Whimsy Stamps June Release - Let's Be Mermaids

Hello!

I have a shaker card for you today, made with the new Let's Be Mermaids clear stamp set from the June release at Whimsy Stamps. 

I stamped my mermaid and coloured her with a mix of distress and zig markers, and then fussy cut her out.

I made my background with distress oxide inks and blending tools over the new Mermaid Scaled stencil. (all links at the end of my post, just click on the pics to be taken to the item in store), and sprayed and blotted with some water to activate and create a watery effect.

I cut my shaker apeture with an oval die and used my oxides again to make the shaker bac kground, stamping out the sentiment on top along with some of the bubbles from the set. I also stamped some bubbles and small shoals of fish onto my top card. I put my shaker card together on my base card popped my mermaid up with some shallow foam tape, and added some extra clear sequins on top to finish.

Thanks for dropping by!

Whimsy Stamps - Stuck on you Cactus

Hello!

I'm back with some more inspiration from Whimsy Stamps' February release.

This time I've made a fun card using the Stuck on you Cactus rubber stamp, which I coloured with my Zig markers and then fussy cut and mounted with foam tape on a background panel made with the new Swish stencil and several graduating colours of Distress Oxide inks.

I mounted my panel popped up on some craft foam over a panel of black cardstock on a lime green card base.

I stamped a simple sentiment from the Polka Dot Fun clear stamp set, directly beneath my image and finished the card with a few enamel dots.

I've linked the products used at the end of my post, just click on the picture to go directly to the item in store.

    

  

Thanks for dropping by!

Whimsy Stamps Feb Release - Day 3

Hello!

It's Day 3 of the February release from Whimsy Stamps.

We have a whole heap of lovely goodies for you to choose from this month, from rubber stamp, clear stamp sets and stencils.

Today I'm showcasing the Gnome Sweet Gnome clear stamp set.

I just fell in love with these cute little gnomes, and their homes.

This set is so perfect for many different cards and comes with a variety of sentiments.

I made a fairly simple card, to celebrate a new home, using one of the sentiments from the set and making a simple background using one of the stencils from last month's release.

I watercoloured my images with Zig markers and fussy cut them out, popping them up with some foam tape. I used the largest stitched nested rectangle die to make the base.

I added a strip of patterned paper from my stash and finished off with some enamel dots.

I've shown the products used below, complete with links to the products in the store.

  

   

Thanks so much for dropping by!

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 Sketch Challenge #342

Hello!

It's been a long time since I joined in with the sketch challenge over at MFT Card Challenges, so I thought I'd dash off a quick card using the new MFT Stamps Happy Hippos clear stamp set.

I used the hippo with the present and the 3 little birds, stamping them on some Bristol Smooth paper  and colouring them with my Zig Clean Color markers, using Turquoise Green, Yellow Green, Light Green and Bright Yellow. I cut them out with the matching dies and set them aside.

I made an A2 vertical top folding card base and used a little Sno Cone Ink and the Mini Cloud Edges stencil to sponge a few clouds directly onto my card base. I cut some Limelight and Gumball cardstock with one of the Grassy Edges die and finished the edges with a stitched rectangle die, stamping a sentiment from the same set onto the top layer before gluing them both to my card base.

I cut some while and patterned paper with one of the Basic Scalloped Edges dies and finished with the same stitched rectangle die, gluing both to the top of my card. Then I added the hippo and birds with some foam tape and finished with a few enamel dots. You could omit the dots as it doesn't really need them, I just felt they helped balance the card.

If you want to join in with this week's challenge you can find it here, but you only have till Tuesday evening.

Thanks for visiting!

MFT Stamps - Jungle Gym

Hello!

I hope you are all having a great weekend so far. It's bright and warm here but a little overcast.

My order of goodies from the July release for My Favorite Things came yesterday, and since the other half was out for the evening, I couldn't resist having a bit of a play right away.

I made a few cards last night and this morning, and today I'm sharing a little card I made with the Jungle Gym stamp set and matching Die-namics.

This is such a sweet set with some great sentiments as well.

Firstly I stamped the images I wanted to use on some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and coloured them with my Zig Markers. Now don't faint people but I have the colours for you today!

Tiger: Light Brown, Gray and Dark Gray

Monkey: Oatmeal and Dark Oatmeal

Bird: Light Blue, Cobalt Blue and Persian Blue

Leaves: Green and Deep Green

I cut these out with the matching dies and set them aside while I worked on my card base.

I took another piece of Bristol Smooth paper and used both the original MFT Stamps Cloud Stencil, plus the new Mini Cloud Stencil along with Peacock Feathers and Broken China Distress Oxide ink and a blending tool, to create a sky. I cut this out with the large rectangle die from Blueprints 20 and also cut out a window with the Square Peek a boo window die, making sure to keep the square that was cut out.

I used the Grassy Edges die-namics to cut 2 layers of grass, one from Limelight Cardstock and one from Gumdrop Cardstock, I ran the limelight 'grass' through my Big Shot with the same rectangle die so that it matched the rest of my base then adhered both strips to the bottom edged.

I laid out the rectangle on my card base and adhered the cut out square to my card base through the whole, then I popped the rectangle up on some foam tape, after attaching the swing to the back.

I added my figures with some thin foam tape. To finish I stamped a sentiment from the set onto a scrap of limelight cardstock, cutting it out with a banner from the Stitched Sentiment Strips and trimmed it to fit, attaching it to the top of my window with a little more foam tape.

I hope you like my card and I'll have some more from the new release to share with you soon.

Thanks for visiting!

Altenew - All My Love

Hello!

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend, wherever you may be.

For today's post I'm using the Altenew Garden Treasures stamp set again, but this time I changed things up a bit.

No masking this time, instead, I stamped out lots of flowers individually with Versafine Onyx Black ink, and coloured them with my Zig Markers.

I don't have the matching dies for this set so I fussy cut them all out by hand....yup...by hand.

It took a bit of time but it was quite relaxing and very worth it in the end.

I set all my flowers aside and started to work on my panel. I used some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and blended Distress Oxide Inks in Cracked Pistachio and Broken China, with a blending tool. Then I took the Moroccan Lattice Stencil from MFT Stamps and blended through a little Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink in the centre part of my panel.

I sprinkled a few water droplets and spayed some gold glimmer mist and blotted and dried. Then I took some gold watercolour paint and splattered on some drops using a paintbrush. 

Once completely dried I cut it out with a large rectangle die from MFT Stamps Blueprints 20 and added it to a white top folding A2 card base.

 For the frame I took 2 oval dies and taped them inside one another on a piece of white cardstock and  flicked on some more gold watercolour paint, then cut a narrow strip of foam tape to pop it up on my card. 

I then took a piece of Boysenberry Lustre cardstock, cut it out with a banner die from the same Blueprints 20 die-namics, and gold embossed a sentiment from MFT Stamps' 

You Give Me Butterflies sentiment set. 

I arranged all my flowers where I wanted them around the frame and popped some of them up on foam tape. I added the banner sentiment with a little foam tape and finally I added a few sequins from different selections, to match the colours of the card.

I really love the way this card turned out and hope that you do too.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Whimsy Stamps - Crissy Armstrong - Penguin Floating

Hello!

I've been super busy this weekend, part of which has been spent planning my teaching for the Whimsy Stamps Annual Craft Retreat over in Florida this October.
If you want more details you can find them here, but if you're thinking of coming you can find the details here.
But don't delay because we only have a few spaces left now!

I did find some time to make a few card, this one though was already 'in the bag'.
A work colleague of mine is retiring at the end of August, and as she has a fondness for penquins, (she has a whole army of knitted penguins she breaks out at Christmas), I thought this penguin, relaxing without a care, was the perfect image for a retirement card for her. It's called
Penguin Floating 
drawn by the super sweet Crissy Armstrong who's drawn a huge selection of penguin images for those of you who love these adorable creatures.

I coloured her up with my zig markers, then masked off the stamped image while I set to with my stencils and distress inks.

I used the Cloud stencil and the Radiating Rays stencil from MFT to create my sky and sun, and blended some salty ocean for my sea.

I cut my image out with a large rectangle die from Blueprints 15 and adhered that to a card base made from deep pink cardstock and then cut a matching frame using a die from the
Whimsy Stamps Shaker Builder - Sweetest Birthday
I cut several of these and mounted them together to get some added dimension.

Finally I added a few clear sequins to finish.

That's all for today, but I'll be back with some more inspiration for you tomorrow.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Fairy Happy Lilac

Hello!

I made another card using the super sweet Fairy Happy stamp set from My Favorite Things, (MFT Stamps).

I kept this really simple, colouring up the fairy with my Zig markers to match my papers. I decided to give her purple hair because....well why not? Her wings do have a lovely sparkle from Wink of Stella, but as per it doesn't show up well in the photo. I do still use my distress markers to colour skin, as I'm not so keen on the colours of the zig markers that I have for that.

I stenciled a very soft background with Shaded Lilac and Cracked Pistachio distress inks, using my Giraffe Stencil to give the appearance of an old stone wall, then adhered it directly to my cardbase, which was made from Wild Wisteria cardstock trimmed to a vertical A2 size.  I cut out 2 of the medium size Pierced Rectangle Frame, from patterned paper and plain cardstock, mounting them on foam tape for dimension and offsetting the green one behind the lilac for interest.

I stamped the sentiment, which is also from the set, in Grape Jelly Premium Dye Ink, I should have used my MISTI for this but I forgot to add it before I glued on all my elements lol, so I had to do it by hand and eyeball it.

I stamped a couple of the flowers from the set and coloured those with my Zigs also and cut them and my fairy out with the coordinating dies, then I mounted them in my frames with some foam tape.

Finally I added a few sequins to finish.

I hope you like my card for today, thank you so much for visiting!

Holiday Cheer

Hello!

I thought I would kill 2 birds with one stone with this card. 1 I would get another Camp Create class done and 2. In the process I'd check off another elusive Christmas Card lol.

So this is my card for the fabulously titled class- Spectacular Shakers.

If you want to join in with this class, there's still time and you can find it here

I used one of the little penguins from the Toasty Greetings stamp set (my daughter loves penguins so I do try to use some), stamped him out on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper with Versafine ink in Onyx Black.

Than I coloured him in with my zig markers and cut him out with the coordinating die.

The background of the shaker window is meant to be reminiscent of an igloo wall. I used the English Brick stencil and some blue shades of ink with my Clarity stencil brush for some soft tones. 

Unfortunately the die I cut my aperture with is no longer available from MFT, but you could use an ordinary circle die instead if you don't have something similar.

I used a mix of the Lucy's Lagoon Sparkly Shaker mix and some white sequins from my stash.

The large rectangle die is from MFT Blueprints 15 and the smaller one is from MFT Blueprints 20.

I finished off with a small banner and a little charm and twine.

This is the badge earned from the Spectacular Shaker class.

I hope you enjoyed my card and thank you so much for visiting.

My Favorite Things - Make a Wish

Hello!

I'm dropping by today with another make using the Giraffing me Crazy stamp set from MFT Stamps.

I do really LOVE this stamp set and more recently I decided to purchase the MFT Giraffe Stencil as well.

I have to admit to having a bit of a stencil craze at the mo, they are very versatile (I've even done some embossing with them recently), you can get lots of different effects with them and they are soooooo much cheaper than background stamps, plus of course they are easier to store. Of course I will still play with background stamps as well, as I love the emboss resist effects etc. but I will definitely be building my stencil collection.

Anyhooooooo.....on with the card.

To start I took some kraft card to make US A2 size card base, vertical top folding. I took another piece of kraft card and used my Giraffe stencil along with some Vintage Photo distress ink to stencil my design. I used one of my Clarity Stencil Brushes for this, but you could also use a blending tool.

Then I used my new Blueprints 31 set to cut out the stenciled card and also some patterned paper. I cut out more kraft card with another die from the set and used a circle die to cut out my aperture in the stenciled card for my shaker window and stamped the Hey You sentiment on my patterned paper where it would show through the shaker window.

I used some Champagne Shaker Mix from Lucy's Cards, to fill a shaker pouch and adhered everything to my card base, then I stamped out my giraffes from the Giraffing me Crazy stamp set with some Versafine Ink on some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper.

I coloured up the giraffes with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and then cut them out with the matching Die-namics.

I took a scrap of yellow cardstock and stamped the Make a Wish or Two sentiment on it before cutting it out with a banner die from the same Blueprints set and adhering it to my shaker window. Both sentiments come from the MFT More Essential Sentiments stamp set.

Finally I used varying layers of foam tape to add my giraffes.

That's all for today I haven't made a list as I was in a rush, but I think I have mentioned everything I used in the post. If I missed anything and you want to know what I used, please leave a comment below.

I'll be back later with another card to share, thanks so much for dropping by!

You Are So Special

Hello!

I have another shaker card to share with you today, using MFT Stamps Beautiful Butterflies stamp set.

I have to admit that I found this set a little tricky to use, lining them up was tricky even with a MISTI.

I've never used layering stamps before, so perhaps that's something,(like most things), that comes with practice.

Anyhooo......I had this idea to combine one of the dies from Blueprints 20 with the English Brick Wall Stencil to create a window effect as a backdrop for my butterfly. 

I really like the way this idea turned out in practice, (they don't always work believe me!), and I thought it would work really well as a shaker card.

I added some paper from the Farm Fresh Gingham paper pack, cut with the largest die from the Blueprints 20 set and used another die from the set to cut the banner from some Razzle Berry Cardstock on which I stamped a sentiment from the You Give me Butterflies Stamp Set.

I put the card together using adhesive and foam tape, filling my shaker aperture with Princess Sequins from The Ribbon Girl and finishing with a few clear sequins on the front.

I've listed all the items used below:

Smooth White Cardstock

Strathmore Bristol Smooth Paper

MFT Beautiful Butterflies Stamp Set

MFT Beautiful Butterflies Die-namics

MFT Farm Fresh Gingham Paper Pack

MFT English Brick Wall Stencil

MFT Blueprints 20

Princess Sparkly Shaker Selection

Adhesive Tape

Foam Tape

Crystal Sparkly Shaker Selection

Ranger Multi Medium Matte

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

MFT Razzle Berry Premium Dye Ink

MFT Cement Gray Premium Dye Ink

MFT Grout Gray Premium Dye Ink

MFT You Give me Butterflies Stamp Set

That's all from me for now, but in an effort to clear some of my draft folder, I will try and post another card or two later today.

Thanks for visiting!

Hey Gullfriend

Hello!

No Saturday Spotlight today, I have decided to make these fortnightly rather than every week as there's a bit of work to both these posts and the CASE a card Monday posts that follow, and because I have such a lot of other stuff to share with you,  so keep an eye out for the next of these posts on Saturday 20th.

In the meantime I have a simple card I made using the new MFT Seaside Seagulls set. I just love this set they are sooooo much fun, and the sentiments are a hoot too, which makes him indoors roll his eyes, but that just makes them even more fun lol!

I started with a US A2 size card base made from smooth white cardstock, and adhered some patterned paper cut with a large scalloped rectangle die. I've listed all the items at the end of my post, I haven't added links, but I bought all my MFT goodies at Dies to Die for.

I then took a piece of watercolour paper, my cloud stencil and several colours of Distress Ink (I used Tumbled Glass, Abandoned Coral, Shaded Lilac and Blueprint Sketch), to stencil my sea and sunset tinged clouds. To do the waves you just turn the stencil upside down!

Once I was happy with how it looked, I cut it out with a rectangle die and glued this onto my patterned paper.

I then stamped 2 of the gulls onto some Strathmore Bristol Smooth. I coloured them in with my
Zig Markers using Light Grey, Dark Grey and Bright Yellow and cut them out with the
matching die-namics.

I stamped one of the sentiments from the set onto a scrap of smooth white cardstock and cut a frame from a scrap of the patterned paper I'd used for the base.

I glued the frame over the sentiment and then stuck it down in the centre of my inked rectangle. I arranged the gulls and popped them up with some foam tape.

I finished the card off with a few sparkling clear sequins in different sizes

Items and Equipment Used

Smooth White Cardstock
MFT Calm and Cozy Chevrons 6 x 6 Pad
MFT Blueprints 20
Tim Holtz Watercolour Paper
MFT Cloud Stencil
Various Distress Inks (colours mentioned in post)
Ink Blending Tool and Sponges.
MFT Double Stitched Rectangles STAX
MFT Seaside Seagulls Stamp Set
MFT Seaside Seagulls Die-namics
Strathmore Bristol Smooth Paper
Versafine Onyx Black Ink
Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens
Size 2 Watercolour Brush
MFT Rectangle Word Window Frame Die-namics
Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Sequins
Paper Trimmer
Scoring Board and Bone Folder
Big Shot Die Cutting Machine
Misti Stamping Tool
Double Sided Foam Adhesive Tape
Collall Multipurpose Glue
Ranger Multi Medium Matte
Craft Tweezers

That's all for now, thank you so much for visiting!

Technique Tuesday #18 - Stencils 2 Ways

Hello!

I got a lovely package of MFT goodies to play with this weekend, so I thought I'd use some of them as the focus of my Technique Tuesday this week.

I chose the Giraffing me Crazy stamp set and stamped a few of the images out with Versafine Black Onyx on to Strathmore Bristol paper, and coloured them in with my Zig Clean Color real Brush Markers. I cut them out with the coordinating dies and set them aside.

Them I set to work with my stencils.

First I took a piece of Tim Holtz watercolour cardstock and taped it down, rough side up on my work surface. I chose the rough side because I wanted a textured finish to help the bricks look more...well brick-like.

I used the following colours of distress inks: Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain, laying down the lighter colour first and then gradually adding the deeper colours towards the bottom and blending out. 

I used my Clarity Stencil Brushes for this rather then an ink blender because I wanted a softer subtler blend and also because I find it easier when the stencil has lots of detail as they're gentler on the stencil and less likely to damage it.

Once I was happy with my blend I cut it out with the large double stitched rectangle die and then cut a 'window' in the wall using the new peek-a-boo square window die.

I set that aside and took a small rectangle of white cardstock and taped that down to my work surface and then stenciled a sky using the new Cloud Stencil, Tumbled Glass distress ink and an ink blending tool. This is the other kind of stenciling where instead of stenciling through a pattern, you blend off of a mask. I could have stenciled the sky directly onto my card base, but I was being lazy and didn't want to bother masking off my card lol.

I glued the sky directly to my card base and then adhered the brick wall with some foam tape, positioning it carefully over my sky.

I then added the little sprigs of leaves with some multi medium matte and popped the giraffes on with some more foam tape for a lovely bit of dimension.
I stamped my sentiment from the same set, onto some white cardstock and cut it out using the Rectangle Word Frames, keeping the frame part to use on another project, and adhered it to the top of my brick wall.
I finished off the whole thing with a few orange enamel dots.

I do hope you like it, the idea is that they are supposed to look like they are in the giraffe house at the zoo, looking out at the sky with the greenery poking through the window!

I used the following products on my card today:

MFT Giraffing me Crazy

MFT English Brick Stencil

MFT Cloud Stencil

MFT Double Stitched Rectangle Die-namics

MFT Peek-a-boo square window Die-namic

MFT Rectangle Word Frames Die-namics

All my MFT products came for Dies to Die for

That's all for today, thanks for visiting!