Pink Roses in Triplicate

In recent posts I've been writing about being hooked on making rolled roses using the English Rose Marianne die.  Here is some evidence, there's more to come, in the form of birthday cards made for three Aunties. Mary and Netta celebrated their birthdays in February and on Mother's Day Auntie Margaret celebrated her eightieth birthday.  As well as being hooked on making roses I've also become hooked on making this card.  It has the 3Ps factor - pink roses, paper pricking and pretty papers.  The materials used to make these cards can be found in this post.

Netta's card

A card for Auntie Mary who celebrated her 83rd birthday.

Auntie Margaret's card

 

 

Thanks for looking in today

Liz xx

Box of Roses

At the beginning of the year I was lucky enough to be sent this birthday card.  It was made by crafting buddy Lorraine and she'd found the inspiration for her card from this blog post.

 

At the moment I'm hooked on making rolled roses using the Marianne English Rose die so thought this card design would be another ideal way of using them.  It was another crafting buddy's birthday coming up soon after so I decided to make a box of roses card for Rhona.

  

 

For Rhona's card I resized the box to fit on an 8"x8" card and raised it up on foam pads.  The parts of the lid which don't overlap the box are on double layer foam pads.  When the roses were added this made quite a dimensional card as can be seen from this side view

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The leaves for the roses were punched using an X-cut beech leaf embossing punch and then the edges were sponged with Encore blue metallc ink.  The scalloped edges of the main card were also sponged with this ink.  

The gift tags were cut using a Sizzix red die and then the top one was overstamped with a small Anna Griffin rose spray stamp before a sentiment stamp from Stampin' up was added using Versafine majestic blue ink.  The edges were then sponged with ink before the tags were layered up.  The backing papers were both digital downloads.  The plaid one came from Diane Rooney's Harvey digital kit and the hearts one was a single sheet download from Download Craft Shop.  Other embellishments used were self adhesive pearls, pearl beads for the centres of the large roses, Stampin' up's Night of Navy ribbon and coiled silver beading wire was attached  amongst the roses to create fronds.

To decorate the insert the right hand edge was masked off and overstamped with the same Anna Griffin rose spray stamp that was used to decorate the tag.  Blue ink was also lightly sponged over the stamped images to give a shaded effect and a punch was used to round off the corners.

Blue seemed a strange colour to choose for making the roses but with the toning papers and embellishments it all came together at the end and they made a nice change to put together from all the pink roses I've been making.

Thanks for reading today
Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Forever Friends Monthly Challenge March - Lots of Flowers
Southern Girls Challenge 64 - Tag You're it
Fab 'n' Funky Challenge 162 - Add a Sentiment
Inky Impressions Challenge - Add Blue
Penny's Paper-Crafting Challenge 116 - Die Cuts and Ribbon
Everybody Art Challenge 227 - Box
Going Grey with Scrap Creations Challenge 148 - Favourite Embellishment (Coiled Roses)
Card Mania Challenge 16 - Lots of Layers
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge 206 - To Die For
A Gem of a Challenge 70 - Frenzy of Flowers
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Have done a Nancy

As well as it being Mother's Day last Sunday it was also a little grand-niece's fourth birthday and this is the card I made for her.  For this one I've done a Nancy Watt by taking a card, decoupage and sticker from a card kit and chop them up to make a bigger card.  I used to love watching Nancy demonstrating card kits on Create and Craft and use elements to create totally different cards from what the kit was intended.  I think that's why I ended up buying the kits that are now lurking under the bed gathering dust.

Some of the card fronts in this kit have lovely die cut edges so the front was left as it was, chopped off, and attached to the front panel of the card which already had layers of coloured card stock on it.  The decoupage was then added.  The panel behind the front flap is decorated using the matching sticker which was attached to layers of oval and labels 10 nestabilities die cuts.

On the inside the little picture from the back of the original card was also die cut using a nestabilities oval die and layered on to a labels 10 die cut  The verse was printed from the computer and layered behind a frame cut with circle nestabilities dies. 

The Happy Birthday paper is from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Purple and, to add texture, panels of the plain card stock were embossed using the Grande Dots 8" x 8" embossing folder from Crafter's Companion.

The usual embellishments of ribbon, bows and crystal dots were used and the little flower embellishments were made using the leaf from the Stampin' up Build an Owl punch and the X-cut small flower punch.  The edges of the scalloped card were inked using Stampin' up's Bashful Blue ink and the edges of the oval die cuts were inked using purple Encore metallic ink.

I wonder how many other crafters have been influenced like this by Nancy's talents.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenges 118 - Ribbons and die cuts
Creative Card Crew Challenge 31 - Ribbon
Deep Ocean Challenge 47 - Cute and Cuddly
Going Grey with Scrap Creations Challenge 148 - Favourite Embellishment (Ribbon)
Through the Craftroom Door Challenge Mar 12-18 - Anything Goes
Use It Tuesday Challenge 52 - Die Cuts, Punches and Cut Outs ( Card Kit)
Bunny Zoe's Monthly Craft Challenge March - Girly
Card Mania Challenge 16 - Lots of Layers
Kaboodles Doodles Challenge 162 - 3D
Make It Monday -  Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday Challenge 260 - Anything Goes

Anja Squares Birthday Card

This is a card I made for a friend who celebrated her birthday last month and it uses the three largest dies from the Anja Squares set from Marianne.

This was a quick and easy card to make as the decorative die cutting on both the squares and the Spellbinders label die does all the work for you.  It's great to have these style of dies available as I've long admired the cut work I've seen on cards over the years I've been crafting but using a craft knife is one of the techniques that I've never mastered.  Cutting a straight line following the edge of a ruler is even a challenge.  An oval Spellbinders die was used to cut out the sentiment which was stamped using Encore metallic purple ink and a stamp from Stampin' up's Sincere Salutations set.  The same purple ink was sponged around the scalloped edges of the card.

The Happy Birthday backing paper is from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Purple and the floral paper is from the Nitwits Collection Time for Tea  .

 

Green self adhesive pearls, green satin ribbon and purple peel off butterflies were added as embellishments.  The butterflies were attached to acetate before being cut out and before attaching them to the card their wings were folded back to give a more 3D effect.  This has the advantage that the wings fold flat for posting but spring back up again once the card is taken out of the envelope. 

 

To continue the butterfly theme to the inside of the card the corners of the insert were punched with a Martha Stewart butterfly corner punch and then the edges were sponged with purple ink to make the butterflies stand out against the white inside of the card.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

Hooked on Roses

At the end of last year I made several cards the same as this one but this one I made for my Mum for Mother's Day.  When I visited my Facebook page this morning one of my cousins had posted a lovely message as her status and I thought I'd share it here. 

"Happy Mothers Day to my wonderful Mum, a truly brilliant lady, who I love dearly....to me, seeing I'm a pretty great mum too lol, to all you other lovely mums, hope you all have a great day, getting waited on hand an foot! and to those who's very special Mums are in heaven, a big huge hug ♥

I've become totally hooked on making these roses using the English Rose Marianne die and several more of these cards will appear on my blog shortly.  You can check this post to find out about the other items used to put this card together.  

Here are a few more views.

 

 

This next card is the one I made for Elaine and Ian to give their Granny and it uses Marianne's Anja Squares set of dies.  Another set of dies I've become hooked on using and my addiction is spreading as members of our Tuesday Crafting Bee have been adding both the roses dies and Anja squares dies to their stash.  The die cut behind the sentiment was made using a Spellbinders label die.

 

I also can't stop using the backing papers from the Nitwits collection Thimbles and Threads.

Wishing all Mums reading this a lovely day.  Although it's a cold snowy day here that won't stop me enjoying the bar of chocolate, new book, set of vouchers to trade in at a later date which cover washing dishes, hoovering and a lunch out and lovely cards I've been given and then there's the Dancing on Ice final and Call the Midwife to sit back and watch too.  Perfect. 

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter these cards in the following challenges
A Gem of a Challenge 70 - A Frenzy of Flowers
Totally Gorjuss Challenge 174 - For Mum
Crafts 4 Eternity Challenge 114 - Marvellous Mums
4 Crafty Chicks Challenge 132 - Die for Dies
In the Pink Challenge 15 - Mother's Day/Floral
The Paper Shelter Challenge 102 - Punches and Dies
Bearly Mine Challenge 76 - Mother's Day
Crafty Sentiments Challenge - Pretty in Pink
Creative Craft Challenges 2 - Challenge 5 - Mother's Day
Dream Valley Challenge 52 - Mother's Day
Joanna Sheen Challenge - Mum's the Word

AWOL

A posting on this blog is long overdue as this is only the third one this year.  I especially needed to get back on here and thank the newest followers and apologise to those who might pop in regularly to see what I've been up to.  Although there haven't been regular posts I have been crafting and have  pictures saved ready to share.

At the start of the year it took a while to spark any enthusiasm for card making after the last minute Christmas splurge but also, thanks to an Auntie, my love of knitting was rekindled.  Twenty years ago it used to be the norm for me to have a piece of knitting on the go but I haven't done much since as knitted garments fell out of fashion.  

Auntie Ann was in Aberdeen for three weeks to have radiotherapy following surgery for breast cancer and stayed at Clan House.  During her stay she asked if I'd take her to the local wool shop Wool for Ewe as it had been recommended to her by a friend.  Off we went one afternoon and I hadn't realised how many different types of yarn and material there are available to knit with now as well as different plys.  Ann chose wool to knit scarves with and also to knit novelties for WI competitions.  I lost track of how many scarves she knitted during her stay here but as well as knitting for family, and one for me, she also donated a few to the Clan House sales table. 

This is the one she knitted for me.

 

The temptation in the shop got too much for me and I bought a couple of balls of wool to have a go too and these are the scarves I made.

 

We had another visit to Wool for Ewe before Ann's treatment finished and, being well and truly bitten by the bug, I couldn't resist getting some more wool.  The second scarf is knitted ribbon and is really effective and quick to make as the loop hole is already punched out for you whereas with the wool ones you have to decide where the loop hole is.

 

I've been back to the shop again and am now knitting a little duffle coat.  It was nice to come back to knitting again whilst the enthusiasm for card making went on the back burner. 

Thanks for reading today and I'll be back to share more soon.

Liz xx

Eightieth Birthday

This is a card I've made for a friend and her family to give their Mum for her eightieth birthday.  It hadn't to be too fussy or floral so I'm hoping this will meet the guidelines.  The patterned papers are from the NitWit collection Time for Tea and the Happy Birthday paper is from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Purple.

The decorated edged layers were cut with two of the dies from the Marianne Anja Squares set.  Other dies used were a Spellbinders circle, scalloped circle and label die.  The little flowers were punched using a tonic punch and the butterfly embellishments were stickers which were attached to acetate before being cut out and having their wings folded back to give a 3D effect.  Other embellishments used were green self adhesive pearls, purple metallic brads, lilac ribbon and crystal dot stickers for the centres of the flowers. 

There are three tiers to this card and two stitched borders were added to give extra framing.  The layers wrapped in ribbon are raised on foam pads and the number 80 disc is also raised on foam pads.

There had to be enough space for the family to sign their good wishes so on the inside there is a double insert.  The inner one is smaller with butterflies punched in the corners using Martha Stewarts punch around the page butterfly corner.  To highlight the butterflies and the corners of the pages Encore metallic purple ink was sponged over them.  The same ink was sponged around the scalloped edges of the base card. 

Thanks for reading today
Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenge
Make It Monday - Anything Goes