Shabby Bird House Card

Hello there

I decided to check out some of the blogs I follow and look for a challenge to enter.Over on Mojo Monday they have a current challenge of Tall and Skinny. Hmmm. This was a challenge as I never do tall and skinny, so I gave it a go. I am afraid I didn’t quite manage to get too tall and skinny with this card! Although the suggested measurements were 3.5 x 5.5 I only managed to go down to 4 x 5.5 inches. Well . . . what is .5 of an inch between friends?

Here is the Sketch Mojo Monday provided to base your design on

Here is my interpretation of the sketch x



 

I used my old faithful Maja Design Vintage spring basics papers for this little creation. I have to say this little 6x6 pack doesn’t owe me a penny. I have made so many cards and creations from this pack and it’s still going strong. Each and every one of the sheets are just so pretty and perfect for my shabby chic style.

 

The little bird house is a Marianne Design die I have. It also has a stamp which makes it so versatile to use. Isn’t it cute? I cut out the little bird and flowers from some of the Maja paper pack too.

 

 

I hope the photographs do it justice, I am having a bit of an issue trying to take photographs of my cards just lately! Maybe I need to go on a photography course lol.

Thanks for coming over to take a peep

Sharon xx

Exploding Baby Shoe Box xx

Hello there

I would like to share with you a project I have been working on for a while. My friend’s daughter has just had a baby girl and I wanted to make her a gift. I decided on a kind of explosion box – I think that is what you call them.  I need to apologise for the photographs, I really do not think they do the box justice. I have used Lilac papers and the poor light and background really is not showing it off.

 

 

 

The tiny accordion book opens up on top of the box to revel the baby’s name. All the letters are individually stamped. I didn’t want to open it up to show you, just because the bow took me so long to get right!!

 

 

A peek at the inside.

 

I made the little tiles that are on the die cut labels using stamps and some glossy accents on the top. 

 

I made the baby shoe from matching papers, I found the baby shoe template on the internet. It was printed off on to some card to make it a sturdy template that I could keep.It was easy to use and when the papers were cut out and glued together it turned out really cute and tiny.

 

Lots of pearls, flowers, shabby loveliness and of course one or two butterflies. It is the first time I have used acetate like this and love it :-) x

 

 

 

I would like to enter my project into two challenge blogs.

Over on Frilly and Funkie they have a ‘Hip to be square’ challenge asking participants projects to be cube shaped and have a shabby chic or vintage feel. How could I resist that? I follow the blog via email and have only just recently found them. They have some gorgeous work shown on the blog, go take a peep.

Over on the City Crafter their current challenge is Roses, perfect. I would have to have my hands tied together to stop me adding flowers and roses to 99% of my projects te he. I have not entered a challenge on City Crafter for 2 years, so I thought I was due a challenge entry. I love all the challenge blogs, you see some amazing work and projects and get some great inspiration.

Thank you so much for coming over to take a look at my work.

Sharon xx

 

Tag - a little more Shabby Chic loveliness xx

Hello again

This week I made a tag for a crafty friend of mine. Marion or Maz to her friends invited me to her home last week and showed me how to make jewellery!! Maz had me threading beads and natural stones onto wires, wire cutting and then making little circles at the end of the wires. I am sure there are more technical terms for these processes but I am a novice when it comes to making jewellery.

I came home with a gorgeous necklace so I wanted to make her a thank you card. As you can see I made a thank you tag instead.

The image is on a sheet from Pion Design. It is Grandma's Attic Tinted - Bouquet. Love using these images, I may have said that once or twice on my blog. The papers are from Maja Design pack - Vintage spring basics. I dry brushed the papers with gesso very lightly.

 

The gorgeous tiny butterflies are on a sheet in the Vintage Spring basics pack so I thought it would be a shame not to use them. Oh and maybe just a bit lazy not to make my own butterflies.

 

A close up of the bottom of the tag. The two Labels were die cut using a Crafts Too die - Labels 3 die. Then the frame stamping behind the labels and the double stamped sentiment are from Inkadinkado - Expressions and Frames stamp set.

Oh and just a few pearls and gesso painted flowers - well you have too. I would like to enter this tag into the Gloria Designs Challenge Blog for their '11 Tag Your It Challenge.

Here is a picture of the necklace Maz helped me to make, well it would be rude not to share.

 

Love it xx

Thank you for taking the time to come over and have a peep at my blog.
Sharon xx

Shabby Chic Criss Cross Birthday Card

Hello there

Just a quick post to show you a criss cross card I made for my sisters birthday. Marie loves her garden so I took inspiration from that and these papers were perfect for it.

 

Whoops, I managed to cover up the last word on the sentiment in this photograph. Of course the word is 'Garden.'

 

A close up of the birds nest charm from Live and Love Crafts, I love this charm and I have had it for ages. Quite sad to let it go. It was great for this card though.

 

 

 

 

Here are the two insert tags. When I stamped the images they still looked like they needed a little something . . .

 

 

 

 

. . . . . . . . . . . so out came the tiny pearls again. I really do not think I could craft without using pearls.

 

Thanks for coming over and taking a peep.

Sharon xx

Pretty in Pink

Hello there

I thought I would enter my card into the Pretty in Pink challenge over on the Make my Monday challenge blog.

As usual for me I had to add some pearls and this time I used green ones around the image to match the lovely satin ribbon. The image was from a Pion Design sheet from Live and Love Crafts, I love using these images on my cards. Oh and the little butterfly got a few tiny pink pearls.

 I made the tag pocket out of a lunch money envelope, covered in co-ordinating papers and a few shabby flowers painted with gesso. Oh and the metal bird cage charm got the same treatment.

I inked the edges of the tag with Victorian Velvet distress ink and then gave it a light coating of gesso to knock back the colour slightly. Very Pretty in Pink don't you think?

Thanks for taking a peep.
Sharon xx

Baby Shower Card

Hello there

Yes I am still here, although crafting times are getting less and less for me.

I was invited to my first ever baby shower today, so wanted to make a card to take along with a few little gifts. The new mum to be knows she is having a girl so I went down the traditional pink route. Lots of pearls, flowers, shabby ribbon and butterfly's. . . not at all my usual style lol.

 

 

Isn't it great when your background papers really make life just a little bit easier. It was a lovely afternoon and the new mum to be loved it. I saw this pram on the net (Cut out twice and made freestanding) and knew I wanted to give it a go and shabby it up a bit. Thanks again for the inspiration.

Thanks for taking a peep
Sharon xx

Pink Shabby Chic Birthday Card

Hello there

 I am afraid my post titles are aheeem a little similar just lately, but what else can you call a shabby chic card lol! This is just a quick post today.

Here is yet another friend's shabby chic birthday card.

This card has lots of flowers again, and is very similar to my last few cards. In my defence I am just lovely my latest stash from Live and Love Crafts. I think that for the fist time ever I may just end up using all of the gorgeous craft goodies I bought from a craft store.

Apologies for the quality of the picture, I realised as I was just about to leave the house with the card I hadn't took a photograph of it. So as you can see I just lifted the 'carefully folded' tissue to take a snap or two.

 

This gorgeous image is Pion Designs - Bouquet

 

 

I am also making another ladies birthday card for my future mum in law, so be warned lol. I will post it soon.

 

Thanks for coming over and taking a peep

Sharon xx

 

Friends Shabby Chic Birthday Card

Over on Live and Love Crafts they have a new challenge. Giving us crafters a great Inspiration Collage picture board to inspire our crafty creative juices. I am loving all the colours, flowers and of course butterflies in the images. Well I would because I nearly always have them appear somewhere in my cards lol. I knew I was going to love making this card.

So here is my entry for the challenge. It is another shabby chic birthday card and its for one of my special friends, Jeannette.

 

 

 

I wanted to add more flowers than I usually do, so I tried to be a bit braver. Sometimes more is best with shabby don’t you think? I am not sure I have quite got the hang of card flower arranging but I think I got pretty close to ok. Of course all my papers (Vintage Spring Basics), my Lily Flower charm and flowers all got a splat of gesso on them. My lovely vintage image also got some shabby treatment with the Fran-táge embossing enamel; I also tried it on a metal butterfly and just loved the results.

 

A close up of my flower arranging! Good old Gesso, I blinking love the stuff, and I am loving the Pearl Pins from L & L Crafts.

 

The gorgeous butterfly, with added Fran-táge  and a few pearls. The Lily charm was snugly added in as they are Jeannette’s favourite flower.

Live and Love Crafts is a relatively new blog and shop discovery for me. I love the shop, when my first order arrived all boxed and wrapped up in pink tissue paper I knew it was going to be good. You can pop across here to see the latest challenge and all the beautiful entries. Be warned though, you will get distracted and immersed in all the ace creations.

Thanks for taking a peep

Sharon xx

 

Shabby Chic Birthday Card

Hello there

Here is a shabby chic birthday card that I made for my sisters birthday recently. Just lately I love to gesso my papers, and this card was no exception. The roses, shabby seam binding and cameo may have got caught in the cross fire too lol. It turned out so pretty even if I do say so myself, although as usual it took me around three hours to make it! I have such admiration for you ladies who can whip up a card in 10 minutes.

The lovely papers, gorgeous vintage image, shabby seam binding and Frantage embossing powders all came from Live and Love Crafts and the flowers and cameo from The Hobby House. I am loving that little cameo and I have a bag with about 5 left in different colours so I can’t wait to use them in other craft projects.

I am entering this card in the challenge over at Craft roomchallenge, matching up ‘tic tac toe’s’ with the pearls, lace and butterfly. Go over and take a look at the design teams creations, there is some amazing stamping going on over there.

Thank you so much for taking the time to come over to my blog to take a peep.

Sharon xx

Shabby Chic Wedding Anniversary Card xx

Oh dear, has it really been September 2012 since I last posted!! Well this weekend I managed to make a couple of cards and I will post one of them today and another shortly.

Here is a wedding anniversary card that I made for my friends daughter.

 

 

I got all shabby and the whole thing got a little sprinkling of Gesso. Oh and I also tried out some new frantage embossing powders (well they are new to me lol). The gorgeous papers along with the vintage image, pins, shabby seam binding and frantage are from Live & Love Crafts. Lots of shabby chic inspiration from their blog, if you have time take a peak.



 



A close up of the gorgeous vintage image, I love these images and they make creating cards a breeze. I really enjoyed making this and the card I will post soon is also very similar.

Thanks for coming over and taking a peak
Sharon xx

Shabby Chic Birthday Card

Hi Again

I have a friend who has a special birthday next week and wanted to make something a little bit different to my usual cards. I looked on the Internet for inspiration and saw some amazing work. I loved a card that I saw which had painted papers and roses so thought I would give it a go. I got my Gesso white paint out and literally slapped some on, I did worry it had ruined the papers but when it was all assembled it looked fab. Well I was happy with it anyways, and this is how it turned out.

I used some Prima papers which were a freebie on a craft magazine I bought recently, how lovely to get something so gorgeous for free!! I also painted a KaiserCraft wooden birdcage with the Gesso. I sprayed some perfect pearls onto some brown craft card and stamped out the butterflies. I really like the effect this gives card, it over saturated (ok maybe I sprayed too much), but when you dab it off with paper kitchen towels it gives it the look of texture!

 

 

Lots of pearls, some gorgeous coffee coloured lace that only cost me 50p, and an organza bow to finish it all off. I decorated the inside to match, but minus the roses.

 

 

.

I also made a box for the card and decorated the lid to hint at whats inside.

I am really happy I tried something different , and will be trying for this look again in future. Thank you to all those talented people that inspire us by sharing there work.

Thanks for having a peep
Sharon xx

Butterfly Friends Birthday Card

Hello there

Just a quick post with a card I made at the weekend for a friends birthday. I made it very late on Saturday evening / Sunday morning so lets not look too closely at the obvious mistakes! lol (If your a crafter and a Virgo like me run away now!). I was tired, decorated the box lid before I glued the base sides together and realised the base was too big for the lid! And when I re made a smaller base the card wouldn't fit into it! Arrrrggghhh.

My friend loved it, so it was all good. Happy birthday Jeannette xx

The paper is by KaiserCraft and it's from their Timeless Collection, I only bought one sheet but will be going back for more. Loved it and it's double sided, so if you wanted to use the other side it has images of postcards on it, fab. I think it is different from what I usually do, I mean just look at all that white space around the sentiment! How I managed to resist swiping the distress inks all over it is beyond me. I was good and only gave the very edge of the circle a light coating, and the very edges of the gorgeous papers.

 

I also decororated the inside to match the front, but the sentiment inside says Happy Birthday. I have seen other people decorate the inside of the cards and loved how it turned out so I am sure I will be doing this again. And as I was on a roll, and getting carried away with myslef I made a box for the card. . . . .

. . . . .and decorated the lid to match the card!!! Well, 1.30 a.m in the morning is no excuse not to try!



Thank you for coming over for a peep.
Sharon xx

Pink ladies Card

Hi there

It’s been a while and mojo is still missing. However I did attempt to make a simple ladies card to enter into this month’s Crafty Individuals ‘Summer Ball’ themed blog challenge.  See link below:

http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/june-challenge-begins.html

I made the card grungy, pink and a bit more pink lol. So I think it really is one for the ladies!

 The stamp I used is a Crafty Individual’s stamp that I have had since I first started crafting about 5/6 years ago. It’s CI – 068 (It was a bargain too as I got it in a sale at a local craft shop for £2.60!)  Not sure that they still sell this one.

The pretty papers are from a collection called ‘Blush’ by Lost & Found. Looking at how pink I painted her face with Rangers distress inks I think it’s rather appropriate.

I painted the flourish with crackle paint, and then covered this with perfect pearls, and still not happy with the look I rubbed some dark brown ink.  The obligatory pearls, flowers and cotton lace finished it all off nicely.

Thanks for taking time to have a peep

Sharon xx

Quick post

Hello peeps

It's been a while since I have created anything as life has been a little hectic. Today I logged onto my blog so I could have a peep at what my fellow crafters have been creating and try and find some inspiration.

Paula over on http://ephemerasattic.blogspot.co.uk/ is running a blog candy post so I have to enter. I love Paula's work and part of the candy is one of her beautiful bag creations. These are stunning and I would love one, I think I have bag envy lol.

Pop over and take a look at her gorgeous work. Hope to be back soon

Take care
Sharon xx

Stamped Candle

This weekend saw me try something new with images created from stamping. I have seen candles that have stamped images set onto them on other people’s blogs and I have wanted to try it for ages. It looks fiddly, and to be honest it is a bit, but I think that effort is well worth it when you see the results you get. One of my closest friends sadly lost her sister to cancer last September and today would have been her sisters birthday. I know my friend is going to find today very difficult and I wanted to make her a small gift to let her know I was thinking of her and her family.

Jeannette loves her candles and also loves anything with sentiment behind it so I knew this would mean a lot to her. I gave her the gift yesterday and she said she would light it for a little while today.

I used a Crafty Individuals angel stamp, its CI-086. It is a beautiful image and on the pillar at the side of the angels is says ‘Hear the beating of their golden wings and the sound of music in your heart’. On the back the word stamp came from a set I have from Papermania. I embellished the candle with some flowers sprayed with perfect pearls mist and some gorgeous cotton cream lace. I use this lot in my projects I always think it makes them look so vintage.

You stamp your chosen image onto tissue paper, colour it if you wish (I used water colour pencils to keep it very pale), cut it out leaving a very small boarder around the image and then place that image onto your candle. Then you wrap this tightly with wax paper, (I didn’t have any of this so I used baking paper. It’s not ideal for this project as it’s a brown colour and difficult to see your image underneath it!! However it did work.) You then gently use your heat tool to go over where the image is underneath the paper and slowly the wax from the candle absorbs the tissue paper with the image on it!! It’s like magic.

Just a few things to note if you try this project out for yourself:

The tissue paper seemed to have a different texture on each side! I didn’t notice until I tried to stamp the image and on one side the ink went a little blotchy, I tried again on the other side and it was perfect.

My water colour pencils have never been used and tore the paper, so I re stamped the image to start again and softened the points of the pencils on some scrap card stock before using again.

You need to be very careful not to overheat the image on the candle or the candle melts!! Just be patient and keep checking and re-heating.

I would like to enter this project into the Stamp Man Challenge, this challenge is all about embelshing your projects. See the challenge here:

http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/2012/01/stamp-man-embellish-it-challenge.html

Thank you for coming over for a peep

Hugs

Sharon xx

Another napkin folded card xx

Hi there

Well get me, back to blog land again and within the same month! Over on Gingersnap Creations they are holding a challenge ‘glorious green’.

You can find the challenge here: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/gc136-color-challenge-glorious-greens.html

A friend asked me to make her a card for her niece after seeing the last one I made. She loved the butterfly image on the square card so much I incorporated it into this napkin fold design card. This is only the second time I have used the stamp and in the space of a week lol. I used pale green papers on my card and before it was embellished I thought they looked too plain and dowdy!!

I then worried when I had finished it that I had gone over the top with all those pearls, flowers, lace and perfect pearls mist. However when she opened the tissue paper that I had wrapped it in I needn’t have worried she absolutely loved it, phew.

The pale green papers are from My Mind’s Eye ‘wild asparagus’ range.  All the edges were distressed with distress inks. I stamped the image twice and then cut out the butterfly on the second image. I used ‘bundled sage’ and ‘Victorian velvet’ distress inks to watercolour the image, let this dry, covered the coloured bits of wing with glossy accents  and then attached this on top of the original image.

I sprayed the flowers with perfect pearls mist, and the tiny butterflies were a happy accident. I had sprayed some beige card with the same pearls mist and it saturated the card!!! In my panic I grabbed some kitchen roll and blotted the mist . . . and hey presto it left an imprint into the card and made it looked textured. I was rather pleased with that one, and I have saved the bit of card left over. I am sure it will come in handy for something. Don’t you just love it when things like that happen? Hope you like it too.

Thank you for coming over and having a peep. Hope you manage to stay warm this weekend; it’s so cold here today.

Happy crafting

Sharon xxx



Butterfly Card

Hello there

Well it has been far too long since I have personally blogged,  but I have been keeping my eye on all the blogs I follow. Crafting mojo left my house for quite a while and I have missed making things and getting dirty fingers from all those inks and stuff. So I thought I would try and have a go at another craft challenge. My car had to go into the garage all day today, so perfect time to get all the bits and bobs out and make something.


The Fashionable Stamping challenge can be found if you click on the link bellow

http://fashionablestampingchallenges.cottagecrafts.ie/?p=2104

I first saw over the challenge over on Paula's blog at http://ephemerasattic.blogspot.com/  , she makes some stunning creations.

Challenge 13 is Butterflies or Bugs and the only rules as far as I can tell is you must use a stamp (no digis) in your creation. Its my first time entering fashionable stamping so here is my entry

I'm not sure what the stamp is, as I bought it when one of my crafting friends was selling off some of her huge stash.

I stamped it twice and then cut the butterfly out of one of the images. I coloured it with distress inks and then added glossy accents to the coloured bits. The background paper is from Making Memories and is 'Noir Floral Butterfly', you can see the reverse of the butterfly paper on the bottom of the card. It's a gorgeous paper and I used in in the project before last that I posted on here lol.

Some lace and maybe one too many flowers and there you have it, my butterfly or bugs challenge entry.

Thank you so much for coming over and having a peep, hopefully this has kick started the creative flow I have been missing

Sharon xxx

Shabby Chic mini album

(Heavy photo post warning)

Hello there, I am back again but still haven’t found my crafting mojo? I am still looking as I type this.

I was recently asked to make something pretty for a special girl who is turning 11 this weekend. I thought I would make a mini album which turned out a ‘shabby chic’ mini album due to the colours of the papers I used. These were the Signature Blueberry Hill range from Papermania. I have had them for ages and didn’t know what to use them for.

page 1

page 2, good old Tim Holtz birdcage die

page 3 , with a photo mat booklet that will allow Grace to add pictures and personalise her album

and finally page 4

The gorgeous images I used were found at:  http://magicmoonlightfreeimages.blogspot.com

I think that I have probably broken every ‘shabby chic’ rule if there is such a thing! But I tried. I am sure Grace will love it. It is very mini at only 4 pages, and very bulky (see I told you I broke the rules), but hopefully it passes as something near to lovely. It’s simple and there is only one pearl on the whole project!!! Can you see where?

A little but of lace and distress inks, some glittery butterfly trails and smidgen of glossy accents.

Thank you for coming over and having a peep at my project, if you find my mojo will you please tell it to come home ASAP lol

Sharon xxx