Another Merry Christmas

This die by Alexandra Renke is called a snow globe but to me it looks more like a bell, so I added some thread and a bow to suspend it. The scene inside this time uses a freebie tree line die-cut and a couple of Memory Box deer. The sentiment is a new acquisition this week also from Memory Box. The embossed snowflakes in the background are from The Creative-Depot. 

I began by making this card all white but it looked decidedly lack lustre, mainly I think, because it is a very flat, matt finish cardstock, so I added the kraft layers to the deer and the Merry Christmas. 

I didn't really check the size of this sentiment die before I bought it and was a little surprised by how big it is, but I got it on sale so I'm happy and looking at it now I think it's rather splendid!

CAS Christmas - Christmas Critters

 

Merry Christmas

I don't t end to use much designer paper these days, but today a scrap caught my eye in the drawer and this card emerged. Sometimes non-traditional colours work out and this time I was satisfied with the outcome. Dies by Alexandra Renke and I think the horizontal embossing was done with a freebie folder.

Just US Girls - Merry

Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with dies

Happy Little Stampers - Christmas

Crocuses

I actually checked the plural of crocus as it looked a little odd to me

 but it seems as though I was right! These were made from die cuts by Alexandra Renke, cut from white card and coloured by daubing some distress ink onto my glass mat, spritzing with water and then dragging the die cuts through the appropriate pools of colour.

The back panel is cut with Pink Fresh Studio dies and the centre piece embossed with a Cuttlebug heart embossing folder. The sentiment is from Sugar Pea Designs.

CAS Watercolour

Inkspirational - Spring

Happy Little Stampers

The Flower Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches

Happy Anniversary!

I really enjoy colouring die cuts in various ways. Here I used some watercolours to add interest to this pansy die cut by Alexandra Renke. I also stamped a Gorgeous Grunge stamp in the background and added a simple narrow frame also coloured with watercolour. The sentiment is from Avery Elle.

It's my DT card for Perfectly CAS where the challenge is to use die cuts.

Do come and join in the fun!

What is the plural of rhombus?

I guess we could get into quite a discussion here... rhombuses or rhombi? Whatever the answer,

there are quite a few of them in this card, or rather they are absent but we can see where they were!

The trellis die is from Memory Box, cut from a simple panel and with just a couple of die cut sprigs of eucalyptus cut from a piece of photographic paper, which had been coloured with alcohol inks.

The foliage die is by Alexandra Renke and the sentiment stamp from Clearly Besotted.

It's my DT card for the challenge at Perfectly CAS, where the decoration must not take up more than a third of the front of the card. In other words we need to see lots of white space!

As you can see, the challenge is to include SHAPES!

DO join in the fun!

Today I am having an arthroscopy on my knee, something that has been needed for about 2 years, let's hope it will be successful! It's just day surgery so I'll be hobbling around at home again tomorrow!

Delicate leaves

Today I was watching a video of Jennifer McGuire using Shimmer Powders and loved the effect she was achieving. I don't have any shimmer powders, but I do have some Brushos and some Mica powders, so I thought that I would combine the two to see if I could achieve a similar, shimmery effect. I rather like the delicacy of this one It's a couple of shakes of Green Perfect Pearls and Leaf Green Brusho, spritzed with water and allowed to dry. I didn't use any special watercolour paper, just some offcuts of card on the non textured side.

The branch die is by Alexandra Renke. I'm not sure of the sentiment die... it's very old. I cut a panel for it to rest on, from a pennant die, cutting part way from each end, to make a rectangle just long enough to accommodate the letters.

CASology  - Branch

Just Us Girls - Anything Goes

Inkspirational - No Stamping

Stencilling

The challenge from CAS Stencil came a little late for me, as I had just been to the charity shop to donate a lot of unused stash, which partly consisted of many packets of Designer paper. When I first began card making I thought that this was what I had to have, until my personal style of making CAS cards evolved. Thereafter lots of designer paper remained unused in drawers. I kept a little of the stuff which was 'less patterned', this piece of splodgy green was amongst it. I simply inked over a Stamplorations leaf stencil with Versamark and heat embossed in gold. A die cut from Alexandra Renke and a simple sentiment from Sugar Pea Designs completed the card.

CAS Stencil Patterned Paper

Complementary colours and Inchies

Last night I received orders for 5 cards, so today I shall be busy with my thinking cap on for what to do! I have been making cards for this one lady in Ireland for some years, ever since she received one of my cards from a friend, but before I begin on that little lot, here is a card for the challenge at CAS Watercolour.

 

I guess I chose an easy option with red and green!

I used a die from Alexandra Renke, which I cut from white card and then spritzed with water before adding Distress Inks and watching the reaction as it moved through the water. I decided not to put the die cut pieces from the petals back in this time, I'm not sure which I prefer... in or out!

The kraft circle was a left over from another project but I thought it made a good backdrop for the flowers. I hope it is permitted to have this extra colour!

The sentiment is from Altenew.

To make the inchies on this card I began by stencilling the pink dots, then I stamped the script and added some splats in a deep pink colour. I stuck on some small Alexandra Renke die cut flowers so that they would appear off centre on each piece and then die cut  the inchies with a Sizzix die. I distressed the edges with a little gold Brilliance ink and added a tiny pearl to the centre of each flower. The border die is from Stamplorations. I have scrawled 'A little sentimental' on the carrier sheet for the sentiment stamps, but sadly not the manufacturer. I don't have space to keep my stash in its original packaging, which is squirreled away elsewhere, so from time to time I'm at a loss to identify some of it. If anyone can recognise it I would be glad to know. I have looked on the internet without success.

It's another attempt for the CAS Mix Up challenge but once more I'm not really satisfied with the overall effect so I may try one more time!

Pink & Grey

The colour combination for the challenge at Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge is Pink & Grey!

I love this mix and in fact it was the exact thing I chose for the very first challenge at "Less is More" when I created that challenge way back in 2011.

Here I chose to use dies by Alexandra Renke and coloured the cherry blossom with watercolours. The sentiment is by Altenew. The plain grey panel looked a little flat so I embossed it with a texture plate from Papertrey Ink. It's really quite a subtle effect, but I rather like it.

Colour challenges are fun... and this is such a lovely combo, so why not join in with your CAS creation!

Hello again

I don't know if anyone else does this, but if I have dug out a stamp or die that I haven't used for a while, I often use it a second or even a third time. So here is the Winnie & Walter HELLO die in evidence once more . This time complemented with a few other die cuts. The flowers from Alexandra Renke were coloured with Distress Inks and I just happened to have a piece of pink card which matched perfectly, which I layered and used for the hello.I was going to put the pink layer beneath the white ones but rather liked the boldness of it on top. There is a pink layer under the white in the word beautiful, which can be glimpsed from some angles.

This i loosely based on the sketch from Colours And Sketches. 

I used the bunch of flowers and the hello as the two overlapping elements.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge  - Anything Goes

New Butterfly

 

I just received this new die.. it's by Alexandra Renke  and I've wanted to try one of these 

three quarter view die cuts for some time. I began by cutting out the butterfly and then adding colour by using some paper towels that I had used for mopping up other projects (and saved specifically for this purpose) and transferring the colour to the die cut by spritzing with water and pressing the towels onto the card.

I used the colours from Color Throwdown daubing on a little Frayed Burlap ink to define the body of the butterfly. I overprinted the wings with a script stamp from Stampin' Up in the same ink.

The hexagons are also designed by Alexandra Renke.

I've really been enjoying colouring die cuts of late, you  can achieve some really interesting results!

A sketch

I've been having a bit of fun colouring some die cuts. I began by dropping a few shades of green Aqua Tints onto the cut pieces of card, they did swim around a little, but the different shades did have an effect. Once dry I still wasn't really thrilled with the result so I daubed on a little Distress Ink around the edges, still not quite there, so I darkened the stalks with a marker. I decided to leave it at that!

I mounted the stalks on a piece of textured die-cut, kraft card and added a tiny sentiment from WPlus9.

I based the layout on the sketch from Colours and Sketches but reversed the orientation. A few tiny brown pearls completed the card.

Addicted to Stamps and More - CAS

Circles

The Challenge at Just us Girls this time is Circles

I used a die by Alexandra Renke for the focal point,  cut from kraft card and gently shaded with a little Distress Ink around the edges. The sentiment is part of stamp from Altenew... I masked off the last couple of words (to you) as it was too long for the card. I had a bit of a struggle to make the die extend far enough to encompass the words, but managed on about the third or fourth attempt.

I thought that the hessian and the rough string complemented the kraft card quite well. I added a few random dark brown pearls (more circles) for a little interest.

Happy Little Stampers 

Anything Goes with Dies

HELP PLEASE!

I have recently bought a Magnetic Platform for my Big Shot Plus die cutting machine, but find that particularly small dies, like the one used to cut the sentiment on this card, don't stay where they are placed on the platform but jig around as though the magnets are pushing them rather than attracting them. Has anyone else come across this phenomenon? I have written to Sizzix but not received any response to date. I'm not sure if this happens with all Sizzix Plus platforms or whether mine has a problem!!!

Any comments would be appreciated!