heat embossing

A Splash of Green

Hello everyone. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz, with the theme of ‘a splash of green‘ hosted by Pamela:

The centre image is from Pinkfresh Studio ‘Garden Tapestry’ and consists of a stamp, die, stencil, and hot foil plate. I didn’t use the hot foil plate this time round, and chose the stamp and gold heat emboss the main image.

Once heat embossed, I used the layering stencils to colour the image, choosing softer colours, then use the matching die to cut it out.

The background panel was created using some light green card stock and running it through with a Spellbinders embossing folder ‘branching out’, cutting it down slightly and attached to a white card base.

The die cut image was added with 3D foam, then the foiled sentiment attached.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of sewing/sewing related not taken

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of vine/vinery

Craft Rocket – no designer paper

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Blue & White Christmas

Hello there. I have a card to share for the new challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. I was lucky and fortunate enough to win their February colour challenge, and as such was invited to be Guest Design Team Member for this challenge.

The theme is: Blue & White Christmas

Here is my card:

I first started by stamping the image from Kristina Werner/Concord & 9th in black, then heat embossing with a clear powder. I prefer to do this if I am going to ink blend straight away, to stop any smudging.

The matching layering stencils were used to colour the image in, using blue inks from Pinkfresh Studio, adding a light shade to the whole flower petals, then a darker shade towards the centre.

The foliage was ink blended using a light grey ink, and a lighter blue for the holly leaves and berries.

Once the image was coloured, it was die cut using the matching die, and a second piece die cut out of white card stock to add some stability and thickness.

Onto the square white card base, I added a shimmery blue piece of card, then glued the coloured image straight onto that.

The sentiment is also from the same stamp/die/stencil set, die cut and attached as you see.

For added interest and a little sparkle, I glued blue gems from Pinkfresh Studio onto the centre of the poinsettia, and three smaller gems surrounding the sentiment.

I hope you can join the team with this colour challenge. I look forward to seeing you in their gallery. xx

ABC Challenge – Elves, Foliage, Gems

Hello everyone. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters E, F, & G. We want to see your Christmas creations following the following three themes for this challenge:

E is for Elves, F is for Foliage, G is for Gems

Here are my cards:

I first decided on the background for this card, using a piece of light blue card stock and running it through with a Spellbinders embossing folder.

Before attaching that piece to the card base, I decided where I wanted the hat to be, then used the Waffle Flower ‘Elf Hat‘ die set, die cutting the hat out of Spellbinders glitter foam.

The face part of the elf was die cut with white and ink blended some light peach, attaching the the corner of the blue panel, then the hat pieces glued to fit. I trimmed the edges to make them square with the base piece.

This was then glued to the card base, and the sentiment added after stamping and trimming to fit.

For my second card, I stamped and silver heat embossed the image twice – a Pinkfresh Studio set called ‘Magical Holiday’.

I then used the matching layering stencils to colour the two images in, and then the matching die to cut them out.

The white background panel was created by using an old Stampin’ Up embossing folder, and attaching to the card base.

The silver frame was created by using two nesting rectangle dies, then two ink blended images attached to the back, then glued down onto the dry embossed panel.

The sentiment was also silver heat embossed and die cut, adding to the centre, then the silver gems glued as you see.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations following one, two or all three of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Elf card:

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of sympathy not taken

Addicted To Stamps & More – Christmas

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

Mix It Up – anything goes, option of die cuts taken

Foliage & gems card:

Inkspirational – use stencils, option of plaid not taken

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Love To Craft – anything goes

Heat Emboss Resist Christmas

Hello. I thought I had posted this card a day or two ago – but obviously forgot to even write it – never mind post it.

This card was created as I was intrigued by the current challenge at 52 CCT – their Christmas technique theme this time is for using heat emboss resist. I thought of a Gina K Designs stencil I had of a large snowflake, so decided to give it a go:

The first step was to tape the 6×6 inch stencil onto a piece of white card which measured slightly bigger, and pounce some embossing ink through it. I think I remember doing this on a previous virtual event, so I had a blending brush already set aside for using this embossing ink.

I first brushed some anti-static powder onto the card stock, then taped the stencil down round the edges. It took a little doing, a lot of pouncing instead of brushing, but I managed to get the whole image done, then used white embossing powder and heat set the design.

I then took three colours of Pinkfresh Studio inks and blended them all around, wiping it down between each colour to not cross-contaminate.

The blending was taken to the edge of the larger piece of card, so I could choose which part to use, and die cutting with a Gina K Designs Master Layout die set to get a stitched rectangle.

This rectangle was then matted with brushed gold card stock from Spellbinders, then a deep purple card, and attached to a white card base.

The foiled sentiment was then added.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

52 CCT – heat emboss resist

Inkspirational – use stencils – option of plaid not taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Sending Sunshine

Hello everyone. It;s been a fairly busy week, but I have time to create another CAS card:

For this card I used a stamp set from an SCT ‘Let’s Stamp Together‘ kit, I believe is from Taylored Expressions.

I first took a white panel and stamped the sun image, then stamped again onto some masking paper, cut it out, stuck it down on top of the stamped image, then stamped the rainbow image on top.

Once the sun mask was removed, the sun covers the cloud on the other end of the rainbow and looks like one image.

Once both images were stamped in dark brown amalgam, I heat embossed with clear, as I wanted to colour straight away, and didn’t want to wait until the ink dried. Even when I dry the ink with my heat gun, I find alcohol markers sometimes still smudge and smear the outline.

I chose to colour with Copics, adding a little shading, then stamped the sentiment, cut down the white panel slightly and adhered to a white card base.

Even though it is CAS, I don’t like that Copics will show through a card base if coloured directly onto it.

I hope I will have more time to craft these next few days, and so you may see more of my cards coming up. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark

Addicted to CAS – CAS – theme of weather

Christmas Poinsettia and Bells

Hello there. It’s been a busy few days but I am here with two cards for the new challenge at ABC Christmas. I am hosting for this month, and as we are using the letters ‘C’ and ‘D’, the Christmas themes are:

C is for Crimson & D is for Ding-Dong(bells)

I have provided a prize for the randomly drawn winner of the challenge, open worldwide, a stamp and matching die set from WPlus9:

Here are my cards:

For the poinsettia card, I created the poinsettia using a die set from The Greetery, then used there capsule basics die set to create the fancy oval. I die cut an inner oval piece with another lighter green card, then used an embossing folder to add detail to that, as well as the same embossing folder on a white panel.

This white panel was adhered to a card base, the oval layers stuck together and attached using thin 3D foam, the poinsettia added with more foam pieces, and the foiled sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio added.

The final touch was to add some Pinkfresh Studio ombre glitter gems.

My second card was started by creating the bells. These are from Tim Holtz, and simply die cut with the same brushed gold card stock from Spellbinders – no different coloured layers – and glued together. I created 5 of these bells as I didn’t know where I was going other than to use these bells….

Finally deciding on where I wanted to go with this, I then took a white panel and stamped the word ‘jingle’ down the side using a Simon Says Stamp set and embossing ink. (Thank goodness for the Misti – it certainly made the lining up of these four words easier) These words were then heat embossed using gold embossing powder.

I thought the background was a little plain when I laid everything out, so I then ran this white panel with the words heat embossed through my machine with a Spellbinders embossing folder.

This white panel was layered with a shiny red card stock piece, the same card as I die cut the bow from, the bows added down the side with some gold DMC thread and the bow attached to the top.

The small sub-sentiment was also heat embossed and a red shiny mat added so it stood out more.

I hope you are able to join us with your creations following one of both of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Poinsettia card:

Love To Craft – anything goes

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

Make My Monday – use two dies

Craft Rocket – flowers

Bells card:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

12 Months of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas, option of cozy cocoa Christmas not taken

A Season of Merry Moments

Hi there. I have another card to share inspired by the current challenge at Sparkles Christmas:

This stamp, die, and stencil set is from Pinkfresh Studio – another virtual event from last year and not used yet.

I began by gold heat embossing all the images, then used the matching layering stencils to colour them in. This was then die cut – one stamped image and one die to cut out all the elements – which were set aside whilst I considered the background.

I found some Hero Arts snowflakes transfers and rubbed part of the sheet down onto a light blue piece of card stock.

The bottom piece of a white card with a little light blue ink blending – the same as I used for the snowy areas on the main image.

The blue and white panel were glued down to a white card base, and the tree adhered with 3D foam, as were the critters – but the ladder was glued flat, but was layered a couple of times for stability.

The sentiment was also gold heat embossed, die cut with the matching die – layered a couple of times – then glued to the bottom.

These snowflakes are lovely, and so easy to rub them onto a piece of card – I can see I will be using all of them at some point in the near future…

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge – Christmas with an animal and a tree

Critter Crazy Challenge – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

I was able to create with products received over a year ago when attending the ‘Let’s Stamp Together’ from Scrap book & Cards today and Concord & 9th products:

The product includes the stencils to create this jolly Santa, layering stencils which are fun to use, and the matching dies.

First job was to use the stencils to create him, then die cutting the image.

I chose this snowflake foiled background created using a toner sheet, so silver heat embossed the sentiment onto his beard.

One of my cats decided she wanted to ‘help’ me take the photo, so here she is – for a little light relief:

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Inkspirational – use stencils – option of snowflakes

Tuesday Taggers – all about Santa

As You Like It – Christmas/Festive

Give a Crafter a Cookie – photo inspiration

12 Months of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas

So Very Merry

Hello again. Having just returned from a few days away with hubby to Tenerife, I was itching to get into my craft rom and play with some new products which were part of a recent Online Card Classes class. I watched the first day of class whilst away, but still have to catch up on the rest.

I started by gold heat embossing the ‘Easy Repeat Holly‘ background stamp from Concord & 9th and Kristina Werner using the Taylored Expressions ‘Gold Sparkle’ embossing powder, then used the matching layering stencils to colour the image. On the holly leaves, I used two tones of green, the darker towards the base of the leaves to create some dimension.

This panel was then cut down slightly and attached to a white card base.

The snowman was die cut, glued together, and set to one side, whilst I gold heat embossed the sentiment, then used the matching die to cut it out.

When I placed the snowman and the sentiment on the background, they seemed to get a little lost, so I die cut a circle of vellum, attached the snowman and sentiment to the front of it, then glued it down – applying glue only behind the two die cut pieces.

I shall certainly be watching the rest of the lessons for the class, and I’m sure I shall be utilising some of the techniques demonstrated with these products.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Tic Tac Toe – top right diagonal to bottom left – snowman/snow – gold – Christmas sentiment

Creative Knockouts – time to be merry

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option to use some gold taken

Craft Rocket – Christmas/Winter

Bauble & Wreath

Hello again. The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new ‘anything goes Christmas’ Challenge – here is my card:

I started by creating the background panel – a dark blue piece of card – and embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder, then a white pigment ink pad swiped over the top to highlight the dimension.

Whilst this pigment ink was drying, I stamped and glitter silver heat embossed the bauble image from Pinkfresh Studio, and used the matching stencils to ink blend the one central detail. I juts wanted the bauble to stand out from all the surrounding colour. This was then die cut with the matching dies, and set to one side.

The leaves were die cut with a piece of previously created panel which I had used a green mica spray, and also die cut with some silver glitter card stock. This die set is also from Pinkfresh Studio – ‘Tied With Cheer’. There are three wreath layers in this die set, and I think I cut them all, and maybe a few extra.

The blue panel was adhered to a white card base, the wreath leaves layered and attached, then the bauble added.