Almost Wordless Wednesday - Button Feast

A feast of hand embroidered buttons - almost good enough to eat.

Source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/merwing/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Is The Bow Easy Worth The Trouble? Your Advice Appreciated

Some people tie picture perfect bows every time.

I've looked at a few videos on using the Bow Easy. What do you think? Does the Bow Easy (or similar tool), make a big difference to your bow making results or help with special bows?

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences.

If, like me, you haven't used the Bow Easy, you can get the low down in the video below by Suzanne J Dean from Scrapbitz.

Paper Flower Rosettes - Video

This video shows an easy but effective technique for making Paper Flower Rosettes from Tami White, at Stampin With Tami, I'm experimenting with different types of paper flowers at the moment, so I was keen to learn a new paper flower making technique.

Paper Flower Rosette Basics
I didn't follow the video exactly, but the rosette starts off as a thin long rectangular piece of paper all prettied up which you pleat and curl around to make a spiral circle flower shape. You could use any paper and any paper edging punch. I tried it with a Fiskars Threading Water Border Punch and Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossed paper... still experimenting, but I love the technique - great for using scraps too.

The elegance comes from the simplicity of the white highlighting any texture or embellishments. I like the white, but you could try other papers for different effects - old book pages, magazine pages, designer papers, kraft paper, painted watercolour paper etc.

Stampin With Tami
You don't need to be a Stampin Up person to find Tami's blog useful - lots of great techniques and inspirational work. Thanks Tami! She even has a monthly give away.

Favourite Find Of The Week - Just Something I Made Blog

Kanzashi Cloth Flower With Printed Words On Petals

I've been visiting Cathe Holden's Just Something I Made blog for a while now, and it just keeps getting better and better.

Looking around is like fossicking in an antique shop. There's something new and unexpected at every turn... a real treasure trove.

I thought I shouldn't keep all this crafty goodnesss to myself, so I'm sharing the link, - just in case you haven't discovered Just Something I Made already. There are over 2000 folllowers, so maybe I'm the only one who's a latecomer to the party.

Cathe is a commercial artist turned graphic designer and is very generous with sharing her finds from her own collection, purchases and lucky finds - great for artists, crafters, designers and more. Thanks Cathe.

Look for -

• Vintage Clip Art
• Silhouettes
• Vintage Postcards & Photos
• Images from Vintage Catalogues
• Blog Buttons
• Frames & Borders
• Design inspiration
• Craft Projects

Kanzashi Flower
As I've been experimenting with Paper Flowers, I was drawn to the Kanzashi Flower Project. Don't you love the way the names are printed on the cloth petals? A perfect gift for a mother or grandmother. You could most likely do this in paper too.... now there's a thought...

Enjoy!

Ronald McDonald House Needs Your Thank You Cards

Sandy McIver is putting out a call for Thank You Cards to help kids at Ronald McDonald House.

Can You Help?

They Need-

• Thank you cards for the kids to send
• Thank you cards for the parents of the sick kids to send
• Thank you cards for the staff to send

Head on over to Sandy's blog to find out more. This seems like a great cause if you can just make a few extra cards for sick kids at Ronald McDonald House.

Free Vintage Resource Discovery

I love vintage, and have just discovered Tammy Tutterow aka Fairy Davis.

Tammy's site tagline is Papercrafts, Ribbon Work, Fabric Arts and Vintage Love. She offers a lot of free vintage postcards, photos, tutorials and resources.

As I'm into paper flowers at the moment, I was delighted to discover instructions for her CHA Prima Make-n-Take tag project. The flower on the tag is just so elegant.

Oh... I've just discovered the doodles section! Beautiful! I am in a calligraphy group, so really appreciate the beauty of hand lettering. These would be perfect on cards. I'm thinking of what I could create already. Check out these delicious doodles.

Copyright Caution
As always with free digital images, note the copyright restrictions/terms of use before downloading anything. Thanks, Tammy - a great resource for vintage lovers.

Paper Flower Flourish - Spiral Flowers Tutorials

I've been getting into handmade paper flowers lately, so decided to explore some tutorial links for spiral paper flowers.

Spiral Flowers
Dozi Design has an easy to follow paper flower photo tutorial

And here's a very clear YouTube video tutorial from Miss Calia.



Have you tried Spiral Paper Flowers or any other types of paper flowers? Any tips?

Paper Flower Making Resources

Tissue Paper Flowers
The Art Of Making Paper Flowers

Layering Digi Images Tutorial & Cupcakes Too

Tiffany at Tiffany Doodles is making quite a splash on the digital stamps scene.

Not only is she offering free digis, as well as those she sells, but she is very generous with her information too. The latest offering is a free tutorial on How To Layer Digi Stamps in Word. No Photoshop or Illustrator needed - just good old MS Word.

Go to Tiffany's site to grab the non watermarked version of the free Cupcake digi shown above. Tiffany shows you how to merge the different elements e.g. you can add sprinkles or a toothpick flag onto your cupcake to decorate it - all in MS Word.

Thanks Tiffany.

Another Fuzzy Duck Challenge Card - Free Digital Stamp

Fuzzy Duck Friends

When I entered the Clearly Delightful Card Challenge with this Happy Spring ducky card, I received a gorgeous free Fuzzy Duck digi image from Laurie Wilson. Thanks Laurie!

I couldn't resist creating with him straight away, and so here is my second entry into the Duck Theme challenge. I was so inspired by the wonderful Design Team creations. Check them out. The Design Team has woven magic with just one Fuzzy Duck image with so many creative results. It's such a versatile image.

My Fuzzy Duck challenge card has a chalk embossed background, layered over orange card. The white layer is cuttlebugged with the Spots and Dots folder, and edged with the Fiskars Threading Water border punch.

Head on over to Clearly Delightful and join in the challenge.... such fun!

Just Ducky Card Challenge

Happy Spring Duck Parade

This gorgeous little duck and ducklings is a free digi stamp from Pollycraft.

The image was printed onto watercolour paper. I coloured it with Inktense pencils, then a bit of fiddling and experimenting with an Aqua brush, a Blending Pen, Twinkling H20's and Kindy Glitz.

The pink background (love that colour) has been given the once over with the Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls folder, and there's Swiss Dots cuttlebugging at the bottom on the "Happy Spring" part.

This cute little Happy Spring card is for the duck themed challenge at Clearly Delightful.

Apologies for the poor photo quality - dark day and the flash wouldn't play along.

Related Post
Another Fuzzy Duck Challenge Card - Free Digital Stamp