Harrogate, crafty samples...

Thank you to everyone who came to see us all at Harrogate. I had a great time with Nikky, and of course - as ever, it was such a pleasure to meet everyone. I loved it when someone said, "ah it's our Leonie". It's a very nice feeling. And of course, thank you to all the kind folk who fed us...I only eat cake during the day!! Not sure if that's a recommended diet, but felt damn fine from where I was sitting.

Now then, working for Nikky meant I got to play with nice stuff, and I remembered to take photo's, s so over the next few days I will pop on what I was up to.









This first one is one of the images from one ok Nikky's CDs. When you print them out you have plenty of space to cut out using your spellbinders, which is perfect if you want something that looks good, but easy! The CD's all have a great collection of papers, and I must admit as I was print happy, I mixed and matched over a few CD's (that's the nice thing, you can mix and match pretty easily).

I embossed some one the printed folder using one of the new spellbinders double sided embossing folders (beautiful, coming up on my web site in the next few days). I then sanded this back a little to give it that lovely aged effect. I matted and layered, and used another piece of printed paper, just cut into a strip and scrunched up. I popped a bit on the left and a little on the right, so it acted as a faux ribbon. I placed some real ribbon (this is from Nikky, and very scrummy) next to it for added texture.

Paper flowers are easy, but so effective. Using the same papers I printed off for my mat and layering, I cut circles then inked the back with the Tattered Rose Distress Ink (which I also used to edge my image and my layers). This made the paper slightly wet, and even more effective for making wonderful distressed flowers. I cut my spiral into the circles, then scrunched the circle before coiling it round. I use the Crafty Notions glue in the centre of my flowers - this holds in seconds, so makes the flowers a breeze to complete. The scrunching made the flowers bend and twist a little when I coiled, giving them movement.

More ribbon, again just beautiful (again from Nikky). This time in a big decadent bow. I tied one of the sprigs of gems onto the knot before I tied the ribbon, so the ribbon would hide the wire, then positioned the gems when the ribbon was stuck in place.

Now, I didn't make one "proper" card. These could be toppers of course, but I'm rather getting into framing my work and making them more into home decor gifts rather than cards. When you make something that looks this lovely, with all those beautiful embellishments - get it on the wall!!
xx