Well I got my wish didn't I and in bucket loads, rain that is.  Lots of hopefully ground penetrating water; the grass will need cutting as soon as possible now.   Still carrying on quietly here, how about you still keeping occupied during social isolation?  Are you still finding things to keep you busy while we carry on as we might not be doing the things we would normally be.

I re-discovered paper-crafting following the UK "lockdown".  As we cannot get out to the craft markets to sell my supply of hand crafted and individually designed jewellery, it does not seem to be a good idea to make more.  There was a nice Etsy sale today you just never know when one will happen and they are always a treat.

Paper-crafting, I've moved on a little from post cards now, and have a couple of A5 size cards to share with you today.

This is the most recent, using a Swan die that has been in my collection for quite some time.  The card started as a 6" x 4" post card.   The die design was cut in Eclipse masking paper, Wax paper and the decorative paper you see.  The Eclipse cut was laid onto the card, colour dusted over to suggest the water, greenery and sky.  Torn card further masked the sky area to suggest clouds.  Removing the Eclipse paper I had thought to leave the post card but the image is somewhat lost in the pastel colours so the pattered paper cut placed over the outline with thin sticky pads.  The bullrush reed heads have been highlighted with Sakura pen.  A little bird was stamped near the top on the left.  

After a couple of days thinking I decided to turn it into a card topper with a beige mat onto a cream card.  Martha Stewart border punch provided the decorative border and another corner punch added another decorative element on the postcard.   The sentiment at the bottom is stamped in versa fine Sepia.

Addicted to Stamps and More - Make your Mark

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

This Music themed card was made in response to my desire to use the Harp stamp.  It is an old Dimension Forth image I think.  Stamped and embossed with WOW super fine silver each individual string is clear.  The background paper is another old technique spray or colour a piece of plain copy paper.  Add stamped images in this case musical notes and maybe spray some more.  Crumple the paper so it has lots of peaks and ridges, lightly drag a pad of embossing ink over the paper so that the ink catches on the raised areas.  Sprinkle with embossing powder, collect surplus powder and heat paper to melt the powered caught by the embossing ink.  

Some printed vellum has been fussy cut and is sandwiched between the distressed topper and the hand made backing paper.  The blue butterfly is a die cut, something else that has been in my collection for years.  The cello charm on blue yarn reinforces the Musical theme of this card.

My son ever helpful has described this as the style of Shabby Goth.

Arty Divas - Anything Goes

Cuttlebug Mania - Music

Yes you might have seen this topper before or one very like it.  I enjoyed the result with the post card so much I repeated the stamped image.  This time the edge was carefully trimmed and then a silver ink pad run round the new edge to make a frame.  A piece of black sparkly card provides a strong mat to show off the bright colours.  The base is made of Linen effect card that I lightly coloured this with a brayer and Big and Juicy ink pad.  This is another technique that my now middle-aged son was interested to see.   The die cuts were going to be silver but the mirror card is too heavy for the delicate die.  Loving a delicate touch the Wax paper used to assist the die cutting has been used.   5 self adhesive "gems" add the final touch.

Gem of a Craft Challenge - Anything Goes 

I hope you have enjoyed your visit and this sharing of an assortment of different makes.  Each one was fun to make and finding old tools and techniques is proving to be a great way to get through these strange times.

For now Stay Safe and Have Fun. x