Happy birthday

A bit of fun with dies here. I started with the Mum flower frame by Simon Says Stamp and used a slightly larger die from Presscut to make it a complete frame rather than just an aperture. Using the same Presscut die I cut a square and then embossed it with the flower die to give me an idea where to place the colours of Distress Oxide inks, which I applied with blending brushes.

I then cut out about three more of the outline dies and stacked them. I had part of a sheet of the dotty paper left so decided to use that for the  edge of the card and added a simple birthday sentiment. 

Since last evening one eye has been very sore, there doesn't appear to be anything in it, but hopefully it will sort itself out soon!

It's another for the challenge at Just Us Girls

and CAS on Friday

GREEN

 

Green birthday

I tried a different approach to colouring this die cut by Paper Rose. I use a couple of shades of green watercolour pencils to add random colour to the foliage then then spritzed some water in the air and wafted the die cuts through the mist a few times. It moved the colour just enough, I did add a little Wink of Stella on it afterwards but I was quite pleased with the overall result. I cut three die cuts and stacked them to add a little definition and couldn't resist adding a little spotty paper to comply with the parameters at Just Us Girls

I was lucky enough to have my submission for their last challenge chosen as the winner, which really thrilled me.

Since having a new laptop,  I have tried a few times to print some Pink Petticoat papers, only to have them print just down the edges of the paper rather than the whole sheet of paper. This paper is  from a different source and printed correctly. I can't image why the others didn't print properly, I was about to dig out my old lap top to see if I could still print correctly from that.

CAS on Friday 

GREEN

 

Sending love

I surprised myself a little with this card. Usually I like to keep the shades of cardstock exactly alike, but for this one I departed from that a little. I decided that because of the nature of the hessian, I would use an ivory card base, but then I used white for the daisies, so I continued with the mix and used a creamy shade for the lace but stuck to the white for the vellum tendrils and the sentiment panel. I think it works!

I used the inspiration from Just US Girls

It was Cecile's choice and I just love her work... I also love daisies and hessian... so it was a real winner with me.

This week we'll be welcoming a new washing machine and a new sitting room carpet, so I'm going to have to get busy moving furniture... not exactly my favourite task, but hopefully the end result will be worth it!

 

...and one more

The simplest of simple cards. A sprig of die-cut foliage and berries, triple stacked, with adhesive flat back pearls added for the berries and with the leaves twinkled with Glamour Dust. 

The sentiment is from a set by Hero Arts.

This is my final contribution to the challenge at CAS Christmas

Recently I have spotted crafters like Gina K and Jennifer McGuire using a 'chuckie' to press down on their stamping platforms, to get even pressure on their stamps. I decided to look around the house to see what I could find to use for this purpose. After a brief search I came across this  quartz or alabaster (or whatever stone) tealight holder. I die-cut the appropriate sized circle from a sheet of self adhesive furniture protector felt and stuck this on the bottom. It slides around on my stamping platform beautifully and has a really good weight to it too. It's also great that it protects my wooden furniture surfaces when I want to use it for its original purpose!

 

Foliage & Berries

Out of nowhere this morning, came the idea to make a card with an embossed tile as the focal image. I haven't made one of these for quite some time, and I must admit that it was fun!

I used an old stamp from Artemio, which I stamped with Versafine Black Onyx ink and coloured with Copics, adding a few highlights with a Gelly Roll pen. I then over stamped with a bunch of background stamps, music from Kaisercraft, splatters, script and postal mark from SU. Following this I added a couple of layers or UTEE.

I did toy with the idea of adding a sentiment and in fact made a couple, but decided in the end that I preferred it as is!

It's for the challenge at CAS Christmas.

I was lucky enough to win a Penny Black foliage & berries stamp from CAS Mix Up, but so far I haven't managed to make a card that I'm satisfied with... I have messed up so many, but no doubt I'll get there sometime! Watch this space!

 

Hello

Here is my final rendition for this month's challenge at CAS Mix Up!

I made another stencil from a heart trail die and a sheet of Mylar. I don't have all the colours of Distress Oxide inks, so used a mixture of Oxides and regular Distress inks to add the rainbow colours. I didn't really have a deep enough shade for the indigo and so I mixed a few colours to achieve the depth of colour I wanted. I used fine blending brushes to apply the ink. 

I found a scrap of card which was close to one of the shades in the hearts to add a mount for the image, In fact there's a die cut space in it but there was enough solid card around the edge to make the frame. 

I rummaged through my dies to find a suitable sentiment which would a)fit onto the remaining scrap of yellow card and b) fit into the gap of the inked hearts. This MFT Hello was just right on both counts.  I stacked it onto a couple of white die cuts to add a little definition.

I added a few random, tiny, pearl gems for a little interest. (They are really tricky to spot).

We were about to restart our choir rehearsals last Tuesday, but in the afternoon the government decided that no more than 6 people could meet, despite all the precautionary measures we had in place.

It was a great disappointment. Petitions have been signed, MPs lobbied, social media protests written... it will be interesting to see what happens next!

Have a lovely day

Here's another go at using a home made stencil. I made this one some time ago before I discovered Mylar sheets. I used acetate and cut the design with my Silhouette Portrait.  I kept the die-cut in the die before I used the stencil, so that I would have a narrow white border around the balloon. The first one I tried, had some of the long bars of the stencil right next to the die, which masked and gave an odd shape to the balloon, so I tried again and positioned the stencil so that there would be a little colour all around the edge, even if it was only a touch; it outlined the balloon more definitively.

CAS Mix Up

CASology - Outside

Fab Friday

Addicted to stamps and More

 

Be Merry

I have always enjoyed following a sketch, as long as it is not too cluttered... there are some challenges where more is decidedly more  and that's just not my style. Today I spotted this sketch from 

CAS Colours and Sketches

This one is definitely my style.

I used an svg file from Silhouette, to cut the little penguins, and popped them onto a snowy backdrop with a little Christmassy sentiment. I simply cut the base shapes in black and then the rest in white, colouring the beaks and feet with Copics. I love the embossing folder used for the snow, it's by Sheena Douglass but is sadly no longer available.

ABC Christmas K kids

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes
The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Goes

 

Birthday Mermaid

Here is a little card I made with dies that I have had for ages but never got around to using! They are by Alexandra Renke. I began by stamping the dots in Soft Slate ink using a really favourite old set from SU called Gorgeous Grunge. I inked the coral/weed with some Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink using a soft blending brush.

I dug out these dies for the challenge at AAA Cards

For a challenge such as this I would tend to go for a unicorn  or the like but then I remembered the little mermaid. I think my only other encounter with a mermaid was seeing the one sitting on a rock in the harbour in Copenhagen!

I think I used about a third of the surface area for this card so hopefully it will be acceptable.

My second card today is for the challenge at CAS on Friday

FOOD

Among my dies, I found two different tops for a cup cake and one base... I'm not sure which topper goes with the bottom, but in fact I did use both. I rather liked the zig zag top of the cake case, but if I let any of it show, it would have looked as thought icing was floating, so I cut down one of the toppers to act as the cake peeking between the the icing and the case. Although cut from kraft card, I did add a little Distress ink to add definition to the case. The icing was sprinkled with Glamour Dust. Just looking at the die I used, I think it may actually be an ice cream, but if it is I don't know where the cone is. I think it looks OK here though! Needless to say I don't remember the make of the dies, I do remember that the original cup cake dies were a gift from a fellow team member when I was running Less is More! Thanks again Susan!

 

Merry Christmas

This is rather an unusual colour choice for a Christmas card, but I am rather partial to lots of shades of kraft card and so when I saw that the challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown was to use this colour, this is the card I came up with. 

In fact I decided to combine it with the challenge at CAS Christmas , where the theme this time is Foliage and Berries.

The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes

I  used an ivory base to complement the kraft die cuts. The foliage is from a die called Silverdale from Memory Box. It is stacked 3 times and mounted over a frame cut with Framelit and Presscut dies. I stamped this in Versamark using a wood plank stamp from IO. I lightly brushed a little Empire Gold Gilding Wax from Pebeo onto some edges of the leaves and the sentiment panel and added some Nuvo Crystal drops to the berries. The sentiment is from Memory Box.

I just discovered that Amazon Music has compiled my own personal playlist from tracks that I have chosen to play frequently... it's brilliant... all my favourites without having to keep selecting! I'm obviously not too old to keep learning new things!

 

Happy Birthday

I have been making homemade stencils for quite some time. Often, my dies are just the right dimensions to make a stencil background and I have used a variety of things to create the stencil. These often comprised paper, card, vellum or acetate. However, recently I came across Mylar sheets. I don't know what took me so long to find them, but together with dies or my Silhouette Portrait, one can make simply terrific re-usable stencils. For this card I used a Sizzix corner die. and once the Mylar sheet was cut, I used Distress Oxide Inks, applied through the stencil, using blending brushes.

I made the card for the challenge at CAS Mix Up

I bought a set of cheap brushes from eBay, I think they were described as make up brushes, but they work so well with the inks, to create beautifully smooth colour and blend them perfectly.

The 'Dreamy Butterfly' die is from Memory Box and the tiny sentiment from Avery Elle. The stitched frames were cut with dies from SSS, although I have to elongate the cut slightly to fit with British dimension cards. The width works beautifully but I just have to add around 1cm to the length. For these cards I use a sheet of A4 cut in half down the length and folded to make a tall tent fold card.

AAA Birthday has a birthday celebration so many congrats to them.

These days we have to make appointments to make a visit to the local dump, and we have one this morning, so I need to start loading up the car with some of the detritus from the garage and garden.

Wish me luck!