Month: July 2021

Thinking of you….

The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. Having reached the letter ‘I’, Dawn has chosen the theme of Insects on your creations. Here is my card:

Having been successful with using ink on an embossing folder for the first time, I decided to have another go using a couple of colours:

The embossing folder is from Simon Says Stamp, and I used Distress Inks on the inside, before running it through my die cutting machine. I haven’t had much success with this technique in the past – but for some reason it worked this time – no idea why……

The butterfly is from Tim Holtz, a Bigz die, which also comes with an embossing folder for the two butterflies. I added a simple sentiment and stuck down onto the card base. I didn’t stick the butterfly down completely, I like the wings to be a little raised, some movement.

I hope you can come and join us and show us what you can create using insects in your projects. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

The House That Stamps Built – anything goes

Krafty Chicks – anything goes

Aud Sentiments Challenge – anything goes with a sentiment

I can’t wait to see how far you fly…

Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and this time the theme has been chosen by Helen, who wants to see you use dies or punches in your girlie creations. Here is my card:

Having received a few new orders with Altenew products, I decided to use some of them for this card. I stenciled the card base using Altenew ‘Terrazzo Tile’ stencil – these are layering stencils, and you don’t have to be particularly precise with this one – just place them as you want them.

The bird is die cut out some ink smooshing with Distress Inks – Wilted Violet I think – and I gave some dimension to the feathers, some movement, as it were.

The thin grey frame was attached, and the sentiment heat embossed in white.

I hope you can come and join us this time round – I look forward to seeing what you create following our theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Always Fun Challenges – use stencils

Tuesday Taggers – feathered friends

The House That Stamps Built – stenciling

Addicted to Stamps and More – die cuts or stencils

I Hope Your Day Is Fabulous

Hello there. I was lucky enough to be picked as random winner for The Color Throwdown recently, and was given the opportunity to be Guest Star Stamper. Well, of course I jumped at the chance. Here are the colours for the new challenge:

And here is my card:

I used a combination of Time For Tea Designs stamps and dies to create the scene.

The car, paper plane, and panda’s were stamped then coloured with Copics., and die cut with their matching dies. The little paper plane has a little slit in the middle so you can insert your critter.

The background has clouds stenciled with Kitsch Flamingo. The first sky I stenciled I was a little heavy handed with the ink, so I did that again with a lighter hand.

The hillside scene was stamped and then coloured with Copics. Colouring larger areas with Copics is a struggle for me – I never know when to stop with the darker shades – how much to do – but I went with it – just a little darker shade when the hills seem to merge, and a little darker in the centre of the trees.

I hope you manage to come and play this week with the bright and fun colours. As usual, the Color Throwdown Team has a variety of inspiration for you.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Knockouts – use die cuts

Just Add Ink – choose two – sky, trees, sea

Beyond The Blue – stencil time

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Time For Tea Designs July Challenge – anything goes with using their products

Snowy Season’s Greetings

We are starting a new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas/festive’. Here is my card:

This stamp is from Pink Ink – and is quite large……so the card ended up being a substantial size – but fun to make.

I stamped then heat embossed the image, then stamped another to make a mask for the top portion – the tree and top of the card.

I then ink blended the background with Distress Inks, before water-colouring my image. Some of the smaller details I coloured with Copics. Once it had all dried, I splattered some Copic Opaque White all over – I mean all over – to get a blizzard effect – the snowman is still taking this tree home despite the weather!

I decided it needed a frame, so I used die-cut a frame using some stithced rectangle dies, then ink blended with Distress Inks to match the background.

I quite enjoyed using the variety of medium to create this card and will definitely have a play again.

I hope you can come and join us in our challenge – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes mixed media

Christmas Craft Creations – anything goes Christmas

Avenue 613 – anything goes with optional twist of water-colour

Thinking of you makes me smile….

I have a card to share to day made with a new set of dies from Hero Arts:

I had to watch a couple of videos on their web site to get the hang of making this card, and it took a while to put it together – mainly because I wanted to add the frame around the outside and I had to fiddle with a knife and a couple of square dies because they just weren’t the right size. My Misti cut-align tool came in very handy for that…

The layers were all die cut out of white card, then coloured with Copics to match the current challenge colours at Color Throwdown.

The background is a water-colour piece of card I used Distress Inks on:

I have a couple of other ‘looking glass’ dies from Hero Arts, and now I think I’ve figured it out – I’ll go and have a play with them.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – navy, turquoise, green, magenta

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Krafty Chicks – CAS

Daisy Chain Challenge – use dies and/or stencils

Happy Everything

Hello once again. There is anew challenge started at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘H’ and Debbie has chosen the theme of ‘use the word Happy in your sentiment‘. Here is my card:

Do you think the word is bold enough?

The background is ink smooshing onto Distress Heavy card stock – part of a bunch of these backgrounds I made whilst restricted a few weeks ago. Because this background is so vibrant, I decided the sentiment ought to be big and bold and black…….

The sentiments – the big word and the embossed word – are from Uniko, as is the little gold party hat added to the first letter……

I hope you can come and join us. I’m looking forward to seeing your ‘happy’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge -occasions

Love To Craft Challenge – anything goes

Crafters Castle – anything goes

Crafty Creations – anything goes

Rockin’ Holidays

Hello there. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time the theme is ‘Christmas In July’. Here is my card:

The background with gold foil stars was created using Thermoweb Duo Gel, a star stencil, and then running through my die-cutting machine with Decofoil.

I used the Lawn Fawn backdrop for the white, and then die-cut the blue foiled star panel to get the evening sky. The hills were glittered using Lawn Fawn Prisma Glitter.

The trees and gnome are from Spellbinders, a little Copic shading on the tree stumps, and the trees themselves cut out of Lawn Fawn paper with little dots on – just to mimic some snow…….maybe…..and the edges of the tree layers die cut out of some white glitter card.

The gnome – now his legs move – rocking from side-to-side:

It was quite fun creating this little scene – I did have to watch a couple of videos on how to piece the gnome together – so many little pieces. I usually don’t like little fiddly die-cutting and assembling – but this was fun.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations matching our current them – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Creative Moments Challenge – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Creative Craft Cottage – Christmas in July

Daisy Chain Challenge – use dies and/or stencils

Winners - please take this to share on your blog

SPREAD THE MERRY LITTLE LOVE AND GRAB A BADGE!

Enjoying a turnabout

Hello. I have managed to play with another stamp and die set which was part of the Concord & 9th Summer Camp. This stamp set is a turnabout – with two turnabout stamps, and a matching die set.

Here is my card:

I was inspired to use the colours at the current Color Throwdown Challenge – and just started ‘turning’. I must say, the turnabout jig – also with the Summer Camp kit – is a brilliant tool to use – once Cathy Zielske showed us how to do it. I first stamped the flowers in Gina K amalgam ink as I knew I wanted to use a Copic to colour them. I did all four turns and then I stamped the leaves part of the turnabout.

Now – Cathy gave us a great tip…….when you have a two stamp turnabout – without taking your card off the jig – just flip the jig over, so you align the second turnabout stamp on the reverse side – close the door of your Misti, pick the stamp up, then flip the jig and the attached card over to the correct side. I mean – how ingenious is that?

I stamped the leaves in Concord & 9th ‘Dove‘ grey ink – I don’t think it’s Copic friendly but I wasn’t doing a great deal of colouring on the leaves, so it worked a treat.

The large sentiment die and the smaller sentiment on the strip is from the Gina K designs ‘Time To Coast‘ kit. The large sentiment comes with a shadow die, and I used vellum for that – a subtle addition which doesn’t cover the background, yet enables the sentiment to stand proud!

I had put the card together and figured I was finished – but then I decided to add the additional small flowers and leaves – same turnabout set – to the right of the sentiment strip.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – yellow, grey, black, white

Watercooler Challenge – feminine

Mountains and Sea Scene

hello. I have a card to share which is completely different to what I usually create. I recently attended – virtually – the Concord & 9th Summer Camp, and part of the brilliant kit was a set of dies which I used to create a scene. here is my card:

Apparently, this is called a pop-up card – for obvious reasons. The stamps and dies as part of the Summer Camp kit are exclusive to the attendees, and having some spare time today I had a little play, combining the pop-up card dies with some stamps from Heffy Doodle.

I first die cut the base card out of a light blue card stock, then used a stencil for some clouds – little did I know that the base card would be almost completely covered as I added so many layers!

I used different shades of Concord & 9th blue card stock to represent the sea. The other layers were added as bases for the lighthouse, and the beach hut.

The other items were stamped and coloured with Copics and placed where I thought they would fit.

Once I had got the hang of the layers and how to stick them down – double-sided tape being better than wet glue – I managed to create something I like the look of. It’s fun and quirky – maybe a little out of dimension with each other – but there we go…….

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inkspirational Challenge – Maritime

Fab’n’funky Challenge – anything goes

Passion for Markers Challenge – animals and use markers

Cut It Up Challenge – water themed – at least one die cut

Snowman and Santa

Hello. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘N’ and ‘O’ and the themes for each letter are:

‘N’ for North Pole, ‘O’ for Off To One Side

Here are my cards:

‘N’ for North Pole

‘O’ for Off To The Side

The North Pole card is using a stamp set from Taylored Expressions, a little masking, and then coloured with Copics. I used some small snowflake stamps for the sky and Concord & 9th ink, adding some little spots of glitter, and then Lawn fawn Prisma Glitter.

The second card is using a stamp set from Newtons Nook, stamped, coloured with Arteza watercolour brushes, then die cut. The sky is using a stencil from MFT which was not slimline, but I made it work, and ink blending.

The snow bank is using Lawn Fawn slimline dies – and more glitter!

I was inspired to make cards for both the themes this time round – that’s what happens when you have not been able to craft for a few weeks – overflow of ideas…..

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/Festive makes following our two specific themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

North Pole card:

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes with colouring

Christmas Crafts All Year Round – Christmas with N or M (North Pole)

Here Is A Place To Start – Favourite Holiday/Celebration (Christmas)

Sparkles Forum Challenge – Christmas and snowflakes

Snowman card:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Country View Challenge – use a stencil

Crafty Calendar Challenge – anything goes

loopyloocards

loopyloocards

Month: July 2021

Thinking of you….

I can’t wait to see how far you fly…

I Hope Your Day Is Fabulous

Snowy Season’s Greetings

Thinking of you makes me smile….

Happy Everything

Rockin’ Holidays

Enjoying a turnabout

Mountains and Sea Scene

Snowman and Santa