Purple Onion...

Have some new stamps...a cute bird and a lovely heart banner..
The following instructions are just for getting you started, for making a base to which you can add any other bits and pieces...for example, rub-ons, gems, further collage items, glitter and any stamped images you like.

 

Paint your canvas with a layer of gesso.Take any mask and a credit card... scrape a layer of gesso over the mask, let it dry.

 

take a piece of paper from a book and glue at the top, wipe or brush some colour onto the paper and the textured bottom.Wipe another colour around the edges.

 

Cut out and add the house, stamp, colour and cut out the bird and the banner.

 

Use a piece of florists wire as the banner string, poke the ends through the canvas, use foam pads to stick on the hearts, stitch through the hearts and over the wire to hang the hearts.

add words of your choice.....
Everything you need (except the canvas) can be found here....

Keep it Together!

Want to keep stuff together?.... This little book is a record of some of the challenges I've done.The images are already on my blog so I just selected some and printed them wallet sized.
You will need 2 chipboard covers and as many pages as you like.
My pages are 14x9cms, all different colours. I used the My Card stamp from Purple Onion ( Maybe out of stock at the moment but there's bucket loads of new stuff on the way so keep looking!)

Cover your front and back covers. Stamp the hand onto white card....dull the image with an ink pad, I used TH Antique Linen. Glue the hand to chipboard and cut out............glue this to the front WHEN YOU HAVE PUNCHED THE HOLES FOR BINDING!... 2 layers of chipboard does not go into a Bind it All!

Cut out your printed images.... with a craft knife cut around the fingers and slip in your image beneath the fingers..

I used an old text book for background paper

and added stitches around each page

Try using a selection of your own photographs.. maybe for a birthday or other special occassion!

Hope you like it

Effie

XXX

A Matchbox Card ...

Hello, this is Andrea and I'm here to sahre my Matchbox creation. I've loved seeing what the other girls have made and how different they have all been from the same starting point. I thought about this little matchbox for a long time and dithered about what to do with it but then I had a brainwave and it all came together quite quickly one morning

So, this is the outside, I used the Cosmo Cricket Delovely papers and a 7Gypsies handle

Inside is a concertina mini book with each 'page' spelling out the word Birthday

I thought it would make a lovely alternative to a birthday card and there is still room even with the book closed up to tuck a few trinkets and birthday memories inside

I used:

7 Gypsies ATC matchbox kit

Cosmo Cricket Delovely papers

Purple Onion butterfly and sentiment stamps

Nestabilities scalloped rectangle die

Stampin Up alphabet dies

Papertrey ink

and ribbons from The Ribbon Girl

Jan, Tri- shutter cards

Hi folks I thought I'd share a couple of Tri-shutter cards I've made using some lovely stamps from the shop. The first card was made using the fab Basic Grey basics manilla paper ( I really like using this range for mens cards) and my new favourite ...Harlequins stamp from Purple Onion I've used my skull and crossbones border stamp to create the panels on this card. This stamp is so versitile. I've even cut out individual skulls to decorate the edges of the middle panel. To add a bit of bling I've used icicle stickles on the eye sockets! I've also trimmed the edge of the panels with my other favourite Happy Birthday border stamp.

If you haven't made this crads before have a go they're really easy.

Pretty Butterflies ...

Jean sent me this gorgeous set of butterfly stamps and I couldn't wait to use them on a card.

I used the biggest of the butterflies which measures about 7.5 cmc wide. I stamped in black Memento ink and coloured with Copic Markers

I just used the darker colours in the centre fading out to the lighest on the edges of his wings

I coloured two of the same butterflies, cut the wings from the second and glued them on top of the first, curling the edges of the wings up

I used a second stamp from Jean, the For You greeting block by Purple Onion Designs. I didn't have the right colour inkpad so I used a Stampin Up marker to colour all over the stamp before printing.

I cut it into a tag shape by drawing around the lid off a jar of flowers :)

I kept the design of the card really simple by leaving off any patterned paper and getting all the colour from the coordinating ribbon, cardstock, ink and the coloured butterfly

I used:

Purple Onion Butterfly stamp

Purple Onion Greeting block stamp

Kaisercraft Rhinestones

All Sorted!

You can never have enough rubber stamps........
I love this French Flea Market set from Purple Onion, perfect for making vintage labels to transform your everyday glass jars!
Just stamp onto scraps of paper...I used scraps of Basic Grey Koshi and a brown pigment inkpad to distress the edges.

Just how cute is that small pin stamp! I love the way it looks like it's through the paper!

There's a few more ideas in the pipeline for this set so keep looking!

Hope you like it!

Effie

XXX

Speedy, Quick and Easy ...

Hello, today I want to share a couple of cards for those moments in life when you realise you have less than 20 minutes to make a card for someone because you forgot all about it. I can't possibly be the only one who has those 'panic panic, what will I do?' moments. No? I didn't think so :)

The first card is super simple to make. Everything I used came from Jean apart from the pens and border punch. Have a dig around in your scrap box (or like me use a couple of brand new sheets of paper) and select a couple of coordinating patterns. Trim paper to fit a blank card, cut a paper doilie in half and glue onto both sides of the papers, attach to the card with dimensional foam pads. Cut a strip of paper and add a decorative edge with dies, punches or something frilly, add this to the card with dimensionals. Stamp the doodled frame, cut out and colour with a marker, use a fine tip pen in a coordinating colour to fill in the spaces in the doodled lines. Stamp a greeting onto the frame, add a couple of pretty dewdrops, attach with foam pads and your card is done.  Time taken - 15 minutes!!

I used:

DeLovely 6x6 paper pad

Small paper doilie

Doodle frame stamp

Happy Birthday stamp (may be out of stock)

Dewdrops

My second card is just as quick. On your computer print a sentiment close to the bottom of the paper, trim to fit a coloured cardblank, adhere and attach a few sparkly gemstones. Use the Doodled Heart stamps to stamp a pattern block in coordinating ink, add glitter to some of the hearts and trim. Mat onto coordinating card and add a frilly border to each long side with a die, punch etc. Tie a matching ribbon around the pattern block and attach to the card with foam dimensional pads.  Tada! one finished card in no time at all :)  This card made, written and on it's way to the post office within 20 minutes. It was only after I popped it in the post box that I realised I hadn't taken it's photograph so I had to ring the recipient and ask them for it back!!

I used:

Doodle Heart Set stamp (I think it was probably designed to cut into seperate stamps

but I love using it as a large block so have kept mine in one piece)

Kaiser Rhinestones in Hot Pink (gorgeous!!)

More Pointy Fingers.........

I still love these stamps..............and there's more ideas to come!

I wanted to make something to display all those ATCs that were stashed away in plastic folders so this is what I came up with..

You will need..

Small pegs... mine were about 2.5cm, scraps of patterned paper and some twine.

Stamp a medium size hand onto your scraps and cut out.

Thread the twine through the spring of the peg, secure on each side with a knot... do this one peg at a time... space your pegs approx 10cm appart

Glue your stamped hands onto the pegs.......

Hang your ATCs!

Hope you like it!

Effie

XXX

It's Rude to Point!

I just love this set of stamps from Purple Onion Designs.... I have lots of ideas.. but here's one of them! You'll need a piece of florists wire, a peg and a square block of wood and patterned paper, Basic Grey Basics

Take the peg appart... Twist the wire through the spring of the peg. Stamp your pionty finger and glue to a scrap of chipboard, cut out. Cut a small circle of chipboard and cover with paper, stamp a design on...one of the Purple Onion date stamps would be perfect...................wish I'd thought of that before!
Drill a small hole in the block of wood. Cover the block with paper. Reassemble the peg

Glue the finger and the circle to the peg, glue the wire in the wooden block.... use Diamond Glaze or similar. Cute!

Hope you like it

Effie

XXX

Man Cards ...

I don't know about you but I often struggle with making cards for men.  Little boy cards are fine, teenagers and even young men I can cope with but when they get a bit older - like Dad age - I suddenly find myself in the realms of those awful cards that your Aunty Gladys sends to your Dad with pints of beer, footballers and sailing boats on the front - I'm sure you know the kind I mean.  When I look at my small amount *ahem* considerable okay them ever increasing :) stash I see flowers, pretty colours, glitter, sparkle and in general lots of feminine embellishments and papers so perhaps this is why I struggle with male cards.

So, I set myself a challenge to make some cards for men and off I went to rummage through the shelves of Jean's shop. It didn't take me long - in fact I just clicked on the New Products link - to find some really lovely papers and stamps that I thought might make some nice cards and this is what I did.

My card

I used the Music Background stamp to create my own background paper and stamped in brown ink onto kraft cardstock, then cut it out, layered onto black card and stitched around the edge with my sewing machine. Then I used foam dimensional pads to adhere it onto a white folded cardblank

I loved this black and cream spotted paper from the October Afternoon Thrift Shop paper pad so trimmed a smaller piece, layered onto more black card and stitched around the edge. I used a Making Memories slot punch to create a hole, threaded the ribbon through (who said male cards can't have ribbon?) and tied it in a knot

After using foam pads again to adhere the panel I then created a greeting with the Birthday Wishes sentiment stamp, trimmed and then layered onto the scraps of black cardstock

As a final touch - and because a card just isn't a card without some glitter and sparkle! - I added 3 black Kaisercraft rhinestones to balance the design

I hope you're feeling inspired to make those men in your life some of their own cards, love Andrea x