First Anniversary with Paper Flowers

I love this Sarah Kay image and I love making paper flowers

Update: It snowed here last night, so that should help me get in the Christmas mood.  I've certainly got plenty to do, with several requests to complete (including one from number one son!).  Unfortunately, my cough from hell has returned.  Meantime, think it’s ok to share this one now, it will be my card for A Card a Day Blogging.

Inspiration: I was asked by a friend to make a first wedding anniversary card and we agreed that earth tones would work as these were the accent colours at the wedding.  It went with this Sarah Kay image because I think it’s really lovely.

Products: Sarah Kay stamp ‘Sweet Romance’; Rich Cocoa Memento ink; Copic pens in warm greys mostly; papermania 8” by 8” card with gusset envelope; papermania cream card; kanban card with damask pattern; brown & taupe thin card (which has a lovely sheen) from my local shop Craft-ed Creations; Marianne and Spellbinder dies for flowers; few brads from stash; bling in some flower centres and sentiment stamp from Stamps by Chloe; flower punches; Cheery Lyn die for swirls; button; Tim Holz pin; butcher’s twine; darice embossing folder; spellbinders fancy rectangle die; peel-offs; glitter.

Techniques: Image hand stamped and coloured with copic pens.  I loved colouring in warm greys for a vintage effect.  I’ve used some earth tones and pink for the faces and the flower.  There is a little bit of embossing and sanding on the Kanban paper, and a little ink on edges of cream card, but most of the texture comes from using different sorts of paper and card. Most of the design was about making a tactile card in layers so I played about with the various layers before I decided on the final layout.  For definition I have added some dots and dashes and some white peel-offs on the slightly textured taupe card.

Favourites: Faux stitching; paper flowers; extra details inside card (but I forgot to take photo!)

Extra bits (because I love them so): there’s a lot of flowers (plus a few hand cut leaves) but I think I can get away with it because I have kept to just three tones and what could be better for your paper anniversary than paper flowers?  I loved adding a bit of bling and the Tim Holz pin too.

Mr Fantabulous Mayhem and I are just back from Whitby where we went as our first anniversary treat (we went there last year just after we got married too as we love the atmosphere and the vintage feel of the place).  Here's a wee pic of me and my shadow!

Need to get back to some Christmassy things now and a nice hot cup of tea xx

If you like the paper flowers you might like these projects:

Wedding Day

Golden Wedding

Goose Girl

Rose Red

Anna Karenina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wedding Day

The Happy Couple

Update: I didn’t manage to post a blog yesterday as I was finishing this card and getting ready to go to the wedding in the evening.  We had a lovely evening and the bride was really beautiful.  The venue (Orocco Pier) overlooked the forth road bridge and the day photos were shown in the background on a screen in the evening (I thought this was a great idea).  They were simply stunning.

Inspiration: The bride to be is the wee sister of one of Mr Bell’s oldest friends and a lovely girl in her own right, so I wanted to create something very special with a touch of bling.  A little bird told me the bridesmaids would be in navy so I wanted to add just a little accent with navy ribbon. 

Main Products: Stampavie Sarah Kay ‘Happy Couple’ stamp (I love these images I think they are sooo romantic); do-crafts (capsule collection) cream textured card for layers; glitter card (from create and craft ages ago) some tiny Anita’s gems.  Spellbinders, x-cut and Marianne dies (the intricate heart with birds and flowers is a Marianne die and I think it is really special, I did have to put it through my cuttlebug a few times but it was worth it).

Secret pocket and love birds

• Techniques: Image hand stamped with memento rich cocoa ink and coloured with copic pens (mostly warm greys for a vintage feel but with a touch of colour and white sakura pen for highlights). Lots of layers added with spellbinders, x-cut and Marianne shapes.  Plenty of glamour dust added.  Flowers made from two different sized punches and a few brads then glittered (a variation of a flower I saw Mel Heaton demonstrate a couple of years ago).  Inside the card there are a few hearts for decoration.  One of the hearts is a secret pocket for a money gift (I like adding little pockets like this and it’s useful too!).  I have re-enforced the swirls with glossy accents and PVA glue underneath (you just have to be patient while it dries, did get some funny looks from hubby when I shouted ‘don’t touch my swirls!’).  A few white and gold fine line peel offs for borders and gold glitter congratulations peel off from stash.
• Favourites: 8” by 8” card; inked edges; faux stitching and dots; Marianne swirls; extra details inside card.  Not to mention a matching envelope.
• Extra bits - because where’s the fun in making your own cards without adding extra bits: the flowers and swirls are my favourite sort of addition but I was blown away by the sparkle on the horse shoe that I bought from Karen Wilson at ‘Craft-ed Creations’ in Alloa (Karen has some absolutely fab sparkle as she also makes wedding invitations). The navy ribbon has a thread of silver and was from Karen’s shop too.  Yummy.

This pic is a wee bit fuzzy but gives and idea of the matching envelope.

Watch this space: a sneak peek at some Christmas creations next (but a cup of tea first I think!).

Work in Progress Day

Love is in the air - stamp is called 'A Little Bit Country'

This image reminds me of my childhood

I had a few fizzy pops last night so I am taking it easy today.  In the mood for some colouring in so I put a jumper on over my pyjamas and have my copic pens out.  Heaven.

I have taken some photos of some of my recent Sarah Kay colouring projects (with a bit of paper piecing too).  They are not quite finished as I need to make them in to cards and add some hand-made embellishments.

I am a bit fussy.  I don’t always like cute but love these ones.  They have a sort of vintage feel and they remind me of my childhood.  When I was a girl ‘Little House on the Prairie’ and ‘Holly Hobby’ were all the rage.  I can remember making my mum a Mother’s Day card with my own hand drawn ‘Holly Hobby’ style figure on it (hidden face, big hat and patchwork pinafore).  Looking back the outfit might be described as a ‘zentangle’ design as I had doodled a different design on each patchwork square.  I am drawn to the Sarah Kay images as they just remind me of things like that.  I also had a children’s cook book that my Aunt in Australia had sent me.  I am pretty sure the artwork was by Sarah Kay too.  They are also sooo fab to colour and practice shading on the clothing - jeans are great fun.

 I will post the completed cards when they are done.