altenew

Color Layering Koala

Hello there, everyone. I am now back from London. Quite a few days with no crafting – definitely suffering withdrawal symptoms. And guess what was waiting for me when I got back? The new Catherine Pooler Stamp of Approval box. Ordered and delivered within 8 days. Fabulous. I will be playing with them over the weekend.

Another thing which I am highly excited about – I am guest designer for Inkspirational Challenges for the challenge which starts tomorrow morning!! (Saturday) I know………..OMG! The first time I have been asked……so excited and nervous! Please check it out tomorrow, it’s a great inspiration photo – trust me!

For the card today, I had a little cute moment. Aren’t the koalas cute?

I started by stamping the tree from Altenew ‘Birch Land’ to one side of a plain white piece of card. I then stamped the koala and the baby, from Hero Arts ‘Color Layering Koala’ using Versafine ‘Black Onyx’ as an outline, stamped off once for the base of the koalas, then direct after inking for the next layer, for the two different brown looks using the same ink, cutting them out using the matching die set.

For the leaves I used Catherine Pooler ‘Aquatini’ and Stampin Up ‘Night of Navy’ – artistic license for the eucalyptus to be those colours!

For the grass, I used Catherine Pooler ‘Lime Rickey’ and rubbed it along a piece of plain white card, then cut it out with the Lawn Fawn ‘Simple Grassy Hillside’ dies, stuck it to the base card, and cut the whole thing using my Lawn Fawn ‘Wonky stitched rectangles’.

Once I had that base card, I realised the pointy edges of the grass were not stuck down, so I placed my two koalas under the edge of the grass, adding the die cut eucalyptus leaves. The base card is a navy card from Creative Expressions – love their foundations card.

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Navy, Aqua, lime green, kraft (used brown)

Addicted to stamps and more – anything goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes

I hope to see you tomorrow morning when the Inspirational Challenge goes live…………..

Three colour card

Good morning all. I know this looks like a very simple and easy card, but I like that about it. I took inspiration from a couple of challenges with the colours and the theme, but in general I really like how this flower turned out.

I have used the Altenew stamp and die set ‘Extra Special’. (Yep – another new buy from Doncaster Dome/Which Craft show from last Sunday.) For the first card, I stamped onto a piece of white card in Versafine black onyx, then stamped the solid base layer for the flowers in yellow, using a Catherine Pooler ink. I added the second layer of the flowers, not with the layering stamps, but with a Zig marker.

The leaves I did the same way – layered with the solid stamps, then added further green with a Zig marker.

I die-cut the flowers with the matching die, and added to a piece of plain white card I had die-cut with my MFT Die-Namics ‘Wonky Stitched Rectangles’, raising the flower with some small foam pads, and adding the whole panel to a white card base.

For the second card, I stamped and coloured onto some water-colour card, as I didn’t know which way I was going with the colouring, but in the end I went with just the stamp and colour. Nothing fancy, and cut that panel out sticking directly down onto a white card base.

I haven’t added a sentiment, because I didn’t really know what sentiment to add. I like it as it is – plain, no sentiment, ready to be sent. For any occasion. Perhaps as a little note card. I may make several of these and package them together in sets of four.

I shall be entering into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Green, Yellow, Coral (all the three colours used)

Time Out challenges – photo inspiration (flowers)

Crafty Catz – anything goes (optional dies/punches)

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes

Colourful inspiration

Good evening all. For today’s card I have been playing with loads and loads of inks. Can you tell? I have been ink blending and creating Brusho backgrounds, and die cutting. Quite a bit of playing and fun I had.

For the base card, I used a piece of Crafters Companion water-colour card, and blended colours from Lawn Fawn. These inks are wonderful and blend very, very nicely. I will definitely use them again for this technique. I also did some water splashes to create some added interest to the background.

I actually tried to emulate the colours from the Daring Cardmakers challenge with the middle bottom image being of what I saw as sea and sun-setting sky.

You had to use three elements from these pictures, so I continued to create another ink-blending background, from which I cut small strips – to match the top middle picture, and laid those down in a criss-cross pattern just off to one side.

The third element I used were the flowers. Well, I couldn’t just put one or two on, could I? I started by creating a Brusho background with one of the blue colours, added some yellow, added some purple. I just kept adding until I liked the colours.

I then stamped the flowers from the Altenew ‘Adore You’ stamp set onto that background with Versafine Black Onyx and die cut them with the matching stamp set.

I glued everything down flat, and I used a glue I haven’t used before but bought at Doncaster Dome craft show this past weekend – Tombow multipurpose liquid glue. My goodness that stuff is strong, isn’t it? It may take over from my usual favourite glue from Creative Expressions – Cosmic Shimmer. I really like the Tombow….

I will be entering this card into the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers – June Elemental challenge

Crazy 4 Challenges – at least three of something (strips, flowers)

Happy Birthday

Good morning everyone. I am not at work until this afternoon, so I thought I would finish the card I started yesterday. As always, I gain inspiration from challenges, and – as always – I leave it to the last minute on many of them.

I have had the colours from Color Throwdown and the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches in my head since they went live……and yesterday got down to making the card. Well, after I had spent a good few hours at a craft show in Doncaster Dome, and bought even more goodies.

I started with a 6 inch square white card base, and added a slightly smaller navy layer, which I embossed with my Crafters Companion Textures folder ‘Rain’. I then die cut some pale pink card from Creative Expressions with a Sara Davies Signature Collection die – an edger die from the ‘Together Forever’ range, which added the curved intricate edge.

After sticking that down to the top of the blue embossed layer, I added another blue layer which I had die cut the ‘Happy Birthday’ panel. Again – from Crafters Companion Create-a-card range. I think the light pink makes the sentiment stand out quite nicely.

I was thinking of gold for under the sentiment, but then I bought the Altenew stamp and die set yesterday – ‘Extra Special’ – and decided to heat emboss the main flower onto blue card with gold embossing powder, to act as the downward tag part of the sketch.

I then added some gold speckle dots – couldn’t resist – and stuck them all down on the card base. I stuck them all flat, with very little dimension, apart from the layers themselves.

So different from the most recent card of mine, as very little stamping – just the main flower element.

I photographed the card outside again – in-between rain and rain and rain – but still natural light. I’m not sure if the card came out very effectively, but I wanted to ensure you could see the shine of the gold embossing.

I was Skyping my sister in Quebec yesterday, and we were talking about backgrounds and natural light, and as it is summer (apparently) and natural light is here for longer in a day, I may try more techniques in the future. Perhaps adding some extra interest with dinner plates, or pieces of wood………or some of the items I have used to make the card.

I will be entering into the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Color Throwdown – navy, light pink, white, gold,

4 Crafty Chicks – Birthday

Just Us Girls – Die-cuts

Orange Monochrome

For today’s card I have gone to one of my favourite ways of doing cards – monochrome. It doesn’t really matter what colour I use, but I tend to go for white with one other colour. It could be black, it could be green, and this time I have gone with orange. Orange? Yes – orange.

I decided to go with this as inspiration from Time Out Challenges had a CASE this card challenge, and to me the overall colours on the card were white and orange. I don’t really tend to do ink blending backgrounds, though I have tried in the past, and prefer to go with embossing.

And – a recent delivery from three of my current favourite companies – Lawn Fawn, Concord and 9th, and Altenew. I have just received my Altenew ‘Super Script’ stamp and die set, and Lawn Fawn ‘Stitched Windy Backdrop’ , and Concord and 9th ‘Say Hello’ stamps and dies.

I started with a white 6 x 6 inches base card, and added the stitched windy backdrop, also in white. I didn’t want the backdrop to be the whole of the base of the card, which is why I chose a 6 inch square – just slightly bigger. The die is quite big, measuring at 5.5 x 4.25 inches.

I then cut out the big orange ‘hello’ and left it bubble, with no added detail. The ‘friend’ part is using the matching stamp and white heat embossing it, then cutting it out with the matching die set. I only glued the top half of the die-cut leaving the bottom half hanging off the stitched backdrop.

I think this card is bright cheerful, but I still decided to add a little orange enamel dot in the bottom corner. This is from We R Memory Keepers, and matches the orange perfectly.

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Time Out Challenges – Case this card (orange and white)

Daring Cardmakers – use two colours

Dragonfly Dreams – Monochrome

Cards in Envy – favourite colour combo (white and one other colour)

Monochrome Magic – anything goes monochrome

Altenew Cover Die

There seems to be a theme running through my cards at the moment – Altenew. I am playing with their dies as well as stamps, and recently bought this die set – ‘Layered Floral Cover Die’. I shall be returning to the Triangle Turnabout stamp at some point this week……

For this die set, I decided to go with blue and white, but mixed it up. I had some Tonic blue card in matching tones of blue, and used a dark blue and a turquoise blue as well as white. As you can see, it makes very different cards depending on whether the background is light or dark – and I can’t decide which one I like best.

I even hesitated about using a sentiment, but tried one sentiment on one of the cards. I didn’t want a die cut, I didn’t really want a sentiment which took away from the design – just to add a little something……

I went with the sentiments from an old stamp set I have from Craftwork Cards. I bought the set at a local craft show, and have never used it. Again – found when tidying my room up and trying to organise it. I actually may try to organise my room several times a year, as it is amazing what you find!

I shall be entering one of these cards into he following challenges:

Always Fun Challenges – anything goes

Inspiration Destination Challenge – anything goes

Createalicious Challenges – anything goes

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

3 colour triangle turnabout

I’m still playing with the Concord and 9th ‘Triangle Turnabout’, which is why I’ve posted again today – very excited I managed to get that far…… This time I managed to do three layers in the colours set out in the current Just Us Girls challenge – lime green, turquoise and navy. I did the design of the card to match the challenge from Freshly Made Sketches and the Fab ‘n’ Funky challenge for creating a background.

I must say, doing three of the four layers for this stamp was a little easier than before, but I did make sure my stamp was cleaned well between the colours so I could double-check before stamping.

The Navy and Turquoise are from Stampin Up, and the lime green is from Catherine Pooler ‘Lime Rickey’. I think the colours work well together, and I loved the combination. To match the sketch challenge, I cut a thin sliver out and separated the two, adding thinner foam pads to raise only slightly. I always add a little glue to each pad, as I find it then gives me some ‘wiggle time’ to make sure it is centred correctly.

The sentiment is from Altenew ‘Painted Inspiration’, which is a great stamp set with some lovely sayings on it. Quite motivational, which I think is the point of them. I used a Sue Wilson die to cut out the sentiment, and raised it with foam pads.

When I manage to get all four ‘turns’ from the stamp set – I’ll let you know.

Challenges I will be entering are:

Just Us Girls – colour challenge (lime green, navy, turquoise)

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Fab ‘n’ Funky – use a background stamp or create a background

Trio of butterflies

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Hi everyone. I’ve gone a different route to the most recent cards. And – I’ve read the rules for the challenges more closely, after the last time! My advice – read, then read again, then read again!

Anyhoo…….for this card I have used three ‘twinchies’ and stamped a layering butterfly from a Hunkydory set I have, using my Altenew inks. (You just knew there would be Altenew somewhere, didn’t you?)

The base card is Kraft card, with an embossed ‘pinprick’ design from Sue Wilson/ Creative Expressions as the first layer. I love those embossing folders, as they give really good dimension and texture when you use them. This one is called ‘Checkboard Pinpoint’, and gives a checkboard and dot effect.

After embossing that, I lay out my butterfly twinchies, but thought it looked a little boring. I had a hunt around my card and paper stash, not really looking for anything in particular, and came across this vellum with a bronze/brown/gold pattern on it.

I stuck that to the brown embossed card using glue which would be underneath the twinchies, therefore hiding it. I stuck the twinchies down with foam pads, and turned my thoughts to a sentiment.

I wanted a die cut sentiment and went to my Katie Skilton set, as I liked the look of the arrow, and that the sentiment could almost be suspended and flying – just like the butterflies…..well…..that’s what I thought, anyway.

I will be entering this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge – ‘going dotty’

Addicted to Stamps and More – ‘anything goes’

Cardz For Galz – ‘add texture’

Moving Along with the Times – ‘Butterflies’

Still Altenew

Hi everyone. I am still with the same stamp set, and now playing with different colours. I seem to have gained some confidence with layering stamps. I’ll let you look at the blue cards to spot some mistakes – I’ll tell you at the end!

The inspiration for the yellow card is from the ‘Less is More’ challenge to use yellow and grey only, so I thought I’d have a play with the only flower from that set I hadn’t stamped yet. I did initially think of doing the sunflowers stamp set, but as I’m on a roll with this one, I decided to stay with it. Three layers for the flower, and two layers for the leaves at the base of the flower. This particular stamp actually fits together, and is quite easy to match-up – with the correct lighting, anyway.

I tried doing it and found that leaning over created a shadow and I couldn’t really see what I was doing, so in came a light I placed nearer and to the back of my craft table. That seemed to work very well.

I used colours from Altenew inks, so I didn’t even have to try and find colours that worked well and toned well together as it is already done for you with the ink sets.

So, onto the mistakes. Did you spot them?

On the top blue card I couldn’t figure out which way up the flower was supposed to be! So – it’s crooked. I think it was planted into alcohol!

For the second blue card I think I had a stutter with the stamping. I completely misjudged the darkest layer at the bottom of the bud. Well, take about artistic licence. So my blue cards are a drunken flower and a stuttering stamper…….some fun, at least.

I will be entering the yellow card into the following challenges:

Less is More – ‘yellow and grey’

Make My Monday – ‘May flowers’

Incy Wincy Designs – ‘Clean and Simple’

Crafting From The Heart – ‘anything goes’

Colour Crazy Challenge – ‘anything goes’

Crafty Calendar challenge – ‘flowers’

Altenew frenzy

Today was a day for a frenzy of activity. Why? Well, I have spent most of the day on the phone between two companies trying to get a brand new washing machine – which doesn’t work – changed. I have had it for two weeks, and it has taken that long for an engineer to come and say it is broken! Well – duh!! Anyway, after the saga I just had to go and craft.

I have certainly had a frenzy of stamping – as you can see! I have finally – yes finally – got to grips with multi-layer stamping. I think. Maybe. Sorta.

I have stuck to yellows and browns for the flowers, and green for the leaves. The colours worked well, so I stamped my way through my most recent Altenew acquisition ‘Budding Thanks’. All the yellow flowers are from that set. I am still working my way through the different flowers, and they are blinking gorgeous. So easy to line up…….and how about me going all ‘Clean and Simple’? Gotta say, lovin’ the simplicity.

A comment on a previous posting was absolutely right – it takes time to appreciate the simple after crafting so intricately for years, with layer upon layer of die-cutting.

The brown flowers were because I saw a posting from Yana Smakula on Pinterest, and she did her flowers in coffee colours. They were stunning. I had to give it a try. I am also liking that effect too.

As I haven’t posted for a few days, and was in frenzy mode, I have decided to choose some challenges using a different card from this posting for each one. I couldn’t decide what to do which would match the same challenges, and had some serious crafting mojo happening, I just went with it and kept going. I took one of my cats meowing at me constantly to realise how late it was and that I had been in my craft cave for a few hours!!

I did venture outside at some point today, and took a picture of the bluebells currently in bloom, almost at the end of their bloom actually. Still a stunning display, though.