Butterflies (again)

Hi Crafty Friends

This week I have more butterflies for you, but a different look.
This card just required some die cutting, a bit of dry embossing and some colouring. We tried out the new tools for flower shaping which worked well. (Actually a spot removal kit from Amazon) They look quite fearsome and I have no idea how they would be used for their intended purpose (nor any wish to know - please don't enlighten me!). But as a set of craft tools they work very well, and they're certainly considerably cheaper than the very similar ones sold on selly telly (not sure which channel).

These are the first pics I've taken with my new toy ( a photographic light box) It's easier than finding spots about the house with plain backgrounds, no shadows etc, but I must say the pics look a bit dull. Possibly you only get very feeble lights in a cheap as chips box 😀. I might have to re-shoot these.
happy crafting
jx

Butterfly Shadow box

Hi Crafty Friends

Something a bit different this week. It could be either a large card or a small picture.

It was quite straightforward to make, as we've done a similar frame before. We used Gilding Polish to get the distressed look on this one, and then it was a matter of a lot of die cutting and making a huge butterfly. Some gorgeous multi-coloured butterflies emerged. It was quite time consuming, but somehow we still found time for flapjacks (thanks Sue 😋)

Happy crafting
Jx

Cheque book fold card

Hi Crafty Friends

I'm not sure if this card fold has a name, but I'm going with cheque-book fold. I like having a DL card  in landscape format without it being a tent fold - they have a tendency to fall flat when displayed. Anyhoo, I decided to go for a vintage look with this one. The pretty edge die was free with a magazine ages ago. Some people did find it difficult to get it to release from the card stock, but I think the result is very delicate.
We made the large rose, using the a rolled rose for the centre and 3 and 5 petalled flowers round it.
Just about everything was inked in DI Tea Dye, plus various shades of pink on the flowers and butterflies.

Happy crafting
Jx

Four Square Cards

Hi Crafty Friends

This week I'm indebted to my good pal, Debbie for the shape and size of this card. I like these cards made of panels held together with card or ribbon hinges, and I've done them in various shapes, but I'd never thought of 10.5cm squares. D'oh!!
But now I know better, I've been making them like crazy. Here's the first one I did

I love the cat dies, and they're perfect for my black cat owning friend.
I did three more but the light's not been good enough to take pics. Hope to be back soon with the rest.

Thanks to Trish, for the scrumptious lemon cake 😋
happy crafting
Jx

3 Page cards revisited

Hi Crafty Friends

This week we did another 3 page card. I really like this fold and we have a new group member who wanted to do one. Sadly in the event, she couldn't come. Hey ho, guess I'll just have to do another one, sometime.

This time I gave up on having an invisible join, and took to disguising it instead. It made the die cutting a lot easier.
The flowers are new, too. The die set consists of nesting flowers and a rolled rose for the centre. You could do the same with any die cut or punched flowers and a rolled rose, but having all the bits on one die made it easier to cut. We cut them from water colour paper and used water colours wet on wet to get a soft blended look.
The leaves are an old favourite, Wild Briar Rose by Sheena Douglass.
I really like the soft muted shades of these papers, but I did another one for a pal who likes purple.

Happy crafting
jx

Spring Flowers

Hi Crafty Friends

I'm back after a break for my holiday (a Croatian cruise). It was delightful. This was our ship - and a clue as to how we spent some of our time 😉

This is the card I intended doing the week we did 'Time Flies' My replacement dies arrived just before I went away so I had something ready for the first week back (phew!) We just did a bit of stamping and colouring with DIs. The repeat diagonal stamping for the background looked trickier than it was, so no one opted for the more forgiving grungy stamp. It was a quick and easy card and I loved seeing the various colour schemes people went for.

Happy Crafting
jx

A Little Birdie

Hi Crafty Friends

This week's card was inspired by a card sample I saw at a craft show recently. It reminded me we haven't done paper-piecing for ages, so the stamp was straight into my basket! (It's Woodware, 'Special Bird')

It's a quick and easy card to do, once you've found a lot of co-ordinating papers with small patterns. I stamped the texture on the bird panel and the sentiment to tone more with the background, and I coloured and stamped the bird's body paper. I loved to see all the different versions everyone produced - all more colourful than mine, and all delightful.
The sentiment is an old favourite - it was free with a magazine getting on for 10 years ago. I was just starting crafting then and didn't have many supplies, so I used it a lot. I'm amazed it's lasted so well, especially since I lost it just after we'd made this card. I think it's worth the 2 hours I spent hunting for it.

Lose yourself in Happy Crafting
Jx

PS. I've just got back from the charity shop where I got a large haul of stamps a couple of days ago. I was hoping whoever is having a clear out had reached punches and embossing folders. They haven't, but I found this! The very stamp I was angst-ing about when I thought I'd lost it. The peace of mind of having a spare is well worth 50p. Anybody need a tree/fairy house stamp?😀

jx