Texture, sheen, colour and layers for Christmas

An interesting 3D-embossed background with lots of sheen creates the backdrop for the poinsettias on this card.

Emboss the sublime swirls onto heavy cardstock. Lightly spritz the cardstock with a fine mister bottle. Make sure that you use the cirrect stack for your die-cutting machine, because 3D folders are thicker than other embossing folders.

Use Pixie powders and water to add colour. I randomly sprinkled sun yellow, burnt orange and golden mint powders onto the embossed paper and spritzed liberally with water to make the colours flow.

Allow the paper to dry completely and cut to size (13,5cm square). Use gold and green waxes to highlight some of the raised areas on the embossed cardstock.
Adhere the embossed piece to a red cardstock mat of 14cm square. Adhere this to a 14,5cm square card base.
Die-cut poinsettias and leaves from heavy flower-making paper. Colour the flowers with Stazon pigment ink passion red or Archival carnation red. You need to use a permanent ink.

 

Soak the flowers in water for about 20 seconds. remove from water and pat dry between two layers of paper towel or serviette.
  
 

 

Use groove tools to pull grooves into petals. Work on a soft flower-shaping mat and pull from the outer edes of the petals inwards and work on the back of the flowers.
 

Turn flowers over and press down in the centre with a ball tool.
Sparingly rub some gold paste onto the ridges in the centres of petals. Do not overdo this.
 
 
Glue two layers of the same size of flowers onto each other.
 


Add flower pearls (or beads) to the centres of flowers, using a clear-drying glue.

Colour leaves with two shades of green. Add some sparkle paste.

Add layers of circles to the centre of the card base, and arrange flowers and leaves to complete the card. You may stamp a small sentiment on the circles.

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you will take a few seconds to leave me a comment. 

Visit our online store to buy the products required for this project www.purplemagnolia.co.za 

Happy weekend crafting.

Marie Smith

Delicate pink vellum poinsettias

The pretty, delicate vellum poinsettias on this card are off-set against lots of texture:

Braided circles used on a stitched square base, after the card base had been treated with glitter paste and a stencil.
The poinsettias were cut from vellum, using Lady E Design die set for poinsettia and winter leaves. They were then coloured at the back with Brilliance ink pink orchid. Glitter adds a bit of sparkle on the flowers.
The winter leaves were cut from the same thick glossy cardstock as the card base.
The silver acorn swirls were cut from mirror cardstock.
I do hope you enjoyed your short visit and that you will leave me a little comment.
Happy crafting
Marie Smith

Peony avenue double-page layout with butterfly

The peachy peonies are such a beautiful contrast to the steel blue background papers with damask and dot patterns in this paper collection. Marie added some chipboard elements, rose gold embossing powder, crystal clear glitter and some paper flowers to add accents on this double-page layout.

The papers and all the embellishments, including the title cut out from cardstock, are available in our online store.

Marie used rose gold embossing and blue glitter embossing powder - strewn onto the title after it had been covered with Versamek embossing ink -  on the title and heat-set it. The title is cut with a frame, so that it retains shape while you add ink, embossing powder or other media to colour it.

The chipboard elements were coloured with Nuvo embellishment mousse, cosmic brown.
The chipboard butterfly wings were treated in the same manner as the title.

Thank you for popping in. let us know what you like or don't like about the layout.

Happy crafting

Marie Smith

Layer upon layer

For today’s card I used a sheet from Lemoncraft Yesterday 6x6 paper pack and a sheet fr fussy cutting. I combined these with several Fantasy dies. 


You may adapt the card by using papers and cut-outs or ephemera of your choice.

The pictures that follow, show the process to assemble the card. Dimensional tape was used to lift some of the elements.

First fussy-cut all the elements on the page, so you have options of selecting them and playing around with placing them.

Complete the card by adding a few skeleton leaves and some flower pearls in two or three places.



Thank you for visiting.

Until the next post, happy crafting.

Marie Smith

Purple asters and lace

 What a lovely combination of papers you will find in the Heartfelt Creations wild aster paper collection.
Once you have made a few flowers, it is so quick and easy to put together pretty cards.
I stamped the flowers with deep purple archival ink then coloured them with a dauber and tge same ink by starting with circular movements around the centres of the flowers. Then I added a bit of colour with the daubers along the ends of the petals. After die-cutting with the co-ordinating dies, I shaped the flowers by curling every petal around a pencil. Layers of flowers were glued together and the flowers were completed with a few flower pearls in their centres.
The lacy edge die is from the Heartfelt Creations sweetheart set of dies.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoyed the short stay-over and feel inspired to create something beautiful today.

Have a wonderful day.

Marie Smith

Pink summer aster single page layout

This was a quick and easy yet effective layout to create, using a sheet of paper from the Heartfelt Creations wild aster paper collection, a few pieces of cardstock in complementary colours and a handful of flowers made using the wild aster stamp and die sets.

I love the detail of the flowers printed in the left corner of the paper and the soft lacy pattern. To complement the lacy print, I added a lace strip that was die-cut using a Creative Expressions die.

The dragonfly on the right and the bee on the left add finishing touches. They were created using a Paper Boutique die set and left-over pieces of card from an alcohol ink background for a card.
Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoyed your stay. Please feel free to leave a comment.
Happy crafting
Marie Smith

Pink kosmos

Kosmos flowers (which flower from late summer until early autumn in South Africa and always bring special memories of my late father) created with Craft Passion flowers 06 die, Heartfelt Creations flower-making paper, leaves from Heartfelt Creations delightful daisy stamps and dies, and centres made fom air-drying clay in moulds. Altenew pan watercolours used for colouring the flowers after die-cutting.

The grooves in petals were made by lightly misting the coloured flowers and using a small groove tool.

The border die is Sophia from Die’Sire.
Clear plastic boxes provide the perfect solution for presenting your dimensional cads. These can be mailed in a padded envelope.
Craft Passion die https://www.purplemagnolia.co.za/products/pln-flowers-6
Groove tools https://www.purplemagnolia.co.za/search?type=product&q=Groove
Clear plastic boxes https://www.purplemagnolia.co.za/products/clear-boxes-for-cards-single-unit
Sophia border die https://www.purplemagnolia.co.za/products/diesire-create-a-card-sophia-ds-cad-sop?_pos=1&_sid=41be08616&_ss=r
Happy crafting
Marie Smith

Thinking of you with vellum petunia

Today’s card was quick and easy.

I used a vellum petunia from my stash of flowers, made using the Heartfelt Creations large classic petunia stamp and die set. You can see instructions for making the vellum petunias in a previous post https://purplemagnolia-papercraft.blogspot.com/2019/08/thank-you-with-dainty-vellum-flowers.html. I love making several flowers at a time and saving the extras for later.
The flower and leaves were simply adhered to a card base covered with a piece of pretty paper from the classic petunia paper collection. The sentiment was also cut from the paper pack.
Hoping you find this inspiring for making quick but pretty cards.
Remember that if you follow me by clicking on follow in the top right-hand corner of this page, you will receive e-mail notification of all my posts. You are welcome to leave a short comment on my post.
Until next time, happy crafting.
Marie Smith

Vibrant fuchsias for spring

Spring is in the air with the garden blossoming with loads of lavender blooms, bright orange clivias, the first freesia in dark burgundy and the first fuchsia flowers opening.
Today’s card was inspired by my excitement seeing the first fuchsia flowers yesterday.

 The Avery Elle hummingbird stamp and die set has been ‘hovering’ on my desk and on my online store’s display racks since last summer and my hands have been itching to use it.

I was inspired yesterday to do these lovely fuchsias and hummingbird in watercolours with heat embossing. I am a watercolour  painter (mainly flowers) and have found it difficult to find a watercolour paper that takes detailed heat embossing well. The papers of Creative Expressions are meeting the requirement.

I stamped the set of images on the watercolour paper with Versamark watermark ink and used glacier white Nuvo fine detail embossing powder. (Ranger extra fine also works very well).

Altenew watercolours are of fine quality and the pan contains absolutely lovely selection of colours.

I used water brush pens and the two fuchsia colors (second and third in the top row) and the three greens below them for the flowers. Colour was applied using the wet-on-wet technique.

The card base was prepared by blending purple and fuchsia inks on the right hand of the inside of the card, after masking off. White acrylic ink was splattered on the blended part. A border die was used on the front of the card to add interest. The watercolours used for colouring the flowers were used to add some platters on the card front.

 
Flowers were cut out using the dies in the set.

An Afrikaans sentiment - appropriate for so many situations -  was heat-embossed onto vellum and adhered to the card before arranging the flowers. 3D tape was used to loft the large cluster, to add dimension.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you feel inspired to create something beautiful with watercoloured flowers.

Have a wonderful day

Marie Smith

Same die, different effects

Good morning, crafters

Today I am sharing two cards with the same background/frame die from Sunny Studios. Two totally different visual effects were created by using papers with different themes.

For the first card, I used some lovely older Fabscraps paper from a carders pack and turned the die-cut background into a shaker box. To match the botanical theme, I used green seed beads and foil flakes to fill the shaker box. I love the richness of the combination.

On the second card, I used a paper in soft blue pastel hues paper from a 6x6 Lemoncraft paper pack and some fussy-cut flowers from a Lemoncraft A4 sheet with elements for fussy cutting. 

I added several delicate leaves and twigs die-cut with two of our Fantasy dies.

Check out our range and buy your pretty papers in our online store. They just make card-making so easy. 

https://www.purplemagnolia.co.za/collections/card-kits

Fantasy dies https://www.purplemagnolia.co.za/collections/fantasy-dies

Thank you for visiting. Have an awesome day. I hope you find some crafting time.

Marie Smoth

Pink birthday peonies

 

Pink peonies are perfect to say "Happy birthday" on a special lady's birthday, or just to say "I am thinking of you". I made these cards for upcoming birthdays of two friends.

For the first card, I used one of the pieces of paper from the Heartfelt Creations sweet peony paper pack. I just LOVE the pretty papers in this pack, and they make it so easy to put pretty cards together once you ahve made the flowers.
When I make flowers, I always make quite a stash, and store them in cellophane bags in a large flat plastic container.

The steps below show hoe I stamped and coloured die-cut the sweet peonies.

I use a dauber to colour the stamped flowers before die-cutting them with the co-ordinating dies. This makes colouring much faster.

After die-cutting, I placed the flowers into the basics flower mould and very lightly spritzed them with water. Then the mould was rolled through my Big Shot machine, using the prescribed stack.

The flowers were then placed face-down onto a foam flower-shaping mat en lightly shaped with a flower-shaping ball tool so the petals would curl. The next step was to turn them face upside and press down in the middle with the ball tool to help the petals stand up.

Two layers of flowers were glued together and some small pearls added to the centre.

I hope you enjoyed your short stay and that you will take a few seconds to leave me a comment.

I am entering these cards for the Seize the birthday challenge. Hop over and see some lovely inspirational projects http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/



 Remember that if you follow me by e-mail, you will always receive a notification of new posts. if you follow several other blogs, you can click on Follow in the top right-hand corner and view my blogs when you are alerted.

Crafty hugs

Marie Smith

Thank you with dainty vellum flowers

 
These pretty pink petunias are perfect to say "Thank you", "I am thinking of you", "Happy birthday" or "Hoping you feel better soon". I made this card to say thank you to someone for a special treat.

The steps below explain how to make the vellum flowers for the card. While I was busy with them, I also made some in clear acetate - heat embossed but not coloured.


Heat emboss several small and large classic petunias with Versamark ink and superfine white embossing powder onto heavy vellum paper.

Colour the vellum flowers at the back with Ranger archival ink vibrant fuchsia and a dauber.

Use a deep green ink such as Artistry green garland to colour the leaf sets.
Cut out the flowers and leaves using the co-ordinating dies.

 

 Pinch the petals of all the flowers on the middle line of each petal to shape. The photo shows both vellum and acetate flowers.

 
Layer two flowers of the same size onto each other. I found that a hot glue gun works best for the acetate. Finish the flowers with a crystal-like centre.

 

Die-cut the square element and the sentiment from the butterfly kisses die set in white cardstock.

Assemble the card by gluing the square element onto the printed paper. arrange and adhere the flowers and leaves. Add the sentiment and the dew drops last.

I hope you like the card and taht you will take a few seconds to leave me a comment.

Have a great day

Marie Smith

Whimsical vellum and acetate flowers with fluttering butterfly

Whimsical vellum and acetate flowers and a fluttering butterfly were the perfect embellishments for this dreamy photo of a pretty girl.

All embellishments on this layout were made usng Heartfelt Creations stamps and dies.
First, make the flowers by heat embossing several small and large classic petunias with Versamark ink and superfine white embossing powder onto heavy vellum and heat-resistant acetate.
Colour the vellum flowers at the back with Ranger archival ink vibrant fuchsia and a dauber.

Use a deep green ink such as Artistry green garland to colour the leaf sets.
Cut out the flowers and leaves using the co-ordinating dies.

 

 Pinch the petals of all the flowers on the middle line of each petal to shape.

 
Layer two flowers of the same size onto each other. I found that a hot glue gun works best for the acetate. Finish the flowers with a crystal-like centre.

Heat emboss one of the fluttering butterflies and cut out with the co-ordinating die.
Use the butterfly kisses die to cut out the round element. Die cit one of the regal pocket accents.
Cut out a tag from the classic petunia paper pack.
Mat the photo on white and on a green paper from the petunia paper pack.Some craft foam was used to lift the picture adhered to the white cardstock for a bit of dimension.
Assemble the layout as in the pictures.

  

 

 Finish the page off with a bit of stencilling with texture paste in the top right and bottom left corners of the page.

Thank you for visiting. Please take a minute to leave a comment.
Have a lovely, crafty day.
Marie Smith