Get the La-La London Look

Good morning all, it's the start of another week and I'm here with my GDT inspiration post for La-La Land Crafts.

This week the theme is Be Inspired and we had a photo to follow as our inspiration.  Now I'm going to come right out and say it, my heart sank when I saw this photo, because I really don't like the red, white and blue colour combination and have very few papers etc to fit the theme.

I'm not American so I don't celebrate the 4th of July either, I was really struggling with this one.

So I started thinking around it, red white and blue are also the colours of the British flag, so if I took the patriotic route, what did that say to me.  Well even though I now live in Leeds and did a stint in France too, I've lived the great majority of my life in London and I always consider myself a London girl at heart, I'm a proper cockney too, born within the sound of Bow Bells and all.  So I decided to try and match the red, white and blue with something typically 'London', and what I came up with was the London Underground symbol....pow, inspiration hit me.

La-La Land Crafts Items Used:

Marci with Umbrella

Wrought Iron Fence Die

I've listed items available in the UK at the end of my post. 

 I had some London themed charms in my stash,  good old Umbrella Marci makes a perfect London girl since we get so much rain, and this brick paper from Pion's Playtime collection seemed almost made for my theme, a nice typically London wrought iron fence on the top and we're home!

Love this spotty ribbon and the London themed charms!

I mostly paper pieced Marci and shaded and coloured the rest of her up with my Copics.

Copic colours used.

Skin: E11, E21, E01, E00, E000, R11, R20

Clothing and shading: R32, R35. R56, B23, B24, B27, W0, W01, W03

Items used:

Marci with Umbrella

Wrought Iron Fence Die

Pion Playtime Collection Design Paper

Memory Box Parker Lower Alphabet Die

Gutterman Top Stitch Thread

Red Spot Organza Ribbon

White Flat Back Pearls

That's all from me today, do drop by the blog and check out the rest of Team Monday's projects, there are some jaw dropping creations there that put mine to shame. I'll be back tomorrow with my regular Dies to Die for inspiration post.

Happy crafting! : ) x x

Friendship is the Greatest Gift at Dies to Die for

Morning folks, it's a super quick one from me as I'm running late and scheduling this quick before getting to bed.

I'm not quite sure if I like this or not yet, the jury is still out on this one, I was suffering terribly with my asthma today (yesterday when this goes live) and really had no mojo at all, but I really wanted to use these lovely non traditional colours Xmas papers from Whimsy and now I've photographed them the colours of the papers are not showing well at all! What looks in the pics like a soft beige/nude is actually a lovely pink *sigh*.

Love this image by Sylvia Zet, all her stamps for Whimsy are soooooooooooo cute!  I coloured this pair in my Inktense pencils to match the colours of the paper (even if the colours of the paper aren't showing too well in the pics).

I distressed the paper edges and inked them with Walnut Stain distress ink. I used some Bazill Kraft to mount my layers and for the sentiment and snowflakes, for a little contrast to the brights. The sentiment is from an Impression Obsession set. This set is so useful, it has a sentiment for almost every occasion!

Love this parrot green ruffled ribbon (sadly I think Tracy is out of stock of this now) it matched perfectly with a length of ribbon I had left in my stash

Items Used

Stamp: Friendship is the Greatest Gift

Distress Ink - Walnut Stain

Whimsy 6 x 6 Paper Pack - Merry & Bright

Marianne Design Snowflakes Die

Box Pleat Ribbon

Impression Obsession-Life Stuff Sentiments

That's it from me today, sorry the pics are a bit naff it was very late by the time I took them.

TTFN! : ) x x

Beret Marci - Sketch at La-La Land

Happy Monday all!  I'm going to try my best this week to do some catching up, I seem to have fallen very behind in my makes and commenting recently, with preparing for my interview last week and other personal stuff, so I really need to make an effort to catch up.  Anyway, let's get straight on to the reason I'm here today.  We have a new inspiration theme over at La-La Land Crafts, and this week it's a sketch. This is the sketch we followed....

these are the La-La Land Craft items I used:

Beret Marci

Open Leaf Flourish Die

Eiffel Tower Die

(I've linked items used available in the UK at the end of my post)

....and here is my version

I used some beautiful Authentique papers with a Parisian theme. Papers have been distressed, inked with Black Soot DI and hand sewn with top stitch thread.

I coloured Marci with Copics.

Skin: E11, E21, E01, E00, E000, R20, R11
Hair: E50, E31, E53, E55, E57
Clothing: R89, R85, R83, R81, RV10, W9, W7, W5, W2, W0

Items used

Open Leaf Flourish Die

Eiffel Tower Die

Scallops Die

Authentique- Classic- Pretty 6 x 6 Pad

Shapeabilities - Ironworks Accents Dies

Floribunda Roses - Raspberry Ripple

Do head over to the blog for the rest of Team Monday's makes for different takes on the same sketch, and why not join in yourself. If you have Facebook you can share what you make with us here.

Have a great Monday and I'll be back tomorrow with my regular Dies to Die for post.

Happy crafting! : ) x x

Tilda with Maggie the Monkey at Totally Tilda

*If you're looking for my blog candy you will find it here*

Good morning everyone, I hope you're all having a super Sunday and a wonderful weekend.  I'm feeling much more relaxed today, last week was quite stressful as I had to prepare for a job interview.....for the job I've been doing for almost 2 years.  If that sounds a bit weird, I'll explain.  I came into the job as agency staff and they finally got the go ahead to advertise the job externally (agency staff can't apply for internal jobs), so then I had to apply for my job and attend an interview up against all the others (internal and external) that applied, it was a very strange situation, but I'm pleased to say that not only did I get the post, I was told afterwards that I aced the interview and was placed far ahead of the others based on my interview performance, so now I can relax and just wait for all the paperwork to go through and I'll be in permanent employment with a proper pension and benefits yay!

But back to the reason  I'm here today, which is to share my creation for Totally Tilda. We have a new challenge up on the blog today and one that I love, it's Tilda holding an Animal, Bird or Butterfly.

I had a birthday card to make for someone special, and unfortunately they will see this before they receive it, but I just couldn't get far enough ahead on my makes to allow for postage.  Also ideally the animal would have been a cat and not a monkey, but I didn't have a Tilda with a cat, so a monkey it has to be! I did manage to make the card in her favourite colours though! This is Tilda with Maggie the Monkey, isn't she just the cutest?

I used papers from the Shoreline Treasures collection by Pion, love the subtle muted colours of these, inked the edges in Walnut Stain distress ink and hand stitched as usual with Top Stitch thread. There's a tutorial on how I do this if you scroll down to my previous post. I also popped a little cheesecloth behind my layers to soften the look.

I coloured Tilda in Copics for this card, I went a little darker with the skin to give her a sunkissed look.

Skin: E000, E00, E21, E11, R20, R11

Hair: E30, E31, E33, E35

Clothes: E51, E53 (and paper pieced) B91, B93 (hair bow)

Monkey: B000, B00, B12, B14, B91, B93, E50, E51, E53, R12

I added some cream lace, cream tulle, pale blue satin ribbon, narrow ivory satin ribbon,  narrow blue velvet ribbon and various WOC flowers. I added a few ivory pearls in 3 sizes. Up on the left hand side I used the Cherry Blossom Branch die from La-La Land Crafts.

The lovely embellishment on the bow is from the Handcrafted Card Company. The Mini Postage Stamp sentiment is from Whimsy as is the matching Mini Postage Die.

Finally I decorated the inside to complement the front, using matching paper and postcard from the same collection. The sentiment inside is from the Life Stuff Sentiments by Impression Obsession.

Do pop across to the challenge blog to see the rest of the team's makes, lots of different styles to choose from and all of them gorgeous.  Our sponsor this week is 

Simon Says Stamp and they're offering our winner a wonderful prize of

So do get your entries in, we can't wait to see your creations.

Well that's all from me for today, enjoy the rest of our weekend and I'll be back tomorrow with my scheduled GDT post for La-La Land Crafts. 

Happy crafting! : ) x x 

Hand Stitching Cards Tutorial

Good morning :) I've had a lot of questions recently about how I stitch my cards so neatly.Well I don't use a sewing machine, I hand stitch them and I decided to make a little step by step tutorial to explain how I do it. This was posted yesterday on the La-La Land inspiration blog for Tutorial Thursday, and today I'm posting it here. I'll also add it to my tutorial blog soon so you can find it under the tutorials tab at the bottom of my page.

Ok, so onto the tutorial.

First of all you'll need to gather your equipment. 

You'll need a piercing tool (make sure it's narrow enough to fit in whatever you're using as your piercing guide), a piercing guide (this can be a piercing template or a ruler with holes, the one I use is by Tim Holtz), a piercing mat (the one I use is by Memory Keepers), if you can't get a piercing mat you can use an embossing mat, but you'll need to put an old magazine or something underneath it to protect your table. You'll also need scissors, a sewing needle with a reasonably large eye, glue or double sided tape and Top Stitch thread (if you're using regular thread you'll need to double up at least to get the same effect, I would really recommend top stitch thread),I use Guttermans. You can use plain white or cream, but I love to use colours as I think it adds a nice touch to my cards.

Work out your card design and cut all your pieces, if you're distressing and or inking the edges, you'll need to do this before stitching.

Now glue your patterned paper to your backing card. You'll want your glue or tape only in the middle, this is just to hold it while stitching, your stitched will actually hold your layers together and you won't want to be trying to stitch through glue. Let your glue dry thoroughly before starting to pierce. 

For straight lines, line your piercing guide up with your paper and poke through the holes with your piercing tool, holding your guide in place with your other hand (I couldn't do this here as I was operating the camera!)

If you're piercing a shaped piece I recommend piercing any pointed bits first and working in sections, you'll need to work freehand and just eyeball your spacing, don't worry if it's not perfect, it's much less noticeable on a shaped card.

Then stitch your card, using back-stitch as shown.

If you've never used back-stitch before the diagram below should help.

Make sure you sew through your threads at the back a few times to finish off, you don't want your stitching coming loose once you've glued your card together, and that's it! It does take quite a while to do but I find hand sewing quite relaxing, for me it's just another enjoyable part of crafting. 

 Here's my finished card

and here's another example of some of my hand-stitching on cards.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and it has inspired you to give stitching your cards a try, and do ask me if you have any questions or you're not sure of anything here.

 : ) x x 

Glass Slipper at Dies to Die for

*If you're looking for my Candy, please click here*
Happy Tuesday peeps!I'm here with my regular Dies to Die for inspiration post.  It's shaping up to be a long, busy and stressful week, but there was nothing stressful about making this card with the beautiful new Pion collection 'My Precious Daughter'.....or at least there wasn't until I'd finished colouring my image, added some liquid pearls to her necklace, and then promptly smudged it across he face, and hair..and then made matters worse trying to fix it.

In the end I really couldn't face colouring her all in again, so I re-stamped and coloured the damaged parts, and paper pieced them on to the original, if you look closely you can see where, but it doesn't look too bad.

I have to say I'm totally in love with these papers, gorgeous colours and fabulous designs, I really enjoyed using them. I distressed and inked the edges with DI in Walnut Stain and sewed all the layers with pink top stitch thread.

This is Glass Slipper from LDRS.  I stamped her up in Memento Rich Cocoa ink, and coloured her up with my Copics.

Skin: E11, 01, 000, R20, 11

Hair: E40, 43, 44, 47

Clothing: R89, 87, 85, 81, RV10, 000, V99, 97, 95, 91, 000

I added a little glamour dust to her shoes, sheer hem, heart motif, hairband and necklace (I wasn't risking the liquid pearls again!).

I used a lovely Crown border die from MFT as I thought it went well with the theme and the motifs on the paper.  The sparkly dots and by Prima and are called 'Princess'.

I added a little frantage around the image and finished up with some shabby seam binding and a crown charm from my stash.

The inside is decorated with some more paper from the collection. The sentiment and matching die are from Whimsy.

Items Used

Cutie Pies - Glass Slipper

My Precious Daughter

Die-namics Crown Border

Crown Die

Neenah Cardstock

Memento Ink Pad - Rich Cocoa

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain

Prima Say It In Crystals - Princess

Well that's all from me for today, I'll be back on Thursday with a tutorial for you.  

Have fun! : ) x x

Marci with Watercan - Summertime Fun at La-La Land Crafts

Good morning!  It's another start to another week and I'm here with my scheduled GDT post for La-La-Land.  This week the theme is summertime fun.  Now I could have plumped for a beach type image, and there are lots to choose from in La-La Land, but to be honest I rarely go to the beach now that my kids are grown up.  I'm not really a sun worshiper, more your pale and interesting type lol, but I do like to potter in my garden among the plants.  Considering the UK's weather, I thought this Marci complete with sun visor and wellies was just perfect hehe.

La-La Land items I've used are (I've linked items available in the UK and Europe at the end of my post)

Marci with Watercan

Birdhouse Die

Diamond Wire Die

Picket Fence Die

Stitched Scallops Border Die

I received these gorgeous papers last week, and I thought the colour and design was perfect for this image, so I coloured up Marci with my Copics to match.

Copic Colours:

Skin: E11, E01, E000, E0000, R20, R11

Hair: E30. E31, E33, E35, E37

Clothes and Watercan: Y11, Y15, Y17, RV34, RV32, RV000, R81, BG0000, BG01, BG05, BG57, W3, W7

I did add a little glitter to the polka dots on her boots, but sadly in this photo it's not showing and making the dots look slightly grey, boo!

I'm afraid there's only one photograph this week, I've bee so busy this week sorting stuff as I have a job interview on Thursday so I didn't get time to finish off the inside of the card like I usually do, that will have to wait till next weekend now, but I've listed the items I've used below.

Paper - My Private Happiness

Birdhouse Die

Picket Fence Die

Diamond Wire Die

Stitched Scallops Border Die

MFT Notebook Die

Summer Breeze Butterfly Embellishment

Pink Spotted Organza Ribbon

Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts 

That's all from me today, I'll be back tomorrow with my regular scheduled post for Dies to Die for, don't forget to hop over to the blog to see the rest of Team Monday's makes, they're so summery you'll think you're on your holidays, and remember, you can join in the fun and share your cards in our Facebook group! TTFN  : ) x x 

Silver Fairy in Violet & Rose

*If you're looking for my Candy you can find it here*

Happy Tuesday Stampers!  I'm here again with my regular Tuesday inspiration post for Dies to Die for, and today I'm using another of the wonderfully talented Sylvia Zet's images.  Just love her work the stamps are sooo sweet.  If you follow me on Facebook you've probably seen me share this image when I first coloured it whilst at my parents and when I chose the colours I actually had the new Pion papers in mind.  However I wasn't sure they were going to arrive in time for my make and so I went ahead and made the card up with another Pion collection....and then guess what?  Yup, those new Pion papers arrived with the postie on Saturday.  Oh well, at least I have them all ready for my next make.

This is my finished card, I used Silver Fairy, from Whimsy Stamps and the crner lace die is also made by Whimsy.  The shape is made with a Martha Stewart PATP punch set.

She's coloured with my Inktense pencils plus a few watercolour pencils for the skin and hair.
Skin: Flesh Pink (W), Pale Vermillion (W), Saddle Brown
Hair: Raw Sienna (W), Raw Umber (W)
Clothing and Wings: Deep Violet, Dark Purple, Carmine Pink, Shiraz

I finished her off with some stickles on her wings, but the camera wasn't really picking it up too well.

I added some flowers and ribbon from TRG.

I finished off with this lovely bead trim and a La-La Land butterfly die.

I used more papers from the same collection to decorate the inside and give a space to write a message.

Items Used:

 Wee Stamps - Silver Fairy

Pion Design - Flower Frames - Viola 6 x 6

Pion Design - Flower Frames - Roseus

La La Land - Butterflies Set 1

Mini Lace Doily Corner 1

Bazzill Self Adhesive Jewels - Clear

 4mm String Beads Lavender

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Dusty Concord

Memento Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black

Neenah Cardstock

I do hope you like her, I'll be back next week for more inspiration, until then, happy crafting!