Heart coasters - practising for the art exchange

I am taking part in an art exchange over on Gingersnaps. For this we have to make 4 heart coasters, which then get exchanged with other participants. So, I decided to start trying. These are not my entries, but they will be similar. I used coasters, gold and bronze structure paste, Stazon ink in timber brown, TH hearts, crowns and wings die cuts, which have been made out of chipboard and gold and copper metal foil, and two beautiful embossing plates from LaBlanche, one with a heart and one with a diamond pattern. Oh, and a small cuttlebug rose circlet embossing folder and die, diverse flying left overs, and some hearts made from cernit.



*Queen of Hearts* has been made from a coaster, thickly painted with gold and bronze structure paste, and then embossed with the diamond pattern plate. The heart was embossed with the big shot, cut out, distressed with Stazon, and fixed in place with silicone glue, which I also used to polster the heart from underneath. Added another small, sparkly heart, and finished!



For *Love Heart and Roses* I first inked the edges of the coaster, embossed some gold metal foil with the diamond pattern in the big shot, stuck it on again with silicone glue and added some roses (Thanks Netty!). The heart has been made from cernit, which I rolled out, cut using a paper heart template, stamped with my love text, and distressed with the structure pastes and stazon after it had been baked in the oven like a cookie!



*Your sunshine warms my heart* has been made from a coaster thickly daubed with the structure pastes, and then dabbed with an old sponge to roughen it up more. I presed the *Sunshine* charm into the paste while it was still wet, and heated it with the dryer, which makes it bubble and gives more structure. After this torture I distressed it with stazon before adding the cernit heart, freshly embossed, baked and distressed, and some more roses.



*My heart blooms for you* has been made by putting another embossed and distressed gold foil sheet onto a distressed coaster, adding a cernit heart embossed in a TH texture fade folder, cut with a cookie-cutter, and then baked and distressed as before. I added some more roses and an acrylic flower, finished.

They were all great fun to make, really great GREAT fun, my kitchen is in chaos, my hands are all colours of gold, bronze and brown, and I enjoyed it all no end, so looking forward to doing the others for the exchange now!

Thanks for looking and have great day, take care, and hope the sun is shining for you!

I am entering these coasters into the Simon Says *Embossing* Challenge

A new LO

I made this LO yesterday for a challenge over on *Bella Creations*. We had to use the colours pink, cream and turquoise, ribbon or lace, flowers, pearls etc. I chose a photo of my Great Auntie Fanny, taken in 1918. I cut the photo with an oval Sizzix die. The background paper is from the Prima *Sasha Collection*, as this had all the required colours. I stamped the right side several times with my text stamp in *Victorian velvet*, and then used my large rose stamp on the right side and lower edge, using the same colour, which has been lightly embossed. I just wanted the flowers and text to show as a sort of shadow. Then I played with all the bits and bobs till I liked the arrangements. The photo has been placed on a lace doily and a square *daisy doily* (Sizzix) and framed with flowers, some rub-ons, a vintage rose image and some layered flowers partly die cut and combined with some Prima ones which have been dyed to coordinate. Then I added a few pearls, a quote and a bird, and it was finished. It was great fun to make, and I have another page for ny ever growing family scrapbook.
Thanks for looking, thanks to all those who take time to leave a comment, and have a great day!

Bella Creations Challenges - a Tag & 2 Bookmarks

Yesterday was a really good day. The sun shone all day, the birds were singing, I was able to visit a friend who has a real cutie of a new dog, and I even found a parking space when I came home. But the best is yet to come. No housework. No visitors. Just crafting to my heart's content, listening to music and reading. And a never ending supply of coffee and a box of ginger biscuits, a yummy day in all respects.
The tag has been made for the Feruary *Bella Muse* Challenge over on *Bella Creations*
I used a manila tag, and distressed it with my fave TH inks combi - stormy sky, tumbled glass, Victorian Velvet, wild honey and forest moss. Then I used a text stamp over the background, also in forest moss. I could have really saved this step this time, as there is sooooo much on the tag that you can hardly see the background anyway! Then I added some rose rub ons and the leopard. The image - from Bella - has been torn, inked and set in half a lace doiley, which I folded together to make a background. The hearts and wings have been cut from some pink patterned paper, which I stuck onto some waste cardboard from a box, and glazed with sparkly mod-podge before die-cutting it. Then I added two scraps with roses, and that was it. I like the way it has turned out this time!





For the bookmarks we had to use the rabbit image supplied by Gecko Galz. The first one has been made from a large manila tag, distressed again in my fave colours and text stamped. Then I overstamped it with the leopard and some ranking leaves using archival black, which was then clear embossed. Then I added the floral rub ons and the cut out rabbit, after inking the edges. I used one floral scrap on top of the other flowers to give more depth without being bulky. I threaded some pearls onto a brown silk cordel to make the hanger for the top of the bookmark. That was it!



For the second bookmark I used a white card, which I distressed as before. The colours look lighter because the background is white. I stamped it with the trees and birds - from Lavina Stamps - using archival black and forest green, both clear embossed. The little flowers have been drawn by hand, and the rabbit has taken his place ready to conjure spring out of his hat - I hope!

It was all great fun to make. Thanks for looking and have a great day, whatever you are up to!

PS - Don't want to forget this! I was chosen again as a Ginger Gem for my entry into the GC86 *Coffee Filter* challenge - woooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooo!!

GC87 - Tea Bag Template

For this challenge over at Gingersnaps I cut 2 coordinating papers with the template, die cut some lace, and sandwiched the two papers back-to-back with the lace in between so that the edges were neat. The lace and paper edges have been inked with *Victorian Velvet*. Then I cut some *pages* from a watercolour block, inked the edges to match, and tied them together with pink ribbon, before fitting 4 pages into each inside crease of the tea bag. The first page has been *love* stamped and the rest left blank for notes. Used 2 tiny pieces of velcro as a clasp. Added some floral rub-ons on the front and back, and then died some prima flowers to match, layered them to make one flower and added a gem as a centre piece. That was it.
I will do this one again with different papers to try to make a masculine one.



The tag has been made for the Gingersnaps Yahoo group recipe challenge. The ingredients were 1 crown, 1 red, 1 sparkle. The tag has been cut from a biscuit box, distressed with antique linen and stamped with a text in the same colour. Then I stamped the head with archival ink which I clear embossed, used a TH texture fade folder to emboss the crown, using the same biscuit box but with the gold side outside this time. I swiped the crown with black archival again and stuck on some jewels as befitting a crown. Then I added a red ribbon with a glitter flower in the middle, and the tag was finished.

It was, as always, fun to make, especially as I had a visitor over the weekend and 2 days of no-crafting, so definately had withdrawal symptoms yesterday evening!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

A sheet of vintage Red Riding Hood Freebies

Yesterday I was sifting through my things and found these old Red Riding Hood Freebies. They are German scraps, found them long ago in an old book. If you would like the sheet, please download it. Click on the image on this page and it will take you to a larger one to download. Enjoy!
Have a great Saturday, and take care of yourselves!

GC88 - Coffee and Cream

For this challenge we had to use a coffee and cream colour scheme, a lovely combination, as I like everything in these colours which remind me of my fave beverage!
I used a large, square card in cream, which has been inked with antique linen distress ink and Adirondack *espresso*. Printed the image onto a square of cream coloured cardstock, also inked with the same colours. The background has been stamped first with a text in *espresso*, and then I added some small flowers in the corners. The image - from LaBlanche- has been matted onto brown cardstock. The wings and crown have been cut from a scrap of patterned paper in coordinating colours and fixed with foam pads. *Cherish* has been die cut using a *Bosskut* die.
Inside, I masked a scrap of cream cardstock with the *waste* from a cut-out heart and stamped it with my love stamp before matting it onto brown again. The sentiment is from *lavinia* stamps.



And this picture is of the coffee table which took up so much of my time and strength yesterday. 9 wooden pieces, 64 different screws, 20 rawl plugs,3 hinges, a handle, 2 metal tubes and 5 little rollers accompanied by another 20 screws had to be tackled till the table was finished. It is a modern one, to make a contrast to my mostly antique furniture, as I just need something new right now - and it has a big storage draw where I can put in all the crafty bits and bobs that I like to use when I am finishing things off while watching TV - now I can just throw them into the drawer, and everything will be tidy again! Well, that's the intention. Isn't there a saying about good intentions and which path they pave??

And the Rollodex on the left of the table is one I altered 2 years back, each card has been scrapped, mostly by me, some from friends, and it is a treasury or memories of nice papers used in other projects and sayings on all themes.

Have a good day you all, and thanks for looking!

The King....GC89 - Kings and Queens

This is my first attempt at getting majestic, for which I chose a lion, the king of beasts. The lion and window stamp is from LaBlanche. The tag has first been stamped with a diamond pattern in gold. Then I stamped the lion and window over it in black archival ink. I stamped the image again on a piece of scrap card, and cut out just the lion and window. I applied two layers of floral rub ons on the left of the tag to create the illusion of depth. Then I decoupaged the lion cut out and stuck it over the stamped background image. I added a crown brad. The brad was silver, but I painted it with my gold leaf pen, and added some *diamonds*. I used liquid pearls to add some texture to the masonry and eye. Put a scrap of braid at the bottom, and added a vintage, sparkly rose, and a piece of an old necklace at the top. Oh, and some mesh for the windows. I kept the colours a bit subdued this time, I like the *stony* air of the tag.
It made a nice break yesterday to make the tag after clearing up all day as I am expecting some new furniture. My flat hasn't been so tidy in years, let's see how long it lasts! I can actually sit at my desk again! And if you don't think it's really tidy - well, lucky you didn't see it before!




Thanks for looking and have a nice day!