Summer fun.....

Picture the scene.....sun lounger, Pimms, golden sandy beach, clear blue sky and a huge, yummy ice cream sundae smothered in chocolate and caramel sauce with nuts and a wafer on the side.

So I went into the garden on this cloudy day to photograph my card on my hydrangea bush! Not quite the picture I had in mind but my Hydrangea is very nice this year!

Back to the card.... I've used Woodware triangle cards, stuck two together covering the base with patterned papers. Punch holes for the ribbon and stamp the message across the top of the patterned paper.

Stamp the ice creams on white card, colour with watercolour pencils, cut out and decorate with glossy accents. Once dry attach to the card with silicone glue. Add another message on a punched circle to finish. The stamp is my JGCL507 Ice Cream Parfait and as you can see from the photos, it makes a nice alternative to a flat card.

Now where did I put the sun cream?

A Touch of Pink...and a sneaky peek!

I have two pictures for you today... a pink dragon (no relation to the nasty dog in Harry Potter) called Fluffy. She's coloured using Sakura pens and water colour pencils to give her that sparkle appeal dragons just love!

The base card is made using Woodware craft card. The gems are pink candy bon bons and I have stamped the message onto white shrink plastic. The name 'Fluffy' is stamped using a wonderful Stampendous set called Retro Alphabet code SSC055. I love using alphabet sets - so versitile - they allow you to write any message you want to make your cards even more personal.

Having just finished all my card samples for the Winter 2011 Woodware catalogue here is a 'sneaky peek' of one of my designs, sorry can't show you the whole image as that would spoil the surprise when the catalogue comes out.

Hope you like it!

Wall Art

Anything but a card......well let me see what I can make.....I'll need one 12"x12" box frame, a fabulous piece of art work and a nice to wall to hang it on. Bingo!

My bubble butterflies (stamp set JGCL542) are not just for cards and this big piece I did earlier this year while looking after my parents for a few weeks certainly filled any spare time I had.

It's so therapeutic filling in all those bubbles with buttons, beads and bling.

I've also included a close up of some of the colour ways you can choose.

Woodware sketch challenge

The main element on this card, besides the lovely flower of course, is the panel made from strips of Magenta papers. I learnt the technique with Susan Pickering Rothermel and just love making them!

I've used USArtQuest products and Magenta papers. Us

ing a piece of thick chipboard, any size will do, cover it with Great Tape (PPA201). Cut up a collection of patterned papers into strips of different widths and lengths.

Begin with one piece and stick to the sticky chipboard, continue to cover the chipboard creating a mosaic design all over. Don't worry if your strips are too long and hang over the edge.

Once you have covered the chipboard trim any strips. Take a contrasting ink pad and colour the edges of the chipboard. Using Perfect Paper Adhesive in gloss (PPA104) pour a generous fifty pence piece size piece of glue into the centre of the chipboard and spread around the surface using a palette knife (or an old credit card!), add more glue if need be. Allow to dry. This can take about an hour.

The finished result is a glossy masterpiece! Want to be more creative? Why not sprinkle Mica Flakes, Mica Delights or micro beads all of which are available from Woodware.

Product list.....

Crafty Edger

Magenta papers

Great Tape

Perfect Paper Adhesive

Floral Punch Book 1 for flower instructions

Orange punches, balloon, daisy and snowflake to make the flower

FPC tools and mat

Woodware gems

Woodware 826-28 swirl punch

Brown gingham ribbon

Peeloffs 92664

Birthday Wishes

Flowers again I'm afraid...but I just love making these lilac coloured flowers - well, actually they can be made in any colour, very nice in red! Would you believe they are made from a bumble bee shape?

The punch is FPC7-03 insects. From the bee shape I cut the wings and legs off (so awful!!) and just use the body for the petals. I give 'half moon' character to each petal and then stick them to a small snowflake. Make two of these and stick one on top of the other. Colour as you see here with a Tombow marker pen and the centre is made from a little sun punch and yellow paper, each one is given 'cup character' and three stuck together.

All the flowers can be found in the Floral Punch Craft books.

The greeting on the card is my JGCL519, a handy set of clear Birthday theme stamps where all the words are separate so you can choose what you want to say.

Pretty paper poppies

I've been visiting lovely Burnley in Lancashire the home of Craft Range!

Craft Range is a wonderful craft shop and the only one I know that has the most fantastic cafe serving the best quiche in town. I took a workshop there last Sunday following their demo day.

As you can see from my photo, we made poppies on an easel card.

The flowers are from the new floral punch craft book and are great fun to make. The poppies are made from red paper, punching the shape and cutting the petal to size from the Woodware Amphora vase. We made our own leaves just to show how clever we are!

If you ever find yourself in Burnley, you must stop by at Craft Range for a visit and some lunch.

White with a hint of black!

What ever happened to flaming June? Wet weather though is crafting weather so make good use of it. Dorothy is cracking her whip again and I have come up with this A5 landscape card using my Bubble Butterfly peel off in white.

I like making these shaped A5 cards but don't like to have a fold at the top of the card so I cut the A4 card in half. Keeping the pieces of card landscape, score one of the sheets about 4 to 5cm from the left edge. This is now your top piece.

Fold this and stick the folded strip to the second piece of card. This creates a nice flat 'spine' perfect for attaching a ribbon as I have done here.

The punch used to create the 'lace' panel is CP42-01 Inspire flowers, punched several times and stuck to each other with PVA glue. You need to cut a section of the card out of the top piece of A5 card and that can be made to any size.

Stick the butterfly peel off on to some vellum and decorate with some of the amazing Woodware gems, pearls and glitter.