Elephantus Insecta

Happy Friday everyone! I am back today with  more Cuddly Critters from Dr.Digi's House of Stamps. Infact....I am back with the same critter from my last DT post - The Elephant!

I got the idea for this version whilst I was making the 3D felt version. It was way beyond my felting skills but I thought I might get it to work with pencils!

Here is the original image in the shop -

And here is my version with peacock butterfly ears!

((It would be remiss of me not to share that this Fant is part of an amazing money saving set with the whole critters range included. Follow this link to see.))

I had a bit of a research session on elephant skin, feet and trunks to grab some ideas for the textures I wanted to create.

 The background paper is a recent one from Making Cards Magazine. The bling is from the stash.

Thanks for joining me today! I'm really enjoying colouring up these critters, off to start on the next one!

Flowery 80th!

Happy Monday to you all! Blogging a commissioned card today that was for an 80th Birthday. The lady likes flower arranging and bowling, so I thought I would make a flowery bowling card. (Genius huh?)  I am hoping that the bowling is Crown Green, not Ten Pin! lol.

You might recognise the flowers from some Sympathy and Thank you card I made last month, they are from Sheena Douglass's Bloomin Beautiful set. I stamped them in white onto watercolour paper, then heat embossed them in white. Then used my Gansai Tambi Watercolours on top.

The image was a vintage photo online that I recoloured and cropped. I also used some papers that were free from "Making Cards" magazine, quite old and from the stash.  Around the 80 flower I used some spare wings I had over from making the Bee get well soon card - such a hoarder :) The cork numbers are from Papermania. Bling, Stickles, Washi and Nuvo Jewel Drops to finish. Also right at the end I decided to add a butterfly top right, I don't remember where they came from :/

Font is Lobster Two, for those fonty obsessed people out there. I love a good font :)

Flowery bags

Another commision, this time for handbags! It's been a long time since I have tried to make this kind of card and I'm not sure years of experience made too much of a difference ; ) They do at least now stand up, unlike my very first attempt when I started out! Went for two colour themes and used flowers from the stash to complete them. Loving enamel bling right now ( Can you tell? ) and using some of the same trusty diecuts.  All the papers are magazine freebies.

Flowers from Wild Orchid and Hobbycraft.

Another fifty years....

Final Golden Wedding card for a bit I think! :) Had to be something different again and the customer had requested poppies so a good excuse to break out the Indigo Blu Poppy Heart Stamp!

• Stamp was heat embossed in gold onto card blank. 
• Top layer was 3D foamed onto the base with a die cut heart to fit over the stamped image beneath.
• Then I cut another heart in a spare piece of  the same card stock and then cut around the hole, to make a frame for the heart which I 3D mounted on top. ( Added gold bling to this, but it looks rather like brown bling in the photo!)
• After that I die cut some swirls and leaves as a base for the flowers in the same pearlescent card stock.
• I painted some poppies with gold paint to get them to tie in. ( I tried leaving them red but it just didn't work... and if I added in more reds to the card layout  it started to look like a ruby wedding card not a golden one. ) The effect was almost like rose gold, so I think it worked ok!
• Greeting phrase was created on the computer. 

Paint Swatch Cards

Had to break away from the Knitty Kitty Digi Launch and work on some card orders! I've wanted to try a "Paint Swatch" card for a bit and my friend (Thanks - Susan!) picked me up some paint chips from the DIY store. ( Paint swatch/chip? I'm not sure, but if you want to Pinterest for ideas, either term seems to bring up the projects using them.)

Here are the finished cards, I'm not sure I've done the ombré effect justice with this design? Might try another one of the suggestions for how to use them to create cards. It's a very frugal design though, using punches that rarely see the light of day, free swatches, part of the sequin hoard and some stamps I already had in the stash. (Also free DL card blanks my friend Helen gave me!) I tried it with free hand scrolls but wasn't happy with the result. What do you think?

"Happy Birthday" Stamp from Set 345 Fairy Doodles by Buzzcraft.

Scrolls are "Fantastic Flourishes" by Hero Arts, CL106

98778 Butterfly Heart

I've been using my Butterfly Heart (98778) die from Memory Box again, it makes such a simple but classy anniversary card I can't resist it! It also cuts extremely well, cleanly and there are no fiddly bits to push out afterwards!

I've used it for silver, pearl (see below) and ruby anniversaries so far but think it would make a lovely wedding or valentine card. Next time I want to have a go at a multi-coloured version which involves a bit of cutting out, but having seen some of the effects via pinterest I am really impressed.

Apparently the Memory Box Cupid Heart Die 98281 works well with it too.

Thank you Helen for buying me this butterfly heart goodness. :)