Uncategorized

Mason Jars

Here is another card I made this weekend, and it caused a little bit of thinking. I had the background sorted, using an Altenew stamp ‘Wood Pallet background’, and used three different Altenew brown inks, haphazard inking of the background, to get a more washed and faded look.

Then I started thinking things through – a little too much maybe! Which style do I go for? single layers? Die-cutting and layering? Did I add some green to the background like the inspiration photo? You can see my decision there.

I took the mason jars from Stampin Up ‘Jar of Love’, did a couple of then jars – then the thinking again! Do I colour the water? Do I stamp the green stems – slightly faded – into the jar itself? Do I use the lids?

Well – I did colour some of the jars – didn’t like it at all! I also did some faded stems into the jars – liked it even less than colouring the jars!

So – after some internal debating I kept the jars white – no colour – just plain. And……I like the look as it seems to make them stand out more on the card. I added the little dew drops for a little interest, but basically kept them plain.

The flowers and stems were also from that same ‘Jar of Love’ stamp set, which I tried to attach to the card so they looked as though they were actually coming from the stems themselves…

As for a sentiment – I think I’ll wait until I actually want to use the card, as I feel it could be for men or women, and for many occasions……I always like to keep some cards behind ‘un-sentimented’ so I can use them at short notice.

I then finished the card off with a layer of Lawn Fawn ‘ground coffee’ card stock. (I did ‘gut’ the middle of the card for future use……) and attached to a white base card.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Card Concept – photo inspiration

Addicted to Stamps and More – anything goes

 

 

Sketchy colours

20180127_164259

Hello again. I will be spending some time in my craft room this weekend, and this is the first card I made today. It is using a range of different techniques – embossing, colouring, die cutting, stamping – but think I have kept it quite clean….

The rectangular card base has a layer of Lawn Fawn ‘Narwhal’ card (loving that grey card) then layered with white card which has been embossed using a Sweet poppy metallic stencil.

Now, I may have made a little mistake in using this stencil…… It is quite a large metal stencil, and when I took it out of my die cutting machine – it was a little bent! Well – not just a little! It was curved so much, I may not be able to use it as a stencil. I think the pressure and layers were too much. I straightened it a little, but I didn’t want to bend it too much, so I may be brave and run it through the opposite way – just to see if I can even it out a little more……I’ll let you know.

The Altenew ‘Hello Sunshine’ flowers were stamped and heat embossed, coloured with my Zigs, and die cut with the matching die set.  I arranged them underneath and on top of the banners, for a little dimension, but not too much.

The banners are from Sue Wilson, with the sentiment from ‘Hello Sunshine’ heat embossed with white onto the aqua card.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Color Throwdown – aqua, orange, grey

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – layer it up

Cardz 4 Galz – anything but square

 

 

Somethings new, and old

20180123_215410

Hello there. I quick evening posting for this card, which I made yesterday. I had a delivery of the latest Catherine Pooler Stamp of Approval box, and I also ordered some more of her inks. I love her inks. Easy to use, stamp beautifully even on new stamps.

This stamp set is a new one from Uniko, paired with the new ink from Catherine Pooler ‘Royal Treatment’. A clean and simple design, using just the one ink colour on the white background.

The sentiment is from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous and stamped in the same colour.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology – late

Uniko – something old, something new

QKR Stampede – anything goes

Stamplorations CAS challenge – CAS without optional twist

 

Hug Me!

20180122_221422

Good evening everyone. I have a little card for you today which I have been thinking about for a couple of days, and just this evening have gotten down to doin’ it.

I was inspired by several challenges again. I die cut the main image in a post-it note, stuck it to the card base, placed the Stampin Up stencil over the top, and used the three red/pink colours from one of the challenges below. I then moved the stencil a little, and inked the same three colours again. I did this to create a kind of ombre look……

After stamping the main image, I coloured him in using my Faber Castell pencils, again in three different red/pink colours. I tried a little blending, but I don’t think the card base was that suitable for this technique – but it doesn’t look toooooo bad, I don’t think!

I then stamped three individual hearts along the right hand side, in the three different coloured inks I used. No reason why I did that, just thought I would as I saw them sitting there in the same stamp set.

As I was going down the clean and simple route again, I judged my card as finished at that point – it would have been so easy to add bits here and there.

Anyhoo – here are the challenges I will be entering:

Paper Craft Crew Challenge – deep red, light pink, reddish pink, neutrals white and black

Moving Along With The Times – Clean and Simple

Simply Less Is More – Clean and Simple and cute, one layer card

Addicted to CAS – ombre

 

Glimmer – clean and simple

20180120_183839

Hello everyone. I have gone with glimmer for this card, as you can see. I don’t usually do anything card-wise for Valentines day, but the current challenges I am entering made it actually quite hard to stay away form this theme….

I used a 6 inch square white card base, and added hearts from a Sue Wilson set I bought last year. This set of dies – Fluttering Heart fillable collection – has nesting layers which were ideal for the sketch challenge.

I then turned to my Stampin Up glimmer card, and sued the white and pink for the hearts, and plain white card for the smaller detailed heart.

The sentiment if from Altenew ‘Hello Sunshine’, which is still sat on my table from my card the other day, and die cut with a small border die from a Catherine Pooler die set.

Here is a close-up of the glimmer…..just in case you needed one20180120_183935The challenges I will be entering are:

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

CASology – glimmer

CAS on Sunday – CAS love/Valentines

Hand Stamped Sentiments – photo inspiration

 

 

colours, sketch, birthday

Hi there. I have been creating a birthday card again, and really had fun with the colours and the die cutting.

I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday, but where the left hand side of the sketch looks like twine, I have done three embossed lines, well, debossed lines!

20180119_143238However, I soon realised that the more I added the flowers, then the more these lines would be covered….I hope it still counts…..

The flowers are from Altenew Hello Sunshine, which is one of my favourite stamp sets, but then anything from Altenew could be included in that list of favourite things!

I stamped the flowers using Tranquil Tide and Dapper Denim, then die cut them with the matching set, and then started to play with the layout and the base colours. I didn’t think I was going to lay the flowers all around the white rectangle – but it just happened, and I liked it.

I also thought about colouring the flowers with the same colours, but I tried on a couple of extra ones I had stamped, and didn’t like it. I like this effect – even though the card could be considered busy, I still think it’s quite clean, lots of open space. I find I am tending towards that genre more and more – though I also like to ‘chuck’ everything at a card every now and again.

Here are the challenges which inspired this card:

Sketch Saturday – sketch

The Paper Players – Dapper Denim, Lemon Lime Twist, Tranquil Tide + one other colour )white)

Try It On Tuesday – my favourite things (Altenew stamp set)

Seize The Birthday – Birthday – optional twist one layer (not used)

(Last but not least – a huge thanks and best wishes for Bev from UNIKO, who sent me a  ‘Hugs’ card after hearing I had one of my cats put to sleep last week. XXX)

 

 

Doodled Lace Cover Die

20180115_212607

Hello again, everyone. It’s been snowing around here, but not settled – just cold, and windy, but actually quite crisp and clear at the moment. I will be driving north up the M1 shortly, hopefully not coming across too much bad weather!

This selection of cards were made using a new die from Altenew – the Doodled Lace cover die. Now, I have quite simple here, using only three colours of card, but I changed each card – using the same three colours – into a different card each time. I changed where the sentiment went, and one card I cut off one edge of the die-cut to see how that looked.

I am going to be playing with this die a little more – colouring, paper-piecing etc – but these cards quite simple, quite easy – and dare I say – quite elegant?

I don’t think the lace detail comes out very well in the pictures, and I may add some gilding wax to the black die-cut…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Alphabet challenge blog – ‘U’ for use 3 of anything (3 colours)

A Gem of a Challenge – Happy anything

Brown Sugar Challenge – Birthday

Multi-cards

Hello everyone. I have been in my craft room all day, to try and get away from the fact we had to put one of our beautiful cats to sleep last night…..it has been quite therapeutic, and it managed to let me recover – somewhat – for the odd few minutes.

As I have made multiple cards, I have entered them into different challenges, so please bear with me for the organisation of it all….

20180114_155428

This card was made using the Lawn Fawn stitched wood grain backdrop, blending two blue distress oxides, then cutting the backdrop and layering this with the mountains from the Get Yeti stamp set.

Challenges entered into:

Cards In Envy – winter chills

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge – use some blue

20180114_155504This second card was made using MFT Painted Flowers, and Altenew inks, and will be entered into:

Watercooler challenges – occasions

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch (flipped onto it’s side)

Seize The Birthday – anything goes birthday

20180114_162212Third card made using MFT More Rustic Flowers and the matching die set. Catherine Pooler Aquatini, Stampin Up Night of Navy, and Altenew pink ink.

Challenges entered:

Color Throwdown – navy, aqua, pink

Fourth and last card:

20180114_155442

MFT More Monsters stamp and matching die set, Altenew inks.

Challenges entered:

Addicted to Stamps and more – CAS

CASology – hug

Simply Less is More – Purples

4 Crafty Chicks – no blue colour

 

 

 

 

 

Embossed and ink blended

20180101_140249 (1)

Happy Monday everyone.

I had a little play with my Distress Oxides and my new Altenew ‘Arabesque Medallion’ stamp set. I have seen many lovely cards made with this stamp set, and I am sure I will be attempting some of the techniques and ideas that are out there.

For this card, I first worked a couple of Distress Oxides into the stamping card, blending together – which they seem to do extremely well – then splattered with water. I didn’t want large areas of water splashes, and wanted to keep this to a minimum.

Once dry, I then stamped the medallion in Ranger Perfect Medium, and embossed with white embossing powder. I then took some of the smaller elements in the set and stamped and embossed them the same way. I wanted the background to be quite visible, but also the pattern of the stamp set to shine through.

I then took another smaller piece of card, blended the same colours, stamped the sentiment in Versafine black onyx, but ensuring that the colours on the sentiment banner were opposite to that of the card, so it stood out a little more.

To tie in the black sentiment – you know that’s my favourite sentiment colour – I used a black card base.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge – something new (stamp set)

Watercooler challenges – feminine anything goes

Simply Create Too – use embossing

Altenew January 2018 inspiration challenge – photo inspiration

 

 

 

 

 

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