Month: January 2018

Encouraging cat

20180106_104624

20180106_104613

Hello there – again! I said I would be able to find some time to play this weekend. These two cards – just varied in orientation – was inspired by a few challenges. I was able to merge several challenges together with this card – how lucky am I?

The colours were inspired by Color Throwdown, the layout by a sketch from Atlantics Heart Challenge, the sentiment from CASology, and using die cuts from Pause, Dream, Enjoy challenge and 4 Crafty Chicks. Phew…….

I did wonder what I could make using those three colours, but the inspiration from the design team is amazing, and really – there doesn’t seem to be any limits with these colours – from flowers to birds, to winter, to abstract. Great inspiration from the team.

I went with cats as I have two black cats, and whilst I was reading, having a coffee, and stroking one of my cats – my Altenew Modern Cats stamp and die set came to mind.

I was thinking that perseverance and encouragement are exactly what a cat is all about. So, my take on the CASology cue word – keep working at it, whatever it is. I encourage you to play and work hard, and not to lose sight of what your end goal is – ‘don’t quit your day dream’! (end of philosophy!)

Not even finishing the chapter – I went straight to my craft room and created these cards.

The base card is Narwahl from Lawn Fawn, and I die cut a Reverse Confetti ‘Squared Off’ cover panel using Creative Expressions ivory looking card. As I wanted a grey border around the cover panel, I then carefully placed my Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die over it – just to take a little bit of an edge off.

The cat and ball of wool were stamped with Versafine black onyx, and die cut with the matching die set. I did have to put a white dot for the eyes with a white gel pen. I set them to one side, then stamped the sentiment from Altenew ‘Painted Inspiration’, before thinking about placement.

I did the two cards, as I wasn’t convinced which one I preferred. Portrait? Landscape? Does anyone have an opinion on that?

I think my preference is the portrait one………we should have a vote!

As I mentioned, I will be entering into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – grey, black, ivory

Atlantics Heart Challenge – sketch

CASology – cue word ‘Encourage’

Pause, Dream, Enjoy challenge – use die cuts

4 Crafty Chicks – anything goes with dies/punches

 

Simple sparkle

Hello again everyone. I have some time this weekend to do some crafting, and have put together these cards. I started to make these earlier in the week, and finally managed to complete them this morning.

The stamp set is from Uniko, one of their new stamp sets, and this time I have used the bud images from that set. After stamping with Versafine black onyx, I went in with my Polychromos to colour them, and even though they are quite small images, I still managed to give some dimension and blending to the flowers themselves.

I stamped the sentiment in black onyx too, as I like bold sentiments which stand out.

I then took a small piece of green glitter card from Crafters Companion, and die cut a strip from a Catherine Pooler collection I have, adding that for some added extra for a clean and simple piece of sparkle.

I am playing around with ways to photograph my cards, and these images came about as I have been putting my Christmas decorations on my table, and saw that this gorgeous plate – a Christmas present from a very dear friend – was just sat there, with some twig lights around it, looking all pretty……so I placed the cards on it.

I like how these turned out, and may have to keep the set-up for future cards.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Cards – CAS sparkle

Use Your Stuff – anything goes

QKR Stampede – anything goes

As You Like It – anything goes

Moving along with the times – flowers

 

 

 

 

Only stamping

20171231_120711

Hello again, and a Happy New Year to everyone. I hope the year is off to a good start for you.

I have been in my craft room for a couple of hours, and playing again with stamping and blending. This card was inspired by the current challenge at Inkspirational, with the challenge to use stamping only, and Time Out, with the theme of ‘New beginnings’. I have translated this loosely – a new beginning for someone whose birthday is today……a mixture of a new year for them, as well as a new year for all of us.

I still had my Uniko and Stamps By Me collection on my craft table, along with my Distress Oxides, and this is what I came up with.

The base card is 8 inches square, and the first thing I did was to stamp the ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiment. The same sentiment as yesterday, quite large, and I wanted it to be the focal point of the card.

After stamping in Versafine Black Onyx, and heat setting it in clear embossing powder, I then set about stamping my leaves etc for the back ground. I did set off originally with only stamping around the sentiment, masking it off with some ‘post it’ notes, but I carried on stamping and stamping until I had covered most of the background – large leaves first, using an Altenew green ink, and the leaves from the new Uniko ‘Pure Florals: Rose’.

I then took some smaller stamps from Uniko ‘Originally Organic’ and a small star from ‘Reach for the Stars’ – also Uniko – to fill in the spaces. For this I also used some brown Altenew inks.

Once I had completed the background, I felt the sentiment was a little too open and stark, so I masked the area around it and went in with my Distress Oxides, blending to leave the centre of the word a little brighter. I think I used Twisted Citron – or it could have been Fossilised Amber……! Hmmmm – does anyone else forget what they used when they are all on your craft table? :)