You are amazing

Here is a little card I made using up some background I made some time ago. I used a stencil and some of what I call 'Relaxed' Shaving Foam technique. I mixed the foam with various shades of blue Distress Inks and left it to relax overnight. Instead of the usual marbling effect, it gives a more blurred effect. I spread some through a stencil and much of it seeped underneath and some transferred when wiping off the excess, but I rather like the overall effect!

I followed the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

Allsorts -  Clean and Simple

 

Birthday WIshes

I found a scrap of background that I had created with s stencil and some distressed shaving foam... I say distressed as I had mixed the colours with the foam and left it to sit overnight, the result being more relaxed than marbled. I added a few die cuts and a simple sentiment and it was done.

Seize the Birthday By The Sea.

Addicted to CAS -Nature

 

You make me happy

Here I used dies and stamps from Simply Graphic, stacking the leaves and smooshing with Distress Oxide inks and water to add the colour. I added just a little Gilding Wax to the butterfly's wings. The sentiment was heat embossed in white.

TIME OUT - coloured card base

I love the products from this French company, they seem to fit my style of cardmaking perfectly!

 

Happy Birthday

If there's one thing I love it's having a good simple sketch to follow. Today I found this one at 

CAS Colours & Sketches

I spent a long time going through my sentiment stamps to look for something which I thought would work, but eventually ended up using a computer generated one. In fact I did so much messing around with spacings etc, it would probably have been quicker to stamp one using a stamping platform.

Anyway the font is Formal 436 BT.

I decided to add a butterfly to the design to fit in with the challenges at 

CAS on Friday - Butterfly

and Watercooler Wednesday - All things Feminine

The Dreamy butterfly is from Memory Box, coloured with Salvaged Patina and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Inks applied with sponge daubers. When dry I stamped and heat embossed some silver splatters.

To make the matching tiny floating dots, I coloured a little card with the inks and then die cut a holey border die and used the 'holes' as the embellishments. There are two sizes of holes in this die and these are from the smaller ones. It's a good way to get and exact match to something you have already coloured... besides colouring dots made from White Nuvo Drops. (which I've actually not tried yet for myself)

 

Sending Love This Christmas

I have always loved the Penny Black chickens and have quite a few stamps of them in various guises. Here they are sending Christmas greetings. I simply coloured them with Copic markers and added a sentiment from MFT. Both panels are popped up on dimensional tape.

ABC Christmas P for Plump

Christmas Card Throwdown - Birds

Addicted to Stamps and More - Christmas

 

Hello

I don't seem to be able to stop playing around with this Creative-Depot Bellflower die, here it is in yet another incarnation, this time for the challenge at AAA Cards

I didn't opt for the coloured card base, but my 1 inch strip is from a Reverse Confetti backdrop die. I popped it up on dimensional tape and added the die cut which I coloured with Distress Oxide inks, using sponge daubers. I spritzed it with water to diffuse the colours and stamped some splatters in the same ink. Sentiment by the Ton.

Try it on Tuesday - Summer Blooms

Here's a place to Start. - Your Own Style - Mine is decidedly CAS!

International Art & Soul - Clean and Simple

 

Happy Birthday

I simply love this bellflower die from Creative-Depot. Here I stacked it three times and added some Peeled Paint Distress Oxide Ink with a sponge dauber. I used the edge of the dauber to drag some of the colour up to the petals from the stem and then spritzed it with water to diffuse the colour.  The trellis is from a Sizzix die and I stamped a few splatters behind it. I stacked the sentiment and intended having it green, but the colour was much too harsh and so I added another white layer on the top! I like how the green is peeking out!

Craft Rocket - CAS

Simply Create - Monochrome

The Flower Challenge - Use  a Die

 

Thanks

I have done it again... found new die companies with dies that I love! The flowers here are from Creative-Depot and have come very quickly from Germany! I coloured them by daubing with a little Distress Oxide Ink and then spritzing with water to diffuse the colours. I over-stamped with a splatter stamp in the Prize Ribbon shade and also with a little silver gilding wax, finishing with a touch of Distress Glaze.

The de-bossed hearts in the circle are also from Creative-Depot, it looks like a die, but doesn't cut, it merely embosses. Sentiment by The Ton.

Tuesday Morning Sketches

The Flower Challenge

 

Merry Christmas

I had some new stamps to play with today and this cheery bear was one of them. He's from MFT and I also availed myself of the set of matching dies. The trees are from a Poppy Stamps set, but I cut those out by hand... the sentiment is from Memory Box and the few tiny stars are from a freebie set.

I simply die cut the hillside, coloured in the images with Copic pens and added a little Glamour Dust. A few of the elements are popped onto foam tape.

Christmas Card Throwdown

The Holly and Ivy challenge - Anything Goes

Christmas with the Cuties - Clean and Simple

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes

 

Just for you

Today's card echoes the colours in the inspiration photograph at The Card Concept

I love the soft muted colours of sand, sky and sea. I chose to use them for colouring these fabulous flowers from Simply Graphic.

I scribbled with some watercolour pencils onto watercolour paper and spritzed very generously with water, The colours moved and spread beautifully and when dry I selected areas from the paper to die-cut. The backdrop is from a Reverse Confetti die and I also cut a small area of the splatters at the edge of the paper for the square.

 

Be Merry

On the whole I don't tend to make Christmas cards in non-traditional colours, but I thought I would try. I found this stamp from Hobby Art which I had forgotten I had and made the card with the colours from Color Throwdown in Mind!

The grey does look a lot darker in my photo than it is IRL.

Christmas Craft Creations are also looking for Non Traditional colours

New Home

There's still time to join in the stencil challenge at CAS Mix Up

There is so much inspiration and examples on the blog so do head over there to take a look.

Here I used part of a honeycomb stencil, inked through with Wild Honey Distress Oxide Ink using a blending brush. With the stencil still in place I stamped with an old splatter stamp from SU using the same ink.

The two bees are really fiddly to assemble but once coloured with alcohol markers and covered with Nuvo Crystal Glaze I think they look really effective. I believe they are from Memory Box, but I can't find the packaging and I can't see them on the internet. If anyone could tell me definitively I would be grateful!

Craft Rocket Challenges Clean and Simple

 

Merci

Here is a card I made today using Simply Graphic dies. 

The colours and flowers remind me of this inspiration Photo from Just add ink.

This colours are really similar in this inspiration photo from Fusion

To make the card I scribbled with some watercolour pencils onto some absorbent card (it actually wasn't watercolour card) and then spritzed liberally with water.  The colours moved around and mixed beautifully and when dry I was able to die cut this SG Nordic Trio of dies.

The back panel was a little random, I had a left over circle from an aperture card and there was a little square die left on my desk, so I die cut a part of the circle, somewhat off centre, dry embossed it and then after raising the circle onto foam tape I popped the square back into the circle, onto the card base. I arranged the blooms, tied them with a little twine and added a simple sentiment.

Merry Christmas

This card just kinda happened today, I fancied using the poinsettia die again and this time I added it to a tag. Easy peasy! Leaves and petals coloured with Copics with a couple of shades of ink for each, the sentiment is stacked three times. I quite like how it turned out!

ABC Christmas  R - Ribbon

The Holly and the Ivy challenge Challenge #99 Anything Christmas

Christmas Cards all year round P - Poinsettia

Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies

Tuesday Taggers - Keep it Simple

 

Celebrate

I saw the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches

the theme at CASology

and the Trend at Just Us Girls

...and came up with this card.

I didn't have a stamp with a a mask apart from a racoon who looks like he's wearing one, so I grabbed a couple of free clipart images and cut them with my Silhouette Portrait machine. I didn't have a sentiment of the right weight or size in my dies or stamps so wrote this one and also cut it with my Silhouette in Hello font.  This font flows beautifully when welded.

I did try cutting a few of the masks and stacking them, but preferred the look of the single cuts!

Birthday WIshes

I have had this die by Paper Rose for some time but this is first time that I have used it. I began by cutting three layers of the tulip frame and stacking them. I then embossed an image onto a piece of card to see where I should add colour, which I did with two shades of Distress Oxides in pink... Worn Lipstick and Spun Sugar and one in green... Bundled Sage. Once I had coloured it, I sealed it with some clear Ranger Distress Glaze and then die-cut the coloured pieces and inlaid them into the frame die cut..

I happen to have several sets of dies from Presscut and there are 30 odd circles in this particular set, increasing  very gradually in size, so I was able to find one which matched the diameter of the Paper Rose die to make the aperture behind it. I stamped a few splatters on the base card and then popped both that and the frame onto dimensional pads. 

The sentiment is by Mama Elephant.

The flower Challenge

Tuesday Taggers 

Keep it simple

Heart to Heart 

Full Circle

Watercooler Wednesday

 

Have a Lovely Day

Recently I have become totally enamoured with the dies from a French company called Simply Graphic. They are perfectly suited to many card styles but particularly for CAS.

Here I used a scrap of torn vellum, left over from another card, a die cut panel and two simple flowers. I heat embossed the sentiment on a scrap of the card used for the flowers and added a few miniscule gems.

The flower challenge

I didn't make a slimline card, but used a slimline panel!

Country View Challenges

Monochrmatic

 

Joy to the World

A card for a few challenges. I began with the sketch from Christmas Card Throwdown

Just realised that I put the sentiment in the wrong place... can we put it down to a little artistic licence?

I used the colours from Color Throwdown

 the theme of decorations from CAS Christmas

and the hanging decorations from the photo  inspiration at Christmas Kickstart

Starting with the sketch I cut the front panel together with the little Christmas dies in the arrangement of the sketch... if I had thought things through a little more I would have altered the placement slightly so as to accommodate a) hangers for the two top shapes and b) threads to hang them up with... maybe another card will emerge for that. It's always fine to be wise after the event!

I believe that the dies are a bit of a mix and match, I just raided my box of Christmas dies!
I think I may have to have another go at this one!

 

Merry Christmas

I have been away for a short break in West Wales and had a lovely time... we were really fortunate with the weather and the scenery was fabulous, but I'm always glad to get home again. On our return I was eager to get a card made but had no inspiration, so I looked for a challenge to enter!

The challenge at CAS Christmas is Decorations.

My first thought was to do something with baubles, but I couldn't work up any enthusiasm for that, so I thought I would do a wreath instead. I have made a wreath to decorate our front door at Christmastime, but not for a year or so. This one has Christmas Roses in it (Hellebores) at least they look like them to me!

After I had cut the pieces  (Craft & You Dies), I coloured them with 3 shades of green alcohol inks and a little Blending Solution. I merely flapped them up and down into a puddle of colour on my craft mat!

The sentiment was a freebie from a mag, which I heat embossed in gold onto a torn strip of vellum.

At Time Out   it's Word inspiration