ink blending

ABC ‘N’ and ‘O’

Hello everyone. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘N’ and ‘O’, Fabiola is the host this time round and the Christmas themes are:

‘N’ for No Stamping and ‘O’ for Off The Edge’

I went with the no stamping option. Here is my card:

I am sure you all know by now that I am a Spellbinders fanatic, and this card was created using one of their die sets and one of their embossing folders.

The background was embossed and then a darker blue ink blended around the outside edges to create a halo effect.

The baubles were all die cut, and all those little pieces of white and blue were die cut and inlaid back into their little places – a fiddly job, but I treated as a therapeutic endeavour.

I also used some white glitter card stock for some portions of the die cuts.

The sentiment is from a previous hot foiling session.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Colourful Challenge – mainly blue colour board

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Sparkles Forum Christmas – handmade ornament or ornament card

Christmas Crafts All Year Round – anything goes Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Christmas (or not) Bingo – column ‘I’ – free, embossing (wet or dry), glitter (glitter card)

You Are Simply Amazing

Hello everyone. Some crafty time yesterday created this card for a few challenges:

The background panel is a turnabout stamp from Concord & 9th. It was one of the many, many items received as part of their ‘Summer Camp’ virtual weekend. They always provide such a great number of items for this weekend event – and so many ‘camp counsellors’ which I know I regard in high esteem and watch many of their YouTube channels.

The first thing I did was the turnabout panel, using the colour scheme from the current Color Throwdown challenge. I used Concord & 9th inks, and their turnabout jig – which also came with the event – then cut that down to slightly smaller than an A2 card base.

I then stamped and die cut the separate flowers and leaves, and die cut ‘Jumbo Butterfly‘ from The Greetery, using the matching stencils to ink blend the colours on it.

The sentiment is also from the same event, and stamped into an oval, die cut from a Gina K Designs master layouts die set.

The oval was attached with 3D foam, the flowers and leaves added, then the butterfly, and some iridescent gem for the centre of the flowers – and some down towards the bottom right.

The gems are from Spellbinders, and reflect the colours around them.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – pink, green, purple

Lil Red Wagon – layer it up

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Cupcake Inspirations – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Quadruple Celebrations

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the letter ‘G’, and Veronika has chosen the theme of:

‘G’ is for Gentlemen – create something masculine’

Here are my cards:

I don’t create masculine cards very often, and for this challenge I decided to use the ‘Create In Quads – Hexagon‘ layering stencil set from Taylored Expressions.

If you haven’t used them before, these are an ingenious way of creating four card panels by using four layering stencils.

I chose a more masculine colour scheme for the layers and varied the orientation and sentiments placed on each of the four panels.

I hope you can come and join us with your masculine creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes – option for the guys taken

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of birthday taken

Paper Minutes – use stencils

Cup Cake Inspirations – anything goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

We’ve Got Chemistry….

Hello everyone. There is a new challenge just started at Cardz 4 Galz, and Dawn has chosen the theme of

‘Inspired by a book’

Here is my card:

I was inspired by the book ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde‘ by Robert Louis Stevenson. I had just received these products from Spellbinders for the propagation virtual class. I felt the test tubes and test tube stand were perfect.

The background is a previously created panel using water and alcohol inks. here is my original post using this technique.

For this background I also used an embossing folder to create a bubble effect/

The stand was die cut and assembled, and I did use some grey Distress inks to darken some of the angles.

The test tubes and markings were die cut, and I also found some ink smooshed and splattered backgrounds in yellow, green and pink which I thought would look good to depict that a chemical reactions were happening in them.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations inspired by a book. xx

I shall be entering the following challenegs:

Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge – anything goes mixed media (inks, oxides, alcohol inks, white acrylic paint)

Cup Cake Inspirations – anything goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Addicted To Stamps and More – make your mark

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of sports not taken

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Christmas Lantern

Hello once again everyone. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘L’ and ‘M’. The themes this time round are:

L is for Lanterns

and

M is for Music

Here is my card for the Lantern theme:

This card was made from the products received as part of the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Create and Connect’ February 2024 virtual event.

The background panel was created using a stitched panel, and glued down to the card base.

I then die cut the frame out of gold glitter card stock, adding it with 3D foam so I could tuck some elements beneath it.

The lantern and foliage were stamped and gold heat embossed, and then ink blended using the matching layering stencils.

A gold foiled sentiment then added to complete the card.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Love To Craft – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of inlaid die cut not taken

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Craft Rocket – no designer paper

Sparkles Forum Christmas – Christmas and use dies

MAWTT – early Christmas

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of birthday not taken


Stencilled Poinsettias

Hello there. I have had a little time from crafting as it was difficult to sit for long periods, but I had planed ahead for my DT cards. This card is for the new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge‘:

The card was created using a Simon Says Stamp layering stencil set. I added some shading with a slightly heavier hand to the middle of the flowers, and along the edges of the leaves. I also used gold paste through the layer for the middle of the flowers.

The panel was then cut down, matted with a thin black layer, and a gold foiled sentiment on black card stock added.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘anything goes Christmas’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Peace On earth Christmas Challenge –anything goes Christmas

Allsorts Challenge – flowers galore or anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

MAWTT – early Christmas

Stencil Fun – use a stencil – option of birthday not taken

The Magic of Baubles….

Hello – after a little hiatus, the Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge is back with a new challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas‘. Here is my card:

I used a stamp and stencil set for the baubles – heat embossing the outline with gold, then using the matching stencils to colour them in. I wanted a soft look to them, as I knew I was going to add quite a bit of gold.

Once the baubles were coloured and die cut, I also heat embossed, coloured, and die cut the foliage, adding some shading the the leaves by varying the pressure when blending.

The background is a piercing cover plater, and added the frame with some strategically placed foam strips. I then added the foliage and the baubles, tucking them into the frame, and lastly added the heat embossed sentiment.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cut It Up – die cuts – add a sentiment

Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

ABC Christmas Challenge – J and K

Hello everyone. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘J’ and ‘K’, and we want to see your Christmas creations featuring the following themes:

J is for Jesus

K is for Kings

Here are my cards:

I was really stumped by these themes, I don’t have very much in the way of traditional Christmas, except for some Tim Holtz products.

I used a Tim Holtz die for the three wise men, layered a couple of times, and adhered it to an ink blended background panel.

The Jesus themed card took a little longer to sort out. I eventually found an SVG file which I bought and downloaded to my Scan’n’cut. This in itself is something I have rarely done, but I managed to figure it out – resizing then sending to my machine.

The SVG file was from ‘Craftables’ and is a free download – how cool is that?

The ink blending on this panel was just an idea I had – instead of going across, I decided to go in a downwards direction, and I like the outcome.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas projects following our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Fingers – anything goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – Christmas atg

You Are A Wonderful Friend

Hello everyone. I have a card to share inspired by some challenges:

The background is a dry embossed panel using a Spellbinders embossing folder – one of my favourites – and Spellbinders ‘Fog’ card stock, adhered flat to a card base.

The frame is from Pinkfresh Studio, and is actually a square die set, but I did some partial die cutting to make it a rectangle, big enough for the A2 card base.

The flowers – also from Pinkfresh Studio – were stamped in a grey ink, then ink blended using the matching layering stencils, Pinkfresh inks, and then die cut with the matching die set.

I played around with the layout of the flowers until I was happy, and added them with a mixture of glue and 3D foam.

I added the foiled sentiment with 3D foam strips and some iridescent gems, as the foiling is iridescent.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – grey, magenta, aqua

Crafty Gals Corner – anything goes

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of feminine taken

Fab’n’Funky – embossing

Festive Friday – three items from list (4 for this card)- grey, flowers, pink, foiling,

Pop-Up Celebration

Hello everyone. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz, Pamela has chosen the theme of ‘celebration’. I believe there is Mother’s Day coming up in the USA, also think graduation, babies, weddings etc…. Here is my card:

Please excuse the angled tweezers, but they are holding the card closed to photograph as the inside is a pop-up:

The inside was so very difficult to photograph, here are my other attempts:

The pop-up dies are from Concord & 9th and a virtual event from 2022. I did have to go back to the videos to see how it was put together, but thankfully they will be available indefinitely.

I first created the background panel for the front of the card by ink blending through a stencil. I then stamped the balloons, heat embossed the sentiment in white, then used the matching dies to cut them out.

Then turning to the inside of the card and the pop-up element, I used the same stencil and all three ink colours to cover the whole of the inside, die cut the letters from some striped rainbow card stock, die cut the pop-up pieces, adhered the letters, then assembled the pop-up as instructed in the videos.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes -option of splash of colour/colourful

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – feminine

Crafty Gals Corner – anything goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes