foiling

Just A Note

Having used all my Pinkfresh washi the past few days, I went with a different route to follow the current colour challenge at Color Hues – purple & artichoke. Here is my card:

This actually came with a few ‘oopsies’ during it’s creation and a couple of goes at it.

The products used is from Taylored Expressions – Boho Botanicals – and I believe may have been part of a virtual event – but I’m not sure. The ‘foil-it’ panel is toner printed, so you run it through with foil and a laminator, then use the stencils to colour the images on top of the foil………I used the Gina K Designs ‘Fuse’ machine.

So – I first used the wrong foil. I used glimmer foil (!!!) which covered the whole panel, which also foiled the whole of the foil onto my carrier sheet……

Off I went to YouTube to figure out what I was doing wrong……. I needed to use Decofoil, not glimmer foil! Doh!

Start again – found some Decofoil, grabbed another of the ‘foil-it’ panels, ran it though the Fuse machine – lovely outcome. Yay!

The images were then ink blended using Pinkfresh Studio inks. I did play with shading on each of the florals as the stencils only do one layer for them. Three tones of purple, graduating them towards the outside of the petals. The leaves and stems were coloured using Concord & 9th ‘Artichoke‘ ink – that comes in strong so I had to be careful with that one.

Once coloured, I wiped with a dry cloth – hey presto – foil details shining through the ink blending.

The coloured panel was adhered to a purple panel from my stash, then added to a white card base. The heat embossed sentiment layered and added.

The panels from Taylored Expressions come in a pack of three different foiling designs – I may have a little play with the other panels to see what the difference is.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Stencil Fun – use stencils, option of mainly yellow not taken

Color Hues – purple & artichoke

Just Us Girls – stencil week

Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party – anything in or from the garden

Pink Peony Thanks

There is a brand new challenge starting from Heart’s Quest, and to show my support for the new challenge and the Design Team, I have created a card for it. The name of the challenge is ‘Heart’s Quest Pretty In Pink’ and the theme is to use mainly pink, with an optional pink washi/decorative tape for this month.

Here is my card:

When I saw that the theme was pink – not my usual choice of the main colour – I thought of peonies. I searched through my CML app with that tag, and decided to use the Honey Bee Stamps ‘Lovely Layers: Peony‘ die set.

I started by die cutting all the floral layers in Concord & 9th card stock, then ink blending a darker pink in strategic areas. To make sure this ink blending was in the areas which would be seen, I placed the next upper layer on top, saw what would be seen, then ink blended. I did this trough all the layers.

The leaves and stems were die cut from a green card also form C9, and then ink blended also with a slightly darker green.

The layers were glued together, then I added some white acrylic splatter and set aside to dry.

I used a 5×7 inch card base – large enough to place all the elements rather than an A2 – and created the background white panel by using a Spellbinders embossing folder onto which I had pressed some green ink, creating this distressed looking basket weave pattern.

The central pink panel was cut to 5×7, but I used Pinkfresh Studio ‘Slim Edgers‘ die to create the stitch and pattern. This piece was then run through with the same Spellbinders embossing folder, and a white pigment ink pad over the top to catch the basket weave detail.

Once the inks and splatters were dry I attached each of the layers, adding the flowers with 3D foam, then gluing down and tucking in the leaves, foliage, and buds.

The final touches was a gold foiled sentiment then some Pinkfresh Studio ombre gems.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Heart’s Quest Pretty In Pink – mainly pink

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of cloud day not taken

Craft Rocket – use dies

Triple B – Birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party – anything in or from the garden

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with florals

Christmas & New Year

Hello once again. I have a card to share as Guest Designer for 52CCT. The new Christmas theme is:

Here is my card:

Now, this theme stumped me for a few days. How to get those numbers onto a Christmas card…….I tried a couple of ways, but finished with this one – I did have to check with the 52CCT design team if it was ok……..I obviously needed some reassurance….

I began by stenciling the background panel. This is from a layering stencil set by Kristina Werner called ‘Holiday Icons‘. I used the same light blue/teal colour for the different layers, not using all of them, and then on one layer I used Tim Holtz Distress sparkle paste.

This was set aside to dry, then I concentrated on die cutting the other elements.

The holly and Berry sprigs are from The Greetery, and the numbers are cut from gold glitter card using a Tim Holtz/Sizzix set, cut a couple more times out of white to layer them up.

Now to arrange…..I gold foiled the sentiment and used a circle die. This would enable me to arrange and tuck the holly sprigs. I stuck this down with a piece of 3D foam in the centre, and arranged the holly around it, adding glue to the bases, and then glued down the numbers.

I hope you can come and join the team for this theme – I am interested in how this is interpreted. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Stencil Fun – use stencils, option of mainly yellow not taken

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark

Craft Rocket – use dies

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Floral Get Well Wishes

The new challenge at Ally’s Angels has started, and I am a little late in posting – I hope Becca and the team will forgive me……the theme is always ‘anything goes‘. Here is my card:

I started by creating the florals and leaves from a Spellbinders die set – Fresh Picked Daisies – adding some ink blending to the centre of the flowers – though it is hard to see – and ink blended a darker green onto the leaves.

The background is a white panel and run through with a Spellbinders embossing folder, and adding a Pinkfresh Studio frame onto the centre.

The flowers and leaves were added by tucking behind the frame and using 3D foam and glue.

The black sentiment strip with silver foiling added, and then some black enamel dots spread around.

I hope you can join us with our ‘anything goes’ challenge – you can enter up to five times. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inkspirational – word prompt – garden

Allsorts – embossing – heat or dry

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with florals

A Quartet of Penguins

Hello there. A new challenge has started at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached the letters P, Q & R, and we want to see your Christmas creations featuring the following themes:

P is for Penguins and/or Q is for Quartet and/or R is for rectangles

Here is my card following the Penguin and Quartet themes:

For the four penguins, I chose to use the Tim Holtz/Sizzix die set called ‘Winter Critters’. Die cut and layered as needed.

I die cut them all in white woodgrain card stock, then used Copics to colour what I wanted – the dark grey for black, red, and orange.

The four squares are die cut from a gold foiled panel, using Spellbinders ‘Dazzling Diamonds‘ hot foil plate.

The background is a red panel, run through with a Spellbinders embossing folder ‘Nordic Noel’, then some gold wax run gently over the top to bring out the details.

The sentiment is gold foiled and die cut, layered a couple more times for dimension.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations featuring one, two, or even three of our themes, and you can enter up to five times. The challenge finishes on Sunday 5th September.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Christmas (or not) Bingo – column B – Christmas/red/free

Critter Crazy Challenge – anything goes with a critter

Daisy Chain Challenge – animals


A Pheasant Hello

Hi there. I have been playing with a couple more of my new Gummiapan dies to create this card:

I first die cut the Gummiapan Midsummer Wreath and the Pheasant die in Tim Holtz water-colour card, leaving the die cuts in place in the larger piece of card as it makes the colouring easier on smaller fiddly die cuts, then used my Zigs to colour them in. I like to use Zigs on die cuts like this as they have a very fine tip to be able to restrict where the colours go.

I set these aside to dry, then hunted for a sentiment, and used this from Pinkfresh Studio, previously foiled.

Onto a 110lbs Neenah white card base, I glued down the sentiment, then attached the wreath with little pieces of 3D foam behind some of the larger flowers and leaves, then die cut the pheasant couple more times, stacked him together, then glued him down.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cut It Up – die cuts & critters

Cupcake Inspirations – anything goes

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with florals/flowers

Critter Crazy – anything goes with a critter

Simply Clean & Simple – CAS – option of birthday not taken

Wishing You A Beautiful Day

Hello again. I have a card created to share with you:

I wanted to use a layering stencil set from Waffle Flower. This background is the ‘Postage Collage Spring Breeze’ and has five layers to it. I chose the colours from Pinkfresh Studio inks and set to it.

Once the background was finished, I added it direct to a card base.

I then used the ‘Butterfly Focal’ die and cut it in white, then cut it in vellum, layering the two together, adding an extra body to the top so I was able to secure the vellum easily.

The sentiment is in blue foil, and from a Pinkfresh Studio product suite ‘Butterflies in a Cloche’, previously created when I had a foiling session. This was die cut with the matching dies, and a couple more layers added for stability.

I also added some irridescent gems for extra interest.

Hubby and I are out tonight with some friends to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary – time sure does fly….

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Stencil Fun – stencils, option of butterflies taken

Addicted To Stamps & More – die cuts and/or stencils

Critter Crazy – anything goes with a critter

Yellow Birthday Roses

Hello once again. Craft time has produced the following card:

Following the current colours at Color Hues, I used Waffle Flower products.

I first die cut the collage panel out of white, then used the layering stencils for the roses. I inked the florals themselves in a lighter yellow, then used a darker yellow in smaller areas to create some dimension.

The leaves were ink blended with a light grey. The sentiment is white foiling.

This panel was adhered to a black panel, then adhered to a card base.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Hues – yellow and black – certain neutrals allowed

Make My Monday – use a stencil

Allsorts – anything goes or bees/blooms/butterflies

Addicted to Stamps & More – die cuts and/or stencils

D is for Double

Hello there. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the letter ‘D’, and Melanie has chosen the theme of:

D is for Double – include 2 of the same thing

Here is my card, which has two flowers on it:

These flowers are from an Altenew die set called ‘Butterfly Ranunculus‘. I used a blue card stock to cut the petals, and added some darker blue ink blending to the middle of each layer. These were easy to put together due to the #keyhole system’ which Altenew uses. The stems were die cut, and placed to one side whilst I decided what I wanted to put on the background to show case these gorgeous flowers.

I decided to go with a cream textured card stock, placing one layer as the back panel on a card base, then die cut the stitched oval in the same card stock.

The oval was glued to the back panel, and the flowers arranged to my liking, added with 3D foam.

The silver foiled sentiment added, then some small black gems for added interest, and to bring in the black of the sentiment strip.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following our theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Allsorts – anything goes in the garden

Give A Crafter A Cookie – in the garden

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and/or dry embossing

For Someone Special

Hello everyone. I am pleased to have been asked to be a special Party Guest for the new challenge at Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party, after being selected in the Top 3 for one of her challenges with this card here.

The theme for the new challenge is – anything in or from the garden. Here is my card:

I must have been in a really fiddly and faffy mood to create this, as the butterfly – from A Pocket Full Of Happiness – takes a lot of die cutting in different colours, and then inlaying each itty bitty piece…….

I started by cutting the base outline, then the butterfly out of white card stock a couple of times, and glued it together.

The next steps was to gather colourful pieces of card for each flower, and the wings of the butterfly and set-to die cutting. Each colour was inlaid back into the butterfly, and then glossy accents applied to create a stained glass effect.

When that was dry, I added a top layer of the die cut butterfly, this time cut out of a blush card stock and laid that on top. This also covered any of the over-flowing glossy accents.

I wasn’t happy with those tiny areas on the edge of the butterfly wing, so I added small pink gems to each and every one of them – I told you I must have been in a fiddly and faffy mood.

I wanted a bold background for the butterfly, so used some Concord & 9th card stock, trimmed it a little smaller than the card base, and used a Spellbinders embossing folder.

The butterfly was glued down, and then the foiled sentiment added.

I hope you can come and join us at Ellibelle’s Corner for her Garden Party. I hope to see you in the gallery. xx