Uniko delivery

Hi everyone. A quick posting today, as I had a delivery from Uniko – and I have played already! Just in time to join the current challenge at Time Out.

I used the Gerbera stamp on both cards, but using a different technique. The first one is actually the card on the right, stamping the background builder stars in rainbow colours and Catherine Pooler Inks, then stamping the flower outline and main flower. I didn’t really like how this came out, as you can see the stars behind the flower.

The second card, I stamped the flower – no outline – then masked it off and stamped the rows of stars. I liked this much better, and the Misti made lining them up so much easier. I just moved the card along, leaving the stamp where it was.

The sentiment is also from Uniko, a block sentiment, in Versafine black onyx.

I can see I will be playing with these stamps over the next few days as I order the new bundle at 5% off – it would be rude not to! – and added the Gerbera stamp and die set too. :)

 

 

Block water colour stamping and more…

I have the cards above for one challenge, and a card further below for the Color Throwdown challenge this week, but I am blaming ‘Just Us Girls Challenge’ for all the cards above. It is totally their fault. I am not to blame! I mean – setting a challenge like this. Really! I just couldn’t stop myself once I had started……I just kept going and going and going. If you haven’t tried this technique yet – go for it.

The challenge was to make a card using block water colour stamping – you probably guessed – and a link to Jennifer McGuire for hints and tips. I was immediately hooked, and gathered my inks, and my water-colour card, my blocks, and my spritzer, and off I went. My only limitation when I started yesterday was space to dry them, and how many heavy objects I had around to stand on them for 5 minutes!

I used distress inks, distress oxides, Altenew inks………all worked very well with this technique. Loved playing.

You can also see I used a larger rectangular block, a small round scalloped block, and three smaller blocks. One or two of them I let stand, and one or two I hit once or twice so the ink sprayed out the sides…….Jennifer has lots of hints on the video……

Then I had to decide what stamps to emboss onto the respective pieces…..

The two smaller butterflies with the sentiment in them is from Finnabair ‘Dream on’, and the rest are from  Visible Image. I decided to emboss most of them in black, but tried a white embossing for one flower, and quite liked it. Black is still my favourite as I like bold sentiments and images which stand out.

Whilst I was waiting for some of the pieces to dry, I also managed to make a card for Color throwdown this week:

Their challenge this week was to use red, white, and black. I thought of Christmas, and used my Catherine Pooler background stripe stamp, with her ‘Rockin’ Red’ ink, die cut Leonie Pujol ‘Entwined Christmas Tree Baubles’ (supposed to be entwined with the Christmas tree but I liked the look of it alone), in black glitter card from Stampin Up, added the die cut word ‘joy’ from Catherine Pooler, some black sparkly thingies in the corners, and there we have it.

Phew, need a coffee and feet up now. All that crating has fair worn me out…….

Learning and Education card

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Hi everyone. Please excuse the way I have photographed this card – it is windy and rainy today so I can’t go outside, and after the way my last card blew into the wet flowers – I just didn’t want to risk getting this card wet.

This simple black and white card is inspiration from CASology. This cue card is ‘Education’. I started with an idea for a mortar board cap – partially covering one of the corners, with a tassel hanging down, and a sentiment, but I couldn’t find a stamp which would suit………..I will keep looking though, as I still have that image in my head.

However, whilst looking through my stuff, I came across a Sheena Douglass stamp and die set I have had for a few months, never used (seems to be a trend for me) and took the book stamp and the sentiment and played with them for a while.

I started one of my ideas with stamping the books, and colouring them with distress inks, and whilst I liked this look, it just didn’t sit with clean and simple for me – looked a little too grungy. As the stamp is quite large, a normal 4 x 5.5 inch card meant there wouldn’t be that much open space, so I turned to a 6 inch square card. I like this look better.

Once I had decided on the layout, I then stamped directly onto the base card in Versafine black onyx – of course – and left it just the way you see it.

I will be using this set again, and making more colourful cards, now I have found it again, adding backgrounds with colour and embossing, but this is the card I am posting today for the CASology challenge.

Now, I’m off to my craft room to see if I can find something which resembles a mortar board tassel…….if I find something – I’ll let you know. :)

 

 

 

one layer, three colours

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Hi everyone. I have made a quick card today, as I am just about to go to work for the afternoon, and back reasonably late this evening. I wanted to play with the colours for the current challenge from CAS Colours and Sketches – Always Artichoke, Fresh Fig, and Tangerine Tango. I think those colours are absolutely gorgeous on their own, but when put together – love it.

I had a delivery from Stampin Up yesterday – well, I say delivery…….UPS sometimes struggle to find me, and I don’t realise I have a package until I check my tracking through my Stampin Up demonstrator to find they have tried 4 or 5 days……and still can’t find me. I mean – I live on the only road in the middle of a wood with 30 houses – how difficult can that be? Anyway, I had to go to the local depot to pick it up yesterday, so I just had to make time to play.

I liked the look of this stamp, but didn’t realise that the word is actually quite a solid image. I wanted to colour the word, but when I realised it was solid I decided to stamp it in Fresh Fig, quickly put some clear embossing powder on it, and then heat embossed. Even though I used water-colour card, I think it came out quite nicely.

I then coloured the roses in Tangerine Tango, and the leaves in Always Artichoke and there we have it. However, after I had photographed it – thank goodness afterwards – the card blew down into some wet leaves, and of course I swiped my fingers over it to clean the water…………..and I now have a nicely smudged water-colour image now!!!20170906_111231

I am sure I can still save the card, but will have to think about what I do with it. Trust me!!!! Well, as least you can see the Fresh Fig colour coming out of the words.

 

 

 

 

 

I shall be entering the original non-smudged card into the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – Always Artichoke, Fresh Fig, Tangerine Tango

CAS on Sunday – One Layer Wonder

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – stamp it, no digital images

 

 

 

 

Colours and Sketch 238

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Hi there. I’m posting this a little later than planned, as I had forgotten all about it. I only made it yesterday – how weird is that? I knew I wanted to use the sketch and colours from the double challenge above, and made the card, then wondered what sentiment to put on it – then completely forgot to finish it!

I got home from work, checked my emails, made us some tea, opened my challenge spreadsheet – to find this challenge highlighted in the yellow of ‘got to post it soon’. So, I photographed it – in between a little panic – and here we go.

I didn’t have all the correct colours, so I used Broken China distress ink, with Certainly Celery, and Powder Pink from Stampin Up. I used the new stamps from Catherine Pooler Stamp of Approval for the flowers, and even used the large die to cut the scalloped background.

The pink diagonal rows are from Altenew ‘Pattern Play ‘Hexagon’, which I stamped using my Misti as these are quite solid images.

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch and colours

 

 

Cat agenda

Hello again everyone. I have two cards to share with you today – cards which I am not exactly happy with, but took me ages to sort out. I don’t know whether my eye isn’t suited to seeing such clean cards, or I have made them too big – there is just something about them I am not liking……..

I started with the inspiration from CASology with the theme of ‘square’ and combined with the them from Aud Sentiments and As You Like it. I had in my head the ‘Little Cat Agenda‘ from Mama Elephant, as I am definitely a cat person, having two gorgeous big black cats, and that I wanted them to be on a square, and wanted to use the sentiment from Lawn Fawn, but I just couldn’t get the layout right.

Do I die cut a square on the card and inlay the cat? Do I stamp the cat flat to the card? How would I colour the cat? Such conundrums that I struggled with for ages. I ended up stamping the cat on water-colour card, colouring them with my Zigs, then die-cutting a small square from Lawn Fawn wonky squares.

The sentiment I die cut from black card which had double sided sticky sheet on the back, so it would be easier to adhere to the card base, but played with the layout time after time.

In the end, I went for a long and thin card, and used a white base card and a biscuit colour card, juts so I could see which one I preferred – and actually didn’t like either of them that much.

Maybe the card is too deep or too long……..

In any event, I am posting them and wonder of there are some hints and tips you could give me? Or maybe it’s just that I am not getting the Clean and Simple look right at the moment….please tell my mojo to come back!!

CASology – square

Aud Sentiments – thinking of you

As You Like It – fur or feathers and why

Another three colours

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Hello everyone. I hope you are all doing well. It’s been a few days since my last card posting, as I have been back at work this week, and kinda lost my mojo! Then – I opened my new Catherine Pooler ‘Stamp of Approval’ box – hey presto – mojo back!

I had a look through some challenge blogs, and came across a few I could merge together. The colour scheme is from Color Throwdown – red, yellow, green – and I also did some masking, which is the theme from the Tuesday Throwdown this week. I struggle with masking – let me know if you don’t and what the trick is – but I still keep trying, as I like the look of a single layer, and the stamps giving the impression of dimension.

For this card, I used a Stamp of Approval mask, taping some of it off, and used my blending tool with ‘Tiara’ ink – also from Catherine Pooler. This gave the leaf background panel. I then stamped the solid red flower in ‘Rockin’ Red’, masking it off to stamp the leaves in ‘Grass Skirt’.

I liked how this turned out, and found that the inks stayed true to their colours, despite stamping on top of the yellow.

The sentiment is a die cut from the same box, and the two smaller words stamped directly onto the card with Versafine black Onyx.

The used my wonky rectangles again – you just knew, didn’t you? – and layered onto a green card base.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, yellow, green

Tuesday Throwdown – masking

Watercooler Wednesday – anything goes

Addicted to Stamps and More – make your mark

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge – anything goes

 

Kibble Kits

Good day everyone. I have quite cute for this card – very unlike me! I saw some challenges out there and took the opportunity to combine some with the same card.

I stamped the IndigoBlu ‘Kibble Kits’ stamp in Versafine black onyx, then cut this down with my wonky rectangles. This was stuck onto a panel I had created using Lawn Fawn ‘Stitched Woodgrain Backdrop’, then onto a base card using a lighter blue.

The circle was die cut using Stampin Up stitched circles, and the banner cut using the smaller wonky rectangles again. (I don’t seem to be able to resist using these rectangles)

The small blue cat is actually a button, as you can see from the little collection I have there. Bought at a craft show somewhere, I have never used any of them. This was attached to the circle with Pinflair 3D glue.

The sentiment is from Altenew ‘Painted Greetings’.

This card was actually quite simple to make, and came together quite quickly, once I had decided on the colours and layout. Even that was easier than normal as I was guided by the sketch challenge and by the colour challenge.

It may be a little too busy for the Less is More challenge, but as that particular challenge gave me the inspiration to use my cat button, I will enter anyway………..

Less Is More – use a real object

CAS(E) this sketch – sketch

Dragonfly Dreams – animals

Cardz 4 Galz – cats/kittens or both

Shopping Our Stash – wood or wood grain

 

 

Sprinkle Turnabout

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Hello there. I hope you’re having a good weekend. It’s Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, so three days off.

I have been trying my hand at the Concord and 9th Turnabout stamps again. This one is the ‘Sprinkles Turnabout’, and I am liking the effect the stamp gives. I also like the fact that the sprinkles are more concentrated in the centre, and less so on the outside – but it does create a challenge when thinking about where to place a sentiment……I went with the bottom, and also went off to one side, as I don’t tend to do symmetry!

The colours I have chosen are from the Color Throwdown challenge for this week – pink, yellow, and grey – and I think they all work very well together.

All of the stamps used on this card are from that stamp set – the background, cupcakes, the matching layers, and the sentiment. All stamped sticking to the three colours. I used Stampin Up colours – Daffodil Delight, Basic Grey, and Powder Pink. Once I had decided to use this set, I have made a batch of them in the same colours, and will be trying different colours, utilising the different sentiments at some point.

I shall also be entering this card into the challenge from The House that Stamps Built, with the theme of ‘anything goes’.

Altenew Blissful Bud

Hello everyone. I’m back home in UK, and I’m struggling a little with the time difference coming this way. Very unusual. I usually struggle going the other way….it’s taken me a couple of days to get my crafting head back on. I really enjoyed searching through my sister’s stash, so many things I haven’t got, but now I am back I can concentrate on my own things.

These cards are mainly from Altenew ‘Blissful Bud’, and I haven’t had time to play with them until today. It just happens I am playing with them when the cue card from CASology this week is:

So, out came my Altenew inks, and I set to playing. I used the blues and yellows, as I know that I can layer them well, but with some other colours I still struggle. I played with the position of the bud itself, putting it in different areas of the card, and even angled the stem in different ways so it wasn’t straight all the time.

The sentiments from that stamp set are also lovely, and I chose the ‘warm hello’ to enter the card challenge, but used a few others, too. I used my wonky rectangles to cut the main piece of card out, then added different colour card bases for some variety.

I also played with the Stampin Up ‘Tranquil Tulips’ stamp set, which had been waiting for me when I got home from Canada. A hostess stamp set, which was a lovely surprise from my chosen demonstrator. (Shell Bower)

This set has images which give a water-colour effect when stamped, and has a few flower images as well as tulips. You can see one example in the photos above – the Happy Birthday card – but I also played with the layout of another one I stamped:

I stamped the tulip, then die cut that piece of card using Reverse Confetti ‘Vertical Stripes Cover Panel’, stuck down the surrounding part of the die cut flat, then raised each individual stripe with 3D foam………I may be trying that with some of my other cover plate dies, as I like the effect.

As well as the CASology challenge, I shall also be entering the ‘best bud’ card into the current challenge from Addicted to CAS, with the theme of ‘friends’.