Clearly Besotted

CAS Birthday Bear

Hello. I have a CAS card to share using a Clearly Besotted stamp:

I stamped the image onto panel and coloured with Copics. I then stamped the sentiment in the same brown Gina K amalgam ink, cut the panel down to be slightly smaller than the card base, and adhered with 3D foam.

I decided the bear needed some grounding, so I added a little cool grey Copic shadowing.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Cards – CAS – bears

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – 4 legged animals

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with critter as main focus

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

AAA Birthday – anything goes birthday

Sparkles Forum – friendship

ABC Christmas Challenge – A and B

Hello once again. The ABC Christmas Challenge is at the beginning of the alphabet again. Helen is hosting this time round, and we want to see your ‘A for Anything goes’ and ‘B for Bears’ Christmas creations. Here are my cards:

A is for Anything Goes
B is for Bear

As you can see – two very different styles of cards.

The first CAS card is using s Clearly Besotted image, stamping, colouring with Copics, then using an oval to die cut, layering that white oval with black, then adding a foiled sentiment.

The second definitely not CAS card took a little more preparation.

I sprayed some Tim Holtz mica spray onto some Distress Heavystock card, splattered with white acrylic paint and set aside to dry.

I then totally channeled Tim Holtz from one of his YouTube videos, and die cut the bear from white and grey wood grain card stock, layered together, then added a pink scarf using a previously created ink smooshed panel.

The trees were die cut from a panel of card onto which I had glued some tissue paper, added water, added Brushos, then when dry added some gold wax. The die cutting of the trees flattened the ridges on the trees – but if you add the wax prior to die cutting then the detail is still there.

I snipped and placed the trees, added the bear, added some white glitter drops for the snow on the ground, then added the sentiment – die cutting the ‘board’ from the same white and grey card stock, and adding the letters in a haphazard fashion – I struggle with straight when I do a sentiment like this, so I went overboard with the higgledy-piggledy.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS card:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Creative Knockouts – anything goes

Crafting Happiness – celebrations

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Bear card:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with critter as main focus

The Four seasons Challenge – anything goes winter

Challenge Up Your Life – ice, ice, baby

Most Magical Time Of The Year – anything goes Christmas or Halloween

Reach For The Stars…..

The Alphabet Challenge has reached the letter ‘O‘, and Billie A is hosting this time round. The theme is ‘Outer Space’. Here is my card:

The panda and starship is from Clearly Besotted – stamped, coloured with Copics, then cut using my Scan-n-cut.

The purple circle is from an ink smooshed and splattered piece created previously, die cut using a large circle, a white circle then added, and I ‘gutted’ the larger circle to create the smaller circle – waste not, want not…..

It seems quite simple -and yet the placement of the rocket and panda took me – it seems – forever! I do procrastinate on occasion!

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘outer space’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Cards Galore – anything goes

Crafty Friends – use more than one die

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes – option circles and squares

Beelieve In Yourself

Hello. Popping in to share a card using a new stamp set from Claire Manning Creative for the current challenge at Festive Friday. When I saw Claire demonstrate this on her YouTube channel – I just had to have it:

This is a layering stamp set called ‘Buzzing‘, and I thought it would go perfectly with one of previously made Distress Ink smooshed backgrounds – and I like how it turned out – all that rich yellow and that stark black….

The body of the bee is stamped in Versafine Black Onyx to get that deep and dark black, and then the wings were stamped. Usually, you stamp the yellow, then the black – but as I had yellow on the background panel – I didn’t need to do that.

And as we all could do with some encouraging words every now and again – then this sentiment from Clearly Besotted fitted the bill nicely – from one of their bee stamp sets.

I may have to play with this the way Claire did on her YouTube video – using a spray of water on the layers to give a water-colour effect – watch this space!

using Bee, yellow, black

It’s Wine O’Clock…..

Hello there. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz, and the theme chosen by Claudia is ‘Food and/or Drink‘. Here is my card:

I chose several images from a Clearly Besotted stamp set, stamped haphazardly around a card panel, then coloured with Copics.

The sentiment and the ‘hics‘ are stamped as you see. This panel was then layered with a dotty paper, and then onto a white card base.

I look forward to seeing your food and/or drink creations…..xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Crafty Friends – animals

ABC Christmas Challenge – P, Q, R

Hello. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters above and we want to see your Christmas makes with the following themes:

P for Plump – think Father Christmas, Robin, Pudding

Q for Quality Street chocolates – using the chocolates or the colours

R for Ribbon

Here are my cards with P and Q:

P for Plump:

Q for Quality Street:

For the first card, I used the Hero Arts Alignment tool to ink blend a square in the card base. I then stamped, coloured with Copics, and die cut the balloon images from Clearly Besotted, and drew some white gel pen on for the balloon strings.

I also received some little gem sticky thingies from my Stampin Up Demonstrator that day – so I added those too…..

For the second card I’ve gone a completely different route – not so much CAS, is it?

The purple background is alcohol ink on Yupo paper. That purple panel was die cut using a Sue Wilson Big Bold Words die – saving the negative space and each individual little piece which came out – then put the sentiment, it’s outline, and all those little pieces onto a piece of black card which was backed by a double sided sticky sheet. To the part of the base outline which was left, I sprinkled some Creative Expressions black glitter, then placed the sentiment piece back onto the purple Yupo paper.

There’s a lot of colour and inspiration from the Design team – I hope you get time to check them out and join us for our challenge xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Purple card:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Love To Craft Challenge – anything goes

Christmas Cards All Year Round – Christmas with O and/or P – (Purple)

Mix It Up Challenge – mixed media – alcohol inks, glitter,

Balloon card:

Cupcake Inspiration – balloons

Crafters Café – anything goes

Christmas with the cuties – CAS cute Christmas

Crafty Animals Challenge – anything goes with an animal

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Umbrellas and rain drops

 

Hello again. Here is a card which appears a little darker than my usual, but it is actually quite sparkly if you turn it a little. I’ve tried to capture the effect, but it does look better in ‘real life’.

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I used a Clearly Besotted stamp set, and heat embossed onto black card with silver detail embossing powder. I then used my Polychromos to colour the images in, using 2-3 reds and 2-3 yellows. The black rain drops are from the matching dies for the stamp set, which are cut from Stampin Up black glimmer card, and individually stuck down.

I heat embossed the sentiments from the same stamp set, and added the whole thing to a white base card.

To try and get the glimmer from the rain drops, I had to prop the card against one of my perfume bottle – only because it had a nice image on the lid. Can you tell which perfume it is?

I shall be entering the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks – anything goes with twist raining cats and dogs

Inkspirational – photo inspiration

Pinspirational – anything goes

 

 

Believe CASE card

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Hi everyone. I have a card – with additional variation on the theme later in the posting – for the current challenges at Simple Less Is More and CASology.

I used a layering stamp set from Just Rite for the flowers, along with a little masking, and Altenew inks. I must say that I watched a You tube video last week – can’t remember who from – and they said to let the ink dry between layers to achieve a crisper effect. I tried this – and it works! I do love when a plan comes together.

The sentiment is from Stamps By Me and heat embossed in silver detail powder. I chose this sentiment to go with the CASology challenge, but also because I like the way the word kinda fades out at the top. Even though it is bold, it also doesn’t seem to cover much of the main image.

Some Tonic Nuvo drops were added for interest, and then this piece attached to a white base card.

I have a whole stack of 300 gsm white card for base cards. I use this as it doesn’t take inks well, it doesn’t like blending inks, and it doesn’t like being coloured with anything! So, white sturdy base cards for quite a while!

Here is a version with some Clearly Besotted stamps:

I got carried away with the blue and silver combination…..

Challenges I will be entering:

Less Is More – CASE the card

CASology – Believe

 

Stamping and colouring

Hi there. I have another ‘home’ day today. The snow yesterday settled but now looks like it’s virtually all gone – gotta love the English climate – and so I have been trying techniques that I haven’t really tried before.

I produce three cards, the first of which is this one for the current Time Out Challenge and CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge,

 

I used a Uniko stamp set for the corners – a lovely background builder stamp set (‘Vines’) with lots and lots of little, in fact tiny, stamps, to fill in small areas. Even this small set packs a punch as they are also 2 or 3 step images too…..The sentiment is from MFT – ‘Big Birthday Wishes‘, and all done using Catherine Pooler and Altenew inks.

The second card is using a cute – very unlike me – stamp set from Clearly Besotted. It is a recent purchase for me, but I just loved the 5 different little creatures on it. The set is called ‘A Bug’s Life’, and comes with a matching die set.

I coloured these with my Crafters Companion ‘Colorista’ alcohol pen set I have had for ages. I have tried these before, tried blending them, but it didn’t really work. I mentioned yesterday having a ‘Eureka’ moment – it is because I’m not using the correct card. I used Crafters Companion Neenah Classic Crest – blends like a dream.  (I really, really should listen to all that good advice on the experts who post their videos on YouTube!!!)

I couldn’t stop stamping and colouring, which is why there is a selection of cards. The ‘cute as a bug‘ sentiment from the same stamp set, but the ‘don’t bug me’ sentiment is from a Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi stamp set. One of these cards will be used in the current CASology Challenge – cue word ‘Bug’.

The third card is something I have been thinking about doing for ages, but way out of my comfort zone:

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This is a one layer, stamps and inks only card. The inspiration for one of the current challenges at The Library Challenge. I like the fact that the challenges over-lap. So there is already another challenge gone live, whilst this one is still going….

I used a combination of inks from Catherine Pooler and Altenew. The background is achieved with a dry baby-wipe on my finger, a torn paper edge, and a rub of the ink over that edge. This is a technique from Card-io I have been longing to try for ages – here was the opportunity.

The trees are stamped first, second, and third generation for that misty look going into the background. The grass is from a Card-io stamp set, as are the trees, birds, and the clouds. The sentiment is from Catherine Pooler, which I thought fit the scene, and the subject/topic of the book.

So – three different cards, for three different occasions, but I had fun with them all. 🙂

Friends

20180218_203048Hi everyone. I have moved away from the florals for a little while….for this card, anyway. I was inspired by the current challenge fro CASology, and as I had a delivery from Clearly Besotted this week, which included these cheeky monkeys…….off I went.

I know that many people are thinking Valentines at the moment, but I tend to buck the trend and think of other ways of ‘together’. This card is an homage to my best friend, and the sentiment taken from an Altenew stamp set just fits the bill nicely.

We are crazy when we are together, yet professional and somewhat calmer during our work time. In fact we hardly see each other at work, even when we worked within the same department. Which made it all the more special when we went away for a night or two. We are going away for the Uniko retreat this coming Saturday (24th), as we had so much lovely crafting time last time, we just had to! (Even though my bestie isn’t really a crafty card maker……..she just comes with me for the craic!)

So, this card….the images stamped in Versafine black onyx and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I actually stamped quite a few of them, as I didn’t know which of the images I wanted to use, and I didn’t know which colouring medium I would prefer.

I coloured some with my Zigs – the ones I used – and some with my Polychromos, then some with some Crafters Companion pencils. I then die cut them, arranged them on the card – fiddling several times – then added with 3D foam.

20180218_203102_001The sentiment is stamped in Versafine black onyx again, but not heat embossed. One thing I always seem to do – add the sentiment last, even when the card is complete except for the sentiment. How about if it stamped wrong?! I do like to live on the edge…..