orange poppies

i have seen a few building block cards 

around and thought i 

would have a play with them myself 

as they seemed really cool....

and they are!

 i made mine for my orange challenge 

over at splitcoast stampers for their 

mega august challenges and as a thank you

for a friend and family who looked after us like royalty when we visited them recently

 i used the poppy parade stamp

and coloured it with my blendies

 most of the building block cards i ahve seen

have got the tops covered but then they

wont fold down into an envelope so mine is bare for that reason-i needed to post it

 here it is flat with the sentiment 

and some extra buterflies to add some pop!

 the back of the card is left relatively plain

hope my recipients like it

cheers ears

butterfly dancer

i seem to be on a theme this month with my butterflies

so here is another play with my butterfly punches.

this one was for the creative crew

CCREW0614SF 

to celebrate your best friend on a scrapbook page or by making a gift for them. 

this is a gift for a friend going through a lot at the moment and she loves butterflies

and pink ones as well....

i was inspired by a picture i pinned on my pinterest boards and changed it a bit to suit what i wanted and the materials i was using

 her hair was made using caramel card stock and then drawing strands of hair using a variety of oranges, browns, white gel pen, gold and kindy glitz

 

i also layered the card to give it some extra dimension

 flowers were done using white embossing powder stamped using a tiny flower from a new set from the new 2014/15 catalogue

 skin was done using light pinks sponged on lightly.

dress was melon mambo sponged with mambo and white

 background was sponged using a variety of blue and green inks layered from light to dark on a soft sky 12x12" card stock

butterflies were stuck on with dimensionals with 1 wing up with kindy glitz to give more 3d effect.

the butterflies on the dress were quite hard to position and most are stuck down just using snail but some are stuck using glue dots.

here is my feline "helper" checking my stuff out while i am attempting to take a photo. she was rather bemused by the butterflies and tried to eat some of them before she was very unceremoniously shooed from the table...much to ehr disgust lololol

cheers ears

clay earrings and gift box

i made these for a very special person at convention

i hope she liked them

they were made by squishing the paper clay into the baroque stamp and colouring in with inks. 

then i covered it with crystal effects

then i made a pretty little gift box for them to go in

cheers ears

how to make a skylander pinata

this is eruptor

he is a skylander

my son wanted him as a pinata for his birthday

so we got a balloon

covered it with a layer of newspaper and glue

glue was half water/half pva

next layer was lined white paper

then another layer of newspaper
 when it was dry
(a good 24 hours seeing ti was pouring with rain here)
i also ahve to admit to
trying to speed up the drying process by
putting it near the oven as it cooled down
...bad move..
the balloon popped
and pinata imploded
like a black hole..
.so we had to start again...sigh

next layer was adding the arms, legs and fin using a cereal box and a heap of masking tape

arms were cones and legs were cylinders

 

then we covered all of that with lined paper

 when that had dried (24 hours-no oven...i learnt my lesson lmao)

 we glued down the crepe paper

this is easiest done by using a brush and paintign the glue onto teh pinata nd then adding the paper

complete pain in the butt doing it with your fingers

sticks every-freaking-where!

 addded eyes and mouth with coloured card and left it to dry for 24 hours

fin had yellow crepe paper over the red

arms were shoved full of newspaper and just the top bits had crepe paper shoved in and covered

nice sharp triangle teeth lol

 then i cut a small incision in the back of his head to squeeze the lollies in

 just like this-all the lollies were in packets 

so they didn't get all dirty when they fell on the floor

i put in about 6 different packets

 for each of the kids so 

eruptor weighed quite a bit 

by the time we were finshed and he was quite full!!!

here's the birthday boy having a smash!

eruptor lasted about 12 smashes

he was not as strong as previous years-only 3 layers which was good

his arms and legs fell off pretty quick though lololololol

cheers ears

a home amongst the gum trees

Give me a home among the gum trees

with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo

a clothes line out the back, verandah out the front

and an old rocking chair

a great aussie song

one i thought i would try and imitate via stamping, punch art and collage.

this is a 3d version i thought i would have a try at.

i used the natural composition paper as the base then added leaves die cut from dsp

house is stamped using the hardwood stamp with a roof from the hexagon embossing folder

swing is a retired stamp set called summer afternoon and cat and dog are from cool kid set

not sure it works but it was fun to make!

for the song here is a recording for you to listen to

cheers ears

beautiful butterflies

butterflies are just amazing aren't they?

they are such beautiful objects of nature

here is a name plaque i was asked to make with some butterflies and flowers

if you want me to make one for someone special in your life feel free to 

contact me clare@crafty-cow.com 

for more details

cheers ears

thomas the tank engine

thomas the tank engine is a favourite all around the world

we love him here too

here is a tutorial on how to make him

...although my measurements might be a bit dodgey lol

 i used the following punches

owl punch for lights, eyes, 

cupcake punch for eye balls, candle part for chimney

1 1/4" circle for face

1" for mouth

xl oval for roof

strips of blue in 7x3, 7x4, 6x2, 6x4 all cm

strips of grey 7x2 with edges trimmed to 6cm

strip of red 7x11/2cm

strip of black 7x1cm

word window

 make these bits first 

then add blue bits together and wriggle them around to get the right proportion-some overlap quite a bit to get some layering going

 then add the other bits-some with dimensionals to give some layering 

then draw in the facial features with marker-mine looks a bit crazy-obviously has been hauling too much freight today lmao

this is what i used mine for-a name plaque for a special little boy :>

cheers ears

little yellow dinosaur

here's a cute little dinosaur i made for a birthday girl

 got to have eyelashes and a butterfly on your nose to make you cuter

 some pretty flowers

 i used love hearts on her back instead of spots

the whole picture was put onto a piece of chipboard so ti can hang on a door or wall

cheers ears

lala loopsey name plaque

another loopsey post!

this time it is a name plaque done in paper

 i have used button eyes, added her name with die cut letters and used the very fab birthday basics dsp

i also added some pretty ribbon and some lov hearts to make it extra girly

cheers ears

wedding album

 my neice got married this month 

so i created this unique wedding album for her as my gift to her

i used 2 kaisercraft fairytale castles 

and added stampin up's beautiful love letter and newsprint designer series papers

along with a huge collection of accessories such as

ribbon, glitter, chipboard, antique tags, lace, brads, flowers etc etc
plus the obligatory stamps of course :>

normally when i do an album i usually keep it very simple and clean cut
but being the new year and wanting to try new things
i thought i would unleash my inner vintage/shabby chic/visual feast monster upon the world.

i also had limited supplies i.e. what i had brought with me to nz from sydney
so no zipping into the craft room to get stuff.
it also made me use what i had and think up different ways to use them.
i am glad i did this because it made me use a lot of my die cuts more and papers in different ways.

scroll on down for pictures of what it looked like inside....warning there are loads of them!!!!
if you see somethign you like and want to know how i made it or did it please feel free to ask :>

 

 

 

tomorrow i'll show you the card i made
and how i had to wrap it all up-that was a mission all in it's own!!!

cheers ears