Waltzingmouse Blogwaltz - 4th of July theme

Welcome to the June Waltzingmouse Blog waltz! I'm ashamed that it has been a month since my last post, but I have been very busy down scaling my craft room to a single cupboard (more details of that to come in a future post), and I haven't had the time or space to craft. It was with great joy that I got out all my stuff to make this card for the waltz. I was in desperate need of a card for a friend who has gone above and beyond and needed a little thank you for being such a star, and here is the result! I was a little reluctant about what kind of card I could make with a 4th of July theme -what with being British and all! - but I LOVE stars, and so I got cracking.

I started with my ultimate pro, and using the embossing board I embossed a large star onto white card. I wanted to create a mask, and so cute out from white copy paper a smaller star using a craft knife. I used my walzting mouse teeny trees set, and the stamp I used was what I think of as the starry tree, which is the bottom right of the photo above. I stamped this through the mask onto my embossed star using this starry tree in cracked sapphire distress ink.

Here's the star when the mask was removed!

I then sponged the edges with more distress inks and set aside.

A while back I got a bargain in Ikea after Christmas with these packs of ribbon. 29p for a pack of 20.

I think they're meant to be for hanging christmas decorations on your tree, but I just cut them up to make bows. In this case I just cut strips of white to go across the red card.

I also bought some blue napkins from Ikea that are covered in stars, and this is the first time I've used them! I glued the single layer of the napkin onto a piece of scrap card and left to dry. I then embossed a piece of red card with a fantastic Crafts Too star embossing folder.

To finish it off I had some cute luggage labels (80 for 99p at the works!bargain!) which I stamped with the tiny star from the teeny trees set, and the word 'Star' is from a set of Banana frog stamps.

And this is it all together! Sorry my photos are a little dark, but hopefully you can see the main bits!

If you've never tried masking then you should definately give it a try, as it can transform the stamps you have!

Enjoy the waltz!

Card Patterns Sketch 107

So here's my take on this weeks sketch. I needed a 50th Birthday card for a friend, and decided to use this sketch and make it a little more masculine by using black and white and instead of scalloped edges a zigzag - done on my ultimate pro embossing board. The stamp shape is a die I got with my cuttlebug, and the numbers are Banana frog, and done with black embossing powder. Some faux stitching, ribbon and a few brads finished it off! Hope you like!

Star Cards

Here are a couple of cards I've made in the last few months with a star theme (I love stars!). The top one is one I made for my niece's 2nd birthday. It is a 6" square easel card with a star front. I used the embossing board on my Ultimate Pro to do the star shapes and the papers are actually from a small Christmas stack which I got free on the front of a craft magazine. The word "two" is made from some cardboard stickons I got in a craft bundle, which I covered in ink and then embossed silver. The larger star is pearlised card in a white/silver which I have inked around the edges with pink.

 This second card was to celebrate the birth of my friends little girl. This is an A5 card on white cardstock. I've used the Ultimate Pro embossing mats again for the star shapes, and also the banner shape. The two vertical stripes and the background paper of the star are girly sentiments from a mat stack I've had for ages. I used the cardboard letters again for the name, and finished off by using straight silver peel offs down the sides and around the star (very fiddly!) and then attaching some standard silver stars around the back.