More bookmarks

I remembered I had a large box of faux Victorian scraps that I had bought years ago and wondered what I could do with them. As I have lots of narrow pieces of card, I decided to try some bookmarks.

I cut the pictures away from their retainers and then trimmed them slightly to cut away any outline.I then stuck the picture on with PVA glue and covered the entire bookmark with opaque glitter glue.

The bookmarks then had to be left overnight to dry and when I looked at them this morning, I decided they were just a bit too flimsy. So I cut an identical size piece of card and stuck this to the back. I then punched a hole at the top and threaded ribbon through.

I think they look good, although they do shed a bit of glitter!

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Shaving, waxing, epilation

Why do I remove "unwanted" hair?

It's not for a husband

Who loves me 

too much to care

It's for all those women

Who would otherwise

stand and stare

Stop removing hair?

I wouldn't dare

Cards from photos

I have a lot of lovely photos that I took in the Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam. I have wanted to use them in card making for a long time, and today was the day I did just that!

I printed the photos on smooth, matt paper and then decided I wanted a bit of gloss on them so sprayed with a quick drying paper varnish. I also printed a faded background paper of the same photo. I wanted to 3D the pictures so cut smaller layers from 3 other prints of the same picture.

I really like this card. It's uncluttered and the decoupage layers I chose worked well.







I wanted to make this picture into an easel card. The decoupage layers worked well as did mounting the background paper onto yellow card. I then chose a pink ribbon but wrapped it around the same yellow card and of course it turned orange! I don't think the embellishments I chose work well at all. To me, the card is twee!

Bookmarks

Here are the completed bookmarks which some of you will already have seen on Twitter!

More parchment craft

Today, I have completed 2 parchment pictures.

This picture has large areas to emboss, unlike the flowers. I really struggled with the shading and there is definitely too much on the face. But it is very pretty.






The second piece includes some much finer work than I have done before,
including lettering. I only used a very fine ball tool for this one and again I managed to make a couple of holes. But very pleased with this one.

Parchment Craft

On Saturday, I finally bought some stepladders so that I can reach all of the craft stuff on top of wardrobes safely. Along with lots of boxes of coloured card, I found my (unopened) box of parchment craft patterns and tools.

Having enjoyed the Parchamore so much, which uses stencils, I was anxious to have a go with patterns and white mapping ink. I didn't find that the instructions that clear, particularly as it said to rub all over the area inside the pattern with the ball tool and yet the pictures clearly show graduated shading. However, there are 6 patterns/projects to try and they become more challenging as you progress which is a positive.

Anyway, here is my first attempt. I slipped with the pen in 2 places and again pushed through the parchment with the small ball tool in another 2 places. I have 2 photos...one shows the work in progress and the other the finished piece. I will probably make this piece into a bookmark.

Parchamore

I love the look of parchment craft but I am not sure I have the dexterity in my hands now to do the delicate work. Years ago I bought a Fiskars mini boss and then later on bought a full Parchamore kit and a couple of smaller ones. Basically it is a stencil system that you can use on a foam mat which is attached to the mini boss. Then it is using the ball tools and pricking pens as usual.

This was the first one I tried. It is shaded with white pencil. It went really well apart from a couple of small holes I made from pressing too hard with the ball tool. I mounted the parchment paper onto black card and then red. I punched some leaves out of green card and then added red and black flowers.

For this one, the outlining was completed first and then I coloured in softly with watercolour pencils. I then used a water brush to spread the colour and left it to dry. I then worked the pattern over the leaves and flower.

The flower colour is a deep peach. I thought about silver or gold mirri board to back the parchment but they were too harsh. I eventually found an almost match to the flower colour. I then placed ribbon down the right hand side and a row of lace flowers on the left.

Journalling

Despite starting the front page of the journal I bought at Christmas, I didn't make further progress until last week when I added 3 poems. Then at the weekend, I found a bundle of craft try outs that I did 8 years ago with my granddaughter, who was 6 at the time, and with my son's former partner. They are mainly rubber stamping on watercolour paper, but I loved doing them at the time and I am pleased that I can use them in my journal with my poems. Below are 3 from the first 6.