Month: April 2019

Turquoise Butterfly

Hello again. I have a card to share today, but it took me ages to find a suitable butterfly. I can’t believe I have so few butterflies in my stash – and I couldn’t actually find more than a couple of stamps, but I found this old Spellbinders butterfly die-set – which absolutely suited what I wanted to do.

I purposely took a wider photo – so you could the pheasants in the background – just above the butterfly. This next photo has another female off on her food hunting travels:

Back to the card………I found the butterfly die-set, and then looked everywhere for a turquoise ink, pen, marker, card – you name it – I hunted. Again, it took a while, but in the end I used a Copic Marker to colour a piece of ‘Make It colour blending card’ I ordered from Marker Geek – this is soooo smooth, and colours and blends beautifully.

I die-cut the butterfly, then thought about the card base….and thought….then realised I had a delivery of the new Stamps By Me die sets just sitting there waiting to be opened. So – this is one of the dies. A huge die – I mean huge – 8 inches square…..three passes in my Big Shot Pro – despite a shim (should have used the Gemini!!) and I stuck this down to a white card base.

The sentiment is from Visible Image – a stamp set full of encouraging sentiments I have been longing to use – and I think it suits a butterfly perfectly. I stamped the sentiment in a Lawn Fawn grey, as I thought a black would be too much.

A little close up:

The butterfly is only stuck down by the centre body area – the wings just floating there.

I shall be entering this into the following challenges:

CAS on Friday – CAS butterflies

CASology – Turquoise

Make My Monday Challenge – Anything with wings

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Watercolour florals

Hello again. I have another card to share today, featuring water-colouring:

I stamped the Catherine Pooler ‘One in a million mom’ in the bottom corner of a piece of water-colour card, heat embossed, masked it, stamped again, and again a third time to fill in some gaps.

I then used two Catherine Pooler inks to water-colour the flowers and leaves, and added a grey Zig marker for some background. I did less watering down in the middle of each flower, to keep it a little darker, but generally just went for it.

I did originally have the grey going further out, and was going to attached the whole panel to a card front, but I didn’t like how it turned out. So – I took the matching die for the floral spray – then realised I had to do some clever partial die-cutting……nerves of steel today!!

Once I had decided where I wanted to image to be, I stamped and embossed the sentiment on the base card – as I said – nerves of steel!!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crazy for CAS – grey, aqua, peach

Lil Red Wagon – Flora

Case this Sketch – sketch

Crazy for CAS

CAS(E) this Sketch!

CAS buds

Hello again – I think my mojo is back! Back with a vengeance! This card – two cards actually – was inspired by several challenges:

I have had the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches in my head all week. I knew I wanted to go CAS, but couldn’t really get my head around what images to use for this layout.

Then – the new challenge at Less Is More raised it’s head – bingo! I got my images, I had my layout, I knew I wanted CAS – so this is what happened.

Then – I read again that the Less Is More Challenge was for a one layer card. Ooops. As you see above, this card isn’t one layer. So – what’s a crafter to do? I went back up to my craft room, and did another:

This is definitely one layer. I had to change the sentiment, because the ‘Hope’ in the first card is a die-cut. This sentiment is from another stamp set, but all stamps and all inks are from Altenew.

I hope you will forgive the poor lighting – but it’s quite dull here today, and even when the sun does come out – the wind is just too much to be able to take good photographs outside.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Less Is More – one layer card, theme is buds or petals

Always Fun Challenges – CAS

The Alphabet Challenge – ‘C’ for CAS

Grab our button

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Happy Birthday

Hi there again. A breezy and rainy day here in Chesterfield, so I’m able to catch-up with some house stuff – and some crafting, of course. I made this card yesterday, and was waiting for at least a little sunlight to take some photos:

I find I like to create backgrounds with stamps. I find a certain relaxation in filling-in gaps, constantly just stamping and generating a once-off base card. This certainly a change from the black and white card from my last posting – much more colourful.

For this background, I used Catherine Pooler stamps and inks, was kinda going in a geometric pattern, but just going with the flow. Once the background was done, I took a Uniko die sentiment – the word and a slightly bigger one for the outline – and die cut as you see, with the slightly bigger part being in a contrasting colour – navy in this instance – so it would show up a little more.

In hindsight, I could have – probably should have – had a navy layer under the stamped layer, but it still brought a smile to my face.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – yellow, orange, navy, green

Aud Sentiments Challenge – use a happy birthday sentiment

Black and White

Hi there. I’ve been in a weird crafty mood since yesterday – trying things out, not liking what I’ve done, binning things. In the end I walked away from the craft room and went to do other things.

This morning, I settled down to watch some crafty TV, some of which I had already taped, and decided to try again. I first took a look at some challenges out there, and the first to catch my eye was the colour scheme for this card:

I knew I wanted to use more of the Thirsty Brush and Co stamp and die sets, and wondered how they would look in black and white. I must admit I like this – so I made another using the reverse effect:

Thank goodness for challenges – for giving inspiration. I am also glad I don’t tend to tidy or pack away new items until I have used them in some way.

I used a Sue Wilson die set for the base card and trellis effect. The Carnation Stamp and die set from Thirsty Brush and Co – which included the sentiments, and the two sets of dies for teach sentiment – I just swapped the black and white borders around.

Hopefully, my little crafty hump has gone……..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Double D Challenge – Black and White

Watercooler Challenge – occasions (congratulations/you did it)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Moving Along With The Times – flowers

Ribbon Trim Toucan card

Hi there everyone. I have a card to share with you today for my first challenge as member of the Card4Galz Design Team. This challenge is run every 2 weeks and has a theme for each challenge. This new challenge is to use ribbon or lace trim.

Now – I don’t tend to make cards with ribbon or lace, so it was a challenge to me – but I managed! I actually had several ideas, and came to this card:

I used the new Catherine Pooler stamp and die sets, and the Catherine Pooler designer paper. The front of these paper packs come with a list of the inks which matched – such a good idea – so I picked the paper I wanted, went through my stack of inks – and stamped the images out.

After die cutting them with the matching dies, I looked how to arrange them. I turned to Lawn Fawn for their stitched circles, as I wanted a template to arrange the flowers – almost like a wreath.

Now to the ribbon………I didn’t have any that matched, but I remember a technique on one of Catherine Pooler’s videos, where she ran the ink pad along a plain white ribbon – and it coloured the ribbon! So I did that, and ended up with matching ribbon in the three colours I had stamped the images with.

I hope you can join us at Cardz4Galz and the ribbon or lace challenge this week. I look forward to seeing you there. 🙂

Safari time

Hi everyone. I have another card to share today. It was going to be two cards, but I messed up the second card so much – I ended up having stern words with myself and binned it! Just one of those things….and it just kept happening, but I managed to persuade myself this card was alright:

I took a piece of card and masked off the outer two long edges, leaving the centre open, and ink blended three Distress Oxides.

Once that had dried, I took the a mixture of stamps from Hero Arts ‘Safari Huge Thanks‘ and ‘Safari Wild About You‘ and stamped them as you see with Catherine Pooler Midnight ink.

I had to stamp each image a couple of times to get them crisp, but it was worth it – until I came to the sentiment. The last thing on the card, the final thing I had to do…………..and the card moved between the first and second stamping. Despite using my Misti, despite using my magnets in my Misti!!!! It really wasn’t my day……..

It gave two images of the sentiment, so I swore a little, I went downstairs, I made a coffee, I then went back upstairs and stamped again – at least four times – to make the sentiment look as though it had a shadow. It almost looks like it’s hovering there in the air – almost!

Anyhoo – I still like the card, I like the black images against the colours of Distress Oxides. I actually Googled what ‘Hakuna Matata‘ means – and it is ‘no problem‘ or ‘no troubles‘ – well………I have taken that to heart with this card.

So if the sentiment looks hovering and shadowed…….no problem! Hakuna Matata! 🙂 🙂

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Case This Sketch – sketch

Stinkin’ Inkers – Use a tree

Dragonfly Dreams – Include an animal

CASology – Africa

A Blog Named Hero – CAS

ChallengeCleanSimple

Glitter Christmas trees

Hello again. There is a new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is – as always – anything goes for Christmas.

Here is my card using my new purchase of the Stampin Up ‘Winter woods‘ stamp and die set:

It seemed really strange taking this picture in the bright sunshine, but at least you get to see the glitter card I used:

I used a Stampin Up DSP I have had for ages as the background, then die cut some Crafters Companion glitter card for the snow bank. Both sets of trees are also die cut from the same glitter card. The sentiment from that same stamp set, heat embossed with white embossing powder, then again heat embossed with some sparkly white embossing powder. I find this double embossing gives a better result.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge, and there is some fabulous inspiration from the design Team. I look forward to seeing you there.

Lynda XX

Vintage Cut Rose

Hello there, everyone. I have a couple of cards to share with you today, with the only difference between the two is the colour of the embossing, and the colour of the flower itself:

A little close-up of the gold embossing:

I used a new stamp set to me, the Thirsty Brush and Co ‘Vintage Cut Rose‘. I didn’t know it was a rose when I did it, but looked at the web site for the name of the stamp set when putting this post together.

I wanted to play with my water-colours so I stamped and embossed the image – one gold and one black – then took my Altenew water-colour pan set and played.

I didn’t want the flower colours to be one colour, so I did the blue and purple for one flower, and red, orange and yellow for the other. The leaves are a combination of three greens – I think – but I was just playing.

Previously I have been scared about mixing colours to not get brown (!!) Still playing and practising…………..

The panel is die-cut with one of my favourite Catherine Pooler die sets, and the background paper on each is from my stash of Stampin Up DSP.

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

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – spring mood board

Seize the Birthday – anything goes birthday

Krafty Chicks Challenge – flowers

Addicted to Stamps and More – make your mark

Faux stained glass hearts

Hello again. The weather here in the UK – especially for a Bank Holiday weekend – is absolutely phenomenal. Temperatures greater than 20 degrees centigrade, lovely blue skies, a little breeze – lovely. I have been hung some washing our to dry for the first time this year!

I was going out cycling again, a new hobby for me, but I think I over-did it the other day. I just kept going and going, then realised I actually had to get back when I passed the 4 mile marker………hmmm…..a tad saddle sore for the next couple of days, as I then had to cycle back to where I came from!

There are some amazing cycle trails around Chesterfield UK – and I plan on exploring a lot of them – but I think I’ll stick to the circular routes….

Anyhoo, I have a card to share for a couple of challenges, and went with the faux stained glass look again. I actually found this sooooo much easier than the first card – basically because I knew what I was doing this time.

I used the Lawn Fawn ‘Say What? Gift Tags‘ and die cut the base layer, then several more layers out of white card stock. I then die cut the little hearts and placed them inside – on some sticky tape, using my jewel picker ‘cos those hearts are TINY – then added the Glossy Accents.

After letting that dry – I know, I don’t usually ‘do’ patient – I die cut the top layer out of the shiny red Crafters Companion card stock and added that to the top.

The embossed piece is using Crafters Companion folder…after realising I don’t actually have that many heart folders, I found this one…..and adhered as you see.

The sentiment is from the Neat and Tangled ‘Jump for Joy‘ stamp set, stamped in Altenew red ink, then embossed again with clear embossing powder.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology – Leap

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch