ink blending

Holly Background

Hello once again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new ‘anything goes Christmas‘ challenge. Here is my card:

The background holly is a hot foil plate from Spellbinders, and hot foiled using gold. I then used the layering stencils to colour the images. As you can see, it is a whimsical kind of colouring – some bare areas not covered by the stencils – and I really like that look.

I used several shades of green for the leaves, and a deep red for the berries.

Once that was dry, I also added some gold with paint markers to the centre of the berries.

The sentiment was also hot foiled then die cut, and all layered onto a green card base with a thin gold matting layer.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge. I am looking forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Peace On earth Christmas Challenge – Christmas anything goes

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Daring Cardmakers – a bit of bling

Girlz Creative Christmas Challenge – Christmas anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Thinking of You

Hello. I wanted to share a card I made using some dies from The Greetery and Pinkfresh Studio:

The white panel is dry embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder. The blue circles are from Pinkfresh Studio, and die cut using some Creative Expressions card stock.

I then took The Greetery die set, and cut the gourds and bushel out of white card stock. I used Distress Inks to colour them, Antique Linen was one colour, and I think the orange was either Carved Pumpkin or Spiced Marmalade……I can’t check as – for once – I tidied away after myself before I took the photo…..!

The elements were added as you see with either wet glue or 3D foam pieces, and a foiled sentiment strip attached, and then some iridescent gems for a little more interest.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – orange, pale blue, cream

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Cut It Up – die cuts and add a sentiment

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Stencilled Floral Birthday

Hello. I have created a card using some Taylored Expressions products from the March 2023 Crop & Create:

The background stems are stamped and heat embossed with brass embossing powder.

I then used each of the four stencils to ink blend the flowers and leaves using a light yellow and a light orange ink from Pinkfresh Studio.

The layer for the darkest part of the flowers are on one stencil, but I used an itty bitty blender brush – also from Pinkfresh Studio – and blended a darker orange and a darker yellow onto the respective flowers. This wasn’t as daunting as you may think – those teeny tiny blending brushes worked a treat.

I then cut down the panel and mounted onto a white card base, adding the heat embossed sentiment – layered three times for extra thickness – and added some green gems which has some gold on them. I think these are from Spellbinders, and another virtual event – but I may be wrong…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – orange, yellow, green

The Flower Challenge – anything goes with flowers

Pinspirational – birthday and orange

Stencil Fun – use a stencil, option to use orange taken

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with flowers

Crafters Café – flowers

‘O’ is for Owl

At the Alphabet Challenge, we have reached the letter ‘O‘, and Meg has chosen the theme of ‘Owl‘. Here is my card:

This gorgeous owl die is from Honey Bee Stamps, and was part of the Crop and Create virtual crafting event in March of this year. I didn’t make all the cards from that event – yet – but this owl was just waiting for the right time for me to bring him out…..

The owl pieces were die cut from white woodgrain card stock, and following the video tutorial for that event, I ink blended some grey Distress Oxides, using varying pressure, to create the layered effect, and ink blended some bro for his feet. I used some brown woodgrain cardstock for the branch.

The background is a silver hot foiled frame from Altenew from a previous hot foiling session, and set into a Pinkfresh Studio die cut frame.

All elements were adhered as you see, and the sentiment is a also hot foiled – white onto a black strip of card.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

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

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Framed Snowflake

Hello. I have a card to share using a snowflake set from the recent Pinkfresh Studio Create and Connect event:

I created the background by stamping the snowflake image in Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide. The frame is from Pinkfresh Studio also, die cut in white, the inner portion die cut out, a layer of vellum also die cut with outer-most layer, glued to the back of the frame, and placed on top of the background.

I then stamped the snowflake in a light brown ink, left my snowflake where it was in the Misti, used all three layers of the stencils to colour it in, masking off portions so I had dark blue towards the middle, and light blue towards the outer portions. Those small blending brushes came in very handy for the itty bitty parts of the snowflakes.

I then placed the panel back into my Misti, and stamped with black ink.

The technique of stamping in a light colour, using the stencils, then stamping again in your darker colour, was learned from Pinkfresh events. It is a little anxiety provoking the first time you do it, and you have to ensure your card is placed into the corner both times of stamping – and you don’t remove the stamp, but I do like the darker outline when you stamp at the end.

I used the matching die for the snowflake, die cut another one to add to the back for a little more stability, then glued onto the card.

The sentiment is foiled and added with glue, then I added some gold sequins around the snowflake, and some dew drops to the four points and the centre.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – coral, light blue, navy blue

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – stencil fun

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

Peace On earth Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Most Magical Time Of The Year – anything goes Christmas or Halloween

Three Snowmen

Hello. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘S’ and ‘T’. Fabiola is hosting, and the themes are ‘S for Snowmen’ and/or ‘T for Three of a kind’. I used both the themes on my card:

For the background, I die cut the Lawn Fawn ‘Four Square Backdrop’ and then each of the four insert panels I ink blended with Distress Oxides. I then splattered with water, and also splattered with some silver shimmer acrylic paint and set aside to dry.

I stamped the images from Time For tea Designs, coloured them with Copics, and die cut with the matching dies.

Onto a white card base I adhered the frame with 3D foam, added the ink blended panels and the images, found a foiled sentiment to add to the fourth opening, and adhered some sequins for even more shimmer and shine.

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

You Are A Friend-A-Saurus

Hello there. I have a fun card to share today for the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. Veronika has chosen the theme of ‘L for Literature – inspired by a book’. Here is my card:

I certainly had some fun creating this card. The book I was inspired by is ‘The Lost World‘ by Arthur Conan Doyle.

I used an older MFT stamp set for the images, stamped onto water-colour card, then coloured using my Distress water colour pencils. Once dry, I die cut them with the matching die and set them to one side.

The background is also water colour card stock. For the top I used a cloud stencil and some light blue Distress Ink, and the bottom is Distress water colour pencils again, swashed then splattered.

The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.

I loved creating the different coloured dinosaurs – those Distress Pencils work a treat for me. I don’t colour straight onto the card stock, as I find there are pencil scores left behind and they don’t blend enough for me – maybe I’m too heavy-handed – but I like to wet the tip of the pencil, then use a brush the the wet tip to add colour to the images.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Crafting Happiness – anything goes

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option to create your own background

Sending A Note

The new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz has started, Caz has chosen the theme of ‘Leaves’. Here is my card:

This card was created using Gina K Designs Poly-Glaze stencil-mates foiling sheets. I followed the YouTube video, used a laminator and some green Decofoil I had from goodness knows when, then used the matching stencil to colour in the foiled leaves, with a yellow and a light orange to create some depth.

I have a couple of the poly glaze sheets for different stencils, and when I get my laminator out again, I’ll probably do batch foiling with different coloured Decofoil to them ready for future quick cards.

I also used Gina K Designs Master Layouts to die cut the black panel, then the leaf panel, adding a previously foiled sentiment and some goldy/orangey sequins.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘leaves’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Challenge Up Your Life – anything goes

Crafting Happiness – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option make your own background

Foiled and stencilled birthday

Hello there. I am Guest design Team Member at Dragonfly Dreams challenge for this coming month.

The theme for the challenge is ‘birthday‘. Here is my card:

The main floral images are from Pinkfresh Studio, stamped twice, then coloured using the matching layering stencils. I varied the colours on each layer of the stencils, not just sticking to one colour each layer, and used a liberal amount of masking/low tack tape to cover some areas up – I am quite a robust ink blender when it comes to stencils.

I gave a deeper pressure towards the centre of the flowers to try and give some dimension, then die cut with the matching die set.

The background is a hot foil plate – also from Pinkfresh Studio – and used as more of an interest in the background. Once this panel was adhered to the card base, I attached both of the floral images as you see with 3D foam, added a foiled sentiment strip, and some gold sequins dotted around.

I hope you can come and join us in the challenge this month with your birthday themed projects.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps and More – birthday

Krafty Chicks – anything goes

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Challenge Up Your Life – anything goes

Pinspirational – birthday and leaves

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

Octopus ‘Hi’

Hello, I hope you are doing well. I have a card to share using some products from the June release at Spellbinders which I haven’t got around to using yet:

I started by ink blending my background panel using the two inks you see in the main picture. I splattered them with water and set it off to one side to dry.

This piece of card is an older Distress Heavystock – some of the batch which doesn’t take water well, so I had to be very careful with the amount of water I added – but the effect came out as I wanted.

Once dry, I die cut the bottle, and then used a Spellbinders embossing folder to create the bubble effect. Onto that embossed bottle I then rubbed – very gently – some of the Hero Arts white pigment ink so it would pick up some of the edges of the bubbles.

I then used a previously created ink smooshing panel of green – a lighter green panel and a darker green panel – to die cut the octopus layers and the seaweed.

I put the layers together, added some black for the eyes and mouth, and stuck them down onto the bottle.

The cork was from some brown cardstock, as was the board and sentiment, slotted into one of the arms of the octopus.

This was fun card to create, and I can see I’ll be playing with this die set again.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Color Throwdown – pink, green, magenta, white

Cut It Up – die cuts and under the sea

Shopping Our Stash – any wild animal

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts