Welcome to the World

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and a warm welcome to my new followers. It has been a glorious day here in Scotland today and it's so lovely to hear the birds singing happily and lawnmowers starting to cut the grass, a sign early summer is on its way.
I had a Baby card to make this week, I really enjoy making this type of card. Normally when I have one to make I use Magnolia Tilda but I thought for a change it would be nice to make a vintage style one and incorporate a couple of challenges.

I stamped my image with Archival ink and kept the baby and young child's face a matt finish and around their clothes and hair I used my Versamark pen and double embossed with fine embossing powder, heating from underneath to give a smooth finish.

The little footprints were made by pouring some Utee from my meltpot onto my craft mat and pressing my little footprints stamp which was protected from the heat with some Versamark on it. Once set I rubbed a little gilding wax over it.

Julie x

I wish to enter this in the following challenges:

We Love Vintage  Challenge – Baby Card
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge – Pearls and Lace
That Craft Place –Anything Goes

Li’l House on the Prairie.

Hello Everyone, Thanks for popping over to my blog to see my final Guest Design post for Cheery Lynn Designs . I am so excited to be sharing this post with you all. When Cheery Lynn showcased the release of their Wagon Wheel at the beginning of the year I immediately fell in love with it and thought it must be part of a 3D project. I will not go into every detail with my wagon or you may be reading this post for an hour.....I will instead show you pictures around my wagon with little snippets of info and if you would like any other info please just email me.

My inspiration came from fond memories of watching Little House on the Prairie as a child, but I thought it would be nice to give it also a look of an old style Gypsy Caravan. My windows, wagon wheels and lattice valance border were all cut out from an empty cereal packet. Every die cut beautifully through this card which then gave me the perfect sturdy surface for paints and inks to be applied.

My wagon was constructed in a similar way to my Forever and a Day  project using coffee stirrer sticks to make it rigid.

My door and flooring were made from coffee stirrer sticks and my steps from the little spare pieces of Balsa Wood you get with a canvas frame along with a couple of sticks.

My Wagon wheels were cut out 6 times for each wheel and glued together. I then painted them and rubbed a little Gilding Wax onto them and attached a little hitch fastener to them. With the die having embossing texture on it I was delighted with the result of how it looked like wood. 

My windows I placed 2 layers onto the shutters to give an appearance of depth and I applied some Gesso and distress ink to give a real shabby feel.

The Lattice Valance Border I have used on several areas of my wagon, It's a great die as it gives you many different new shapes to use. My fence at the front has also been made using it.

My roof was made by layering the Anastasia Border onto it and decorating with lots of flowers.

The little plant pots at the front door are made from an old necklace. I die cut out 3 sets of Baby’s Breath flower kit for each pot and layered together to give the effect of small flowering bushes.

Thanks again to Bj and Mike, owners of Cheery Lynn Designs for giving me this opportunity to showcase my love of their dies and believing in me. Its been an absolute pleasure and a memory I will always treasure.

Julie x

Shop at Cheery Lynn for :

• B406 Lattice Valance Border 
• B386 Wagon Wheel 
• FRM151 Shuttered Window with Flower Box 
• B376 Tiny Flower Kit 
• B338 Black-eyed Susan Strip 
• B387 Tiny Fanciful Flourish Left & Right 
• B291 Mini Fanciful Flourish Right 
• B117S Mini Fanciful Flourish Left 
• B364 Baby’s Breath Flower Kit
• B178 Flourish Leaf Strip

I wish to enter this in to the following Challenges :

Vintage Udfordring - Anything Goes Challenge 
It's All About the Vintage and Beauty - Flower Power Challenge
Country View Challenges - New Beginning Challenge ( Off Travelling )
Crafty Ribbons Challenge - Anything But a Card Challenge
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - April Challenge
Sugar Creek Hollow - Tic Tac Toe Challenge ( Bling , Embossing (door hinges ) & Flowers 

Thistle Not Be A Card With Tutorial

Happy Easter to Everyone and a warm welcome to my new followers. I can’t believe how fast this month is going in as Guest Designer over at Cheery Lynn Designs . I love sharing my crafty ideas with you all and today I thought I would show you how to make a Thistle from Embellishment#1.
When I first saw this die I thought it would make a perfect Thistle. Isn’t it wonderful how we can all look at a die and see something different in it.
I made this breadboard as a present for one of my crafty friends. It was so lovely to see her face light up when she opened it and I know she will treasure this for a long time to come.

I noticed wooden breadboards in our local Bargain Shop and just thought this was begging to be altered. After giving it a Shabby paint effect with PaperArtsy paint and crackle glaze I sanded my board all back and layered on a piece of tartan paper I had dry brushed some Gesso onto. I cut out the Chicken Wire Frame from white cardstock and then pressed some areas into my embossing ink and used silver embossing powder on to it to give a metallic effect. With the areas left not embossed I dragged the paper through some distress stain to give it a rusty effect.

I stamped my beloved little Tilda and coloured her in using Copics and paper piecing in her little Tartan pinafore dress.

Now for the magic of Cheery Lynn dies - To make My Thistle.

Step 1 – Paint a cocktail stick green.

Step 2 – Using Embellishment#1 and cardstock cut out 6 large & 2 medium in purple/lilac and 1 large & 1 medium in green and emboss all pieces in the centre so the paper curls up.

Step 3 -  Glue the medium green one on to the base of the large one and then glue both on to the cocktail stick. Gradually gluing and layering on the other pieces until you have 3 large ones left. With these ones crush them at the base and glue together. Let the glue dry.

Step 4 – Now we want to join the 2 pieces together. On to the crushed piece that is not on your stick, you want to place glue at the base and a third of the way up this piece.  Now place it in to the centre of the stick and gather all the paper up and hold together until the glue grips. Try to be patient at this stage until your glue has thoroughly dried.

Step 5 – Start to curl your edges with tweezers on you green parts and the medium die layer of purple you had placed in. This all helps to give it texture.

 Step 6 – You now want to ruffle the top part of your thistle so placing a couple of fingers around the middle to support it, bend your papers back and forward.

 Step 7 – Cut out green cardstock using your flourish leaf strip and glue a few leaves into place. The  B216 Wreath Strip would also look fab as leaves on this.

My flowers are all made using Cheery Lynn dies, painting and using distress inks on white cardstock for my larger flowers

Well I hope you all managed to follow my tutorial and have fun making a Thistle. As you can see this die is fantastically versatile, as if you look at my small purple flowers they are made from the same die and they also look great in the centre of larger flowers.

Hope you all have a creative weekend, 

Julie x

      Shop at Cheery Lynn  for: 

• B181A Embellishment#1
• B178 Flourish Leaf Strip
• B311 Chrysanthemum Strip
• FRM144 Chicken Wire Frame
• B118 Pair of Ferns
• B307 Sweet Williams Strip
• Dl102 French Pastry
• Dl234 French Pastry Doily
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I wish to enter this in to :

Stamping Sesations - Use Dies/Punches Challenge 
Crafty Hands Devon - Anything Goes Challenge
Marvellous Magnolia Challenge - Anything Goes Challenge
Fab and Funky Challenges - Flower Power Challenge
Magnolia-Liciouschallenge blog - All Things Flowery Challenge
That Craft Place Blog - Anything Goes Easter Challenge
Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge Blog - Pick a Stamp Any Stamp Challenge
Tildastown - April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge

Sew Simple

Hello all fellow Bloggers. It was so lovely to read all your comments on my Keepsake Box last week. I appreciated each and every one of them, thank you for taking the time to leave them for me. Well I think Spring is finally starting to show itself here in Scotland at long last. We have had a couple of sunny days this week. The Daffodils are all in full bloom, Lambs are in the fields huddled next to their mums and to my delight we have a Blackbird starting to make a nest in the bushes of our garden.

I decided this week for my Guest Design spot at Cheery Lynn Designs it would be nice to show you a technique on a card using a sketch. I had been watching a demonstration on the TV and Sheena Douglass mentioned using a mix of water and glycerine for a faux leather technique, and talked about how it made the paper more pliable and didn’t cause the fibres to break down into the usual flimsy manner. Thinking cap on, I thought I would use this spritz mix in another way with my die cuts.

First of all, using a spritz bottle, mix 6 parts water to 1 part Glycerine (available at chemist/drugstore) and give it a shake before placing spritz lid on, otherwise the glycerine can clog your spritz top. I die cut my Anastasia Border out with white cardstock and inked the edges with distress. My Sweet Williams strip I distressed edges on both sides and stamped an alphabet image with Archival ink. On the reverse side of both die cuts I started to spray some of the spritz mix to dampen the paper leaving it for about 20 seconds to seep through the fibres. I then resprayed a little more to the front and the back of the paper this time. I then started to fold and crush the paper into a tight ball. Next step carefully unravel and spritz a little bit more of the mix on and repeat this process crushing the paper and unraveling. I used my heat gun to dry the unraveled paper. You will notice it starts to shrink and curl a little more at this point, be careful not to burn your paper. Applying the heat makes it dry firmer but with the Glycerine being used the paper is not brittle. Just remember the secret is to not over-soak your paper. Build it up gradually, adding the mix until your paper is wet and pliable enough to crush. As you can see this now gives your die cuts a lovely shabby vintage feel. 

With the flowers I did the same, but folded and crushed the paper from the edges towards the centre as the paper is a little more fragile here. Just before the paper was dry I placed my embossing tool into the centre to curve the middle part then carried on drying. I then built my flowers up and placed some little white washed snap on’s into the centres. 

 

The reason I called my card Sew Simple ...... I took a pen and drew little lines on my paper to give a faux stitch effect.

I do hope you feel inspired to give this a go and have a creative weekend.

Julie x

Shop at Cheery Lynn for :

B136 - Anastasia Border
DL234 - French Pastry Tiny Doily
B307 - Sweet Williams Strip
B387 - Tiny Fanciful Flourish Left and Right
B215 - Expandable Tiny Borders

Other products used :

Distress Ink Victorian Velvet, Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint.
Archival Ink Cobalt Blue.
Pion Design Topper.
Maja Design Papers.
Gesso.
Various Craft Stash Goodies. 

I wish to enter this in to :

It's All About The Vintage - Shabby Chic Challenge
That Craft Place - Buttons Challenge 
Crafty Little Fairies - Button Up Challenge
Crafty Hands Devon - Anything Goes Challenge
WLVC - Challenge 23 - Sketch

Keepsake Box

Hello to all my fellow bloggers. I hope you are all well and managing to get plenty of creative time to yourself. I can’t believe how this year is flying by and we are now in April. The most exciting month of the year so far for me, as I am this months Guest Designer at Cheery Lynn Designs. 

Todays project is a Keepsake box that I intend to keep little memories my children made or gave me as they were growing up. I started with coating my plain wooden box with a coat of gesso inside and out  to seal it. I then applied various colours of paint blending and applying to my box with a baby wipe. Finally. stamping script and crackles onto it also with paint.

For the top of my box I cut out the French Lattice Small Frame die x 2 with kraft card. I then dry brushed some paint over it to give a shabby feel. I sliced a section off both cut outs so they would connect together at the right size for the top of my box. I saved the small shapes, these were distressed and stamped with crackles. This gave me a contrast when I paper pieced them back onto the lid. I cut out my flourish and again distressed the edges and applied to the lid with multi medium. I then edged with Cuties 3 strip around the edge of the box.

The centre piece I wanted to give a look of petals  wrapped delicately around my topper. I die cut the Cuties 3 strip with kraft card and edged with distress. I then pressed my embossing tool into the centre of the petals to give texture and put a tiny little cut into the strip with my scissors, this makes the paper more pliable to go around the topper with ease and makes the petals sit perfectly. I layered 2 rows around the centre.

I love making my corner dies  look like a metal embellishment. To do this, I firstly cut out with kraft card and double embossed with a metallic copper embossing powder. If you heat from underneath and you will get a smoother finish. The base of the box is supported with wooden beads I painted. 

Now lets go inside my keepsake box. By luck the sections were able to come out, enabling me to stamp them and distress around the edges. My back section I used patterned paper adding glitter paste through a stencil. I also glued on some more little bits from my lattice frame die and edged with the Cuties strip. I used various stamps on my background too.

I used the Expandables Tiny Borders strip into my little sections. This is an amazing die, that gives you lots of different decorative strips all at once and the length is only determined by the size of the piece of paper you use, as it has little markers on the die to expand it. Clever !!

Finally adding all  my various embellishments and a peice of pink felt to the base inside.

Well I hope you have enjoyed my post as much as I have had in making it and feel inspired to enter this weeks challenge at Cheery Lynn Designs which is Back to Nature or  theme changes on Sunday to Anything Goes.

Hope you have a creative weekend,

 Julie x 

Shop at Cheery Lynn for: 

FRM132 French Lattice Small Frame Die
B165 Lace Corner Deco
EDL151 Victorian Romance Flourish
B215 Expandable Tiny Borders
B387 Tiny Fanciful Flourish Left and Right
B339 Gardenia Strip
FRM135 Swedish Spring Oval Frame
B151 Cuties 3
B179 Iris Leaves

I would like to enter this into:

Crafty Little Fairies - Vintage/Shabby Chic

Ecletic Paperie - Challenge Wood

The Artistic Stamper - Embossing and Texture

That's Crafty Challenge Blog - You Spin Me Right Round

Stamping Sensations - Dies and/or Punches Challenge