Flower challenge

The first flower has been made by using a double sided sticky sheet to put fabric onto thin card before being die cut. By putting the fabric onto thin card it gives it some rigidity but still allows you to bend the petals into shape. The button centre is stuck on but marked with black permanent marker to give the illusion of stitching.
This could be very useful when colour co-ordinating wedding favours, cards, decorations. If you can use fabric from the wedding dresses you will get a perfect match!

The second flower is made using Walnut Hollow Creative Metal and tools. This idea is taken from a wonderful tutorial I found on yoursartfully.blogspot.com The flowers are die cut from metal then using the tools they are decorated with pattern. Once the tool work is complete you can then colour them with alcohol inks. This is my first effort at this as you can probably tell but I shall do more as this technique can give great results and it's quite therapeutic too.

This little fellow is made using my favourite technique from Sue Wilson at Creative Expressions. If you look further back in my blog history you will find a link to her worksheet. This flower is also die cut, using four identical flowers that are coloured and trimmed then assembled to make this lovely rose.


All these flowers have been made using one die plate - Tattered Florals from Tim Holtz at Sizzix but they can also be made using any other die cut flower shape. The rose requires a six petal flower but can be made with a five petal with a few adjustments. Marianne Creatables have a die set with several sizes of six petal flower which makes amazing little roses in small to tiny. Spellbinders also have some beautiful flower dies. It's a case of experimenting with what you have to see what you can make. If you don't have a die cutter don't worry, several companies produce gorgeous flower stamps that can be cut out by hand and made into roses etc.

If this rain keeps on then settle down and create some flowers.

Mind that heat gun!

It may not be the typical fire engine you would expect to see but it is an active fire service vehicle. I have always wanted to drive a fire engine complete with flashing lights and sirens and on saturday that's what I got to do.

The Fire Fighters Charity organised a Ladies Driving Challenge day held at Coltishall, Norfolk. You raise money via sponsorship for the charity and they let you drive a wide selection of vehicles, it has to be done, it is without doubt one of the best days out ever and you're helping charity while having fun. For those of you who are tempted then contact The Fire Fighters Charity to find out when and where the next challenge is.

The fire engine was top of the list but I also got to drive a combine harvester, a tractor, a coach, police car, double decker bus, a landrover on an off road course and to finish the day a ride in a tank! Wasn't allowed to drive that one .....shame, maybe next time!!!

There were also sports cars, articulated lorries and a couple of army lorries but I ran out of time. There's always next year!

Welcome Ellie

One of my friends has just had a little girl so I made this for her. Although I've known for some months of the baby's approximate arrival date I still managed to leave it to the last minute to make the card!

The stamp is from Lilly Of The Valley and works perfectly for either sex, just stamp and colour in, I've used Cosmic Shimmer watercolours. The image has been cut out using a nestability die, then leaving the die on the image I inked around the edge with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. I love the little white border that you get when you do this, it gives the impression of another layer of card. The next layer is cut with the next size up in the nesty set using pink mirror card.

The base card was half embossed by only putting half of the front into an embossing folder. Lilac gingham paper is stuck onto the smooth half of the card. I always take the paper round the fold of the card and fix it on the back as this stops the edge getting creased up and spoiling all your hard work. The main image is placed in the centre on foam pads. Booties and wording were added using peel offs.

Sheena Douglass blog candy for christmas!

Just a small note to let you know that Sheena has some gorgeous new Christmas Fusion coming out tomorrow. Pop over to her blog to see what she has been doing with them. Must put these on my Christmas wish list......that's if I can wait that long!!