Spellbinders Plumb blossom die card

Hello everyone, Design elf Katrina here to show you what I have been up to in my craft nook lately.

    I have been sat with my die cutting machine, I use a Cuttlebug machine, making cards using the Spellbinders Plum Blossom die.

    I must admit now thinking about it, Plumb Blossom is usually pink but I think I was thinking more cherry blossom with this card!

As you can see I have teamed this pretty die with a sheet of the Far and Away paper called Navy Blossom. If you haven't seen these papers yet, take a look, they are beautiful and some of then have a wonderful pearlescent sheen to them.

You can find the papers here - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/far--away-168-c.asp

Once I had covered the front of a 6" x 4" card with the Far and Away Navy Blossom paper I cut an oval aperture into the front and placed a piece of acetate behind it.

I then cut the die out. You get the branch with the base of the bird sat in the middle, so I cut that in brown. You then get the body of the bird which I cut in blue and then again in a purple colour. They only need tiny pieces so its great to use all those little scraps we crafters hoard.

The flowers are all on a separate die again and there are enough to put all the flowers on the branch. I cut mine in a white pearl card.

Once it was all put together I glued it to the front of the acetate.

I then cut and built up more of the branches to go around the card.

Then for the sentiment I used one of my own dies that would fit on the front. Then the card was finished.

This really is a pretty die and could be used in many different colour ways for all sorts of occasions. The little flowers themselves could be used for all kinds of other things with other dies.

You can find the die here along with lots of other wonderful Spellbinders dies

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/spellbinders-dies-648-c.asp

Hope you are having a great crafting day!

                                                       Love Katrina

Down a rabbit hole book with Visible Image stamps

Hi there design elf Katrina here with my new project using the Alice in wonderland stamps from Visible Image.

    This is quite a project that did take me a while to complete, so grab a cup of tea, check for door mice asleep in the tea pot and come with me for an Adventure down a rabbit hole!

I wanted to make a peek through book using the story of Alice. The cover is very simple, I used the largest of my circle dies to make the first hole and chose the paper from Ruby Rocket to cover the front and some of the lovely washi tape to add some definition.

The title for the book was printed out from the computer. I tried to get a font that was as close to the font in the stamp sets and this was the closest match. The font is from Lettering Delights called, rather appropriately Red Hatters Hand. 

So the first page had to be Alice, the hole is the same size as the covers, I then just chose the next size down to cut the page after and continued like that until I had finished my book pages. All the holes have acetate sandwiched between the embossed card and the backing paper on the reverse side. I coloured all the pages using watercolour paint first then chose an embossing folder that I thought would match the character on the page. Once embossed I used an ink pad to bring out the highlights of the emboss. 

I then stamped, coloured and cut out Alice along with the other small stamps in the set.

It was fun to find and cut die cuts to build a little scene around each character to help tell the story. Of course my Silhouette Cameo electronic die cutting machine helped a great deal!

On each page I cut up the quote for each character and stuck it over the window.

Page 2 is the white rabbit of course! He has a Tim Holtz clock embossing folder for his background and as well as the character of the white rabbit I also used a clock die and of course that wonderful quote and the tic tock stamp that comes in the set too.

Now page 3 is a character I haven't used up until now but I loved this page, the Cheshire cat! I added a branch for him to sit up in and grin down on us. He has a swirly background and I just love that quote too! He also comes with just his grin as a stamp too.

Page 4 is another character I haven't shown you yet, Twiddle dum and Twiddle dee. You only get 1 stamp but by stamping them twice and colouring them in differently they become the twins. They have a number embossed background and I used a piece of Washi tape to give them somewhere to stand and kept the page simple with just their quote. Sometimes if you have lots of busy pages its nice to let your eyes rest on a simple page.

Then onto page 4 with our very glamorous Queen of hearts. I used the small Tim Holtz card embossing folders for her background and the just cut some hearts that I used as wings for the Jar of hearts and her quote that comes in her set.

Then at the last page we come to the Mad Hatter and his tea party. Funny I wasn't sure of him at first but as I have used these stamps he has become my favourite, he really is quite Bonkers!! So this page has a crazy background and of course it had to have tea cups and a tea pot all grounded by a strip of washi tape. Then these wonderful Ha Ha's floating about around his quote, which I just love!

Well there we are a trip down the rabbit hole. I had a great time making this book, OK its not a quick project but it is sometimes nice to pull all your craft items together and make something fun. This would make a great gift for someone who is a fan of Lewis Carroll's wonderful book.

 Happy 150th Birthday Lewis Carroll!! 

Hope you can enjoy some bonkers crafting soon!

                                                                     Love Katrina