Live, Love, Laugh and Smile ...

A big hello to all our Couture Creations fans around the world.

Sometimes we come across a new release and we create to our hearts content with it and then we think to ourselves, I really need more of that - I need to keep it for good.

Now I know full well that I am not the only one that thinks like that.

The collection that I really needed to keep from a long time ago - the Vintage Rose Garden collection.

I'm sure that you all remember it well.

Let me share my creativity with you [and I have to say it's not a project that is easy to take a full photo of].

Cut the following pieces of white cardstock.

1 piece 4" x 4"

4 pieces 4" x 2"

4 pieces 2" x 2"

You can see in the above photo that I have scored the piece of cardstock that is 4" x 2" - I have scored this in half and then the scored in half, I have scored in half again - make sense?

I have then made four small easel cards and attached each easel card to the 4" x 4" base piece of cardstock to form a four easel panel card.

Looking at the photo below you can see how I have used adhesive and stuck it all together.

I have cut eight pieces of patterned paper 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" and inked around the edges with a gorgeous pale brown ink from the card deco essentials range.

I've cut out some of the sentiments/words from the Vintage Rose Garden collection and used them on each panel on my card.  I have used foam mini dots to adhere the sentiments - not only the small dots themselves, but the surrounding foam as well.

Now its time to embellish each of the small easel cards.

I have used a selection of crafting fibres, a little muslin [cheesecloth], some foliage, some stunning small blooms - Irish Green and Tangerine and two small orangey coloured sequins. 

Using a toothpick I have randomly applied gesso to my card.

And to this easel card panel, I have cut out a butterfly which was printed on one of the papers in the Vintage Rose Garden collection as well.

Live, Love, Laugh and Smile ...

As much as we all love to add the latest and greatest collections and new releases to our stash [and we do] - sometimes it's wonderful to take a walk back in time, dig deep and play with what we already have - just waiting to be used if we can bear to cut into it and not keep saving it for good.

Products used :

AD49537 - Paper roses

CO721985 - double sided tape

CDEIPU033 - ink - pale brown

CO726429 - foam mini dots - self adhesive black

ULT200001 - cardstock

Happy creating everyone.

Until next time,

Michelle

Tis the season

Hello and welcome back to the Couture Creations blog.

Christmas is fast approaching and I hope that you are all finding a little time to be creative with Christmas in mind.

Christmas is my most favourite time of the year and I have to admit to spending quite a lot of creativity time for the coming season.

Every year I love to make new additions to my Christmas decor.

On my dining table this year ...

I have gesso'd, painted and crackled a wooden crate.

'Tis the season' is a gorgeous chipboard sentiment and I have applied white acrylic paint and then adhered to my crate.  

Using some of the stunning Christmas papers from the Naughty or Nice collection - I have covered three solid wooden blocks with papers

One block is tucked away inside my wooden crate and is surrounded with Christmas greenery, berries, pine cones, a Christmas candle and rusty bells.

And just for the record, the candles will not be burning - you can see there are crafting fibres in my Christmas decor and we all know that paper and fibres do not mix well with candles.

Now on the left of my photo is a salt shaker snowman - the body is filled with a mixture of pearls and baubles.  My snowman's head is a polystyrene ball, covered in gesso, paint, and glitter/diamond dust.  The hat is the top of the salt shaker with a strip of Christmas paper [one of those edges that I keep telling you to keep and not discard], a little thread, snow and a sprinkling of tinsel glitter, topped off with a big pearl.  Around my snowman's neck is some more glittery fibre, some threaded pearls, a little green foliage, some snow and some bells.

In front of my crate and to the right are two of the wooden blocks - I have stuck these together on an angle with a lot of adhesive.

I've cut out numerous pieces of Christmas foliage using both patterned paper and green cardstock.

I've made some foamiran Christmas poinsettias and adhered to the foliage and layered them on my wooden blocks.

I've cut three words/sentiments from one of the papers in the 6.5" x 6.5" paper pad - Believe, Peace and Christmas, inked the edges and adhered to a petal on each of the poinsettias.

I have randomly applied 'snow' and to the Christmas foliage on the blocks I have sprinkled a little tinsel glitter.

Products used :

CO726890 - 6.5" x 6.5" paper pad

CO726889 - 12 x 12 collection

CO726493 - chipboard - Tis the Season

ULT200031 cardstock - Cypress Pine

CO726143 - foamiran sheets

CO725038 - scissors non stick blade

CO724926 - Tinsel glitter

CDEIPU033 - card deco essentials - pale brown ink

Happy creating everyone.

Until next time

Michelle

Christmas bells those Christmas bells

Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man

Have you got that wee Christmas tune in your head now - are you sitting there humming and singing away - Christmas carols, such fun.

Singing away while creating -  well yes, I'm guilty of doing just that.

Let me share a little more Christmas creativity with you all.

Two card bases look just like this before I started building my embellishment clusters.

I cut nine squares - each square is 1 1/2" square.

I used foam strips underneath each square and adhered to another layer of patterned paper 4 3/4" square.

I ran the edge of my scissors along each piece of patterned paper to give it that distressed look.

Then I adhered it to a piece of cardstock that was cut 5" by 10" and scored in half.

Your full front of the card is a 5" square base.

Whenever I am creating Christmas cards and tags I always spend an hour or two cutting a huge pile of Christmas foliage from various patterned papers and a little cardstock as well and then I just pick over and select the pieces as I am creating.

I've made a Christmas poinsettia using foamiran which I have coloured with oil pastels and then I have layered the petals and adhered a glass bauble on the top and using a toothpick I have applied a snow product and also sprinkled a little tinsel glitter to give it a little more of a sparkly effect.

My next card ...

My embellishment cluster made in a circular shape - to give me a more structured circular shape I have cut the joyous frame from the mini die set and layered small foliage pieces in between the cut out pieces to build my wreath.

And to finish off, let me share a quick tag ...

The base of my tag is white cardstock - cut 2 1/4" wide and 4 1/4" long and cut the top edge as a tag shape.

Cut patterned paper to the same size and adhere.  Punch hole at top and tie through twine.

Build another wreath cluster and adhere a Christmas poinsettia.

Randomly apply snow product and sprinkle a little tinsel glitter.

Materials List :

CO726889  - 12 x 12 patterned paper set

CO726890 - 6.5" paper pad

CO724389 - glue pen

CO726342 - Couture Creations Scoring Board

ULT200031 - cardstock - Cypress Pine

CO725038 - scissors non stick blade

CO721985 - Double sided adhesive tape 

CO726143 - foamiran

CO726908 - joyous frame mini die set - 2 piece

CO724926 - tinsel glitter 

Happy creating everyone,
Until next time
Best wishes,
Michelle

A little rusty ...

More than a little bit excited - my rusty Christmas bells have arrived ... in the midst of Christmas creativity.

Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man

Are you singing away to yourself now, or perhaps you are singing out loud - lol ...

World Cardmaking Day

Today - have fun ...

I whipped up a Christmas tag using the Couture Creations Naughty or Nice paper collection.

And just like that ... voila!

Happy crafting everyone.

Hope you find a little creativity time.

Have fun.