Pot full of pansies

I love using flowers on my cards, because they represent a bunch of flowers for love or friendship and my thoughts sent to the recipient.
Pansies are perfect to convey the message that you are thinking about a person. Their mame is derived from the French word meaning ‘thought’.
To make the pot, cut sturdy cardstock to 12x23cm. Working on the length, score at 9 cm and 18cm.
Fold over at the 9cm score. Die-cut a pretty border at the other end. One of the dies in the Die’Sire decorative edges set 2 was used for this card.

On the 9cm fold, mark 2cm from each end left and right. Align this mark with the fold at 18cm so that you cut away a wedge on each side to form the pot.

Glue or tape on inside of the two slanted sides to close the pot.

For the pull-out card for your message, layer a white or cream cardstock rectangle of 8,5x9,5cm onto darker cardstock of 9x12,5cm.

Arrange and glue down flowers onto the pot and onto the pull-put card, making sure you will be able to pull out the card.

I hope you enjoyed the short visit. Please leave a comment.

Have a great day

Marie Smith

Free spirit

 
The teal shades in the latest Fabscraps collection, Free spirit, are delightful. 
For the first card, I prepared an ecru card base and topped it with one of the plain papers. One of the pretty prints on the 30x30 papers was used next and that was followed with a square, also from the printed designs.

The flowers were made using Lady E design flowers 005 die, on smooth white cardstock. They were coloured using the oasis green ink and Brilliance lavender ink. Some sisal, twine and a piece of gauze coloured with the oasis green ink were added to complete the card.

For the next card, I added some yellow flowers made using Heartfelt Creations tulip time stamps, dies and tulip shaping mould.

The 8x8 Free spirit paper pack contains 3 designs of lovely eucalyptus prints and on the reverse side you will find matching plain colours. To help broaden your scope for making cards, we have added 3 sheets of the co-ordinating 30x30xm papers to this set.

There is also an A carder's pack, with several additional elements for you to use on your cards.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoyed your short stay. Have a lovely day.
Marie Smith

Pink poppies

Poppies have a defined structure with lots of creases in their petals.

Pretty pink poppies are, however, easy to create when you use the Heartfelt Creations Blazing poppies stamp and die set and the 3D floral basics shaping mould.

Follow these easy steps to create pretty poppies for your next paper-crafting project, whether it is a card or a scrapbook page.

Step1: Use a stamping tool such as the Misti or a Stamping buddy and Ranger Archival ink in rose madder to stamp the flowers on heavy cardstock such as 240gsm.

Step 2: Use daubers, the rose madder archival ink and Versanagic pink grapefruit ink to randomly add colour to the stamped flowers.

Step 3: Use the co-ordinating dies and a die-cutting machine to cut out the flowers.

Step 4: Place the die-cut flowers in the flower shaping mould. You can place up to three layers of flowers in the mould, depending on the thickness of paper you are using. Close the mould and roll through the die-cutting machine, using the stack as prescribed for your machine.

TIP: The packaging of the flower shaping mould has a web page address where you can check the compatibility of and stack for your machine.

Step 5: Tip the flowers out of the mould. Place them facing up on a flower-shaping mat and press down in the centre of each with a ball tool.

Step 6: Complete the flowers by gluing two flowers together for each flower. Then use die-cut or artificial stamens and tiny balls such as Prills on the centre of each flower.

TIP: You may add some shine by using Crystal Clear glitter and Dries clear glue.

I hope you enjoyed your short visit and found the tutorial helpful. I appreciate feedback and will love it if you could find a few seconds to leave a comment.
Have a great day and week.
Marie Smith

Double pocket card with two tags

I found my inspiration for this pretty pansy double pocket card and the instructions on a video which you can watch here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=124&v=13rwZJg_C_Q

The pictures below show how I followed the steps, but adapted to make a square card using the lovely Heartfelt Creations Burst of spring papers,  because I wanted to insert two large tags where I could write messages at the back of the tags. 

For the tags, I die-cut pansies from the paper pack but the pansies displayed next to the card in the photo above were made using the Cheery pansy stamp and die set. I used Brilliance inks in Pearlescent lavender and pearlescent orchid to colour them.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoyed the short stay and would spend a few seconds to leave me a comment.

Have a lovely day and weekend.

Marie Smith

Formed leaves for foamiran flowers

Cut a few rectangles of foamiran a bit wider or longer on two sides of a kitchen sponge.

This mould is from a pair that fits together but I find I get better results using only the one part.

Heat an iron on high setting. Wrap the foamiran around two sides of the sponge.
Press the foamiran against the iron with the sponge for about 4 seconds.

 

Quickly press the foamiran down into the mould, using the sponge to apply firm pressure. Make sure you press it down firmly. You may apply extra pressure with your fingers into the indentations.

 

Keep down for about 5 seconds and remove.

Cut your leaves out with a scissors or use a die to cut out.

Add some red colour randomly using soft pastel and a sponge.

 Lay the leaves upside down and adhere a piece of wire to the leaves with a hot glue gun or instant glue.

 Attach the leaves to the stem of your rose by using florist tape to wind around the wires.

Hoping you found this tutorial useful and that you will spend a few seconds to leave me a comment.
Have a great day.
Marie Smith

Lilac and teal hydrangeas on lace

I love hydrangeas - both because, I think, pinks and purples are my favourite colours, and because of the beauty of the complex clumps of flower heads.
To make the card, start with preparing a card base of 14,5cm square from a sturdy cardstock. In South Africa I do this, because our A4 papers are not exactly 30cm long so a 14,5cm square card works better.
Cut light purple cardstock 14,5 cm and printed paper from the Heartfelt Creations Lush lilac paper pad 14x14cm. The Lush lilac paper pack has the most amazing soft colours and pretty designs. Adhere the two mats to your card base.
Use the Craft Passion flower 07 die to cut several flowers. (These sets have 3 different flower designs in 2 sizes each and they are perfect for small paper and foamiran flowers.) Colour the flowers with daubers and Versamagic oasis green and Brilliance pearlescent lavender. I find the Heartfelt Creations daubers great for colouring all kinds of flowers, but especially smaller ones.

Place the flowers face down on a flower shaping mat and use a ball tool from the Heartfelt Creations Deluxe toolkit to shape the four petals of each flower. Turn them facing upside and press down into the centre of each flower.
Pierce a small hole in the centre of each flower and pull a 3mm pearl stamen through. Put a small dot of glue at the back to adhere the stamen on each flower.

While you wait for the glue to dry, cut the two shapes out of white sturdy cardstock 240gsm, using the Butterfly kisses decorative die set.

Glue them down, a bit offset to the left and bottom - that is, not exactly in the centre of the card base, to add some interest to your card design.
Snip the stamen threads off at the back right against of the base of the flowers.
Die cut 3 sets of leaves using Lady E Design Leaf 5 and colour them using the oasis green ink and Versamagic key lime.
Arrange flowers and leaves on the round die cut, leaving some of the lacy edge to show.
I hope you found some inspiration to make a pretty card. If so, please take a few seconds to leave me a comment about your impression.
Have a lovely day
Marie Smith

Pink blossoms to say thank you

Pretty pink blossoms with stamen on layers of lacy die-cuts make this a very special card to say thank you to someone. It is also suitable for a birthday and even a wedding or Mother’s day card.

Cut the flowers with 5 petals out 8 times from smooth sturdy white cardstock such as 240gsm.

Use daubers to randomly add Artistry inks in cotton candy and fancy fuchsia.

Turn the foowers around so that the coloured sides face down. Spritz very lightly with water. Pinch each petal between your nails to form creases. Put the flowers down, colour facing up, on a flower moulding mat and press down in the centre with a ball tool.

Leave the flowers to dry. make a small hole in the centre of each flower, using an awl or a picking tool. Pull three stamens through the hole in each flower. Do not pull them down all the way - leave them to stand out a bit. Add a small drop of glue in the centre of the flower to keep the stamens in position. When the glue is dry, snip the stamens off at the back, close to the flower bases.

While you wait for flowers to dry, prepare a 14,5cm square card base and cover with printed paper.

Die-cut the three largest layers from the Avery frames and tag set. Keep the twirly ‘dropouts’ from the die-cuts to use as twirls.

Stamp a sentiment on the smallest die-cut element.

Layer the die-cuts on the prepared card base, with craft foam between layers to add depth and dimension to the card.

Arrange and adhere the flowers and twirls on the card.

I hope you found some inspiration to go and make a pretty card. If so, please take a few seconds to leave me a comment.

Have a lovely crafting weekend.

Marie Smith

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