Spring Inspiration

I have been engrossed in the garden lately, and after making a gardening themed birthday card recently (here) I have been playing about with ideas for my 'Spring Emerging' project.  This is one of my seasonal on-going projects that comes out every year, and I work on it until the next season arrives - that's the plan anyway!

Ideas have been along a theme of planting seeds, rows of seedlings, earth and compost and of course a Ginkgo leaf thrown in for good measure (why on earth - I don't know - but I felt like it!).  Distress Micro Glaze was used as a resist, except for the green circles that were pigment tinted texture paste.  I don't know what I'll do with them yet but I enjoyed the playing!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Gardening Birthday Card and WOYWW

It was the Hub's birthday this week and I made him a gardening themed card as he has decided to throw himself wholeheartedly into growing vegetables this year - life is revolving around seedlings and grow-bags at the moment!

I used real seeds glued in little rows and also a larger seed glued into each texture paste circle, just as if they are in their own little pots.  Glossy Accents was used for the moisture drops on the vellum and also on the circles. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

  

Little Book of Insects

I decided to have a little play at book-binding this week as I wanted a notebook for sketching and jotting down ideas about moths and other insects.  I was quite pleased with how neat the binding was, as I am usually rather haphazard with where I make my holes, often piercing them too close together despite marking them out.

Whilst decorating the front of the book I forgot I'd used olive green thread for the binding and it doesn't really match the decoration, but I don't think it's too noticeable and perhaps I'm being a bit pernickety!

I am sharing this over at Julia's WOYWW and the 
Mini Album Makers Challenge.


Update: I was so pleased to make the Top 5 this month - thank you to the team from the Mini Album Makers Challenge.

Stamping and Smudging!

I like to have a good stash of cards to hand and so I've just made a batch for the coming months.  I used the same stamps but stamped firstly on one card and then directly on to a second, using Distress Ink but without re-inking the stamp.  I changed it around a bit so they each had some first and some second generation printing on them. I smudged the freshly stamped images with a clean blending tool and added some gold flakes to the edges of the darker one.   

Different stamps but the same technique as above with these next two cards, but I added some pearl drops to highlight some of the foliage. I usually add a sentiment or banner later when I know what I want the card for.

  

I'm linking up with Julia over What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday this week.

Birthday Cards for the Men of the Family

This is a birthday-heavy time of year for my family so here are a couple of cards I had to make recently.  Both needed to incorporate hard cash!

This one was for my nephew who is very keen on fishing - alochol inks were used for the background and I found on YouTube how to fold the money into an origami fish.  I then placed it inside the card with low tack tape so the note wasn't damaged.

 For this next one I had a go at trying to create a rusty finish on a piece of card and then die cut the pocket, tag and stars - money was stuffed into the wallet with the gift tag.  The faux enamel label around it and the little plaque on the tag were both done using a technique by the super-talented Alison Bomber - here's a link to her tutorial on the Paper Artsy blog. 

I'm linking up with Julia this week, over at WOYWW

Fleur de Lys Tag and WOYWW

 I had a lovely, relaxing 'play' session in my studio yesterday and made this rather fussy tag for no reason other than the fun of it.  I flung everything at it - I stamped, crackled and foiled!  I then added some vivid blue glass beads simply because they are my latest passion!   

  

I'm linking up with Julia this week over at Whats On Your Work Desk Wednesday.

A Little Arched Spring Garden

 I'm definitely in the mood for Spring so here is a little arched garden using my favourite TH die.  I've not used these multi-coloured gold flakes much but I rather like them on this - it reminds me of hints of blossom appearing on the trees.  I'm thinking I should have added a bit more but I'm trying hard to curb my habit of over-egging the cake!!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.  I also would like to apologise for not getting back to everyone who left messages - I truly appreciate you taking the time to visit and leave kind comments but with a combination of continuing broadband problems and also several commitments the week just ran away with me!

Silver Jewellery Making

 I've recently discovered the joys of working with silver clay!  Basically it's a clay made of silver particles plus a binder, so you work with it like clay and then when it's fired the binder burns off and you are left with pure silver. 

I've been on a couple of fantastic courses lately, the ammonite pendant was made with Hilary Bowen back in November and I was so thrilled with the whole experience that I was given some clay for Christmas and made the two leaf pendants at home - there is some room for improvement in them but I love wearing them and imperfections are all part of the 'hand-made' look!  Last Saturday I went on another fabulous course with the lovely and super-talented Fiona Ingram who helped me turn my own design into a one-off piece of jewellery with gorgeous shades of autumn colours on the berries - it was such a fun day.   

I'm relieved to say I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week as I've had such horrible and seemingly never-ending computer problems lately.  We had a major crash during a Windows 10 update then big problems while changing our Broadband supplier - soooooo frustrating and quite an eye opener discovering how much I rely on my computer and how much I missed it!