2 head pins into and have at least 9 links in 2.5 inches.
30 x Headpins
2 x 5mm jump rings
2 x ear hooks.

1. Thread all your beads onto individual headpins, bend the headpin to a right angle and turn a loop. Instructions on this are here,
Separate your beads into 2 sets with 5small, 5medium and 5 of your largest beads in each.

2. Starting with one set of beads take a small bead, open the loop slightly, thread on to the last link of your chain and close the loop.

3. In the same way thread the next TWO beads, both small onto the next link in the chain.

4. Add two more of the small beads to the next link. You now have the five small beads added

5. Continue in the same way, adding first the medium then the large beads. Note that you will have a link with one large and one medium bead.

6. Add a jump ring to the last link in your chain and an ear hook to the jump ring. Close the ring.

7. Repeat to make your second earring.

These are a great design that is so easy to alter to your own style. Use spikey beads for a punky look, lots of colours for a Mardi Gras style, or soften up with dusky pinks and greens for a vintage feel.  Once you have made these, why not try bracelets or necklaces (start in the middle of your chain with these for graduated sizes) adding a clasp at one end of the chain and a jump ring at the other (7.5" approx for bracelet, 20" approx for necklace)


Hope you enjoy trying this and I would love to see what you make. If you send me a picture I would be happy to add it here :)

Happy Crafting

Janice

PS My website could do with some love here

Discovering

Just a quick post before I put my Tuesday Tutorial post up later on. I've been discovering a few things over the last few days from promotion ideas to fellow Craftfesters, how to bumble to setting up backlinks. My favourite has to be the ability to put a slide show from my Craftfest stall to anywhere I like. How cool is that?

And here it is :)

Find more photos like this on Creative Connections
How cool is that. Ok, I'm a silver surfer who's easily fascinated, but my excuse is that when I was at school you still ran a program by filling in cards with a 2B pencil and sent them off to a mainframe computer. Can you believe that was 1978? How far has computing come!

I am getting a little addicted to pinterest too. I love how you can see so much stuff without hunting through lots of sites and you can find new sites you might like through it. I have a board with some items from craftfest on it, so you can get a taste for the site too. Click on the cushion here, then on the Artisan made at Craftfest to see my board so far. There will be more to follow as I work my way through all the stall holders.

Source: creative-connections.ning.com via Jangill Design on Pinterest

Hope you all have a great day,
Janice x

No rest for the wicked ;)

Trudy Kepke on Craftfest

Well, considering the weekend is supposed to be rest time, the last 2 days have been frantic!
The first 2 days of Craftfest have been a steep learning curve for me. I don't do a great deal of connecting on social media, maybe a couple of posts on Facebook and a bit of pinning. I hadn't got into Tweeting at all.
That's all changed! The Craftfest ethos is to get everyone promoting each other so widening the contacts for each individual. I've done more tweeting, pinning, commenting, liking and following than I have ever done. It shows in my own statistics as I have 15 new likes on my facebook page and about 50 new twitter followers.

I also found a great blog, Handmade Harbour which is a great community with loads of advice for people who want to sell their handmade items, or who blog about handmade and crafty. Well worth a look!

My own little stall hasn't yet benefited from the huge amount of traffic at Craftfest. Mostly my mistakes :)
I have links at the bottom of each of my items to take people to my website - I hadn't pointed out that the link was where to go to purchase the item. Worse - the link didn't look much like a link! Moral of this story - get someone to try using your stall. I hadn't followed that basic premise on my own website either where some of my items didn't go to the checkout!

Jellibabies

Anyway, enough prattle from me - here are some of the items on other people's craftfest stalls that caught my eye :)

Scentcosmetics Sheep Soap

Waterlily Cards

Not forgetting my own :)

Craftfest at Midnight.

After a lot of hard work getting it ready and a couple of disasters along the way, not least of which was the laptop ceasing to function, my Craftfest stall is ready for when the show opens at midnight tonight.
This is my first time exhibiting with them and it's so exciting! It would be fantastic if you could pop  along and see us. There are hundreds of stores to look at selling everything imaginable all hand crafted.

CRAFTfest link here

My Stall link here

I'm selling just jewellery this time but may sell other things next time if it goes well.
At only £5 for the stall and no commission it is an absolute bargain.
Why not have a look at the stalls that make similar items to yourself and see if it is something you could do next time.
I'll let you know how I get on after the end of the show.

What are your thoughts on this?

Janice x

Wire wrapped links Tutorial

Making wire wrapped link units is a great way to build any length of necklace. Mix and match the units to create your own style.

This necklace uses three different units - a three bead black set, a large Lapis lazuli rectangle and a lapis lazuli coin. Each unit is made separately then joined together with jump rings.

Here is how to make each link unit :-

For each unit you will need

4 inches 0.6 to 0.8mm wire.
Your choice of beads or a large focal bead

Round nosed pliers, flat nosed pliers, side snips.


1. Thread your chosen bead/bead set onto the spool of wire.

















2. Using the round nosed pliers, make a right angle bend a good inch from the end of the wire. Use the round nose pliers to make a loop, bringing the tail back to where it started, as shown below.



















3. Wrap the tail around the wire using your fingers, or gently with pliers at the end of the wire, still holding the loop with your round nosed pliers. Make 2 or three turns.



















4. Use side snips to trim the excess wire, use flat nosed pliers to gently squash the end flat to the wire so it doesn't catch.


















5. Cut the wire from the spool, leaving a good inch between the end of the wire and the bead. Make a loop in the same way as above.


















You now have a wired link which can be joined with as many units as you like to make the desired length.  Mix and match different units to create your design - I used five each of the two Lapis beads and 10 black bead units.
To join the links open a 7mm jump ring, thread on 2 units, close the jump ring. Add a jump ring and a new unit to one end. Continue until you have used all your units. Join the 2 ends with another jump ring.

There are endless design possibilities with this one and it is easy to adjust the design as you go.

Hope you can try this one out - have fun,

Janice x

PS. Have you visited Handmade Harbour? Show your hand made items every Monday!
"...It's a friendly place for the handmade community with interviews, tutorials, craft business advice and more. It's the home of Handmade Monday, a weekly linky party for craft bloggers....

Of Laptops and Allotments

Hi everyone, hope you are having a good week :)
I was hoping to have posted more on here but ended up computerless.
My laptop gave up the ghost after many months of suffering.
A quick dash to my Son in Law sorted the immediate problem for me - removal of the hard drive to an external box and plug into my desk top. Purchase of a Wifi dongle connected me back online. Sorted.

Today I thought I would be on earlier, but my order from Victoriana Nurseries arrived. I have bought some plum trees that needed heeling in till I can get to plant them properly, and some chinese artichokes (otherwise known as Crosnes) which needed immediate attention as they were sprouting quite well. They are now in 28 separate little pots waiting to move to the allotment.

This is our first year for the allotment. We took ownership of it late last year so we have some digging to do :)

We are planning quite a bit of stuff including lots of fruit, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, broccoli.... and those Chinese artichokes. They are incredibly strange looking but apparently served at exclusive restaurants. Guess that's why I haven't seen them before ;)
So, if you don't see me for a while, you know where I am!

Autumn Nymph

Hello all, hope you had a good weekend especially all the Mum's out there.
I heard from all four of my children so I was a happy bunny :)

This card is totally out of season, but I bought the digi stamp from Heather Valentin's store from the retired section and had to have a go straight away.

The image is coloured with watercolour pencils and then brushed out with water, I left the nymph very pale as she would spend most of her time in the woodland. I gave her bright blue eyes as a complimentary color to the warm shades of orange and brown.

The image was then framed with a double mat. The bright orange background card was covered with punched leaves which are made from vellum, embossed and inked. The image was added and then a few extra leaves added to the top of the frame matching the almost hidden leaves at the top of the image.

Challenges entered -

Catered Crop  Framed
No Matter Which Challenge  Anything with a stamped image
Quirky Crafts Challenge  Make your own background
That Craft Place  Anything goes
The Squirrel and the Fox   Autumn or Spring
Inspire me Friday   Anything goes
Totally Papercraft  Punch it
613 Avenue Create Anything goes or sketch
Through the craftroom door  Anything goes
Stamping Dragon Designs  Anything Goes

I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it :)

Happy Crafting

Janice x

Gearing up for Show Season :)

I have a few markets and fayres coming up so I'm gearing up for the season, starting with this little lot. There are more purples as that was the colour I ran out of :)
The butterflies and larger hearts are 18mm across and the smaller hearts are 14mm. Each one is hand painted with at least 2 colours to give a variety of finishes. These are all Swarovski crystal but I also have some larger 1 inch optical glass pendants which give more room for creating a design.

Some of these are hung on a chain with the bails you can see, others get the wire heart treatment, which is next weeks main task. Hope you like them,

Happy Crafting

Janice x

Fantasy Film Butterfly

This should be my last butterfly card for a while - I have been a bit obsessed with them. Although it doesn't help when so many challenges suddenly have wings and butterflies as their theme. Oh yes, I may be a bit addicted to challenges too :)

I like to stamp and colour several of the same image all at once, then decide on different ways to use them.
This one uses fantasy film over the top of a coloured image. I use Stazon on the film which is pressed onto the stamp using a medium hot iron. I only use this technique on rubber stamps as I don't know if the clear stamps can put up with this treatment. Maybe someone out there knows?

The film is then cut out. It looks very delicate but is quite durable. The film is glued in place on the coloured cut out image just on the body so the wings can flutter freely. The whole is added to card from the Far East Mat Stack by DCWV which is matted onto pearlescent lilac card. The tag is a papermania sticker on ivory card. The ribbon is also papermania. I used an A5 deckle edged pearlescent ivory card, adding adhesive shaped gems to finish.

This has turned out really hard to photograph, so my apologies for not showing the whole card :)

Happy Crafting :) x

Purple Butterfly with Cosmic Shimmer

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a great week.

I've had to be out and about a lot this week so yesterday was the first day I could sit and do some colouring. This is the card I made with the butterflies I was colouring.

The purple squares were made as one sheet with a mask from a magazine. I used perfect pearls. I have had them so long one pot had gone hard. Once the design was set, I sprayed the whole thing with cosmic shimmer, which allowed the design to run slightly giving a soft blurred effect. The corners were cut with a multiway punch. This was matted onto paper from my stash and then onto a white deckle edged card. I folded the top corner back to reveal more of the lovely paper.
The butterfly is mounted on a jacquard embossed card square which refused to show up properly as I had to use flash. It is coloured with pearlescent paint. A couple of silk flowers and some adhesive gems finish the card.
I'll pop back later to add this to some challenges :)

Happy Campers  Flutterby Butterfly
Everybody Art Challenge  Butterflies
CRAFT Challenge  Spring/Easter
Visible Image   Spring
Lady Anne's Stamp Challenge  Anything goes stamped
Rhedd and Rosie  Anything goes
Craft us crazy  Anything goes
Crafting for all seasons   Spring
Flutterby Wednesdays  Open (anything goes with butterfly or fairy)
Cuttin and stampin  Flowers
Loves Rubber Stamps  Anything goes
Papertake Weekly  Anything goes



Thank you for looking and for all the lovely comments I have been left on the projects I've posted.

Happy Crafting, Janice x

CAS Card

I've had this stamp for a very long time. It may, in fact be the second one I ever bought, after the winter trees I used a couple of days ago. I'm not sure who made it as the writing has long since worn off the sides. It's inked up with colours I made up my self from left over bits in re-inkers.
The silk patch is part of a hand painted piece in shades of turquoise and violet. The Mum embellishment is mounted on card inked in the same way as the image, and edged with a whispers pen from the vintage assortment.
The sheer ribbon is from my stash as is the button in the centre of the flower. Silk flowers and adhesive gems are Papermania.
While making this I had thought it might make a Mother's day card - until I put my glasses on and noticed it says Happy Birthday Mum :). The base is a textured deckle edged A6 card in cream.

Hope you like it :)

Cute Card Thursday  Something Old (the stamp)
Crafty Bloggers Challenge  Pastels/Spring
Simon Says Stamp  Anything Goes
Creative Creations Challenges  Mum





Happy Crafting, Janice

Vintage en Paris

Hi all, hope you are all having a great weekend.

This morning OH, his Mum and I went to a garden centre to stock up on things for the allotment. It is almost as deadly as taking me to a craft shop. I don't usually grow potatoes, but as they are so expensive this year, we've decided to have a go. We also picked up some sets for shallots along with raspberries, gooseberries and rhubarb. Just need the weather to stay warmer now :)

The garden centre has a craft shop too, but I was really good and didn't buy anything. I really must be ill :)

Well, here is today's offering, a vintage page with a Parisian theme.
The papers are a freebie from a magazine, as are one or two of the diecuts and the lovely lace ribbon. The flowers are yet more stash from Papermania. The feathers don't show up very well but the aim was to be reminiscent of  the large feather fans used in shows.

Hope you like it :)

I would like to enter this in

Emma's Crafty Challenge  Vintage
613 Avenue Create  Anything goes / Tic Tac Toe
Through the Craft Room Door  Anything goes
Allsorts   For a Lady
Fab n Funky Challenges  Pastel Colours
Challenges for Everybody  Anything goes

Sunset Card

Yay, I managed a card in different colours after my blue period, lol.

You wouldn't believe how long ago I bought this card blank. It's a three fold oval aperture that is not in any standard size. It was in the days before paper-crafting had become popular and it was difficult to get any crafting products.

Anyway, the image is a piece cut out of a practise watercolour with the bare tree image stamped and clear embossed on to it.

The flowers are mulberry paper, the greenery is felt. The buds are made from cut and folded flowers. The flower centres are sugar coated brads. I don't stick the brads through the card, they just hold the flowers together and are then added with glue dots.

I'd love to know what you think about it.

What is your experience of the explosion in tools and materials available to paper crafters over the last 20 years?

Happy Crafting, Janice :) x

Flowers and more flowers .... and a Dragonfly :)

Hi everyone and Happy St David's Day. Until this year I had lived in Wales for most of the last 25 years so it seems strange to hardly notice the significance of the day at all.

This is my latest card. Loads of bright and cheery flowers to will the thought of spring along. I'm itching to get out in the garden but it is still too cold here.

This is only a small card - A6 with the bottom cut off to make it square. I'm trying to use up some of my older, enormous stash of ready made cards while I still have the time and incentive :)

The flowery background is made using watercolour paper on which I have stamped some tiny flowers from a set of Docrafts stamps. I have used water based pens directly on the stamp, then washed over the whole paper with clean water to make the images run a little. The tag is a ready made one from my stash, the flower is made from a couple of silk flowers and a pearl brad. The 3D dragonfly is from Anitas dimensions stickers.


I just realised I have used my favourite colour combo again - note to self - use some different colours!


Hope you like it and would love if you could leave a comment,

Happy Crafting,  Janice x

Entered in the following challenges

Joanna Sheen  Layer it up
LEJ Designs  For a lovely lady
Visible Image  Spring
Lacy Sunshine  Favourite colour combo
Simon Says Stamp  Anything Goes
Divas by Design  Anything goes
Ladybug Crafts  The colour Blue
Crafting Cafe  Favourite colours