Stamping

CAS Baubles

Hello. I am venturing into the CAS realm again with this card:

For the image on this card, I ink blended the whole of the Waffle Flower Christmas Collage stencil, then chose this one image for this card. The other images will be used on another card.

I first took a A2 card base, and used Clarity Crafts embedders to create the impression. I have a DT friend who is on the Design Team for Clarity Crafts, and she does some fabulous CAS cards – you might want to check our her blog here. Anyway, she uses the embedders and has given hints and tips – which I try to follow – and this time I think it worked….

After using the embedder, I stamped the sentiment, then attached the image with glue.

I find it hard not to add plenty of things and not add dimension -but I will persevere with the CAS look sometimes – just for fun…

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of CAS taken

Festive Friday – at least 3 items from the list – red, green, white, Christmas sentiment

Simply CAS – anything goes CAS – option to use reds and greens taken

Black & White Christmas

Hello again. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the end of the alphabet, and therefore this challenge is for the letters ‘Y’ and ‘Z’. The Christmas themes for these letters are:

Y is for Yummy (food) and Z is for Zebra (black & white or stripes)

Here is my card:

I obviously followed the black and white Christmas theme, creating what I think is quite a dramatic card.

I took an A2 panel and stamped some Gina K Designs snowflakes on a random pattern all over it, then cut it down slightly and matting with a piece of black card to create the edge.

The black banner/label for the centre is from The Greetery, and the die cuts out this filigree frame – but I decided I wanted all the details of the frame to stay in place, so I placed them all back in and applied some double sided tape to the back – keeping them secure.

The sentiment was stamped, then die cut with the matching die.

The final touch was to add some black gems to the snowflake centres, and a couple of smaller gems in some of the white spaces.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cupcake Inspirations – let it snow

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Addicted to Stamps & More – Christmas

Fab ‘n’ Funky – Christmas

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Sweater Weather

Hello. I received this sweater die as part of a Simon Says Stamp kit, and thought it was adorable, so I had a play with it yesterday:

I chose to follow the colours at the current Color Throwdown Challenge, by die cutting the sweater in the colours you see, and I also ran the die cut back through with the embossing mat to make the details stand out a little more.

I also ink blended each sweater in a slightly darker matching colour, to again enhance the details.

Keeping it fairly CAS – for me anyway – I used a Spellbinders embossing folder to create the background panel, then added the three sweaters with 3D foam.

The sentiment is from a Gina K Designs stamp set – stamped then cut out with a banner die from one of her Master Layouts die sets, glued directly down to the background.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Sparkles Forum Christmas – Christmas and festive wear

Simply CAS – CAS – holidays/winter

Color Throwdown – yellow, orange, green

Christmas Bingo – column I – winter/free/snowflakes

Apple Of My Eye

Hello. I was intrigued by the challenge at As You See It – this time, they wanted the theme of apples, and it was also a timed challenge – had to be created within 10 minutes…

I did a search through the Color My Life app, and found this stamp and die set from Clearly Besotted – an old one from 2017, but I thought it would fit the bill.

I’m not particularly proud of the colouring on this – but I was conscious of the time so went with it.

I got all my supplies together, started the timer – off we go.

The first thing was to stamp the image, quickly heat set, then I used my Zigs to colour them in – very basic colouring. I chose Zigs as I thought they would spread the colour around quite quickly.

Once coloured, I used the matching dies, grabbed a card base, stamped the sentiment directly onto the card base, then attached the die cut image with glue. I had a few seconds left over, so I took a white gel pen and made some ‘shine’ on the apples. This didn’t turn out as white as I’d hoped, as the colouring was still a little damp, but you can certainly see the marks.

As you can see – very close to the wire – but success none-the-less.

Autumn Wishes

Hello. I want to share a card created using a Simon Hurley stamp and stencil set, obtained for a virtual event recently, and to enter the current challenge at The Four Seasons Challenge. The current theme is ‘fall’:

The first job was to stamp the bare trees, which I inked with brown, then stamped in different positions. The leaves are added with a matching stencil, so I actually used Nuvo drops for the so-called leaves.

I squeezed some of the purple out, scraped through the stencil with my palette knife – then had to wait for that to dry before moving on to the blue, and then the red – something I generally don’t like to do – wait for things to dry. I am very impatient when creating….

Once the three colours were dry, I cut the panel down slightly, then layered it with a patterned paper onto a white card base.

The sentiment was stamped, then the banner die cut and attached.

As mentioned, I shall be entering the Four Season Challenge – them of ‘fall’

So Very Merry

Hello again. Having just returned from a few days away with hubby to Tenerife, I was itching to get into my craft rom and play with some new products which were part of a recent Online Card Classes class. I watched the first day of class whilst away, but still have to catch up on the rest.

I started by gold heat embossing the ‘Easy Repeat Holly‘ background stamp from Concord & 9th and Kristina Werner using the Taylored Expressions ‘Gold Sparkle’ embossing powder, then used the matching layering stencils to colour the image. On the holly leaves, I used two tones of green, the darker towards the base of the leaves to create some dimension.

This panel was then cut down slightly and attached to a white card base.

The snowman was die cut, glued together, and set to one side, whilst I gold heat embossed the sentiment, then used the matching die to cut it out.

When I placed the snowman and the sentiment on the background, they seemed to get a little lost, so I die cut a circle of vellum, attached the snowman and sentiment to the front of it, then glued it down – applying glue only behind the two die cut pieces.

I shall certainly be watching the rest of the lessons for the class, and I’m sure I shall be utilising some of the techniques demonstrated with these products.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Tic Tac Toe – top right diagonal to bottom left – snowman/snow – gold – Christmas sentiment

Creative Knockouts – time to be merry

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option to use some gold taken

Craft Rocket – Christmas/Winter

Feathers Appear

After my die cutting saga yesterday, I decided to try my hand at a more CAS card today:

You know that CAS is not my usual style, and I actually find this style more challenging, but I was inspired by the current challenge at CAS on Friday, as their theme was ‘feathers’ and I just love this die and stencil set from Waffle Flower Crafts.

The card base is an A2 side folding – my choice is asked – and into that I embossed a rectangular frame using Clarity Crafts embedders. I really, really need to practice this technique, as I failed on the first card base – a couple of panels to use later – but I do like the effect. It adds a little something-something without adding too much detail or dimension.

I then stamped the sentiment from a Clearly Besotted stamp set directly onto the card base, at the bottom of the embedded rectangle.

The feather was die cut, placed on my grip mat, and the colours from the Color Throwdown used – lime, pink, then orange – using Pinkfresh Studio inks.

The two layers for the stencil set first does the lighter details, whilst the second layer does the darker details, and after those two were blended, I went back over very, very lightly with the same inks to make the background white on the feather less harsh.

I decided to keep the nib of the feather pen on there, but did ink down a little with the orange, then glued directly into the embedded rectangle.

So – no gems, no jewels, no 3D foam tape – my goodness – I must get back to doing that tomorrow…..!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – lime, pink, orange

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – CAS

Just Us Girls – stencil week

CAS on Friday – CAS feathers

Stencil Fun – used stencils – option of anything Halloween related not taken

Beyond Happy For You

Hello. I had time to craft and create the following card today:

I was intrigued by the current recipe for the As You See It Challenge and decided to see what I could come up with – flowers, frame, happy sentiment, punch/die, shades of orange.

I began with choosing some flower die cuts from The Greetery ‘Embroidered Blooms‘ – and cut the elements from tones of orange, some green, grey, and yellow for added interest.

I then chose a frame die set from Pinkfresh Studio, and used ‘Cayenne‘ card stock from Concord & 9th, adding a couple of white layers beneath for dimension, rather than using 3D foam.

Arranging on a 5×5 inch card base to align with the square frame, I felt the background was a little too plain, so I used an Altenew embossing folder ‘Daisy Bed 3D‘.

This embossed panel was glued down to the card base, the frame added, then the florals arranged.

The sentiment is from Pinkfresh Studio, stamped and die cut with the matching die. I chose black for a little more drama, and even added three little black Spellbinder gems – I do like to use gems….

A smaller card and a different size than my usual, but I think it is quite cute – if I do say so myself…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

As You See It – recipe – flowers, orange, frame, happy sentiment, punch/die

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything in or from the garden

Beautiful Blossoms – florals

N is for Night

Hello everyone. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letter ‘N’, and Pamela has chosen the theme of:

‘N is for Night‘ with some ideas such as clouds, moon, sleeping image, stars etc

Here is my card:

I decided to break out my Copics to colours this scene – I’ve not used them in a while.

The images is from Clearly Besotted, stamped with alcohol friendly black ink. I use Gina K Designs Amalgam for this.

I then used a range of tones for the colouring of the image, before stamping again and fussy-cutting around the sky line – yes – me – fussy-cutting!! – to create a mask. This mask was placed over the image and another small circle of the masking paper created for the moon.

I used some Distress Oxides and ink blended the sky, darker at the top edge. The moon mask moved during one of my swiping of the blending brushes, and some of the ink got into the moon area – but that was certainly a happy accident as it made the moon look more realistic….

Once ink blended and the masks removed, I used a heat tool to dry completely ( so I thought) and used the star detail stamp and used a white sparkle embossing powder……another happy accident was that I hadn’t actually full dried the moon area, so some sparkle landed on there – again, I liked the look of that so left it as it was.

I created a rectangle frame using a couple of dies, one with a stitching detail, then glued the coloured image and the frame to a white crad base.

The sentiment was stamped as you see.

So – a card with a couple of minor hiccups – but all came out good in the end….

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Crafters Café – anything goes – option of Christmas not taken

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Believe In Yourself

Hello again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letter ‘M’, and Tee has chosen the theme of :

‘Mythical Creatures‘

Here is my card:

For this card I used products from Waffle Flower Crafts, utilising some die sets, and layering stencil sets for the open book and dragon and castle images. The book was die cut first, then the layering stencils used with Pinkfresh Studio inks to create the scene.

The background panel was also using a Waffle Flower Crafts older die set, the Cloudscape Panel Die.

The cloudscape was die cut, then each of the cloud layers were ink blended individually, the brown lower piece also ink blended. This frame was glued to a card base, then each of the cloud layers were inlaid back into their respective places, the brown layer glued in, then the book attached.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.