My Lovely Followers

Monday 30 October 2017

Christmas Mail


Hello!

A while back I made a card using some dies from MFT and whilst I shared it on Facebook I totally forgot to share this creation on my Blog and on Instagram. So I'm rectifying that today.



I used some cute Christmas papers by Lemoncraft, the Mail Delivery Die-namics, the Mini Mail Die-namics, and the keyhole from the Lock and Key Die-namics all from MFT Stamps to make this card. Other dies are also from MFT Stamps but are no longer available.

Thanks for visiting! 



Saturday 28 October 2017

Whimsy Stamps - Halloween Countdown

Hello!

Over at the Whimsy Stamps Blog we've been enjoying 31 nights of Halloween spooktacular!
It's a great event with loads of fun posts and prizes. Click on the banner above for details of how you can win a grand prize of

GRAND PRIZE $50 Whimsy Stamps Shopping Spree!!

We're almost to the witching hour, just 3 more days to go and today it's my turn to share something.
Now when you look at my 'Halloween' card, you'll see that it actually has a birthday sentiment on it. This is because in the UK we don't really send Halloween cards and our Halloween celebrations are really not so spectacular as over in the USA. 
However, people DO have birthday's on or around the Halloween celebration, so this still counts as a Halloween card right? 


I really wanted to give my card a fab spooky background, so I used my Distress Oxide inks to blend a moody night sky lit by the moon's glow, masking the moon and then colouring in later with a mix of Distress Oxide ink and a couple of grey toned Zig markers.

I coloured my vampire to coordinate with my background, with Zig markers and cut him out with the matching die. I die-cut the rest of my elements from black card stock, heat embossing my sentiment in white on top of my large gravestone and assembled my card. 

I added a little ink and some Wink of Stella to some of my elements to give them a glow and sparkle, and added some dots of white pen and glitter pen to my sky to look like stars.

I mounted my panel onto a plain black card base and just like magic (black of course) my card was complete.

I've added all the Whimsy products used below, with links to the items.

Dracula Bite MeDracula Bite Me Die SetDracula's Coffin Die Set

I have a prize to giveaway today, so for the chance to win  please leave me a comment below telling me what you usually do to celebrate Halloween. You have till the 30th October to enter, and the winners will all be announced on the Whimsy Blog on the 31st.

Don't forget to check the blog every night for more Halloween fun and giveaways!

Thanks for visiting!


Whimsy Stamps - Snow Flurry - Simple Cards

Hello!

I have a couple of simple Christmas cards to share with you that look impressive but actually take very little time to make. 

My first card used the Snow Flurry Background Stamp and the Snow Flurry Clear Stamp Set.


I used some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper to stamp and heat emboss the background stamp and also to stamp and heat emboss one of the snowflakes from the clear stamp set.  I used Shaded Lilac distress ink over the back ground stamp and to accent the snowflake. The sentiment is from the St Nicholas Clear Stamp Set. I popped up my front panel on some craft foam and finished my card simply with some purple gems.

For my second card I stamped some of the Snow Flurry snowflake stamps onto some Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper with Versamark Ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I also stamped another sentiment from the St Nicholas stamp set and heat embossed that in gold to match.




I then did some ombre ink blending using Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral distress ink. After cutting out my panel I sprinkled a few drops of water and lifted a little colour for interest. I didn't have any gold cardstock so I embossed the edge of my card and then mounted my panel right on top so there was just a thin gold outline.
I finished the card with some Pale Gold Nuvo Drops.

Below you can find links to the items I used.

*NEW Snow Flurry Background*NEW Snow Flurry*NEW St. Nicholas


I'll be back later with a special Halloween post and a chance to win a prize!


Monday 23 October 2017

CASE a card Monday - Polar Bear Pals

Hello!

It's been a while since I did a CASE a card Monday, so I thought I would pop one in today.

This shaker card was inspired by a card made by Debbie Olsen, you can find her blog here.

I used the Polar Pals stamp set again, which I fussy cut, not having the dies, theMFT Pierced Rectangle Frames, (which are no longer available I believe, although you can get stitched ones that are almost identical), and a couple of dies from Blueprints 15 and 20.

My skating bear is coloured with Zig Markers to coordinate with this lovely MFT paper.


The background for the shaker window is made using the MFT Cloud Stencil and Salty Ocean distress ink and the shaker selection is from Little Things by Lucy's Cards.

This is the card by Debbie that I cased. Unfortunately I couldn't find a direct link to the card on Debbie's blog, but I have linked to her blog above.

Handmade card from Debbie Olson featuring Birdie Brown Cool Day

That's all from now, but I'll be along later with some more Whimsy Inspiration for you.

See you later!


Thursday 19 October 2017

Beary Good Birthday

Hello! I'm trying my hardest to go through my draft folder and share some of my MFT cards there, before sharing some of the newer ones made with my latest haul....it's hard....oooh look shiny! lol!

But as Blue Peter (UK peeps should understand this one) would say, here's one I made earlier.


I combined the Polar Bear Pals set (I don't have the matching dies so I fussy cut them out), with the Concentric Circle Grid Stencil (I used Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistashio and Shaded Lilac Distress Inks and my Clarity Stencil Brushes), the largest rectangle from Blueprints 15 and the smaller rounded rectangle die from Blueprints 31, to make a winter birthday card.

I thought this stencil kind of gave the feel of an igloo.

The bears are coloured with Zig Markers and a watercolour brush on Strathmore Bristol Smooth and I popped them up with some foam tape. I glued the whole thing to a lilac card base.

I finished my card with a few sequins for a little interest.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit.


Thursday 12 October 2017

Whimsy Retreat 2017 - Class Projects

Hello!

I'm back from the Whimsy Craft Retreat 2017, held in Orlando, Florida and super excited to show you the cards we made in the classes I taught there this year.

All 3 classes were taught using new products from the October release, and I've listed those at the end of my post for you with links to the items in the shop.

My first class covered a 2 for 1 project where we made a shaker card and then made a card using the waste from this card with just a few additional pieces.

 For the card above I heat embossed the Snow Flurry BG stamp in white, on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and then used Distress Oxide Inks in Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio to blend over. I gave a light spray and sprinkled some drops of water before drying thoroughly.

I then cut out my panel with a rectangle die and cut out the SNOW die from the middle, being careful to save all the waste (except the middle of the O which is used on this card) to use on my second card.
I adhered a panel of acetate behind the aperture and glued the middle of the O back on the front.

I carefully attached foam tape to the back being careful to surround my word aperture with no gaps and rubbed the inside lightly with a dryer sheet (this is to prevent the sequins sticking to the static) and filled with a sequin selection that went with the colours of ink I used.
I glued a piece of white card to the back to prevent the sequins falling out and then glued the whole panel to my card base.

I stamped a sentiment from the Snow Flurry stamp set in the same Distress Oxide inks I used to blend my background and fussy cut them out, adhering them to the front of my card over the shaker portion with some Multi Medium Matte. I finished with a few sequins to match the those inside the shaker.


For my second card, I trimmed the waste 'frame' from cutting the panel for my first card to fit my card base and stuck it in place. I then cut a panel of white card stock to fit the inside of the frame and cut the SNOW word die out, towards the bottom of the panel, making sure it was centred and level. This is to use as a guide when adding back the stacked letters as it's easier to get the die straight than all the individual letters.
I stamped a sentiment from the Snow Flurry stamp set onto my panel in black ink and stuck the whole panel to my base card.

I cut the SNOW die cut 3 times from white cardstock and glued each of the letters in a stack, finishing with the patterned letters that were left from our shaker card and glued those in place on my card, using the negative die cut as a guide. 

I stamped 3 of the snowflakes from the Snow Flurry stamp set with Versamark ink and heat embossed in white and then blended over some Distress Oxide inks to match my background. I then cut them with the matching dies and mounted them on my card with a little foam tape.
I finished off with a few gems.

For my second class we got messy with a little ink smooshing and used the Snow Flurry stamp set and matching dies.


I used some distress Oxide Inks again (you could do the smooshing with normal distress or dye inks, but the stamping of the snowflakes would not be as crsip with normal distress inks), along with some Tim Holtz water colour paper,  and smooshed each colour separately, drying fully before moving onto the next.

Once fully dry I flicked with a little white acrylic paint and then stamped my sentiment from the set in black ink.

I stamped 3 of the snowflakes onto white cardstock, from the set using ink to match and cut them out with the matching dies.

I trim my panel to be a little smaller than my card base and add it to the base on top of a layer of cradt foam. I add the snowflakes with foam tape for a little extra dimension and finish with a few clear gems.

My 3rd and final class of the day (I did also do another optional evening workshop covering colouring images with Zig markers and distress inks/markers), covered loose water colouring and the camouflage die-cutting technique.


As with my first card I used the Snow Flurry BG stamp and white embossing powder to stamp and heat emboss a panel of Strathmore Bristol Smooth.

I then took 2 colours of Zig markers, (in this case Pink and Turquoise Green), and a waterbrush and loosely coloured the snowflakes, (by loosely I mean that the effect was quite watery and I didn't worry about colouring outside the lines, in fact it's pretty much encouraged), in pink and some of the loops and swirls in green. I's best to let one colour dry fully before moving onto the second so they are less likely to bleed into each other.

Once fully dry I cut it out with a large rectangle die and used the SNOW large word die to cut out my word from the centre of the card.
I made a card base with some bright pink card stock and adhered my panel directly to my base and then cut the SNOW die another 4 times from the same pink card stock.
I glued the letters in stacks, finishing with the patterned ones and glued them back into the aperture .

I heat embossed a sentiment in white, from the Abstract Christmas stamp set onto a scrap of pink card stock and cut out the sentiment with a banner die which I mounted across the bottom of my word using foam tape.

I finished the card with a few clear sequins.

Whimsy Products Used
Please click on the picture to go to the item in store

*NEW Snow Flurry Background*NEW Snow Flurry*NEW Snow Flurry Die Set*NEW Snow Word and Snow Caps Die SetAbstract Christmas


I did take a few photos at the retreat and I'll be doing a bit of a write up later about what we did, but for now I hope you enjoy the makes from my classes.

Thanks for visiting!


Sunday 1 October 2017

The Ribbon Girl - October Card Challenge


Hello!

It's time for another Ribbon Girls card challenge today. Don't forget you can enter with any design as long as it takes the form of a card. You can find details of the prizes at the end of this post.

As you know I don't make a whole lot of fancy cards lately, my style seems to have permanently drifted over to CAS in the main, but when I do I like to play around making cards without stamped and coloured images.

Today is no exception to that and I've used some beautiful papers, chipboard, flowers, beads and embellishments to create a pretty card that could be used for a wedding, engagement, anniversary or Valentine's day.

I distressed the edges of my papers with a blade, adhering and cut a frame from the pink paper using 2 circle dies. I glued my papers to my card base and popped the circle frame up with some foam tape.

I wanted my chipboard heart to stand out against my paper, so I sponged it with Distress Oxide ink in Worn Lipstick. These inks are great for colouring chipboard. I then sprayed it lightly with some Gold Glimmer Mist and left it to dry before gluing it inside my circle frame.

I made a triple bow with my pink ribbon and arranged that and a mixture of flowers, leaves, berries and sprays on my card, around my frame, gluing them all in place with my glue gun.

I finished with a mix of flat back pearls.





All items used (apart from Dies and Ink) are from The Ribbon Girl and are listed below with links to the items in the shop.

Lemoncraft Heart Painted 6 x 6 Pad
Monograce Chipboard Heart
12 mm Pale Pink Faux Silk Ribbon
Ivory White Magnolia Flower
Pink Wild Rose
20 mm Pale Pink Open Roses
10 mm Pale Pink Open Roses
Hip Rose Buds Pale Pink
Small White Blossoms
Pink/White Beaded Stamens
Ivory Pearl/Crystal Branch
5 mm Ivory S/A Pearls
3 mm Ivory S/A Pearls

I do hope you can join us. There are lovely prizes to be won
First prize:  Papers from Maja Design, Sweden - the prize will be sent directly to the winner

Second prize:  Your choice of 2 of the Christmas Mini Packs of 6x6 papers from The Ribbon Girl



Third Prize:  A stamp of the winner's choice from LOTV


Don't forget to check out the rest of the team's gorgeous creations!

Thanks for visiting!