Sugar and spice

Today I’ve got the first part of a big project I am doing up, a baby book for a colleague at work who is expecting her first little girl.  This is taking a lot longer than I thought to complete so to motivate me I am going to post up the only bit that is finished so far, the cover.

To make up my baby book I’ve used a Tim Holtz Collection Folio, the large size, and gone to town with the decorating of it.  To do up the front cover I have followed the layout sketch at Feeling Sketchy and got inky and powdery with all sorts of good things.  I started with Tim Holtz Distress Paint in Picket Fence and then sprinkled on some Fran-tage.  On the layout I used modelling paste and a stencil for my butterflies and added some Distress Ink into the modelling paste as well as some more embossing powders over the top.  I also did the same with the textured background that is only just visible under the papers.

With all my various effects on the cover I am also entering this in the current Craft Hoarders Anonymous challenge.  There are copious amounts of flowers all over the cover, as expected for little girl’s book, so I am also entering this in the current challenge at Paper Crafting Journey.

I swapped out the black elastic closure for some pink elastic.  I was going to put a word band or some letter charms on the elastic but the cover is way too busy as it is.  Notice that border, looks pretty good, doesn’t it?  Well it had better for the work that went into it, let’s just say these Collection Folios are made thick and tough and it was also too big to go through my Grand Calibur so I traced and cut round my Sizzix die and then used various sized hole punches for the lacy edge.

Opening up the folio you get two flaps top and bottom and I decorated the outside of these with some chippie words, these I painted up and sprinkled with Fran-tage also.  The large heart buttons have been in my stash for ever as have the tulle flowers, I think they were from Webster’s Pages.

I’ve tried to tie things together with matching elements so I’ve got some of the same Organza Pearl Pink on the inside of these flaps.  The top one is missing the pocket, I have no idea where I’ve put the packet, it’s got to be somewhere in my craft room!  It’s meant to be for the hospital name card from the baby’s crib.  The bottom one is ready to go with a pocket for the baby’s wrist tag.

There’s also a flap on the right side and I’ve used the same Organza Pearl Pink on the outside with some buttons from Jesse James.  On the inside I have the same lace as the top and bottom flaps and some chippies and more of the Jesse James buttons and flowers to tie in with the other flaps too.

You’ve got to have space in a baby book for all the vital statistics from the birth and I’ve put that on the inside left cover using a piece of vellum over some lovely shimmering cardstock with some more flowers and another piece of lace.

The back inside cover I’ve done up as the last page looking back over baby’s first year with some journaling cards ready to go.  I’ve tied this in with the flaps using the same lace and roses too.

Stay tuned for the inside pages, hopefully in the next day or two, I need to get this finished before baby arrives!

Ingredients:

Chalks & Powders etc

Fran-tage Embossing Enamel ~ Aged Ochre, Aged Scarlett, Aged Silver, Shabby Pink & Shabby White

Lindy’s Stamp Gang Embossing Powder ~ Starburst Candy Rose

Pebbles Chalk ~ Pink

Pink Mica

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Forgotten Scraps ~ Party Banner

Magenta Stencils ~ Nature Elements

Memory Box Stencil ~ Texture Mesh

Sizzix Thinlits ~ Scallop Border

Embellishments

BoBunny Jewels ~ Frosting (coloured with RV34 Various Inks)

Dusty Attic ~ Safety Pins

Kaisercraft Paper Blooms ~ Dusty Pink

I Am Roses ~ Mulberry Paper Roses Variegated Pink and Pink

Jesse James Dress It Up Buttons ~ Baby Girl

Kaisercraft Pearl Strip ~ Pink Champagne

Kaisercraft Sparklets ~ Hearts

Metal Charms from stash ~ Hearts & Umbrellas

Petaloo Darjeeling ~ Wild Mini Blossoms Pink

Scrap FX Chipboard ~ Hospital Name Band & Mini Pins

Tulle Flowers

WOW Chipboard ~ As Cute As A Button & Precious

Inks & Paints etc

Lindy’s Stamp Gang Starburst ~ Cheshire Cat Cherry

Liquid Pearls ~ Copper Pearl

Teresa Collins Basically Essential ~ Modelling Paste

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Shaded Lilac, Tea Dye & Worn Lipstick

Tim Holtz Distress Paint ~ Picket Fence

Twinkling H2O ~ Just Peachy

Papers

Authentique Classique Pretty ~ Life Cards

Carta Bella Baby Mine ~ Baby Floral, Baby Girl Dots

Pion Design Fairytale of Spring ~ Hope

Pion Design Sweet Baby ~ Pink Baby Blanket

Ribbons & Trims etc

Green Tara Trim ~ Organza Pearl Pink

Live & Love Crafts Lace ~ Adélaïde, Pearl Lace with Beads & Pastello Pink

Challenges

Craft Hoarders Anonymous #10 ~ Spray It! Ink It! Paint It! Smear It! Emboss It!

Feeling Sketchy ~ Layout Sketch #92

Paper Crafting Journey ~ Flower Power!

Thanks for stopping by!

This won’t hurt a bit

I have a CAS and a bit funny get well card to share today featuring Nurse Nancy from Simply B Stamps.

I’ve kept this card CAS as it’s heading to a guy, a cousin of one of my SBS teamies, who sadly was involved in a very serious motorbike accident.  To make up my card I followed the current sketch at House of Cards, I used a Nestie Label and double matted everything to add a bit of interest.

The sentiment is computer generated and flows into the inside for the bit of funny…

I’m entering this in the current Dream Valley challenge, while the images are an integral part of the card, the sentiment I think really finishes it off.  Hope it brings a smile to the recipient’s face, fortunately I’m not funny enough to make him laugh as with the current condition of his ribs I think laughing would be rather painful!

I think this card shows you can do a lot without breaking into your stash of designer paper, although given how large my stash is that might not be such a good thing.  Be that as it may, I am also linking this at the current no patterned paper challenge over at Paper Crafting Challenges.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E50, E51, E53 (E02 cheeks)

Eyes B91, B97,0

Lips R24, R29, R46

Hair E23, E25, E27, E29

Outfit N0, N1, N2, T4, T6, T8, 0, 100

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Spellbinders Nestabilities ~ 5x7 Matting Basics & Labels Two

Papers

Bazzill Cardstock ~ Blue

Papertrey Ink Cardstock ~ White

Stamps

Deposit Photos ~ Injections

Simply B Stamps ~ Nurse Nancy

Challenges

Dream Valley #80 ~ Say It With WORDS

House of Cards #2 ~ CAS and/or Classic/Elegant + A Sketch

Paper Crafting Challenges #8 ~ No Patterned Paper

Thanks for stopping by!

Mark the transient butterfly...

I’ve gone a bit distressed and a bit grunge with today’s card featuring the elegant Steampunk Kay from Simply B Stamps’ Steampunk DT Gals collection.

I love the contrast between the distressing and the corroded background and embellies and the pretty image.  There’s a lot going on with this card but that’s partly because the sketch I followed from Cardabilities had a lot going on.  I haven’t decided if I should have enlarged the tab file elements or not, I could have as I didn’t have a die so cut them by hand.

The awesome rusty corrugated iron background paper just had to be distressed and that led me to having to rust my metal cog and wooden butterfly, which I did with some rusting powder from Twiddleybitz.  There was no way I was going to be able to distress into the corners of the tab files so I settled for designer paper that looked a bit shabby.  I backed my cog hessian trim with another hessian trim that had frayed bits on the side to add more shabbiness to the whole card.  I’m always a bit unsure about the whole shabby style but between all my elements I think I meet the distressed or shabby part of the current Paper Crafting Journey challenge and my image is a bit vintage so might have that part covered too.

The sketch had butterfly embellies so that’s what I went with too, just Steampunk ones.  I’ve also got gears galore and metal bits and pieces and a Steampunk image so I’m also entering this in the current challenge at PunkyouGirl.

And while we’re talking Steampunk, why not join in on our challenge over at Simply Steampunk Challenges, it’s wings / grunge it up.  As you can see I’ve got that theme covered with my card and my grunged up butterfly.  You can use any Steampunk image, although we’d love to see a Simply B Stamps’ one, and have until 2 February.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E50, E51, E53 (cheeks E02)

Eyes E37, E49, 0

Lips R29, R37, R46, R59

Hair E29, E31, E35, E37, E49

Outfit BG93, G85, G94, G99, N0, N1, N2, 0

Chalks & Powders etc

Twiddleybitz – Rusting Powder

Dies & SVG s etc

Spellbinders Nestabilities – Cogs

Embellishments

Bead Flowers from stash

Jolee’s Boutique – Steampunk Floral n Butterfly Border

Kaisercraft Flourishes – Magical Butterfly

Prima Junkyard Findings – Tiny Clock Parts

Inks & Paints etc

Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Tea Dye & Walnut Stain

Tim Holtz Distress Paint – Vintage Photo

Vintaj Patina – Aged Bronze

Papers

Kaisercraft Cardstock – Black

Kaisercraft Attitude! – Dude

Kaisercraft Base Coat – Redwood

Kaisercraft Hunt & Gather – Trek

Ribbons & Trims

Green Tara Mesh Ribbon – Dark Brown

Hessian Trim – Natural from stash

Hessian Trim – Cogs from stash

Stamps

Simply B Stamps Steampunk – Steampunk Kay

Challenges

Cardabilities Sketch #91

Paper Crafting Journey – Vintage / Distressed / Shabby Chic

PunkyouGirl #8 – Steampunk

Thanks for stopping by!