Stamping

Monochrome Thoughts

It is time for the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. Helen has chosen the theme this time round, and she wants to see your monochromatic creations,. Here is my card:

I decided to give the Gina K wreath builder stamps and wreath builder templates a try. I haven’t used them before, so I watched a few of her YouTube videos and went for it. I chose black and white for the monochrome look and I am really pleased how this turned out.

I did go on to create several more panels with different stamps from the wreath builder set, but this was my favourite.

There are so many little stamps in this stamp set tp be able to fill in those nooks and crannies, and I found starting with one of the larger images first felt right to me, then I just built the design around those.

The sentiment is white hot foiled onto black card stock from a previous hot foiling session.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

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

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

Messy Play Poinsettia

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

I used a few techniques for this image, having a little messy playtime in my craft room.

The background to the poinsettia is from a Distress Oxide ink smooshing session. I seem to have a lot of inky backgrounds from playing around with the inks and oxides which I must try and use at some point….

Onto the ink smooshed background, I stamped the Tim Holtz poinsettia image. This was stamped in embossing ink, then I added pinches of Distress embossing powder onto the image (a technique I’ve wanted to try since seeing Tim Holtz demonstrate it) using a red and a green embossing powder, then heat setting.

I added a gold layer then as I felt the panel was looking quite vintage, I placed onto a Kraft card base.

The foiled sentiment was added as you see.

I hope you can come and join us. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

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

Creative Artiste Mixed Media – anything goes mixed media

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas – anything goes Christmas – option of stars not taken

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Sailing By To Say Hi…..

I was inspired to create this very colourful card by a few challenges.

I don’t often use block colours, no ink blending, no ink smooshing – just die cutting……and this card took quite a bit of working out – not as easy as it may look…..

The boat die set is from Heffy Doodle, and is called ‘Boats & Barns’ and – as the name suggest – you can a boat in varying forms, or barns……

I used Heffy Doodle card stock, some Concord & 9th card stock, and die the colourful layers. I wanted a bright and cheerful boat to go on a very blue water.

Once I had decided on the layout of the boat – where to out the funnel, how I wanted the portholes to look etc – I then used MFT stitched waves dies to create the – erm – waves.

Then I had to decide which wave I wanted the boat to be behind – so many decisions with this card…..which wave to use in which color, at what level to have it, is the boat going to be straight or wonky……? Goodness……..

This card was fun to create without getting messy for once – though I do like to get messy…!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cut It Up – die cuts and create a scene

Farm Quest – boats

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Paper Minutes – no designer paper

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

A Merry Holly Christmas

A new challenge has started at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas‘. Here is my card:

I first stamped a Hero Arts background script onto a white piece of card in a water-proof ink, then ink blended around the edges, taking the colour inwards a little haphazardly.

Then I had a go at a newish technique for me. I used a Tim Holtz red rubber stamp, and Distress pencils, slightly wetting the stamp, drawing the colours on with the pencils, a little spray of water – and stamp…..I think I did this a couple of times, adding a little less water the next time, but I really like how it turned out. I may have to have a further play with this technique in the future.

Once that was dry, I attached to a red layer, then a Kraft card base.

I felt the berries needed a little something-something, so I added some gold highlights to them:

The sentiment is stamped using a Tim Holtz stamp in Distress Oxides to match one of the pencils I used.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/Festive creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

Crafty Catz – anything goes – option Christmas in July

Paper Dragonfly – anything that flies or nature

Creative Artiste Mixed Media – anything goes mixed media

Crafting Happiness – anything goes

Get Creative – Christmas in July

Black and White Hug

The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge, and as we have reached the letter ‘B’, Veronica has chosen the theme of ‘Black and White’. Here is my card:

The base panel is embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder – a lovely deep impression of all those flowers.

Into the centre I attached a die cut circle = also from Spellbinders, and part of the Maker Mania 5 kit we received. I layered that with couple of other circles – alternating black and white, then added sentiment.

The butterflies were stamped and die cut and added as you see.

I also added some faceted black gems in the four corners.

I hope you can come and join us with your black and white creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Country View Challenge – things with wings

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

Are you having a Giraffe….?

Hello there. I’m managing to craft a little, but when you have builders in it’s a little challenging to maintain the concentration, I find. However, I had chance to play with a stamp set I bought from the Doncaster Crafting Live show at the weekend:

I bought several of the stamp sets from Pink Ink designs, and this one caught me eye first.

I used the colours for the current challenge at Color Throwdown, and stamped the giraffe in Catherine Pooler ‘Be Mine‘ pink ink, used a little masking around the ears of the giraffe for the leaves and flowers, silver embossed the sentiment then ink smooshed the same pink ink so the sentiment card piece matched the giraffe – an emboss resist effect.

The glasses I embossed with silver, fussy-cut, then applied glossy accents for some dimension and sheen.

Overall, I think the card is quite feminine, and I know some of my girl friends would love the sentiment and image………..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – pink, grey, white, silver

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – animal magic

2 sisters on the blog – make a card for a lady

Only stamping

20171231_120711

Hello again, and a Happy New Year to everyone. I hope the year is off to a good start for you.

I have been in my craft room for a couple of hours, and playing again with stamping and blending. This card was inspired by the current challenge at Inkspirational, with the challenge to use stamping only, and Time Out, with the theme of ‘New beginnings’. I have translated this loosely – a new beginning for someone whose birthday is today……a mixture of a new year for them, as well as a new year for all of us.

I still had my Uniko and Stamps By Me collection on my craft table, along with my Distress Oxides, and this is what I came up with.

The base card is 8 inches square, and the first thing I did was to stamp the ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiment. The same sentiment as yesterday, quite large, and I wanted it to be the focal point of the card.

After stamping in Versafine Black Onyx, and heat setting it in clear embossing powder, I then set about stamping my leaves etc for the back ground. I did set off originally with only stamping around the sentiment, masking it off with some ‘post it’ notes, but I carried on stamping and stamping until I had covered most of the background – large leaves first, using an Altenew green ink, and the leaves from the new Uniko ‘Pure Florals: Rose’.

I then took some smaller stamps from Uniko ‘Originally Organic’ and a small star from ‘Reach for the Stars’ – also Uniko – to fill in the spaces. For this I also used some brown Altenew inks.

Once I had completed the background, I felt the sentiment was a little too open and stark, so I masked the area around it and went in with my Distress Oxides, blending to leave the centre of the word a little brighter. I think I used Twisted Citron – or it could have been Fossilised Amber……! Hmmmm – does anyone else forget what they used when they are all on your craft table? :)

 

 

Wild Flowers

20170804_194304

Hi everyone. I wanted to post a quick card this evening, so I attacked my Catherine Pooler stamps, inks, and matching dies. I wanted to use the colours from the Color Throwdown challenge, and as the challenge was to use green, Kraft, and white, I wanted the green to be a bright and vivid green against the other two colours.

‘Grass Skirt’ from Catherine Pooler fits the bill nicely, showing against the Kraft really well, and I am pleased how this turned out.

I stamped the ‘Wild Flower’  stamps in the green, die cut them, and added them to a Kraft piece of card cut with my wonky rectangles. This particular Kraft card is a little textured, certainly not smooth. So this added a very muted feature and detail to the base of the card.

I added that to a white base card, and stopped there. I didn’t add a sentiment, and I am quite liking cards with no sentiments at the moment. They can either be added later, or these cards would be ideal to write a little note inside for any reason at all…….

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Green, Kraft, White

Aud Sentiments challenge – no sentiment on front

Craftaholics R Us – die cuts

House Of Cards challenge – floral images and/or colours (floral)