Hollyhocks for mum

Good Morning everyone

Today Im sharing the card I made for my mum for Mothering Sunday.  I used metallic flakes, printed acetate and my very old well loved hollyhock die to make a DL card for her.  Nightmare to take photos of though with all the shimmer and shine!

DL (8x4") white linen cardbase which i lightly inked the edged with cracked pistachio and tumbled glass distress inks.  I die cut a lacy panel from white linen card and added to the front.

I adhered a sheet of double side adhesive to white card and on the other side rubbed in the metallic flakes and then die cut them with the hollyhock die.  I die cut foliage from pale blue and pearl teal cardstock.

I have packs of 'clear prints' from stamperia which is very very heavy weight acetate with beautiful printed images, so I die cut a jar from one fo them.  Now this acetate is so thick the die doesn't cut right through but enough that i could then finish cutting it with scissors and get a clean edge.  I added this to the card front with pinflair glue gel and then got arranging the flowers and foliage. 

I added a torn scrap of green paper under the jar to 'ground' it

Side view of the dimension.  I added curve to the hollyhocks with a ball tool

The acetate jar has a lovely shine which adds interest and another texture.  I debated where to put a sentiment but decided against it, I know mum will have this on display for months so doesn't really need a sentiment on the front. 

Here you can really see the colours better, the metallic fakes really are shimmery and gorgeous but I do so hate them! lol

No matter how hard I try every time Ive used guilding flakes or metallic flakes they go everywhere and stick to everything - for weeks afterwards they turn up somewhere, for days the cats had red speckled fur - one even had a red sparkly nose for a few days,  the hoover has a lovely coating of them where they stuck to the warmth of the outside plastic areas.  So I did use the whole pot up in one go adding to adhesive sheets to get it over with - I still have them to use.  I was give the pot as a Christmas present and the effect if beautiful with the different colours in them but yep a product I still Hate to use😒

Items Used

Cosmic shimmer metallic flakes

Stamperia clear prints

Impression Obsession hollyhock die

Jar & foliage dies

Various printed papers 

Distress Inks - tumbled glass, cracked pistachio

Thank you for stopping by once again.  I hope you all have a great week. Emma

Id love to enter the following

https://www.simplyellibelle.com/2025/03/ellibelles-garden-party-no-1-anything.html

**

https://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/mttc-556-theme-is-celebrate-someone.html

**

https://beautifulblossomschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/beautiful-blossoms-challenge-anything.html #2

**

https://dragonflydreamschallenges.blogspot.com/2025/03/march-challenge-gardening.html

**

 

Mums birthday

Good Morning everyone

Today Im sharing the card I made for my mums birthday.  Ive gone full on flower power this year with these lovely hydrangeas I built up.  By using brushos & pixie powders to colour the cardstock I was able to get a quite realistic colour for some of the bushes my mum has in one of her gardens.  Growing up I always remember my gran wanting Blue ones, every blue one she planted turned Pink and my other gran (nan) always wanted a pink one but they all turned Blue, even when adding various additives to the soil they would eventually change colour😁

7x7" scalloped card base.

I first coloured 3 sheets of A4 card with brushos and pixie powders and let dry.  Once dry I die cut alot of the petals, I then shaped the petals with an embossing tool to give them more concave curve.  I die cut a circle from the same background so that I could build up my flower - by using the same colour as the flowers any gaps aren't noticeable.  I then got building, starting from the outside working in, adhered the outside ones flat and using more glue gel on the inside ones to get more dimension and a more realistic shape.  Each die cut petal had a hole in the centre so i added a drop of lime green stickles glitter glue to hide that.  I made the flower heads in 3 slightly different sizes.

I die cut lots of leaves from green coloured brusho card.  I used a brick embossing folder onto a piece of white card slightly smaller than the card front, lightly inked over it with peeled paint & dried marigold distress ink and added it to the front.  I then arranged the flowers and leaves until I was happy with the look. 

To finish I die cut 'mum' from the same card as the flowers and added.

This shows the colour better, with the pixie powder there is a shimmer when the light hits it 

With the brick embossing folder technically i used the debossed side as the bricks should be the embossed and the cement debossed but that side of this embossing folder never looks good to me for some reason so i always use it this way round.

Here you can see the dimension better

Items Used:

Hydrangea die - brand unknown as I bought secondhand 

Crafters companion 8x8 brick embossing folder

Crafters companion alpha dies

CraftUK ltd 7" scalloped card blank

Ranger Stickles 'lime'

Distress Inks 'peeled paint, dried marigold'

Brusho Powders 'Ost blue, purple, rose, lime & leaf green'

Cosmic shimmer pixie powders 'plum'

 Thank you for stopping by once again and taking the time to visit and comment.  I appreciate both.  Happy Crafting. Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-anything-goes.html

*

https://cyhtp.blogspot.com/2025/02/anything-goes-with-twist-of-something.html - F is for flowers

*

https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-2025-challenge.html

*

https://daisychainchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/challenge-93-layer-it-up.html - 2nd entry

*

Mothers Day

Good Morning everyone

Today is the card i made for my mum for Mothers day yesterday

A5 in size.   I first die cut the poppy die from silver mirror card and then coloured them with alcohol markers in green, orange & red.

I made my white card blank using the largest nesting die.  I then took another piece of white card and embossed with the 3D lace embossing folder, i did the letter press technique and inked one side on the folder with tumbled glass and cracked pistachio distress inks and then run through my machine.  Doesn't show up well in the photo and more noticeable in real life but its gives a subtle background colour. 

I then used the nesting dies and using every other size die to cut the embossed panel into frames.  I adhered the largest outside frame to the card front with 6mm of foam tape, the next size down with 4mm of foam tape and the next size down with 2mm, i then added the smallest piece flat in the middle. This card was hand delivered so i could put as much foam tape & dimension as i liked on it.  Its just a way of adding interest to what is essentially a very simple card. 

I then arranged the mirror card poppies, using 3 of them and cutting up the various stems/flowers to alter them and build them up, i tucked the ends into the frames so it looks like they are growing out of it. 

Stamped sentiment to finish

You can really see the colour on the poppies here, when the light hits the mirror card them really do shimmer and shine. 

Items Used:

Crafters companion 3D embossing folder 'ornate lace'

XL Nesting dies

Pennyblack poppy die

Clearly besotted sentiment stamp

Silver mirror card

Alcohol Markers

CraftUK ltd smooth white cardstock

Distress Inks ' tumbled glass & cracked pistachio'

Thank you all for stopping by.  I hope you have a good week.  Hugs Emmaxx

Id love to enter the following:

https://creativefriday.blogspot.com/2024/03/creative-friday-354-embossing.html

**

https://craftrocketchallenges.blogspot.com/2024/03/challenge-112-for-girls.html

**

https://beautifulblossomschallenge.blogspot.com/2024/02/beautiful-blossoms-challenge-anything.html

**

https://cyhtp.blogspot.com/2024/03/march-9th-2024-anything-goes-with-twist.html

**

 

Mums birthday tulips

Good Morning everyone

I bought these PET/acetate printed Tulips on ebay to use for my mums birthday card, I finally decided to make a balcony front fold card to display them all.  This fold has been on my 'to try' list after the lovely Stephanie made this one for me for my birthday a couple of years ago.  I used a step by step beccysplace.tutorial-balcony-cards and just altered the sizes to make a 5x7" card

I made my base card up from white 300gsm cardstock.  I cut white panels smaller and embossed with a tulip embossing folder, matted these onto green patterned paper and then the base card.  I then got arranging the tulips, sticking some to the back panel, some to the back and front of the middle panel and some to the back of the front panel until it was nice and full with tulips.  I love how by just adhering the stems into place the flower heads have nice movement and the light can shine through them.

I die cut my birthday sentiment from more of the green paper and added to the bottom front panels

Showing it from above, you can see the middle section better here.  It all folds flat to go in an envelope.  Very simple really but effective.

Mum loved it and I also gave her a bunch of fresh tulips for her birthday along with her pressies

The tulips were an ebay find, the embossing folder is an old magazine freebie.  .

Id love to enter the following

https://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/2024/01/floral-frenzy.html

***

https://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2024/01/seize-birthday-275-embossing-wet-or-dry.html

***

 

https://beautifulblossomschallenge.blogspot.com/2024/01/happy-1st-birthday-beautiful-blossoms.html

***

https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2024/01/triple-b-january-2024-challenge.html

***

 

Star Fold Cards

Good Morning everyone.

Today im sharing Star Fold cards i made for my mum and brother's birthdays.  First time id tried this fold, but with the help of pinterest and a trial run it was actually easier than i expected.  Of course i had to go with a floral theme for mum.  I have added a simple step by step at the end of the post. 

This post is very photo heavy so you may like to get a cup of tea or coffee and couple of biscuits😀

Please ignore my finger holding it flat for photos😄

After making the base fold (see bottom of post) from cream pearl cardstock, i cut and folded 2 pieces of 12x12 patterned paper the same way, i then cut it slightly smaller on each side so the panels would fit each piece with a small border.  I used the floral paper for the top and the pink paper for the bottom, so once folded into the star you get this two tone effect. 

I die cut my flower from co-ordinating papers and added a large glitter gem to the centre. Gems also added to the 3 pink panels as shown.  The papers were from B&M.

In the centre of the card once opened i added a die cut sentiment circle from the same card as the base card.  

Showing it mostly opened out and also showing how each point folds up

Showing it fully open.  

This shows it fully open on the underside.  I kept this paper quite plain so that I could write my greeting on it clearly.  Birthday sentiment stamped.  

Showing the underneath once all folded up. 

Being my first attempt i was very pleased with it, but they aren't so easy to display as mum found out, in the end she found something to sit the bottom point into so it would sit upright. 

*****

and onto the male version i made for my brother. 

For this one i used A4 papers so needed to cut 2 up for the top and 2 for underneath.  I used a very old steampunk set of toppers and papers by Kanban.  I added the foiled wings to the back of the circle topper.

For this one i turned it more into a kind of easel, so i added 3 screw top brads which hold the topper up so you can see it on display.  When you glue on your topper only glue it to one star point.

Showing it opened out. 

And the underneath, i added a die cut circle to the middle to write my greeting on. 

Showing the underneath when its all folded up into a star. 

On to a little step by step, hopefully it makes sense but if you look here at pinterest for more info - star fold card

Take a sheet of 12x12 cardstock. Measure the 6" mark on the top and bottom sides.  Line up these marks with a ruler and lightly draw a line down in pencil a couple of inches long (to be erased later).  Take your ruler and measure 12" from the bottom corners to the pencil line you just made. Cut away the excess. This will give you a triangle with 3 sides 12".  

Mark 6" on all 3 sides

Score a line along these 6" marks on all 3 sides, you end up with a triangle in the middle.

From this score line mark 2" outwards towards the points and score a line.  You can just do this on your score board if easier. 

Fold the score lines. Fold the inside lines mountain fold (so towards the middle), fold the outside lines valley fold (so back outwards).  You are then ready to decorate. 

Items used:

B&M Papers

Kanban papers

12x12 cardstock

MFT birthday circle die

Flower dies

Circle dies

Clearly besotted sentiment stamp

Screw top brads

Gems

Stickles diamond glitter glue

Thank you all for stopping by.  Hopefully we are in for a quieter week with the weather.  Happy Crafting. Emmax

Id love the enter the following challenges:

do-allkreatives.#27 -fancy-fold   - entering the first floral star card

simplycreatetoo -ch-147--for-male  - entering my second card for a male