Spring Daffodils

Well the clocks have gone forward so it is officially Spring time and to mark this happy event I have created some paper daffodils to hang from my lovely white tree.  I have a die to make these in miniature form but since I wanted them a lot bigger I found a design I could download from the Silhoutte Design Store for $0.74. The beauty of having my lovely Cameo Silhoutte is that after the initial outlay, it is very cheap to make what you want with it and to whatever size you require. Since purchasing a few weeks ago I haven't had to buy any new dies and I have even had a go at creating my own fancy cards shapes.  

Hope you like my large daffodils.  

As I said before, I have the ability to create these daffodils at any size and here are some more I have created which are a medium size.
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Crafty hugs from Crafty Tashx

Wicker Easter Bunny!

Easter is finally here and it is lovely to enjoy some crafting time amongst other things planned for the Easter break.  

I have been playing with my Perfect Partner dies today but I am not quite ready to reveal what I have been up to just yet!

I would like to share with you today my decorated wicker bunny that I purchased from Hobbycraft.  I decorated it with some flowers I made using the Serenity paper kit from Craftwork Cards and then used my glue gun to secure them. I particularly love the tones of light blue. 

Have a great Easter, crafty hugs from CraftyTashX.

Paper Flower Wreath

The most enjoyable aspect of my recent visit to the Craft4Crafters show at Westpoint was visiting the Pink Frog Crafts and Card stand where I found a tiny plant pot filled with little paper snowdrops.  I was shown how to make these and took this photo as a momento in case I forget what they looked like.

However, these were not the only paper flowers that had been created by the demonstrator, she had made a lovely heart shaped wreath covered in lots of tiny handmade paper flowers.  They looked so beautiful that I wanted to try this for myself.

I was suprised to learn that the majority of the flowers made on the wreath came from one die.  It is available on their website and called a medium multiflower Rose Die (024).  I already owned this die but hadn't tried making anything other than roses and fuchsias with it. However, with this one die you can make roses, daises, fuchsias, aquilegia, poppies and sunflowers so it is really good value for money.  So all I needed to purchase was an additional die for making daffodils.  

With these two dies I made the majority of the flowers you see below in this wreath.

Here are some close ups:

The daisy is one of the easiest to make.  First cut out some flowers.  You need two for a daisy but of course you will make more than one.  Take your ball tool and run this around each flower to give it a curl.  Then take your pokey tool and fold each petal in turn over it to give it extra shape.  Now put a blob of glue in the centre of one and place the other on top slight offset.  Finish the centre using flower soft.

The daffodil couldn't be easier.  With the two cut petals first shape them with your ball tool and then place a dab of glue on one and sandwich together, offsetting them. 

With your pokey tool pierce the centre so that your sepal will push through.  

Take the final piece cut from the die and use your largest ball tool to shape it.  As you approach the shortest edge, force it to curl with the ball tool so that when you glue it in place it has an a larger surface edge to glue to the rest of the flower.  Now glue the seam together.  When dry apply glue around the narrow edge and hold in place until it grabs.  Your sepals should already be in place at this point!

The aquilegia was made using the MultiFlower Rose Die for the outer petal and a tonic die punch for the centre.  

I learned a very interesting tip at the show on how to pinch the edges of the outer flowers. First shape your flowers with the ball tool and then using your pokey tool hold it along the longer edge of a petal and wrap the petal around the pokey tool to crease it. 

Place a tiny amount of glue at the tip of the flower and hold this firmly with your round nose pliers.  Gently push the pliers toward the centre of the flower and this action creates the lovely pinched edges you see on the flower.

The Chrysanthemum was made using multiple layers which were shaped before gluing into place.

The pink carnation was made using the same die but I used scissors with a special edge to create the effect on the edge.

and finally the Gerbera Daisy.  I have a punch that I used to create the centre of this flower.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to sit and make paper flowers.  I think the best advise I can offer is to use your ball tool to shape your flowers and have handy your pokey tool and round nose pliers.  Glue with quick grab is helpful but not essential and flower soft makes great centres for your flowers.

Tool Box Card

I have some craft dies by Robert Addams designed to look like a set of miniature tools. Robert specialises in designing dies around themes and these ones are just perfect for men's cards.



Over the last few days my mind has been occupied with making men's cards.  I have a few to share I have made with the Craftwork Cards Man Made paper collection which I promise to share in my next post.  However, today I want to show you my tool box card I have made.  It was inspired by the box shaped cards we are becoming familiar with. I could have made a card using this partiucular design but really wanted to have a go at making my own tool box.  

I scoured the internet for a template and had almost given up and then came across an idea for a carton that in my mind looked just like a toolbox.  I copied the image and blew it up just large enough to fit on an a piece of A4 paper in landscape.  If I were to cut off the bottom tabs of the carton it would be just like a box card that folds flat.  I cut out the template onto red cardstock and put creases in where the folds are required.  Then all it needed was some strips of card inserted inside the box, carefully positioned so that the box could still lie flat for posting.  This is easy to do if you glue the ends of each tab in opposite directions.  Just check it lies flat before the glue has had time to dry.  Finally, I proceeded to cut some tools out from the above die set and then stuck them onto the tab strips.

Here is the end result. Now mum please don't show this to my father as I plan to send it to him for Father's Day!  

Anyone wishing to have a copy of the template need only ask as I am more than happy to share.

Christmas Door and Wreath Tutorial

Question: 
How do you turn a window die into a door?

Answer:  

Follow this tutorial!

http://www.dipsdesigns.com/2013/11/christmas-door-wreath-card-tutorial.html

I love my Tonic dies so when I stumbled upon this tutorial "Christmas Door and Wreath Card Tutorial" last week I didn't care that it was far too early to be thinking about Christmas Cards, I just wanted to have a play at turning my window die into an actual door.

It took a few attempts to get this right but I think it was worth the pain!  It was also my first experience of hanging my dies over the edge of my plates to avoid them cutting into the card stock.  

 A window die with 4 panes has now turned into a door with 6 panels.  It is great how flexible this die can be.

I used some very expensive red velvet card once I had perfected the cut and I think you will agree it looks stunning! The card is called Red Velvet Card and 3 sheets set me back £2.50.  I had been saving it for my Poinsetta dies but since I have made two doors from one sheet it isn't too bad! The supplier is Pink Frog Crafts and Cards.  They have amazing card stock for printing on called Inkjet Printable Shimmer White Decoupage Paper.  The weight is 160gsm so prints without any jamming and the quality is great.  



Here is the door without the wreath decoration.  My gratitude goes to Dips Designs for sharing the tutorial with us fellow crafters.  Thanks Dips. 

Now I just need to decide whether to go with the wreath idea or not and make the background card for the door to sit on.  

Keep crafting, Crafty Tash