dry embossing

Happy Fruity Birthday

Having just been a part of the Pinkfresh Create and Connect event this weekend, and being able to do two classes, I did watched a third class this morning and whilst the instructor was using more realistic colours, I decided to use the colours for one of the challenges I will be entering (sky blue, pink, red):

I gold heat embossed the stamp – a huge slimline stamp – then used the matching die to cut out all the elements. Before choosing which of the elements to use, I die cut the frame – also from Pinkfresh and a previous event – and die cut the inner piece but then dry embossed that inner piece with a Spellbinders embossing folder, and ink blended just a little of the light blue in the bottom corner – to try and ‘connect’ the images and the sentiment.

I inserted that piece then played with which elements to use, where to use them, how to arrange them. I chose a sentiment from this recent event, then adhered all the elements with a mixture of 3D foam and wet glue.

This stamp, die and stencil set also comes with the matching washi tape – another huge roll – and the die cuts out all the elements – playtime for another day…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks – occasions

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes

Beyond The Blue – use one or more stencils – (at least 6 layering stencils with this stamp set)

Cupcake Inspirations – sky blue, pink, red

CYHTP – embossing folder – (option of things with wings not taken)

Birthday Wishes

I had a chance to play with some new products from Spellbinders:

I cut a white panel and used a Spellbinders embossing folder to create the background, layered onto a white card base.

I then did some die-cutting – when I say ‘some’ die-cutting I really mean quite a bit. I was using the colours from the current challenge at Color Hues, and die cut the hexagons, flowers, and all the layers from white, teal, and lime green card stock. I had no idea when I began which colour I was going to use for which layer, so I played around until I found the layers that I wanted, then glued them all together.

I then played with the positioning of the hexagons until I was happy with the layout above, glued the floral images down, added some small gold gems to the flowers then thought about the sentiment.

I used a debossing sentiment – also from Spellbinders – and some of their gold card stock to match with the centre of the flowers.

I’m getting quite used to the small fiddly layering dies, and instead of dreading them I embrace them wholeheartedly….and the only thing I get just a little worried about are the colours for each layer, but with a colour challenge that is taken care of……

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Allsorts – anything goes – option of wings not taken

Color Hues – lime green and cyan

Creative Knockouts – birthday

Time Out – birthday

Everybody Art – birthday

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Floral Frame Birthday

After a busy week, I was able to create a card over the past couple of days, and completed today:

The base colour is cream from my stash, a Creative Expressions cream coloured card stock. I first took an A2 panel and dry embossed it with a Spellbinders embossing folder. I then attached this to the card base.

I then took another cream panel, and ink blended the floral frame (The Greetery) using the layering stencils. I used a light pink for all the flowers, stamping them twice for the base layer, and then for the added detail layer – using the same light pink – stamped three times to create a darker pink. I then used the outer and inner edge dies to cut the frame out.

I then took another stencil set from The Greetery and ink blended the two yellow flowers, using the die panel to cut those out.

I was going to attach the frame straight onto the embossed panel, but I thought the centre looked too busy with the dry embossing behind it, so I die cut the outer edge of the frame from another piece of cream card stock and attached it to the back using 3D foam tape – to create a more solid centre, and create some dimension and shadow behind the frame.

The yellow flowers were inserted, the sentiment stamped and the sentiment strip adhered with glue on the edges, and 3D foam on the centre.

I added some yellow dots to balance the yellow above the sentiment strip.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – yellow, light pink, cream, green

CYHTP – embossing folder option of hearts not taken)

Inkspirational – use stencils

AAA Birthday – birthday and use stencils

Unicorn Challenge – birthday

Stencil Fun – stencils – option of hearts not taken

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers and mood board

A Golden Hello

Hello there. It seems I have a thing about creating cards with birds at the moment. My two previous posts are with swans, and now I have a card with a golden dove:

Onto a white card base I adhered a red layer, then a blush pink dry embossed panel,. using a Spellbinders embossing folder. I die cut the central label shape using a Gina K Designs ‘Master Layouts‘ set, the same blush card, and layered with the same red card. I fiddled around to ensure that the central label embossing matched the background embossing – a little fiddly but I achieved what I wanted to do.

I then began die cutting……..

I used Spellbinders floral dies, and die cut them all in the blush card and white card, then decided to cut them again in a brushed gold from Spellbinders, played around with which colour for which layer, and then decided I needed a darker pink card for some of the buds on the floral pieces – and you can see what I ended up with. There was a lot of die-cutting and assembling the different colours and the different layers until I was happy.

The bird is from The Greetery, die cut using the shiny gold card from Spellbinders, and I also used the shiny gold for the sentiment, but also added three layers of white behind it to make it more substantial.

Using two different types of gold, and two different pink tones seems to work quite well – the bird still stands out as it is shiny…..

I even added some more bling using Trinity Stamps gold embellishments….

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, pink, gold

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – fun with dies

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and add some gold

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Just For You……

Hello. I have a slimline card to share with you today incorporating some new products from Spellbinders – dies and embossing folder:

Onto a black slimline card base I adhered a dry embossed panel with 3D foam – this card has a lot of dimension – this is just the beginning….

I die cut the flowers and leaves from various Spellbinder sets in black, magenta and grey, played a little with which colour for which layer, mixed and matched, then arranged them onto the card base.

The flowers were adhered with 3D foam squares, with the leaves and stems attached using glue.

The sentiment is from the Spellbinders Advent Calendar, die cut with a top layer of magenta, two layers of white, then a bottom black layer – slightly off-set.

A final touch was to add some gems – in groups of two – around the sentiment and the floral arrangement.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – magenta, black, white, grey

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – something new

Crafty Catz – anything goes – option hobbies/pastimes not taken

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

MMM Challenge – use something new

Beyond The Blue – use some new craft supplies

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Sending Snowflake Kisses

Hello there. I have been playing with different media over the weekend, and trying some new techniques. One of those I want to share on a card:

This card took quite a bit of thinking about – and a few changes along the way.

I started by die cutting the Hero Arts snowflakes ornament die out of silver glitter card stock, cutting off the ornament topper to create a circle. I then die cut a silver circle frame using a couple of different sized circle dies, and layered on top.

The blue background to the circle, which was previously created using Brushos, again die cut with a circle die and adhered to the back of the snowflakes.

For the background panel, I tried the ink pad to embossing folder technique – on both sides – debossed and embossed, to see what happened. I tried this several times, with different blue Distress inks, and liked this debossed panel the best. I adhered that to the white card base using 3D foam, then stuck down the snowflakes circle.

I wanted a little more bling, so I added some separate snowflakes die cut in the same silver glitter card, from a Pinkfresh Studio set, snipping and placing as you see – of course – this would have been easier had I done this prior to adhering the circle – but there we are……

I added the foiled sentiment – and then decided to add more shine by adding a little silver gem to each of the little snowflakes in the circle…….who knew there were many of them in there?

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP – embossing folder – option Christmas

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

Beyond The Blue – snowflakes

Peace On Earth Christmas – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Golden Congrats…..

A little more crafty playing yesterday to create this card:

I began by picking the colours out for the current Color Throwdown Challenge and then browsing the ‘Color My Life’ app for ideas. I had no idea where I wanted to go with these colours.

I decided to use these new-to-me dies from Honey Bee Stamps to create a couple of bells, which I die cut and created first. I then decided I wanted a dry embossed background, so turned to one of my favourite embossing folders from Stampin Up.

I wanted a gold layer beneath the embossed layer, so after cutting the panel, I die cut the sentiment – from Lawn Fawn – out of the middle, then layered the two panels together, adding to the card base with 3D foam.

I played with the placement of the bells, but thought a little more dimension was needed, so I used two ovals from a Gina K Designs Master Layouts set, and stuck everything down as you see.

The sentiment was added, but only after I had layered the gold with a couple of white die cuts.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – gold, pink, ice blue

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of Christmas not taken

Inkspirational – prompt word – gold

Dragonfly Dreams – anything but Christmas

Crafters Café – anything goes

Poinsettia and Holly

Hello. I created this card using Spellbinders dies, using colours from a previous challenge – but I liked how the colours worked together so I played with them again:

Behind a die cut square aperture, I placed a dry embossed panel which had been splattered with a copper acrylic paint from Liquitex.

I then die cut the poinsettia – putting more layers with it for a fuller look, die cut some ferns from green card stock, and the holly leaves and mistletoe from gold card stock.

I played around with the arrangement a little, and glued when I was happy.

The sentiment is a previously gold foiled one from Spellbinders.

Here is a picture of the shine from the foiling and gold card stock:

I am absolutely loving the gold card stock from Spellbinders at the moment, and can’t seem to stop using it. You have to make sure that your cutting plates are quite new – you do get some marks on the card if the die cut is large and plain enough…….ask me how I know….!

As an aside – I mentioned on a previous post that the ‘Color My Life’ app – which I used to catalogue my stash – was broken for a few days. It now works, the updates have been sorted and I can see and search from this again – I was really quite shocked how dependent I was on this app. I search for things for challenges – colours, or animals, or tags I have inserted myself. It has saved me buying the same thing twice a few times, but just the ability to be able to ‘look’ through my stash for items I know I have – but forget who made them, or where I’ve stored them – it really is a great way to organise electronically.

Now – to continue with the card – I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – holiday cheer

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Shopping Our Stash – Christmas greenery

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Crafting Happiness – Christmas

2 Sisters On The Blog – Christmas and Holly

Winter Wonderland – anything goes Christmas

Just……..Hello…..

I have a CAS card to share which incorporates several of my favourite techniques – ink smooshing, die-cutting, and using embossing folders:

I dry embossed a white panel and stuck to the card base with 3D foam.

The Tim Holtz flower (Holiday Brushstrokes) was die cut from a previously created orange ink smooshed panel – the different small layers had some extra ink blending on the edges to make them a little darker – and glued together. The yellow centre is from another panel using mica sprays.

I also die cut the leaves in that die set from a brown card stock, then adhered these with a mixture of 3D foam and wet glue.

The sentiment if from Lawn Fawn, die cut three times in white, then a brown die cut on top.

I added some red enamel dots as extra accents.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

TTCRD – anything goes

Krafty Chicks – CAS

Creative Knockouts – anything goes

Color Throwdown – red, orange, brown, yellow

Mix It Up – anything goes – option to use a technique

Thankful For Your Friendship

Hello once again. It’s my turn to host the new challenge starting at Cardz 4 Galz. I have chosen the theme of ‘stencils’. Here is my card:

This card is – obviously – a slimline card – but slightly longer than the usual. I started with the card base, and die cut the Pinkfresh Studio deco frame twice – it wasn’t as long as I needed it – but I knew I could cover the join with my other elements.

I dry embossed a panel to go inside the frame and adhered the frame with 3D foam – I wanted to add the elemenst with 3D foam, and to tuck them under the frame in certain places.

The birds and branches are from a stamp, die and stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio. I stenciled this several times with different colours of birds and flowers, then used the matching die, which created lots of separate pieces, and set about arranging them in my frame.

I knew I wanted to cover the join in the frame, so I started there, then looked for a sentiment and arranged everything else around that. Some of the leaves and flowers I trimmed down to fit, and added gold gems to match the sentiment.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations which include a stencil – I look forward to seeing your creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge – Anything goes (option to add number/s not taken)

MMM Challenge – thank you

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

CYHTP – embossing folder (wreath option not taken)

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes – option words of thanks

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes (option fancy folds not taken)

Stencil Fun – stencils (option fall colours not taken)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – stencil it