Technique Tuesday #11 Ink Smooshing

Hello!

It's Tuesday again and time for another in my series of Technique Tuesdays and this time I'm showcasing a little ink 'smooshing'

I LOVE this technique! It's a great way to create backgrounds, you can go large or small, subtle or bold, depending on your choice of colours etc. and it works equally well for cards with an image or without. You will have seen a small example of this technique in one my shaker cards recently.

I love that it's fun and easy to do and feels so artistically creative and also that every result will be completely unique.

So how do we do it? Well there are a few different techniques and I would strongly suggest searching for ink or watercolour smooshing on YouTube as there are many videos on this. For my card today (and my favoured technique), I used a piece of acetate about 4'' by 3'' and used my mini distress ink pads directly onto it, then spritzed with a little water and then you turn it over and start dabbing it on your watercolour paper. If you want the colour to run and spread even more, you can wet your paper down with a brush first. Once you're happy with the first colour, clean your acetate and go in with another colour and then another. The number of colours is up to you, I used 3 here but you will end up with more shaded on you paper as they will mix and blend a little. If you are not happy with the intensity of a colour just repeat the step.

On the card below I used; Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers and Blueprint Sketch.

I trimmed the piece a little smaller than my card base and rounded 2 opposing corners with my corner chomper.

Once my paper was dry I added a few splatters of water, left for a minute or two and then blotted with some kitchen paper. When dry again I splattered a little Gansai Tambi watercolour paint in gold, flicking the paint off the end of the brush for some pretty gold spatters.

I dried thoroughly and then stamped my sentiment with black Versamark ink and cut out the word because with the die that comes in the same set as the sentiment (listed below).

I cut it 3 times in white cardstock and once in gold, gluing them all together for dimension and then adding it above my stamped sentiment.

I mounted onto some black cardstock a quarter of an inch bigger and trimmed to match and then stuck the whole thing on my card base with some foam tape.

I finished off with a few sequins.

I used the following:

Smooth white cardstock
Black cardstock
Watercolour paper
Distress Inks
Small Piece of Acetate
Gold watercolour Paint
MFT Because You - stamp and die set
MFT Because You set - UK
Little Things from Lucy - Champagne Sparkly Shaker Selection

I hope you enjoy my technique for today and thank you so much for taking the time to visit.

Welcome Little One

I'm popping in again with a quick post to share this sweet little baby card. I've been making a lot of baby cards recently as I always seem to get asked for them and never have them to hand, and well, they're so much fun to make.

I decided to follow the sketch over on the MFT Card Challenges Blog, it's Sketch 321 if you want to use it.

Here's my card

I coloured up one of the bunnies from the Snuggle Bunnies set, with my Zig Clean Markers, as I thought it was just perfect for a baby card.

For my card I used 

Smooth white cardstock, 

MFT Sweet Celebration Paper Pad

Versafine Ink Onyx Black

MFT Snuggle Bunnies Stamp Set

Zig Real Clean Color Markers

MFT Snuggle Bunnies Die-namics

MFT Razzle Berry Cardstock

MFT Die-namics Stiched Circle STAX

MFT Die-namics Stitched Sentiment Strips

MFT Essential Sentiments Stamp Set

Large die from Blueprints 15

MFT Die-namics Stitched Scallop Basic Edges

Craft Foam

Sequins from Lucy's Little Things and Pretty Pink Posh

If you're in the UK you can get your MFT Stamps, Die-namic, Cardstock and Paper Pads over at 

Dies to Die for

I'm entering this into the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #321

Right that's it from me, time to go make dinner!

Thanks for visiting

Love Birds

Hello!

I did mean to share this yesterday, but I got so busy visiting the tip and recycling centre, plus Ikea for storage units (working on my craft/guest room makeover), and also going for a lovely lunch with my friend who was helping me, that it slipped my mind. So I'm sharing it today.

I made another wedding/anniversary card (this would make a lovely Golden Wedding card with the gold accents I think), made with the As if in a Dream Retro pad.

I made a pretty shabby chic style card, (I thought you might want a change from all the CAS ones recently), using up some chipboard I had in my stash and giving it a good coating of gold ink.

I've put the birds on this pretty lacy heart cut with a die from La-La Land Crafts. This is still one of my most favourite of all dies and a total go-to for anything wedding related.

Goodies from The Ribbon Girl

Galeria - As if in a Dream Retro Paper Stack

Cheesecloth

15 mm Ivory Organza Ribbon

30 mm Wild Ivory Roses

10mm Ivory Open Rose

Hip Rose Bud Cream

11 mm Flat Back Pearls

8 mm Flat Back Pearls

6 mm Flat Back Pearls

 Thanks for dropping by, that's all for now, but I'll be back this evening with something new! 

Best of Luck

Morning!

First of all I must apologise for the lack of cards this week. It isn't even that I haven't had any to share with you, I have loads in my draft folder, I just have not had the time to blog them. This week has just been super busy, lots happening at work and I barely seem to have had a moment to draw breath. Still it's the weekend now, so one of my (many) goals for this weekend, is to get my cards blogged and scheduled.

Anyhooooo....I have a little shaker card to share with you today and I made this one for a colleague who was leaving work to pastures new.

She has a little bunny called Bruce, so I thought this stamp set from MFT would be perfect for her.

Her favourite colour combo is yellow and grey, so that was a natural choice for this card.

Firstly I stamped my images on some Canson Montval watercolour paper with Black Onyx Versamark Ink, and then watercoloured them with my Zig Clean Markers. I really must start noting down which colours I'm using as these are not as familiar to me yet as the Tim Holtz Distress Markers.

Once dry I cut them out with the matching dies and set them aside.

I made a top folding card from white cardstock and then cut a smaller piece of card from which I cut a circle with a circle die. I atamped a sentiment from the stamp set underneat the apeture.
I added an acetate window and used some craft foam from which I cut a slightly larger circle beneath it to pop it up and create my shaker window.  I did some ink smooshing with greys and yellows to make the background and then filled my window with yellow sequin mix and added my smooshed background to the back to keep them all in. Then I adhered the whole thing to my card base.

Finally I popped on the girl and her bunny, with some foam tape and added a few matching sequins.

Below are the links to this stamp set.

MFT - Adventure is Calling Stamp Set

MFT - Adventure is Calling Dies

 If you are in the UK, you can purchase these from Dies to Die for, as I did.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Technique Tuesday #10. Emboss resist, gradient, negative die-cut shaker

Hello!

I'm running a little late with my Technique Tuesday today as work has been a bit mad this week, but to make up for it this card uses several techniques.

Firstly we have some emboss resist going on, with white embossing on some watercolour card.

Then I did some soft gradient ink blending with distress inks. I used a combination of purple shades here.

After wiping my embossed and blended piece with a paper towel to really make that white pop, I ran it through my die cutting maching with this large Hugs word die, (I'm a little in love with this and word dies in general lately), for some negative die cutting. Then I added a little acetate, foam tape and sequins to turn it into a shaker card. I finished the card with a chipboard word from Make it Crafty, coloured up with some inks to match my theme.

Here's the finished card, and I've listed all my items, along with links where I have them.

Smooth White Cardstock
Tim Holtz Watercolour Card
Versamark Ink
High Detail White Embossing Powder
Distress Inks
MFT Floral Fantasy Background Stamp
MFT Die-namics Big Hugs
Make it Crafty Chipboard Word - Birthday

Before I go I just have to say that I was totally chuffed that yesterdays card was featured today on My Favourite Things blog in their You've Been Spotted feature.

You can see it here. How exciting is that?!

Right, I'm off to make dinner, the other half is on nights today, so it's just me tonight getting some crafty on.

Thanks for dropping by!

Smile

Hello!

I've been having way too much fun playing around with my MFT stamps and dies recently (many still to be published), so I thought I'd try my hand at making something for one of their challenges.

Sketch 320 (wow that's a lot of sketches!) got me thinking a little. I toyed with the idea of playing with banners originally, but then I thought of using my new Snow Drifts cover up and just using the inside die cut pieces, trimmed to size to fit the sketch dimensions.

I used the Big Wavy Coloring Book background stamp to stamp my pattern in Versamark ink which I then heat embossed with white embossing powder on watercolour paper. Then I got to work blending strips of brightly coloured distress inks, (Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio. Blueprint Sketch, Picked Raspberry and Fossilized Amber),  before cutting them out with the Snowdrifts Cover Up die. Instead of mounting the strips directly to the card, I cut a rectangle of vellum using the large die from Blueprints 15, adhered them to that and then popped the whole thing up with foam tape, hiding it beneath the strips so that it didn't show beneath the vellum. Then I die cut the smile die from the Words for Friends die set, 3 times from white card and once from some ink blended cardstock in Twisted Citron and stacked and glued the letters. I cut a small piece of vellum with a die from the Stitched Mini Scallop Oval STAX and glued my word centrally across it then adhered the oval on top of my card, hiding the glue behind the letters.

To finish I used a few sequins.

The sketch I followed was 

MFT Sketch Challenge 320

if you want to follow along or enter yourself.

Thanks for dropping by!

Braided Sweetie

Morning!

I'm ever so slightly late with this post, for some reason I had it in my little head that I was due to make my card for the 

Anything Goes with an Image challenge at The Ribbon Girl

next Sunday....oooops!

I'm not normally so confused but last week was fairly stressful, including an interview for the job that I've been doing for the last year! I'm pleased to say that I was successful, so that's one less worry lol!

Sooooo there was a lot of blue air and a very busy me yesterday getting everything ready in time. I got my card made, photographed and blogged in good time yesterday, but forgot to hit publish after I scheduled here, so I'm a couple of hours later than normal.

Anyhooo....on to the part you're here for, the card.

I used one of the new releases from Whimsy Stamps called Braided Sweetie, from our new artist 

Kirsten Winkelbauer isn't she pretty?

Not my best colouring unfortunately as I was in a mega rush, but I do like the finished card.

I used the following distress ink markers:

Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Walnut Stain, Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Black Soot.

I've listed all my products used below, with links for most.

From The Ribbon Girl

Lemoncraft Heart Painted 6 x 6 Pad

Cheesecloth

Clementine Lace

4 mm Ivory Pearl Trim

Rose Leaves

Pale Green 2 Tone Leaves

30 mm Ivory Wild Roses

Medium Pale Pink Rose Buds

10 mm Pale Pink Open Roses

Small Pale Pink Lilies

White Miniature Blossom Flowers

Siam Pink Seam Binding

3-6 mm Ivory S/A Pearls

Other Items Used

Smooth White Cardstock

Langton Hot Pressed Watercolour Paper

Versafine Ink Onyx Black

Whimsy Stamps - Braided Sweetie

Whimsy Stamps - Braided Sweetie (UK)

I so hope you can join in with our challenge, there are some lovely prizes to be won

First prize:  £10 voucher for LOTV

Second prize:  £10 voucher for The Ribbon Girl

Third prize:  A mystery prize from Marianne Designs

I do hope you can join us, don't forget to check out the rest of the team's lovely makes also!

Thanks for dropping by!

A New Home (shaker)

Hello!

My daughter has just recently purchased her first home and so I needed a New Home card in a hurry. I didn't actually have any stamps that fitted or any stamps that said 'New Home' at all, so I had to improvise a bit here.

I started with a bit of emboss resist, inking up a MFT background stamp with Versamark ink, stamping on some watercolour cardstock and heat embossing with white fine detail embossing powder.

I then did a bit of emboss resist, inking over the white lines with my distress inks and blending tools, I did a bit of selective inking here, this is a fun technique and will give you a similar effect to painting your image but with a much 'looser' effect, I love how this came out. I used the following Distress Inks:

Twisted Citron

Blueprint Sketch

Cracked Pistachio

Peacock Feathers

Once I'd finished and was happy with the result, I wiped it over with a clean paper towel to clean off the white embossed lines and just soften the ink a little, the I cut the bottom in a curved shape using my Whimsy Stamps Stitched Border Trio die.

I stamped a Sending Congratulations sentiment in Versamark ink and then heat embossed with black embossing powder. I found a die in my stash, this one is from La-La Land Crafts, of a little Birdhouse that I thought would work and cut it out 3 or 4 times and stacked and glued them together. I cut a circle in my embossed panel for the birdhouse to sit in and at this point (yes really, last minute and all), I decided to make it into a shaker card, using some craft foam for the dimension.

Once the card was assembled with the shaker component, I glued the little birdhouse diecut into place.

Products Used
Papermill Direct Smooth White Cardstock
Tim Holtz Watercolor Cardstock
MFT Floral Fantasy Background Stamp
Versamark Ink
White Detail Embossing Powder
Black Embossing Powder
Distress Inks
Blending Tool and Sponges
Circle Die
La-La Land Birdhouse Die
Whimsy Stamps Stitched Border Trio Die
Whimsy Stamps Scripty Occasions Sentiment Set
Lucy's Little Things - Purely Peppermint Sequin Mix

I really love the way this turned out and I hope my daughter does too.

Thanks for popping by!

Happy Birthday to You

Hello!

I had a little bit of a shopping spree at Simon Says Stamp recently, (well it was my birthday recently), I've never bought from there before and I normally wouldn't pay the shipping from the States, but they had a few exclusive things that I really wanted, some of which I've been looking at for a while now, so I made one big order.

Part of my order was this background stamp,  (you will have seen another SSS background stamp on my card from yesterday), clear stamp set and matching die. I've listed the products at the end of my post along with a couple of MFT and Memory Box dies I used if you want to take a peek.

So how did I make the card?

Well first of all I used the background stamp with some Versamark Ink on some watercolour paper and then used some white embossing powder and heated that till shiny. Then I did some emboss resist, blending some distress inks over with my blending tool. I used a combination of Blueprint Sketch, Cracked Pistachio and Twisted Citron. Once I was happy with my blend I wiped the whole thing over with a piece of kitchen towel to clean up my white embossing and make it nice and bright.
I sprinkled a few water droplets onto my finished panel, waiting a few moments before blotting and lifting some of the colour. Then I took some Lindy's Stamp Gang spray in a metallic green and just flicked a few drops from the end of the nozzle tube and left it to dry.

I then cut a piece of silver miri card a quarter inch smaller then my card base and cut out the centre with a postage stamp die. I used the same die to cut my stamped and blended paper and then inset that into the miri card gluing the whole thing to my card base.

With the centre of the miri card that wasn't used I cut out my word, cutting another 3 from plain white cardstock and gluing them all together with the silver on top to make a nice dimensional word.

I then cut my banner from a piece of plain white cardstock and stamped and embossed my sentiment embossed with versamark and some silver embossing powder.
I cut a 3 and a 0 in some light green cardstock that complemented my blending and glued that in the bottom right corner. Then I positioned my word and banner on my card, when I was happy with the placement I adhered them in place and added a few sequins.

I like the way this turned out, and although it looks fairly simple, it felt really creative to make.

Items Used

SSS You Matter Background Stamp
SSS You Matter Clear Stamp Set
SSS You word die
MFT Stitched Sentiment Strips
MFT Postage Stamp Stax
Memory Box Classic Numbers

I'm entering the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Use Your Favourite Tool (die cutting machine)

Thanks for dropping by!

Technique Tuesday #9 Vellum Shaker

Hello!

I hope you all had a good weekend and started your week well. I'm back to work this week sadly, but I did put in a fair bit of crafting time when I was off, so I have a few projects in my draft folder now.

As it's Valentine's Day, for my card today I've made quite a modern looking wedding card, quite a departure from my normal vintage, shabby chic wedding makes, but I made up for it by using a few techniques to make it something a bit special.

So first of all I took a 4 x 5.25 piece of vellum and stamped a pattern in Versamark Ink with the Doodle Circle background stamp from Simon says Stamp. 

I then used my gold embossing powder to heat emboss this. I need some new gold embossing powder, because I've had this a while and there's not a lot left and also it's starting to 'clump' a little which is starting to affect my results, making them not quite as crisp as I like.

I set my piece of vellum aside to cool and took a chipboard sentiment and covered that with versamark and gold embossing powder and then heated until it was melted and shiny.

I then cut out a medium circle and a frame in white cardstock. I adhered the vellum to the back side of the frame and put foam tape all around the edges. Then I filled my 'window' with a mix of gold, silver, white and clear sequins and adhered some plain white card to the back.

I glued my chipboard sentiment to my card circle and the shaker window to the top folding card base. Then I glued the circle to the centre of the vellum and added a few sequins for a little bling.

I think this looks quite classy in white and gold and it really has a retro feel about it, what do you 

think?

Items Used

Plain white cardstock from Papermill Direct

Simon Says Stamp Circle Doodle Background Stamp

Vellum

Versamark Ink

Gold Embossing Powder

Chipboard Sentiment

Glue and Foam Tape

MFT Pierced Rectangles Frame Die

Thanks for popping by!

Happy Mother's Day

Hello!

I thought the Happy Sayings die and sentiment set would be perfect as the focal point for this mother's day card, which falls a little earlier over here in the UK than it does in the States and some other countries. I think it looks so pretty paired with this paper from Lemoncraft. There's not too much of this left in stock, but I think that the new Gossamer Blue pad, would look equally as pretty, I just didn't have any of that one (yet lol!).

From Whimsy Stamps

Happy Sayings Die

Happy Sayings Clear stamp Set

Honeycomb Pattern Die

In Stitches Clear Stamp Set

From The Ribbon Girl

Lemoncraft Forget me Not Papers

3 mm Pale Turquoise Satin Ribbon

The large white lilies are no longer stocked but these would work well 

Acrylic Pearl Ivory Leaves

Miniature White Blossom Flowers

Ivory 20 mm Open Roses

Beaded Berries White

I hope you like my card for today and I'll see you soon.

Thanks for dropping by!

Birthday Fishes

Hello!

It's a quick and simple card from me today. I couldn't resist this fun set from Paper Smooches called
Birthday Buddies.
I just love the quirky animals and punny sentiments, though my other half rolls his eyes every time I use a punny sentiment, which of course just makes me want to use them more ;)

I did splash out and bought the set of matching dies also, as they were not very expensive, though you only get the dies for the fish, bird and dog. I guess as the other two are coming up from the earth you would just keep it one layered for those.
I first coloured the fish in a rainbow of colours with my Zig markers, as this was a fun card I wanted it to be nice and bright. I cut it out with the matching die and then added a little wink of stella to the scales.

Then I set to work on the background. I used a stencil and some Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean distress ink and my Clarity stencil brushes on a plain white piece of smooth card and then cut that down to be slightly smaller than my front panel. I glued this straight to the front of my card.

Then I took my front panel piece and die cut a circle from it, stamping the Birthday Fishes sentiment from the set underneath in black ink, using my MISTI to get it perfectly placed.

I adhered this panel to my card using some foam tape to pop it up and then attached my fish using some more foam tape. I think he'd look great with one of those jiggly eyes don't you?

I finished my card off with a few sequins placed to look like bubbles.

For those of you missing my more embellished cards, I'll be back with one of those tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by!

Noah's Ark

Hello!

Welcome to day 2 of the February release from Whimsy Stamps and as it's also my birthday today it's a super quick share from me.

I'm showcasing this super sweet stamp from Crissy Armstrong called Noah's Ark. 

This  just screamed 'Baby Card' at me as soon as I saw it, so that's exactly what I made. I coloured the stamp with my distress ink markers and as I'd run out of my normal paper I had to use some older stuff and kind of forgot how this reacted. The monkey with the umbrella would not behave and play nice, (but hey, he's a monkey right?), and it was nearly a case of monkey overboard lol. but as I did not have the time to do a complete re-do he'll have to remain, even if he does look a bit flat and scrubby. Just focus on the other better behaved monkey and we'll be just fine.

Before adhering to my card base I stamped the Welcome Baby from the Scripty Occasions clear stamp set in the bottom right of the image.

I added a little design paper to the top, cut with one of the Whimsy Stitched Border Trio dies, and chomped the bottom corners, then added a piece of very narrow ribbon and a baby's feet charm. I dotted a few tiny sequins and gave the umbrella and the water a lick of Wink of Stella to finish

Right that's all from me, I'm off to celebrate my birthday!

Thanks for dropping by.

Spring Fox

Hello!

Are you ready for the new release from Whimsy Stamps? We have some absolutely gorgeous new goodies for you. Whether you like cute, pretty, quirky or creative, we have something to suit everyone. 

You can find the new releases here.

With so much to choose from it was very difficult to decide what to play with first, but this little fox cub from Lee Holland just stole my heart. Isn't he a cutie? He's called Spring Fox. This would be perfect for a non girly valentine card, but would work equally well for almost any occasion.

I loved this image so much I decided to keep the card very CAS to focus on the image. It's coloured with Zig Real Clean Colors and this is my first time colouring with them. A bit of practice needed because they do seem to bleed a lot more than my distress ink markers, I think probably due to the intensity of the colours, but I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt, and I'm sure the cuteness of the fox cub will help to take away the focus from my mistakes lol.

The sentiment is from the Happy Sayings Clear stamp set, I'm finding this set super versatile.

You can purchase both stamps from Dies to Die for if you live in the UK or Europe.

That's all from me,but do check out the rest of the team's blogs for their fab makes (you can find the team listed here) and don't forget if you use Facebook, you can join in with our release event for some fun and a chance to win prizes.

Thanks for popping by!

Hearts Everywhere

Hello!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm so happy because I have the whole week off work and I'm looking forward to some fun and crafty times.

No Technique Tuesday from me today (although I have used some techniques in this card), as it's the Whimsy February Release AND my birthday this week, but we do have a new challenge over at Deep Ocean Challenge and our theme this time is 

Hearts Everywhere.

I made this sweet little card and it has 3 different kinds of hearts on it. First there are the hearts on my base card, these are done with a stencil and my Clarity Brushes, I think the colours used were a combo of Worn Lipstick and Candied Apple, but I didn't write them down so I can't be sure.

I cut the panel to size and adhered it to some lovely Dazzle Gold Lustre Print Chroma card from Papermill Direct, (this looks quite dark in the picture, but is actually quite a bit more gold when the light hits it),  but before I did I cut the love from the centre with the Scripted Love Word die from Whimsy Stamps, love, love love this die.

I cut a further 3 love die-cuts from white cardstock and layered and adhered them together, finishing with the Gold Lustre one on top.

I did a little ombre ink blending on some watercolour cardstock and cut out a heart with an old Spellbinders nestie. I sprinkled some little droplets of water on top and left for a couple of minutes, before blotting off with a paper towel to lift some of the colour. Then I sprayed with some gold glimmer mist and left to dry.

Once fully dry I glued my heart onto my base and adhered the love across the heart. I cut a few hearts from some of the Gold Lustre card with one of the dies in the Card Builder - Hearts of Love die set and cut them again in white cardstock, sticking the 2 layers together for a little dimension and then adding some randomly to my card. 

I finished off with a beautiful butterfly embellishment from Kay Fatula.

Items used.
All cardstock from Papermill Direct
Spellbinders Heart Nestie

Ageteria Heart Stencil
Whimsy Scripted Love Word Die
Whimsy Stamps Card Builder Hearts of Love Die
Butterfly from Karla's Kreative Korner

I hope you can join in with our challenge, you can win a fab prize from our sponsor, and don't forget to check the DTs lush makes.

See you soon, thanks for dropping by!

Love You Always

Hello!

I hope your week has started well. It was thick fog outside when I woke up this morning, so I was super happy not to have to go to work in it as I have a few days off work.

I made the stenciled portion of this card at the same time that I made the thank you card that I posted just over a week ago just using different inks. 

The distress ink colours I used here were Cracked Pistachio , Shaded Lilac and Picked Raspberry.

I chose some pretty deep pink pearlised cardstock to go with the picked raspberry colour and cut out the love word and then again twice in black cardstock to create a kind of shadow. Of course what I didn't notice until I photographed it was that I should have gone over the white on the side of the pink cardstock (which is one sided), with my pink distress ink, so that the white didn't show. Oh well, I will know for next time won't I, we learn from our mistakes. I wanted a little bit more black in the card to pull in the black on the butterfly, so I added a thin strip to each side of the stenciled panel and then cut another strip on which I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment.

I added another strip of the pink cardstock to the left side. I then added my die cut word, slightly overlapping my sentiment strip and adhered my butterfly.

To finish I added a few sequins in colours that complemented the inks.

I've listed the items used below.

White cardstock

Black Cardstock

Pink Lustre Cardstock

Whimsy Stamps Scripted Love Word Die

Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings Clear Stamp Set

Butterfly Embellishment - Enchanted

This would make a lovely card for valentine's day, for an anniversary, or just to let someone know how much you care.

That's all for today but there will be lots more from me this week, so stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting!

Sending Congratulations

Hello!
Oh my goodness, I have been so busy crafting recently that I really haven't had a ton of time to blog stuff or share it on Facebook/Instagram etc. You know when you just get a big run on your mojo and are full of creativity? Well this has been me for the last couple of weeks, which is weird because I haven't had a whole lot of time on my hands, but somehow it worked. Well truth to tell I've been kind of scared to stop to do a lot of blogging or Facebooking, because of course the minute I start doing that my mojo normally takes a dive. However since I now have 25 items......yes you heard it right...25! in my draft folder, I thought I'd be safe to start sharing some lol.
I actually made this card quite a while back now, remember when I posted the Diamond Wedding anniversary card last year I mentioned that I'd made another card with the same papers? Well this is it.
I made it non specific but rather romantic and it could be used for a wedding or anniversary card or an engagement or special birthday card, but in fact I used it recently for a work colleague's wedding.

I distressed my edges but didn't ink them as I wanted to keep the look very light and clean. I stitched the top layer and added some cheesecloth between my layers to add to the softness.
The card base is made with pearlised card as are the die cut leaves and frame from Memory Box and the stamens which are from an older monthly kit  by La-La Land.

I used some modelling paste through a heart stencil. I don't know why but every time I use a stencil I always seem to use it in the corners where I end up putting my flowers, so I really do need to get better with that.

I used a little heart trellis chipboard behind my frame and dotted that with some very small pearls.

A few ivory flowers, some satin ribbon and a few more pearl embellishments finish the card ready for the sentiment, which is stamped and embossed on vellum with gold embossing powder.

The cheesecloth, ribbon, and self adhesive pearls are all from The Ribbon Girl, just click to follow the links to the store.

I rather like how this one turned out, what do you think?