CAS outline embossing

Hello again – I have another card to share with you today, inspired by a couple of challenges. This card was in my mind for hours, I couldn’t shake it – so I just had to go and make it. It was interfering with my reading!!!!

I’m sorry the picture isn’t that perfect – but even though it’s lovely and sunny and warm – there is quite a wind.

Another photo because I kept trying:

I knew I wanted an outline die to emboss into the card – as per the Less Is More Challenge – and I Knew I wanted the sentiment to run through the embossed die, so I took some time thinking and thinking about which die to emboss……..

I stamped the sentiment from Altenew ‘Moments In Time‘ in black ink, then embossed an outline die from Altenew’s ‘A Study In watercolor‘. I then stamped the floral image in the lightest grey Altenew ink to bring more attention to the embossed outline, but not too bright nor too invasive – quite muted, I think, and to tie the card in with the Allsorts Challenge.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Less Is More – CAS embossing – up to one third to be embossed

Allsorts Challenge – black and white and one other colour (I used grey)

Raspberry Daffodils

Hello there. I have been playing with a new stamp set purchased from a craft show I went to in Doncaster yesterday:

These are the Daffodils from Altenew, which I have been wanting for a while, and I decided to veer away from the traditional colours, and to follow the current Color Throwdown colours of raspberry, lavender, green, and Kraft.

I stamped and heat embossed the outline of the flowers and leaves in white, then used Rich Razzleberry from Stampin Up to water-colour the flowers, and then a green for the leaves from the Altenew water-colour pan set – but I didn’t like the green water-colour leaves – too much white – so I stamped them again in just a green……just the outline…..not the filler.

I then die cut the Altenew ‘Spring Meadow‘ cover die out of Kraft card to use as a background – but again didn’t like the way it looked – too fussy behind these flowers – but I did use some of the ‘fall-out’ leaves, and then decided to die-cut it again in some lavender card-stock I had, and used the ‘fall-out’ leaves from that colour too.

I thought about a sentiment, but at this point have left the card without one – I’m not sure if I’ll add one or not………….only time will tell.

Another photo with the card in full sunlight:

I shall be entering this into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – raspberry, lavender, green, kraft

Water-cooler Challenge – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Gold Dipped Delicate Clusters

Hello there. I spent some time yesterday starting to put a card together, and completed it this morning:

I stamped out the clusters only from Altenew ‘Delicate Clusters‘ – not the stems – in three shades of blue, and for the fourth layer I used gold embossing powder.

The two leaves are from Tom Holtz ‘Garden Greens‘ die set, where I put some double-sided sticky tape down on some card, then used the same gold embossing powder to create two strips, from which I die-cut the leaves.

The sentiment is also embossed using the same embossing powder, and is from another Altenew stamp set.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Inkspirational – gold dipped

Die-cut divas – flowers and a die cut

Addicted to Stamps – stamping and flowers

Let’s Shellabrate

Hello yet again – As you can tell – I’ve been busy in my craft room. I’ve spent some time relaxing in the sun, reading, and thinking about challenges and colours for my next card. I was so inspired, that I couldn’t wait to make it:

You’ll have to forgive the couple of rain drops – I didn’t realise it was raining until I got out there, by which time the drops had hit!

For this card I used Heffy Doodle ‘Let’s Shellabrate‘ stamp and die set – I think they were actually a freebie with one of their orders. Once stamped, I used the colours for the current Color Throwdown challenge to colour this little blighter in, added some white gel pen for accent, added his little hat, then followed the current sketch at Fusion Challenge.

The theme using the turtle, is taken from the current challenge at Die Cuttin’ Divas, and using their inspiration photo.

Have a good day, and I’ll see you again soon. :) :)

Color Throwdown – coral, aqua, navy

Die Cuttin’ Divas – inspiration photo

Fusion Card Challenge – sketch and/or photo

Ornate Flowers

Hello everyone. It’s a gorgeous sunny day here in Derbyshire UK – a lot of sun, warm, a little breeze – lovely. I have a soft and gentle card to share today:

I began by heat embossing the flower outlines from Altenew Ornate Foliage stamp set onto water-colour card, wet the images, then sprayed Tonic Nuvo Mica Mist quite liberally onto the images, and let it do it’s thing…..with maybe a little gentle coaxing from my brush, then let it dry.

A picture of the shimmer:

The background is the Altenew Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover Die, splashed with Winsor and Newton ebony paint, then let it dry, whilst I stamped the sentiment.

I then placed all together as you see, having the images slightly overlap the sentiment strip, and even cutting into the bottom image a little to enable me to do that.

I then added some Tonic Crystal Drops in ebony in three sets of three – then let it all dry.

If you know me and my posts from before – you know I don’t like waiting for things to dry – which is why I did the flowers yesterday – but the splashes and drops are actually drying as I make this post – I’m very impatient!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Flower challenge – flowers with embossing

Watercooler Challenge – occasions

Addicted to Stamps – Make your mark

Lil Red Wagon – flowers

AAA Birthday Challenge – anything goes as long as it’s birthday

Indoor Garden

Hello everyone. I have a clean and simple card to share today using the Altenew ‘Indoor Garden‘ stamp and die set, so I could create a card for the current challenge at The Paper Players:

I took another picture in the sunlight:

I don’t like either photo, as I think the lighting isn’t great on either one of them – but you get the impression of the card, I think.

I took some elements from the stamp set, stamped the outlines, then took certain liberties with Copic Markers for the colours. I tried to match my colours with the current challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches – pumpkin pie, coastal cabana, daffodil delight – as I don’t have those Stampin’ Up colours – and coloured what I felt needed colouring, really.

I dry embossed a rectangle onto the card base, leaving a wider border at the top and bottom – I just liked the effect – and as I placed the die cut plants onto the card, they kinda fell as you see them…..and I liked it….so I left them in that position, sticking them down with 3D foam pads.

It’s the beginning of another Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, so I am planning some ‘down time’. I hope you get to do the same. :)

Wise Owl Graduation

Hello once again. There is a new challenge up at Cardz4Galz, and the new theme is ‘Graduation‘. Here is my card:

This card actually took quite a bit of time to get together. I didn’t think I had anything which in any way meant to be graduation and I did spend a little time thinking about die-cutting a mortar board hat and adding a sentiment – but then didn’t think I had a graduation sentiment……….

So – hunting through my stash I came across this new stamp set from Clearly Besotted – not yet put away from buying the recent release – and saw…….a mortar board hat, and a scroll, and the little owls in the same set I could play with.

I stamped the images, coloured them with Copics, then die cut them. Now to the background……..

I decided to keep this quite simple and used the ‘Polka Dot Plate‘ die from Avery Elle, cut in white card, and placed on a black base card. Then to the sentiment………

and came across the Lawn Fawn stamp set ‘Reveal Wheel Spring Sentiments‘ bought with – you guessed it – the reveal wheel dies………….and there we had a graduation word. I cobbled together the sentiment you see, and stamped onto a black square, heat embossed in white.

I did toy with the idea of putting the square like a diamond, like a mortar board hat, with a little tassel, but went with what you see.

When I placed the images, I even cut into the owl’s hand a little so he could be holding the scroll:

I hope you can come and join us for this ‘Graduation’ themed challenge – the design Team have some fabulous varied inspiration for you. I look forward to seeing you there and seeing what you come up with. :) :)

I shall also be playing along with the following challenges:

Dragonfly Dreams Challenge – anything goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring

Clean and Simple on Friday – CAS Polka Dots

Sparkling Stag

Hello there everyone. It’s time for another challenge to begin at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme – as always – is anything goes as long as it is Christmas related. There are some fabulous projects from my Design Team colleagues, and here is my project:

You may be thinking – I am sure she had a blue card last time – and you would be correct. And then there is silver again……….but for some reason I think blue and silver for Christmas cards is quite classic. I promise to move away from that colour scheme…..probably…..maybe :) :)

This card has no stamping on it – it is all die cuts……….Crafters Companion stag, sentiment, blue frame, poinsettia……all die cuts.

I tried something different here too – I die cut the stag four times in black card stock, stuck them together, then used the Tonic Studios embossing pad (my current favourite) to the top die cut, added Wow! embossing powder…..and there we have a glittery stag. I did use three layers of embossing to get a nice deep and full glittery coverage.

Then I decided to do the same with the frame – a cut-down version of the Reverse Confetti ‘Stitched Note and Frame die‘ – standing there in white on my desk – I think it worked quite well on white card……………

The silver background is using a Crafters Companion 3D embossing folder.

The poinsettia is a very old stamp and matching die set from Heartfelt Creations. I can’t find it currently on their web site so it must be very, very old….and no longer available – but I only used the die not the stamps, on silver card, and putting only a couple of the flower layers together, curling the leaves slightly for dimension. There are two larger leaves to this set, and also the middle stamens – but I put the brad there instead.

So – there we are – a new challenge for you to join us, being creative, and building your stash of Christmas cards ready for the end of the year.

I look forward to seeing your creations. :) :) XX

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg with option candy canes

XOXO Balloons

Hi again. I said I was back from holiday, and here is another card I was able to put together:

I began by stamping the balloons from Clearly Besotted ‘Magical Plushies‘ and colouring them with Copics. I actually stamped the image several times, as I wanted to play around with colours, and this is the one I liked the best.

I didn’t have any shading on the balloons, but decided – for the first time – to use a white gel pen for some highlights. I watched a YouTube video by ‘DrawingWiffWaffles‘ where she reviewed quite a few white gel pens, and then bought the one which came out the best from Amazon. Isn’t it amazing how these white lines change images? I’m definitely going to use this technique again.

I then stamped a cloud image and after playing around with the design, coloured the edges with three different Copics – going from darker to lighter blue. Without this, the cloud kinda got lost in the base card.

The frames is one of the layers from the Reverse Confetti ‘Stitched Note and Frames’ die set, and all three items added to a card base as you see. I wanted it to look like the balloons were floating away with the cloud……

I shall be entered into the following challenges:

CASology – Colour

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Stitches (frame and cloud)

AAA Cards – up to one third with optional twist of bright colours

Aqua Flower

Hello everyone. You may have missed me posting this past week or so – but I’ve been sunning myself in Turkey – in 30+ degrees sunshine. Good grief – it was hot. I can safely say that I spent more time in the shade reading, than in the sun. I must have gone through at least 8 books! Fabulous.

After getting back into the swing of things at home and work, I managed to grab some time in my craft room. Here is a card I made yesterday:

I used a die from W Plus 9 – Ironworks Background – then used a stamp set from Clearly Besotted for the flower and leaves in the central circle. I think this stamp set was a freebie with an order, but I’m not exactly sure.

I stamped the flower in Versafine black onyx, then the detail layer in Catherine Pooler ‘Aquatini’. I didn’t stamp the solid base layer of the flower as I think the detail layer is so pretty.

I masked the flower off, then stamped the leaves. The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Aqua, green grey

Addicted to Stamps – anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore – anything goes