Whimsy Stamps October Release Day 2

Hello!

It's day 2 of Whimsy Stamps release for October and there are lots of fun new goodies to be had.

For my card today I'm showcasing the new Brushed Stripes Background Stamp.

This is such a versatile stamp, you'll see some other examples of how I used this stamp later in the month, but for today's card I did one of my favourite things.....rainbow colours.

I first stamped my image on some Strathmore Bristol smooth paper, using my MISTI and some Versamark Ink, priming the paper first with my anti static tool.

Then I did some heat embossing with some white embossing powder.

I used various Distress Oxide inks and a blending tool to colour in my stripes, masking the areas I didn't want to take that colour, with some post it tape.

I used the Shaker Maker Rectangle Die set to cut the background into 2 pieces and then used the Thanks word die (this die is no longer available in store, but you can find a lot of other word dies here) to cut out the word from the centre piece, keeping all the pieces aside.

I used the 2nd largest Stitched Nested Rectangles die to cut a layer from white card to fit between my 2 pieces and glued all 3 to my white card base .

I cut several more 'thanks' from white card stock and glued them together, gluing the striped thanks on the top.

I then inlaid the stacked word and adhered the small left over pieces in their places. 

I stamped the 'for everything' sentiment from the Happy Saying set (one of my 'go to' sentiment sets)  in black ink on some white card stock and cut it to size, gluing it in place below my die cut word.

Finally I finished off with a few enameled dots.

 And there you have it. Products can be found at the end of the post, just click on the pics to take you to the item in store.

   

Thanks for visiting!

Whimsy Stamps September Release Day 2

Hello!

Life is BUSY atm, getting ready to fly out to Rome on Tuesday and I'm working tomorrow so got to get everything ready today, but before I get back to it I'd like to share another card with products from the September release.

It's never too early to start on Christmas cards right? I'm probably a bit late starting mine, but I thought I'd make something a little different.

I used the new Peekaboo Window 1 Die and combined it with an older Background Stamp Snow Flurry, embossing it with white embossing powder on watercolour paper and then doing a subtle ombre blending with blue inks to complement the beautiful blue butterflies I used from Kay's Kreative Korner.

I used some silver glitter cardstock to mount the butterflies so they stood out against the background, and finished the card with some clear gems.

I didn't want to cover my card with a sentiment, so I put that on the inside.

   

That's all folks, I'm off to finish sorting my packing ready for tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!

Whimsy DT - Girl's Best Friend

Hello!

I have some more Whimsy Stamps inspiration for you today, using several products from the new release. I've linked all the products from the Whimsy store at the end of my post, so just click on the small pictures to take you there.

For my card today I first made a background using the new Lattice Background Stamp. I stamped this with Versamark ink and then used white embossing powder and a heat tool to melt it. Then I stamped the paw print from the Lattice Buddies small stamp set in every gap of the lattice pattern and embossed those also.

I took some of my Distress inks and blended them over my background, keeping the colours fairly muted and then wiped over the embossing to make it clean and bright.
I cut out my panel and stuck it to my card base with a thin layer of craft foam in between.

I then stamped the dog from the Girl's Best Friend clear stamp set and coloured it with my Zig markers, keeping to greys, As I don't have the matching dies for this set I fussy cut my image.

I stamped my sentiment in black Versafine ink on white banner and mounted the banner with some foam tape on my panel. Then I added my little dog, also popped up on some foam tape. I finished the card with some clear gems to simulate the 'diamonds' in the sentiment.

Products used available from Whimsy Stamps



Thanks for visiting, I'll see you next time!

Whimsy - Winter Cheer

Hello!

I'm sharing a couple of bright and simple Christmas cards today made with the Snow Flurry Stamp Set and matching dies. 

To make this card I first cut a panel of Bristol Smooth paper and did a little ink blending with Distress Oxide ink in Picked Raspberry, sprinkling some drops of water and blotting. 

The snowflake was made by stamping with versamark ink on some Limelight Card Stock and heat embossing with white embossing powder and then cutting out with the matching die. 

I stamped a sentiment from the Abstract Christmas stamp set on Limelight Card Stock and heat embossed that also, then cut out with a banner die.

I made an A2 card base from Razzle Berry Card stock, and adhered my panel, then popped up my snowflake and sentiment on the top with some foam tape. I finished with a few jewels from Little Things by Lucy's Cards 

For my second card I did exactly the same as for the first card, just changing the colour of ink and cardstock and making a horizontal card rather than a vertical one.

These cards were so quick and simple to make you could always make a batch of them to cover your Christmas needs and even keep them individual just by changing up the colours/orientation like I did with these two.

List of Products

Whimsy Stamps Snow Flurry Stamp Set

Whimsy Stamps Snow Flurry Dies

Whimsy Stamps Abstract Christmas Stamp Set

MFT Stitched Rectangle STAX Die-namics

Strathmore Bristol Smooth Watercolour Paper

Distress Oxide Inks - Picked Raspberry and Twisted Citron

MFT Cardstock - Picked Raspberry, Limelight, Pure Plum

Versamark Ink

Altenew Crisp White Embossing Powder

MFT Stitched Sentiment Strips Die-namics

Jewels from Little Things by Lucy's Cards

Happy crafting!

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!

Whimsy Retreat 2017 - Class Projects

Hello!

I'm back from the Whimsy Craft Retreat 2017, held in Orlando, Florida and super excited to show you the cards we made in the classes I taught there this year.

All 3 classes were taught using new products from the October release, and I've listed those at the end of my post for you with links to the items in the shop.

My first class covered a 2 for 1 project where we made a shaker card and then made a card using the waste from this card with just a few additional pieces.

 For the card above I heat embossed the Snow Flurry BG stamp in white, on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and then used Distress Oxide Inks in Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio to blend over. I gave a light spray and sprinkled some drops of water before drying thoroughly.

I then cut out my panel with a rectangle die and cut out the SNOW die from the middle, being careful to save all the waste (except the middle of the O which is used on this card) to use on my second card.

I adhered a panel of acetate behind the aperture and glued the middle of the O back on the front.

I carefully attached foam tape to the back being careful to surround my word aperture with no gaps and rubbed the inside lightly with a dryer sheet (this is to prevent the sequins sticking to the static) and filled with a sequin selection that went with the colours of ink I used.

I glued a piece of white card to the back to prevent the sequins falling out and then glued the whole panel to my card base.

I stamped a sentiment from the Snow Flurry stamp set in the same Distress Oxide inks I used to blend my background and fussy cut them out, adhering them to the front of my card over the shaker portion with some Multi Medium Matte. I finished with a few sequins to match the those inside the shaker.

For my second card, I trimmed the waste 'frame' from cutting the panel for my first card to fit my card base and stuck it in place. I then cut a panel of white card stock to fit the inside of the frame and cut the SNOW word die out, towards the bottom of the panel, making sure it was centred and level. This is to use as a guide when adding back the stacked letters as it's easier to get the die straight than all the individual letters.

I stamped a sentiment from the Snow Flurry stamp set onto my panel in black ink and stuck the whole panel to my base card.

I cut the SNOW die cut 3 times from white cardstock and glued each of the letters in a stack, finishing with the patterned letters that were left from our shaker card and glued those in place on my card, using the negative die cut as a guide. 

I stamped 3 of the snowflakes from the Snow Flurry stamp set with Versamark ink and heat embossed in white and then blended over some Distress Oxide inks to match my background. I then cut them with the matching dies and mounted them on my card with a little foam tape.

I finished off with a few gems.

For my second class we got messy with a little ink smooshing and used the Snow Flurry stamp set and matching dies.

I used some distress Oxide Inks again (you could do the smooshing with normal distress or dye inks, but the stamping of the snowflakes would not be as crsip with normal distress inks), along with some Tim Holtz water colour paper,  and smooshed each colour separately, drying fully before moving onto the next.

Once fully dry I flicked with a little white acrylic paint and then stamped my sentiment from the set in black ink.

I stamped 3 of the snowflakes onto white cardstock, from the set using ink to match and cut them out with the matching dies.

I trim my panel to be a little smaller than my card base and add it to the base on top of a layer of cradt foam. I add the snowflakes with foam tape for a little extra dimension and finish with a few clear gems.

My 3rd and final class of the day (I did also do another optional evening workshop covering colouring images with Zig markers and distress inks/markers), covered loose water colouring and the camouflage die-cutting technique.

As with my first card I used the Snow Flurry BG stamp and white embossing powder to stamp and heat emboss a panel of Strathmore Bristol Smooth.

I then took 2 colours of Zig markers, (in this case Pink and Turquoise Green), and a waterbrush and loosely coloured the snowflakes, (by loosely I mean that the effect was quite watery and I didn't worry about colouring outside the lines, in fact it's pretty much encouraged), in pink and some of the loops and swirls in green. I's best to let one colour dry fully before moving onto the second so they are less likely to bleed into each other.

Once fully dry I cut it out with a large rectangle die and used the SNOW large word die to cut out my word from the centre of the card.

I made a card base with some bright pink card stock and adhered my panel directly to my base and then cut the SNOW die another 4 times from the same pink card stock.

I glued the letters in stacks, finishing with the patterned ones and glued them back into the aperture .

I heat embossed a sentiment in white, from the Abstract Christmas stamp set onto a scrap of pink card stock and cut out the sentiment with a banner die which I mounted across the bottom of my word using foam tape.

I finished the card with a few clear sequins.

Whimsy Products Used

Please click on the picture to go to the item in store

I did take a few photos at the retreat and I'll be doing a bit of a write up later about what we did, but for now I hope you enjoy the makes from my classes.

Thanks for visiting!

Craftin Desert Divas August Guest Spot - Tickled Pink

Hello!

I'm so excited to be joining Craftin Desrt Divas for a guest spot this month. I'll be sharing 4 cards made with the new Tickled Pink stamp set, featuring a whole bunch of cute flamingos. This set comes with 5 different flamingo images, plus a couple of beach related images and some themed sentiments. 

For my first card today I kept it simple, I coloured in my image with my Zig markers and then fussy cut it ready to mount on my card. If you aren't keen on fussy cutting, this set also comes with coordinating SVG Outlines which you can find here.

I made an A2 card base from smooth white cardstock and topped with a panel of bubblegum pink cardstock, cut slightly smaller than my card base. Then I took a smaller panel of Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and blended on some Worn Lipstick Distress Ink in the area I wanted my image to be, I added a few small sprinkles of water for some texture.

I took a strip of black cardstock and stamped one of the sentiments from the set with Versamark Ink, using Pink Embossing Powder on top to heat emboss. I cut the strip at an angle and adhered to my top panel and then popped the flamingo on the top using some foam tape for dimension. Finally I added a few enamel dots in coordinating colours to finish the card.

I really like the way this one turned out.

I'll be sharing 3 more cards using this set, over the next week, so look out for those.

Thanks for visiting!

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 GDT - Rainbow Dove Shaker Card

Hello!

Popping in super quickly today with another make as part of my Guest Spot over at Paper Smooches.

July is drawing to a close fast, but I still have 5 days and another 2 cards to share with you after this one.

So for today's card I used that fabulous Dove Die again, but this time I used just the outline part of the die cut around the aperture to make a shaker card.

Because I'm rainbow mad at the moment (I've obviously been overdoing the Skittles eating), and because the theme fits perfectly with the dove, I decide to do a rainbow blended background.

It's just some standard blending with Distress Inks (Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch, Cracked Pistachio,Twisted Citron, Fossilized Amber and Picked Raspberry) on some Tim Holtz watercolour paper. Then I added a few drops of water here and there and blotted, and spritzed with some glimmer mist. Finally when dry I added some spots of white paint.

I cut the shape with a rounded rectangle die, the aperture with the dove die, added some acetate behind filled around with foam tape and added a mix of coloured sequins and a piece of white card to seal them in.

I stuck the whole thing to a card base made from bright pink cardstock and added the white dove outline, cut with the same die glued on top of the acetate.

I cut out the word hope with the hope die from Religious Words 2, several times in white cardstock and layered them together to make my word more dimensional and glued it in place beneath my shaker element. 

To finish up I added a few sparkling clear sequins.

I hope you like it.

I've had several enquiries about selling my CAS cards, so I've finally started listing them on my Etsy store, but it will take me quite some time to get them all listed, so bear with me!

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Birthday - Make it Crafty

Hello!

Sometimes when I'm playing with inks and making background, I end up with more than I actually need, and if I don't make an additional card than and there, I'll put that extra away with the intention of using it later.

That's what I did with this card, I used the background for this card that I shared a couple of weeks ago.

I was in the mood to make a card, but without much time or many  ideas coming to mind. I had a sort through my stash of still to be used 'bits' and found this chipboard piece from Make it Crafty that I've had for a long while now.  Because it was made of a grey type of chipboard, it wasn't covered too well with my distress or dye inks as they sink into the material. However, Distress Oxides cover this beautifully, so I set to with the Wilted Violet colour that I'd used to stencil on my background.

Then I gave it a good spritz with my Gold Glimmer Mist and left to dry. 

To make the card I just made a white, top folding vertical A2 (US) size card, trimmed my background with a large stitched rectangle frame, and glued that to my card base. Then I cut another piece of white cardstock a little bigger than my chipboard panel, glued the panel to the white card and the white card to my background piece, added a few sequins and voila!

Possibly the quickest card I've made yet, but it still looks very effective. You can find the chipboard I used here.

Thanks so much for visiting.

MFT Stamps - Celebrate, Rainbow Blending, Stamping with Water

Hello!

I have a couple of cards to share with you today, I love making cards where you get a kind of a Two for the Price of One thing going on.

First of all I have to explain that I made the background without any idea of how I was going to use it in a card. I was just trying out some techniques I'd seen in this video from Jen McGuire where she shows stamping with water. I thought it was a cool idea and decided to give it a try.

Since I'm all about the Rainbow lately I chose rainbow colours swapping the red for a bright pink. The ink blending is all done with Distress Oxide inks which gives it that lovely soft brushed sort of finish.

I used Picked Raspberry, Fossilized Amber, Twisted Citron, Broken China and Wilted Violet, blending them to create the additional shades.

Once I was happy with my blending I spritzed a background stamp, (this is the Wavy Colouring Book BG Stamp from MFT), with some water and stamped onto my blended cardstock. Then I blotted and dried with my heat gun.

I loved the way the pattern came out but for a few days I had no idea what I was going to make with it, and then I got the Celebrate die from MFT Stamps. Bingo!

After dabbling with the idea of using the whole panel, I decided to go for a 2 for 1 creation, making 2 cards from the 1 background. I used a Stitched Scalloped Basic Edges die to cut the sedge of my first card and then used the same card on the white cardstock for the 2nd.

I cut the outside edges with a large stitched rectangle die from  Blueprints 15.

Basically the 2 cards are almost the same, just reversed, except the first card I inlaid the die cut word and heat embossed a sentiment in white on a banner cut from Limelight cardstock, and on the 2nd I stacked lots of layers of the die-cut word to make it very dimensional and stamped the sentiment in black ink directly onto the white cardstock.

To finish both cards I added a few sparkling clear sequins.

Here you can compare the 2 cards. 

I can't decide which one I like the most, which do you prefer?

Thanks so much for visiting, don't forget to drop by tomorrow for the new release from Whimsy Stamps!