ink blending

Cardz 4 Galz – Polka Dots

Hello once again. Debbie is hosting the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and she has chosen the theme of ‘Polka Dots’. Here is my card:

I chose to use a couple of items received as part of the Spellbinders Advent calendar for 2024.

The background panel was dry embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder. I wanted a darker and vibrant colour to enable the centre panel to stand out more. I die cut a square from the top half and added a light grey frame.

The polka dots were a set of stencils from the advent calendar, the two layers ink bledned, and I also rotated a layer to get a different colour in there. I die cut a square from that little panel, and placed behind the window on the dark blue panel.

The cat and balloon were also from the advent calendar, die cut as you see, with the balloon being die cut from a silver glitter card stock. These were added, and the sentiment glued below, with some gems top right and bottom left for a little extra sparkle.

I hope you can come and join us with your polka dot themed creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Addicted To Stamps and More – die cuts and/or stencils (I used both)

Allsorts – anything goes – option of romance and/or music not taken

Love To Craft – anything goes

Ellibelle’s I Spy – feathers or fur – fur for me

2 Crafty Critters Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Roses Thank You

Hello once again everyone. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. Billie A is hosting, and she has chosen the theme of:

T is for Thank You

Here is my card:

The background roses are from a Waffle Flower Crafts stencil. A layering stencil. I used the stencil three times on an A2 card panel to create the three roses, just by rotating the stencil each time, and masking off the leaves where necessary.

I then used the stencil to add a few leaves, and found a little stamp with dots on to add more details in the open spaces.

I used my gold shimmery acrylic paint to add splatters. Once dry, I used a foil plate from Crafty Meraki which had a lot of hearts, and dry embossed using the silicone mat and my die cutting machine. You can see the subtle background hearts:

This panel was cut down and added to a dark green A2 panel leaving a small border around the edge, then the stamped and die cut sentiment was added.

I may have to use these background foil plates more often for an embossed look – if I can remember what sandwiches to use each time…

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

MAWTT – Thank You

2 Sisters on the Blog – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Give A Crafter A Cookie – anything goes

Stencil Fun – stencils – option of hello/winter not taken

Using Stencils

Hello again. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge. I am hosting this time round, and have chosen the theme of:

Use Stencils

Here is my card:

I chose to keep this a fairly simple design, but I did do quite a bit of masking and changing colours on the same stencil layer.

There are three layers to this stencil set, and I wanted each of the flowers to be different colours.

Once the flowers were complete, I then used a small blending brush and some light brown ink and went round the edges of each of the compartments, hoping to create a muted and vintage look to each of the small backgrounds. I then used the same light brown ink to splatter, and also to stamp some of the Royal Mail detail. I think it is great that Waffle Flower Crafts recognises us over here – love that idea.

Once dry, this was then die cut using the postage collage die.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers/florals

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of hello/winter not taken

ABC Christmas Challenge

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you had a fabulous past few weeks. We are back at ABC Christmas Challenge at the beginning of the alphabet. We are having a little change in the amount of entries you can make to our challenge – it is now 5 entries maximum to make it fairer for the random prize winner.

Helen is hosting and we have the Christmas themes of:

A is for Anything Goes

B is for Buildings

Here are my cards:

My first card was created using some layering stencils from Spellbinders with Pinkfresh Studio Inks. This involved quite a bit of masking so I could add different colours to the same stencil layer, but I must have been in a fiddly and faffy mood because I enjoyed the process.

Once the image was ink blended, I then used the matching die to cut it out.

The background was created using white embossing paste from Altenew with a stencil from Brutus Monroe to create the white on white background. Once dry, the ink blended image was adhered with 3D foam.

I then used some gold shimmery acrylic paint to splatter across the whole card, and added some gems. The sentiment is also from Spellbinders and using their gold card stock.

For the second card with the houses, I went slimline. I die cut the house strip using glittery silver card stock and Time 4 Tea Designs slimline die. Some of the same glittery card stock was adhered to the card base, the blue layer added after die cutting with a Elizabeth Craft Designs ‘Dotted Background‘ slimline die so the glittery card stock would show through.

The blue card stock from my stash must be years old, and has some very. very fine texture of lines to it.

I hope you can come and join us and start your stash of cards ready for the end of the year.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Girls Creative Christmas – anything goes Christmas

Jingle Belle’s Rock – Christmas with something old and something new – old card stock and dies, new glittery card stock and Spellbinders stencils

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Silent Night, Holy Night

Hello again everyone. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the final challenge of the year. We have reached the letter ‘S‘, and Melissa has chosen the theme of:

‘Silent Night’

Here is my card:

These houses were ink blended using a Simon Says Stamp stencil set called ‘Snowy Village’. There are 5 little stencils to create this scene, and I used all of them.

Pinkfresh inks were used for the houses and trees, gold paste for the windows, and Tim Holtz glitter paste for the snowy background. I obviously had to wait to allow the pastes to dry between those last two layers – patience is not one of my virtues when it comes to card making – but I managed…..

I stamped the sentiment – from an MFT stamp set – then layered that with a black panel.

The little village was die cut using a stitched rectangle die and again layered with black, and the next layer down was cut then dry embossed using one of my favourite embossing folders from Stampin’ Up.

I hope you can come and join us – I am looking forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Everybody Art Challenge – house/home

Tic Tac Toe – top right to bottom left diagonal – metallic – embossing (wet or dry) – die cuts

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Pinspirational – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes with option Happy Holidays

Stencil Fun – stencil – option Winter/Christmas

Snowman Tag

Hello once again. I have been busy making tags the past couple of days and I have one here to share:

This cute little snowman is one of the dies from the Gummiapan Advent Calendar. As soon as I opened him up – day one I think – I began thinking of how to use him.

I took a medium sized tag and ink blended with a couple of blue Distress Oxides. I then used the same blue Oxide pads and ink smooshed on top of the blending, also adding some water droplets. I used my heat tool and set it off ot the side.

The snowman was die cut from white glitter card stock, and another layer of white card for a little bit of stability for the arms. Before adding the white card stock layer, I stuck down some black card to go behind the eyes.

The hat was die cut from Spellbinders black glitter foam, and attached. There is a little slit in the base of the hat so the snowman head can be inserted just a tad.

The eyes and buttons are little black gems, and the glitter carrot nose was coloured with a Copic marker.

The background tag was dry, so I added some silver low-shed glitter card for a little hill, and added the snowman.

The snowflakes were die cut with a Simon Says Stamp snowflake tag set from the same glitter low-shed card and adhered with glue, snipping off where they hung over the edges. and an iridescent gem added to each of the centres, and few tiny gems around and about the background for more sparkle.

The final touch was to add some blue ribbon from my stash.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Addicted To Stamps and More – Christmas

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – winter blues

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of paper piecing not taken

Ellibelle’s Corner – I Spy – something for Christmas

Creative Inspiration – anything goes

MAWTT – Christmas Characters

Dragonfly Dreams – Christmas

2 Sisters On The Blog – Christmas with blue tones

Guest Designer Creative Artiste Mixed Media

Hello there. I was thoroughly pleased and excited to be offered a chance to be Guest Designer at the new Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge, when THIS card was chosen as winner by their Design Team.

The theme is always ‘anything goes mixed media’. Here is my creation:

I started by creating the background by using a snowflake stencil from Funky Fossil and Distress Texture paste in ‘Sparkle’. This set off to one side to dry and I then moved to creating some panels with Colorsparx watercolour powders in red and green – these were then set to dry, and for the other foliage, I created some panels using Distress Inks and Distress Mica sprays.

I already had an ink smooshed panel of lighter brown and dark splatters which I dug out ready to use.

Once all the panels were dry, I used Tim Holtz ‘Holiday Brushstroke 3‘ die set for the poinsettia and leaves, Spellbinders gold card stock for the centre of the poinsettia, and Sizzix ‘Buds and Branches‘ for the other foliage. The layers of the poinsettia glued together, and the edges with a Brutus Monroe Tricolour ink pad for more shadow.

The snowflake panel a was adhered to a square card base, and the floral and foliage images around to my satisfaction then attached with either 3D foam pieces or glue.

Some snow effect was added splattering Liquitex acrylic iridescent ink in white and gold, a foiled sentiment attached, and then some Pinkfresh Studio ombre glitter drops – I do like sparkly gems.

I absolutely loved creating this project. Mixed media is quite scary for me, but I have found that if I just go with my gut – it usually turns out reasonably good.

I hope you can have a go yourself and join the challenge this time round. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Try It In Tuesday – traditional Christmas

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Crafty Gals Corner – anything goes – option of three or more layers taken

Beautiful Blossoms – florals

Love To Craft – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner I Spy – something for Christmas

Stencilled Bauble

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

R is for Round

Here is my card:

I used the Bibi Cameron ‘Snowflakes Ornament’ stencil set from Spellbinders.

The stencils were used direct onto the card base, and Pinkfresh Studio inks. There are several layers to each stencil, for different parts of the bauble. There are actually two bauble sizes, and I chose to do the largest.

Once the bauble was stencilled, I then used the mask over it and splattered with silver sparkle acrylic paint, and then again with one of the blue inks used for the stencilling.

The sentiment is foiled using a Lawn Fawn hot foil set, then die cut with the matching die and attached with wet glue. I then added some clear gems for a little more interest.

I hope you can come and join us following our theme. I shall be entering the following challenges:

12 Months of Christmas Link Up – Christmas, option of stitched up not taken

Stencil Fun – use stencils, option of sparkle or shine taken

Everybody Art Challenge – blue tones

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – anything goes, option of blue Christmas taken

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner I Spy – something for Christmas

Thinking Of You

I had more time to use some new products from Altenew yesterday:

The image is a combination of an embossing folder and layering stencils to colour the image. I tried a couple of ways of doing this – stencilling first then embossing, but for this version I used the embossing folder first, then used the stencils to colour. I liked how the embossing enabled some colour variation within the leaves themselves.

The leaves were ink blended with pink, and the Pinkfresh Studio frame was die cut using a teal card stock. The panel and frame were layered onto a white card base, the foiled sentiment added, and three silver Pinkfresh Studio silver gems also added for a little bling.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Hues – Pink and Aqua

Creative Fingers – anything goes

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of winter fun not taken

Teal and Silver Christmas

Hello again. I have a card to share created during the snowy and cold weather snap we are having here in the UK. A lot of time spent in my craft room this past couple of days.

I started with a darker teal background panel from Concord & 9th, and ink blended slightly around the edges to create a central halo effect.

Whilst this was drying, I then took some snowflakes and die cut them from white glitter card stock several times, these were then adhered haphazardly to the dark teal panel using wet glue. I went over the edges with them, and when those extra pieces were snipped off, I found small places to add them too – not much wasted here.

The sentiment was die cut from silver glitter card stock, added to an even darker teal shadow layer, then attached to the snowflake panel with 3d foam.

I decided more bling was needed, so I used some facetted silver gems for the centre of the snowflakes, and smaller ones dotted here and there around the background.