Book Folded Birdcage

I've just discovered the new to me craft of book folding, it's great fun and adds another dimension to my crafting.

After folding the book (there are lots of tutorials online to get you started) I sprayed the whole book with Glorious Gold from Oak House studio.

Using the Fiskars AdvantEdge ironworks cartridge I cut the bottom border out using gold card.

For my focal point I cut a bird using the Fiskars Fuse bird die with a letterpress plate from self adhesive cork.

Then I added leaf vine ribbon

To decorate I used white flowers from Samaflora.  I chose white as I wanted to have a play spraying and painting them myself.  The small flowers were on wires, which meant I could slide them into a fold and glue them in place.

I have always loved blue poppies (a happy memory from my childhood).

For the hanging loop I used a large bead and a bead cap on wire

The finished decoration

There are a few butterflies in places as I felt the need to add butterflies (one of my favourite embellishments.

Thanks for dropping by Lynne x

Handbag Charm

Today was an exciting day for me, my first ever DT project was published. I made this handbag charm. They are really easy to make, instructions are HERE

They don't cost a lot as you can use broken jewelery and leftover beads from other projects.

For findings, beads and advice try G.J. Beads. They are my favourite bead suppliers and have a huge range of beads to choose from.

Floral Card

I have lots of stash that I've bought and can't possibly use as it's too nice. Were's the sense in that? So this year I've decided to use what I've got. Over on HSS lots of people have been using the coredinations cardstock. I love the effects you can get. On this card the purple and green are coredinations. It was so easy to get a vein effect on the leaves and paler edges. I used my Fiskars shape boss (another thing that's been stuck in a cupboard) to emboss the floral oval and then added some silk flowers, a button and some bling. The bling was cut from a word I got in a bargain pack, it said Hot stuff, which isn't a title I would use. Cutting it up gave me oodles of tiny gems. The background card is actually pale lemon pearlescent, but it didn't photograph very well.

Competition

Over on the Fiskarettes Blog there is a new competition with a great prize, you can make a card, LO or something in fabric or anything else you can think of. It's free to register.

Also if you're going to the NEC for the Craft show sign up and you can collect a free gift from the Fiskars stand. Details If you go on the Saturday, you need to be at the Fiskars stand for 1:45 and there will be tea and a chance to play with the new tools for 2009. All you need to do is register and post to say you will be there!