ink blending

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

Purple Flowers

Hello yet again. When I didn’t have access to the internet last week for quite a few days I spent a lot of time crafting, and luckily had been able to access a few challenge pages on my phone whilst out and about.

This card was inspired by the current challenge at Pinspirational:

Here is the inspiration photo:

As soon as I saw all the purple and blue tones, I knew I wanted to make flowers, and this Concord & 9th set seemed perfect to me – large and bold flowers to go with the large and bold colours.

This die set is from their 2025 Winter Retreat and has a stitched background to enable you to match the layout they provide -but you know I went my own way with this….

I die cut flowers and foliage from card stock from Concord & 9th, Spellbinders and others from my stash.

I ink blended the larger flowers a little in the centre of each layer then glued them together. I did the same with the light blue die cuts – just a little extra interest.

The background panel is light grey, and I also used another of the products received for that same virtual event – the ‘Double Card Front‘ which adds some stitched lines. This creates stitched lines onto an A2 panel, but as this card is 5 x 7 inch, I did have to play around with the stitched die a little, some partial die cutting, so I could lengthen it to fill the whole size.

Once this stitched panel was adhered, I then played around with the layout, adding the flowers first with 3D foam, then adding each of the leaves and extra small flowers with glue and 3D foam as I felt was needed.

The final steps were to add the foiled sentiment and gems:

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Pinspirational – colour board

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

Love To Craft – anything goes

Tulip Birthday

I have a card to share inspired by the current challenge at Festive Friday. When I saw their them was National Tulip Day, and aw the list to choose three items from the list, I remembered I had this die and stencil set from Waffle Flower that I have never used – time to play:

The first step was to die cut the panel, and then ink blend using the matching stencil set. I chose to use orange and yellow for the flowers, two colours from the provided list, but then I also added a backing piece of red paper which you can see behind the die cut panel.

Once all attached to a card base, I stamped and die cut the birthday sentiment – another item from the list – and adhered as you see.

I wanted the sentiment to be quite bold, which is why I chose black, so I also added some black enamel dots.

Quite a bright and cheery card to help get over this snow hump we are having in the UK at the moment. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Festive Friday – at least three items from inspiration list – orange, yellow, red, birthday, tulips,

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

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

Postage Collage Christmas

Here is a card I created using some of the rest of the images from the Waffle Flower Postage Collage I used the other day:

I had already ink blended and cut apart the images, so I created the muted holly background using a recently purchased holly stencil from Clarity Crafts, and cut it down slightly smaller than an A2 card base.

This panel was glued directly onto the card base, and the three images attached with 3D foam – jaunty angles – the foiled sentiment added, and then some gold sequins for added detail.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inkspirational – use stencils – option to use snowflakes not taken

Sparkles Christmas Challenge – Christmas and poinsettia

Stencil Fun – stencils – option of winter related taken

CAS Baubles

Hello. I am venturing into the CAS realm again with this card:

For the image on this card, I ink blended the whole of the Waffle Flower Christmas Collage stencil, then chose this one image for this card. The other images will be used on another card.

I first took a A2 card base, and used Clarity Crafts embedders to create the impression. I have a DT friend who is on the Design Team for Clarity Crafts, and she does some fabulous CAS cards – you might want to check our her blog here. Anyway, she uses the embedders and has given hints and tips – which I try to follow – and this time I think it worked….

After using the embedder, I stamped the sentiment, then attached the image with glue.

I find it hard not to add plenty of things and not add dimension -but I will persevere with the CAS look sometimes – just for fun…

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of CAS taken

Festive Friday – at least 3 items from the list – red, green, white, Christmas sentiment

Simply CAS – anything goes CAS – option to use reds and greens taken

Sending Holiday Cheer

More time spent in my craft room these past few days. Hubby has been away, I have not been at work very much – and the weather has been a little dreary – to say the least.

Here is a card I created using an older product suite from Pinkfresh Studio:

The frame image was gold heat foiled, then coloured using the matching layering stencils. I chose to go with varying tones of red and blue using Pinkfresh Studio inks.

Once this was ink blended, I used the matching die to cut it out, then also cut another two so I could layer it up for more stability and dimension.

The sentiment was also gold foiled, then die cut, again layering a couple more times.

I wanted to try the ink with an embossing folder again, I haven’t had much luck with this in the past, so I thought I’d give it another go after seeing many people have success.

I used a Spellbinders embossing folder, inked the flatter or ‘bottom’ of the folder with a light blue ink, and ran it through my machine……..love how it turned out. A subtle background colour to the more vibrant colours of the images.

The background panel was adhered to the card base, the image frame and sentiment then attached.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Hand Stamped Sentiments – photo inspiration – I was inspired by the baubles and foliage

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of thanks not taken

Fab ‘n’ Funky – Christmas

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Sparkles Forum Christmas – Christmas and Poinsettia

12 Months of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas

Christmas Village Shaker

Hello everyone. I was able to create a shaker card using an older product suite from Pinkfresh Studio:

I first stamped in black then clear heat embossed the image. I find that no matter what black ink I use – and I have several – and if I just heat set the ink, I still get some bleeding around the outlines. The heat embossing solved that problem for me.

I then used the layering stencils to colour on the image, different colours on each stencil to get more variety, but I wanted a bright little village so used the brighter colour tones.

Once coloured, I used a notched fram3e die to cut it down a little, then hunted out my Toni Studios shaker pouches – stored ‘safely’ but found none-the-less.

I created the pouch, added some colours of sequins which I felt matched some of the colours of the image, sealed the pouch, then attached to a white card base.

The sentiment is gold foiling.

These Tonic pouches really do make shaker cards so very easy – the hardest part was selecting which colours of sequins to use.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of CAS not taken

Addicted To Stamps & More – Christmas

12 Months of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas

Sweater Weather

Hello. I received this sweater die as part of a Simon Says Stamp kit, and thought it was adorable, so I had a play with it yesterday:

I chose to follow the colours at the current Color Throwdown Challenge, by die cutting the sweater in the colours you see, and I also ran the die cut back through with the embossing mat to make the details stand out a little more.

I also ink blended each sweater in a slightly darker matching colour, to again enhance the details.

Keeping it fairly CAS – for me anyway – I used a Spellbinders embossing folder to create the background panel, then added the three sweaters with 3D foam.

The sentiment is from a Gina K Designs stamp set – stamped then cut out with a banner die from one of her Master Layouts die sets, glued directly down to the background.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Sparkles Forum Christmas – Christmas and festive wear

Simply CAS – CAS – holidays/winter

Color Throwdown – yellow, orange, green

Christmas Bingo – column I – winter/free/snowflakes

Poinsettia Season’s Greetings

Hello again. It is time for the new challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas‘. Here is my card:

I wanted a dramatic and different look for this die card, with a lot of dimension.

The background panel is a piece of black shimmery card stock, and dry embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder.

The main image is a Pinkfresh Studio die and layering stencil set, and as the background was black and dramatic, I also went with a different colour scheme.

The layering stencils were ink blended using Pinkfresh Studio inks, then die cut with the macthing die set. I added a couple more layers to the flower image, then attached to the black embossed panel.

I also added gold gems to the centre of the flowers as they are my favourite embellishments to use, and there is rarely a card I make without some sort of gem or jewel around it somewhere. I feel they add a certain interest and detail which doesn’t take over the card.

The sentiment is gold foiled.