Just one inch

I was determined to make an inchie which pleased me...  and this one does.

I began by cutting a few squares, then dropping a little Festive Berries Distress Ink onto one before spritzing with water. 

The next stage was to smear a little  Old Silver Inka Gold onto part of it and spritzing again. When dry, the next thing was to stamp a tiny script stamp from SU(French Foliage) over it. I die cut a couple of  holly leaves in green paper and added them before triple embossing... or maybe it was quadruple embossing (as I didn't use UTEE) with fine clear embossing powder. Whilst still molten, I stamped the circular stamp with Brilliance Gold ink into the corner. When cool I added the couple of pearls for berries.

I love that the card is so big, yet the image so small it really draws the eye as there's nothing else to look at!

I think this works for both  Challenges CAS Mix Up and CAS Watercolour

          

Now for a trip to the park with my littlest grandchild!

Little Elf

Sometime ago I entered a challenge to make a Christmas card with an elf! I knew I had an image somewhere... just one... and eventually found it. However when looking for something else a short time afterwards I came across this little chap... in fact he has two brothers (from Hero Arts) plus a die to accompany him. I had no recollection of purchasing them, but was pleased to find them in my stash. So here he's coloured with Copics and mounted on dimensional pads.

We used to have a pop up elf, you pressed a button and one of those criss cross extending mechanisms made him shoot up and a voice said "Have you been good?" in a very American accent. It made me smile every time and once the decorations came out each year I would put it in the downstairs loo, so that any visitors could have  a chuckle too! Hence the sentiment I added here which I did on the computer as I didn't have a stamp!

He is kinda cute isn't he!

It's my DT card for Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

You could of course do an Anything Goes card... but if you have an elf we'd love to see him/her!

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!

Framed

Last month I came upon a Memory Box Challenge. I was delighted to find it as I have loads of Memory Box dies ...they are one of my very favourite manufacturers of dies. I was fortunate enough to have the card I entered chosen as the winner! and I was naturally simply thrilled. This month the challenge is to include a frame of some sort. 

For my card I used a piece of card which I had smooshed with Inka Gold and some distress inks and cut with the Memory Box base Layer of Christmas trees. I used gold card for the outline of the trees and the sentiment. I cut the front panel with SSS stitched rectangle dies to make the frame.

I'm not sure of the make of the sentiment die, (I keep my dies on magnetic sheets in box files and the packaging is stored away elsewhere.) I chose it because I fancied one which began with a capital letter and was not too overpowering for the delicacy of the trees.

I dry embossed a little piece of card with a snow folder from Sheena Douglass to pop behind the trees.

Outside the Box

My second card today is also framed but in a slightly different way... this one has a dry embossed frame around the 4 inchies.

The challenge at CAS Mix Up is to use inchies. 

I don't remember making any inchies before despite having owned this Inkadinkadoo stamp set for several years! I think I picked it up in a Michael's somewhere or other on one of our trips to the USA.

I dug out a piece of card with some failed acrylic pouring on it, which looked dreadful, but I saved it anyway!

I stamped the inchies onto selected bits of this card and clear embossed them, before cutting out with a Sizzix die, It is actually a 3 squares die, but I just used an end one each time to cut them out. Once cut, I triple clear embossed them to make them into tiny tiles, then mounted them onto a black square.

The sentiment, embossed in white, is from Sugar Peas Designs.

I don't feel that this card was my finest hour so I will be trying again very soon!