Shaped Cards with Nestabilities Grand Labels 4

Hi, at last I hear you say - where have you been?  Well I do have to say sorry for being away for soooooo long - a number of events have been going on in my life - illness, reaction to medicines, a wedding commission, DT work, Christmas, New Year and to top it all a family funeral.    I have had to make a few changes and I will tell you about some of them over the week, but for now I would like to show you the new stamps that have been released this week by Chocolate Baroque.  Florals!  Always a favourite and so useful for so many occasions.  The DT have produced some stunning artwork and you will be able to view thier samples over the next couple of weeks.  You will find the link on my sidebar and I really do hope you pop over there for some fab inspirational ideas. 

 Rose Tree

Honeysuckle

Wisteria

I have been working with the stamps and this is one of my designs......

I have used stamps from the Wisteria and Rose plates.  I love the way the butterfly seems to be hovering and the shape of the flower lends itself to a vertical sentiment. The Grand Nestabilities Labels 4 are great for making shaped cards.  If this is a new technique for you check out this link from way back in March 2009!

To make this card you would need:

Cardstock: A4 white texture
Decorative paper: CB Essence of Italy
Nestabilities: Grand labels 4 (3# and 4#)
Mega rectangle (3#)
CB Stamps: Wisteria Lane, Rose Tree
CB Sentiment: Birthday words
Inkpads : DI dusty concord
Clear embossing powder

Ribbon, foam pads

Thank you all for your support whilst I've been away - I'm hoping to get back to a more structured blogging and catching up with visits to your blogs.   Although we are now way into January and it's a little late to wish you a NHY, but I'm going to say it anyway - I hope you are all well and that 2012 will be a good, health and prosperous year for you.

Back soon.

Well it's snowing!

Hi friends, we have snow today - it looks lovely from inside, but I glad I haven't got to go out!

I thought I'd show you another Chrissie card I'd made recently using a border die in different way, but then I had a message from Glenda saying that her new stamps called Pretty Birdcage and  Bees were launched yesterday.  The details are over on the DT blog (link on my sidebar)and if you pop over there you could be in with a chance of winning a lovely Chrissie present as Glenda is giving away two sets of stamps - so don't forget to leave a comment at the end of Glenda's post! The draw is open until Monday.

Now I can take you from a winter's day to a glimpse of summer

This was a challenge to me as I got out my paints for a delicate look.

I stamped the image on a full sheet of watercolour paper and completed the painting, I find this the easiest way to position the stamping in a shaped die.  From this close-up you will see that I have used an octagonal die, and as I like very narrow borders when I layer - I did a bit of crafty cutting!  I first cut a burgundy shape to match the base card, and embossed the edge.  Next cut the same size from the white watercolour paper, and embossed the edge.  After positioning the die over my painting I cut and again embossed the edge.

You may be thinking why cut two white octagons, well  I wanted depth the the finished image.  So on the plain paper I cut away the embossed edge to give me my narrow border.  (On this shape die this is much quicker that tracing and  cutting round the die.  If you don't have the full set of squares or rectangles you could also used this method for ease of layering.) Now I could use the cloud template from Diamond Cards that I illustrated a few weeks ago to give interest, which I  lightly inked with DI's.  Next I also cut away the embossed border from the painted image and embossed the cloud pattern again.  Having embossed the clouds I then cut part of them away and I had my depth!  Hope all this make sense - it may sound complicated but it very easy to do and any complication may be from my writing.  If you click on the close-up image you will see the finished image more clearly. 

Stay warm and safe and enjoy your crafting.