A change is as good as a rest

Evening folks. As the title of this post suggests there have been a few changes for me over the holidays. I'm here to share my first card for a new DT. 

When Kylie started her Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with dies, I jumped at the chance but after 18 months, decided that I needed a change but didn't want to leave the HLS fold. So for the next 6 months I'm on the CAS team! Thanks Kylie for your continued support. So here is my first HLS CAS card.

As you can see the theme this month is friendship, so after a root through my stash I decided on this simple spray of flowers from Altenew's Extra Special set, along with the sentiment.

Bearing the above in mind, I used my MFT stacked stitched circle dies to create an embossed detail, overlayed the stamped and fussy cut spray and tucked the gold embossed sentiment strip under one of the buds. Simples. 

The winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

You don't need to use HLS stamps or dies in your project but if you do and are our random winner the prize is doubled.

For more CAS inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in at :-

Winter Sunset

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well I hope you haven't got too much of a hangover following last nights festivities. We had a quiet one, OH stayed up to keep the dog company because of the local hotel's firework display and let me catch up on some Zzzzs. We have our daughter and Grandsons with us as well this New Year as their hot water heater blew a fuse on Friday so no hot water, with holidays etc, no repair until Tuesday or Wednesday and when you've got a 10 week old that's a pain. So a dash down the M6 delivered them here while Dad stayed at home as he had to work. 

It's back into the the DT commitments with a bang though with a brand new challenge over at STAMPlorations with our CUTplorations challenge. Here is my card 

based on this fab piccie.

When I saw this inspiration photo I just had to get my watercolours out and have a play.
On a piece of watercolour paper, I washed in some pink, purples, blues and a little yellow to create the sky and some of the same colours into the foreground snow.
When dry, I took a piece of copy paper torn across and laid down over mt scene where the trees would meet the snow then took the smallest of the stamps from the Feathery set and using Stormy Sky DI and some water stamped some shaped to represent the distant trees. Leaving my paper mask in place, I used the same stamp to create the foreground, this time using  Black Onyx ink.
A few freehand flicks with a black fineliner and that part was complete.
The phrase die Warm Winter Wishes was then used to cut the panel and it was replaced by a black foam one that I had previously cut. Don't loose the small pieces because you need to replace them back. A strip of double sided tape on the reverse of the panel works well to secure the inserts.
I wasn't sure whether I would use the original die cut or not but in the end I decided to use a contrast die cut from plain white card.

Job done.
For more inspiration check out the rest of the team here and join us. For all Ts and Cs check out the main STAMPlorations page.

Joining in over at:-


#88 Anything Goes


No twist for me

Faves of 2017

I meant to do this yesterday but life got in the way, hey oh.

My daughter has had no hot water since Friday so she and the boys are camping out at Nannee's!

What to pick is always problem as I love all my makes in different ways but as I love colouring I went with this monochrome LOTV Sailing By one first.

Colouring on Kraft is always a problem but a little bit of white pencil crayon helps. The rest was done in Copics.

My next was this which I was happy with because it uses a three stage stamp from Altenew.

I was still finding my way with the colour choices for the layered stamps and was very happy with the outcome here. A gold sentiment adds a little extra.

I do love a bold bloom and this gerbera from Uniko is still a fave.

I combined it with another Uniko background stamp for this card, the gorgeous image needed nothing more.

I do love a good die cut card. This uses an MFT set with the addition of some ancient eyelets and some string to create a hoodie inspired card.

 My final card uses a bargain buy die from The Works and embossed flowers courtesy of Altenew.

I used my Zig pens for the watercolour effect, they are just so handy.

So that's my review of the year. Check out my fave Christmas makes here and I'll be back shortly with a brand new challenge over at STAMPlorations.

From me and this cheeky chappy!

Twixtmas?

Hi, hope you all had a fab Christmas. We had a full house including my gorgeous 9 week old Grandson over. Lots of Nannee cuddles, especially as he is rather a windy chap! He loved the opening of pressies and the twinkling fairy lights on the tree. He did, however, keep my daughter up all Christmas Eve. :( 

Anyway we are now in that strange limbo between Christmas and New Year, Twixtmas perhaps?

Still, it does give us not working, time to have a quiet play with this years Christmas crafty goodies.

My lovely Son bought me a full set of Prismacolor coloured pencils, to go with the Zigs he bought me last year, I do love an Amazon wish list. The number of crafty pressies was somewhat reduced though as two items my OH ordered, one was eventually unobtainable according to Amazon, it being ordered way back at the end of October and the other arrived without it's contents! The MFT packaging was there but no goodies inside for me to play with! The seal across the bottom was open, so they must be on the floor in the despatch area. 

Never mind, I did have a play with a set of Altenew stamps that remind me of Christmas Roses or Hellebores, their I Adore You set certainly have that look about them. 

Needing a card for my SiL's birthday early in January, I had a play with the aforementioned Zigs and no line watercolouring. Here's the end result.

I used this picture as a guide to the colouring

which reminded me of the June colour inspiration over at Altenew's review of the year, with the plum and pink tones. I caught a YouTube demo here which also inspired me, it popped up when looking for hellebores/Christmas roses.

I started by stamping some of the flowers in Antique Linen DI on watercolour paper, then using some masking fluid and a mapping pen, blocked out the stamens in the center of the flowers. When completely dry I used my Zigs to colour the flowers. When dry I removed the masking fluid, added extra white with a gel pen and fussy cut them. Leaves were done similarly except for the masking fluid.  On the demo there was a trick using something called cling wrap but unfortunately it must be different to our cling film as it didn't work at all when I tried. Shame as it was a really good idea to keep your layout in one piece whist gluing down the bits. Had to do it the old way, taking a photo before the elements moved.

 Loved the gold edging on one of the examples, achieved by running the card panel edges along the Versamark pad before embossing with gold EP. To keep the gold theme going I added a die cut gold sentiment popped up partially on a fun foam die cut and a few sequins from the stash.

So that's it really. Just realised that I have lots of DT posts coming up so I better get a wriggle on with those!

Joining in over at:-

Seasonal Flowers

Favourite Christmas cards 2017

Well all is calm after the Christmas festivities. I hope you all had a fab celebration and lots of crafty goodies in your stocking.

In the past few years I've done a run down on my favourite cards of the year starting with my Christmas faves so here they all are.

I have tried to keep up with my stash throughout the year so this first choice was made back in June.

An entry in a Less is More sketch challenge, do like a good sketch, this card uses an inked panel and a die cut tree landscape.

On into July and this card using this fab Uniko poinsettia stamp, I just love the big bold image and is perfect for watercolouring. 

I decoupaged the center and added the die cut embossed celebrate.

In the same week I made another winter/Christmas card, this time using Brusho, tissue paper and embossed snowflakes.

I must have been feeling the cold that day as this has a very cool feel to it!

After seeing some fab watercolour cards on YouTube I bought a Penny Black stamp at the stamp fair at Port Sunlight in October. This was my second attempt using it.

Having a MISTI certainly makes using this type of stamp so much easier, you can get a lot of definition into the image. The snowy effect is made by adding Frantage, chunky EP, on the still wet panel, then heat setting. Not wishing to spoil the panel I wrapped a #Uniko gold stamped and embossed sentiment on vellum over it.

 My last card is perhaps one of my faves. It is a OL card and took quite a bit of planning but I think it was worth it.

The theme was candle or light source and I was thinking of doing a watercolour version but after a bit of thought I couldn't see a way to keep it clean and crisp. The end product involved a lot of masking and delicate inking to get the effect, along with the judicious placing of liquid masking fluid.

So that's my Christmas card year, what's yours? 

Cute Owls

Hi, just nipping in with a quick post for a couple of challenges out there.

Here is a card I made to give to my OH this year.

Love the cute Lawn Fawn owl stamp and the cheesy greeting. I use the owl on it's own a lot but the greeting only seems right for a romantic Christmas card. I always struggle with what to give the OH for birthday and Christmas so it's usually only something silly, such as the Man Cave sign I bought him for his last birthday but I have sussed out the unwanted gift from him, Amazon wish list! Anyway the sentiment here is just the thing, if a bit cheesy.

I kept the background simple, using my fave EF, falling snow, and a couple of  die cut snowdrifts. I did die cut the heart before I embossed the background, stamping the sentiment and adding a few fussy cut stamped hearts before replacing it into the background panel. The owls were coloured with Copics before fussy cutting them. I must admit to preferring that method to the new thing of matching die cuts, I can never get them to look right and it's cheaper! A little bit of white puffy paint anchors the owls in the landscape.
I think it's also the perfect entry over at Less is More, birds/feathers, The Male Room, Christmas and Inkspirational, gift.

Joining in over at:-

 


  

Rudolph Take Two

Good morning.

Hope all your Christmas prep is on track and all your cards posted!

If you are in need of a quick last minute card perhaps this week's challenge at Cardz4Guyz could help as our final theme of the year is -

LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS

Well that just shouts CAS to me so here is a card that just took a few minutes to put together!

I made a card a couple of challenges ago for our reindeer challenge and had a couple of extra images left over, so with the addition of a snippet of DP from the bits box and a precut frame in the diecuts box, this is the result. I think the glossy accents on Rudolf's nose took longer to dry than the rest of the card put together!

Check out the rest of the team for more last minute inspiration here and then show us your makes.

Joining in at:-


Festive Free for all

Went with the stag head image!