Hunky Dory

Hello!

I'm showcasing a couple of new products from the Whimsy Stamps August release on my card today.

For the background I used a rainbow of Distress Inks and the Teardrop Splash Stencil on a white panel and then stamped one of the large sentiments from the Cheeky Sentiments set, with Versamark ink and heat embossed with black embossing powder.

I stamped the smaller sentiments from the set on black card and embossed with white embossing powder.

After cutting my 2 panels, the larger on in black cardstock, I adhered to my card base and then attached my trimmed sentiments popped up on some narrow foam tape.

To finish my card I added some colourful enamel dots.

  

  

Thanks so much for popping in on me!

Whimsy - Unconditional Love

Hello!

I have a super quick and easy card to share with you today, using the Clear Stamp Set
'Unconditional Love'
This is a brilliant set for all you pet lovers card needs.
My card today could be used for several occasions, including a sympathy card for a pet bereavement.

To make my card a made a top folding vertical A2 card base from black cardstock, and then cut a narrower panel from more black cardstock.
I used my anti static tool on this panel and then stamped the large image from the stamp set in Versamark Ink and embossed with gold embossing powder. I did the same for the sentiment below the image.

I used some gold glitter tape to make 2 vertical lines towards the edges of my card and then mounted the panel on the base card with some craft foam to pop it up a little.

Finally I added a few drops of gold Nuvo Drops to finish off.

 

Thanks for visiting!

Whimsy Stamps - Snow Flurry - Simple Cards

Hello!

I have a couple of simple Christmas cards to share with you that look impressive but actually take very little time to make. 

My first card used the Snow Flurry Background Stamp and the Snow Flurry Clear Stamp Set.

I used some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper to stamp and heat emboss the background stamp and also to stamp and heat emboss one of the snowflakes from the clear stamp set.  I used Shaded Lilac distress ink over the back ground stamp and to accent the snowflake. The sentiment is from the St Nicholas Clear Stamp Set. I popped up my front panel on some craft foam and finished my card simply with some purple gems.

For my second card I stamped some of the Snow Flurry snowflake stamps onto some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper with Versamark Ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I also stamped another sentiment from the St Nicholas stamp set and heat embossed that in gold to match.

I then did some ombre ink blending using Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral distress ink. After cutting out my panel I sprinkled a few drops of water and lifted a little colour for interest. I didn't have any gold cardstock so I embossed the edge of my card and then mounted my panel right on top so there was just a thin gold outline.
I finished the card with some Pale Gold Nuvo Drops.

Below you can find links to the items I used.

I'll be back later with a special Halloween post and a chance to win a prize!

Altenew - Beautiful Day

Hello!

I bought a couple more stamp sets from Altenew recently and though I haven't had very much time to play with them yet I did get this fairly simple card made with the Beautiful Day stamp set.

I stamped the flowers and leaves in Versamark ink, on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper, and heat embossed with Altenew's Crisp Embossing Powder in Pure White, masking the lower left flower.

I coloured the images with Zig Markers in Persian Green, Pale Pink, Light Grey and light Green.

Once everything was dry I die-cut the panel and stamped the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black ink,

I die-cut a turquoise piece of lustre cardstock slightly smaller than my card base and a pale pink piece of lustre cardstock slightly smaller than that. I adhered all my layers onto my card base popping the top panel up with some craft foam.

I finished the card with a few sparkling clear sequins.and gems.

Thank you so much for dropping by xx

Altenew &My Favorite things- Celebrate

Hello!

Dashing in with a quick share for you.

I used a combination of dies from My Favorite Things, and an outline flower stamp and Gold embossing powder from Altenew to make a simple but elegant card that could be used for a birthday, wedding, engagement or anniversay...or any special day realy.

I used some MFT Cardstock in Crushed Coral to make my card base and then used the large die from Blueprints 20 to cut some vellum. I really love using layers of vellum when you want a softer effect and of course it's not as heavy as cardstock.

I took the large outline flower stamp from Altenew's Garden treasures, and stamped all over my watercolour paper with Versmark ink. I did this a few at a time, using my anti-static powder first and using the crisp embossing powder from Altenew in Antique Gold to heat emboss/

I then used my distress inks in Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral and Dried Marigold  to blend on some colour. I added a few drops of water and left for a few seconds before blotting with some absorbent paper., then I added a light misting of gold Glimmer Mist and left to dry. 

I cut the Celebrate word out several times in cardstock to match my base card, and for the top layer I sponged over with Versamark ink before adding more of the gold embossing powder and heating to make the beautiful gold finish. I then glued all my layers together to make my dimensional word.

I used a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp You Matter stamp set, and embossed with more gold powder on some vellum, cutting it out with an MFT Stitched Sentiment Strip die.

I glued all my elements together, popping the main panel up on some craft foam and then added a few sequins from Little Things by Lucy.

That's my card for today, I hope you like it and thanks for visiting!

Paper Smooches- You Heart is Pure Gold

Hello!

I'm back again with another make as part of my July guest spot over at Paper Smooches.

I used the Body Language stamp set and the Body Language Icons die set, using the heart again, but this time I stamped it out several times, didn't bother with the arms and legs and used the happy face.

I coloured then all in shades of pink and orange except for the middle one which I coloured with my Gansai Tambi Stary Nights Watercolours, to give it that metallic gold finish. I stamped the faces once they were all  dry, and cut them out with the matching die. 

I used a piece of Tilm Holtz watercolour paper and blended the same shades with distress inks, using Wild Honey for the gold. I sprinkled a few dots of water and blotted for more texture and interest.

I stamped the sentiment and the hearts with Versamark ink and embossed with gold embossing powder. Then I cut it with a stitched rectangle die and mounted on some gold lustre cardstock.

I glued my base to an A2 horizontal card base and added my hearts with foam tape.

Finally I added some googly eyes to my little heart faces.

Thanks for visiting!

Altenew - Garden Treasures

Hello!

Well I can't say that I'm sorry to be nearing the end of this week, the weather in the UK has been simply horrid, very wet and grey and even a tad cold! Considering it's July tomorrow that's very poor showing. I expect the sun to pull his socks up and work harder next week, or I'll be having a few sharp words with him.

Anyway, this is a first for me, I've dipped my toe into the waters that are Altenew Stamps. I don't really colour flowers much at all normally, but I've seen so many gorgeous work with these beautiful stamps lately, that I just had to try.

So I purchased a lovely stamp set called Garden Treasuers, that seemed fairly versatile and set to work making a couple of cards. This was actually the 2nd card I made, but I will share the other with you at a later date.

This is what I made, I was pretty happy in all with the result.

First of all I took some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and prepped it with my anti-static tool. Then I stamped the larger flower in Versamark ink, and heat embossed it with Altnew Crisp Embossing Powder in Antique Gold. Then I re-prepped and stamped again after masking off my first image with a mask made from a post it note, I heat embossed again, following with the smaller flowers and the leaf. You do have to be a bit careful as the slight tackiness from the post it can get left on the paper and attract the embossing powder if you're not careful. I used my Misti to stamp to make the positioning easier.

Once all my stamping and embossing was complete I coloured the image with my Zig markers.

Once I was happy with the result I set aside to dry while I prepared my background.

I took some Tim Holtz watercolour paper and blended a mix of Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral and Dried Marigold, concentrating the deeper pinker colour at the bottom and the lighter orangey peach colour towards the top, getting a nice ombre effect.

Then I sprinkled and flicked some droplets of water, let stand for a few seconds and blotted off with a paper towel. Finally I flicked some gold paint on it randomly and then spayed lightly with a gold Glimmer Mist. This gives the card a lovely lustre which sadly doesn't show up to well on camera. I dried with my heat tool and then left it to completely dry while I prepared the rest of my card.

I took some smooth white cardstock and cut it to 11" x 4.25" scored at 5.5" and folded in half to make my top folding card base/

I fussy cut my stamped and coloured image, this is quite easy when you emboss.

I took my fully dried background and cut it to size with a Double Stitched Rectangle die from MFT Stamps, then prepped it with my anti static tool, and stamped the Thank You sentiment from MFT Stamps'You Give Me Butterflies stamp set and heat embossed with the same gold embossing powder.

I adhered this to my card base with some craft foam in between, then popped my flowers on with some foam tape to give them a little dimension.

Finally I added a few sequins from Lucy's Little Things, Tropical Paradise shaker selection.

I do hope you like my card for today, it's a bit different from my normal type, but I really like it .

 I'm off for a meal and a few glasses of something nice after work tonight with my lovely friend Jane, so I can put the weather firmly behind me.......or at least not care very much about it lol! 

Thanks so much for dropping by!

CASE a card Monday - Split Cards

Hello!

As my Saturday spotlight was Jennifer Maguire (if you missed that post you can find it here),

I'm casing one of Jennifer's cards today.

As an added bonus this Monday you get 6 cards instead of 1 lol!

and this was Jennifer's original card that I took inspiration from

I used a background stamp and I didn't have a large floral stamp and I coloured them with zig markers, distress ink blending and then colouring using a blending tool.

I did 3 different but similar style cards, and 6 different sentiments, but you could batch produce them fairly easily if you used the same sentiment etc.

I hope you like me CASE for today and that it's given you some ideas of how to use a card for inspiration.

Thanks for visiting!

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!

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!

Technique Tuesday #8 Emboss Resist

Hello everyone!

I'm a bit late in with my Technique Tuesday post today, because I decided to combine it with my post for 

Deep Ocean Challenge's 

new challenge 

Winter Wonderland.

Now, to be honest with you, the last thing I wanted to make this early in the year was another blooming Christmas/Winter card. But that's what the theme called for, so I decided to make something a little different. I've seen quite a few emboss resist technique cards around recently so I decided to try my hand at it. It's really not too difficult, the hardest part for me was getting all the stamping done trying to see where I'd stamped before lol.

Anyway, I found some very old snowflake stamps in my stash, (no idea who they are by as I've had them for a few years now and they were not in the original packet), and stamped around a piece of watercolour card with Versamark ink. Then I added white embossing powder and heated. I kept doing this, adding snowflakes, until I was happy with the result.

Once it was fully dry, I chose a few colours of distress inks, and blended them around the edges, overlapping and fading out towards the centre.

Once I had the effect I wanted I gave the whole thing a light rub over with a kitchen towel to clean up the embossing and make it pop more, then I flicked some gold watercolour paint off of the end of a paint brush to make the gold speckles. 

I stamped the Christmas sentiment from the 

Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings Set, 

in Versamark ink on some vellum and then heat embossed with some gold embossing powder. I cut my strip to size and wrapped it around my piece of card, securing it at the back with some glue.

I then cut the love word 4 times from some white card with the 

Whimsy Stamps Scripted Love Word Die

I then coated one die cut with Versamark ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder, before gluing all the layers together to create what looks like a chipboard word and secured that onto my card, slightly overlapping the vellum strip. I glued the whole piece onto my card base with slightly smaller piece of craft foam for dimension and then added a few sequins to finish.

I really think it turned out very pretty and I do hope you like it.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the teams wonderful makes and I hope you can join in with us, as always there is a lovely prize to be won.

Thanks for visiting!

Whimsy Stamps January Release - Flight of the Butterflies

Hello! I hope you're having a great week. 

I'm back today with some more goodness from the Whimsy Stamps Jan release.

Today I've used both the clear stamp Flight of the Butterflies and the new Butterflies Stencil.

These products work great together.

To make my card I first blended some Shaded Lilac distress ink over some smooth white cardstock with one of my new Clarity Brushes, I love these...and they're made in the UK, lucky us for once!

Once that was dry I cut it out with the Whimsy Hand Stitched Nested Rectangles and then applied some Wilted Violet Distress Ink through the Butterfly Stencil, you can use the stencil on either side and I flipped mine over so that the butterflies went in the opposite direction to the stamp. 

I let that dry fully and then gave it a good rub over with my anti static tool before stamping the Flight of the Butterfly stamp with some Versamark ink and then heat embossing with some detail white embossing power.

I used my Misti tool to perfectly position one of the sentiments from the set, and stamped that with Versafine Ink in Black Onyx.

I gave the whole think a light spritz with some glimmer spray and then when it was fully dry I went over the stenciled butterflies with my Wink of Stella pen for some extra sparkle, you can just about see some in the photo.

I cut a piece of black cardstock slightly bigger than my die cut piece and adhered that to the back. I glued the whole thing to my prepared card base using a piece of craft foam in between to pop it up slightly.

Finally I added a few clear gems, I would have like to add some clear sequins instead but I didn't have any in a mix of sizes and the same size just didn't look right (something to add to my wish list), but I think the gems look fine also.

That's all from me today, but I'll be back tomorrow with a super cute card using a new stamp from the Wee Collection, I know how we all love these.

Happy Crafting!

Technique Tuesday #6 Watercolour Night Skies

Hello!

Welcome to my first Technique Tuesday of 2017! Unfortunately I'm afraid you'll have to suffer a couple of Christmas cards again for this, but the next one will be non Christmasy I promise!

Today's cards are showcasing some backgrounds where I played around with making a night sky with distress inks.

For the first card I blended some Blueprint Sketch and some Wilted Violet straight onto some smooth watercolour paper with my markers and then added water with a large brush and blended them together where they met for a subtle ombre effect. I added a little Chipped Sapphire towards the top to darken it a bit more.

Once dry I added some drops of water left for a while and then blotted to lift the colour in some spots. Then I gave it a liberal spray of glimmer mist.

Once fully dry again I added some dots of white acrylic paint and added some small 'stars' with a Sakura Silver Star Gelly Roll pen.

I cut a curved shape from white cardstock and then stamped coloured and cut out the 2 snowmen from the Mama Elephant Polar Pals set along with the star garland from the same set and popped them all up with a little foam tape.

Then I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from the Mama Elephant Polar Pals set, which I bent a little to follow the shape of the aperture I'd cut from white cardstock to frame the scene. I glued the whole scene onto my base card.

Finally I added my 'frame' with some foam tape for a little dimension and finished with a few glittery enamel dots.

For my second card I played around with a kind of galaxy sky. I used Chipped Sapphire and Faded Jeans distress inks applying fairly randomly and blending but keeping the middle a little lighter.

Then I added some drops of water as before, but this time I went back and added some more and moved it around a bit for a more splotchy look.

I then flicked on some white acrylic paint and finished with some small dots with a glitter pen. Then I cut it to size and glued it on my card base.

I coloured the penguins from the Polar Pals set with my distress ink markers to look a bit like robins and cut them out with the matching dies. Then I cut a small circle of white cardstock and embossed with some glitter embossing powder. I cut a strip of white cardstock and cut an angle at one end and stamped on a sentiment from the same set. I glued on the 'moon' and them arranged my robins and sentiment strip on some foam tape for dimension.

Finally I added a few clear gems to the sky and a couple of glitter enamel dots to the sentiment strip.

Items Used

Plain white cardstock

Hot pressed watercolour paper.

Versafne Ink Black Onyx

Versamark ink

Silver Embossing Powder

Mama Elephant Polar Pals Clear Stamp Set

Mama Elephant Polar Pals Creative Cuts

Distress Ink Markers

Clear Gems 

Whimsy Stamps Winter Wishes Enamel Dots

Sakura Gelly Roll Pen Silver Star

White Acrylic Paint

That's all from me today, but I hope you've enjoyed my post today and feel inspired to try some night skies, I may try my hand at some Northern Lights or Fireworks next time I try them!

Seasons Greetings

Happy Christmas Eve!

I had a play with my watercolours for this card, using Worn Lipstick, Ripe Pumpkin, Fossilized Amber and  Crushed Olive laid on in loose stripes of colour and then blended with lots of water.

Once dry  I broke out my embossing folder again, to make the panel for this card but before gluing it on I gave it a liberal spray of a gold glimmer mist for a lovely sheen and sparkle (this shows up much better in real life and looks gorgeous).

I heat embossed a greeting in white on a strip of vellum and wrapped that around my panel before adhering the panel to my card base.

Then I popped on the 2 little snowmen from the Mama Elephant Polar Pals set. These were coloured with distress ink markers in Tumbled Glass, Ripe Pumpkin, and Worn Lipstick and then given a good coat of Wink of Stella to make them sparkle.

I finished off with a few enamel dots from Whimsy Stamps Summer Breeze set to echo the colours I used.

That's all from me today, I have a ton of stuff to do to prepare for tomorrow and I'm nurswing another cold, grrr I thought I was safe having already had one, hopefully I'll fight it off before tomorrow.

I hope your Christmas preparations are going well and I will catch up with you all after the big day.

Have fun!

 

Technique Tuesday # 5 - Watercolour Smooshed Background and Heat Embossed Sentiment.

Hi everyone, I'm back with another Technique Tuesday, and this time I've been playing around with splodging watercolour backgrounds.

This is a really fun technique where you use really watery paints or inks and wet watercolour paper and just kind of let it do it's thing lol. The little splotches are made by flicking water on to it once it's dry and then lifting the colour with some kitchen towel.

I cut the area I liked out with my Stitched Rectangles Die and stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from Mama Elephant's Jingle Greetings Set

I mounted it onto some green cardstock and then mounted it onto some lighter green card and then onto my card base. I thought the pale green card looked a little plain so I gave it a liberal coating of Wink of Stella to liven it up a bit. I finished my card with a little chipboard snowflake sponged with green ink and coated with Wink of Stella and a few sequins.

I'll be back tomorrow with another Christmas card for you.