Another day, another play.

Blogland is a country which is slowly unfolding itself to me. It's a great place for crafters who crave contact and exchange of ideas and also someone else to show their work to. When I first started papercrafting there were no magazines in this country dedicated just to cardmaking and papercrafting. Now there's stacks of them but better still is you tube with demo videos and blogs crammed with demos from people who've been racking their brains trying to solve the same kind of crafting problems that I have. After many hoppy days and evenings I have discovered Ikki's cuttlebug cupboard -a truly generous blog where Ikki shares and explains clearly how to solve some of the creative issues associated with the cuttlebug. Most of us have some cuttlebug folders haven't we? "If only I could" we've moaned. Well Ikki knows how and she shares. Go look. This is a card I made using a couple of the ideas she talks about.

The first idea involves the making of the card embellishment. For my flower I've used some handmade paper I've had for about eight years leftover from another project. I inked the petal edges with chalk ink and added black versafine for definition. Then I stamped the little flower from one of the Japanese doll sets at Craftwork Cards. I wasn't happy so I used a sakura stardust gel pen on the edges which I waterbrushed out. It just gave an added lift.

The second idea is how to partially emboss the card without getting nasty edges from the folder. I have a wizard but I used the same idea and instead of the white plate on the top I used the blue one. Have a look on her blog to see how.

I finished off with a wash of colour from a stardust pen on the relief. Could have left it plain but I wanted to see what it would look like. Sentiment, I'm sure you know,is labels one plus a craftwork cards oval. Ribbon Anitas. The brad-goodness knows! I do like lilac and green-bit of the suffragette in me.

There's lots more on Ikkis blog and she seems to have found an answer to a lot of my questions so should be good for a good bit more messing about. I do try to create a whole card these days instead of just playing and leaving the results lying about.

My new Cardmaking and Papercraft came today so I'm off to read it but before I do I'd just like to say thankyou to DH who has given technical assistance in the setting up of a mini studio so that I can improve my card shots.