Printing with Die Cuts

Evening folks. Did you have a lovely Mother's Day? I know many of us can't be with our Mum's at the moment due to Covid but we are thinking of them just the same. I had a lovely couple of bouquets and plants from the kids, so they will remind me of them for quite awhile.

However, March is gathering pace, we are almost half way through the month so its time for a brand new challenge at Perfectly CAS.

Here is my card based on this month's theme.

When I was trying to come up with a design for this post, I had in mind the latest challenge at CAS Mix Up. They certainly challenge you to go outside the normal CAS structure and widen your horizons with new techniques, I can't believe its 5 years since they started! This month their theme is 'Printing with Die Cuts', not something you would immediately think of as CAS. Anyway I followed the link to the You Tube video supplied by Kathy Racoosin, then had a play!

I wasn't sure which of my MANY dies would work for this technique and originally I pulled out a MB Tulip die, but then remembered that I had the same die cut Joy! daisy that one of the DT, Viv, had used. 

I cut a trio of them out of MM paper, as I wasn't sure how it would pan out, but in the end I only used one and a half. I added some Zig watercolour marker to the die cuts, spritzed one with water and pressed it onto the rest of my MM panel. A little too much water and the colours ran so when it was dry I flipped it over and tried again. This time I tried adding the colours in two different phases, first the green stems and yellow centers, then the pink petals. Instead of adding water by spritzing, I painted over the die cuts with water before flipping over and printing. I got much more control over the colours but they still blended well. Sometimes I wasn't quick enough with my flipping and the colour didn't all transfer but I quite liked that effect too.

When the panel was dry, I added the die cuts, trimming off the small daisy from one of them. The subtle printing with coloured die cuts on top, gives the design a sense of depth, I think.

When I use MM paper I always struggle to find a base card colour that works, so to take the eye away from the slightly differently coloured panel, I inserted a die cut of it into a die cut frame made from the same card as the base, and mounted that on a simple off white A6 top folding card, if that makes sense!

A simple LOTV sentiment completes the design. A messy mixed media center but overall a CAS card I think.

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

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Spring

Kraft, Red and White - Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration

 Morning all. I'm over at Uniko with another Festive Friday post.

This month I've been inspired by the colours over at CAS Christmas, where they are also celebrating their 3rd birthday, can you believe it? Why don't you grab yourself a cuppa, then head over to the Uniko blog for some festive kraft and red inspiration and details on the makes.

This card uses the Christmas Pop trees as well as BB Falling Snow and a freebie snow stencil from a magazine. A trio of red gems and a scrap of matching NitWits DP complete. 

I've used Background Builders Christmas 2018 before to make a plaid pattern, here I've used a panel of kraft card, red ink, a white gel pen and a black fine liner to make a panel to cut my letters from.

You can't get much simpler than this card, Festive Sentiments Outlined and Framed - Holly stamped and embossed in white EP and 3 tiny red crystals for the red berries on an A6 kraft base card.

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Oliver on his Gameboy

Good morning, hope I find you well. It's time for a new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz where we would like you to create a masculine card for-

A TEENAGER

My eldest grandson is just heading towards leaving primary school, so I have a couple of years to wait until he's officially a teenager but the image I used here fits him to a T already!

This image is another fab one from LOTV, featuring teen Oliver, this time on his Game Boy.

The background DP is from a NitWits collection which I glued straight onto an A6 top fold note card. I coloured the image of Oliver with Copic markers, taking my cue for the colours from the NitWits paper at the bottom of the design. When finished, I fussy cut him and added him on pads to a die cut linen effect panel. The texture is subtle but adds just enough interest to this CAS card. I used an Avery Elle die to cut the panel which I glued over the NitWits DP on some fun foam for dimension.

The sentiment is one of the fab set called Birthday Wishes from Uniko. I didn't add an age to the card but you could easily add one later using a couple of die cut numerals.

Talking of numbers, my youngest grandson is just learning his numbers and was proudly showing off to us over Facetime last weekend. He's changed such a lot since we last met up, hopefully it wont be too long before we can meet up again.

So, what ideas have you got? The DT would love to see your take on the challenge in the gallery over the next two weeks, check them out here for more teen inspiration.

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no topping this time                                                           

                   

Our first batch of lambs arrived back from the lambing sheds on Sunday to join the ewe that couldn't wait to have her lambs, so never left! It was a bit of a rugby scrum when they arrived, 12 ewes and 20 lambs all trying to find one another! Here are one lamb and three of the mums, the rest were rather camera shy!

         

  

Most of the lambs are in a ruck behind these four ewes.

Snowflakes in March

Evening all.

I know that March has only just started but I'm still trying to get my Christmas stash well up before it needs to be, to leave some time for other things once life is back to something that approaches normality!

So with this in mind I used the new challenge at HLS CAS, to create this simple and repeatable card.

My starting point was a card I saw on Pinterest a long time ago here.

I took a small panel of Yupo paper and added alcohol inks in blue and turquoise and mixed them up with a bit of blending solution and left it to dry whilst I die cut some snowflakes from silver glitter paper with an IO die. 

Once the panel was dry, I cut off a strip and added it to a white, side fold, A6 note card, adding the die cut snowflakes at jaunty angles. Finally, I stamped this Uniko sentiment in a matching ink. I've still got some of the Yupo panel left and plenty more glitter paper to make some more if I want to later.

So for more CAS inspiration featuring 3 of a kind, just pop over to the HLS blog and check out the rest of the DT and then why not join in.

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ANYTHING GOES using any brand of die that DRU sells

Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - #90 AG Christmas

 

Color Hues #13

Afternoon folks.

A new month so it's a new challenge over at Color Hues.

We've had a few dry days here with blue skies and sunshine for part of the day, just so lovely to feel the sun on your face when outside. I also noticed a few signs of yellow in the long grass by the house where I planted some early dwarf daffs, so I think it's appropriate to go with the theme of blue skies and yellow daffodils for the new challenge.

I saw the latest challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches and thought it was time to bring out an old favourite from STAMPlorations, Boxed Blooms - Daffodil, perfect for their sketch. 

So I simply stamped the image and heat embossed with white EP before colouring with DI in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Salty Ocean in a watercolour style.

After cutting the boxed bloom out using an MFT pierced square die, I mounted it on a scrap of daffodil yellow card from the stash. My strip of blue was a failed NitWits paper from the printer which I went over with Salty Ocean and then stamped some pattern with a Uniko graffiti block stamp in more Salty Ocean. Not sure what's wrong with my printer but this blue and yellow NitWits DP looked as though part of the printing was missing, so waste not want not!

On some linen effect card I cut a couple of panels, stamping the sentiment from Uniko Spring Botanicals- Tulip, along the bottom right of the largest and popped it over the blue stamped and inked DP with foam and then added the smaller one on foam as well. My finished panel was then added to a matching linen effect base card.

So where will these colours take you? You haven't disappointed us yet so we're hoping for a fab array in our gallery!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the team here for more yellow and blue inspiration.

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