FUNNY FLOWERS by CottageCutz / Peachy Keen

When I received the Funny Flowers die I was suprised at the size - I thought it would be a bit smaller.  Saying that, I do like it, especially the leaves.

Having recently reorganised my A4 papers that I buy locally I found the yellow background, the green check and the pinkish red papers amongst them. 

The corner punch is an EK Success one, the Nestabilities behind the flower are from Labels Sixteen with the sentiment being on one of the Ribbon Banners dies.  The sentiment is "It's your birthday & you can cry if you want to" and it was done on computer and trimmed to fit the banner.

Magnolia DooHickey "Paris Night" die

This is one of those real quick and easy cards.  The Magnolia die, which I bought from Bunny Zoe's crafts in the UK, cuts out beautifully.  I drew a black line for the pavement and placed both die cuts on CM paper cut out using a Nestabilities Classic Rectangle.   The paper matted behind using a Scalloped Rectangle is also from CM.

I did cut a longer card than usual to accommodate the Rectangles and ended up having to make an envelope for it.  This I did using a Kreate-a-lope template from Green Sneakers.  The striped background paper is CM and the corners are from an EK Success punch.

Thank You Tag

I have had this whale cut out for ages and cannot recall which Slice cartridge it came from.  What I did do was to pop some white paper where the holes were otherwise the blue would have shown through.

The tag is a Go Kreate one and the background is my usual Distress Ink.  I think the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Moulin Rouge - Tim Holtz stamp set

Although I am a Tim Holtz fan I am not really attracted to his range of stamps.  When I saw this Stampers Anonymous French Market Place set which included the Moulin Rouge image I could not resist it.  You see, I spent a very special evening at the Moulin Rouge in Paris for one of the celebrations for my 21st birthday (many moons ago !) plus I hold a fascination with all things French.

The background to the stamp is sponged with Distress Ink and I then stamped the image using Archival Ink.  This was then matted onto a piece of paper punched with an EK Success border punch.  The background paper is CM and the tag at the top of the card is a SU punch called Round Tab.

Funny Farm & Bildmalarna mix

I have used the Gina K Designs Funny Farm set numerous times as it makes for a good background stamp.  In this instance I had stamped out Bildmalarna's Sitting Mimosa and coloured her in using Copics.  Her hat and shoes were paper pieced.

The Funny Farm background was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured in using Distress Inks.  I made a mess of the green foreground so paper pieced a new one on.  The cow was stamped, coloured in and cut out before placing it on a mound of 'grass'.

The sentiment seemed so pertinent for the scene but when I came to find it again I had no idea where to look.  When I locate it I will update this section.

Tag - CottageCutz Mouse w/Sunflower

CottageCutz are wonderful dies and they have such cute characters.  Being a fan of punch art I really appreciate having the 'whole' item rather than to have to search around for punches to make up an image.  Yes, I know this is a lazy way of looking at it but when you do not have ready access to a vast array of punches and it takes the best part of a month (if you are lucky) to get an order to your part of the world, then I think I am justified at going the die route.   This little mouse holding a sunflower was already made up so it took a couple of minutes to pick out a Nestabilities background die and put the tag together.  On the rear side of the tag I nested a smaller Deckled Edged oval in white to allow a message to be written on it.

Hero Arts - Dotted Flowers

This Hero Arts cling stamp turned out to be larger than I thought it would be but it is easy to cut out.  The leaves come with the stamp set and I Distressed inked both the leaves and the flowers before curling the flowers around a pen.

The sentiment is a SU one from a set called Oval All and the scalloped oval punch is also SU.  The green background paper is CM which I ran through a CB embossing folder.

Sizzix XL Box Die

All of the SU Bigz XL dies I have actually make only small boxes and sometimes one needs a larger gift box.  I was rather pleased when I found a local online store selling this Sizzix Box Die. 

When it arrived I cut out what I thought was the box and sat looking at it wondering how on earth I could make a box out of a two sided piece of cardstock.  There were no instructions or pictures (I do well with those) on the die or on any part of the packaging which is a little stupid on the manufacturer's part.  Anyway, I wondered if I cut out another one would it work.  Well, it did and once I had fathomed it out it was relatively simple to put together.  The box is large and measures 92 mm height, width and length (it is square shaped).  I found a beautiful candle to put into it for a gift.

The blue paper is from a pad in my stash, the 'Handle with care' is from a SU set and the rosette is a Tim Holtz die which I had also just received.

Tag - CottageCutz - Giraffe

This tag could be used for a new baby or for a birthday.  The die is from CottageCutz and I used sugar paper, which is available in a pad of different colours locally, for the yellow and plain brown cardstock for the spots and hooves.         The tag is Nestabilities long rectangles classic and scalloped with the green paper being with from a SU or CM pad, I cannot remember which.

New Baby card - Maggie from The Greeting Farm

This is a card for a friend who has recently given birth to a baby girl.  I have had this stamp for quite a while now and could not seem to get the colouring right, I mean, how hard can it be to colour in a bunny !  Sometimes I just have a mental block but I am pleased with the result this time.

I used Copics to colour in with, cut out the image using Marianne D Creatables Frames / Swirls and matted it on a Go Kreate Regular Frame Frilly #3.  The front of the card was embossed with SU Square Lattice and the sentiment was one I had stamped out a while ago so I cannot remember where it came from.

This past weekend I was fed up with not knowing what sentiments I have and decided to start with the SU sets.  I now have a flip file with pages and pages of SU sentiments all stamped out with a note next to each one as to which stamp set they are from.  I intend to add all the rest of my sentiments to the file as well.  This way I do not have to search in all different places for a sentiment, I look through the file and choose which one I want.  I have done that with my tags and labels and find I am using ones I previously did not remember I even had.  It would, of course, be easier to have one room dedicated to craft in but that is not feasible at the moment - maybe one day !

Tag Bag

When I came to packaging up the tags for my friend's birthday I did not have a box made to fit them so thought I would decorate an A5 envelope instead.  Well, in my haste, I messed 2 of them up and then realised I did not like the colour of the inside of the envelopes.  Then  it hit me - make my own out of the paper I want.

I did a quick measure and made it up as I went along doing the folds on the side and sticking the bottom together with tape, see post on 28 March called Envelope Gift Bag for more details on the original design which I cased from the Chic 'n Scratch site.

The decoration was easy as I had just completed an image from Marij Rahder called Suzy 1 so I popped it onto the tag bag and added a strip from a Martha Stewart border punch.  The paper is from a large pad I have - not sure of the name as the cover has come off.  The border punch used for the top of the bag is from Stampin Up.

Tag - Flourishes - Sunflowers

This is the second of the tags I made for a gift.  For this one I was trying out one of the images in the Flourishes stamp set called Sunflowers.  I used Copics to colour it in and Nestabilities Labels Ten to frame the image.  Not sure where the sentiment is from.

Stampin Up - Because I Care Hostess set

I must confess to being a fan of Stampin Up products and I do own a large amount of their stamp sets.  Having said that I seldom seem to use their stamps as their style of cute and whimsical does not quite suit my current taste.

One evening I spied this set laying in my basket of new products to be tried out and, as we used to have a lot of hydrangeas in our garden growing up, I knew what colours to use.  I stamped the image out on watercolour paper and, using SU and Tombow markers I coloured all the small flowers in.  Once I had cut the stamp out I popped it onto a Nestabilities label which I had Distress inked.  The sentiment and background stamp (En Français) are both SU as is the cardstock.