lawn fawn

Sparkly Dragonfly

 

Hi there, I have been playing again. I actually haven’t stamped very much on this card, as I just felt the need to die cut and emboss. I took the opportunity to use the Detailed Dragon fly Thinlits from Stampin Up. I also have the matching stamp set, but today just used the die.

I started with the sketch inspiration from Mojo Monday, as I liked the clean-ness of this sketch, leaving a lot open to interpretation. I also had some of the Lawn Fawn ‘Narwhal’ card left over from the previous blog post. I think this grey card is a really nice colour, and decided to emboss a grey panel with the Sue Wilson ‘Climbing Vines’ embossing folder, to go on top of an embossed white panel. I embossed them both together, so the pattern flowed across both the colours.

After sticking that down to a white card base, I die cut the large dragonfly out of white glimmer paper from Stampin Up, and decided not to add any other layers to it, as I think this glimmer paper is gorgeous enough on it’s own.

The three strips I cut down and stamped with a line of hearts in white ink, layering them down as per the sketch.

The main shape is also from Sue Wilson ‘Porto’ die set, which I cut out of white and then in grey, off-setting them so you could see the white on the grey background, and grey on the white background. The embossed detail is from the same die set – just embossed and not cut, to add some detail to an otherwise blank tag.

I used Collall silicone glue to the back of the tag, as I could then insert the strips and play around with the positioning before it set solid. I often do the when I want to add items underneath another item, as it gives you plenty of time to position.

The dragonfly I stuck down with Cosmic Shimmer glue – my favourite go-to glue of all time – but only stuck down the centre body, bending the wings slightly for more dimension.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Mojo Monday – Sketch

A Bit More Time to Craft – anything goes

Crafty Catz – anything goes

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge – anything goes

Monochrome Magic – anything goes monochrome

 

 

 

Three colours

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Hi there, despite it being 27 degrees today when I got home, I went to craft. I have a portable air-con unit which was ideal for this gorgeous weather! Cool as a cucumber – until I made some mistakes in this card. Took me several attempts for such a simple card, but here you go.

The colours I used are from the Colour Throwdown challenge, which I incorporated into a sketch from Clean and Simple Colours and Sketches. The colours were green, grey, and white.

I used a 6 inch square base card, to which I added a green strip embossed with a strip folder from Tattered Lace. The sentiment is from Concord and 9th, so is the ‘YOU’ part. They were obviously cut out of grey, and it was a Lawn Fawn Narwhal card I used for that.

The heart is from Stampin Up, a die set called ‘Sunshine wishes’.

What were the mistakes? Well – I forgot to cut the intricate dies with double sided sticky sheet on the back for one. So cut them again – and cut them the wrong way round, so when I came to stick them down – they were upside down. Start again.

I cut the ‘YOU’ letters, and put them into the middle of the heart in the wrong order! I spelt ‘YUO’. It took me a few minutes to realise what was wrong. I knew something was – but it took a while to realise.

Then – as I had stuck them down already, I had to cut another heart from another white piece of card, which I then inserted into the middle of the heart. Good grief! What a challenge! It was good that the air-con unit was working well.

Anyway, I will be entering this card into the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – Sketch

Color Throwdown – green, grey, white

Tuesday Throwdown – anything goes

The House That Stamps Built – anything goes

Orange Monochrome

For today’s card I have gone to one of my favourite ways of doing cards – monochrome. It doesn’t really matter what colour I use, but I tend to go for white with one other colour. It could be black, it could be green, and this time I have gone with orange. Orange? Yes – orange.

I decided to go with this as inspiration from Time Out Challenges had a CASE this card challenge, and to me the overall colours on the card were white and orange. I don’t really tend to do ink blending backgrounds, though I have tried in the past, and prefer to go with embossing.

And – a recent delivery from three of my current favourite companies – Lawn Fawn, Concord and 9th, and Altenew. I have just received my Altenew ‘Super Script’ stamp and die set, and Lawn Fawn ‘Stitched Windy Backdrop’ , and Concord and 9th ‘Say Hello’ stamps and dies.

I started with a white 6 x 6 inches base card, and added the stitched windy backdrop, also in white. I didn’t want the backdrop to be the whole of the base of the card, which is why I chose a 6 inch square – just slightly bigger. The die is quite big, measuring at 5.5 x 4.25 inches.

I then cut out the big orange ‘hello’ and left it bubble, with no added detail. The ‘friend’ part is using the matching stamp and white heat embossing it, then cutting it out with the matching die set. I only glued the top half of the die-cut leaving the bottom half hanging off the stitched backdrop.

I think this card is bright cheerful, but I still decided to add a little orange enamel dot in the bottom corner. This is from We R Memory Keepers, and matches the orange perfectly.

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Time Out Challenges – Case this card (orange and white)

Daring Cardmakers – use two colours

Dragonfly Dreams – Monochrome

Cards in Envy – favourite colour combo (white and one other colour)

Monochrome Magic – anything goes monochrome

 

 

Clean and Simple Sketch

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A quick and easy blog post for today – working all week again, so not sure how much time I’ll have in the evenings – depends on what time I get home and what hubby wants for tea……..!

I’m having a go at the sketch challenges at the moment, and am struggling with keeping them clean and simple – and think I’ve been a little too clean and simple with this card. I thought I’d post it anyway, as I actually do like how it turned out. I like the simplicity of the flower and sentiment, and the contrasting colours of the two base layers.

This sketch was from CAS Colours and Sketches and I think I’ve achieved what was asked……we shall see.

The base card is from Create and Craft – a Topsy Turvy card I have a stock of, with the inside of the card being a lighter blue. The next layer is almost like a burnt orange, with a lighter reverse side, but that lighter side on this piece is a little ‘wishy washy’. I think it’s a pink – but quite bland. Anyway, didn’t use it so it doesn’t really matter.

The white card is from Stampin Up, and I stamped the ‘Best Thoughts’ flower in basic grey, also from Stampin Up. The sentiment was cut out of Lawn Fawn Narwhal card, after I had attached some double-sided sticky sheet to the back of it. I was thinking of using my Xyron again – but the sentiment is quite long – almost 6 inches, so thought it would be a waste. The double-sided sticky sheet worked very well.

I admit this is a very simple card, but I will probably do it again, using different colours for the base card, just to see what effects I can create – some pastel colours, some maybe black and white cards. I may even try colouring – you never know……

 

Buttons for wheels

You may wonder why I seem to be posting quite a few cards this week……well, my hubby is away for a few days, so I can do as much crafting as I like, without having to worry about anyone else. I can please myself when I eat, what time I go to bed, and how long I can craft for………..all good. For a short time, anyway.

This card is a clean and simple card, as a complete opposite to my gold card from yesterday. I didn’t want to do much to the background, I didn’t want to add embellishments – I just wanted to play along with the challenge from 4 Crafty Chicks and have fun.

The theme for this time was to use buttons. I actually didn’t have to think for a long time as I immediately thought that buttons could be the wheels on this bicycle stamp from Stampin Up. I bought some buttons recently as I wanted to do a mixed media project with lots of buttons – not yet got down to doing it! – and one of the colours matched quite nicely, I thought.

On the Whisper White card from Stampin Up, I stamped the bicycle in Ranger Archival ‘Coffee’. I determined where I wanted the bike on the card by cutting out my Lawn Fawn ‘Road Border’ first, and moving it around the card. Did I want the bike straight across, did I want the bike going up or down one of the hills…? I decided I wanted the bike straight, with the connotation that for the hill coming up – I would pedal for a while….Almost soppy and sentimental, if you think about it.

I didn’t want harsh lines for this stamp, as I knew I was going to add a black road. The coffee colour was just the right shade for adding some colour to the bike frame and bars – with my Stampin Up pens ‘Pumpkin Pie’ and ‘Daffodil Delight’ – and also was the right colour to stamp the sentiment from the same stamp set. I only used a couple of colours purposefully, not wanting to add too much to take away from the sentiment. I did originally plan  to stamp the two sentiments more off-set from one to the other, but forgot!

The stamp set also comes with items you can put on the bike, including a basket, into which you can stamp some bread, some flowers, some hearts, but I didn’t want to determine  whether to card was for male or female. I didn’t want any addition to the plain and simple stamp, I just wanted simplicity. I didn’t emboss anything, I didn’t glitter anything. I know, right? I resisted……….

I added the buttons as the wheels of the bike, then added the road lastly, and adding the whole thing to some Stampin Up ‘Crumb Cake’ card stock.

I like using Stampin Up, and I have a great demonstrator, Shell Bower, who has been to my house a couple of times to have a crafting few hours with some of my friends. Quite a reasonable price for a few hours, and even the non-crafty friends enjoyed it. She is very helpful, and spent some time a year ago talking to me about being a demonstrator.

I did consider joining as demonstrator – but I have so much stuff from other companies – and you’re not supposed to sue anyone else’s products – that I refrained both this year and last year. I have too much Tim Holtz, Lawn Fawn, Altenew, IndigoBlu, MFT………..to consider not using them. I like to use a lot of different products when I craft, I don’t like to be restricted from what I want to do. If I want to use Tim Holtz with Stampin UP – then I can…..Oh dear. Did someone say control freak who doesn’t like to be told what to do? Who doesn’t like too many rules? You’re right. I work within a ‘rules’ orientated work-place (NHS Hospital) and so when I craft I don’t want rules. I want to spread my wings, as it were, and harness my inner artist. (That could almost be a sentiment, couldn’t it?)

Final word (for this post) –  having fun, loving crafting, some sunshine today (Derbyshire, UK)……….jolly good day for me.