How Does Your Garden Grow? Deb's Concertina Wardrobe Card and Gift Bag

Hello Crafty Friends!

Hasn't this month just flown by!! It's time for our final garden inspired project for the month. Today Deb uses those gorgeous Julie Nutting doll cut-outs to create a super sweet Concertina Wardrobe Card. It's totally gorgeous and it could be YOURS to win (see the end of this post for details).
Enjoy!......

Hi Crafters!

When I saw these adorable little girl cut outs in the kit I thought they  deserved to have their own little wardrobe, so I have made a row of them connected together to make a card which I am sure any young girl would just love! I then made a gift bag to hold the card to keep it safe for giving.

Step one: I used two punches to punch the shape for the top and bottom of the base of the wardrobe and then cut pieces of patterned paper for the wardrobe doors and drawers.

Step 2: I then glued all the pieces onto 5 wardrobe fronts and added brads for the door knobs and drawer knobs.

Step 3: I cut out more wardrobe pieces to attach to the back of the front of wardrobe pieces (and to hide the workings of the concertina strips). I cut two pieces of card stock to attach all the wardrobes together to make them fold on themselves. I added some ribbon so I could tie it around when closed.

Step 4: I have added white cardstock to the back of the last wardrobe and stamped Happy Birthday, and glued on some hearts from the kit.

I made the bag using a Gift Bag Punch Board. I have stamped the cute little girl using the Julie Nutting set that came in the kit, some very cute little stamps in that set. I have coloured her in using markers and fussy cut her out. I added a paper doily from my own stash. 

I hope you have enjoyed looking at what I have made and that it has given you some incentive to put your own take on this and make your own. 

Have a great day all you talented crafters' out there!

Deb x

You can win this Concertina Wardrobe card!!

Simply leave a comment below the post of this card on the Crafty Vera and Friends facebook group HERE to go in the draw.

Winner will be picked Thursday 8pm (Sydney Australia time)

How Does Your Garden Grow? Lolly's Custom Journal and Giveaway

Hello Crafty Friends!

I'm loving all the different takes on our June Kit that the CT girls are coming up with.

Today Lolly finds a garden inspired Little Golden Book and turns it into a custom journal. SO sweet!

Be sure to scroll to the end of the post... there's a fun giveaway included!!

You know me -- I LOVE shopping at thrift stores, right?  So I've been looking at older children's books and snatching them up.   I found this one, The Little Red Hen, and I had to get it.

 I remember reading that as a child.  It's a classic -- published in 1942 and read by thousands.   The story is about a little red hen who was doing her own gardening and couldn't get any of her friends to help.  In a way, it's a sad story that teaches a valuable lesson.

I knew I wanted to turn that into a custom journal -- to keep all of the original pages in the journal but to scatter journal pages throughout.  The first "page" is an envelope on which I sponged ink over the beautiful rose stencil and added a sentiment cut apart from the papers.

Then, I took computer printer paper and sewed some of the Julie Nutting paper collection strips on them for journaling papers.

And on other pages, I edged them with washi from the kit.

And finished it off with a pocket on the back, using that darling Penny Black stamp!

It's a one-of-a-kind gardening journal book!

 If you'd like to see it up close, I have a video HERE.

And are you ready for a surprise?   This journal could be yours!   I'm giving it away as a Random Act of Kindness in Vera's Facebook group HERE.
So head on over, comment on the post, and enter to win! 
Winner will be drawn 8pm Friday.... Sydney Aus time :) 

Thank you for joining in the fun and having a look!

Sowing seeds of craftiness,

Lolly

http://www.LollyPalooza.net

How Does Your Garden Grow? Deb's Z Fold Card & Envelope

Hello Crafty Friends!

I have a confession to make........ I only started ordering the Garden Assistant stamp that is in our June Kit because I wanted one for myself. She is just SOOOO gorgeous! And it makes me so happy that all my Crafty Peeps love her too!

Today Deb creates a beautiful Z Fold card featuring our favourite gardening girl........

Hi Crafters!

I just fell in love with this stamp when I saw it, it is so right up my alley!! I thought straight away it lends itself to a 'Z' Fold card, I just love making these as you get a really great 3d effect and they are quite easy to make, the hardest part is thinking what to put inside them!

Step 1: To make the 'Z' fold is really quite easy all you have to do is cut a piece of cardstock, mine is 11 1/4 inches  x 5 inches. I then scored it in half, then the front half is scored in half again, so you then have a 'Z' fold card, easy peasy!

Step 2: I then did the same with a piece of white cardstock which was the same 11 1/4 inches but by 2 inches and folded in half on the back half this time .

Step 3: I then stamped the border along the bottom of the white cardstock, when doing this I only inked up the bottom border of the stamp as I only wanted the flowers and grass along the bottom. Once I had inked it all I then coloured in the images with markers and attached the stamped piece to the base of the card. Added all the little bits and pieces to give it a 3D look. I stamped and coloured the whole image and then fussy cut the gardener out and attached her to the bottom strip.

Step 4: Of course I had to make a matching envelope to put the card in, using my envelope maker.

This was so much fun to make, I can see myself making a lot more projects with this beautiful stamp!

Happy Crafting!

Deb x

How Does Your Garden Grow? Suzanne's Shadow Box

Hello Crafty Friends!

Our June Kit is How Does Your Garden Grow and features some really sweet Julie Nutting goodies. Today Suzanne upcycles a bought shadow box into a garden of Julie Nutting girls. Just awesome!!

Hi everyone. I hope that you were all lucky enough to see Lolly and Amira's beautiful shadow boxes that they created last month for their design team projects.  Well, if you did, you are probably like me and have fallen in love with theirs, and so I thought I would give it a go also. 

The shadow box that I am altering is one I picked up very cheap at a sale and really wanted to do something with.  I hope you like what you see.

Altered Shadow Box

This is the original shadow box

The shadow box was natural wood colour, butI decided to jazz it up and painted it a nice mauve colour.  Before I did that, I taped the glass window with low tack tape so that I didn't get paint on the glass. 

Mixed purple and white acrylic paint to make a nice mauve colour

I added two coats of paint to the shadow box

I also painted the back of the shadow box

 I chose the paper with the little birdhouses to add to the back of the inside of the shadow box

This is the paper I chose to put on the inside of the back of the shadow box

Next I stamped out 6 Julie Nutting dolls onto watercolour paper and coloured them with my watercolour pencils.  I tried to keep to the colours that were in the Julie Nutting paper collection.
 

These beautiful Julie Nutting doll stamps are available in the June kit



these stamps are from my stash

These ones are from my stash

These are the 6 dolls that I watercoloured

After that I threaded some mauve and white twine through the hooks in the shadow box ready for the dolls to be added with the pegs.

Threaded up ready for the dolls

Before I added the dolls to the inside, I decided to decorate the outside.  I used two of the paper dolls from the Julie Nutting paper dolls in the June kit.  The dolls come with a white frame around them which I decided to cut off before adding them to the outside of the shadow box. 

I also added a potted flower, a little birdhouse and a 'be kind' banner to the outside of the shadow box

.

I then added the coloured dolls to the inside of the shadow box with the pegs.

 Here is my finished project.  Thanks you for taking a look.

You can see the video on how I altered this shadow box HERE.

 You can purchase the kit HERE.



xx Suzanne

How Does Your Garden Grow? Deb's 4 x 4 Cards and Bag

Hello Crafty Friends!

Are you ready for another stroll through our craft garden? Today Deb is picking flowers from our June Kit and making pretty cards to carry in her glamorous card bag...... just SO awesome!!

Enjoy!

Hi Crafters!

This was so much fun to make, I just love making bags, I know I have said they were all fun to make but I really did enjoy this one, except for the really messy part which you will see further down this post lol! 

I have made 4  cards all 4 x 4" and a matching bag to put them in. I have used the Polished Jade Dylusions Ink Spray, Wilted Violet Distress Marker and the Roses Stencil out of the kit.

I don't know what happened when I was taking photos but apparently I forgot to take photos of the different stages of the roses stenciled cards, so sorry about that :(

Step 1: I used an acrylic block and coloured it in with the Wilted Violet Distress Marker, sprayed water on it and then stamped it onto wet watercolour paper, then sprayed the cardstock until I was happy with the effect, then dried it with my heat gun.

Step 2: The messy part! I used Bo Bunny Black Glitter paste with the Roses Stencil.  After cleaning up my mess, and after waiting for the glitter paste to dry completely I trimmed back the stenciled watercolour paper to 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

Step 3: I cut a piece of white cardstock to 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches, then I cut a piece of black cardstock 8 x 4 inches to use as the card base. I attached the white cardstock to  the stenciled piece and tied ribbon to the bottom then attached it to the front of the black card base. I added some cute little tags around the bow at the bottom which I punched out using one of my punches and stamp sets. The black ribbon and Glitter paste were from my stash. 

Step 4: Using the Polished Jade Ink Spray and water I inked some watercolour paper, flowers and the lace trim. The lace trim was in the kit, flowers and watercolour paper were from my stash.

Step 5: I stamped the Garden Helper onto the watercolour paper I just sprayed, layered that onto my card base which was 4 x 8, folded in half.  I attached the dyed flowers, lace trim, the very cute little bird cage from the kit. Added some little bling dots which were from my stash.

Step 6: I stamped the inside of the card using the little corner stamp that belongs to the Julie Nutting stamp set from the kit.

Step 7: Making the bag, which is actually called a box in a bag, as you construct a box first. See photos. The box part is scored on all 4 sides at 1/2 inch.

I have then attached handles which were 1/2 inch wide with staples.

I cut an extra two pieces of black cardstock 5/8ths  wide and adhered one to the top outside of the bag and one two the inside top of the back to give it strength. I then added the front panel, and also a cute little envelope pocket to hang from the handle. I then also added one of the little birdhouse brass charms from the kit. The very blingy rhinestone brad was from my stash.

Whew! this was a long post! I am sure I haven't forgotten to tell you something. I just love how this set turned out, and I hope you get some enjoyment looking at it. 

Have a great crafting week!

Deb x