Florals 2019

Hello, Friends!  I hope you're all doing well, and enjoying Fall wherever you are!  I'd like to share two cards I made recently with florals on them.  I found myself going through my papers, and found a color and pattern grouping that went together, so the inspiration took me away!

I've been collecting flowers of all kinds, paper, fabric, ribbon, lace, and I'm a frilly kind of girl, so these really said, "Use me!"  The base cardstock is from SU, and the patterned cardstock is from my stash.  The little white flowers are from Offray, made from ribbon with a little pearl sewn in the center.  The white lace is some purchased from Joann's.  The patterned flower is from my stash, and the butterfly is a sticker by Keycraft, that I personally imported from England in my luggage.  Did you know I was blessed to spend six months living in downtown London, England last year?  More on that later...

This next card features cardstock in the pinks, peaches and light greens.  The cardstock was cut up to give the appearance of quilt work.  I used some dry embossing on paper, paper roses, some punched tiny butterflies, a fantastic fabric flower with a gorgeous button in the center from my stash (I'm going to have to keep the wrappers), and 3-D floral strip by K & Company.

Thank you for stopping in, and I hope you were inspired by these two cards!  Have a great day!

Summer's Almost Gone

Hello, again, sweet friends!  I am still in England, enjoying every minute!  I was able to go home for five weeks in July and August, to see the family, and go boating in my son's new boat.  It was very hot, and London was much cooler when I got back.  Most of the time was spent at my daughter's home, loving the littlest grandchildren!  I had enough time to get some things cut out to bring back with me, and made five cards I'd like to share with you today.

First up, is a Feel Better card, of which you can't have enough of in your supply of cards.  There's always someone not feeling good that could use a cheery pick-me-up.


I love the shades of blue, pale yellow, cream & white.

Next, is a card with several roses, which I really like.  It's such a summery card, and who doesn't enjoy the soft smell of a rose?

This card shows the ability to blend mauve, brown, tan, burgundy, off-white, gold and white together.

The next card is one that I really enjoyed making.

This card was fun! Several different elements include lace, ribbon, paper flower, ribbon flowers, 3-D butterfly sticker, punched leaves, die cut emblem and gorgeous cardstock!

These last two cards & gift box were very enjoyable to make, once I figured out the layout.  Sometimes, I get stuck on what to do, what to use, what colors, etc. as I'm sure some of you do too.  Looking at other's blogs, and sample card photos on stamp or die websites really helps me keep my creativity going when I get stumped.

 



Hello, Spring!

Hello, from England!  I hope you're doing well, wherever you are!

I was able to make a few cards before I came over, and I'd like to share this one with you.  The cream along with the different shades of blue and tan really go well together.  The puffy white embossed piece is from my stash of frames, and the blue flower was cut from a Heartfelt Creations die.

Spring has definitely sprung in Tennessee, and summer has arrived early.  It's been in the 90's at home, and I don't do heat well.  It's been in the 60's with today in the low 70's, and lows in the 50's here in London, which is just fine with me.  We've had one day of rain the past week.  This weather is perfect for someone who doesn't care about sunbathing on the beach in the heat!  Which I don't, just so ya know. 

I hope you're doing well, feeling happy and blessed!

I'm in England!

Hello, all you friends out there!  I haven't posted in a while as I've been busy watching the kids, and my daughter added another - this time a baby girl.  Now I have seven grandchildren! 

My hubby of 39 years, has been sent to London, England for seven months to work in seven hospitals in the area.  Guess who came with him?  Me!  It's taken a week to get rid of the jet lag, and now I'm homesick for the kids and the dogs.  The day after we left, Stella broke a toe on her hind leg.  Poor girl.  I am so thankful to Julie for taking care of them while we're gone. 

I wasn't able to bring any craft supplies due to weight and luggage restrictions on the plane, so I'll have to find something to do here.  I'm a little afraid to wander out on my own, as which direction I'm going is unknown, and I don't want to get lost.  It would be so easy to get lost here.  Everything we need is so close, within walking distance, and we've been doing a lot of that!

This is pedestrian crossing sign, not for humped zebras!  It tells cars that there is a speed "hump" ahead that is painted with white stripes.  Very funny!

This is the front entrance to the free London Museum.  We were fascinated by the
Greek inspired building made of marble, the statues inside, and the huge display
of Egyptian mummies and artifacts.

You turn the corner, and there's another
long road of just flats on top and little
shops and businesses on the bottom.

What is franked mail?  Stamped
or run through a machine?  Then
there's the abroad mail...

Beautiful Roses

Welcome to my blog!  I've been writing about cards with flowers on them, and how my summer has been full of flowers of all types, along with butterflies.  Here's another two that I love.  I hope you love them too!

The first card turned out so much better than I planned.  Do you play with different die cuts to see how they layer and look with each other?  I used a suede colored base cardstock, cut with Spellbinders Labels 25.  I traced the inside edge of the largest die of this set on the back of the floral patterned paper from The Paper Studios Country Road pad, and cut out with scissors.  I used the second smaller die from the same labels set to cut a rose colored piece, which I ran through my Cuttlebug to emboss the piece. The white edge piece was cut using Heartfelt Creations Regal Borders and Pockets.  I glued white feathers, a large wild rose from Prima Flowers and some little roses from my stash for the main focal.  So grateful (from SU's Cute Converse set) was stamped on a tiny tag, with beige cord tied through the hole and positioned beneath the large rose.  A little butterfly cut from a cupcake holder was glued on last.  Inside says, "I can't thank you enough".

The above card was made using some papers from in my stash which you've probably seen before.  I used another fancy die cut, and of course, my favorite butterfly. The white butterfly top was glittered up with clear Wink of Stella, which you can't see in this photo.  The papers don't reflect the lavender very well with the rose, but it really does coordinated!

Thank you so much, and I appreciate your comments!  Have a great day!

More Flowers!

Hi, friends!  It's a very warm day, but drizzly and muggy.  A good day for blogging and reading.  I promised more flowers, so here they are...

This first one has a wonderful sentiment of Faith, from ODBD stamps.  I used an edging die from Heartfelt Creations for the center diagonal cutout.  The floral punched out area across the bottom and up the left side was done using a Martha Stewart anywhere punch called Stained Glass.  It's positioned on the paper anywhere you want, with magnets holding it in place.  Very cool and nice to use!  The flowers were cut using dies from Heartfelt Creations, and prills were glued in the middle of each.

This second card was punched with another of Martha's anywhere punches called Crochet Flower.  I used all the petal remnants from the punched out areas to make the center 3-D flower, which matched perfectly with the printed flower on the tag.  Each petal was glittered and applied by hand until completed.  With just a little lace at the bottom and layered on printed cardstock in colors to match, them mounted on white card finished it off.  The longest part of this easy card was making the flower.

Third comes a pretty card made on a white cardstock base, with patterned paper from The Paper Studio called Country Road.  Fabulous!  The May God Bless You sentiment is from a set from Verve Stamps called Wonderfully Made.  The pink rose was cut from Heartfelt Creations dies from Rose Creations set, and the little white rose was from my stash.  Prills were glued in the rose center.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you will "follow" my blog.  I hope you will be blessed today!

Be{YOU}tiful Butterflies!

I don't know about you, but I love butterflies!  All varieties of them!  I have been spending a lot of time making them, since I fell down the stairs in the garage, broke my right ankle, and sprained the left one.  I'm nearly back to normal, but the last two months have produced a whole garden full of butterflies and flowers here in my craft room!

These two cards were relaxing to make.  It was fun coloring the butterfly stamp from ODBD.  The base of the two-layer butterfly was die cut using patterned paper with the white overlay.  A very easy card to make. 

The second card was just as easy as the first one, but in blues and pastels that matched the printed background paper.  I tore the stamped image out and sponged the edges with a little light blue.  The white butterfly overlay has clear nail polish on it with silver sparkles. 

Thank you for stopping in!  Have a wonderful butterfly day!

Flowers Too!

Hi, there!  I'm so glad you're here!  This card was fun to make, especially coloring the peacock.  The stamp is from Chocolate Baroque, and was colored with yellow, celery green, purple, lavender and blue.  The background patterned paper is in the same colors.  I wanted to glam it up a little, so added some rhinestones in silver and purple to the tail feathers, and a tiny one for the birds eye.  All was layered onto a dark purple cardstock, then mounted onto white cardstock.

This next card was made with patterned paper for the background, and the flowers.  I stamped the flower image onto burgundy with white dots, and applied some shine to the stamens.  The flowers and sentiment are from SU.  I try to add a butterfly to each project, and there's no missing this one!



Lots more flower cards to come!  Have a great day!

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!

Hello!  What is summer without lots of flowers?  I have been in a flower frenzy!  It seems certain things go in spurts, but this spurt seems to be lasting all summer... I hope you're having a wonderful summer, and autumn is next month, already!

It seems Blogger has changed the format for blogging, and I haven't figured it all out yet.  The next several posts are all flower related, and I apologize for having so many "single" cards - I meant to put them in one post.  Please check each one out!

This one is an Indian floral card, using yellow, purple, lavender, celery green and blue patterned paper.  The floral image is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque, and was heat embossed in white on dark purple cardstock.  It looks more like blue in this photo, but it is dark purple.





Remodeled Craft Room

Hi!  Welcome to Clare's Paper Works!  I have some exciting news!

Blessings came raining down on me the last six months!  My husband is mostly to blame, but there was a lot of help from my son and daughter-in-law.  I had saved some money from babysitting, but my hubby added to it when we went to a store called ModerNash, here in Nashville, TN.  They sell IKEA products, and have a showroom, where Mike and I went to look around.  The nearest IKEA store is in Atlanta, GA.  We bought desks, storage towers and roll-around storage cabinets.  I found a new leather office chair on clearance at Office Max.  We spackled, repaired and painted.  shampooed the carpet, which will eventually go, then we all spent a full day of assembling, and arranging the room.  I am so happy with how it turned out!  The only thing I didn't do was take "before" photos for comparison!  Here's my new craft room!

This is right inside the door (to the left) of the small extra bedroom we used for this craft room. 
We took the closet doors off and replaced them with curtains matching
the ones over the single window in the room.  There are metal shelves in the closet
and this is where all of my sewing, fabric and accessories are stored.

Swinging to the left next to the closet is a large white cabinet which stores stamps in boxes,
stamps in plastic storage folders, scrapbooks, gift boxes and photographs.  Next to that are two of the IKEA storage cabinets, one on top of the other.  These hold stamps, glitters, embossing powders, clear mailing boxes, all sorts of 3-D embellishments, bubble wrap, boxes of brads, dry embossing tools and pads, eyelets, etc. 
Mike is going to mount a different Ott light onto the table to get the black one out of the way.  I ordered stamp pad and marker storage from Stamp-n-Storage, along with two wooden boxes to store dies on magnetic cards.  These are fantastic! 
Below the desk is another roll-around cart that contains plastic boxes of 12" x 12" cardstock and paper.  Each box is separated into a subject, i.e. Christmas, Autumn, Spring, Patterned, Solid, etc. 
In the corner is a tall IKEA unit with deeper drawers, where there are flowers, rhinestones, punches, embellishments and other necessities stored.  Above this unit are three curtain rods mounted on the wall, where some of my punches are placed.



My bead case is in front of the window.

Another tall storage unit with deep drawers in not quite in the corner.  My sewing machine, sewing tack box, serger and threads are stacked in the corner.  The unit has ribbon stored by color in each drawer.  My computer printer is on top.  Then comes the desk, and has a basket of scrap material underneath and a trash can.  On top is a five-drawer storage box for scraps of paper and a carousel of punches on top.  Below the desk to the left is another square rolling storage cabinet filled with beading supplies, envelopes, paper, punches and Cricket cartridges and cords.  Decorative boxes on top hold photos and paper packs, and the tall storage unit on the end holds address books, envelopes, stamps, buttons, lace and more ribbon by color.  The main colors of the room are a comfortable and welcoming peach, light teal and white.

Thanks for visiting my craft room!  I hope you'll come back soon!  If you are local, come and play!