With Kindness

Hi crafters!  I thought I would show you another card made using my new die line.  This one features the centre die from the San Francisco set in the California Collection.  It is truly an easy card to put together as the dies do all the work.  Out of coconut white card, I cut six die cuts from the San Francisco.  Three of them I left completely whole and the rest of them were cut up either in half or in quarters.  I selected a piece of dusty rose card from my stash and covered it with a sticky adhesive sheet.  I peeled the backing paper off to reveal the sticky layer and began working from the corner filling in with my die cuts.  I tried to leave about the same amount of space between the die cuts as I laid them on to the sticky sheet.  I used the waxy backing paper and laid it on top once they were all in place to help burnish them down well.  Once that was done, I filled in the sticky areas with Iced Snow and burnished it well before removing the excess.  I matted it with white then a dusty rose layer.  I used the rose felt from our Vintage Felt pack and cut an inch wide strip about nine inches long.  I folded it in half and glued the edges with Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue.  I nipped into the strip with my scissors at intervals that were about every quarter inch all the way along the strip.  I used more glue along the bottom and then rolled it to make my flower.  I seated the flower on a white seam binding bow and added in pieces of white foliage cut from my Faux Quilled leaves.  I finished it with some pearl strings, twine  and a stick pin.  I stamped a sentiment and cut it into a small tag and tucked the end under my flower.  A double white pierced mat layer finished it off in my usual style.  I love the way you can just use a decorative die cut and get such a pretty background from it.  The card hardly needs anything else, don't you agree?  The finished dimensions are 6 1/2" x 7 3/4" in size.  All for now, Sue x

Sneak Peek For Sam's Shows Today

Good Sunday morning all and Happy Mother's Day!  Guess what, it's another two-fer today!  I had meant to post a card yesterday for Sam's show and then another again today, but I couldn't find where I had put them until it was too late.  I have to admit to a guilty pleasure too.  I just love doing cutesy cards and these filled the bill for me!  There it's out and in the open now! LOL  I think these animals that Sam has designed are absolutely adorable, but with a quirkiness to them that really appeals to me.  Sam is doing the two hour Tool Shed show today and a show at 5pm with these stamps and the melt pot.  I can't wait to see what she has in store for us!  She was down a few weeks ago and allowed me a bit of a dabble with the stamps and I made her about five cards.  Here are two of them to hopefully whet your appetite for her shows later today.  The first one features this darling Owl stamp (couldn't wait to play with him!)  I went kraft card with him.  I used an oval die and cut an aperture in my background card (it is kraft but with a tiny diamond pattern to it from my stash).  I embossed it with the Creative Expressions Bark embossing folder and then ran over the top of it with a Tea Dye distress ink to bring out the pattern a bit more.  On a separate piece of plain Kraft card, I stamped the Owl twice.  I coloured both with Distress markers then came back in with a white pencil to highlight his feathers a bit.  I cut them out by hand and used a black marker to go around the edges to remove any cut marks.  I mounted one in the aperture opening and used Sam's Tree Bark stamp on the card behind him stamped in Coffee Archival.  The other owl I used mounting foam on and added him to the front of the card on a twig from the Cherry Blossom die set.  I used my Faux Quilled Leaves cut in green to add foliage around both of them. A Bakers Twine bow and button were tucked into the foliage.   I stamped the sentiment and cut it out with the tag from the Spanish Collection set.  I inked through the die with Rusty Hinge before removing it.  I added my tag with mounting foam in the upper corner.  I made a second kraft mat and distressed the edges very well on both pieces.  A double brown mat with Choco brown PVA glue dots was added to complete the card.  Finished dimensions are 7 1/4" x 7 1/2" in size.  Scroll down to see the cute fox card!

                                                                   For card number two, I created a faux leather background using the torn masking tape technique (you can see the tutorial at the top of the blog for details)  I used a light hand and inked it with Tea Dye just to highlight the edges of the tape.  I stamped the Feather Background in black onto Ginger card.  I cut it into a wide background and matted it with milk and black card then glued it to my faux leather background.  I stamped the fox, also on to kraft card, coloured him with Distress markers and cut him out.  I used white pencil on him to highlight areas as well.  I added  him with mounting foam to the corner of my card.  I stamped the sentiment and cut it into a flag and tucked it under a black zipper rose .  I added some black tulle, some Bakers Twine in rust and a couple of my Fern Trio dies as accents.  Finally, I added a black and cream mat layer and Cosmic Shimmer black PVA glue dots around the edge to finish this one off nicely.  Finished dimensions are 6 3/4" x 8" in size.        

But wait, there's more!  It's Sunday so there are winners to be announced as well as cards!  This week's winners are:

Terry Owen!!!
Dreamer!!!
Sue Dix!!!

For the extra qualifying post of Wednesday Mar.26th, the winners are:

Wilma Brown!!!
Sophy 'n Gran!!!
Marianne's Craftroom!!!

Fpor the extra qualifying post of Tuesday Mar. 25th,the winners are:

iReneM!!!
Jan Caven!!!
Janhass!!!

Congratulations all!  Please email me at americansue1@gmail.com to confirm your address and claim your prize.  All for now, Sue x

        

Use the button above to do your Pinterest pinning please!

For You (Another Two-Fer)

Hello crafters!  Another two-fer today but both are shoe cards!  A girl just can't have too many shoes, now can she! LOL  I needed to make a few samples for our upcoming Ally Pally show so I thought you might enjoy seeing some of them.   These are both really simple cards and don't need too much in the way of explanation so I thought I would post them both (hate it when I feel like I am cheating you if the card is too simple!  After all, you take your time to stop by and visit, I need to make sure it is at least worthy don't I!)  Both cards today feature shoe stamps from the Creative Expressions stamp set called Floral Footsteps.  I stamped the first shoe and embossed it in clear so it has a patent leather look to it.  I coloured the flowers with Distress Markers and added a bit of detail with a white gel pen. I cut out the shoe (yes, by hand) and added mounting foam to the back.  Using the Decorative Frames from the Italian Collection, I cut out the outer heart frame, leaving the centre intact.  I added in the next sized die during the embossing to add a bit more detail.  I inked through it with Spun Sugar distress ink before removing it.  I seated the shoe in the centre and used a few of the fallaway hearts around it.  I added a California Collection border in white along the bottom with some flatback pearls added as embellishments.  I finished with a stamped tag tucked into my turquoise messy bow with some Bakers Twine and a small pearl embellishment.  A double pierced white mat completed the card.  Finished dimensions are 6 1/4" x 7 1/4" in size.  Card no. 2 is below

 Card no. two shows off the boot stamp from the stamp set. Sorry that the picture came out a bit yellowish as the card is white and mauve.   I stamped it on to coconut white card and coloured it with Distress markers.  I used the Valencia die from the Spanish Collection to cut it out.  I decided to add some colour to the mat so I cut it out of our mauve card using the die from the Seville set.  I seated the focal element on to a piece of white card that I embossed with the Wild Holly embossing folder from Couture Creations.  I tied some mauve seam binding around the card and added a messy bow at the side.  On top I made one Faux Quilled Bloom flower and added a small Dazzler to the centre.  I finished the card with a double white mat with White Cosmic Shimmer PVA Glue dots around the edge.  A few flatback pearls embellished the corners of the die cut to wrap it up.  Finished dimensions are
 6 1/4" x 7 1/2" in size.


Now, for the winners of the cards on the Wednesday Weekly Card Giveaway.

The first card (the white one) goes to:

 Maryann Laursen!!!

The second card (the black one) goes to :

NZILLINGWORTH (Nadine)!!!

Congratulations!  Please email me at americansue1@gmail.com to confirm your address and claim your prize.  No more cards to be given away this week, but there are still loads of prizes and those winners to be announced tomorrow.  Don't forget to stop by!  All for now, Sue x

Butterfly Panel Card

 Hi crafters!  Still working my way through the cards from my last show and thought another butterfly card would be nice.  You have seen this stamp on kraft card and done in blues and now in a white on white with a touch of silver.  I stamped my sentiment on coconut white card using a black archival ink pad.  Next, I embossed it with one of my new embossing folders called Quilted Flower.  I cut the piece into three panels and matted them with a soft silver ,matte card and added them to a larger piece of white card.  I stamped the butterfly from the Justrite stamp set twice.  First on to white card and I heat embossed it with silver shine powder, then onto vellum and I heat embossed it with white detail powder.  I cut both of them out by hand and layered them up.  I attached the two pieces at the body, leaving the wings free for movement and added flatback pearls to the body.  I used a swirly pearl as the butterfly trail going across all three panels.  It really is a very quick card and I finished it with a silver mat before adding my double white pierced mat layers.  Finished dimensions are 7 1/2" x 8" in size.

I want to say a great big thank you as so many of you have purchased vouchers from Joanna Sheen for Nick and his craft club.  I have spoken with Joanna Sheen about the vouchers and she has told me that she usually does a handmade card to go with the vouchers and it costs her about £2 to do these.  Can you please let her know when you order the vouchers that it is for Nick so that she does not go through the time and trouble (and expense) of doing a handmade card for each of our vouchers.  After all, they are all going to one place so it is really a waste.  In order to not have any confusion though, I think it is best that we not burden her team with having to keep track of the vouchers for Nick.  It is easier if, once you receive them,  you post the vouchers to me at Creative Expressions headquarters and I will post them all together to Nick. {Please be sure to put my name on the envelope and just email me to let me know it is on the way.  I will need to collect them all by about the 15th of April at the latest to get them posted to him before I leave again for Florida  the following week.  Again, thank you so much for all your wonderful support!  I was able to add some pictures that Nick sent me of his very first meeting of the craft club.  As you can see, everyone from the village was enjoying the day, not just the kids!  I just love the last picture, she looks well chuffed with her creation!  All for now, Sue x

Vintage Dress Form

Hello bloggers!  The videos are finally back!  We are kicking off the second series with this simple card using the California Collection die sets.  You have already seen this card, and some of the others to follow when they were posted during the Die Sneak Peek Week so I thought on those days, I would add a second card of some sort to the post, just so you would have something new to look at!  I do hope you will enjoy the videos, but don't forget to scroll down to see the other card as well.  If you are interested in any of the items that I use in any of the videos, you just need to click on the Joanna Sheen button and it will take you directly to the link!

Finished dimensions are 5 1/2" x 7" in size

This is really a quick, clean and simple card that I made using the Taylored Expressions stamps.  The set is called Discover Your Wings and I applied ink directly to the dragonfly stamp using the Tim Holtz Distress markers.  What I love about these, is there is no rush, you can colour the stamp and really take your time if you lie.  Since these are water based markers, you just need to either huff on the stamp or lightly spritz it with water to reactivate.    I sprayed it with water then stamped, sprayed it again and stamped again and repeated this process until all the ink was gone so you get second and third generation stamping.  I like the sort of ethereal look you get y=when you do this.  I stamped my sentiment in black and cut it out with an oval shape.  I used my Peacock Feathers marker around the edge of the die cut.  The background was simply embossed with the Tied Together folder and then extended to make it larger.  I added white PVA glue dots at all the junctions (just can't help doing that with this folder, can you!)  A double pierced mat and voila it is done.  The finished dimensions are 7 1/2" x 8" in size.  All for now, Sue x