Saturday 30 June 2012

Pirates, Parrots & Booty!

Aft'noon Peepsicles! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I have been really busy with my commissions for Crafts Beautiful and I haven't been well recently (I'm ok now). Anyway, here is a peep at my Pirate themed projects in this month's Crafts Beautiful. For more crafting ideas visit Crafts Beautiful










I had such fun drawing these illustrations. The only thing is, when I drew the foliage on the branch that the parrot is sat on, I only did five leaves. When I sat back and looked at it, it looked like cannabis!! So a sixth leaf was included post haste. Simon loves the parrot, he thinks it looks peed off.


As usual, the magazine is full of other inspiring projects, articles, hints and tips. The August issue is out now. You can download the illustrations and other templates from the magazine from the website. You need to register (free) to download, once registered you can join the forum and have a chat and you can also download free patterned papers.


Simon and I went to the Royal Norfolk Show on Thursday. It was great going round the animal shows, the pigs were hilarious and I HAD to go into the chicken tent. There was also an art exhibition with some beautiful artwork (beautiful prices too). We then called into a few trade stands (free Pimms on offer - yum) talking to people from companies Simon deals with. Then off to the Members Enclosure for some lunch and a few more glasses of Pimms (not free). All jolly good fun :)


We've been lucky with the weather the last few years on show days and this year was no exception, it was glorious. Hope you've had good weather where you are and not got too wet with all the rain.


Well, I'm off now, coffee calling. I have a couple of cards to show you in my next post (hopefully tomorrow).

Take care and happy crafting!

Colette








Friday 1 June 2012

Roses, a Monster and Herb!

Hello Chums!

I know, I know, two posts in one week! Wow, I must be on a roll. This one's a whopper too, with two cards and loads of piccies - whay!

Straight down to it then, the first card is a birthday card for a very dear and close friend, June. I designed this with her in mind, and I'm sure she will like it.



I made the three roses using the English Rose dies by Marianne Design Creatables, the roses and all the other paper elements were made using the Madeline 6x6 pad by Prima. The top note label behind the roses was cut using a die from the Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One set. A length of cotton crochet lace, a pearl gem, a rub-on sentiment and an antique key were used to finish the card. Here are some close ups (getting all arty now with the 'ol photography).




I scrunched up the paper after die cutting the roses, then after rolling up, I bent the petals to give them a more aged, shabby chic look.




The butterflies were cut out of a butterfly design paper, I then layered them up, bending the wings slightly and finished with a pearl gem




I saw a pack of these darling antique keys by Creative Expressions and HAD to have.


Right, on to the next card, which is a stark contrast to the one above. This is for a young male relative (though it could work for the bigger boys). I thought all boys love monsters and instead of doing the usual trains, cars etc .....  a monster it will be!


 


The papers and journaling sprouts are from the Jillibean Soup Monster Stew collection and the sentiment is from the Hero Arts Monster Fun stamp set. After stamping the sentiment onto white card, I punched it out using a circle punch and mounted it onto one of the journaling sprouts, I then arranged it with a couple of more sprouts and attached to the front of a square black card blank. I hand cut some stars and an arrow, mounted them onto black card and then fixed them to the card, finally finishing with some purple twine wrapped and knotted on the left side.


Here are some more close ups....





On the inside, I created a simple sentiment, using die cut scallop circles (to mirror the monster sprout on the front) a rub-on and a scattering of hand cut stars. Ta da!!


Now then, you're probably wondering who Herb is. Well this is where we get silly. I was up at the local farm shop last week and I was picking some tomatoes and I came across this one......





.....well, I had to get it didn't I? So then, I put some googly eyes on it (I need to get out more methinks).




Looks good, but I don't know, not sure about the toupee and the eyes seem a bit wide, so I removed the toupee and turned him over, repositioned the 'ol eyes.....





.....that's better. He looks like a Herb, so that's what I've called him. I think he's really cute. Though he's still sat in our fridge, going a bit mushy now :( Oh well, he had a happy, if short life........................might be still edible. I'll put him in a ham sarnie for Simon tomorrow, bwa ha ha hah!

Enough silliness for today, I'm off now for a well deserved coffee, and a chocolate digestive mmmmm. Have a great weekend, will post back soon. Colette xx