Accordion Card

 Here is a card that I was commissioned to make by a work colleague for family member. It is to celebrate a very special birthday so needed to be something out of the ordinary.  I was asked several months ago to come up with something so the timing couldn't have been better when I was able to get my hands on the new Accordion Dies by Crafters Companion.  

I had always wanted to create one of these cards but the only supplier of Accordian dies was Sizzix and their dies are really bulky for storage so I wasn't keen on collecting these, no matter what.

The topper was made from a stamp from Imagination Crafts.  This was stamped onto acetate and the back of the acetate was covered with gold glitter gel.  I then stamped the image twice more onto acetate and cut out the fuschias and again covered them in different coloured glitter gel.  I then layered these to create a decoupage image and finished the topper off by making my own fuchsia flowers from dies from Heartfelt Creations.  As the flowers added some bulk to the card I created a box to put the card in.

Sequined Peacock

Thanks to Julie Hickey from Craftwork Cards who has inspired me to use sequins on my cards.  You can purchase as many as 500 for as little as £1.50 from Ebay so a little can go a long way!

I originally made these two peacocks many months ago but didn't really like the mass of grey background so held back from finalising the card until I felt inspired.

Well today the inspiration came!  Why not use sequins on it I thought.  So I did.  I stuck them on with PVA glue and when it was set I then added some glossy accents over each sequin to ensure they would not fall off.  

I am so pleased with the end result.  I am definitely going to find more ways of incorporating sequins into my card making. I think a little bit of stickles in turquoise around the sentiment will tie it in better with the peacocks so I am going to do this later on.

Bohemian Dreams by Craftwork Cards

I have had a few days to get acquainted with and make some cards using the Bohemian Dreams paper collection by Craftwork Cards.    I feel I have simply fallen in love with this paper collection because it is so vibrant with colour.  I started off looking for inspiration on Pinterest so some of my earlier pieces of work have been inspired by creations found here.  

I quickly found that as time went on I got more and more adventurous and began looking through my templates and found one or two useful ones.  In particular, the owl template and the house so I set about making cards with both of these.

The first card I am going to show you is the owl card I made using the owl template.  I simply drew around it and cut it out.  I embossed the background card and then adhered the owl to it.  I then cut two circles to mark where the eyes are.  Then it got more exciting as I had a moment of inspiration for the eyes.  The other day I was using a die from Tonic "from me to you" and noticed that the waste produced a very large looking eye lash.  I just knew that I would find a use for this so I used a pair of these to make the eyelashes.  Then to finish off the eyes I made a small pair of flower buds and now the owl looks sensational, take a look!

This next card is made in a similar way, using another template to draw around and makes an ideal "new home" card.

And finally here are some more cards I have made using the paper collection.  I just love the typewriters and alarm clocks, they are great for card makers.

Now you know what I have been up to over the last few days so let me know what you think.

and now the weekend is here, I have made a few more!!!