Patchwork Card #1

I noticed that Sue Wilson had created a card showing the new Spellbinders using both the new dies and also the M-bossabilities that was a patchwork design.  This got my juices flowing as I love patchwork but do not usually get time to do any at the moment.  I will work on my material stash again one day but it is easier to make smaller items than larger ones at the moment. 

When I saw Sue's card, it gave me the idea that I could still feed my love of patchwork with the quickness of card making and started looking through all my pattern books for patterns that could be converted into cards.  I also felt that using a patchwork pattern would work for either male or female depending on the colours used.  It was oonly then I realised just how many different patterns I could come up with that would convert well to cards.

I decided that I would make a few cards in different sizes, patterns and colourways and the first one was the nine patch pattern - Cards.    I used a light blue, cream and snowhite pearlised card and embossed them with Simplicity for the cream, Patchwork for the light blue and Imperial for the white card.

After embossing, I cut out 3 squares with a spellbinders in each colour and the halved them all.  I then cut 2 of each colour in half again and then placed them in the correct order on matt silver background and then matted onto the light blue and then white and then onto a cream card.

To finish, I printed the four symbols of playing card and the words 'Happy Birthday' and then used Epiphany Shape Studio to punch them out and put an epoxy shape on top of the signs and words.  As I only have square epoxy shapes, I put the words on the diagonal to match the cards. 

Parchment Box

This is one of my favourite parchment pieces as I really enjoy whitework and cutting, although it can take a long time to complete.  It is an arched box and would be lovely to present to someone with sweets or little items in.  It might be nice to give wedding favours in but I would not want to spend that much time making the amount that would be required. 

Although I do use patterns out of magazines and books and sometimes use a grid for piercing, I do not use the grids where the patterns are on them as to me that takes the fun out of the craft.

It is 7cm x 5cm x 5.5cm and the top flap fit inside to enable you to close the lid.

It is all made from one piece of parchment paper and you do need to make sure that use a good parchment paper (I use at least 150gsm started with this brand and it is of a good quality but there are others on the market.  Sometimes other brands can be a little too flimsy for items like this.

I first drew the pattern out on the parchment paper with white ink and a nib and then drew the flower petals onto the parchment paper with the same ink and nib. 

 

I then half pierced the parchment paper between the petals where I was going to later cut it.

I then embossed the flower petals and in the centre of each petal, with gold ink made a small dot. 

I went back after this and fully pierced the parchment paper and once I had completed that, I  cut out the pattern between each petal with scissors.  Cutting out with parchment involves holdong the scissors so that they actually cut an X in the paper after 4 cuts.  It is quite time consuming but does look very effective if done right. 

It is just a shame that my photography skills are not that good.

Ships Aweigh!

I was really pleased when Sam Poole designed her Nautical Journey and Weigh Anchor set of stamps as it was nice to get some stamps that would work well both for males and females. 

When buying her stamps, I also bought the Couture Creations embossing folder World Map which goes really well with her stamps but will also go well with lots of others.

I embossed a piece of blue paper with the World Map embossing folder and then coloured the raised parts with Distress Ink.  This was then mounted on to dark blue card.

I stamped the ship from the Weigh Anchor set onto white paper using Brilliance Starlight Silver and then coloured in using Distress inks.  I then cut out using the Spellbinders Circles, using the Out of The Box technique for the top of the ship so that I did not cut that part off.

I then stamped some compasses and ships wheels from the Nautical Journey set and the anchor from Weigh Anchor and again coloured with distress inks.

I put some ribbon that I had bought from Hobbycraft onto the card and then stamped a sentiment from Weigh Anchor onto white card and brushed over with watered down distress ink to give a streaky effect and cut out with Spellbinders Labels 21 and the mounted onto the card. 

I think that this makes a lovely male card with lots of texture.

I then mounted this onto cream card and finished off by making blue pearls around the edges with Cosmic Shimmer Pearl PVA glue Teal Sky.