Distress Oxide

Hey Chick….!

I have a fun card to share today:

The colour scheme is for one of the challenges I am entering, and as soon as I saw that yellow was in that challenge, I thought of chickens. No idea why – I don’t have chickens – but I remembered this Tim Holtz layering die set so I started from there.

I die cut the chickens from several shades of yellow card stock from Heffy Doodle. The egg was from the same Tim Holtz die set, and created using Lost Shadow Distress Oxide, and ink smooshed onto Kraft Heavystock. I loved how the oxide gave a mottled and chalky effect.

Once all the layers were glued together I decided I wanted to create a scene, so I ink blended Salvaged Patina Distress Ink and used a Lawn Fawn cloud stencil, and for the grass I used a Pinkfresh Studio green ink and a Lawn Fawn grass stencil again.

I also wanted a speech bubble and suitable sentiment, so I searched the Color My Life app and it came up with the speech bubble from Lawn Fawn which is meant to be part of a reveal wheel, and the sentiment from Stampin’ Up.

I die cut that stencilled panel with a stitched rectangle and adhered flat to a white card base.

I stuck down the two chicks and the sentiment with 3D foam, and wasn’t going to add an egg (I made three altogether) but decided to put it on at the last minute. In hindsight, I think I should have left it off the card. It kinda looks like the chick is sitting on a stone……..anyhoo. Hindsight is always 20/20….I think it’s cute and fun anyway.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – celery green, yellow, aqua

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – things with wings

Crafty Catz – anything goes – option of celebration not taken

Daring Cardmakers – feathers or something feathered

Stencil Fun – stencils – option of patterns

Snow and Trees Scene

Hello there. ABC Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letters ‘S’ and ‘T’, and the themes are ‘S is for Snow’ and ‘T is for Trees’. I decided to combine the two themes in my card:

Onto a white panel, I used the Hero Arts ‘Winter Woods‘ colour layering stamp set. After seeing the inspiration photo from one of the challenges – I thought it was time to give it a go.

I used Distress Oxides to stamp the layering images, following the guidelines on the package, then stamped and die cut the additional trees and the deer.

Before adding those extra elements, I splattered the panel with Liquitex shimmery acrylic gold to add some shine – but couldn’t pick it up on the photos – but it is very shiny.

I cut that panel down with Gina K Designs ‘Master Layouts 01’, then added a black panel, before sticking down to a white card base.

The sentiment is from my stash – a hot foiling session from a few weeks ago.

I’m looking forward to seeing your snow and trees Christmas creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers – in the forest

Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Inspiration Station Challenge – photo inspiration

We Love Stamping Challenge – stamping

Winter Wonderland Challenge – Christmas and animals

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge – Blend

Hello. Another card to share today, this time a CAS card for the new challenge starting at Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge. This time the theme is ‘BLEND’ – as long as it’s a CAS card – then you’re good to go. Here is my card:

For this card I used a Pinkfresh Studio stencil – it’s a layering stencil but I masked off everything except these leaves. I then ink blended – Distress Oxides – through the stencil. The second layer – the leaves detail – I used Gina K Design glitter paste.

Onto a second piece of card I ink blended the same colours, and adhered it to the side of the card base, just reversing the order – purple opposite the yellow leaves and yellow opposite the purple leaves.

I stamped the sentiment and adhered it as you see.

I hope you can come and join us with your CAS ‘BLEND’ cards. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge – anything goes (option of scene not taken)

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes

Addicted to CAS – CAS Friendship

HLS CAS anything goes

Hello there and a Happy New Year. I have a card to share today as Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge has started a new challenge. We are starting off with an easy theme – anything goes CAS. Here is my card:

I used a stamp and matching die set which came with the kit for the Crop and Create delivered card making weekend back in October of 2021. I took quite a few virtual classes from people and companies I admired and yet never hoped to think I would attend one of their classes. This is one such class – and amazing few days, fabulous teachers – and great products as part of your kit. It is called ‘Change The World‘ and has the globe with flowers sitting on top, some additional flowers and leaves, and sentiments to match

This is a variation of one of the cards taught by Cathy Zielske – I white heat embossed the stamp set, then ink blended a green and a blue Distress Ink – to create an emboss resist.

I did the same with the two individual flowers – stamped, ink blended, die cut – then attached them to this card. The sentiment is stamped using the same colour as the ink blending – but Distress Oxide as it stamps better than the Distress inks.

I am starting to think I’m going to need quite a few birthday cards over the coming weeks, so this will be a great addition to my stash.

I hope you can come and join us in our ‘CAS anything goes‘ theme – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

QKR Stampede – anything goes

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Die Cut Divas – flowers – include a die cut

ABC Christmas Challenge – ‘W’ and ‘X’

Hello there. I am hosting the new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge for the letters ‘W’ and ‘X’. The theme chosen for these letters are ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Xtra Special’.

I have a prize on offer for the winner – chosen by a random generator – so every entry has a chance to win:

Thirsty Brush and Co – stamp and die set – Home For Christmas

You can enter as many times as you like – as long as you follow the winter/Christmas holidays or festivals – and you have followed the theme for the current letters.

Here are my cards:

Both of these cards are a combination of ink-blending, die-cutting and adding glittery stuff, with the second card also including some Copic colouring.

The Winter Wonderland card is utilising the new die set from Tim Holtz – Colorize Holiday Village – but changing the colour of my village to two shades of red instead of brown – I wanted a brighter look to the card. I did have to watch YouTube to figure out what to glue where – and in what order!

I added some mountains behind the village and an ink blended sky – which actually came about quite by mistake……. I did the ink blending, then used a Lawn Fawn stencil and some glitter paste to try and create some stars – but when I took the stencil up it moved and scraped along the sky. I tried to take the glitter paste up with a spatula – but it just swept the glitter across the sky………my idea of a happy accident. A very glittery sky now, with the distress inks showing some of the stars anyway. Oh yeah!

The Xtra Special card was also ink blending, but with Distress Oxides – two red colours and Wilted Violet along the edges to darken them. I liked the look of the violet so much, I used that as the main colour for my characters. Purple penguin and bird anyone!

I decided to add some white acrylic splatter to the background, and then also added some white gel pen into the areas which I thought looked a little open.

There is some glitter and sparkle on this card too – once I have the stuff out then I’m gonna use ’em! Nuvo drops on all the itsy bitsy tiny tree lights, sparkle pen on the other baubles and the snow on the lodge – oh, and the pompoms on the hats too.

I hope you can come and join us – it’s getting closer to the time when we have to think about what Christmas cards we have and also think about sending them cards out…….I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Winter wonderland card:

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

Christmas 24 Challenge – Christmas Landscape

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Xtra Special Card:

Jingle Belles Rock – Christmas and Creatures

Color Crazy Challenge – week 43 – anything goes colouring

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with critters

Crafty Animals Challenge – anything goes with animals

Christmas Cards All Year Round – for or with family or friends

Love Your Inner Monster

Hello once again. I have a CAS card to share today, which includes some fancy masking – for me it was fancy, anyway:

I mentioned previously finding the Tracy Hey Designs web site and the super-dooper cute stamp sets she has. This was another of my purchases, and fits right in with a few challenges I have been trying to create for.

I cut the base layer with some stitched rectangle dies, then stamped my dragon image with Gina K Amalgam ink. I stamped the image again on some masking paper, and set to fussy-cutting……..I don’t like fussy cutting, but when I knew I wanted to do some masking – you have to do what is required, don’t you?

So – this image – triangle spine thingies, star horn thingies………………not the most straight-forward I have cut out….but I must admit it was worth it….

Once masked – before I coloured just in case I messed it up – I found a circle stencil, and inked Distress Oxide through the stencil – And I just love when you reveal…….looks messy until you peel everything back, doesn’t it?

As I was happy with the masking and blending, I took some Copics and coloured as per the colours for one of the challenges – just a couple of the greens, and one yellow – simple. Then I took my colour-less blender and dotted it around the dragon – to try to give an impression of scaly skin. Do you think it worked?

So – the sentiment – on the same stamp set! I know – how fabulous is this sentiment? Love it – and there are more on that set I can’t wait to get working with.

Why a dragon I hear you ask……well, I was born in the year of the Dragon – so that could be 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000 – or even 2012 – but I’m not telling!!!!

In fact – when I post to my Instagram – I’ll have a cheeky little quiz and pressie for a few people…..maybe you want to go and check it out…….

Apparently, the dragon is the only imaginary animal in the Chinese zodiac too……..and something about being hot-headed…..hmmm…..maybe!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology – Zodiac

CAS Colours and Sketches – Call Me Clover, Pineapple Punch, Blueberry Bushel (Hopefully the Copic colours are a good enough match)

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Perfectly CAS – CAS masking – one third or less

CAS with bleaching

Hi again. A lot of crafting done today…………….

I had some bad news from a dear friend of mine today. Her son has died from the dreaded Covid-19! Her son! How on earth do you cope with that? I don’t have children, so I couldn’t possibly imagine how that must feel. He must have been around 40 years of age, and was working as a bus driver after the lock-down………………..As nurses we are expected to continue to work, and as a bus driver, he who would be in more contact with the general public, was trying to get the rest of us to work during this pandemic. I can’t comprehend how she must be feeling right now.

I have a card planned in my mind, as I can’t go and give her a hug. I can’t go anywhere near her, with the lock-down in place, and especially as she is in the vulnerable age group, but at least I can send a card with some pretend hugs……………………at least she will know I am thinking about her!

I took to my craft room and tried a new technique to try and ease my own mind.

I tried some bleaching on my image. Here is the card before I tell you any more about my technique:

I ink blended the Distress Oxide ‘Barn Door’ as I wanted a very vibrant red colour, which would stand out from the bleaching. I dried it with my heat tool, then stamped and embossed the Uniko ‘Peony’ in Altenew Gold embossing powder then went hunting for some bleach……

Erm – as we have a septic tank – I didn’t have any pure bleach – we’re not supposed to use too much bleach – so I improvised. I took some ‘Domestos‘ – which is bleach technically – but it is ultra-thick…….and just tried it.

I noticed it took the colour away VERY quickly, but I also noticed I could determine how much colour was taken off depending on how long I left it there – so I tried a little ‘blending’. Removing some very quickly from the inner petals to try and create some darker petals, and removing a second or too later for the lighter and outer petals.

I then cut thisa piece into a square, and added a wonky stitched rectangle frame.

The sentiment is from a new Tracy Hey stamp set – full of encouraging words and phrases – I can see I’m going to be using those a lot in the next few weeks.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Mix-Up – CAS – bleaching + stamping + your choice (embossing and die-cutting)

Craft Friends Challenge – atg

Crafty Creations Challenge – atg

Crafters Castle Challenge – atg

You’re cute as a bug….

Hello – I have another ladybird card for you today as I had some images left over from yesterday’s card – and I thought they were too cute not to use straight away:

I was looking for a way to use all the images I had left, so I took the Avery Elle ‘Circle Frames Elle-ments’ die and cut the four circles into a piece of white card stock.

Then I took a light blue piece of card, slightly larger, and where the circles showed the blue through then, I ink blended a light blue Distress Oxide for a little shading, even though it doesn’t show that much on the photo.

One of the circles which came out of the die was – just – the perfect size for the sentiment…………just!

Once the ladybirds were stuck in place, I then decided to add some bling. Nope – not Nuvo drops this time, but some blue sequins, placed within the circles……..and one on the sentiment – cos I had a little smudge there!

And – now I’m looking at the card in close-up……………can you see what I missed? Yep – I forgot to colour one of the ladybirds faces…………! Pretend it’s the same as the others – just pretend! I’ll probably go back and colour it. Thank goodness I took a photo of the colours I used. I knew that would come in handy one day:

I shall be entering the following challenges:

2 Sisters on the blog – dots and/or stripes (ladybird dots)

Stamplorations Theme and photo prompt – stamps and nature

Just Add Ink – something beginning with ‘E’ – embellishment – sequins

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring

Cute Little Duckies

Hello again. I have a card to share as there is anew challenge beginning at Cardz 4 Galz. The theme this time is………..’Cute Animals’.…….

Here is my card:

I wanted to use this stamp set, and I wanted to create a scene. A scene is not something I generally have much luck with, but I’m happy with this one – it’s quite simple, a few layers, and a little ink blending and water splattering.

After stamping the images in Gina K Amalgam ink, I coloured with Copics, before using the matching dies to cut them out. here are the Copics I used:

I have found it helpful when people post a list of colours, so I thought I’d do it too.

I first ink blended a panel using two Distress Oxides for the sky, then used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Cloudy Backdrop, as I like the stitched clouds effect. I used some green card, used Lawn Fawn grass dies, added a little green Distress Oxides to the grassy edges, and stuck them down as you see.

I wasn’t going to put a sentiment on the card, but a little simple ‘Hello‘ from an Altenew stamp set in the top corner still meant this card could be for any reason – or for no reason at all.

I hope you can come and join us – I’d love to see you in our gallery with your ‘Cute Animals’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Arty Stamper Challenge – lots of layers

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Crafts Galore Challenge – anything goes

All Fun Challenge – anything goes

You Make My Heart Happy

Hello everyone. I have a card to share today which again took a lot of thinking about, and changing my mind and generally trying lots of different layouts:

I used the Altenew ‘Birds of a Feather’ die set for the birds, the branches, and the heart. I initially tried stamping these birds in black, but I couldn’t actually line up the images, and when I did I didn’t get a good enough stamped image – despite using the Misti – so I decided to just use the outline dies for all the images.

The background is again an Altenew stamp set – Wood Pallet Background – and the sentiment is from the same stamp set.

The heart I die cut out of red glimmer card and I drew in the string with a black art liner pen.

It looks quite simple – but it took a few times of me counting to 10 – believe me!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Pinspirational Challenges – photo inspiration

Always Fun Challenges – animals

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes animals