Magnolia Fridge Magnet

Remember all of those decoupage flowers taht I made a few weeks back (mentioned in this post)?  I'm still not sure what to do with them all and then I had the idea of making fridge magnets.  

I decided to use one of teh die sets rather than the cut files becouase it was much quicker for me.  I gave the assembled flower a couple of coats of spray varnish to seal the paper and make it more resistant to moisture and staining but the gloss finish ended up giving it a glazed ceramic look, which is really pretty.  Then I simply cut out the base layer from a mganetic sheet and then glued the two layers together.  

It's a really simple idea, but very effective and it opens up a whole new way of using my die cuts.

Quick and Easy Hanging Heart

If you've read my last couple of posts you'll know that I now have a LOT of die cut flowers in my stash.  I don't really have any plans for them, but it would be a shame to leave them bagged up and in a box somewhere.  So I made up a quick and easy hanging heart to display a few of them.

• I cut out the heart from old cereal boxes (I used a Sizzix Framelits heart die).  [Incidentally, 4 or 5 layers of cereal box weight card glued together makes a good, rigid base comparable to chipboard or lightweight MDF.]  
• I painted the background using cerulean blue and titanium white acrylic paint (I used a stencil brush for the clouds).
• I chose a selection of flowers and arranged them at the bottom of the heart. (I used a selection from my many Tattered Lace 3D decoupage flowers - Bell Flower, Hydrangea, Blossom and Bloemen Primula).
• I added a butterfly in the top left corner (downloaded from thehungryjpeg.com).
• To finish I attached some twine to the back with hot glue as a hanger.

Simple, but very sweet.

More Decoupage Flowers

So, I might be a little obsessed.  After my first marathon flower making session I was inspired to dig out some of my old die sets to create even more.  I was shocked to discover that some of said die sets had not been used since they were bought in 2018! I'm not even sure that they're still available to buy.  I did buy the Tattered Lace Floral Decoupage Delights Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 USBs though, because as I said I might be a little obsessed!  Vol. 1 sold out in record time, but at the date of writing this Vol. 2 is still available from Create and Craft TV.

The flowers shown here are a mixture of old dies and a handful from Floral Decoupage Delights Vol. 1.  I haven't even made it to Vol. 2 yet, so I see a lot more flowers in my future 🔮.

EDIT 13/02/2022

The Floral Decoupage Delights USBs are no longer available, but individual SVG cut files and corresponding Charisma artwork can be downloaded from the Create and Craft website.

Tattered Lace Decoupage Flowers - Favourite Florist Collection

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 I am weak for any Tattered Lace 3D decoupage floral dies.  I love them, but unfortunately my wallet doesn't always allow me to indulge myself.  But a few weeks ago there was a 50% off sale at Create and Craft so I took the opportunity to bag a few from the Favourite Florist collection 🙌.  

The collection consists of 6 "In the Garden" flowers, which as the name suggests are flowers that you would find in your garden, and 6 "In the Field" wildflowers, and they come with free downloadable coloured images (a.k.a. Charisma).  I purchased the Peony, Hyacinth, Lily and Pelargonium dies from the "In the Garden" collection and the Lavatera and Wild Rose from the "In the Field" collection.  

I spent a good while playing around with the colours in a graphics program (because the Charisma images only came in one colour) and then printing, cutting and putting them together.  My favourites are the Hyacinth and Lavatera dies.  Lily and Peony are also very pretty with lots of decoupage elements.  The wild rose is very pretty as well, but it would have been nice to have a few more decoupage elements.  The Pelargonium is OK but I have another geranium/pelargonium die set from a different collection that I much prefer.  

You can use foam tape to put these together, but I used Pinflair glue gel.  It's crystal clear and odourless and gives great dimension.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with all these flowers...

Tattered Lace Sensational Flower and 3D Flower Pot Dies

*This post contains affiliate links.  If you click on the link and subsequently make a purchase you will not be charged extra, but I will receive a commission.

A few weeks ago I managed to snag a great deal from Create and Craft.  The offer was to get the Sensational Flower and Flower Pot die sets at effectively half price (BOGOF).  It looked so cute and I like the 3D element and I like miniature stuff so.....

The flowers and pot come with Charisma (which for the uninitiated is a pre-coloured image that fits the die perfectly that can be downloaded from the Create and Craft website).  The flowers come in yellow and purple, with a couple of additional stems and flower heads so that you can decoupage or fill out the bouquet.  If you have access to a graphics program the colour could be changed to anything you like!  So you could have sunflowers, gerberas, daisies or other similar flowers. I actually recoloured both colour options using alcohol markers because they came out a little more pastel on my printer and I wanted a bold colour. 

The pot comes in terracotta only but again could be recoloured and the die set comes with some additional lacy details that could change the look completely.  I'm going to see if I can get a glazed ceramic look by using Glossy Accents.  You could even stick two halves together to get a free-standing pot and flower display.

The BOGOF deal is no longer available but at the time of publishing you can still get the Sensational Flower die set and the Flower Pot die set for £14.99 each from createandcraft.com.

Tattered Lace 3D Miniatures - Hot Air Balloon

This post contains some affiliate links (denoted by *).  If you click on a link and make a purchase there will be no extra cost to you, but I will receive a commission.  

Tattered Lace recently released a new collection - the Butterfly Garden Collection.  Part of the collection consists of seven die sets that create miniature items.  There's a hot air balloon, a violin, a jukebox, a teacup, a perfume bottle, a dresser and an alarm clock. 

Now, I love die cutting and I love all things miniature so there was really never going to be any other outcome than making the set mine, plus all seven sets were available at a ridiculously good price (just over half price) from Create and Craft*.  At the time of writing said multi-buy deal is still available at Crafting.co.uk, but only a couple of the individual die sets are available on either site.

I decided to try out the Hot Air Balloon first.  The set creates half of a hot air balloon.  Charisma (Tattered Lace's pre-coloured graphics that work with the die set) artwork is available to download for each of the die sets for free.  If you wanted you could cut the pieces out twice to make a fully 3D miniature, but I love how it looks in a box frame.

I made an A6 box frame and painted the inside blue using watercolour paint.  I die cut three clouds and then used a fineliner to draw in some bird silhouettes.  The end result is really cute.  I'd also like to try cutting the balloon from plain card and making up my own designs and also having multiple designs in a larger box frame.  It would look really sweet in a nursery or kid's bedroom.

Note - this is not the die set for you if you have poor eyesight or any sort of issues with manual dexterity. 

AAA Cards - CAS Game: One Corner With Optional Twist (Old Supplies)

It's been ages since I participated in a blog challenge.  I'm making my comeback with the AAA Cards CAS challenge. The theme for this week is "one corner" with optional twist "love those old supplies". 

I stamped those flowers about 3 years ago then chucked the card into a pile where it's been lying forgotten since then. That counts as an old supply right? I pulled out that stamp set (Hunkydory "Floribunda" - also unused since I stamped those flowers) and stamped the leaves.  The sentiment came from another Hunkudory stamp set "Beautiful Babushkas". I coloured the leaves and flowers with watercolours. 

Purple Flower Embroidery

I so enjoyed doing embroidery again that I went out and bought some 4" and 6" hoops.  I liked the way it looked on denim and as I still have a massive pile of denim scraps I've used that as my base fabric.

I love the flower! I used buttonhole wheel stitch for it, with black French knots at the centre.  I'm still working out how best to do leaves so there are quite a few different versions here.  But from where I started (bottom right leaf) I can definitely see a lot of improvement by the time I got to the last leaf.  I also like my attempts at a palm-like frond and a pine leaves.  I used an open leaf stitch for both.  The leaf clusters are simply lazy daisy stitches on a stem. 

These little projects are so much fun.  I see more embroidery in my future!  The 4" hoops are very portable and stitch up quickly enough to satisfy my impatient nature.  I'd like to try some different subjects like birds and butterflies as well as more florals of course.  I might even try my hand at designing a little project.

Back to My Roots

The very first needlecraft I tried was knitting.  My mum taught me how to cast on and knit a scarf when I was about 6 or 7.  When I went off to school at 8 I learnt sewing and embroidery and I really loved both.  However they both fell by the wayside.  Then around 2013 I took embroidery back up and practised on and off for about three years.  When I started I only knew how to chain stitch, but thanks to sites like Mary Corbet's Needle N Thread and PinTangle I learnt a whole range of different stitches.  But then I discovered papercrafting and my needlecrafts were all but forgotten. Until now!

I've been seeing a lot of really amazing embroidery via Instagram and Tumblr for a while now and thinking how great it would be to be able to create such loveliness.  On a completely different note I was cutting up some old jeans to turn into some sort of patchwork thing and noticed that a) the denim was quite soft and would be relatively easy to embroider, and b) the scrap I had was the perfect size for a 4" hoop.  And, being the craft stash junkie that I am, obviously I have a hoard of embroidery threads and needles just sitting there waiting to be used.  So with the stars thus aligned I started my first piece of embroidery for several years, and it was a real joy.  It took me quite a while for such a small piece, probably a whole day altogether. (Is that long for something like this?  I have no idea.)  Anyway I had fun and I hope it's not such a long time time before I feel moved to stitch again.