Brocade with roses

I have another card I have done with the Cuttlebug Embossing Plus folder Brocade Window for  a Design Team card for Fat Cats Card Corner.

I have made the pink roses with the Cheery Lynn Build a Flower #3 die set.  I used the small pear shaped ones, using about 16 petals in each rose, and the buds had 4 petals.  The Leaves were done with the Marianne Creatables 3 Leave die LR0192, and the rose leaves are done with the Cheery Lynn Build a flower #2 die set.  I have put dobs of liquid pearls on the Marianne Creatables die pieces.  The red roses were from my stash, but I think they were done with a cut out pattern with the silhouette cameo.  The Best Wishes greeting was done with the Cheery Lynn Sentiments dies.  

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Pink Lily

Today I am showing you a card which I have made with the Cuttlebug Brocade Embossing plus folder.  It is the first time I have used one of these, and although I found it rather big, it embossed beautifully, and the flap they have so that you can sponge colour on it while still in the folder, is such a great idea.  

I used the de-bossed side and sponged it with some Tim Holtz spun sugar ink.  

The Lily and leaves were made with the Cheery Lynn Build a flower #3.  I made a quilled stamen in the centre.  The colouring I did with watercolour pencils as I felt I had more control of how dark it got.  The flourishes are the Elegant Scrollwork Die 98153 by Memory box.  On top of those are the Marianne Creatables 3 Leaves die LR0192.

The sentiment is done with the Cheery Lynn Best Wishes phrases die B244.

Finally a pink organza bow at the top

Red and White butterflies

I have made another card with the Square Lacey frame by Joy Crafts.  I really like this die.

I have mounted the frame on the diagonal onto dark red card.  The butterflies are the Kaleidoscope butterfly by Memory Box, for of them mounted on the sides of the frame.  The sentiment is just cut out with spellbinder circle die and also the red frame around it.  

Finally the flowers and leaves.  The flowers are done with some dark red paper, cut out with the Cheery Lynn  cherry blossom flower using both sizes and cutting 2 for each flowers, then putting some pearl stamens into the centre.  The leaves are the Marianne Creatables Anja leaves die set.  

Two windows

 Two cards I have made for Fat Cats Card Corner to use the D-lites Window one die by Spellbinders.

Both are quite simple cards but I have used the window slightly differently in each.

This one I have made the window stand out from the card. The wood panelling at the bottom has been done with the Martha Stewart score board.  The curtain has been punched with the Martha Stewart Doily lace border punch and then put through a crimper to make the little folds to resemble a blind.  I have used some tiny patterned paper to resemble wallpaper behind that, and then all of it is mounted out with foam tape.  The vine and flowers are from my gilded cage die by Crafty Individuals.  I cut several out of the green and cut off the cage and the flowers, and glued them around the window.  Then I cut some more out with the burgundy card and because the flower has two parts, I popped a piece of tape behind the flower so that the two parts didn't come apart and moulded them slightly and stuck them on with a glitter pearl in the centre.  The same for the sentiment that was done on the computer.  

The second card was done with the same die, but this time I cut out the window area of the die in the front of the card, so that it formed an aperture that you could see through into the inside of the card.

I made the background on the front of the card with the Tim Holtz sizzix brick embossing folder and lightly inked it with a white stamp pad.  The curtains are made with the Martha Stewart Doily Lace border die again, but this time resemble curtains.  Between the die and the curtains I put a small piece of acetate to resemble the window pane.  Again I have used the same Gilded Cage die by Crafty individuals but cut a lot more of the leaf part out in the green and glued them onto the base of the window to look like a window box.
The flowers are done with a small daisy punch that were shaped slightly and then a small pearl glued into the centre.  

The inside of the card I have printed a dolls house paper with a small area at the bottom for writing whatever sentiment you wanted to use the card for, but made sure it couldn't be seen through the window.  

Rose Tutorial

To make a rose with the Cheery Lynn Build a Flower #2 die set you will need some basic equipment.  You will need a foam embossing pad, a pointed tool, an embossing ball tool, and a pair of tweezers.  I have used some reverse action tweezers but any will do.  You will also need to use a fairly fast drying glue.  

You will need to cut out 14-16 petals in whatever colour you wish. I have used a photocopy grade paper for these.  You can use a lightweight card as well, but I don't think a textured card looks right.  

 I have used the largest size die here for purposes of making it easier to photograph, and it is quite a good idea to try making a bigger one to start with, then you can move to smaller ones which are more fiddly. You will also need something to attach the bottom set of petals to, I have used just a 5/8" circle punch, but if you have a 5 part snowflake punch or a calyx shaped punch, then that will work as well.  

Next  you need to cut the little piece off the bottom of each petal.  If you don't do this, the rose will be a lot higher.

With your ball embossing tool and a foam embossing pad, emboss each petal by rolling the tool around over the petal to stretch the fibres, which makes it more supple for shaping.  

The next thing to do, is to make a bend in the middle of each petal with the tweezers.

Now curl each side of the top of the petal downward with the pointed tool.  Just curl it under a little on both sides on all the petals except with one petal, which you only need to curl only one side.

This will be the petal you curl up to make the centre of the rose.  

The first petal you need to roll up with the tweezers and glue it but leave a little curl at the end unglued.

 

Next you need to pop some glue at the bottom centre of another petal and wrap this around the first one and hold for a few seconds for the glue to dry a little.  Set aside for a few minutes while you make the bottom set of petals so that it can dry a little.

The next thing to do, is to make the bottom set.  This you do by putting a little dab of glue on the back of 5 petals at the very bottom centre and glue each petal onto the circle or whatever you are using, overlapping the petal before a little, until you go right around and tuck the last petal edge under the first one you glued.  It should look like the one above.  Now set this aside to dry.

You can now go back to the first petals and put a glue dab into the bottom front of another petal, and wrap it around the first one going the opposite way.  This means that the central part of the petal should wrap around the opening of the one before.

Now glue three more petals around these, overlapping the edges of the petals slightly, letting them sit quite loosely. 

You should glue another 3 or 4 more petals loosely, depending on how they go, so that they look symmetrical.  This is the centre of your rose.  Set this aside. 

If the bottom petals have dried, then put it on the embossing mat, and press the centre down with the ball tool to cup the petals upwards slightly.  You have to press this quite hard.  Another way of doing this, is to put it onto a roll of 'sellotape' and press the centre down so that it goes down into the centre well of the roll a little and the petals close up slightly.   

Put a blob of glue into the centre and then you can glue the centre rose into this. 

Sometimes depending on how loosely the petals have glued, you may need to glue a couple of petals between the centre rose part and the bottom set of petals to fill in any gaps.  You usually only need to do a couple, sometimes you don't need to do any. 

This is how it will look.  As you can see, each one turns out slightly different, but that is fine, real roses are all different too.  The second one is slightly tighter than the first.  

Here is the size above and one made with the smallest petal size on the die set.  The smaller size is what I used for the Pink Ribbon card.  

Have fun making them, with practice I am sure you will be impressed with them.

Pink Ribbon Card

This is a card I have made for Fat Cats Card Corner

It is using the Square Lacy Frame a Joy Crafts die 6002/0147

I have raised it out slightly from the card with some silicon

I have made the roses with the Cheery Lynn Build a Flower #2 die set.  I will be putting a tutorial on how to make these next.  

The leaves are made with the rose leaves from the same Cheery Lynn Build a Flower set and the Marianne Creatable 3 leaves die set LR0192.

I decided that the card was looking a little plain without anything in the corners, so I made my own using 4 of the smaller of the Marianne creatables dies and then cut out 4 corners of the Joy Craft die and cut them out to fit below the leaf die.  Finishing it with some gems in each corner.  

Wedgewood Card

Here it is the 2nd January, Happy New Year to all my followers. I haven't had much time to make cards in the last couple of weeks, but today I sat down and at least had time to put this card that I made just before Christmas on my blog, and also make some flowers to go on my next card. I am going to do a tutorial, so I am getting all the steps organised to photograph and when I have finished the card I will put it and the tutorial on my blog

So this is the card I have made.  I have done it in a pretty blue card with the white frame so that it looked a little like wedgewood china.

The front is done with two of the die cuts from the Square lacey frame by Joy Crafts 6002/0147 and I went around the die and cut our the middle part just leaving the scroll work around the outside of both.  I then put one on the front and drew a line around the frame, and then took the frame off and cut just inside the line freehand, so that it formed an aperture  in the front of the card.  I stuck one of the dies down, being careful to not let the blue of the card show anywhere.  I then turned the card over and stuck the second one in the inside of the front of the card, so that it hid the rough edge that you cut to make the aperture.

The flower is from the  Marianne Creatables Floral circle doily die set, which I have filled the centre with pearl stamens.  The leaves are done also with Marianne creatables die, this one is with Anja Leaves 1 LR0266.  The little flowers are done with a 5 petal flower punch, that I have cupped in the centre with an embossing tool, and then put a pearl in the centre.  A couple more pearl stamens top and bottom to finish off the arrangement.

I then cut out another frame which I stuck onto the inside back part of the card, so it could be seen through the aperture.  I made sure it lined up with the front one, so that you could only see the lattice and centre part.  Finally I finished it off with the Happy Birthday sentiment which was done with the Cheery Lynn "Happy' and 'Birthday' die sets in the same colour as the card.