Ballerina Girl.

                                                       

Hello Everyone. This week I had my Mum’s birthday card to make. Usually I make her a card with Magnolia Tilda on it, but she had noticed my Pion Toppers in my craft room and admired them on several occasions, so thought would be nice to use instead. I wanted to do a style of card I hadn’t made before, so it was something she hadn’t seen me make before. I thought the little girl pictured on the topper looked like a little Ballerina and would blend well with some depth to the card and give a stage like effect, so I decided to make a 3D recess frame card.  After trying to get my sizes correct for the window, I wished I had never had this idea, but would not let it beat me. Eventually after several attempts, I got there and my idea was starting to take shape.

I had started off with white card, blending Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks to shade the paper. This was to reflect the colour of the  Ballerina's shoes. I stamped text, number and flourish stamps with the same inks to add more texture and interest to my paper.

I punched out 2 strips of paper and shaded one with Victorian Velvet and the other with Tattered Rose. Glue one onto the front and other to the back to give another feeling of depth. 
I die cut my rose and stamped on the flourish stamp in Victorian Velvet and blended Tattered Rose in parts of the die cut assembling my rose. I added a little cheesecloth and pearl stamens to it. My curls of paper are created by winding a strip of paper around a cocktail stick and shading with distress ink before releasing it. 

The glitter around the frame was all edged with Copper Stickles and whilst still wet I scattered some Pumice Stone distress glitter into it. I was really pleased with this result, as it ended up a mixture of a matt and sparkly colour contrast. My corners were created using CL tiny flourishes. I interlocked the die cuts together, swiped through distress stain and only placed glue on some areas so it didn’t lie flat on my paper. I then placed a tiny pearl onto accent.

I used the waste from cutting out my flourish die to use as a stencil with distress ink for more textures.

Photos around the card.

Hope you have enjoyed my post and have a lovely creative weekend.

Julie x

I would like to enter this in the following challenges :http://cheerylynndesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/cheery-lynn-designs-challenge-118-add.html  - Add a Flourish Challenge.

http://sentimentalsundays.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/challenge-192-birthday-cards-for.html

http://craftyhandsdevon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/shades-of-same-colour.html

  http://theshabbytearoom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/week-204-all-that-glitters-in-love.html


Products used : Cheery Lynn Dies Large and Medium roses, Tiny Flourishes Left and Right.Other products used : Martha Stewart Lace Doily punch, Distress inks, Colour coordination card Pion topper and craft stash. 

To share with you all.

                                           Click on image to enlarge

Today is my Mum’s Birthday - I’ll keep her age a secret !!!  But I thought it would be nice to share photographs of her craft work with you all. She has crafted for many years and used to make her own clothes and garments for my sister and I when we were young. She also used to do 3D decoupage, cutting out very intricate pieces of paper, as back then there were no die cutting machines or popping out of paper. She had to learn how to roll out silicone into balls with cocktail sticks onto a piece of polystyrene and how to work out what came next in the layers of paper. She used to sit up until the early hours of the morning crafting like many of us do. Getting her homework ready for the class the following week. It was all rather ‘old school’ teaching back then for this craft.

Her love now is Pergamano or as some of you may also know as Parchment Craft. It can take her a couple of weeks to do some of her projects, mapping her pattern out, embossing, piercing needle tools through the vellum and then cutting into the vellum with tiny little scissors. The vellum then looks like a piece of lace. She has been to a few classes in the beginning. Otherwise has self taught herself this craft as unfortunately there are no classes in Scotland.

Mum made this clock for her friend mounted it onto black card and then into a black shadow frame. Its stunning !

This basket is very intricate work as it only measures about 3 inches at its widest point.  

This is the Birthday card she made for me last year. I put it into a frame for safe keeping and to display in my craft room.

The beautiful fan at the top of the page was made for my Christmas. Another treasure.


Happy Birthday, Mum.

 Love you, Julie x

Hope you have all enjoyed looking at something different. Thanks to everyone who has left comments on my posts, they are always so appreciated.

Do You Believe in Fairies .....

                                              Click on Image to enlarge 

Hello to all my fellow bloggers and new friends that have joined. My inspiration was running on empty all this week, so when I picked up my stamp to start this project I had no idea what it was going to end up looking like, never mind where I was going to start.  Isn’t it so annoying when this happens !

I made my topper by stamping my little boy with archival ink and coloured him in with distress inks. I highlighted the leaves and flowers with my versamark pen and embossed, to give more texture. I then part die cut out the oval and ran my versamark pen around the edges and embossed with gold powder. I sprinkled frantage, distressed and used a crackle stamp to create more texture. This then sat on my work surface waiting on the vital craft tool....  Inspiration.

Finally,  today I started to feel inspired. My little boy had now fallen asleep in the garden amongst the flowers after hunting around looking for Fairies. While he slept the inquisitive little Fairies made an appearance. Can you spot them ?

Picture in my head where my project was finally going now, I stamped some rose leaves and crackles onto my background paper, distressed and rubbed gilding wax on the edges and glued onto a wooden tag which was reduced in the bargain stores to 50p. Don’t you just love a bargain !! 

My flowers I die cut and placed onto my flourish die to look as if they were cradling the little boy as he slept. I widened the edges with my lace doily edger and rolled round to give the effect of being cradled again. Layered and pieced everything together, finally adding my little fairies. 

                                                      

The Craft Fairies are also busy just now, delivering my parcel of Cheery Lynn goodies from my Challenge wins, along with a few more I couldn’t resist getting. I have a lot of inspiration stashed away for them and can’t wait to start. If I have forgotten something or you would like to ask me something please email me.

Hope you all have a lovely creative weekend.Bye for now, 

Julie x

 I wish to enter this in the following challenges :

http://cheerylynndesigns.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/challenge -Tickled Pink Challenge

http://www.theribbongirlchallengeblog.blogspot.in/2014/01/anything-goes-challenge.html -
Anything Goes Challenge

http://itsallaboutthevintagechallenge.blogspot.fi/2014/01/61-tee-oma-koru-make-your-own-jewel.html - Make Your Own Jewel Challenge ( My Roses I Made )

http://frillyandfunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/valentines-day-with-twist.html -Valentines Day with A Twist Challenge - ( I used Pinks and Whites )

http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/challenge-106-vintage.html -Vintage Challenge

http://theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/february-2014-challenge-use-distress.html - Use Distress Challenge

Products Used :  Cheery Lynn Dies, Dancing Doily DL134, Victorian Romance Flourish DL151, Large, Medium and Miniature Roses B155, B154 and B152, Cuties 3 B151, Iris Leaves B179, Nautical Wheeler Doily DL180. 

Other products used : La Blanche boy stamp, Cardio Majestix Fairy stamp, Pion summer papers,  Distress Inks and pens. Gilding Wax, Embossing powders, Archival Ink Potting Soil and Watering Can. Craft stash, Versamark Pen.

Sweetheart Frame

                                             Click on image to enlarge 

First of all, I would like to say Hello to the new members who have joined my blog and thanks to everyone for leaving comments on my blog. Each and everyone of them is appreciated.

Inspiration for this project came from watching the Antiques Roadshow programme a while ago. I listened intently to the history behind a Sweetheart Frame. This was given between 2 loved ones as the man would part for battle or war. The one I remember seeing on the show was of a metal frame encased in a leather folder and they explained that when a man left for battle or war these were often exchanged between two sweethearts as a reminder of each other.They would often contain a lock of hair hidden behind the frame and a love poem. The story has remained poignant in my memory and when I saw at Cheery Lynn the challenge Sweethearts it immediately sprung to mind and my crafty head switched on to replicate this

I wanted the outside of my folder to resemble the look of old worn leather. I got a piece of cardboard and using grunge paste stenciled areas and added texture to other parts. I also cut out CL corner dies and glued in shape.

I covered the outside with a layer of black gesso and then started to blend my paints onto it. Once dry I picked up my textures with gilding wax.The keyhole was made from a mixture of gel medium and paint  poured over my stamp. This was then left for 24 hours to dry.I then peeled it off the stamp and highlighted with gilding wax.

To resemble the metal frame and picture inside, I had a family photograph of this young man in uniform, which I thought was perfect for my project. Unfortunately, we are unsure who he is but my mum reckons he is possibly  my Great Great Grandfather. I cut out my CL die and applied Versamark onto it and then embossing powder. If you heat from the back and repeat this process it gives a smoother finish. I carefully cut my photograph out and mounted it onto black card and then onto the frame.

I wanted this side to look like a small collection of memories the sweethearts had collected in their relationship, before they parted. I made my red rose from my CL die and added my Cuties 3 strip around the edges and distressed with ink and my distress tool.

As I was looking at the photo for inspiration I noticed the buttons on his uniform. My dad was a Captain in the Merchant Navy before retiring and he had given me the buttons from his uniform jacket. I decided to make a mould of one of them and then poured utee into it. Once popped out I highlighted with gilding wax. I think the result was fab.... I then placed all my pieces together. If you look closely at the postcard you may notice I had stamped with Old Paper Distress Ink  a small dots stamp. This represented parts of the mildew age marks that were on the frame of the photo I had cut up for my project.

Hope you enjoyed reading my blog and I always look forward to reading your comments.

Julie x 

I wish to enter this into :

http://cheerylynndesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/cheery-lynn-designs-116-sweethearts.html

http://www.theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/january-2014-challenge-love-is-in-air.html

http://wlvc.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/challenge-nr-18-en-random-winnaar.html 
Man Card /Creation.

http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.co.at/2014/01/no-more-shopping-sins.html 
I bought the Paper Lace Ribbon on the spine of my project years ago and never used it until now ! 

Product Used : Cheery Lynn dies Sweetheart Frame FRM127, Cuties 3 B151, Miniature Rose B152 and Lace Corner Deco E B165.

Other products used : PaperArtsy paint brown shed, chocolate pudding and little black dress. Black and white gesso, treasure gold, grunge paste,harlequin stencil, 2 part molding putty,maja design vintage summer,woodware envelope punch, heart punch ,black soot and old paper distress ink, Paperartsy minis MN72, crackle stamp, bobunny keyhole stamp, platinum utee, stampendous pearl embossing powder, versamark, archival watering can and various craft stash.