Special Offer on the Web Site

Just gone live is an unmissable special offer on the Craft Fairy web site.

A free copy of the Drawing Flowers with Calligraphy Pens book will be sent out with every purchase of the  Drawing Flowers with Calligraphy Pens DVD. 

Click onto the image below and you will go straight to the offer.

Stock is limited so be quick.

This set will make an ideal Christmas gift that will give hours of pleasure all year round. You may even get a card made with the flowers as a thank you.

How Annoying

I can't tell you how annoying Blogger can sometimes be. I tried and tried to post a picture of the card that I make on the video but it simply wouldn't let me so here it is on a separate post.


For details on how to draw the daisies and make the card please watch the video.

Gardening Fairy

I've been playing around with lots of card designs lately and this is one that I've wanted to make for a while. It's a scene design and one in which I've combined the flower drawing with calligraphy pens to create a garden of flowers for the fairy to water. I really, really hope that you like it.

The fairy stamp and the sentiment can be bought here.
The pens for drawing the flowers here.
The ribbon here.
The butterfly here.
The pens for colouring the fairy here.

The card is entered in the

Double Dutch Challenge - Make a Scene.

My Time to Craft Challenge 122 - Up in the Air.

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes

Rainbow Lady Challenge - Your Choice from 2010. I chose Make a picture

A Birthday Card for my Grandaughter

It's almost birthday time for my youngest grand daughter and I decided to get in early with her birthday card. I chose the gardening fairy for her as my littlest granddaughter may be only three but she really loves gardening. She also loves the flowers that I drew with the Kuretake pens so I decided to make a card that combines the two things that she really loves the most. Except me that is!

What you will need:
1 base card, 140mm x 140mm
Gardening Fairy Unmounted rubber stamp
Zig Kuretake tut pens in colours: 207 (for skin) 50 for stems and a variety for the fairy,
a saying.
Baby pink and pure pink Kuretake calligraphy blending pens
6 mm green gingham ribbon

This card is easy peasy to make.
Draw the flowers (see the 'Quick and Easy guide to drawing flowers with pens)
Put a strip of double sided sticky tape across the base of the card and stick the ribbon on to the card. Add a bow to the ribbon.
Stamp and colour the fairy, cut it out and use some foam pads to stick it to the card.
Add your desired sentiment and doodle around the edge of the card.
Finished.

Calligraphy Daisy Card

Some of you may have already purchased my new Flower drawing book and seen that there is a daisy added to the flowers that you can draw with the wonderful Calligraphy pens from Kuretake.




What I have shown you here is how to use the drawings to create a card.

The daisies are drawn on a piece of card which was 7 cm x 9 cm approx.
I used Butter and Rose to draw the flowers and Olive Green 56 in Art and Graphic pens to draw the stems and the leaves.
The daisy in the middle was drawn first when the second colour was at its strongest and the two others were then drawn. The lighter colour on the two flowers either side give some appearance of recession.
The card was then edged in the gold metalic calligraphy pen to make it look as if it had a border.
Finally I added someof the new 16 mm satin ribbon in willow to give the card some texture and luxury and a saying to finish it off.

Watercolour flowers with Kuretake Calligraphy pens

When I was at a recent show many people loved the calligraphy pens but they didn't think that they would be clever enough to use them for writing. So here's another use for calligraphy pens that needn't frighten you.
First of all you'll need at least two calligraphy pens in toning colours. I've used a light and a dark one from the Heart pouch set.
What I then did was touch the side of the lightest pen with the dark pen.

This will allow you to write in two colours.

I kept the darker edge of the pen still and moved the light side in a rough quarter turn and got a petal. I then moved the paper a bit and repeated the above. I did this until I got about 5 petals. Just remember to move the paper round every time you want a new petal.

Blooms and hand drawn flowers

As I said earlier on today I've found my calligraphy pens again and I've been creating. This is the first of my creations. I made the card with the calligraphy and art and graphic pens from Kuretake and paired them up with some of the Craft Fairy blooms and these are the results.

I really enjoyed making these and if you come to my stand at Ally Pally, I'll show you how to do them.

A new Calligraphy flower design

About time too I hear you cry. The calligraphy pens have been sadly neglected for a while but I have them out and I' on a roll.

Cupcake Craft Challenge 48

This challenge is entitled, 'Blossoms and Butterflies' so I think that this hand drawn card qualifies for the challenge.

Some of you may have seen me demonstrating this card when I showed you how to draw with calligraphy pens.

Lilac Flowers

Four flowers seems to be the thing at the moment and my hand drawn calligraphy flowers have been neglected while I've been using the stamps. neglected but not forgotten and I got them out today to make this lilac card. What I Used
1 base card in white linen 14cm x 14cm when folded.

An extra piece of white card to draw the images.

Blending Calligraphy Pens in English lavender and Orchid

Lilac card
3d foam pads
light olive art and graphic pen from Zig by Kuretake colour 56
Sentiment stamp

What I did:
I cut four squares from the spare piece of white card and drew four flowers with the calligraphy pens. I did them slightly off centre. I used the green Art and Graphics to draw stems and leaves.
I used 3d foam pads to stick them to the piece of lilac card and made sure to leave a border all around the squares.
I then stuck this lilac card to the base card.
I drew around the base card with a dot and a dash line .
I stamped the sentiment at the bottom of the card.

I wonder what will come next. I won't commit myself as I need to see what mood I'm in.

A Medly of Calligraphy Pen Projects

Recently I managed to buy some beautiful card and heavy paper that has a pearl finished with a sheen of gold so I decided to put it together with the calligraphy pens and this is what I've come up with.

The first little card is using the blue set of pens and a small scrap of card. I did three different flowers to give the card a bit of an edge.

This second card is made with the pens again but this time I drew lots of different flowers with each of them at different heights.

Next I made a simple tag with the technique that I call 'shaky hand'. This is very quick as it is only one flower and little else.

My final piece is this gift bag which is the one that I made in my workshop.

I hope that you like them too.

Sunshine Flowers

When the weather is awful, it's been a perfect excuse to do some crafting. I know, I know, any excuse. This card is the result:

It's made with the Kuretake Calligraphy pens and a little bit of scrap paper that I had lying around. It makes me smile too as it's in sunny colours to counteract the rain.

I think that the title of this post sounds rather like a nursery rhyme and that has made me feel far more cheerful. God knows I need cheering up with this miserable weather. I'll stop going on about it and get down to crafting now, I promise. Today's entry is another of my calligraphy pen flower cards and I've also used the dottariffics to make the border at the bottom.

What I did and used.
1. First fold a sheet of A4 card in half to make an A5 size card.
2. Then put green dots where you want the flowers to be placed and load the light pink calligraphy pen with a little of the medium pink and get to work on those flowers. It really is easy. All you need to do is small fan shapes around the dot that you placed on the card. Sometimes I made them bigger, sometimes smaller. On others I held the dark tint to the outside. It's up to you. There are no hard and fast rules.
3. Now draw in the stems in and add a few buds.
4. To make the border across the bottom of the card cut a strip of pink card with a scollop scissors of a template. Cue a strip of white card slightly thinner so that when the white is placed on top of the pink, the pink can be seen.
5. Use the thick end of the Dottariffics in pale green to draw lines on the white strip.
6. Tie a knot in some pink ribbon and tape in place behind the strip of border card, Now stick the border card to the base card.
7. Stamp out a sentiment and stick it to the base card with 3d foam pads.
use 3d foam pads to add the dragonfly.
8. Draw a dotty border around the edge of the card and hey presto your card is finished.