Nuvo drops

Christmas Words

Hello once again. ABC Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge using the letters ‘U’ and ‘V’. The host is Julie, and the themes using these letters are ‘Under the tree‘ and ‘Vocabulary‘ (use words). Here is my card:

Having bought this cover die for attending the recent Hero Arts Stamp-along, and having used the outside areas for the shaker card we made, I used the letters which were die cut to create this card.

I sprayed them with a Tim Holtz Mica Spray, and whilst I was being messy, I also sprayed a separate piece of card with the green mica spray too.

Once those letters had dried, I stacked them three times with white card stock. and when the green layer was dry I used a slimline die from Mama Elephant to create the scalloped frame.

The letters were added as you see. The scallop frame is raised using 3D foam strips, so I added the letters to get the same height all round, as they didn’t quite fit into the frame – but I wanted it to work so I just got on with it, and some part of the letters on the edge were glued directly onto the frame.

I’m loving playing with these mica sprays – loving it. They are so shiny and vibrant – you will definitely see more makes using these.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas makes following our two themes.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Christmas Cards All Year Round – Christmas with S or T (sprays, scallops)

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Winter Bouquets

Hello there. A new challenge has begun at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is ‘anything goes’ as long as it is Christmas. Here is my card:

I used the Honey Bee Stamps ‘Winter Bouquet‘ Honey Cuts and took lots of inspiration from watching YouTube and Nicole Spohr when she was making cards with this set.

The main thing for me was to use Copics on the die-cut elements to create some dimension – a game changer for me. I never thought of doing that to die cuts when using a coloured card.

I die cut the elements out of coloured card, used some matching Copics, then assembled as you see. The centre of the poinsettias are actually a very bright yellow glitter card – no idea where it came from – and then I just used a brown Copic to tone it down.

The sentiment is white heat embossed, and is from a Stampin Up set and white heat embossed onto a die cut panel.

I stuck most of the element down with 3D glue gel, only the tiny sprigs where stuck with glue.

The background is a piece of water-colour card and spritzed with Lumi spray – I wanted a bright shimmer to the background. then came the Nuvo drops – I’ve not used them for a few weeks so here we go – making up for the loss!

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:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option snowflake (not taken)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Crafting Happiness Challenge – atg

Sparkling Polar Bears

Hi there everyone. There is a new challenge starting at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge . The theme this time is – anything goes as long as it’s Christmas.

I hope you can come and play along with us, and get your stash ready for the end of the year. There is some fabulous inspiration from the Design team, and here is my card:

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I started by die cutting the polar bear the baby using Creative Expressions ‘Paper Cuts 3D collection – Polar Bear‘. I didn’t use the 3D elements to stand the baby in front of the parent, but instead used some glittery silver twine – as though the baby is being pulled along on the sled.

I added white glitter card behind the animal die-cuts, and also added the red glittery scarf and hat.

This card is large – I wanted a narrow and long card, so this a A4 sheet creased length-wise.

I masked the middle section of the card and ink-blended the two blue panels with Distress Oxides, then splashed some water for added interest.

The black eyes are Nuvo drops……and I added them when the card was completed and put together – gosh my heart was in my mouth that the container didn’t do a Nuvo-drop burp on me!!!!! 🙂 🙂

I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery.

Lynda XX

Challenges I shall be entering:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge: anything goes Christmas

Happy Little Stampers – Christmas and Sparkle

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Dream Valley Challenges – Christmas in July

CAS Holly

Hello there. Well – after a few days of the inability to sort my crafting ideas out – I seem to have recovered. I have a CAS card to share today, using a Uniko stamp set, and Catherine Pooler inks:

I’m not sure which photo is the best to see the different greens I have used, or the berry Nuvo drops, so I have both on here. It’s quite a dull day – though very warm….

I did stamp the darker green leaves first, then decided to go in and stamp the third and lighter green, and masked the other two off first to make it seem the lighter one is in the background.

The berry’s are Tonic Nuvo crystals drops, and this time I let them dry before attempting the photo!

I’m off to a weekend of craft shopping at Doncaster Racecourse…..wish my credit card some luck, please……….!

Challenges I shall be entering:

Addicted To Stamps – CAS

AAA Cards – CAS maxi white space with twist of Christmas in July

Orange Wild rose

Hello again everyone. I have spent a lot of time in my craft room today, as an escape and a ‘take your mind off’ kinda day. I mentioned I had a poorly cat a couple of weeks ago – Spike – well overnight I took him to the vets, and had to make the decision to let him go. 😦

He has been with us for almost 15 years, a humongous black cat, but the time was right. We lost his brother last year, after a short illness, so at least we can put them both together when we get dear Spike back. We do have two other cats, which we bought to keep Spike company last year, so they are getting really, really spoiled today!

Crafting for me has always been a release, an escape, and a time for me to relax and concentrate on what I am doing at that point. I use crafting as a stress reliever, and sometimes just going and splashing some water-colour down on some card, colouring a little small image, adding some double-sided sticky sheet to some card ready for when I might need it again, is all it takes.

These cards are made using Brusho crystals on water-colour card, and die cutting the Altenew ‘3D Wild Rose‘ die set – once it had dried, of course:

Before I stuck the layers together, I splashed a little Winsor and Newton black water-colour onto them. I have splashed in the past, but this time I wanted actual ‘blackness’, not too watered-down. I also added some black Nuvo drops too.

The background is the Altnew ‘Cozy Flannel Cover Die‘, removing the larger white squares, but leaving the smaller pieces in the die cut. This was a little easier than thought it was going to be…….

The sentiment is also from an Altenew stamp set, and kept on a plain white strip so it doesn’t take away from the rose and leaves too much.

Here are the other versions:

and two waiting for me to add a sentiment:

I shall be entering one of these cards into the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenges – all about occasions

Altenew February Challenge – picture inspiration – inspired by a single flower

Blue Congratulations

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Hello. I hope everyone has had a good weekend. I have managed to find some mojo, and find some time to craft. The weather has been  brighter, even though it did rain last night, but everything is looking really green and lush at the moment.

I wanted to join the current challenge at Watercooler challenges, with the theme of ‘Occasions’, as I have three – yes three – friends at work who have recently has the news of passing exams/courses as part of our work. Those Masters degrees – hard work, but worth it in the end.

I also took inspiration from Craftaholics R Us, where their theme was to use something blue on the project. So, even though I am using the Altenew ‘Gardenia‘ again – are there blue Gardenia’s? – it looks completely different in this colour to when I have previously used it.

When I was thinking about the design of the card, I actually turned to the current Card Concept Challenge – they have a photo of a big and bold red/orange blossom. So even though my flower is blue, I took their photo as inspiration for the layout, and just used one flower, and the Altenew Gradient Stripes Cover Die. I actually put some of the strips back into the frame – in a different order – as I thought the wider stripes of blue seemed to engulf the flower a little too much.

The sentiment is from another Altenew set, and I added  some Nuvo drops, basically because I haven’t used them for a little while, and I also wanted to break the white up a little more.

🙂

A single rose

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Hello all. I had a few days last week where my mojo left me, but then I had a delivery from Create and Craft of the latest Stamps By Me release – stamps and dies. So – my mojo arrived back – and boy did it arrive back……I created 5 – yes, 5!! – cards yesterday, and this is one of them. I didn’t want to overload the blog, so I will be posting the rest over the next few days.

They were all created taking inspiration from current challenges, and I started this card using the colours from Hand Stamped Sentiments, with the theme being Natures Beauty from Try It On Tuesday – which certainly matched all the new stamps and dies which arrived.

I began by using my Tim Holtz glass mat yet again, laying down some blue from Catherine Pooler (my Stampin Up Soft Sky has seen better days!), adding a spritz of water, and running some water-colour card through it.

Whilst that was drying, I stamped the rose, and water-coloured it with Flirty Flamingo and Lemon Lime Twist, letting one layer dry, before adding a second layer for some darker areas on the flower and rose.

After the blue background was dry, I stamped the main rose image, which has some drawings and circles with it, then added the die cut rose on top. A sentiment from the same stamp set, stuck onto a white base card, and some black Nuvo drops, and the card was done.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Hand Stamped Sentiments – Flirty Flamingo, Soft Sky, Lemon Lime Twist

Try It On Tuesday – Natures Beauty

QKR Stampede – anything goes

CAS Christmas Reindeer

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Hi there. I have finally found time to play with my Mama Elephant ‘Little Reindeer Agenda’. Finally! I bought this set and the Santa set a few weeks ago from Seven Hills Crafts, and just haven’t been in the mood to play with them. Today, that changed. No idea why, but it means I have a couple of cards to share with you.

I stamped eight of the little reindeer in black Versafine, and coloured them with my Zigs. I added some shading to the reindeer, even though they are very small, but used a flesh colour, and a light tan colour – just a little dimension. I used the matching dies to cut them out and then tried to decide the lay-out.

That problem was solved by the current challenge from AAA Cards. The sketch they have – I thought – was ideal for a lay-out using all my reindeer. I then decided not to put them straight, but the put them a little ‘wonky’, which could mean movement, but it actually means you don’t have to line things up perfectly. 🙂

One sentiment is from the Little Santa Agenda set, and the other sentiment is from Avery Elle ‘Brring on the Joy’ – a set with penguins I may use very soon – now I’m feeling I need to make some more Christmas cards.

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I covered the reindeer with my glitter pen, and added some Nuvo Drops to noses – they are all Rudolph (artistic license), and another three drops for some added colour. Can you see the little ‘personal’ touch on the second card? The larger drop wasn’t quite dried when I stood the card up to photograph it, and it started to droop just as I took the photo……slightly less than round now…….

 

I will be entering the following challenges:

AAA Cards – sketch

Christmas at Sweet Stampin’ – anything Christmas

Crimbo Crackers – Reindeer

Addicted to Stamps and More – make your mark

Winter Wonderland Challenge – anything goes Christmas

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a creature/critter

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas 

 

Simple and Autumnal

Hi everyone. Another playtime today, and I created a couple of cards for challenges which are ending today. Please forgive another ‘twofer’ but I haven’t had time to play much the past couple of days, and I really wanted to put my ideas for these cards out there.

The first card is a simple geometric design, using the Altenew ‘Simple Shapes’ stamp set, stamped in Versafine black onyx. I used my Misti as I felt I may have to stamp them a couple of times, as it is such a solid shape. Then I used Catherine Pooler ‘Rockin’ Red’, stamping a sentiment from Stamps By Me into the red shape. This card is going to be entered into the following challenges:

Dragonfly Journeys – Hip hexagons

4 Crafty Chicks – black, white and one other colour

Addicted to Stamps and More – anything goes

Moving along with the times – Geometric shapes

The second card took a little more playing!

For the autumn colours, I used some Brusho’s on a white piece of card, let that dry, and die cut the sentiment from a Stamps By Me set. I also die cut ‘H’ and ‘I’ from the Altenew ‘Bold Alphabet’ out of the same card.

The background is a stencil from Catherine Pooler, using three colours of distress oxide, purposely leaving the bottom white to show the word ‘beautiful’ off better. Once I had stuck the word and letters down onto the stencilled card, I added some Nuvo drops.

I haven’t really used Nuvo drops before, but I must say I like the way they hold a rounded shape, and how solid they feel when they have dried. I purchased quite a few from Hochanda when they had a ‘mix and match’ deal going on – I am glad I did.

This card will be entered into the following challenges:

AAA Cards – colours of Autumn

The Paper Girls Challenge – harvest/autumn colours

Make My Monday challenge – Autumn colours

Pause Dream Enjoy challenges – fall colours