Louise Sims Papercrafter

CAS is something I always aspire to do but the "chuck everything at it" demon inside me, always seems to win but I was asked at "last minute dot com" to rustle up a quick card, so CAS it had to be as I did not have the time to faff over it, spend eons choosing embellies, stroking paper ... well you get the picture. I was even more cheeky and chose an image that needed minimal colouring. Well needs must! I have used LOTV Umbrella Bunny stamp (retired now) which did need a bit of dusting off as he has been sitting neglected for a long while. Isn't it amazing what you find when you are in a blind panic!?! I coloured the image with my Prisma pencils and added a subtle cloud background using my pan pastels. I have gone for simple layout to keep the image as the main focal point. The sentiment is from HOTP (magazine freebie). Right it's Game of Throne's time, so I'm off as need to know what is in store for Stansa and Arya ... Lou x x x Cha

Inspired by all the gorgeous tree blossoms that are now appearing everywhere which to me, herald that Spring is well and truly here; fingers crossed, summer not far away either. Our pear tree is adorned with beautiful white blossom and I hope the wind and rain this weekend, do not effect the wonderful display. Ummm, have written myself a note to go and take a photo "just in case". Here is my picture/plaque/ flat canvas ... not sure how to describe it (whoops) ... which is my DT project for the new "Anything Goes" challenge over at We love 2 create challenges I covered a piece of hard canvas board with some vintage seed packet images I had bought eons ago (sorry, do not know manufacturer as out of packet). I aged each of the edges with burnt umber pan pastel and then layered them randomly. I then aged the outside edges of the covered board. To soften the colours, I covered the background with white pearl fine medium to create a shimmery/pearlescent effect.

I was recently asked to create two cards for a young girl, which wasn't a problem .... but .... both people chose the same image to appear on her card .... gulp! After a little inward panic, I decided that the easiest thing to do was stamp the image on to different card colours, so that's what I did! The image chosen was Tatty Twinkle Cowgirl. Card 1 Tatty is coloured with Prisma pencils and I have kept the layering simple. The background was made by masking Tatty off and stamping the wood blocks to create a fence. I then added the bunting on top. The sentiment is from the same stamp set too. As an added extra, I used some Tattered Lace die cuts. Card 2: This time I stamped Tatty on to Kraft card and created the same background. Again, Tatty is coloured with Prisma pencils and I deliberately kept to a very simple colour palate. Simple mat and layering with a few complimentary coloured flowers. Thankfully both cards were liked (phew) but mental note to se

As would appear to be the way recently, I am a little late (by 48 hours) posting my Pan Pastel Challenges DT project. I do, sort of, have an excuse ... I was away at the weekend and Mr Blogger and I, do not seem to be able to always arrange for a schedule post. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ... The challenge this fortnight is "Anything Goes" and I decided to crack open my pearlescent pan pastels and PCB stamps to create a mini plaque made from stampbord ... I have used one of the ATC sized peices of stampboard for my plaque covering the background with pearlescent yellow, pearlescent yellow, soft gold metallic and orange pan pastels. Next using my  Premium Craft brand roses and postcard stamp sets, I have added further detail to the background. I then triple embossed the background using Cosmic Shimmer detail clear powder. Next I began adding further detail using Tim Holtz tissue tape and rub on sentiments from 7 Gypsies. I then stamped the

In my previous post ( here ) I explained that for once I decided to use up my scraps rather than file them away or worse still, bin the bits ....! I'm still shocked that I managed to make 5 cards in one go but I did, so without further waffle, here are the remaining two cards that I made ... Card 1 I decided to use up some of the die cuts and the sentiment. The embellies and sentiment are from Twiggy and Toots   from Polka Doodles. The next card is yet another CAS card ... A quick post from me as have to get ready to meet up with my dad as off out tonight to a large(ish) ball affair. It takes me a little longer to get ready these days and the "titivating" and "tucking things in" process is more time consuming. Lou x x x Challenges: Allsorts - quick and easy (card 2) Crafty Calender - anything goes Coffee, chocolate and cards - use a die cut Crafty Sentiments - anything goes

I've been making quite a few projects over the last few weeks and decided that I really must tidy up after myself. Once I had put things away, I was left with a pile of papers and card in different sizes. Normally I add these to my scrap boxes and then, if I'm honest, forget about them. Not this time ... I had a mini brain wave and before the idea disappeared, I grabbed a selection of sentiment stamps and created some sentiment toppers... I even used up some green card bits and stamped leaf shapes and cut them out ready to use on different projects. Feeling rather pleased with myself, I gathered together lots of left over printed embellishments and papers from different Polka Doodles collections ... mixed in with a few die cuts that I had left over from these projects ... ... and a box of pre-scored card blanks that I found in a basket in a wardrobe in the spare room ... and decided to challenge myself to see how many cards I could make with just these items a

Whoops, this post is very late and I have no excuse really other than .... well not gonna make up an elaborate story as the truth is I forgot !!! Thought I had done (probably in a dream) it but in "real time" obviously hadn't .. Anyhow it's all about "pink" at Polka Doodle Challenges and I have used the gorgeous Eden collection to make my card:- I have used one of the frames and a sentiment as my focal point. The card base was joining two die cuts to create a bigger card and cut from one of the paper designs from the collection. I then cut a further panel in a contrasting paper from the same die. I then layered up lots of the different embellishments: banner, flower branch, flowers and a gorgeous bird. I had a blissful time cutting out all the images as I do find this very relaxing and somewhat therapeutic. I added a little lace to the bottom for some texture and gold Liquid Pearl centres to the flowers after shaping each of the petal