Sweet Simplicity

Lately I've been doing alot of projects where I use lots of colours to colour a stamped image, and a fair bit of papers for backgrounds and things, but yesterday I had the urge to just simplify everything.

To make this card I literally used about one and a half sheets of A4 plain white cardstock, 2 Distress Inks (Dusty Concord and Forest Moss), 2 floral stamps, the sentiment stamp with black Staz-On, and a strip of plain white satin ribbon.

I think when you keep all the 'ingredients' simple and white, it allows for more creativity.



Firstly, I scored, folded and trimmed a sheet of card down to standard DL size. Then measured the stamp I wanted to use and found that it would fit a 2x3" panel perfectly. I cut 3 panels to follow the sketch over at Cards and Things.


I stamped the image onto each panel using Forest Moss, then used a wet paintbrush and smidge more ink to colour in the leaves.


The flowers themselves were stamped onto other card in Dusty Concord (I love how those two colours give a vintage feel without being really girly), using the same method to fill in the blooms. Once they were dry I cut them out roughly and layered them onto foam pads.


I cut 3 panels slightly bigger, and three more a little bit bigger still, then inked them with the Distress Inks, alternating the colours of the panels; then layered them up.


I drew a line across the base where I wanted the ribbon to be and masked off the top portion with sticky notes. I chose a small flower stamp that was easy to ink by pressing the flowerhead onto the purple and the stem onto the green, then blotted it on scrap paper each time before stamping onto the card.


I coloured the white ribbon with the Dusty Concord and stuck it down with DST as wet glue would've made the colour run.


Finally I added the sentiment in black to the right hand panel, and added all three on foam pads.


Incidently the theme at Lexi's Creations is 'flowers' so I'm entering it there too.


Wishing you all a great weekend; we're off for a family gathering so should be good fun!


Take care and happy crafting,
Charli x

Charmed, Enchanted, Bewitched

After going for a couple of drinks at our local for a friend's birthday, I came home to find that a handful of their uniquely shaped beermats had ended up in my pocket! A very odd occurance but hey, now they're here I may as well alter them.

So here is my project for the Darkness Inspiration challenge- Bewitched.

First I spent the better part of an hour trying to get the top layer off of the darned beermat (the others I have peel off easily; not so with this one - in fact there is still a little bit left under where the image is!)

I coloured the background Forest Moss DI (see! a new colour at last!) and then edged it in Faded Jeans. Then I took another torn out book page, coloured it with Weathered Wood (my other new DI) and stuck it down, trimming around the beermat and edging again with Faded Jeans.

Next I stamped out the Tim Holtz ticket block stamp, this time leaving it in tact rather than cutting them apart, to use as another background - tinting it with Weathered Wood (my new fave!) and then using a cottonbud to add Forest Moss around the edges of the tickets; again sticking it down then trimming it down.

The image is one of the gorgeous ching-chou kuik images, made by Sweet Pea stamps and bought from Crafts and Me. I coloured her with watercolour pencils then painstakingly cut out a mask from sticky notes and coloured the background with Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans and Forest Moss.

I used my brass stencils to do the wording with my brown Indian ink marker, using the same ink colours; added an eyelet and a strip of lace(ish) ribbon, some silver gems and finally a bit of silver glitter.

This piece is also being entered into the following challenges:
Crafts and Me - sparkle (the gems and glitter)
Crafty Pad - ribbon (the strip bowed at the top)
Fab'n'Funky - no designer paper
Crafty Creations - make your own backing paper (I did mine with a stamp, book page and planty of Distress Ink!)
and finally, Lexi's Creations - animals (her two adorable kittens)

Take care and happy crafting

Charli xx

St George the Dragon

This is my entry (cutting it fine I know, but I have no idea where the days are going) for the Tuesday Taggers theme of Dragons - in honour of St George's Day.

I had planned to get this project finished and posted by then, but as St George's Day is also my daughter's birthday I just didn't have the time.

Anyway, whilst searching the net for a cute little dragon to use (no idea why, but I wanted a cute cartoony dragon) I found this little guy by Dustin Pike and thought it would be somewhat ironic to colour his shield and standard with the St George's cross and make the dragon INTO St George.


This card is also my entry into Lexi's Creations Recipe challenge (3 papers, 2 embellishments and 1 image).


My embellishments are actually a ringpull from a drinks can (on the paper strip) and the shield, which were cut from the same can and embossed by hand; and these should qualify for this weeks challenge over at the Crafty Pad; to recycle something.

Third and Final

I really have been a busy little bee today, but I think all this variety after so long of making nothing but cards has refreshed my creative muse.

This time around I was inspired by the challenge over at Lexi's Creations which is to alter something.

I have a few of these little tins - from when my hubby tried to quit nicotine by smoking cigars instead of cigarettes - but I thought these little tins were adorable so I kept a handful.

This particular one holds paperclips, ring pulls and such.

I covered it with torn pieces of a book page (a book I have nodesire to read again that was bought as a holiday read from Poundland! I also stained it the old-fashioned way with actual tea!) and plenty of PVA glue, which has the added bonus of a glossy finish. The tree I drew with a lovely brown Indian ink brushtip marker that I have had for years.

The "magpies" are actually a little bird stamp that's more akin to a blackbird but with the beak made longer and more rounded and the tail made much longer - and also the colours - I think they may just about pass for magpies; they're stamped onto aged inchies.

The numbers in the rhyme and the inchies also qualify for the Small World of Inchies challenge with the theme 'Numbers'.

Thats all from me for now. Hopefully I will be back in a day or two with some more new creations.

I shall also blog-hop around to view the other entries to the challenges I've entered.

Take care and happy crafting!

Charli xx