I'll be back with some more Valentine cards soon.
Monday, 30 January 2017
A Valentine Balloon
This week's Less is More challenge is to use one or more balloons on a card. I went with one balloon.
I put the stamp in my MISTI, inked up the girl and string in black and the
balloon in red, using the little Memento dew drops ink pads - made it
easier than my big ink pads. Added a simple sentiment and popped it up
on fun foam on a red slightly shimmery card base. I added Glossy
Accents to the balloon.
I'll be back with some more Valentine cards soon.
I'll be back with some more Valentine cards soon.
Sunday, 29 January 2017
NBUS Seahorse
Week 2 of Darnell's NBUS (Never Before Used Stuff) challenge!
Darnell posed a couple of optional elements, one of which is to CASE a card at the same time as using some of our never-before-used-stuff. I chose this card by Christine Alexander (aka calex on SCS):
Here's my CASE:
This is the first time I've ever tried using Distress crayons. I laid down three colours in bands across a piece of watercolour paper and then spritzed with water and got them to blend and move with a waterbrush.
It ended up looking like water so it seemed the perfect opportunity to use my new seahorse die and CASE Christine's seahorse card. I die cut it twice to give it more substance and sponged it with a couple of shades of Distress inks.
Using glass bead gel, I went over a section of a stencil to create the bubbles blown out by the seahorse, as my way of CASEing Christine's stencilled bubbles.
Thanks for dropping by! And thanks, Darnell, for inspiring to use our NBUS!
Darnell posed a couple of optional elements, one of which is to CASE a card at the same time as using some of our never-before-used-stuff. I chose this card by Christine Alexander (aka calex on SCS):
Here's my CASE:
This is the first time I've ever tried using Distress crayons. I laid down three colours in bands across a piece of watercolour paper and then spritzed with water and got them to blend and move with a waterbrush.
It ended up looking like water so it seemed the perfect opportunity to use my new seahorse die and CASE Christine's seahorse card. I die cut it twice to give it more substance and sponged it with a couple of shades of Distress inks.
Using glass bead gel, I went over a section of a stencil to create the bubbles blown out by the seahorse, as my way of CASEing Christine's stencilled bubbles.
Thanks for dropping by! And thanks, Darnell, for inspiring to use our NBUS!
Saturday, 28 January 2017
Advice from Nancy
AA few days ago, I posted two cards using coloured pencils on kraft cs. I loved the one with the white embossed outline but was not so happy with the one using just black stamping with no heat embossing.
One of the comments on the cards was from Nancy Littrell and she suggested that a black heat embossed outline would make a huge difference so I decided to CASE my own card and try Nancy's suggestion.
Here's the card I was not so happy with - it has no heat embossing, just ink:
And here's my remake with the embossing: 
Nancy's suggestion made all the difference. (Thank you, Nancy!) The heat embossing sets off the colouring of the flowers so much better. Do you agree?
One of the comments on the cards was from Nancy Littrell and she suggested that a black heat embossed outline would make a huge difference so I decided to CASE my own card and try Nancy's suggestion.
Here's the card I was not so happy with - it has no heat embossing, just ink:
Nancy's suggestion made all the difference. (Thank you, Nancy!) The heat embossing sets off the colouring of the flowers so much better. Do you agree?
Friday, 27 January 2017
Tea and Cookies for Santa
Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge posted this as an inspiration photo:
There is a tiny Santa and sleigh in the back of the picture so it gave me the idea of the tea and cookies being for Santa. Here's what I came up with:
To represent the texture on the mug in the inspiration photo, I took a piece of corrugated cardboard and painted it white with gesso.
I stamped, heat embossed, and die cut the mug; die cut a spellbinders oval for the plate; and die cut two tiny Christmas trees and went around the edges of them with a glue pen and added glitter to them (it shows up better in real life).
I made the sentiment on my computer. The cs for the card base and the plate has a tiny bit of shimmer in it.
There is a tiny Santa and sleigh in the back of the picture so it gave me the idea of the tea and cookies being for Santa. Here's what I came up with:
To represent the texture on the mug in the inspiration photo, I took a piece of corrugated cardboard and painted it white with gesso.
I stamped, heat embossed, and die cut the mug; die cut a spellbinders oval for the plate; and die cut two tiny Christmas trees and went around the edges of them with a glue pen and added glitter to them (it shows up better in real life).
I made the sentiment on my computer. The cs for the card base and the plate has a tiny bit of shimmer in it.
Saturday, 21 January 2017
NBUS Flowers
Darnell over at djkardkreations hosts an occasional NBUS (never before used stuff) challenge. I love it as it gets me to dig out some of the things I've bought and finally put them to use. This time, Darnell is offering optional themes. The theme for the first week is "use coloured pencils on kraft". I haven't done that technique in ages so a good chance to pull out the pencils.
I went on a bit of a Penny Black spending spree about a year ago and ended up with some of their lovely floral stamps so pulled those out for their first ever inking.
I couldn't decide whether I prefered the look of white ink or black ink for stamping the image so did one in each. First up, a white heat embossed image:
I couldn't decide where to put a sentiment so decided to just put one on the inside. I bordered with dark red cs and used a white cardbase.
The second one is stamped in black ink with no heat embossing:
I used the same colour palette for each as I wanted a fair comparison of which ink I preferred for the stamping.
For this one, I bordered with black cs, and used a cream linen cs for the sentiment and card base. I really like the look of the hemp twine for attached the sentiment tag - it seems to go well with kraft cs.
Now over to you - which do you prefer in terms of whether to stamp the image in white or in black?
Thanks!
I went on a bit of a Penny Black spending spree about a year ago and ended up with some of their lovely floral stamps so pulled those out for their first ever inking.
I couldn't decide whether I prefered the look of white ink or black ink for stamping the image so did one in each. First up, a white heat embossed image:
The second one is stamped in black ink with no heat embossing:
I used the same colour palette for each as I wanted a fair comparison of which ink I preferred for the stamping.
For this one, I bordered with black cs, and used a cream linen cs for the sentiment and card base. I really like the look of the hemp twine for attached the sentiment tag - it seems to go well with kraft cs.
Now over to you - which do you prefer in terms of whether to stamp the image in white or in black?
Thanks!
Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Gilding Flakes Reindeer
This week's Merry Monday challenge is reindeer:
I decided to make a reindeer using gilding flakes.
I covered some cs with double sided tape, removed the tape protector, and covered it with gilding flakes in a gorgeous range of colours. I then die cut both the reindeer and the sentiment.
I wish I could get inspired to use up my stash of dp but mostly it doesn't work for the cards I make these days. But in this case, a piece of snowflake covered dp blended with the gilding flakes really well so I went with it.
Here's a close-up of the gorgeous colours in the gilding flakes:
Thanks for dropping by today!
I decided to make a reindeer using gilding flakes.
I covered some cs with double sided tape, removed the tape protector, and covered it with gilding flakes in a gorgeous range of colours. I then die cut both the reindeer and the sentiment.
I wish I could get inspired to use up my stash of dp but mostly it doesn't work for the cards I make these days. But in this case, a piece of snowflake covered dp blended with the gilding flakes really well so I went with it.
Here's a close-up of the gorgeous colours in the gilding flakes:
Thanks for dropping by today!
Tuesday, 17 January 2017
Two Very Different Cards
A couple of cards from challenges over at SCS. First up the Mix-Ability Challenge - "Masterboard Triptych".
I started out with a "paper towel background" in various pinks and
oranges. This is a neat technique I learned from Loll Thompson where
you save the paper towels you use to mop up various inks and paints from
other projects and then transfer those colours (along with the dots
from the texture of the paper towel) to a new project. See Loll's post
here for details.
Over top of that, I laid a TCW stencil and used various colours of 3D glitter paint through the stencil.
I did a vertical triptych with the panel and added a die cut sentiment. I used a green glitter cs for the sentiment, but in hindsight, I'm wondering if black would have been better to give more contrast.
Then for the SCS Inspiration Challenge, Audrie chose an Etsy site called "The Altered Diaries". I chose this diary as my inspiration:
Over top of that, I laid a TCW stencil and used various colours of 3D glitter paint through the stencil.
I did a vertical triptych with the panel and added a die cut sentiment. I used a green glitter cs for the sentiment, but in hindsight, I'm wondering if black would have been better to give more contrast.
Then for the SCS Inspiration Challenge, Audrie chose an Etsy site called "The Altered Diaries". I chose this diary as my inspiration:
Monday, 16 January 2017
CAS Watercolour Snowflake Reminder
It's the middle of the month already and you only have until January 24th to enter this month's CAS Watercolour challenge.
I went with a stamp that Loll Thompson used for her example in the original post for this challenge, but gave it a very different treatment.
I created my watercolour background first by sprinkling blue and black brushos on coated cardstock. I over-spritzed with water and ending up make the blue more grey than it normally is and not having any of the interesting colour tones the black usually gives. But I quite liked the chilly feel of the colour and I liked the way I got a nice speckled border that makes a natural snowbank. I also liked the dip where I situated the tree as snow often piles up outside the tree's drip line and leaves a hollow where the branches have sheltered the ground a bit.
I stamped the tree in Versamark and heat embossed with a very sparkly embossing powder. In order to get a good photo of the whole card, I couldn't really pick up the sparkle of the tree, but here's a close-up that shows it.
I trimmed it down so that I could have more white space around it, popped it up on fun foam and added a few die cut snowflakes.
I originally stamped a smaller sentiment directly on the focal panel but smudged it on the coated cs. I had a different sentiment stamped and heat embossed on regular cs, already die cut and mounted on silver glitter cs sitting in my UFO box, so used that to cover up the smudge!
Be sure to link up your clean and simple cards using watercolour and a snowflake or two over at our challenge, and check out today's new inspiration from the rest of the Design Team!
I'm also taking the card over to the Christmas Cards All Year Round challenge "add snowflakes" and to the SCS CAS challenge "Frozen".
I went with a stamp that Loll Thompson used for her example in the original post for this challenge, but gave it a very different treatment.
I created my watercolour background first by sprinkling blue and black brushos on coated cardstock. I over-spritzed with water and ending up make the blue more grey than it normally is and not having any of the interesting colour tones the black usually gives. But I quite liked the chilly feel of the colour and I liked the way I got a nice speckled border that makes a natural snowbank. I also liked the dip where I situated the tree as snow often piles up outside the tree's drip line and leaves a hollow where the branches have sheltered the ground a bit.
I stamped the tree in Versamark and heat embossed with a very sparkly embossing powder. In order to get a good photo of the whole card, I couldn't really pick up the sparkle of the tree, but here's a close-up that shows it.
I trimmed it down so that I could have more white space around it, popped it up on fun foam and added a few die cut snowflakes.
I originally stamped a smaller sentiment directly on the focal panel but smudged it on the coated cs. I had a different sentiment stamped and heat embossed on regular cs, already die cut and mounted on silver glitter cs sitting in my UFO box, so used that to cover up the smudge!
Be sure to link up your clean and simple cards using watercolour and a snowflake or two over at our challenge, and check out today's new inspiration from the rest of the Design Team!
I'm also taking the card over to the Christmas Cards All Year Round challenge "add snowflakes" and to the SCS CAS challenge "Frozen".
Sunday, 15 January 2017
Spraying Liquid Colour
It's time for a reminder card to join in the January CAS Mix Up challenge!
Liquid colours can be any colour medium that comes in liquid form. It can be alcohol inks, re-inkers, stains, liquid paints, sprays, etc.
For my card, I chose sprays.
I used two shades of blue spray, one of which I misted over the mixed media cs and the other I took the applicator out of the bottle and dropped drips of it over the misted blue. I wanted to use a bit of metallic silver spray as well but the applicator was clogged and all I got was a big splotch and a couple of droplets of it! I liked the way the blues had turned out and didn't want to waste it so decided to use a silver cs for the cardbase to tie into the silver splotch!
I stamped and heat embossed my silhouette sprig and sentiment, and cut the panel out with a stitched rectangle die. I popped it up on fun foam for some dimension.
I'm sending it to a friend that I exchange New Year's cards with instead of Christmas cards.
You have until January 24th to link up your card at CAS Mix Up. Be sure to use stamping, liquid colours, and at least one other option from the list on CAS Mix Up. My options are heat embossing my two stamps and die cutting my panel.
Liquid colours can be any colour medium that comes in liquid form. It can be alcohol inks, re-inkers, stains, liquid paints, sprays, etc.
For my card, I chose sprays.
I stamped and heat embossed my silhouette sprig and sentiment, and cut the panel out with a stitched rectangle die. I popped it up on fun foam for some dimension.
I'm sending it to a friend that I exchange New Year's cards with instead of Christmas cards.
You have until January 24th to link up your card at CAS Mix Up. Be sure to use stamping, liquid colours, and at least one other option from the list on CAS Mix Up. My options are heat embossing my two stamps and die cutting my panel.
Saturday, 14 January 2017
CAS Gift
I bought a few older Penny Black stamps recently. They look beautiful simply heat embossed - no need for any colouring or anything fancy. In other words, ideal for making multiples or when you need a quick card.
Beautiful rich gold embossing powder, a stitched square die cut to add interest, a black sentiment and black border, and embellished with a few black gemstones to balance the sentiment.
It's perfect for three challenges this week:
Merry Monday - Make a Christmas card with the word "Noel" on it
My card is also inspired by the neutral colours in their challenge image.
Jingle Belles - No Time like the "Presents"
Merry Christmas Challenge - Clean and Simple
Beautiful rich gold embossing powder, a stitched square die cut to add interest, a black sentiment and black border, and embellished with a few black gemstones to balance the sentiment.
It's perfect for three challenges this week:
Merry Monday - Make a Christmas card with the word "Noel" on it
My card is also inspired by the neutral colours in their challenge image.
Jingle Belles - No Time like the "Presents"
Merry Christmas Challenge - Clean and Simple
Saturday, 7 January 2017
Something Old, Something New...
A couple of SCS challenges sparked today's card:
Ways to Use It WT617 = Something Old, Something New....
Free for All F4A359 = "I'm Dye-ing" - use a die on your card
Here's the card:
For the Ways to Use It challenge, I have:
something old = the sentiment stamp
something new = new Ranger Archival Library Green ink pad
something borrowed = the tree die that I borrowed from Loll Thompson
something blue = blue alcohol ink
The background is blue and green alcohol ink smooshed on Yupo. The tree die that I borrowed from Loll before Christmas is fabulous for layering over interesting backgrounds. I might end up buying it as I like it so much and really should return it to Loll!
I'm also linking up to CAS Mix Up where the January challenge is "stamping + liquid colours + your choice from their list of options". My liquid colour is the alcohol ink and my choice is the die cut. Go to CAS Mix Up here if you want to join in.
Ways to Use It WT617 = Something Old, Something New....
Free for All F4A359 = "I'm Dye-ing" - use a die on your card
Here's the card:
For the Ways to Use It challenge, I have:
something old = the sentiment stamp
something new = new Ranger Archival Library Green ink pad
something borrowed = the tree die that I borrowed from Loll Thompson
something blue = blue alcohol ink
The background is blue and green alcohol ink smooshed on Yupo. The tree die that I borrowed from Loll before Christmas is fabulous for layering over interesting backgrounds. I might end up buying it as I like it so much and really should return it to Loll!
I'm also linking up to CAS Mix Up where the January challenge is "stamping + liquid colours + your choice from their list of options". My liquid colour is the alcohol ink and my choice is the die cut. Go to CAS Mix Up here if you want to join in.
Thursday, 5 January 2017
An Angel for Merry Monday
A new year of Christmas challenges has begun at Merry Monday. First up is "angels":
I have a couple of angel stamps but my favourite is the one I chose to use here:
I made a background by sprinklng blue brushos on coated cs and spritzing with water. When dry, I stamped and heat embossed both angel and sentiment. I popped the panel up on fun foam.
Because the angel is playing an instrument, I used a song title as my sentiment and a musical score embossing folder for my background.
Love getting my Christmas cards made throughout the year, thanks to challenges like Merry Monday!
I have a couple of angel stamps but my favourite is the one I chose to use here:
Because the angel is playing an instrument, I used a song title as my sentiment and a musical score embossing folder for my background.
Love getting my Christmas cards made throughout the year, thanks to challenges like Merry Monday!
Wednesday, 4 January 2017
Joy
It's time for a new Happy Little Stampers' Christmas challenge:
Here's my card to help inspire you to enter:
I made a piece of faux-mother-of-pearl background with a mix of red Distress inks and white shimmer paint.
To go with the shimmer paint, I used white shimmer cs for the cardbase and the centre of the ornament, green shimmer cs for the border, ornament outline, holly leaves, and the word "joy", and a scrap of red for the holly berries.
Head over to Happy Little Stampers for more inspiration from the Design Team and to link up your card for a chance to win a prize.
And you'll get a head start on your Christmas cards for next December!
I made a piece of faux-mother-of-pearl background with a mix of red Distress inks and white shimmer paint.
To go with the shimmer paint, I used white shimmer cs for the cardbase and the centre of the ornament, green shimmer cs for the border, ornament outline, holly leaves, and the word "joy", and a scrap of red for the holly berries.
Head over to Happy Little Stampers for more inspiration from the Design Team and to link up your card for a chance to win a prize.
And you'll get a head start on your Christmas cards for next December!
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
Showing Something New
Over at SCS, the CAS challenge for this week is "Show Me Your New". A great opportunity to use a new stamp.
Since it's unusually snowy and cold here, it definitely felt appropriate to make a card with a snowy scene. And it's never too early to start the Christmas card stash for next year!
I used the MISTI to get a good impression on watercolour paper, and then
painted with my wonderful Gansai Tambi paints and added some chunky
white Frantage for falling snow.
It's popped up on fun foam that is adhesive on one side - this has the added bonus of smoothing out the slightly warped watercolour paper.
Since it's unusually snowy and cold here, it definitely felt appropriate to make a card with a snowy scene. And it's never too early to start the Christmas card stash for next year!
It's popped up on fun foam that is adhesive on one side - this has the added bonus of smoothing out the slightly warped watercolour paper.
Monday, 2 January 2017
Snowflake Wishes
The January CAS Watercolour challenge is "snowflake".
I recently discovered this never-before-used snowman stamp in my stash - don't know why I hadn't used him as I really like him!
I stamped him on a whiter-than-usual watercolour paper by Crafters Companion and used my Zig markers to watercolour his scarf and hatband, and shade round his body and the ground a bit.
I then took a tiny snowflake stamp, inked it up with the Zig marker, spritzed lightly, stamped off once, and stamped. I repeated the process for each of the snowflakes. I like the way the spritzing fades out part of each snowflake.
I have a new set of tiny Penny Black sentiments and in it, found the perfect sentiment for the challenge as it has the word "snowflake" in it.
Die cut with a stitched square and popped it up on fun foam.
The Snowflake challenge runs until January 24th. Please remember that your entries must be clean and simple, and must include some kind of watercolouring. There is lots of inspiration over at CAS Watercolour, including a beautiful card by Guest Designer, Hannelie.
I recently discovered this never-before-used snowman stamp in my stash - don't know why I hadn't used him as I really like him!
I then took a tiny snowflake stamp, inked it up with the Zig marker, spritzed lightly, stamped off once, and stamped. I repeated the process for each of the snowflakes. I like the way the spritzing fades out part of each snowflake.
I have a new set of tiny Penny Black sentiments and in it, found the perfect sentiment for the challenge as it has the word "snowflake" in it.
Die cut with a stitched square and popped it up on fun foam.
The Snowflake challenge runs until January 24th. Please remember that your entries must be clean and simple, and must include some kind of watercolouring. There is lots of inspiration over at CAS Watercolour, including a beautiful card by Guest Designer, Hannelie.
Sunday, 1 January 2017
CAS Mix Up Liquid Colours
Welcome to the first CAS Mix Up challenge of 2017! We are challenging you this month to use "liquid colours" on your card:
I chose alcohol inks for my card:
I chose alcohol inks as my liquid colours (using Loll's "Alcohol Inks with Yupo" technique - see her video here for details). My sentiment is stamped and my choice of other element is die cutting.
I used a new die I just purchased and added a sentiment - definitely a Clean and Simple card!
Head on over to CAS Mix Up for inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Trina. You have until January 24th to enter. Please remember to keep your cards clean and simple, and include liquid colours, stamping, and something from the list of choices given over at CAS Mix Up.
I chose alcohol inks as my liquid colours (using Loll's "Alcohol Inks with Yupo" technique - see her video here for details). My sentiment is stamped and my choice of other element is die cutting.
I used a new die I just purchased and added a sentiment - definitely a Clean and Simple card!
Head on over to CAS Mix Up for inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Trina. You have until January 24th to enter. Please remember to keep your cards clean and simple, and include liquid colours, stamping, and something from the list of choices given over at CAS Mix Up.
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