ink blending

Emboss Resist Ink Blending

Hello there. Happy Little Stampers ‘anything goes birthday‘ challenge has started for the month of September. Here is my card:

I used the floral stamp from Concord & 9th Summer Camp 2021, and white heat embossed on white Distress Heavyweight card stock.

I then chose some lighter Distress Inks and blended over the top of the image for a fresh look and feel. I then splattered with water, and also added some Liquitex metallic acrylic ink splatters.

I then took a white card panel and die cut an oval, placing the floral image behind where I thought there was more interest an colour, then adhered to a card base.

The sentiment is from as ephemera pack I have as I wanted to keep the front panel quite flat.

I hope you can come and join us with your birthday makes – I look forward to seeing your birthday creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafting Happiness Challenge – card theme – flowers

Paper Minutes Challenge – in the garden

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Creative Fingers Challenges – anything goes

INTAAS – birthdays

ABC Christmas Challenge – P, Q, R

Hello again. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached P, Q, and R – the themes for those letters are P – for Pink, Q for Quarters, R for Reindeer. This time round I created a card for all three letters:

Using some ephemera and patterned paper from Tim Holtz, some matting and layering, some Distress Ink blending around the edges.

More Tim Holtz ephemera and patterned paper, some Distress Ink around the edges of the frame.

Not Tim Holtz for this card! Hero Arts sentiment die cut from an ink smooshed background, layered with white. A patterned paper background, some pink ink blending, and then some pink sequins.

I hope you can come join our themed Christmas challenge this time round – I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

P if for Pink:

Love To Craft – anything goes

Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge – Christmas and sentiment as main focus

Q is for Quarters:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

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

Moving Along With The Times – anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – anything goes with patterned paper

Christmas Kickstart – Christmas and never in a nativity

R is for Reindeer:

TTCRD – anything goes

Cards Galore – anything goes

Winter Wonderland Challenge – Christmas and reindeer

Let’s Have A Brew

I’d like to share a card using some new products from Time For Tea Designs here in the UK:

I die cut the scalloped slimline using Mama Elephant dies, and used the white inner to create a cloudy background and grassy base using a Simon Says Stamp stencil. The stencil comes with a flower part too – but I just ink blended the grassy part. I ink blended the clouds darker at the top, and lighter towards the grass.

I then stamped the images, coloured with Copics, and used the matching dies to cut them out – some white gel pen to add interest to the cup.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set,. but I cut it out using a speech bubble die – I think that’s Mama Elephant too but not sure.

The scallop and cloudy piece were stuck down with glue, the panda, the sugar cubes, and the speech bubble were raised with 3D foam.

I found some little sticky hearts in my stash which matched the green and blue, and also attached some small silver gems with them.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – yellow, green, aqua, Kraft

Cut It Up Challenge – summer themed – include a die cut

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Colour Crazy Challenge – week 28 – anything goes with colouring

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes – option of balloons and flowers not take

TTCRD – anything goes

Balloon Dog Birthday

Hello there. I have a card to share using a new die set from Spellbinders:

For the background, I ink blended some yellow and aqua distress inks, then used an embossing folder – also from Spellbinders.

I then took a brayer, and some Distress Ink ‘Picket Fence’ and rolled it over the background, to give more dimension and interest to the embossing, without diminishing the colours.

I then ink blended some Saltwater Taffy and Abandoned Coral onto two separate pieces of card and die cut the balloon dog elements. Once I had glued the layers together I added some white gel pen marks, and a little further Abandoned Coral to some of the edges.

The layered sentiment is also from Spellbinders – and my goodness those letters are fiddly – I was going to layer them but they are too thin – and the letters are separate from each other – the ‘sticky specks’ came in handy here and worked very well.

Before I added the background to the panel, I splatted some gold Liquitex metallic acrylic ink and then some white metallic ink onto it, and when dry added to the base card with 3F foam strips.

I adhered everything as you see, and added some purple sequins from Catherine Pooler.

I can see that I will be making this balloon dog in different colours moving forward – such a great die set.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

MMM Challenge – splatters

Shopping Our Stash – use ink blending

Color Throwdown – aqua, yellow, purple, coral

Seize The Birthday – birthday – option metallic

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of summer

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

Cardz 4 Galz ‘Snow time’

Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and the theme chosen by Caz is ‘It’s Snow Time’. Here is my card:

I went completely outside my comfort zone to have a go at this technique. I have been seeing it for years – tried it a couple of times – but this time I wanted to try and get it done correctly. I am pleased with the result – but it did take a lot of planning, and masking, and decisions!

I began with a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, then placed the Card-io Bauble stencil onto it. I stamped the little scene at the top with Distress Oxide ‘Weathered Wood‘, then placed the fence and animals where I thought they could sit.

I then tore some paper and ink blended the same Distress Ink to create some hills underneath the animals. I added some of the same DI around the edge of the bauble – then also decided to add some Lawn Fawn Prisma Glitter – well – why wouldn’t you?

Most of the cards like this are created using a black ink, but I wanted a more muted silhouette – and I think it works.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge – I look forward to seeing your creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

MMM Challenge – cute Christmas

Avenue 613 Challenge – atg

Clean and Simple on Friday – CAS Winter

Creative Fingers – atg

Let It Snow Deer…….

Hello yet again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge – anything goes Christmas/Festive. Here is my card:

I seem to be masking a lot recently – I blame Gina K! She showed us how easy it was when she taught on the Crop and Create at the beginning of October. I even went so far as to buy some mylar and create my own masks for shapes I will use again and again – like this oval shape……and therefore I also have the oval itself as well to use as a mask if I so wish.

I used a piece of Strathmore card stock, cut it bigger than I need – I’m always smudging stuff so I thought I’d try it that way – and placed down the piece which had the oval cut out of it.

I then decided where I wanted this gorgeous border stamp from Uniko, stamped that onto a piece of masking paper, cut out the wavy bottom bit, and stuck that down on the top of the mylar – then ink blended.

I didn’t want the ink blending below the border and this worked perfectly well – and no smudges!

Whilst the homemade stencil was still in place, I added some white ink through a dotty/snowy stencil. That didn’t work very well – the white ink was a little too juicy – so I added some white ink splatters and some additional water splashes. I think it turned out lovely:

I let this panel dry before I stamped the deer and tree border in black – having the stamp three times using my Misti (thank goodness for this tool) to get a darker and more solid image.

The sentiment is also from Uniko – some masking here too. The sentiment was too long for this card, and so I centered to have two ‘Let It Snow’ visible, and then covered the part of the stamp I didn’t want – inked it – then remembered to remove that from the stamp before stamping it on the card. Now that would have been traumatising if I had forgotten!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Animals Challenge – anything goes with an animal

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes

Allsorts Challenge – anything goes – option vintage – not taken

Cards Galore Encore – anything goes

Jingle Belles Rock Challenge – Christmas Creatures

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Beautiful Inside and Out

Hello. Following on from my craft time yesterday, I created a card for the current challenge at Just Us Girls:

I’s a colour challenge this time round, and I decided to use my new set from The Greetery. One of our online shops in the UK has started to stock The Greetery – I took the opportunity to purchase several sets. This was one of them.

I first used the base stencil to blend the first layer of the flowers in yellow, then used Altenew inks and rest of the stamps to create the full image.

I then used the matching die to cut out the middle of the image to create a window – this would make a great shaker card, something I’ll try in the future – and used the matching stencil to ink blend some Salvaged Patina Distress Ink around the outside.

The sentiment is from Altenew, and stamped with Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide – better than the Distress Inks when stamping – and then layered the floral panel onto a white card base with 3D foam.

I searched my stash for some turquoise embellishments, and found these tiny stars, which I added as you see.

S for Stencil, T for Two

Hello. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘S’ and ‘T’. Our prompts for these letters are S for Stencil, and T for Two. As long as they are Christmas creations and follow our theme, then you’re good. Here are my cards:

The first card is using several stencils actually. It didn’t start out that way, but that’s how it went. The central poinsettia image and the background image are stencils from Uniko. It involved a lot of masking – a lot! I also used a Hero Arts alignment stencil for part of the masking process too.

I first used the alignment tool to make the square on the card base, then added the poinsettia stencil. then masked around it, then used Distress Oxide to create the purple flower in the centre.

Some change of the masking, I then did the green – but when I finished the card I didn’t like the green – which is why there is a frame around the flower…..

All sorts of masking, using itty bitty pieces of post-it notes as these gave me the angles and the movement I needed. In the end I also stenciled the background, using the little square mask from the Hero Arts stencil set – and even more post-it notes for the bottom edge.

As I didn’t like the green, I created a frame using some stitched square dies, then ink blended the same pink oxide so it matched.

The second card has an ink blended background, splattered with water, then when it was dry I stamped the Hero Arts ‘Winter Swirls’ background stamp with white pigment ink.

The snowmen are from Hero Arts also – coloured with Copics, some white detail for the scarves, and placed as if they were in a blizzard……..

I hope you can come and join us for our Christmas themes this time round – I hope to see you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Snowman card:

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes

Jingle Belles Rock – photo inspiration

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

Poinsettia card:

52 CCT – Christmas and stencils

Christmas Craft Creations – Christmas and non-traditional colours

Winners - please take this to share on your blog

Color Throwdown – Winter Scene

Hi guys. I am lucky enough to have been randomly chosen featured stamper for a recent Color Throwdown Challenge, and so once again I am Guest Star Stamper for the new challenge.

Here are the colours for this week:

And here is my interpretation of those colours:

I started by ink blending two shades of blue Distress Oxides onto a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock. This card is a new purchase for me, and I can certainly see why this is a favourite for ink blending – I am sure I will use this again and again.

Once blended, I die cut the Forest Backdrop in Concord & 9th ‘Dove’ card stock, as well as die cutting all the other elements in that same colour – with some white for the house roof, the underneath of the trees and the moon.

I stuck down the backdrop, then added all the elements, with either foam squares or directly with glue, and then added some glitter oen to all the white areas.

I also added some of the stars in grey and white for the sky – adding the glitter pen to them all.

The moon is actually two die cuts placed together to create a shadow effect. I did contemplate shading the die cuts with a Copic marker, but I struggle with that – unlike Nichol Spohr – but I will keep practising – just not with this card….

I enjoyed the challenge of using these colours to create a card, and I hope you can join the team this time round. xx

I shall also be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Crafting Happiness Challenge – anything goes

Time Out Challenge – coloured card base

Jingle Belles Rock – photo Inspiration