Boxed Birthday Wishes

This is another card from my Anna-Marie weekend, but this time we made the card and then decorated a wooden box to place the card in, so this makes a really extra special gift 😄

This is the box with the card in-situ.  I think this is such a nice gift as after the birthday occasion you are left with the box for storage

We started with the card where we distressed the cardstock and then cut down a section of the card and curled it back, again distressing the section that was curled back.  We cut a long piece of cardstock and folded it over and then stuck the stamens into this before placing it into the curled back section, and placing another piece of card behind to make it look like it has been layered up.  Then we worked on the flower arrangement using a variety and of satin roses and paper flowers, interspersed with leaves, twigs and moss.  The final piece we added was the sentiment.

The card box is made out of MDF, and the top was completed in

pretty much the same way as the card, but before doing this we painted the box with white chalky paint both inside and out and then distressed the outside and placed a piece of cardstock in the base of the box.

The next project I will share is not card related at all and uses lots of different techniques, so watch this space 😊

Until next time, love and crafty hugs.

Ginny xx

Happy Birthday Grapes!

Well I have just returned from another amazing weekend away with Anna-Marie Designs.  I stayed in a lovely hotel in Stow on the Wold and it was sheer bliss for a couple of days.

Anna-Marie has a very distinctive style which is so stylish, I absolutely adore her makes.  She was on Create & Craft today so hopefully some of you may have caught that, or you could watch it on catch up.

One of my favourite makes of the weekend (of which there were many!) was a birthday card with a cluster of purple grapes!

For the grapes we used purple microbeaded berries, which were interspersed with beads from the pearl strands to make the grape!  We cut the larger pearls from the strands to place onto the grape and then used the smaller elements throughout the layers of cardstock.  The berries and pearls were stuck down with pinflair glue and then dusted with crushed ice glitter to give the sparkly effect.  The top of the bunch of grapes was a twig.

We used maple leaves which were distressed and we layered up the background with cardstock that was torn to give a real ragged effect.  For the distressing we used gathered twigs distress ink.

I hope you like this card as much as I do!  I think this is one that I will do again as I think it is quite nice as a mans card, as it is quite neutral and not too girly.

I have a few more projects to share with you, so until next time . .. .

With love and crafty hugs

Ginny xx

Merry Christmas

Another share from my Anna-Marie weekend!  As I had such an amazing weekend I have treated myself to another weekend with her in March 2017 😁

For this card we used a piece of printed cardstock, distressed the edges and then put a small amount of distress ink to soften the edges.  We then used our own templates which had been cut out of card to form the heart, which we then added texture to the card by using glitter and the polystyrene balls - I love these polystyrene balls!!!!

We then layered up the flower and leaves, again using distress ink to soften the edges, added a small amount of glue to the petals and used glitter to highlight the edges.  The flower was then layered up  on top of some natural fibre and a few berries added.

Finally the mdf Christmas tree was glued and glittered and placed under the flower and the mdf Merry Christmas added with some moss and a flower.  The very last piece to be added was a small twig that was placed under the flower.

This is such a lovely card and would work at any other time of year with a different sentiment.

I hope you have enjoyed my Anna-Marie cards as much as I enjoyed making them.

Roll on March 2017 for my next weekend away 😁

With love and crafty hugs

Ginny xx

Let It Snow

Well, hello again!  Sorry I have not been around for a few weeks but life has been a bit manic and there have been lots of changes.  We have had illness in the family and that has taken up a fair bit of time with hospital visits and caring and then we have had new additions to the family.  I have just taken on a pair of small driving ponies, so I had a few days away with them getting to know them.

Anyway, back to crafting.  Following on from my weekend with Anna-Marie I thought I would share another of my projects which is a Let It Snow wreath.  I really enjoyed making this one and think it will be coming out year on year! 

It was incredibly simple to make and involved gesso, a small amount of distress ink, a small amount of natural fibre which was mixed with modelling paste and then some of the polystyrene snow balls mixed in with it.  Once the natural fibre had dried then this was placed around the wreath and then the flowers were placed on

top.  We had a string of gold balls which were strung around the wreath to add some additional details.  The outer part of the wreath was shaded with distress ink and then some glitter was added for extra bling.

I hope you like the wreath.  Lastly I just have to share my new additions with you ........................ so here are Leeroy and Ruxpin, my new boys!  I may not have quite so much time for crafting now but have no intention of giving up just yet.



So on that note I hope to catch up with you again soon - I promise!

Take care and until next time

Ginny xx

Noel

Well I am back from my amazing weekend with Anna-Marie Designs.  This has to be one of the best organised workshops I have been to  Our first project was a card which incorporated some MDF items with the Noel and the deer. 

We started by taking a piece of white card where we roughly brushed on some Viva Chalky Paint (smokey blue) which was then followed by stencilling.  We then used some white chalky paint to add some additional stamp detail in the corners.  The deer was also painted in the smokey blue paint, once dry we used a layer of crackle glaze, dried again and then added some white chalky paint and then let for the paint to crackle.  I didn't use enough of the crackle glaze to get a good crackle but I was happy with what I produced!

Finally we distressed inked the background card and  distressed it with scissors.  This was followed by making up the flower and leaves, inking and shaping them.  The flower was then edged with 3d Schnee and crushed ice crystals.

The final part was to assemble the card which involved using some natural fire to add some dimension and additional interest to the back of the card.

We used lots of embellishments to add interest to the card and I have to say I was very pleased with the finished product.

All items were supplied by Anna-Marie and are available from her website.  I would thoroughly recommend attending one of these creative weekends as I really enjoyed it and you get really pampered into the bargain!

There are lots of other projects that I will share over the coming weeks -  I really cannot make up my mind which one I like most as they were all fabulous!

With love and crafty hugs

Ginny xx

Antiquity Book Box

Well this weeks post is once again something a little different.  I attended another workshop where I had my first attempt at working with MDF.  We used the MDF Antiquity Book Box which  is a really useful storage space

Firstly we started by painting the box with Americano Décor Chalky Finish paint.  I think it was the Yesteryear shade but cannot be 100% sure as I did this a while ago!  We did this before assembling the box as this made it so much easier to access all the nooks and crannies.

Once the box was dry we assembled it before we started the decoration.  Firstly we stamped on the base of the inside of the box just to add some additional interest on what would have been quite a large blank space.  This was done in a pale colour cloud ink to add a slight vintage feel.

After this we started working on the outside of the box.  We used Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Polish in pearl lustre and colour cloud to soften and distress the corners, using the same colour cloud colour to do some messy stamping on the box using a word stamp - this really is not that visible from the photo's I'm afraid.  Pearls were also added to the base of the box to add additional interest.

Once this was all done we were able to start adding the embellishments.   Now we got to play with the flowers, leaves and raffia which were all secured using silicone glue.  Once these were set we added the MDF items (hearts and gate) which were again highlighted with the CS pearl lustre gilding polish.

I was really pleased with how this turned out and ended up giving it as a birthday present for my mother.  Hence why it has taken me a while to post it!

Anyway I hope you have enjoyed this little project and it inspires you to try out working with MDF!  I so enjoyed doing this that I have booked myself on a course with Anna-Marie Designs later on in the year, so watch this space for some more samples!

Until next time.

love & hugs

Ginny x