Technique Tuesday # 19 Watercolouring

Hello!

Recently I bought a palette of 6 Gansai Tambi watercolours called 'Starry Colours'

These are all iridescent gold toned colours and I thought it might be fun to colour a card with them using all 6 shades.

So first I stamped the MFT Etched Flower background stamp with Versamark ink on some watercolour paper and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

Then I set to with my watercolours, I did use all 6 colours, some more sparingly than others.

Once it was fully dry I gave it a light rub over with some absorbent paper to make the white pop and then cut the frame shape around the edge and cut out the word love with a die. I cut 4 more words in some white cardstock and set everything aside.

I stamped the Happy Anniversary sentiment with Versamark on some lustre gold card and heat embossed with white detail embossing powder.

Then I made a US A2 size horizontal top folding card base in smooth white cardstock and started to build my card.

I glued the central piece in the middle of my card and then popped up the frame around the edge with some foam tape.
I glued all the layers of my word together, finishing with the stamped and watercoloured layer on the top. I then glued these stacked letters back into my background in the spaces cut out by the die (do make sure you keep any little pieces like the space in the centre of the O when you die cut the word, as you will need to glue those back in to make your card seamless).

I cut my sentiment out and popped that up on my card with some foam tape underneath my camouflaged word die.

I finished off with a few gold and clear sequins.

I used the following items on my card:

Smooth White Cardstock
Hot Pressed Watercolour Cardstock
Versamark Ink
Detail White Embossing Powder

MFT Etched Flower Background Stamp

Gansai Tambi Starry Nights Palette

MFT Pierced Rectangle Frames

MFT Happy Greetings Die Set

MFT Essential Sentiments Stamp Set
Gold Lustre Card Stock
Champagne Sequin Mix

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!

Technique Tuesday #17 Camouflage Die Cuts

Hello!

Today I'm showcasing the technique of camouflage die cuts. This is where you die cut something, usually a word, out of your finished piece, and then put it back but you raise it up a little, sometimes backing it with a colour, to help it stand out a little. Because the word has the same design as it's surroundings it's very subtle, and works well for when you want to add a die cut but don't want it to detract from your design.

First I stamped the MFT Etched Flower background stamp and heat embossed in white, on some watercolour cardstock.

Then I took a couple of my zig markers in Light Grey and Dark Grey and did a little shading.
Once dry I cut it with the largest die from the Blueprints 15 set and then took the MFT Big Hugs die and cut that out. I cut it twice more in white cardstock and glued the layers of letters together.

I made an A2 (US) size card base with plain black cardstock and glued on my painted piece, then I inset the letters and glued them into place.

I heat embossed a sentiment in white on a scrap of black cardstock and cut it out with one of the Stitched  Sentiment Strip dies and popped it up on some thin foam tape.
Finally for the finishing touch I added a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.


Products Used:
Tim Holtz Watercolour Card
Plain Black Cardstock
MFT Etched Flower Background Stamp
MFT Blueprints 15
MFT Big Hugs Die
MFT Stitched Sentiment Strips
MFT Essential Sentiments
Versamark Ink
Detail White Embossing Powder
Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Sequins

That's all for today, I hope my project has inspired you and thank you so much for visiting!

Technique Tuesday - Embossing and DI colouring on Kraft.

Hello!

The other night as I was walking home from the bus stop on what had turned into a nice sunny evening, I had to smile when I saw 2 community police officers on bicycles.

It was lovely to see them and they were pleasant and smiling, but as I passed them I did have to give pause to think......."I wonder if they know they're breaking the law by cycling on the pavement?".

Somewhat ironic.

But nothing to do with today's post, just the kind of random stuff that rattles around in my brain......let's get on with today's post.

Today's technique had me embossing and then colouring with distress inks on Kraft cardstock, something I admit I'd never attempted before. Because I didn't have anything fancy like buff coloured watercolour paper, or Neenah Desert Storm, I had to resort to plain old Bazill Kraft cardstock, which is quite delicate and very easily marked, so in an effort to make things a little easier on myself, I chose to do it in just one colour - Frayed Burlap.

It wasn't too bad actually, although I did err on the side of not adding too much and blending with an almost dry brush. I probably could have gone even darker letting it dry in between, but I really liked the look of it and I didn't want to spoil my hard work lol.

I used MFT's Funky Flower stamp set and matching Die-namics. I stamped quite a few of just the one type of flower plus leaves, and in the end I had enough for 2 cards.

For this 2nd card I switched thinks around and reversed the kraft and white cardstock on the base and frame, cutting a smaller layer of the white.

In the end this was quite a simple technique but I feel it looks really effective.

I've listed what I used below with links where I have them:

Bazill Kraft Cardstock
Smooth White Cardstock
Distress Ink Marker - Frayed Burlap
MFT Funky Flowers Stamp Set
MFT Funky Flowers Die-namics
MFT Pierced Rectangle Frames
MFT Blueprints 15
MFT Blueprints 20
Detail White Embossing Powder
Little Things from Lucy Jewels - Sparkling Vanilla Mix
Little Things from Lucy - Champagne Sparkly Shaker Selection

That's all from me today, enjoy your day and thanks for visiting!

Technique Tuesday #14 - Mother's Day Hugs

Hello! I'm flying in a little late with my technique Tuesday today because I went down to London to visit with my daughter at the weekend and as I had Monday off I was of course forgetting that today was Tuesday.

Anyway it's a quick post from me as I'm dashing this off in my lunch break at work, but this was the Mother's Day card that I sent to my Mum.

I started by stamping the background with Versamark ink using the  stamp from Simon Says Stamp onto watercolour cardstock and then heat embossing with white embossing powder.

I then used a combination of Worn Lipstick, Aged Mahogany and Victorian Velvet to 'colour in' the circles with my blending tool. Once I'd finished I cleaned up the embossed areas with some absorbent paper and ran the whole piece through my Big Shot with the MFT Snow Drifts cover up die. I cut this out a second time from some smooth white cardstock and used the frame part as a base to inlay the die cut pieces of my background, adhering everything directly to my card base.

I cut the MFT Large Hugs Word Die 3 times from some white cardstock and once more from some lustre cardstock in cherry red, and then stacked and glued the layers of each letter with the red on top.

I stamped the mother's day sentiment from Whimsy Stamps Happy Everything set with Versamark ink on some vellum and heat embossed with gold embossing powder and then die cut it with one of MFT's Stitched Sentiment Strips.

I glued the vellum sentiment strip to my card and layered the HUGS on the top, hiding the glue on the vellum beneath the letters and some sequins, from Little Things by Lucy,  which I used to finish embellishing my card.

I've listed my materials below for you with links where available

Tim Holtz Watercolour Card
Simon Says Stamp - Circle Doodle Background Stamp
Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick, Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany
Smooth White Cardstock
Cherry Red Lustre Cardstock
MFT Snow Drifts Cover Up Dienamics
MFT Big Hugs Dienamics
Rose Gold Sparkly Shaker Collection

That's all from me today, hopefully my craft/guest room project will be finished by the weekend and I can get back to normal making and posting.

Thanks for visiting!

Technique Tuesday #13

Hello!

Tuesday has rolled around again and isn't this year just whizzing by?

My Techniques on show today include emboss resist, ink blending, and die-cut layering and I do have to say that I'm a little in love with the way this one turned out.

So, what did I do to make this?

Firstly I used a fab background stamp from My Favorite Things (I've listed everything used below for you, with links where I have them), and stamped with Versamark ink on some watercolour card stock.

I love using watercolour cardstock for my ink blending even when there isn't going to be any water involved as it always blends much more easily. I prepared my cardstock before stamping with my anti static powder tool.

Then I sprinkled on some fine detail white embossing powder and heated until all the powder was melted and shiny.

Then I got to work with my distress inks and blending tools. The colours I used were:

Blueprint Sketch, Picked Raspberry, Cracked Pistachio and Twisted Citron.

I took care to blot a lot of the colour off of the blending tool onto some scratch paper before adding the ink to the embossed cardstock, to make sure that whilst colours I used were bright, they had a more subtle effect. I also really blended them out with the last colour (Twisted Citron) almost blending into white at the end. The Picked Raspberry was blended right over the top of the Blueprint Sketch to turn the blue into much more of a violet colour.

Once I was happy with my blending I wiped the whole lot over with a paper towel to clean and brighten the white embossing. I didn't add any water or white acrylic paint this time as I was going to be doing some layering and I wanted the rest of the blending to show fully.

I cut my finished piece using the largest die from Blueprints 15 and mounted that directly to my card base (5.5" x 4.25").

Then I cut a piece of vellum using the Jumbo Fishtail Banner STAX and set that aside. I used the because die from the Because You set to cut out the word because in some beautiful specialty cardstock from Papermill Direct. I love how this Sparkle Cardstock just has little pieces of glitter embedded rather than being in your face glittery, not that there's anything wrong with in your face glitter mind you, just sometimes it's nice to have a subtler approach for a softer card. I didn't layer my word to be thicker today as it was already going to be layered on other things.
I stamped a greeting from the same set in Vesrfine Ink Onyx Black, on smooth white card stock and cut it to size, angling one end. I also cut 2 small hearts from that glittery cardstock using the heart die that comes with Blueprints 15.
Once I had everything I needed I set about layering it all together. I popped the vellum up on some foam tape, hiding the tape behind the heart and the sentiment strip and overlapped the strip slightly with the die cut word. I popped the other heart up in the lower right corner to give the card a little balance and then finished off with a few  sequins from Lucy's Pale Pistachio mix.
Making this card actually made my heart happy because I love the end result! I hope you do too.

Products Used

Smooth White Cardstock
MFT Wavy Coloring Book Background Stamp
MFT Blueprints 15
Versamark Ink
Fine Detail White Embossing Powder
Distress Ink Pads (I used minis) in Blueprint Sketch, Picked Raspberry, Cracked Pistachio and Twisted Citron
Heavyweight Vellum
MFT Because You stamp and die set
Versafine Ink Onyx Black
Tea Rose Sparkle Cardstock
Pale Pistachio Sparkly Shaker Selection from Little Things from Lucy
If you are in the UK or Europe, you can buy all of the MFT products from Dies to Die for
Tool and Basic Supplies

Big Shot Die-cutting Machine
Adhesive
Scissors
Foam Tape
Scoring board and Bone Folder (for card base)
Tweezers
Anti static Tool

Thanks for visiting!

Technique Tuesday #12 Stenciled Background

Hello!

I'm coming in with my Technique Tuesday a little later today as it's also my card for
Deep Ocean Challenge's new theme of 

Dots and/or Stripes. 

As you can see I went for Dots, although since I cut through the card horizontally and added a coloured background, it does also have a single Stripe too.

To make my card I fir cut a piece of smooth white cardstock, 5.5 x 8.5 inches and folded it in half to make a horizontal top folding card.

Thank I took a piece of the same cardstock and cut that a quarter of an inch smaller on the length and width and taped that to my craft mat with some post it tape.

I used the Circle Dots Stencil from Simon Says Stamp and taped that down over my cardstock, and then stenciled through with my Clarity Brushes and some blue and turqouise tones from my Distress inks.

I stamped a sentiment from the You Matter Stamp Set from Simon Says Stamp, with Versamark ink on some green lustre cardstock, and then heat embossed with white detail embossing powder. I cut the green cardstock to size and adhered it to my cardbase and then adhered my 2 pieces of stenciled cardstock overlapping this with some foam tape, taking care to keep my sentiment visible.

I cut the word You, with the Simon Says Stamps You wafer thin die, 3 times in white cardstock and then once in the green lustre, and stacked and glued them together. I placed this carefully on my card and adhered with some Multi Medium Matte.

Finally I added some sequins from Lucy to finish.

Smooth White Cardstock
Spring Green Lustre Cardstock
SSS You Matter Stamp Set
SSS You Wafer Die
SSS Falling for You Circle Dots Stencil
Distress Inks in Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio and Peacock Feathers
Selection of sequins from Lucy's Shop

I do hope you can join in with our fun challenge this week, check out the blog for the prize on offer and don't forget to stop and admire my lovely teamie's gorgeous makes!

Thanks for dropping by

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.

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 #7 Distress Ink Blended Sunset

Hello! I hope you had a great start to your week.

I'm back today with another Technique Tuesday and this time I used some Distress Ink blending to create a sunset effect on 2 cards.

Isn't that effect awesome? Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that I love Kay Fatula's beautiful butterfly embellishments, I have lots in a box but I can't always manage to find the right space on my cards for them. Well I knew that would just be perfect for this, so I happily dug them out of storage to use here.

I used 3 colours of Distress Ink here and I'll admit that I got so excited at how well this turned out that I forget to note the colours. There was a yellow that may have been Fossilized Amber and an Orange that was Carved Pumpkin, but I can't remember exactly the pink colour, I'm actually thinking that it may have been Candied Apple, which is a red but if used lightly it is more of a reddish pink, pinkish orange tone, or it may have been worn lipstick, but really you just need a pink/red, a yellow and an orange colour that work together.

I built the colour up gradually with my ink blending tools, on some cold pressed watercolour paper. This will give you a textured effect so you may prefer to use smooth paper, I quite like the added texture and I personally find that you can use a much lighter touch when using the cold pressed watercolour paper as the ink transfers very easily and lightly without leaving harsh lines which makes it super easy to blend dry. I blended the pink into the orange into the yellow for a natural blend. I then flicked some drops of water over the page and let it sit for a few moments before blotting with a piece of kitchen roll. Then I lightly flicked some white acrylic paint over.

Once fully dry I then stamped the Flight of the Butterflies stamp with Vesrafine ink in Onyx Black. I masked some of the stamping and restamped to get a bigger flight of butterflies. I used my MISTI stamping tool to help me do this more easily. I stamped one of the single butterfly stamps from the set into one of the spaces.

Then I gave everything a liberal spritz of Glimmer Mist, I do this over a sink so I create minimal mess.

Once dry I cut the finished piece into 2 strips (2 cards for the price of one, who doesn't love a bargain?), and trimmed the top and bottom so they would fit on my card bases, and then mounted them on some thin black cardstock so that you see a narrow strip of black on either side, this really helps it stand out on my white card base and pulls in the black from the stamping, both on the blended strip and the white card base.

For this card I stamped the Life is like a Butterfly sentiment directly onto my card using my MISTI to get just the right position, then I adhered the strip to my card and glued on this gorgeous butterfly from Kay with some Multi Medium Matte from Ranger. Finally I used some orange enamel dots from the Whimsy Summer Breeze set and some black enamel dots I had in my stash for ages. I think it looks really striking.

For my second card I decided to use the panel on the other side of the card,  I stamped the Thinking of You sentiment from the set with Black Versafine ink and then adhered my panel. I used this beautiful 'glass' butterfly embellishment from Kay and then I cut a few tiny butterflies from a scrap of the blended cardstock and the thin back card using a die from Memory Box. For the inked butterflies I used a little Wink of Stella to give them some added sparkle but I left the black ones matte. I glued all the butterflies down with some Multi Medium Matte.

Items Used:

Mini Distress Ink Pads
Blending Tools
Plain White Cardstock
Plain Black Cardstock
Cold Pressed Watercolour Paper
White Acrylic Paint

Whimsy Stamps Flight of the Butterflies Clear Stamp Set
Versafine Ink Onyx Black
Whimsy Summer Breeze Enamel Dots

Memory Box Dancing Butterflies Die
Butterfly Embellishments

I hope you liked today's Technique Tuesday and that it gave you some inspiration. I really enjoyed creating these and am thrilled with how they turned out.

Thanks for visiting and I'll see you soon!

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!

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.

Technique Tuesday #4 - Negative Die Cuts

Hello!

Dashing in with a Technique Tuesday and this one is super simple and something I've had a brief play with before.

Negative Die Cuts.

Now last week I mentioned getting more use out of your dies by using them to deboss, this is another way to really get more value from your dies. Not every die you have will work for this, you'll want something that has a reasonable amount of detail in the outline, but isn't too detailed on the inside as all that will just be lost. However, some detailed or filigree dies can also work well as negative die cuts even though you lose the interior detail, because they have a good shape anyway.

Basically you will want something with a clear outline where it's obvious from the outline what it is.

For this example I used a Christmas tree. Other good dies for Christmas cards like this might include snowflakes, stars, baubles, crackers, deer etc.

I used an old Magnolia die as this is actually the only Christmas tree die I own, hmm I guess I should correct that soon. But anyway it worked very well for this.  This was actually a super quick and easy card to put together. Normally I would have embossed the stars and sentiment, but I could not find my gold embossing powder, (a hint to tidy my craft space perhaps?), so I just went with some lovely metallic gold ink instead.

The paper is from a Lemoncraft Christmas pad but almost any seasonal, (and many non seasonal), patterned paper would work well with this I think.

The sentiment is from the Mama Elephant Jingle Greetings set, the ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl and the small chipboard stars are from Make it Crafty

I hand cut the panel of white card, but would probably use a stitched rectangle die next time.

This would be a great card for quickly batch producing for your Christmas needs, you can change up the papers, ribbon and sentiment to make them a little different.

That's all from me today, but I have a fair few Christmas cards to share before the 25th so I'll be back with you soon.

Technique Tuesday #3 Debossing with Dies

** Well this should have gone live this morning. Note to self, when scheduling a post, make doubly sure you hit publish when you're done! But it's still Tuesday, so better late then never right?!**

Hello!

Sorry there was no technique Tuesday last week, I did have something lined up, but then I came down with the leurgy lol.

Anyway today I have a Christmas card (yup, still plenty of these to come), made using a simple technique that adds extra use to your dies.

I took a piece of medium to heavy plain cardstock and placed the 3 snowflake dies from Whimsy Stamps Layered Snowflake Set in the top left corner of the piece of cardstock. If you aren't too sure of your positioning, you could use a bigger piece of cardstock and just trim it to size afterwards.

To deboss you just need to use an embossing mat between the cardstock and the cutting plate when you run your sandwich though your die-cutting machine. Make sure you get the spacing right or the dies will start to cut through the paper anyway, particularly if your dies are sharp. 

Once I had my debossed pattern, I stamped a sentiment on the cardstock using a stamp from Mama Elephant's Jingle Greetings set, using my Misti (love my Misti for getting the placement of sentiments just right), and some silver ink. I wanted to emboss this greeting ideally, but I couldn't find my anti static tool anywhere (note to self, must tidy my craft space!). 

I made an A2 size card base from white cardstock and cut a piece of silver mirri card I found in my stash a quarter of an inch smaller than my cardbase and adhered that on top of my base.

I added a thin piece of silver organza ribbon and a tiny bow to my top layer before adding that to my base with some foam tape to pop it up a little. Finally I added 3 clear gems to the snowflakes to give it a little sparkle.

I think it turned out quite elegant and sophisticated for a simple card.

What do you think?

Technique Tuesday #2 - Embossed & Blended Background with Embossing on Vellum

Morning!

It's Tuesday again and I have another of my experiments for you. Well this is a combo of technique experiments really.

Firstly I took a piece of heavy watercolour paper and blended 3 different blue/green distress inks and gave them a good wash of water to fade them out and blend them nicely. After drying I gave a little spritz with a Linday's Starburst Spray in Sea Mint Green and then dabbed it with some kitchen towel to lift the colour. This still leaves behind the shimmer and gives a lovely effect that I couldn't quite manage to show up on camera.

After drying it off again I ran it through my machine inside an old embossing folder that I've had for ages and never really used, but I thought it worked rather nicely for this.

I stamped a sentiment with Versamark ink on a piece of vellum using the Mama Elephant - Jingle Greetings Clear stamp Set, and then embossed with white embossing powder.

I adhered the strip to the embossed panel just on the edges and then covered the edges with a frame cut using the Whimsy Stamps Shaker Builder Die

Finally I mounted it with some foam tape on a little turquoise cardstock then stuck the whole thing to a white card base and added a few clear sequins to embellish.

I really enjoyed making the whole thing and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  One more Christmas card ticked off of the list!

See you soon!

Technique Tuesdays - Pink Poinsettias

Hello!

Are you intrigued by the title of this post? Well during my 'quiet' time following my Dad passing away, when I wasn't crafting or posting much, I got very interested at looking at various different techniques on Pinterest and YouTube.

I also have to give a bit of a heads up and thanks to Alanna, my fellow Design Team member from Whimsy Stamps, as she kind of kick started me into looking into these with her fab class at the Whimsy Stamps Craft Retreat.

So I thought I would invite you to join me on my crafty Journey and try out a new technique or a different way of using a technique/s each Tuesday. 

Now I don't promise that I'll never miss a Tuesday, because as we all know, life sometimes gets in the way of crafting and blogging, but I will certainly try my best.

Also in the main, these techniques are going to be new to me, so don't expect a perfect finish, but I thought you might enjoy seeing me try some new things.

So the first technique I'm going to be showcasing today is watercolouring with white embossed outlines. This gives a lovely effect as there are no harsh black lines and you can do this with your regular character stamps, but as I'm stepping firmly outside of my comfort zone with these I thought I would use a stamp set to make a background around a stamped and embossed sentiment.

So first I took a piece of watercolour paper and stamped the Peace & Joy sentiment from Whimsy's Joyous Holiday clear set with Versamark Ink and then used some gold embossing power and heated that with my heat gun.

Once I had my central focal point I took the poinsettia and holly leaf stamps from the same set and stamped those fairly randomly around my sentiment, again using Versamark ink, but this time using white embossing powder.

For best results just stamp a couple at a time and emboss before moving on to the next, or you may find you get in a bit of a mess.

Once everything was embossed I took some Picked Raspberry and Lucky Clover distress ink, and painted all the flowers and leaves, adding a little Festive Berries distress ink to the centre of the flowers and to the holly berries. I was very rough an dready with my colouring, I didn't get too fancy or fussy about it i just wanted to add some quick colour.

Once everything was dry I cut my panel down to    and mounted on some bright pink card stock cut a quarter of an inch bigger and then mounted the whole thing on a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card base.

To finish off I added some Wink of Stella to the petals and a few enamel dots.

Materials Used

Water colour paper
Distress Inks in Lucky Clover, Picked Raspberry and Festive Berries.
Plain white card stock.
Bright pink card stock.
Whimsy Stamps Clear Joyous Holiday Set
Versamark Ink
Gold Embossing Powder
White Embossing Powder
Whimsy Summer Breeze Enamel Dots
Wink of Stella Brush Pen in Clear

I entered this card in the In the Pink Challenge #107 Winter

There you have it! Do let me know what you think, I'm quite pleased with the way this turned out and will certainly try this technique again.

Happy crafting!