I know you all love my monday makeovers … but I am sure you love blog Candy even more so we will be giving away 4 cartridges, one of each of the latest releases…Rock Princess, Winter Frolic – lovely borders on this one, Happy Hauntings – check out the vampire font  -  and  County Life. These are due to arrive around 20th August but pre order now and get free express shipping on arrival.

For today’s makeover it is the turn of my guest bedroom. This room has been the most “reutilised” room in our house. When we moved in 6 years ago it was the office, then it became a spare bedroom/store room. When our dog had puppies in January 2008 we ripped out the carpet and made it the pup nursery. After that it was my office / craftroom and it has recently been reincarnated as the guest bedroom after Chris and I took over the guest bedroom for our combined office.

In there we have a black white and silver colour scheme.

Directly opposite the bed is this black photo frame I bought from a reject shop. It holds 18 6 by 4 inch pictures. What I have decided to do is turn it into a mini art gallery. I have invited the SGL design team along with a few customers and friends to design a 6 by 4 inch card, landscape style, with a colour scheme of black, white and silver.

Here are the 9 completed cards. Each day over the next week one designer will show you their creation in detail.

Monday – Mandy – Scrappy-go-Lucky Blog

Tuesday – Jane – Scossie Jane

Wednesday – Diane – Capadia Designs

Thursday – Chloe - Chloe and her Clip on Koalas

Friday – Tereesa- Up late 2 Create

Saturday – Amanda – White Ruffles

Sunday – Tracey – Trace- Elementz

Monday – Lisa and Tara – back here at SGL as they do not have blogs… yet.

Your job is to work out the theme. Add a comment to this post telling us what you think the theme is plus what your all time favourite cartridge is and why. 4 lucky winners will be drawn on Wednesday 18th August to receive one of the 4 cartridges.

As you can see I need another 9 cards to complete my mini gallery so if you would like to be in the next card swap drop me an email or leave a message and a way to contact you. You will need to make 9 cards in black, white and silver, 6 by 4 inches.

Here is my creation.

I wanted to create the look of an English cottage garden behind a picket fence.

I started with a 6 x 4 inch silver card base, followed by a black mat 5 ¾ x 3 ¾

The patterned paper is To Love & Cherish – Grace by Imaginisce. The bottom half of this had the sort of wild cottage garden look I was after.

I cut this in half vertically to make 6 x 12. Then I used  a piece of acetate 3 ½ x 5 ½  and moved it up and down until I got the most pleasing scene for my garden and cut this out at 5 ½  x 3 ½  and stuck it onto the black mat.

I cut the gate from Freshly Picked at 6 by 3 on the Gypsy with aspect ratio off. I then snipped the gate from the posts. I cut two of these for each card as I needed two of the gate.

I cut the layers, hinges and post details in sticky backed silver metal,  from 10 Seconds Studio, using kiss cut vinyl settings – low pressure, low speed, blade depth 2. Then I put these through the top half of the Tim Holtz for Sizzix embossing folder “Broken Glass”. I used the top half only as the shards were smaller here and suited the small pieces better.

The posts were shaded with Copic C3 cool grey  down each side, shaped them a little to look rounded and applied to the card with foam tape. The gate was embossed in Tim Holtz for Sizzix folder “wood grain” and subtly highlighted with Copic C1 cool grey. I cut two gates.

I applied a jewellery component fob loop, which I found in a local bargain store,  for the gate handle using a silver brad and then stuck the second gate on the back using a glue stick liberally to add rigidity once set. The quote, “Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished – Lao Tzu,” was printed on the computer and inititally applied behind one of my SU Hodge Podge Hardware labels. Unfortunately these ended up being too heavy for the gate so instead I applied a Kazazz label stamp with Versamark and silver embossing powder which still gave a good look.

The reverse side of the left over Grace paper was used to cut flowers for the garden. The star flower is from Accent Essentials. For the smaller flowers I used the two papers pictured above. I have no idea what these are called. I bought them at  a recent craft fair from a business specialising in the importation of Indian papers and embellishments. The smaller flowers are cut using the smallest flower on the Tim Holtz for Sizzix Tattered Flowers die.

I was glad I had my assistant, Sarah, to help me with this and in hindsight it would have been a whole lot quicker to do this on my Cricut picking something similar from one of my many cartridges but I am having a bit of a Tim Holtz obsession right now.

I am loving lots of texture so to finish it off I applied beads to the little ball flowers and Flower Soft for the black dandelions.

Hope you like it,

Mandy

Hi, Today I thought I’d demonstrate another fun feature on the Freshly Picked cartridge. Each image on this cartridge has a frame with a matching cut along the bottom. I have chosen my favourite flower for this card – pink tulips.

The tulip image has all the layers to make this gorgeous planter box full of tulips. This has been cut at 2″, and I have embossed the outer layer with Tim Holtz Woodgrain. I’ve also added a couple of cute little glittered butterflies to soften the lines of the planter box.

Here is a close-up of the framed border. I’ve used white with pink background paper behind the tulip box, and  pink with white background for the cut border.

I have sized the overall frame at 5″, and with the Gypsy, it is duplicated and flipped. After using the hide contour feature on the back section, the two pieces are then welded together before cutting. Below is the card when it’s open. I’ve used a small tulip bouquet stamp for a subtle background on the front of the card, and added a couple to the edge of the pink inside the card. The pink area also makes a great area to write your sentiment.

I’ve used these cute little tag punches with thread wound around the side to finish the card.

This cartridge is definitely one worth looking into.

Luv, Tereesa.

Hi, Freshly Picked again – I love it. Today I thought I would try something a little different and made this 3D gazebo.

I’ve used the DoubleMates Morning Mist for the base layer; and the Gazebo, shadow and all layers are cut at 2 1/2″. I’ve used the Gypsy for this design and imported 6 shadow images onto the mat. As both sides of the gazebo differ, I’ve flipped every second image, then slightly overlapped the edges before welding together.

To make it easy to join the ends of the gazebo, George & Basic Shapes was used to add 2 rectangles – sized at 1/2″ - to weld to one side (you can just see them on the right side of the photo below).

As you lose some of the image when you overlap, I have cut an extra 3 single pieces of the shadow and adhered them to the 1st, 3rd and 5th gazebos on the row. These are also sized at 2 1/2″.

All layers were then cut and adhered – making sure the pieces for the 2nd, 4th and last went under the top shadow pieces.

I have added rhinstones and extra glitter to the main 3 cuts as they stand out more. Below is a close-up of the layering where you can see the overlapping shadow piece..

A view from the top …

By adding a vase of flowers to the centre, it has become a cute table centrepiece.

Hope you like it.

Till next time, Luv, Tereesa.

Hi, There are so many beautiful flowers and herbs featured on the “Freshly Picked” cartridge, I decided to do another framed card – this time with a Rose Bush.

This card is made exactly the same as the Framed Petunias. The only difference being that it’s portrait so the folds are lengthways. The size for the oval cut is 3.5″ (lined up on the Gypsy), and the oval background is 4 1/4″.

The rose bush, shadow and layers are all cut at 3″. The greenery is cut from DoubleMates Emerald Isle (dark), and the flowers and ribbon from Sunshine Yellow (light side). I have added swirls to the greenery with Glaze Pens to add a little dimension, and the flower edges have been curled up. I also used a cut piece of an outdoor mat to create the effect on the bag.

Another great feature on this cartridge is the cute little seed sachets. This took about 2 minutes to put together, and there is a seed packet to match every image on the cartridge – flowers, herbs, vegetables, fruit, and even garden tools and gnomes.

Every guest received a packet of seeds at a wedding we recently attended, and I thought this was a beautiful way to remember the day. Makes the possibilities for this feature endless.

Luv, Tereesa.

Hi, I just love garden gnomes, so when I saw a few on this cartridge, I just had to do a card with one. I have based his clothing (and expression) on one of my gnomes.

I wanted to try colouring this little guy with my Copics, so I used the Cri-Kits Gel Pens to draw the image, then used the shadow feature to cut around him. The gnome and shadow are both sized at 3 1/2″.

After heat-setting the ink, I coloured his face, hand, legs, and shirt and pants only. I used a Peachy-Keen “Basic Paper Dolls” stamp, but only inked his nose and eyes.

I cut layers for his hat, belt, and boots from DoubleMates Hawaiian Blue (dark side) at 3 1/2″ and attached these along with his whiskers. Shiny silver card was used for the belt buckle.

As I used the shadow feature to cut around the image, I sized another shadow at 3.7″. This shadow is adhered flat on the card, and the gnome is attached using foam dots. This way – even though the shadow doesn’t quite line up, it is not noticable.

The starburst background is cut from Plantin Schoolbook at 3.7″, and has been embossed with the Tim Holtz Woodgrain folder.

After adding some interest to the plain white background, I added some ribbon and flowers with rhinestones, and a welcome sentiment as I think gnomes are friendly little fellows.

Hope you like it …

Luv, Tereesa.

Hi, I have been working on a collection of cards from the new cartridge “Freshly Picked”. Once I started, so many ideas kept coming to mind, but I had to stop somewhere. I thought I’d begin with this bright pot of petunias in a self-standing framed card.

Two pieces of card are used cut at 6″ x 4″. Using George & Basic Shapes, and lining up the placement on the Gypsy, an oval is cut in the centre of the front piece sized at 3.5″. Using the Scor-Pal,  score two vertical lines - 3/8″ and 6/8″ – in from each side (as shown on the left below). These lines are then folded, one up and one down (as shown on the right below).

The back piece is also scored and folded with the same measurements.

Again using George & Basic Shapes, I cut an oval at 4 1/4″ from a pretty lilac paper, and adhered this to the centre of the back card.

Before the card is put together, I attach all ribbons, etc. so that the ends can be hidden between the two layers. Adhesive is then applied to the two outer folds, and the two card pieces are joined. The photo below shows a view of the card from the top.

This beautiful pot of petunias, layers, and shadow are all cut at 2.1″. Cardstock used is DoubleMates Caribbean Coral (dark side) for the pot, Tera-Cotta (light side) for the rim and flower centres, Emerald Isle (both sides) for the leaves, and Lovely Lilac (dark side) for the petunias. I have used my Copics to form a shadow on the side of the pot, and of course a little purple and gold glitter is added for sparkle. The pot is attached with foam dots for extra dimension.

The light green leaf layer left some smaller leaves as extras. As I don’t like wasting anything, I have used these to highlight the sentiment. Another reason I love the DoubleMates cardstock is that one cut gives you two different coordinating looks – light and dark. The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up; and I’ve added a couple of brads on the ribbon, and also stamped some small flower stems on the main card front for a subtle background.

Till next time,

Luv, Tereesa.