Out of the ashes!

Good Morning to you all. Its a lovely bright start here but a bit chilly and a touch of frost. But I can live with that!

I spent most of my crafting time yesterday doing things for the wedding but it was great to have Paul and Maria to watch on Hochanda as I was working! The wedding preparations are coming along really well so happy about that!

The artwork I want to share today is one of the Groovi samples I did for Maria's fantastical shows yesterday. I just loved this phoenix image. It cried out to be decoupaged which I did with the stamp but I also did a bit with the parchment.

Anyway here is the completed card and below are the instructions.

Ingredients
Nested Rectangles GRO-WO-40524-04
Phoenix plate GRO-FY-40363-02
De Boss Alphabet plate GRO-WO-40801-02
De Boss Number plate GRO-WO-40802-02
Semi Square Perforating Tool PER-TO-70021-XX
Black Parchment
Red parchment


1. Working on black parchment emboss the phoenix and the outline of the flames. De-boss the letters and exclamation mark. Use the nested rectangles to add the frame around the image adjusting the size as needed.
2. Add white work to the phoenix feathers. Remove the black colour using a pencil eraser on the parts you want coloured. Add red and yellow using Perga colours.
3. Semi perforate around the frame with a semi square tool and emboss triangles in the perforations. Reperforate and cut waste from the edge. Put to one side.
4. On red parchment emboss the fire part of the plate. Emboss parts with white work. Add red colour to some flames to deepen the colour. Rub out the colour from the rest of the flames and add orange and yellow to the design. Perforate around the flame and cut away waste.
5. Use glue runner or Perga glue to stick the flames in place onto the design.
6. Attach the parchment piece to the gold card with brads and mat on to orange card then mount on a card blank.
7. Add gold ink to the image on the phoenix and in the flames.

If you have a go at this please let me know.

Have a great day whatever you get up to and....
Happy Crafting!

Butterfly in lace!

Hello to you all and thank you for dropping in today.

I had a fab day yesterday shopping with Amy. She was after getting her wedding shoes and also a dress for her trip with the girls to Berlin for her girly hen do which she did! I managed to get a bag to match the shoes I have got for the wedding too! So all is good and on track! It is only 5 months to the big day now!

I keep on getting asked how I do the circular border using the lace corner border plate so instead of words I will show you! 

The border I mean is on this card! 

I hope you can follow the pictures below to get how I do it!

Use the nested octagon as a guide

Choose the corner you want

Position the corner over the octagon and attach your parchment. It is better if you use a lightwave to do this as you can see it better. Emboss it.

Move corner plate to the next corner of the octagon keeping the parchment still and emboss the next corner. It is important that you don't move the parchment as it won't meet up if you do!

Repeat until you have 8 corners done.

Use the octagonal plate to join the gaps

Here are a couple of other cards I have made using the same corner and technique. It is amazing how this border works well for so many occasions. 

I hope that has helped those who want to have a go at this! 

Happy Crafting

Rain Rain GO away!!!

Good morning all. It really is a very wet one today and blowing a gale too! Totally yuk! I really need to get to the post office today so I hope this weather subsides a bit. I only stuck my head out the door and got soaked earlier. 
I do have some crafty secret stuff to do so looks like that's what I will be doing later.

Did you watch the Pergamano Show on Hochanda this morning? I had a lie in and watched it in bed. It was such a fab show and I felt like I had learnt a lot by the end of the first hour! Can't wait for the next one at 12noon. 

It was pure magic watching Linda Williams using the embossing tools and creating a beautiful piece of artwork. And the examples she showed of her whitework were stunning! I can only hope that one day I may be half as good as she is. 

You can imagine my surprise when one of my samples got shown ….I do not consider myself to be a parcher … I am a stamper...that's what I do. But I have enjoyed getting to grips with the groovi system and like to learn the Pergamano techniques now that I can get the line art on the parchment. 

I have not done the instructions for this one today but it isn't hard to do. It uses the 123 plates that Linda designed along with the stamp plates. I used stippling in the edges of the stamps. That took a while to do. And I think what makes this one look so pretty is the colours and bits of whitework on the flowers.

Hope you have a great day whatever you get up to.
Happy Crafting

Daisy and the fairy

This has to be a real quick on tonight.

So I will share a sample and instructions from the weekend shows

A little bit of layering on this one and use of my favourite perforating tool around the fairy! 

Ingredients.

Daisy Fairy with Butterflies  GRO-FY-41172-01

Made with love PTC plate GRO-PA-41114-03

Tina's Floral Layering Plate GRO-PA-41077-03

Floral forest background  GRO-FL-41101-03

Nested Square GRO-PA-40037-03

Semi square perforating tool

Black parchment

Antique silver brads

1. On black parchment  emboss  PTC sized frame with a double line edge. Fill this with the fairy plate.  Emboss white work in the design as shown.  Perforate around the edge with the semi square tool and emboss dots in the edge. Reperforate then cut away waste. Put to one side.

2. On the rest of the parchment emboss a square frame using the 2nd and 3rd sized square then emboss two overlapping areas in the frame. Fill with the background and layering plates. Perforate around the frame and cut away waste.

3. Attach the larger piece to the grey card with brads then add the smaller piece. 

4. Mat onto black card then Mount on a card blank. Add glitter and shimmer pen to the design.

Hope you like it! 

Happy Crafting