Month: February 2019

Colourful City Scapes

Hi there. Another card for you today – totally outside my comfort zone:

I received this stamp set from the sale of stash Justine Hovey was having. Concord and 9th City Scapes. Not a stamp and die set I had really thought of, as I struggle with scenes, and still find them very difficult to layer and get right.

When I saw the colours for the current Color Throwdown Challenge, I decided that now was the time to use this set………..and to create a card with a more masculine feel with these colours.

I used Distress Oxide in three purple colours for the background – no water splatters this time.

The main stamps were heat embossed in grey as I knew I wanted a distressed water-colour effect for the buildings – using Altenew water-colour pan set for the grey colour, and the rusty hinge Distress Oxide for the – well – rust colour in the house windows.

The sentiment is cobbled together from a couple of stamp sets, and heat embossed in white, on the grey die cut tree layer. I didn’t stamp the trees – I just drew a black line within the images with a black gel pen.

My difficulty was the layers – were to place them, how to place them, how to stick them down – all took a whole load of thinking and sorting out – some die-cuts were put to one side for another day………..kinda!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – rust, purple, grey, white

Daring Cardmakers – card for a male

QKR Stampede – anything goes

The Male Room Challenge – anything goes for a male with a twist of no designer papers

Find Beauty in the Simple Things

Hello again. Another session in my craft room today. I have one card I am still working on, and this card:

We’ve had some sun here in the UK for the past few days – quite warm during those sunny spells – and I managed to take a photo where I prefer to – in the sun in the back garden.

This card is using a stamp set from Uniko – currently having free world-wide shipping on orders over £30!! Wow!! (I believe that ends at 8am GMT 25/02/19) Seeing that offer, gave me the idea to use one of Bev’s stamps for this card.

The colour scheme is for the current challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches – Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron and Daffodil Delight; the layout is for the current challenge at AAA Cards – CAS one corner with optional twist of ‘music‘ – obviously not following the optional twist – and Addicted to Stamps and More, who are looking for a CAS card.

Now – back to try and finish my other card, currently drying following some water-colouring…………. 🙂

Wild animals and orange flower

Hi there. I have a couple of cards to share with you today. The first is inspired by the current challenge at The Rainbow Card Challenge – I am more than stoked that I was the winner for the first challenge 🙂 – with the theme this time being orange:

I used the orange range of inks from Altenew and their ‘Japanese Mum‘ stamp and die set. The green inks are also Altenew, and I am a fan and firm believer in their first green inks release,using them virtually 99% of the time.

The background die is from MFT, the ‘Star Grid Cover Up‘ using some orange card from my stock, and matted and layered as you see. I haven’t added a sentiment………I couldn’t actually think of one or find one that I could put onto this card, without spoiling the look of it…..so I’m going to put a little verse and words on the inside – when I find some I like!

This second card is inspired from the current theme at Cardz 4 Guyz with their current theme being ‘wild animals’:

Well, actually, I made two cards:

As you can see – some wild animals having a group hug – which is what this Waffle Flower stamp set is called – ‘Group Hug‘. They may not look particularly wild to you and me – but I think they will fit into the theme nicely.

I added the hat and sun-glasses to the first image, so a little more masculine slant.

And – you may ask – why orange again? Well – I had just completed the first card above, and had the card stock out, and went a little ‘wild’ with the colours for the animals, and felt these backgrounds suited quite well. Vibrant and colourful – kinda what I was after.

I haven’t put a sentiment on this second card either……working on that one!

I enjoyed colouring this image – to a certain degree. I don’t find colouring particularly relaxing, I don’t enjoy spending oodles of time doing it. I get to a certain stage, then I find I am rushing to get it finished, then I make mistakes which I can’t correct, then get disheartened, then frustrated……….sheesh……walk away from the colouring, Lynda! Walk away!

It seems crafting is a school of learning, constantly learning new techniques, and also the psychology of crafting and card-making? Blinking Heck! I think there should be a degree course – at least – at University for studying that phenomenon!

I hope you’re having a good weekend – or middle of the week if you’re reading this later – and I’ll catch you later. HUGS 🙂

Amazing you…

Hello again. I have a card to share, taking inspiration from a couple of challenges:

I actually have no idea how this card came together! I was sat in my craft room, having just received a delivery from Seven Hills Crafts, holding the Altenew ‘Leafy Garland’ die, wanting to use that die for the card, and trying to decide how to use it.

I cut it out of white card, just to get a feel of it, and this card just kinda happened……

I took the Concord and 9th ‘Blooms Fill-in’ stamp set, and after stamping the background of the stamp in red, I then used ‘Rockin Red’ embossing powder on top to give some shine and glimmer:

I used pink to stamp the inner part of the flowers, not adding any of the extra detail for the images – though there are loads provided with this stamp set. The colours for this challenge are red, white, and pink.

I then cut a white tag, die-cut a smaller tag from the stamped ‘Blooms fill-in‘ piece of card, played with a placement of three of the die-cut leafy garlands – and there we have it.

I decided on a black background because it highlighted the garland die-cuts, so for the sentiment – using a Uniko sentiment – took a piece of black card, and white heat embossed it.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Just Us Girls – red, white, pink

Try It On Tuesday – powders (embossing powder used)

Happy Everything

Hey there. One card to past today – but that doesn’t mean that I won’t have more to share later in the week – they are in the process of being created. This is a card in contrast to the most recent floral, cute cards:

I recently received the Uniko release package – that darned ‘buy it all’ button just got pressed – somehow – someway – not sure how it happened – but I was pleased when they arrived very, very quickly, and took them to my craft table, actually tidying my table and clearing stuff away – just so I could concentrate on these little beauties.

I used the colours from Color Throwdown – dark pink, grey, black, and the current challenge at Daring Cardmakers absolutely fits the bill – letters, words, numbers as the main feature.

Initially, I was thinking floral with these colours, but when I saw these dies, and that one die cuts the word out, and another cuts out the word but slightly larger to get a shadow – I just had to use the word and the colours for this card.

I also used the new Uniko geometric stencil to emboss the white piece of card – I think you can tell (ish) – just for some added detail which wasn’t too intrusive and certainly didn’t take away from the two words.

Embossing a stencil – well, that took a few attempts! I cudda gone to the internet, but I kept putting it through the machine in all ways until it worked. If you ask me which way now – I couldn’t tell you! Something I can never remember, and usually takes me a few attempts – but it works in the end.

I hope you are feeling well today, and I’ll catch you soon. 🙂

Robots and Bears

Hi again. I have had a crafting marathon today, and made several cards, inspired by several different challenges.

Here is my first card for the current challenge at CASology, with the cue word being ‘wave’:

I used the new stamp and die set from Heffy Doodle called ‘Bots of Love’ stamped, then coloured with Copics, then die cut. The word is die cut from a spare piece of water-colour card I had from a previous card posting, using the Altenew Bold Alphabet dies. Using this spare piece of water-colour card, meant I matched the colour of the robot – an orange robot? I think it works..

This second card is taking inspiration from the current challenge at The Card Concept and the large red cushion, and the colours of red and grey; using the layout from the current sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches; and the cue word or theme from Inkspirational – ‘Text‘:

The background text heart is stamped in a Simon Says Stamp grey ink using the stamp from Concord and 9th ‘Cuddles and Hugs‘ stamp set – I’ve had this for ages, and never really used it that much, but I think it works for the text in the heart, and as a lovey-dovey background.

The bear is from MFT ‘Joyful Heart Bears’ from Stacey Yacula – again, a stamp and die set I’ve had for a while and never used, coloured with Copics. The sentiment is from Uniko, and their latest release.

This third card is using the same stamp set, again coloured with Copics, with the stripey background another Uniko recent release:

This card will be entering the following challenges:

As You See It Challenge – when I think of simple I think of………..’CAS card’

Addicted to Stamps – anything but a square

It seems I’m on a roll here, so I am sure I will be back soon…….. 🙂

Orange Wild rose

Hello again everyone. I have spent a lot of time in my craft room today, as an escape and a ‘take your mind off’ kinda day. I mentioned I had a poorly cat a couple of weeks ago – Spike – well overnight I took him to the vets, and had to make the decision to let him go. 😦

He has been with us for almost 15 years, a humongous black cat, but the time was right. We lost his brother last year, after a short illness, so at least we can put them both together when we get dear Spike back. We do have two other cats, which we bought to keep Spike company last year, so they are getting really, really spoiled today!

Crafting for me has always been a release, an escape, and a time for me to relax and concentrate on what I am doing at that point. I use crafting as a stress reliever, and sometimes just going and splashing some water-colour down on some card, colouring a little small image, adding some double-sided sticky sheet to some card ready for when I might need it again, is all it takes.

These cards are made using Brusho crystals on water-colour card, and die cutting the Altenew ‘3D Wild Rose‘ die set – once it had dried, of course:

Before I stuck the layers together, I splashed a little Winsor and Newton black water-colour onto them. I have splashed in the past, but this time I wanted actual ‘blackness’, not too watered-down. I also added some black Nuvo drops too.

The background is the Altnew ‘Cozy Flannel Cover Die‘, removing the larger white squares, but leaving the smaller pieces in the die cut. This was a little easier than thought it was going to be…….

The sentiment is also from an Altenew stamp set, and kept on a plain white strip so it doesn’t take away from the rose and leaves too much.

Here are the other versions:

and two waiting for me to add a sentiment:

I shall be entering one of these cards into the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenges – all about occasions

Altenew February Challenge – picture inspiration – inspired by a single flower

Angelique Happy Day

Hi everyone. I have a card to share which looks simple, but took me quite a while to decide on my design:

I combined a couple of challenges for inspiration. The colour scheme is from the current challenge at Less Is More, to use navy and yellow, and the also the current Flower Challenge, to use my latest stamps and dies.

I bought this Altenew Angelique Motifs stamp and die set from Seven Hills Crafts, and stamped all the images, which included the flowers, stems, and separate leaves. I was going to use the most gorgeous stems for this card, but went with the flower itself, and added some of the individual leaves as you see here.

The yellow stripes are a cut down piece of card using Concord and 9th Sketched Stripes Background stamp, and Catherine Pooler Limoncello ink. I am sure I will be using this stamp set again in the near future, and like how the blues came out with this flower.

The sentiment is from a Uniko stamp set, and I like how this sentiment can be used for many different occasions, especially when you need a card for no special reason in particular – a just because card.

I was looking through my Uniko stash, as Bev has some fabulous sentiments and stamp sets, and currently has a brand new release going on for the company’s 7th birthday.

And – yes – I bought it all! Couldn’t resist! Her design team really have come up with some brilliant cards………..

Now, I know this is an early posting, and not a scheduled posting either – just up early, getting ready for work, and decided to put this together now instead of later today.

Isn’t crafting fabulous that way? Any time, any place, anywhere……!!

🙂 🙂

Birthday Raccoon

Hi there. I have a confession to make – I think I’m addicted to raccoons……

I don’t suppose it’s a really, really bad addiction, but this is the second card in as many days I’ve posted with a raccoon as the main image.

This is for the Seize The Birthday Challenge, with the theme of birthday with the optional twist of black and white:

I recently received this die set from MFT called ‘Raccoon Cutie’ – and isn’t it named appropriately? I actually made two raccoons – as I cut everything from white, then everything from black, and stuck everything together – but I did have to go to MFT web site to figure each piece out!

The sentiment is also from an MFT stamp set, and I wanted a big and bold sentiment go go with the big and bold raccoon. And – you guessed it – I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on top of the embossed background, which was the Lawn Fawn ‘Quilted Backdrop‘.

Oh well – it certainly adds a certain something – just not sure what! I did think of doing a banner strip, but it just didn’t look right, so I left it as it was.

The other addition – googly eyes. I have had these for a while and just never got around to using them – here was my chance……..you can see on the white raccoon version where I put the eyes in a different place to what is outlined on the actual die – but I didn’t see that until I took the photo – who knew? 🙂

Friendly Raccoons

Hi again. Another weekend ahead for me to look forward to. I made a card today to enter some challenges:

I wanted this card to be quite simple, but the actually design took some figuring out. I tried colouring some of the hills, ink blending some of the hills, but in the end went with a clean look leaving the background white. I did emboss the little piece which came out – again – but otherwise the only colour is on the little images themselves.

I used MFT ‘Friendly Raccoon‘, coloured simply with Copics. I don’t have the exact colours for the CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge, but I tried to match my Copics to what was wanted. I used Lawn Fawn ‘Stitched Backdrop‘ die as you see, with the little heart being from Concord and 9th ‘Triple Step Thank You‘, and the sentiment from a stamp set sat on my desk, but I’ve no idea who it’s from!

I recently received this stamp and die set, and a whole bunch of goodies, from Justine Hovey. She was selling some of her stock off, and took the opportunity to grab some goodies. The postage was only a little extra to come all the way to the UK, and it only took one week to get here.

When I opened the package I was absolutely gob-smacked with the amount of stuff she had put in there. Blinking heck! Concord and 9th, MFT, Spellbinders, Gina K, Gerda Steiner……….and I have not got a single one of them already. Even one of my cats was impressed:

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Always Fun Challenges – anything goes

CAS Colours and Sketches – lovely lipstick, gray granite, powder pink

Watercooler Challenges – anything goes feminine

Addicted To Stamps – make your mark