Uncategorized

Many Shiny Snowflakes

Hello once again. I have taken some time to play in my craft room, and have created the following card:

Do you think there are enough snowflakes and shine?

I used an alcohol ink background previously created, some Simon Says Stamp holographic silver card, and the Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder – which also die cuts the snowflakes at the same time – to create the two different sized snowflakes.

I used a slimline card base and placed the snowflakes where I felt they should go. Some were hanging off the edge, and when I had cut those overhanging pieces off, I then placed those little bits into some spaces around the edge. I didn’t glue the snowflakes down completely – just the centres of them – so there was some movement and dimension.

In the other spaces on the card I added some sequins for even more shine.

The sentiment is also from Tim Holtz, stamped with a Distress Oxide, then used a blending foam to spread the ink around the sentiment – something I saw how to do from one of Tim’s live YouTube videos. I was amazed that the sentiment itself didn’t blur, but he colour was able to be blended – love it.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Stamps N Fun – Creativity – Snowflakes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Happy Holidays/Christmas

Watercooler Challenge – occasions

Creatalicious Challenge – atg with option of Christmas

Aud Sentiments Challenge – Christmas/New Year/Winter and sentiment

Cards Galore Challenge – atg

12 Months Of Christmas – atg Christmas

Alphabet Challenge ‘R’ is for Red

Hello there. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letter ‘R’ and Debbie has chosen the theme of ‘RED’.

Here is my card:

I chose a mini slimline card, and used a background previously created using a Tim Holtz stencil and Deco Foil Duo Gel – running through my die-cut machine. These poinsettias are just gorgeous in the silver and this is one of the most successful duo foil backgrounds I made – there was some frustration initially – but this came out almost perfect.

The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp – silver heat embossed onto white.

Quite simple but I feel very effective.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘Red’ creations – I look forward to seeing your projects. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Happy Holidays/Christmas

Water Cooler Challenge – occasions

Createalicious Challenge – atg with option of Christmas

Fab n Funky Challenge – Christmas

Crafters Café Challenge – anything goes

HLS ‘Christmas Characters’

Hi there. Another challenge has started at Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge. Kylie has chosen the theme – most appropriately – of ‘Christmas Characters’. Here is my card:

Even though this is a CAS make – it took quite a bit of planning. Why? Well – the placement of each stamp and which ink to use for which layer. I definitely took Tim Holtz advice on one of his lives about layering Distress Oxides and Distress inks when stamping. I knew I wanted to use the fabulous Santa from one of his stamp sets, but what to put around him? How to make it look whimsical and fun?

I used his swirly thing stamp, and Salvaged Patina Distress Ink, then I inked up Santa with Candied Apple Distress Oxide, before turning to the sentiment.

I chose to stamp this in black, but also heat embossed in clear to give a little shine, and to make it stand out.

I really need to play more with Tim’s stamp sets. I always tend to think they need to be used on a mixed media project with lots of techniques – but I really like the simplicity of this card.

I hope you can come and join us with your CAS Christmas Characters – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty friends – anything goes

Lemon Shortbread – anything goes

TTCRD – anything goes

Please feel free to copy to your sidebar

Cardz 4 Galz ‘Snow time’

Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and the theme chosen by Caz is ‘It’s Snow Time’. Here is my card:

I went completely outside my comfort zone to have a go at this technique. I have been seeing it for years – tried it a couple of times – but this time I wanted to try and get it done correctly. I am pleased with the result – but it did take a lot of planning, and masking, and decisions!

I began with a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, then placed the Card-io Bauble stencil onto it. I stamped the little scene at the top with Distress Oxide ‘Weathered Wood‘, then placed the fence and animals where I thought they could sit.

I then tore some paper and ink blended the same Distress Ink to create some hills underneath the animals. I added some of the same DI around the edge of the bauble – then also decided to add some Lawn Fawn Prisma Glitter – well – why wouldn’t you?

Most of the cards like this are created using a black ink, but I wanted a more muted silhouette – and I think it works.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge – I look forward to seeing your creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

MMM Challenge – cute Christmas

Avenue 613 Challenge – atg

Clean and Simple on Friday – CAS Winter

Creative Fingers – atg

ABC Christmas Challenge – Y and Z

Hello. ABC Christmas Challenge has started their last challenge for this year. Having reached the letters ‘Y‘ and ‘Z‘ we want to see your Christmas creations using the theme of ‘Yummy’ and ‘Zigzags’. Here is my card:

I chose to go with the zigzag theme – as you can probably tell – and used the Altenew ‘Pattern Play: Hexagon’ stamp set to create my zigzags. I stamped in black the clear heat embossed the lines onto watercolour card stock, then used a couple of Distress Inks to water colour the zigzags.

I went with a couple of less traditional colours, but I like the effect this created.

I then used a Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design set for the sentiments – heat embossing in gold the outline for the ‘jingle‘ words in a bronze colour. I then used some glue to fill-in the larger words, and added Lawn Fawn Prisma Glitter.

I felt the background was a little too bold for the words, so I added a small piece of vellum and stamped the smaller sentiment towards the bottom of that piece.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge – please follow the themes to be in with a chance of winning the prize offered up by Samantha, who is hosting this challenge. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – atg Christmas option of non-traditional colours

Dragonfly Dreams – Christmas/Winter

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – atg

Snowflakes and Poinsettia

Hello everyone. I’m back after a few weeks sunning myself in glorious Mauritius – what a fabulous island that is. Relaxing at a great resort and from 29 degrees and day-long sunshine – to snow and minus degrees – what a shock to the system. And I didn’t mind the 16 hour flight……..

I’ve been in my craft room for a couple of days, catching up with my Design Team duties – but also managing to play to create for some current challenges. Here is my ‘play’ card:

I used a Concord & 9th Poinsettia die from their recent ‘Jolly Holly‘ workshop – which I’ve yet to do – and die cut several layers for the poinsettia. The glittery snowflake – another die from the same workshop as a base for the flower – and Lawn Fawn ‘Stitched Snowflake Backdrop‘ – which I can’t seem to stop using – for the base layer.

This came together quite quickly once I had decided what to put where – which angle for the snowflake etc…..so many choices!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – blue, yellow, red

Crafters Castle – atg

Krafty Chicks – occasions

Pink Gem – atg

Let It Snow Deer…….

Hello yet again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge – anything goes Christmas/Festive. Here is my card:

I seem to be masking a lot recently – I blame Gina K! She showed us how easy it was when she taught on the Crop and Create at the beginning of October. I even went so far as to buy some mylar and create my own masks for shapes I will use again and again – like this oval shape……and therefore I also have the oval itself as well to use as a mask if I so wish.

I used a piece of Strathmore card stock, cut it bigger than I need – I’m always smudging stuff so I thought I’d try it that way – and placed down the piece which had the oval cut out of it.

I then decided where I wanted this gorgeous border stamp from Uniko, stamped that onto a piece of masking paper, cut out the wavy bottom bit, and stuck that down on the top of the mylar – then ink blended.

I didn’t want the ink blending below the border and this worked perfectly well – and no smudges!

Whilst the homemade stencil was still in place, I added some white ink through a dotty/snowy stencil. That didn’t work very well – the white ink was a little too juicy – so I added some white ink splatters and some additional water splashes. I think it turned out lovely:

I let this panel dry before I stamped the deer and tree border in black – having the stamp three times using my Misti (thank goodness for this tool) to get a darker and more solid image.

The sentiment is also from Uniko – some masking here too. The sentiment was too long for this card, and so I centered to have two ‘Let It Snow’ visible, and then covered the part of the stamp I didn’t want – inked it – then remembered to remove that from the stamp before stamping it on the card. Now that would have been traumatising if I had forgotten!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Animals Challenge – anything goes with an animal

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes

Allsorts Challenge – anything goes – option vintage – not taken

Cards Galore Encore – anything goes

Jingle Belles Rock Challenge – Christmas Creatures

Christmas Shaker

Hello. I have a quick post today to share a shaker card using Mama Elephant and Lawn Fawn dies:

I used Mama Elephant ‘Arch Snow Globe‘ dies, stacked to create the shaker, instead of using 3D foam. The top layer is from a piece of card I blended ‘Peacock Feathers’ onto.

The Lawn Fawn ‘Stitched Snowflake Frame’ was used for the ink smooshed Peacock Feathers background piece to the snow globe, and I also used it on the Kitsch Flamingo spray stain background panel.

The trees are ink blended pieces using Kitsch Flamingo and also Milled Lavender distress Inks, sat on a white glitter hill side.

I have no clue where the sequins came from – other thna found in my stash – but they matched the colours perfectly.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Pink, Lavender, Aqua

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

SPREAD THE MERRY LITTLE LOVE AND GRAB A BADGE!

Dinosaur Birthday

Hello there. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the letter ‘O’ , and the theme chosen by Helen is ‘Outdoors’. Here is my take on ‘outdoors’:

I decided to create a scene using Clearly Besotted stamps.

I stamped the background scene first, then stamped it again on some masking paper, masked it off, and ink blended the blue sky. I did consider some splatters and some stars – but decided to leave the blue clear clear.

As this was drying, I stamped and coloured the dinosaurs, and let my Scan-n-cut do it’s work – I’m not a fussy cutter when it comes to images like this, and the scan-n-cut does a great job – if I set it up right and stick down the card properly (my mat is a little less tacky than I would like)!

I then die cut the background panel with a Catherine Pooler die, stuck it down to a card base, stamped the sentiment, and then added my two little creatures.

I hope you are able to join us, it would be great to see what your interpretation of the theme ‘Outdoors’ is….. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Sisterhood Of Crafters – Happy Birthday

Addicted To Stamps and More – make your mark

Seize The Birthday – Birthday – option to use stencils (option not taken)

Avenue 613 – anything goes

Remember – You Are A Princess

Hello once again. It’s my turn to host the challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and I have chosen the theme of ‘Princess’. It is Carrie Fishers birthday today, and as someone who has played my personal princess heroine most of my life – I chose that theme as homage to her. Not Star wars – just Princess. Any Princess. Here is my card:

This image is from Polkadoodles, and after I had downloaded it and played with the size, I printed it onto Neenah 80lbs card stock and coloured with Copics.

I added several layers of card behind to match the colours I had used, and even added some bling with gems – ‘cos a Princess needs gems – always! Never enough gems for a Princess.

I even added some clear sparkle tp her fairy wings.