A special Thank You [Tag] Card

My last post told you about how a bad week was turned about by a token of incredible wonderfulness from an amazing fellow blogger, Mrs.Craft.  (If you missed the post you can find it HERE – it will open in another window for you).

I wanted to make something to say ‘Thank You’ – but something a bit different from just a normal thank you card.  I’d been working on an idea of making a post about Tag Art,  and suddenly a little Fairy sparkle of an idea grabbed me and spurred me on to make a Tag Art card for Mrs.Craft.  But I needed a theme.  hmmmm

Something popped into my mind.  Mrs.Craft is the maker of some extraordinary show stopping slippers….  knitted slippers.  BUT STOP…  don’t think of ‘knitted slippers’, instead think Fairy Boots.

Mrs. Craft calls her creations Crocodile stitch slippers.  What kind of name is that for something which belongs in the land of the Fairies??  It says nothing about the absolute fabulousness of those magical slippers.   I mean to say … look at these Boots …

CreditL Mrs.Craft.

Credit: Mrs.Craft

All photographs of the boots belong to Mrs.Craft.

Every time Mrs.Craft posted about her ‘Crocodile stitch Boots’, I told her in a comment that she really should consider calling them something more wonderful.  Fairy Boots.  Unicorn Rider Boots.  Elfin Creepers.  That sort of thing.  Of course … Green creations could be called Crocodile Creepers.  But not these fantastical wonders!

When I was a child I can remember not wanting to wear my slippers which my mom had bought me.  But had they been given a magical name such as ‘Samantha’s Slippers’ or ‘Bewitched bootees’  (both after the TV series Bewitched – which I adored to as a child),  then I doubt very much that you’d have ever got them off my feet!

So with a nod to the Fairy vibe  I decided to theme the Thank You Tag card around Fairy Land, and I share the resulting card with you here…

(. . . and to borrow the words of Willy Wonka himself . . .)

“Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination . . .”

 

A Card for Mrs. Craft

The large red balloon was made by cutting out the same shape over and over, and then glueing them to each other so that the ‘half round’ shape for the balloon was achieved.

Oooo, yes please …  ‘Admit One to Wonderland’   I’m all for that!

….and … of course, there had to be Fairy Dust, after all …  we were in Wonderland!

What better place to allow your thoughts to take flight than when you’re DREAMING!

The Scroll on the front, to the right of the balloon reads:  “How does one become a butterfly?”  she asked.  “You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a CATERPILLAR”.

All the butterflies you see on the front are hand-made from card, but with a mix of embossing powders on them, and heated over and over, in order to make them look enamelled.  There are a couple of hidden ‘smiles’ on the front of the card, but I couldn’t photograph those as they were tucked away and pretty impossible to try to get a photo of.

Shall we go inside?…

A peep into the middle…

The centre is a tad less decorated … because well… one has to have a place to write!  But it still has charm …

The ‘DREAM’ which you saw peeping over the top of the front of the card is actually a Bookmark which I made specially for Mrs.Craft, for this card.  It simply slides off the top of the card, and can be used as a regular bookmark.

On one side of the inner card there is a ‘scroll’ which reads…

…  and it continues on the other page of the card, and tells you exactly what you need to enter the Land of the Fae…

OF COURSE!!  “… one must come with the right KEY“  …  now why didn’t I think of that?!   So …  where do we get the right key from???

…  look closely.  ‘The Right Key’ is there … suspended on a cobweb thread, inside a tiny glass bottle, which has been sealed closed and dusted with Fairy Dust.  The glass bottle is hung inside the card, on a length of woven Unicorn Mane Hair. (or something like that).

… And of course … no one would expect that a Tag Art card,  made with the help of a Fairy who was sat on my shoulder, would have a plain ol’ boring back.  Nooooo.  Mrs. Craft deserved the full works …  and the Fairy whispered into my ear and told me I was to tell her this …

“Your Wings exist  . . . FLY!”  …. so, Mrs.Craft,  I know you’re reading this, and I wanted to tell you that the Fairy who was sat on my shoulder told me to tell you that your wings really do exist.  Don’t be afraid to fly.  (But I don’t think she meant jump off a ledge and fly…  not that sort of flying.  I think she meant that you can do anything you put your mind to.  And … I agree with her.  I think you can too.   So then…. ETSY shop here you come!).  😜

Thank you again Mrs.C for the wonderful gifts.  You won’t ever know how much your kindness  meant  means to me.  Bless your beautiful heart.

Edit to add:  Mrs.Craft has (a few hours before I did) made a blog post about this card and the fabulous Chutney which she had made and sent me a jar of.  If you’d like to read her post too, you can do  HERE   <— click to be taken to Mrs.Crafts blog post.

And now you …. no, not Mrs. Craft, but you...  you reading right now …  I want to do a post about Tag Art.  So … we’ll do that in a few days.  You see a little while back …  I introduced some folks to working in ATC size – which I was thrilled to pieces about.  Seriously so.  But … I kind of would love to also introduce those folks to TAG ART too.  It’s another fabulous way to craft, and really very easy.  So … that post will come in a few days. I promise. [holds pinky finger up]

Thank you so much for coming.  I love seeing you here and love even more when I get to chat with you, so please say hello in a comment.  Tell me what’s going on.  How you are.  How your cat/dog/bird/children/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/parent(s) are.  Failing that … tell me your current guilty secret.  Have you bought something you shouldn’t?  Or planning to?  Do tell.  I love the juicy bits!  😎

I hope your Thursday is a truly lovely day.  Please …  Do something which makes someone else smile.  Pull a face.  Cross your eyes and pull your tongue out.  Just make someone smile.  It might just make their whole day into something worth being alive for.

A smile is a magical gift.  Use it.  LOTS.   It never runs out. 

Sending oodles of squidges to you ~

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A Card with a ‘twist’: Book Marking Vegetables!

I sat at my desk towards the end of last week wanting to make something different in the ‘handmade card’ category . . .  and I came up with  A Card for a Gardener – but one with a difference.   It’s slim and tall, and stands up all by itself, just like a card is supposed to do, but if you pull on the ribbon at the top, you find that there’s a bookmark hiding inside!

pull on the ribbon and SURPRISE! something is hiding inside!

Trying to make a card suitable for a lady or gentleman, either of which gardens, seemed a challenge at first, (I instantly thought of flowers … and flowers on a card is something one normally associates with a ladies card),  but as I was gazing around my craftroom looking for inspiration, my eyes rested upon my collection of Graphic 45 and one of the Graphic 45 collections is a particular favourite of mine, it’s called Home Sweet Home.

photograph credit: Graphic 45

So … the choice was made!  The Card (base) is made out of craft card, which I measured, marked and cut to size, scored and folded, then glued all the parts which needed to be fixed together.

I then chose and fixed to the ‘base’ layer of paper – the papers behind all the adornments.  The deeper green paper on the front and back of the card (the holder of the bookmark) are from a selection of papers by Dovecraft, called Couture de Jour.  But the paper used on the bookmark itself is again from Dovecraft in their range called Floral Muse.

Distressing and inking up took place, and made everything look like it had enjoyed a good ol’ time in the garden with it’s gardening friend. (I almost feel like the distressing looks like soil covered fingerprints!)

I cut out the images I wanted to use from the Graphic 45 papers, and placed them where I eventually wanted them to be, – then leaving them there, I turned my attention to making some vegetables out of Hearty Clay.

If you haven’t already tried this clay then I can highly recommend it.  It’s easy to handle and will dry quickly – I always give it overnight, simply because I want to ensure that all the moisture has had chance to evaporate.  (You really don’t want to put wet clay on a card!).

It’s also very light in weight so it adds little to the weight of a card.

Once the clay vegetables were dry I painted them and put them on one side for the paint to dry.  While I was waiting, I fixed all the fussy cut items to the card.  Then I sprayed the dried vegetables in a quick dry glaze, and once dry I added them to the card, then turned my attention to the bookmark.

showing the back of the card and the front of the bookmark.

Again, wanting to make sure that the card could be given to a lady or a man, I chose the stamps carefully.  All the stamped images you see are Graphic 45, and from the same Home Sweet Home range.  I stamped the images in black dye ink, then hand painted them using watercolours.

showing the ‘stand’ for the back of the card.

Finally … I made a fold out stand for the back of the card so it could stand up by itself, or if preferred it could lean against a book or a shelf, wall,  etc.

trying to show the glaze I gave the card.

But . . .  there was just one last thing I wanted to do … I glazed the front of the card so that it gave it an extra sort of ‘aged’ look to it, and especially so to the craft card.  (see above photo)  It made it look like I’d found it in Grandads shed, a left over from the 1940’s.  It was a bit difficult to photograph the glaze, but the photo above was the best out of the ones I took.

And that’s all there was to it!  🙂  The bookmark can be separated from the card holder, and the card can stand there all by itself without the bookmark.  So your gardener friend or relative can use the bookmark in his/her  [gardening]  book and not lose the page they were reading , –  AND …  they will carry your inscription around with them tucked into the pages of their book!  Something which would make me smile over and over!

Actually …  perhaps we could make this card a give-away!  Yes … let’s do that.  If you’d like to enter your name into the mix for this card to be sent to you, simply add the word GIVEAWAY either to the start or end of a comment,  and we’ll give it till Thursday of this week – so the 4th of May – at 6pm (UK time), at which point I’ll get a number generator to pick a number and I’ll announce the winner on Thursday evening!  Oh … and those of you who’ve won a previous give-away, please enter if you’d like to win this card … you’re not excluded just because you were picked out before.  It’s all just down to the luck of the generator.

I can either write the card out to whoever wins …  or I can leave the card blank, and the winner can give it to someone else as a gift for their birthday.  Winners choice.  😀

Happy Monday, and …. HAPPY MAY DAY!  In case you didn’t look at the calendar this morning, today is the 1st of May 2017.  This day won’t ever happen again.  It’s the only May Day of 2017, so beg you to enjoy this day like it should be enjoyed.

“The world’s favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May.”
Edwin Way Teale

I feel the earth waking up truly now.  Everything seems brighter, lighter, more joyous.  People seem to be happier too.  Oh … and the little cottage along the road has some holiday makers in it already!  I saw the people there walking their dogs earlier.  (I wanted to run off with the dogs!  Two fabulous White Highland Terriers, all snuffly and smiley).

Oh anyhoo …. I’ve yapped enough.  I shall shut up and leave you to enjoy the last gulps of your coffee.

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me.  I absolutely love seeing you.  It brightens my day and makes me so happy to share some time with you.  It’s like having an open house and all my friends popping in, sitting around the pine kitchen table to share a few smiles and giggles together.  What a great way to start the day!  ❤

Sending lots of May Day love and buckets of squidges, from me here in my corner, to you there in yours.  Be good to each other and … may your God go with you.

Edit to add: —> GIVEAWAY now closed! <—

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The Angels Feather Bookmark

designed
and
made by Cobwebs

One of my friends told me that she was saving the place in the book she was reading by using  … <wait for it …> …..  a piece of  . . . .  loo roll.    Ok, so this told me more than I needed to know about her – which we had a good ol’ giggle about  –  so I resigned to make her something which she’d want to use instead of the loo roll . . . .   and this – Angel Feather Bookmark  – is what happened.

Inside my creative heart and mind, a story developed as I played with the clay and I began to think …. “wouldn’t it be lovely if an Angels feather was the thing to keep her place in the book she’s reading..” …. my fingers obviously heard my heart and mind because this is what popped out of the clay.

I shaped it, baked it and … she loved it.

All made from Polymer, with the addition of a silk tassel.

Have a blessed rest of your day!