Cards for ladies who shop

My Spellbinders dies have arrived, whoopee! 

I had begun these two cards within cards before the dies arrived but being able to use them to embellish the cards made so much difference, I have not yet put in inserts as these will be personalised to suit the recipients. 

Boy cards

making boy cards always seems more difficult so having a few kit pieces to call on makes the job much less stressful.  Adding my own embellishments and card embossed with a creative expressions folder  makes this one more individual.  Below I've used masks and scrunched and spritzed papers to get different effects

Woodland card

A selection of Kan-Ban kit cards

Tim Holtz tissue tape lampshades

I purchased two new lamps last week but decided I didnt like the stark white and plain striped glass shades.  Out came the Tim Hotz tissue tape and 20 minutes later they were transformed:)

The plasterer left me a present!

I found a roll of self adhesive plasterers scrim after the builders left yesterday and knew I'd be able to do something crafty with it.  One problem, it wasn't the nice fabric sort but a plastic variety.  Immediately I thought of colouring it with alcohol inks and they did work brilliantly but I wondered what would happen if I stuck it to mirror board and used it as a mask as I was colouring it.  The effect is great and I now have a piece of unique reflective cardstock for my crafting as well as an unusual 'ribbon' ideal for man cards.  The scrim is easily stored on a piece of acetate, its adhesive side is not too sticky, just enough to hold it in place.

Wildflower Card - Composition

Aren't  digital cameras the best thing ever invented?  I am playing with the composition of this card and it was so easy to try out various options without fear of forgetting which one I tried first!  I'm still torn between 2 ideas so I thought I'd post the project unfinished and see what feedback it got :)

here is a pic of all the items I used, in addition I used a little coordinating paper, plain cardstock, raffia and two Ideaology fragments.  I would have used round glass glintz as they would have  magnified the little moths/butterflies beautifully but I couldnt find them!  All of the inks are a coordinating green colour.  The finished card measures 8" x 8" and the main image  is 4" x 4".

 Stamping - I stamped the main image by daubing the Ranger distress stain onto the stamp.  Using the Versamark pad I stamped images onto the background.  The rectangular green paper started out as smooth white cardstock, I stamped images with Versamark and then brayered lettuce Adirondack over it.  Still using the lettuce I stamped two butterfly images and a sentiment onto white card and set them aside for later.

Spritzing - Both the background and the main image were spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer mist - golden mint.  I cut an oversized mat for behind the main image from coordinating cardstock, scrunched it up and spritzed it with the cosmic shimmer, scrunched it when wet, spritzed again then smoothed it out and left it to dry.  For the intermediate layer I tore some plain white paper and dyed it with the distress stain.  I matted and layered the green paper with coordinating card

Finishing - I glued the two fragments on top of the butterfly images using glossy accents, the ink bled a teensy bit but that added to the charm.  I trimmed the edges when dry.  I tore out the stamped sentiment and then gently distressed the edges with lettuce ink.  Using perfect medium and clear embossing powder I double embossed the sentiment piece.  I tied a bow using shredded raffia and put a few dots of stickles on the seedheads.  Now all I have to do is decide the final layout.  All suggestions are welcome.