Tattered Lace 3D Miniatures - Hot Air Balloon

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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. 

Society Sunday

Time for another round-up of work that has caught my eye on the Society 6 website*.  First up "Midsummer Fires"by Shorsh.  I immediately fell for the glorious colour combination of pink and aqua and as I'm also a sucker for a beautiful sky, this one was a must.

Midsummer Fires - Shorsh

"Gold Geometric Pattern III" by Avalon and Aiden.  This has an Art Deco feel - a style that I've recently discovered.  The combination of gold and white along with the diamond geometric pattern is simple and elegant.  I think it looks great on curtains.

Gold Geometric Pattern III - avalonandaiden

As I mentioned last week, I'm loving seahorses at the moment and with the end of winter just about in sight I'm thinking ahead to my summer holidays and the beach.  I can see myself stretching out on this beach towel by Juliana RW.

Sea & Ocean #5 - Juliana RW

Until I found one of these seeds on a walk through the park last year, I had no idea that they could be so beautiful.  "Maple" by Claudia Drossert captures the delicacy and gentle beauty of a maple seed.  I can see this print in a minimalist setting surrounded by cool tones.  I would have it in a space that I would be in when I wanted to feel peaceful and calm.

Maple - Claudia Drossert

And finally, "Wild Bouquet" by Rachel Cave.  This just makes me happy.  The folk style works beautifully with the fresh colours and captures the essence of Spring.

Wild Bouquet - Rachel Cave

Head over to Society 6 to take a closer look at these pieces or to find a treasured artwork of your own.

*This post contains affiliate links.

Eat, Drink and be Merry ATC

The theme over at Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge this week is "Picnic or Food/Drink".  This is my entry:

I went with a picnic scene.  I started with a piece of watercolour card, and added a rough band of blue and green using my new water-soluble wax pastels.  I then created the corner of a picnic blanket with Washi tape and stuck on small food motifs that I had cut from various patterned papers that I have.  Finally I stamped the sentiment "Eat, drink & be merry!".   Quick and easy this week.

Cardmaking Challenges

One of the most difficult things that I find when sitting down to craft is thinking of what to make.  I sit down with all my crafty stash around and... nothing.  Without a pattern, or a plan or some sort of guide it can be overwhelming.  There's simply too much choice.  What materials should I use, how does everything go together, what layout would work best, what colours should I use, which embossing folder, which dies, which papers, and so on, and so on.

So I decided to find a few papercraft/cardmaking challenge blogs to help me out.  Having someone else come up with the idea leaves me free to focus on the making.

Here is a card that I made with a summery theme.  It's a bit of a departure for me as yellow is not one of my "go to" colours.

I used the Sizzix Tim Holtz Rays Texture Fades embossing folder on yellow card stock and highlighted the raised areas with yellow ink.  I've tried to emboss the rays but I think I need more practice with that.  The butterfly and flower are from the Sizzix/Hero Arts stamp & die set, which I've coloured in with Spectrum Noirs.  The small flowers are also die cut from Creata patterned and glittered paper.  The sentiment came with the latest issue of Papercrafter magazine.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - Here Come Summer

Crafty Cardmakers and More - It's a Bug's Life

C.R.A.F.T Challenge - Make Your Own Embellishments