A Mini Book and more.....

Yesterday I made a mini book from two of the remaining coasters. I glued some striped black and gold embossed paper to the reverse of the coasters, and cut the pages from watercolour paper, which is thick and always has such a nice feel to it. The page edges have been inked in gold, and each page has some flourishes stamped on one side in archival black, with some added quotes and hand doodling. I put it all together with the bind-it-all, and like the results. There is still room on the pages for some notes or little pictures, so the recipient can use it. I am going to send it to a good friend in England, because I think she will appreciate it.

And there were still 2 half-finished coasters on my workspace. On one I added a heart and some flowers, in keeping with the Valentine theme...

And then I decided to go crazy on the last one, which of course, is MY all time favourite!

Thanks for looking, big thanks to all who take the time to leave a comment, and have a great day, whatever you are up to!

GC90 - Charms

This is my entry for the GC90- Charms Challenge over on Gingersnaps.
For this I wanted to try something different. I used my lovely Mona Lisa stamp with archival black and clear embossing powder to make the picture. I mounted this onto a piece of black card and then onto a postcard stamped with my script stamp in black. For the charm I added a cheap earring, 2 pairs for 1€ at the Euro shop.

Then I inserted the photo into a newspaper template - dowmloaded from www.presentationmagazine.com - on Power Point. I changed the text and headlines, and made an article about ML. I scanned and printed this in the usual way, and my ML Newspaper was finished.

It was, as usual, fun to make, and now I am wondering how to mount the finished *newspaper*. Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

More coasters for the art exchange

I have really enjoyed making these coasters, so I think I will be getting my paints and brushes out more often in the future.
For these coasters I used structure paints in gold, silver and copper, metal foil - the silber foil was the aluminium seal from a coffee-tin!, stazon and colour box inks, and bits and pieces from my workspace.
I have chosen four for the art exchange, and the rest will find their way to other destinations.
It was great fun to make, I love making a mess, and liked how they turned out,too.
Have a great day, and thanks for looking!

GC87 - Tea Bag Template, Take 2

This is my second take for the Tea Bag Template challenge over on Gingersnaps.
I managed to use up a lot of scraps for this one. The tea-bag has been cut from a scrap of pink cardstock, then stamped & inked with Victorian velvet, and turned into a little love-letter. The spotty card was part of some packaging, *Dream* was on a shop card I received some time back, the pink ribbon and the heart were from different Xmas present packaging, and the braid and pink paisley paper were also left overs from other projects. The tulip has been stamped onto a scrap of a cardboard box, clear embossed and then re-embossed with perfect pearls before cutting it out and sticking it with foam pads to give it more depth. The TH wings have also been cut from cardboard, covered with scrap paper and glazed with mod-podge. The red card was out of one of my many almost forgotten stash boxes - anybody else ever discover things they never knew they had??
Anyway, everything together made a Valentine easel card, was quick and fun to make.
Have a great day you all, thanks for looking, and take care!

Happy Weekend Freebies

Hi everybody out there, good morning from cold and wet Germany This is real crafter's weather, then when it's bad outside, the best thing you can do is to stay home and craft, so I will be making the best of it.
Today I am offering 2 old documents, both invoices from long ago. One is from 1916, and one from 1954. They were both among some old family papers that I am still trying to sort out.... I think they make lovely backgrounds for crafty projects. If you like them, click on the pic, this takes you to a larger image, which you can right click to download.
Enjoy, have a crafty weekend, and take care of yourselves!

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!