Cherry Blossom

Good Morning everyone

Today Im sharing a little gift I made for a friend, its a wooden book shaped box which I decided to turn into a kind of shadow box which can be displayed stood up and open.  I used a beautiful paper set I got back in the black friday sales with a spring theme. I used a mix of the 12x12 and 6x6 papers and found the images work well together for creating my little scenes.  It is unusual for me not to add anything else other than the chat stickers but was nice and relaxing when I was feeling a bit rough over Christmas time to not think too much about matching things and just use what was in the sets.

I forgot to measure the box before I posted it, but it isn't very big, if i remember correctly its about 5x3" and 1" deep

I painted the box with matt acrylic paints in shades to match the papers, so ive picked out the blue, pink and soft yellow, I painted the outside blue, the inside pink and the sides yellow.  I then cut one of the papers to fit the front and decoupaged with matt mod podge.  I then cut out the little girl catching a cherry blossom, some branches and little bird.  I tore a couple of pieces of paper to add as some ground for her to stand on and a couple of smaller flowers and sealed it all with more mod podge.

The chit chat stickers are by aall&create on the front here I added 'admire divine blossom' as thought that worked - there is something magical about the first blossoms of spring and how they lift our spirits. 

This shows it stood up open on display, it nicely stands up by itself.  I lightly added pink cadence dora paint to the edges for a little shimmer in the light 

On the inside left I added one of the papers and cut out elements of this cherry blossom wreath which I added the little cross legged girl inside and surrounded with different sized flowers.  A little birdie sits on top of the wreath.  I added a little touch of diamond stickles glitter glue to the flower centres for just a little sparkle 

Chat stickers say 'Enjoy serenity, experience enlightenment'

Just spending quiet time in the garden or anywhere with nature, sit and listen and its very calming and healing.  A kind of meditation against the hassle of life. 

I adhered the paper girl on swing to study acetate and cut around her, thus giving her stability and strength, i then added score lines at the top of the 'ropes' to adhere to the top of the box so that she actually moves and get swing forward and back.  I then added some cherry blossoms in front of the ropes to hide the workings - these I also added on acetate so nice and strong and wont damage as the swing moves. 

Below the swinging girl we have  a blossom branch with a little birds nest and bird.  I added glossy accents to the eggs.

Chat stickers read 'Achieve happiness'

Once you have done your meditation in the garden and breathed in the scent of the blossom and listened to the birds singing its is happiness and of course who then doesn't love a go on a swing😁  These bags of chat words from aall&create contain hundreds of words so I was going boggle eyed looking for some to suit that weren't too gushy! 

and the back of the box, just the same paper as the front.  Everything was coated in mod podge to varnish and protect it as it will be handled a bit. 

Items Used:

13arts paper 'Pastel Spring' 6x6 & 12x12 

Aall&create chat stickers

Wooden box

Folk art matt paint 

Cadence Dora paint - fuchsia 

Mod podge

acetate

Ranger Stickles 'diamond'

Id love to enter the following:

https://tolanythingbutacard.blogspot.com/ - anything goes option

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https://www.simplyellibelle.com/2026/01/ellibelles-garden-party-no-11-anything.html

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https://lovethoseprettypapers.blogspot.com/2026/01/atg-using-pretty-patterned-paper.html

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https://girlzcreativefunartofscrap.blogspot.com/2026/01/challenge-18.html

 

National look alike day

Good Morning everyone

Today im honoured to be a guest designer for Day of the month card club

and the theme is 'National look alike day'

https://dayofthemonthcardclub.blogspot.com/2024/04/challenge-62-national-look-alike-day.html

So we are looking for 2 of anything i.e 2 flowers, 2 birds, 2 frames.  Now this one really got me thinking and i just kept coming back to the idea of twins so i dug out my old Carabelle Stamps SA60158 'Zinouk du jardin'    a fab old door stamp by Katzelkraft and some cherry blossom to give the feel of stepping out of the grey of winter and into the cheerful blossoming of spring. 

Approx card size 5x7"   I first stamped Zinouk twice onto white card and watercoloured with my inktense pencils and then cut her out. I gave them matching outfits so that they definitely look alike

I die cut white card into an arch card base, then used 2 smaller arch dies to cut a frame from white, from the middle piece of the frame i stamped the old doorway in soft grey ink and gave it a very light watercolour wash.  I stamped some twigs around the edge and some text in the background - all in grey. I then lightly inked the edges with a light brushing of black soot distress ink - I also did that to the edges of my base card. 

I added the white arch frame with 3d foam and then adhered the topper scene in flat.  I then added the 2 Zinouk's with glue gel so that they are 'stood' on the frame.  I stamped & coloured some cherry blossom, cut out and attached with glue gel and a stamped sentiment to finish.

Just a close up - i added a little touch of glitter to their earrings for a subtle bit of bling. The sentiment stamp is an old magazine freebie

Items Used:

Carabelle Stamps SA60158 'Zinouk du jardin'

Katzelkraft stamps 'les portes'

Katkin krafts stamps (background text) (cherry blossom) 'love nest'

aall&create stamps #851 'rise & shine'  

Sentiment stamp - old magazine freebie

Derwent inktense pencils

Distress inks - black soot, vintage photo, cracked pistachio, shaded lilac

Ranger stickles 'diamond'

Thank you all for stopping by, please do hop over to day of the month card club to join in and see everyone comes up with for National look a like day .  I hope you all have a fabulous week whatever you get upto, I shall be doing lots of crafting with my nieces as its the Easter holidays. Emmax

 

Oriental Tri-Panel card

Good Morning everyone, its monday again and time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday

The theme this time is 

ORIENTAL

So digging through my stash found this beautiful stamp which came free a while ago with a magazine and lovely paper pad called cherry blossom by kaisiercraft. 

I didn't want to hide the beautiful papers so decided to make a different shaped card.  Not sure what its called but image below shows it better.  I stamped my image onto white card and various papers so i could paper piece the image.  I then mounted the topper onto black cardstock. 

I picked out a lovely fan paper which i thought went with the image perfectly and layered onto black card and then the card base.  I used more papers and layered up and added across the middle of the card base. 

All the flowers came from the paperpad too, so i cut out lots of them and arranged around the lady and on the base.  Orangey gems to finish. 

Showing the shape of the card from above, i was inspired by a beautiful card i was sent, i took a sheet of A4 white card and scored it 4 times in the middle and folded.  You can easily change the size depending on the size of the topper etc.  I used a corner punch on the outside edges. 

Close up of the image.  I paper pieced her with plain papers from the pad, i added extra colour to the flowers with a alcohol pen.  Touches of glitter glue to the flower centres.

Items Used:

Stamps - Japanese Tea Garden freebie from Cardmaking & papercraft magazine

Kaisercraft paper pad 'cherry blossom'

Double stitched rectangle die set

Stickles diamond glitter glue

Thank you for stopping by and if you fancy seeing what everyone else comes up with for the Oriental theme and to join in please do hop over to mmmchallengeblog

I hope you all have a good week and can keep cool if effected by the on going hot weather.  Hugs Emma