Butterfly Meadow Altoid Tin

It's been a long while since I played with an Altoid Tin. I've got heaps of ideas sketched in my notebooks. I even have a prototype of a rather elaborate design... but today I'm sharing this sweet and simple tin.

I've used Prima's Tales of You & Me-Contes de Toi et Moi for the exterior and flowers. A few of the the flowers and the blue background are from Cigar Box Secrets - Corona.

The little sentiment "The butterflies danced in the summer meadow." is made up of words cut from a vintage children's book.

I've said it before, if you're looking to add cut phrases to your work, pick up an old damaged kids book. The typeface is usually quite large and they include the nicest words,

I hope you're having a great day. I'm ready to crawl back under the covers and hide for a while... hopefully it's just a case of the Monday's and the rest of the week behaves.

P.S. If you live near Toronto check out THIS POST and you could win a pair of tickets to Medieval Times.

Mothering ATC's in pink and golden floral glory

"Who wants to make some ATC's?"

ME! ME! ME! (I'm a keener)

And maybe I'd like to make some sort of Mother's Day thing-a-ma-doodle? You know, for people who like to plan ahead and not do everything last minute. I have no idea who these 'think ahead' people are, but sure!

That's how I ended up making this pretty batch of Artist Trading Cards for my friends at AlphaStamps.

There's 9 of the pretty things all together which means you could make your favourite motherer a pocket letter. Be sure to include a gift certificate, a sweet note, photograph, mementos or charms in there if going this route.

I've made some of these little darlings as ATC sized cards. Perhaps you'd prefer to distribute a little love to all the great motherers you know.

The cards were a cinch to whip up, but here are a few of the steps you may find useful

• Using papers from this month's kit I cut out the appropriate ATC size 2.5" x 3.5" OR 5" x 3.5" for folded ATC cards, then rounded all of the corners.

• I applied some acrylic gel medium using a doily as a stencil and sprinkled some gold embossing powder sparingly on top and set it with a heat gun. I really liked the way these worked together!

• I applied fussy cut images from Mother Knows Best Collage Sheet (which I printed in black and white)

• All of the winged things are from this Butterflies & Moths Collage Sheet. I printed one sheet full size and a second sheet at 50% to give me an even wider variety of sizes.

• When gluing the butterflies into place, I only glue the centre body part. This way the wings can be folded back, giving a 3D effect.

Easy peasy and all the bits came together nicely. Soooo, if you feel like making something pink, floral and feminine, (or are one of those amazing people who want to get a jump start on a mothers day project!) here's your supply round-up:

Baroque Dresden Borders - Gold
Mother Knows Best Collage Sheet
Butterflies & Moths Collage Sheet
House of Roses Old Letters Scrapbook Paper
House of Roses on the Porch Scrapbook Paper
Prima Tales of You & Me Notre Jardin Secret Scrapbook Paper
Prima Tales of You & Me Jardin de Fleurs Scrapbook Paper
Doily
Gold Embossing Powder
Acrylic Gel Medium

"Sing Together" Altered Canvas

A little textured canvas today. Four inches square, covered with pieces from Gina's Texture Sheet Gears and Gears Shape Set and some paperclay bits made with this Silicone Mold. Painted white and sploshed with Silks Acrylic Iridescent Glazes. Finished off with some beautiful Botanica Flowers from Petaloo. The final touch, some snippets from a vintage children's book. 

This piece is listed in the etsy shop HERE

Adorable Floral Cake Topper for Petaloo

I was asked to create a wedding themed something for Petaloo. You can now add cake topper to your DIY wedding list. 

I've used pink burlap flowers and daisy layers to top this cake while imagining a sweet, simple backyard wedding. But if your 'I do's' are a little more fancy, you could absolutely consider Botanica blooms atop a prettily iced cake, or vintage velvet blossoms for a shabby chic wedding.

To create my topper I simply cut out thick decorative paper and affixed a mound of florists foam/oasis to the top. I added coordinating trim to hide the bottom edge, then simply applied the flowers to the foam. I printed the sentiment on thick card, applied a painted bamboo skewer and pushed into place. If you're worried about your topper moving, simply push toothpicks in the bottom to hold your piece in place.

Textured Elements - Daisy Layers
Textured Elements - Burlap Blossoms
Textured Elements - Burlap Picks
Textured Elements - Burlap Butterflies & Blossoms
Botanica - Calla Lilies & Berries
Fancy Trim 

Card Stock
Oasis
Bamboo Skewer
Butterflies