C4G - Sports

Good morning peeps. Hope I find you well and keeping safe.

I've said it before but crafting is certainly keeping be occupied during lockdown, I've been finishing off a cross-stitch my late Mum started and of course I've had my DT obligations. I've also been tracking down those ancestors online, I'm constantly amazed by their antics, I bet they never thought that all their indiscretions would be laid bare for all to see!

Anyway, As I say I've also been creating projects for my DTs and there's a new challenge theme over at Cardz4Guyz.

SPORTS

When I saw the sketch over at The Paper Players, I knew where I was going and the design came very quickly. Here's my take.

I used the cute golfer from LOTV and a Sizzix Argyll pattern EF, along with some grass cut with an ancient Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is also from LOTV, stamped in blue.

So what sport will you go with? We'd love to see what you come up with. If you need some more inspiration there's some great ideas over on the Cardz4Guyz blog.

Joining in over at:-

The Boys are Back

Uniko BA Inspiration - Focus on sentiments

Morning all. I'm over on the Uniko blog with a couple of cards focusing on sentiments.

Why not check them out here for full details on how I made them?

Color Hues #10, Peace, Love and Joy

Good afternoon peeps.

It's time for a brand new colour challenge over at Color Hues. This time the lovely Nancy has chosen Navy and Cream and here is my take!

My inspiration was taken from this card I saw on Pinterest and this one I made a few years ago. I am determined not to be last minute with Christmas card making this year, as despite all the time on my hands in 2020, I was making cards right up to last posting date! So, I have already made a few for the stash and this is one that will be added. to them.

I took a panel of A4 navy card from the stash and made a top fold note card from one half and die cut the scalloped panel from the leftover with an MFT die. Scrabbling around in my massive stash of card revealed not much in the way of cream, who knew, but I did find some thinner cream card that I used to die cut a couple of snowflakes along with a punched one. I used some ancient original thin Sizzix dies, the ones encased in plastic, to cut the larger flakes and an equally old Martha Stewart punch for the smallest. I must admit that the dies were awful to cut, even with thin card, how did we ever use them back in the day?!

The die cut and punched snowflakes were layered up, gluing the centers only, and a cream button and thick linen thread complete the snowflake. The whole was glued onto the scalloped panel and a sentiment from Uniko, stamped in blue and heat embossed with semi dull clear WOW EP on cream was added to complete. The completed panel was then added flat to my base card.

A very simple design really so I could batch make if I need to!

For more colour inspiration please check out the rest of the team here.

 Joining in over at:-

 

Anything Goes

Uniko Blog Hop- Hello Lovely

Good morning crafters.

Today we are having a revisit blog hop over at Uniko. This time we are giving some love to the pretty 'Hello Lovely'

I wanted to have a play with a technique I'd seen on You Tube by Lydia Evans and thought the gorgeous spray of blooms in this set would work well. Here are a couple of cards I made.

The first attempt was this card.

I inked an A6 panel of white card with a mixture of DIs, Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers in a gradient from dark to light. Over that I inked up the large spray with Altenew's Galactic Stream and left it to dry really well! Just to make sure it was perfectly dry, I ran my heat gun over it. Popping the inked and stamped panel into my MISTI, I placed the large hello from Big n Bold Hello across the top third of the panel and stamped with Versamark a couple of times before heat embossing with clear gloss EP. When the embossing was completely dry I added some Galactic Stream over the top half of the panel to reveal the sealed paler ink under the embossing. I stamped the lovely in white EP after the ink had fully dried. The panel was then trimmed and added to an A6 white base card.

Not completely satisfied, I decided to have another go. This time I just used the palest of the inks, Salty Ocean to cover the white card panel before repeating the process encasing the stamped image in the clear EP.

This time before adding the Galactic Stream over the top of the 'hello' I stamped the 'LOVELY' and heat embossed with white EP. The over inking this time revealed the hello as well as knocking back the brightness of the white EP, which I found too stark in the first. I decided not to trim this panel down but kept it one layer.

There's even more 'Hello Lovely' love over on the rest of the Brand Ambassador's blogs, why don't you pop over there.
As usual we have our giveaway, so be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win the Hello Lovely Clear Stamp Set. 
(An alternative prize will be offered if the winner already owns this.)

You have until midnight GMT Saturday 23th January 2021 to comment along the hop.

All the details can be found on the Uniko blog as well as the BA links if you get lost along the way!

Bev
Carol 
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie - That's me

Rahmat

Sarah P
Wiebke 

Happy hopping!

STAMPlorations challenge reminder

Afternoon peeps, just popping around to remind you that there is still time to join us for this months challenges at STAMPlorations.

Here is my card based on the Theme and Photo prompt.

This time I picked up on the ice cream cone in the photo and used he image from Sweet Cravings for the main image. Coloured with Copics and then cut with the matching die, I added it to a panel made by smooshing some card in some Salty Ocean DI and water. A slightly larger panel of white edged with a sunny yellow Copic was used to mount the blue panel, then popped up on pads onto a white, linen effect base card. A selection of sequins from my stash represent the confetti from the photo.

The sentiment is from a now retired set Sugar Rush, you can still get the digi version of the images but not the text, I'm afraid, but I thought the sentiment matched the image!

Check out the rest of the teams for more inspiration then why not join in?

Snowdrops

Good morning, time for a brand new challenge at Uniko.

Here's my inspiration for the latest challenge.

My starting point for this card was my stack of Gelli plate experiments. The background panel used here was cut from a larger piece made by taking a print after the first pull from a stencil overlay, using the Let it Snow stencil. The result is a ghostly, delicate effect that reminded me of frosty mornings like we had last weekend. I decided to use the Snowdrops from Spring Botanicals - Snowdrop, as they are the harbingers of spring and remind us that there is hope of spring after the dark winter days. Very appropriate at the moment I think. They are were also in my mind as I put the bins on the roadside the other day, as there are clumps of snowdrops at the side of the lane just waiting to burst into life.

I stamped the snowdrops and then masked them off before stamping a couple more stems, then used Copics to colour. After fussy cutting, I glued them onto my Gelli plate background and added a torn card snowdrift, allowing the two lowest blooms to hang over. A little bit of Wink of Stella added a bit of sparkle to the snow bank!

My completed panel was added with foam pads over a white linen A6 linen effect base card and a sentiment strip added below, leaving a thin shadow line between the two elements. The sentiment is from the Pure Florals Peony set.

Whilst I had the Snowdrop set out, I decided that I would make another in order to enter Darnell's Twofer Challenge and the Flower Challenge.

Here is what I came up with.

This time I went landscape and one layer for my watercolour interpretation.

No stencil this time but simple masking and heat embossing.

Using masking tape I masked off a border around a piece of mixed media paper and stamped the single spray of flowers with Versamark, then heat embossed with fine white EP.

At first I used a mixture of Chipped Sapphire and Blueprint Sketch for the background but it wasn't deep enough so I went over it with a deep blue Zig marker, blending out with water towards the edges.

The flowers were coloured with Zig markers and blended out with plain water before my sentiment was added and more fine white EP. The sentiment is from the same set as the snowdrops but I cut it up in order to get the placement just right. Carefully removing the masking tape gave the crisp white border. I thought the sentiment was perfect for anyone who needs a lift in these crazy times.

Not sure which one I prefer, they each have something to commend them I think.

OK, that's all from me, please check out the rest of the team and GD over at the Uniko blog, where you'll find all the Ts and Cs.

Joining in over at:-

  

     

    

   

          

Warm Winter Wishes

Evening folks. 

How are you coping? Do you need some distractions from the chaos that is surrounding us at the moment? Well after a 6 month break, Perfectly CAS has a brand new challenge for you. Here is my card using the theme for this month.

I used a stencil for TCW, perfect for creating atmosphere.

The stencil, Aspen Trees, was laid over a panel of Mixed Media paper and Prussian Blue Brusho gently added to the spaces. A gently spritzing of water activates the magical crystals to create a wonderfully textured and atmospheric background. The stencil was quickly removed from the paper and the excess water blotted away with a paper towel. I put more water at the top of the panel and less Brusho so that there is a graduation in the intensity of colour, creating a sense of sky and thicker woodland brash lower down where the crystals are less dissolved. The lovely Loll from Stamping with Loll has a little video that inspired me. The wonderful thing about Brusho powder is that it is made up of crystals of different colours so when water activates them you don't get a solid block of colour, if you are sparing with the water!

Although I had a 6 x 6 finished panel, I only used a small amount, trimming off a narrow strip to add to my CAS card. I decided to use a 5x7 base for a change, adding the Brusho strip to the left hand side. A piece of  white scrap card was torn to create a snowdrift and a small deer was cut from dark grey card and added. It looks as though it is just emerging from the snowy woodland, looking out inquisitively. Two panels of white card were cut to add on pads over the base card, the sentiment, from Uniko, was stamped in charcoal ink to complete.

So which stencil from your stash will you choose? We'd love to see your designs in our gallery, but don't forget to keep it CAS! 

For more inspiration check out the rest of the DT here.

Joining in over at:-

 

Let it Snow

Playing around with my Gelli plate

Good morning peeps.

How are you? Hope you are keeping your spirits up and making use of your imposed lockdown if that's you. 

Do you need something to keep you busy and your mind of everyday events, or is your craft mojo a no go? Well hopefully the latest challenge at Cardz4Guyz will help. The very appropriate theme of -

LET IT SNOW

With all the extra time at home, I've been playing with my Gelli plate. I saw Jennifer McGuire's video before Christmas and was inspired to have a play as mine had sat in a drawer unloved for over a year! It was quite addictive and I produced lots of background panels, some more effective than others. This card uses one of the not so successful ones that needed a bit of a lift with some over stamping.

The panel was cut using a Avery Elle angled die cut but silly me did it the wrong way so I had to turn the design on it's head, but I think it worked in the end!

The soft background was a second pull from an experiment using die cut masks and a stencil but lacked a bit of oomph. So, I decided to add some text over the top with the same Blueprint Sketch DOx as I used in the print, the stencil pull also involved some Wilted Violet DOx. and is glued flat onto a white linen effect A6 top fold card.

I had plenty of failures when I was playing around so used some of the overlay die cuts as accents and used some of the waste to create my sentiment panel. The greeting is Penny Black, one I've not used before, which I stamped and heat embossed with white EP before mounting on a circle of holographic card and a die cut snowflake. A couple of other stamped ones complete. As its for a bloke, I didn't add any extra embellishments. 

For more masculine card inspiration check out the rest of the team here and then why not join in?

I'm joining in over at:-

ABC Christmas Challenge - A is for Advent

 

Hey There

Evening all, after a 6 month hiatus we are back with a brand new challenge over at HLS CAS, YAY!

Here is my card, can you guess the theme?

This month our theme is -

We you right?

I went with TALL!

This cute Paper Smooches giraffe was made taller by stamping the neck and head and then the neck and body, joining them under the green disk sentiment. 

After colouring him with Copics, he was fussy cut and attached to a panel of white card to which I had stamped a few leaves coloured again with Copics. I grounded him by adding some scribbled green Copic marker around his legs.

My circular sentiment panel was first coloured with one of the greens I used for the leaves and the Paper Smooches sentiment stamped and embossed with white EP. The finished panel was then added to a slimline card base, A5 folded in half. Slimline cards seem to be all the rage at the moment, good job I've got plenty of matching envelopes from donkeys years ago! There is nothing new, everything eventually comes back into fashion.

For more Short and/or Tall inspiration check out the rest of the DT, then why not join in? We'd love to see your interpretation in the gallery.

Joining in over at:-

Color Hues #9

Good afternoon, how's 2021 so far?

Not much has changed around here, we are still estranged from the family by Covid restrictions here in the UK. We are only a small island but with all the restrictions we have, getting together, even outdoors, is a no no. I didn't think that I would mind a quiet Christmas but I really missed the munchkins, it was far too quiet without them!

Anyway, I've been keeping busy in the craft room with DT makes.

This one is for the latest challenge over at Color Hues.

As I've said before, multilayered stamps and dies are perfect for our challenges and this set from Altenew is one of my faves. I've recently discovered that they have brought out a jumbo version of another of my faves so I might indulge once everyone is back after the holidays.

I always find getting all the different shades together is tricky, unless you splurge on the coloured card collections. I can usually find 3 colours from my stash but the 4th is always elusive, so I now use my Copics to colour each of the layers! The stash of coloured card however, doesn't get any smaller!

These two blooms are from the Rose Flurries set, as are the leaves and bud spray. After die cutting from scrap white card, still trying to use up my vast box of scraps, I coloured each layer with Copics and assembled them. C3, C5, C7 for the leaves and stems and R59, R46, R35 and R32 for the flower elements.

On a top folding note card, I stencilled a background, using STAMPlorations' Crisscrossed stencil with Altenew's Limestone ink and arranged the die cuts into a spray and glued them down. A few PPP small sequins and a white heat embossed sentiment on a black strip complete.

For more colourful inspiration, please check out the rest of the DT and then why not join in?

Celebrate

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well I hope it is, 2021 can't be any worse than 2020, now can it?

As its also the first of the month its time for a new challenge over at STAMPlorations and here is my card for your inspiration.

A suitably festive creation, based on the picture element of this months Theme and Photo Prompt challenge. but whatever inspires you is OK with us, so long as you use either the theme or photo or even both.

I saw the pink and purple streamers and confetti and the celebratory feel of the photo and went with it! Using images from both Party Mates and Balloons and Banners stamp sets to create my party themed scene I coloured the outlines with Copics then added a die cut celebrate using the Celebrate word die cut from white and a black fun foam backing. Simples.

So what will you come up with, we'd love to see. If you need more inspiration check out the rest of the DT here, where you'll also find all the Ts and Cs.