Rare Earth Magical Forest

I think the Rare Earth Magical Forest stamps are fun, quirky and magical!!
The pop-up box cards is one of my favourites because you can get so much depth and dimension to the card, yet it folds flat to go in an envelope- magical!! It also feels like you are telling a story. The Tattered Lace decorated pop up box card dies make it so easy to construct.  I stamped the patterned card I used to make the card base with the background stamps to help bring the design together.
I stamped the animals onto patterned paper and added extra colour and definition with alcohol markers. I added some of the animals and foliage which give the impression of being in a forest clearing.

For some reason I decided to create the background directly onto the cards. I used distress and oxide inks spritzed with water on a craft sheet. I then added additional colour using a make up sponge. Paper masks were used to give definition to the moon and the hill. I stamped the vines and flowers coming down from the top and sides  to give the feel of a forest.

I stamped the unicorn and girl onto a paper with stars and added a bit of extra colour.  The toadstools  and butterflies were stamped and cut out to give a bit of extra dimension.

I had such fun creating the backgrounds that I made several different versions. Some of them have the background stamps stamped and embossed in white  in the sky and in black on the hill to add extra interest and and a little extra magic.T

The bear could be a polar bear as well as a forest bear and I love the fox design.

I added google eyes to the rabbits to add to their whimsical characters.

I love to decorate bags and if you were giving a present and matching card they would co-ordinate well.

I decided to cover a notebook, using the same kind of techniques.If you had a book that was plain inside you could create your own colouring book.

I decorated this wooden tag. You could use a tag to make a name plate for a door or just a decoration. I really like these stamps and think they have a lot of potential for many projects.

Lexy Rose vintage tea-party

The Lexy Rose vintage tea party stamps are lovely and all the details prints clearly.

I had been wanting to make a junk journal and used these stamps to try making one.

I used a technique I found in a magazine. You cover some white card with highlighter. I used a neon yellow. I added some brown distress ink and added some droplets of water , which I blotted with kitchen towel. A wet paint brush can be used to bleach the face where required. The cover was thin wood which I decorated with paints and papers.

I also decorated the inside of the cover and made a pocket with a tag inside.

For the inside pages I used some old envelopes, which I covered to give them a new life.

I did not want to make it too pristine because I wanted to give it a vintage and re-cycled feel.

I used some recycled packaging  and some other Rare Earth stamps to decorate. 

I love pockets and storage and this junk journal had several.

I used a similar technique to make this card and stamped alphabet stamps in the background.

I used some of the additional stamps that come with the set to create the background.

I made a pop-up tea cup inside to create the feeling of a tea-party.

I used the tattered Lace pentagon dies to make this easel card.

They were decorated with the mallow flowers and butterflies.

I looked at vintage cards and made this card with a doily to give the vintage tea party feel..

I used the Tattered Lace shaped rectangle frames to create this card. The set of nesting frame make it easy to mat and layer.

London scene

I have been putting off the X Cut build London Scene card because I thought I needed three different shades of grey for the background. However, when I searched my craft stash I had some distressed card which I thought might do the job. I was quite pleased with the effects. The colours on the background card give more texture and add to the look of buildings.

I layered the background using foam pads to give more depth and cut the silver cars using the back of the card so I could have them travelling in the opposite direction to the black cab.

There was better light when I took this photo so you can see the use of the distressed card in the background. Can you spot the famous buildings?

Apron strings

Aprons can be used for many purposes and I have been working on a  few different themes. I started with baking as it was coming up to Mother`s Day. The cakes are from a baking digi-kit.

The utensil dies came with the apron kit and fit nicely in the pockets of the apron.

The card shapes with the scalloped edges were bought from Create and Craft.

Too high in cholesterol for me!!

This one reminds me of my Mum who always wore an apron in the kitchen.

I then needed to make a get well card and decided  I could also use the apron die for a nursing theme.

The apron also works well for men`s cards and I have started on a few cards for Father`s Day.

Rare Earth Lace stamps

The Rare Earth lace stamps are amazingly detailed, intricate and stamp very clearly.  I have had a little play with them using the Rare Earth pitch black and Brilliance white inks on vellum but they could be used in many ways. The quality of the stamps is so good that they look like real lace. There are a number of frames and flower embellishments, as well as some useful sentiments.


For this card I used the textured word stamps for the background. The lace stamp was stamped in Rare Earth pitch black and mounted on a card made from a Tattered Lace tag die. I used one of the sentiments which come with the lace stamps.

One of the lace flower stamps was incorporated into the background. The background papers were also used to make the flower and butterfly embellishments. The decorative Auntie word is cut from black card using a Tattered Lace die.

I found the glue showed on this card so I added an extra layer of stamped vellum with the lovely flower design and the glue no longer showed. Unfortunately, I did not take the photo but it was shown on Create and Craft.

I stamped the flowers onto vellum using the Rare Earth Pitch Black ink and coloured the back with alcohol pens.  They are matted and layered onto the Tattered Lace oval shutter card.

These wonderful intricate hearts were stamped onto vellum which overlaid the background paper created using the textured word stamps. Extra layers were added to highlight the stamps. A few heart pearls and twine added extra decoration.

The lace flower was stamped in white on vellum and mounted onto a textured word background with skeleton leaves. A button and twine added extra decoration.

I love to see the different layers, again using skeleton leaves, the textured word background and the lacy frame stamped in Brilliance white on vellum.

I used one of the lace border stamps on this bag. It was coloured with gel pens. A different lace design was used in the centre of the card. It was stamped in Brilliance white on vellum.

Textured words

The new textured words stamps from Rare Earth are wonderful for creating background papers and can be used in a variety of ways. The stamps work well together and be used to build a layered and textured surface.

I used several of the backgrounds I created to make this bag. The flowers were also created from the background papers using the Fleurs mallow dies. The sentiment is also from Rare Earth and makes a big statement on the bag.

The bag was a good way of using scraps left over from other projects.

The background was created using oxide inks with part of the textured stamps over the top. A few gilded mica fragments added some sparkle. The sentiment is from tattered Lace. I made the dragonfly from a mould using soft clay and painted it to match.

On this card I wanted to achieve patches of texture with white spaces to give it an artistic feel.

I stamped the textured stamps onto patterned paper to give some additional texture and dimension. The flower is the Tattered Lace Echinacea and scrabble type wooden stickers for the word dream.

Oxide inks and the textured word stamps were used for the background. A few gilded mica flakes were used for the texture. The flowers are from the decorative floral pop up set by tattered lace and I used another dragonfly I had made from a mould.

The textured words were used to add extra texture to the background paper. The tag was decorated with oxide inks and the texture word stamps. The wooden hearts were painted with Pebeo mixed media paints.  I added some lace buttons and twine for decoration.

With the card below, the background was again created with oxide inks and the textured word stamps. Again I used the gilded mica fragments to give added texture. The butterfly was made from soft clay and painted . I added some flowers and swirls cut from tattered lace dies.

The same card from another angle.The gilded mica help give a sense of movement.

I decorated a wooden plaque to making a hanging for Valentine`s Day. I cut three layers of some of the embellishment dies from the secret slider card set and stuck them together and adhered them to the plaque. I added a paper flower I had made buttons, lace and berries. The plaque was painted and I added some bubble gum spray. The textured word stamps were used to add additional texture. The whole plaque was given a coat of modge podge to protect it.

This card was made using the decorative floral pop up box dies by Tattered Lace. I used the texture word stamps from Rare Earth to give some card I already had some extra texture. The accessories were cut from some of my backgrounds I had created using the oxide inks and textured word stamps. I used acetate to give height to some of the flowers when attaching them to the card. Love was cut from  Tattered lace die.

I used some off -cuts form the background papers I had created to make this card. The flowers were all from Tattered lace dies, as was the lovely sentiment.The buttons and twine give extra texture.

This card was made using the half scalloped circle dies for the bottom half of the card and oval dies for the top. I used the oxide background paper I had created with the word texture stamps. The dog and boots die is from Tattered Lace, which was coloured with alcohol inks. The sentiment was printed n the computer.

Packing a punch

The Fleurs Flower Forming Punches can be used to create small flowers or the centres of larger flowers. They are cleverly designed to neatly fit over the shapes of the punches, which you can print in a variety of colours to get a variegated effect.

I used the punch on shiny paper to make the centre of these mallow flowers. I used the flower and leaf punches to make the smaller flowers on the border.

I cut out some leaves using the punches and laminated them, together with some textured threads. I folded the laminated sheet to create a bag shape . The edges were sewn by hand and a button fastener was attached. The handles is a string of beads. The bag was then decorated with mallow flowers with the punched flower centres. A few leaves were added to finish the bag.

The Tattered Laced box dies were used for this box. The bottom of the box was cut from card and the lid is again laminated acetate with punched shapes and threads encased in the acetate. The papers used to make the flowers were decorated with oxide inks and cut with the Fleurs Flower Forming Foam mallow dies.

The wooden plaque was painted and texture paste added. Rare Earth stamps were used to decorate the plaque. The punches were used for the centre of the mallow flowers.

This tunnel card was made by cutting an aperture in the card and using the spring frame cut twice and positioned in different places to create depth. The flower punches were used to make the flowers at the front of the card.