Friday Favourites

  Every Friday I'll be presenting some graphics, a font and a cut file that have caught my eye.  This week I bring you a gorgeous set of watercolour images featuring floral cameras with birds, an elegant serif font and a set of kitchen-themed monogram frames.

  So first of all, the Watercolor Spring Floral Camera Bundle.  These watercolour images are just gorgeous 😍.  There are 10 PNG images in the set featuring old-style cameras adorned with flowers, birds and butterflies.  

  I used one of the bird images to create my own decoupage sheet, which I then assembled and put in a box frame.  I love the end result.  It was given as a gift but I plan to make another one to put on my own wall.  All of these images would look lovely on a variety of projects, like greetings cards, notebook covers or wall art.

It's difficult to see the 3D in this photo, but it looks great in person!

  

This week's font is Rise of Kingdom.  This elegant, serif, all caps typeface is available as a free download from Creative Fabrica.  There are over 100 pages of free fonts available on the Creative Fabrica website so it's well worth a look.

  I recently used the font to create this kitchen sign, which also happens to be the cut file of the week:

  The split monogram frame comes from the Laser Kitchen Split Monogram Svg Bundle, although I got it as part of the Cute Paper Craft SVG Mega Bundle both from Creative Fabrica.  (The latter is an absolute bargain by the way, with over 300 sets of SVG cut files for only $11! I might have to do a separate post or two just for that.)  

Happy creating!

Quick and Easy Floral Greetings Cards

I may have mentioned before that I absolutely love buying craft supplies!  It's bordering on an addiction.  The problem with that is that it is costly and the supplies take up a lot of space (that I don't have).  So I've been trying my hardest not to succumb to all the juicy deals that seem to keep popping up in my inbox lately 😩.  To help keep my cravings at bay, I've been scouring the "Freebies" section at Creative Fabrica.  It's the perfect foil to my buying habit - the products don't cost anything, they only take up space on my hard drive and I get to feel the same joy and satisfaction that I get from buying and receiving physical items 🙌.

Anyway, on to the project!  These floral greetings cards are really pretty and quick and easy to make.

 Aside from your computer and printer, you will need:

• Underwood Champion Font 
• Rosaleen Watercolor Flower Clipart
• Card
• Scissors
• Glue / foam tape or pads

Step 1:

Download the clipart and import the images into a graphics program, e.g. Photoshop.  Adjust the size so that they are about 10 x 13cm (to fit an A6 card) or whatever dimensions you need for the card that you want to make.

Step 2:

Position the graphics so that they are one side of the page (rotate if required and use guides to help you position them), then print out.

Step 3:

Cut the A4 sheet in half, then score and fold to create two greetings cards and put them aside.

Step 4:

Create another page in your graphics program using the graphics from step 2, but this time fill the page, then print.

Step 5:

Cut out one central flower from each design on the printed sheet.

Step 6:

Use foam pads or dimensional glue to stick the cut flower onto the greetings card base to add dimension.

Step 7:

Download the font and install on your computer.

Step 8: 

In your graphics program create a new project with an A5 sheet.  Draw a rectangle to cover the sheet and fill it in black.

Step 9:

Using the text tool, select the Underwood Champion font and create a page full of short sentiments to cover a variety of occasions and lay them out onto the black background.  Select white for the font fill colour.  When you are happy with your sentiment sheet print it out.

Step 10:

Cut out one of the sentiment strips and attach it to the front of the greetings card.  

Your card is complete!  I chose to do some decoupage on the front because I think it adds something extra, but that is optional (steps 4-6). 

The sentiment sheet does take a little time to put together, but once you have done it choosing a sentiment is very quick.

You could easily make a stack of these to have on hand for any occasion or to sell or gift as a set.  

Head over to Creative Fabrica to grab these assets and make your own cards, or check out the vast selection of fonts and graphics (both free and paid for) and be inspired to bring your own creations to life.

 

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.