Sunday 29 March 2020

Cherry blossoms


Hello, fellow crafters
The world is quiet in peak traffic time but the birds are chirping in trees in the garden. Today I am hearing weavers, sparrows and bulbuls. I know the red crested barbet will be visiting a bit later in the morning.
This card features three layers of lacy borders from a  Pinkfresh Studio set of 5 border dies, available in our online store. https://www.purplemagnolia.co.za/search?type=product&q=Pinkfresh


The cherry blossoms were made using Heartfelt Creations dies on thick watercolour paper. First, I added a drop of water in the centre of each of the blossoms with a water brush. Then I added a drop of pink watercolour onto the moistened flower centres. To shape a whole bunch at the same time, I lightly spritzed the die-cut flower with water, placed them in the co-ordinating shaping mould and rolled them through my die-cutting machine. The cherry blossom set can also be ordered from our online store. The set has a delightful little birdie that can be used to add an extra finishing touch to any card with flowers https://www.purplemagnolia.co.za/search?type=product&q=Cherry+blossom
Happy crafting, until next time
Marie Smith

Thursday 12 March 2020

Easy flowers in 4 quick steps

Hello fellow crafters
Today I will show how to make beautiful flowers for your projects in four quick and easy steps. This is a great technique for making flowers to match your project, because they can easily be mad3 from the printed paper.



STEPS
1. Die cut flowers. I used this petal die, available in our online store



2. Place the die-cut flowers on a foam flower-shaping mat. Use a ball tool to shape each petal. You do this by using a ball flower-shaping tool that is about One-third the width of the petals. Start at the outside edge of each petal. Press down firmly and carefully pull down to the centre of the flower.




 3. Layer two flowers of the same size and secure them with a bit of glue between the layers so that petals and opening alternate between teh two layers.
4. Adhere a flat-back pearl or other flower centre.

Visit our online store for ball tools, flower-shaping mats, ball tools and a lovely selection of flower dies. We have re-organised the online store so that you can now find products in two main drop-down menus either by type of product or by brand www.purplemagnolia.co.za.
Thank you for visiting. Remember that you can follow this blog by clicking on ‘follow’ in the top tight-hand corner, or by subscribing to receive e-mails directly in your mailbox.
Happy crafting, until next time.
Marie Smith




Wednesday 4 March 2020

Family blessings - Grandma's rocking chair

Hello, fellow crafters
Today I am sharing another one of my projects as brand ambassador fo Fabscraos, using the fabulous and absolutely inspiring C121 family blessings collection, to celebrate family blessings.


Family blessings come in so many ways, but when I start counting, I know the love and care of a mother and/or grandmother are among the most valuable for every family. This explosion box card celebrates all mothers and grannies and would be perfect for Mothers’ day, their birthdays, or just to say, “Thank you” and “I love you too”. The roses, hearts and butterflies of the C121 Family blessings are perfect for conveying the message of your appreciation. I used some of the plain papers from the carders pack to make flowers with stamens and tucked a little tag in between all the fussy-cut elements for your personal message.









For this project you will need:
·        One sheet each of FabScraps Family blessings collection C121-009; C121-007 (for fussy cutting); C121-008; C121-006
·        Pink and green plain papers from the FabScraps carders’ pack MC120-001
·        FabScraps metal embellishments from the C121 carders’ pack (birdcage)
·        FabScraps pink satin rose from the C121 carders’ pack
·        4 Handmade flowers, using plain pink paper from the FabScraps C121 carders’ pack and some stamens
·        FabScraps liquid glue
·        Scissors for fussy-cutting (I lIf you buy the card-making kit from us, you will receive instructions and a template for the box.
·        Versamagic pixie dust teardrop ink pad
·        Chipboard rocking chair, assembled and painted with white gesso
·        Foamiran or paper rose and bud for lid
·        Die-cut leaves and twigs
·        Chipboard heart, painted with white gesso
·        Foam tape for lifting some of the fussy-cut elements
·        Green glass pebble
·        3 silver metal embellishment leaves
·        Bias binding, coloured pink with Versamagic pixie dust teardrop ink pad or pink all-purpose ink


Instructions:
F     1. Fussy cut all the flowers and elemens on teh fussy-cut page.
2.    For the outside panels of the box, cut four pieces of striped paper from C121-009 9,5x9,5cm.
3.      For the outside panels of the box, cut four pieces of rose-patterned C121-006paper from C121-009 9,5x9,5cm
4.      For the inside panels, cut four pieces of plain dark green paper from the carders’ pack 9,5x9,5 cm.
5.      For the inside panels, cut four pieces of plain dark pink paper from the carders’ pack 9x9 cm.
6.      For the “floor” of the box, cut dark pink plain paper 9,5x9,5cm.
7.      For the top of the lid, cut dark green plain paper 9,5x9,5cm.
8.      For the lid, cut a piece of 9x9cm from the revers of the striped paper C121-009.
9.      Chalk the edges of the striped panels.
10.   Distress the edges of all panels.
11.   Layer pink panels onto green panels and striped panels onto rose-patterned panels. Adhere the striped panels to four outside panels of the box and the green/pink layered panels to four inside panels of the box. Adhere the pink “floor” of the box.
12.   Adhere decorative cut-outs to outside striped panels. Arrange fussy-cut flowers, sentiment tag, chipboard heart, die-cut leaves and twigs, metal and other embellishments on the four inside panels.
13.   Adhere the rocking chair to the floor of the box and decorate with butterfly, flowers and leaves.
14.   Make a tag for writing a personal message and tuck it in behind some of the decorative elements.
15.   Voila! Your project is ready for giving.

Sunday 1 March 2020

Sunshine single page

Cheerful and summery pictures call for nice bright colours in a layout.
For this single page on which I still need to use a picture of a niece in the park, I used our new bright and breezy Fresh summer paper pack from Lemoncraft.


To create the layout, start with one of the pretty papers in the pack. I decided on the sheet with woodgrain texture, to contrast with the flowers I wanted to add.
Fussy cut two flower cluster strips from the edges of another sheet. Set aside.
Tear a large piece, approximately 18cm wide and 13cm high from the tiny gold dot vellum sheet. Tear along all four edges for an uneven effect.
Adhere this to the background with dries clear glue.
Stencil on the left lower and top right corners with texture paste or thick white gesso. When dry, rub a small amount of gold paste over some of the stencilled design. The picture below shows the lovely effect. It echoes the wood grain texture, especially because the gold paste also is only applid here and there, not to completely cover the texture paste.


Adhere one flower strip with the bow to the page as in the position in the first picture of the completed layout above. 
Adhere the second flower strip to a piece of brown cardboard from a box to lift it for dimension, and adhere slightly to the right and higher than the first strip.
Tear a strip of paper from one of the green designs. Adhere a layer of brown cardboard to the back, to lift and then adhere it to the background.
Cut white cardstock 16x11 cm and adhere to the background with a double layer  of brown cardboard.
Embellish the page with lots of flowers, twigs, a cut-out bow, filler flower stems, die-cut leaves and a piece of tulle.




I am entering this layout for the Lemoncraft March challenge. Only saw the challenge the morning after I had completed the layout but I must be honest, I really was inspired for this page by the lovely pinks and greens in this paper collection. You may visit the Lemoncraft blog to get fabulous inspiration by the Lemoncraft design team https://purplemagnolia-papercraft.blogspot.com/2020/03/sunshine-single-page.htm
Thank you for visiting.
Links to the products used are given below.
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Happy crafting, until next time.
Marie Smith