Christmas Surprise

Morning Peeps.

Just a quickie to show you the card I made for the Lili of the Valley Challenge Blog, which has a Christmas theme this month.  Sadly it's the last challenge they're running.

I've used their Patchwork Present stamp, which has a very cute bear poking his head out of a box.

He's been stamped twice onto white card and coloured in with promarkers (the second one was so I could decoupage his paws and have his ear poking out of the middle box). 

I also stamped him onto three different colours of card with versamark ink, sprinkled with silver embossing powder and heat set.

The papers are from the Woodland Wishes pad, also from Lili of the Valley.

 I'm off now to enjoy this beautiful Sunday.

Whatever you're doing, hope you have a good day.

Yum Yum

Afternoon Peeps.

 

 

Thought I'd share a Christmas card with you.

These great Christmas Pudding stamps are by Woodware.

 

I stamped them onto circles of card and coloured them in with Promarkers.

 

Christmas Pudding...

 

 Going once ...

 

Going twice ...

 

Gone! 

 

 

Images that tell a 'story' like this are ideal for waterfall cards.

 

Because they're on circles rather than squares you can see part of the mechanism, so I made that out of the same card that I made the background from.

  

 

 

Staying with the pudding theme, I went the whole hog and made a pudding shaped card.

I started by cutting a circle shape from an 8"x8" card.

 

I covered the bottom half with Kraft card. It has been coloured with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and the 'fruit' is different sized circles drawn with red and brown Promarkers.

 

The top half is covered with white card which has been run through a snowflake embossing folder, which I then cut to look like dripping icing.

 

 

It's finished off with red buttons and some holly

(made with green core-dinations card and a sizzix die).

 



 

And now I'm hungry...

 

Die cuts in 3D - no glasses required

Evenin' All, hope you are well.

 

Our Cardmaking Club theme for Thursday 9th is going to be 3D embellishments (made from die-cuts). This first one is a card I sent to a friend's son for his 16th Birthday.

 

 

('Happy' and 'Birthday' are from the Claritystamp word chain sets)

 

I die cut six stars from a Prima paper pad, scored them down the centre and glued three of them back to back for each 3D star (I used Collall Photoglue on these - you need something that you can move about a bit before it dries so can make sure your shapes are lined up properly).

 

I then covered the front and inside of an A5 card with patterned paper and die-cut a circle in the front of the card. The dark paper on the front is from the Robot Rust digi-kit and I have over-stamped it with a compass in black ink. I was going to put a third star on the inside so you could see it through the circle, but it covered up too much of the lovely background paper so I left it off.

 

 

The second card I made is with hearts, but I'll bring that one to club (don't want to risk my Mum seeing it before her birthday!)

 

 

This last one is using a Sizzix Movers and Shapers bat die (I've definitely been going a bit batty lately).

 

 

I die-cut nine bat shapes from a lovely leather effect black paper and used the same method as above to make three 3D bats. These were a bit more fiddly so took quite a bit longer to put together and I used Tacky PVA glue for a stronger hold.

 

The arch aperture was die-cut from the front of the card using a large Sizzix Tag die, and then I stamped all over the card with an Inkylicious brick wall stamp and Pumice Stone Distress Ink. The 'just to say' line sentiment is from Clarity.

 

 

So ladies, for Thursday you'll need to bring:-

 card blanks

paper or thin card for the shapes

scoring board if you have one

 repositionable glue

any ribbon/embellishments etc. you might want to add on.

 

And if anyone has a simple butterfly- or flower-shape die, can they please bring it along as I don't seem to have these in my stash (my die collection is not in the same league as my massive collection of stamps) 

 

Oh, and I almost forgot, we'll be doing the squeeze boxes as well, so bring along some thin card for the boxes (patterned would be nice), card or paper to cut the numbers out of, and ribbon/cord for hanging them. Plus red ultra-strong tape if you have it.

 

Ta-ra for now,

Karina x

Pretty Papers

Morning Peeps.

Thought I'd share a couple of cards I've made for some 'big' birthdays. I wanted to do something with Lili of the Valley papers for their September 'Pretty Papers' challenge

This first one is for a 50th Birthday

I die-cut lots of butterflies from two of the lilac papers in the 'Timeless Victorian' paper pad, creased each one in the centre and dipped them in PVA glue before placing them on the background paper in the shape of the number 50 (the background paper is from the same pad).

I've finished off with some Prima flowers with pearls glued into the centres and some lilac organza ribbon

My second one is for a male 21st birthday and uses papers from Lili of the Valley's 'Father Knows Best' pad. Not 'pretty' as such, but lovely papers nonetheless.

I started with a landscape A5 card and folded the front in half.  I embossed some of the light brown paper with the 'A Stitch in Time' folder from Crafters Companion and glued it to the front panel.

The letters are die-cut from the black dotty paper in the pad, which I've also used to cover the back panel.

I've used the Happy Birthday from LOTV's 'Handwritten Phrases' clear stamp set to decorate some chipboard letters from my stash

 

The man putting up the letters is  LOTV's 'Lick of Paint' stamp but I've cut off the paintbrush and paint pot. He's coloured in with Promarkers (mostly Umber, Khaki and Pastel Beige)

I might add some buttons to it yet, but being a firm follower of the 'less is more' camp, I'm fairly happy with it. And who knows, maybe I'll get picked out of the hat (fingers crossed).

'Bye for now and have a great day.

Under the Sea

Evenin' All !

It occurs to me that my blog posts are like buses, nothing for ages then 3 come along at once :)
Now that our cardmaking club has restarted after the summer break I hope to update this more regularly (but I wouldn't hold your breath).

Here's the card I'm entering for the current Clarity Challenge Blog. 

The theme this month is 'Nature' so I was spoilt for choice in which stamps to use (I'd say about half of my MAHOOSIVE collection of stamps are trees, flowers or animals). But since I borrowed the large seahorse from my Mum way back in May I figured I'd better get on and use it!
 

We had a play with shaving foam at cardmaking club last time and I was pretty pleased with one of the blue pieces I made, it's just right for an underwater scene.  I stamped Clarity's 'Neptune' stamp along the bottom a few times with Honeydew metallic ink and then sprinkled with Enchanted Gold embossing powder before heat-setting.

Then I coloured in the strands with a green pencil

Next I stamped the large Clarity Seahorse stamp with Versamark and dusted him with yellow, green and blue mica powders.

I love the extra 'wings' he has coming out of his back (even more so because it was a complete accident!)  

I did the same with the smaller seahorse on the left-hand side of the paper. This was when I realised that I had put my hand right in the mica from the first one. Oops. I dabbed some more mica powder on in the (not very great) hope that it would repair the damage, and amazingly it still stuck to the Versamark. Phew.

(Note to self:- next time, work from left to right)

To make the bubbles 'pop' I filled them with Cosmic Shimmer pearl PVA

 then waited overnight for it to dry (an agonising wait but I wasn't taking any chances after the 'hand in mica' incident)

It needed something along the top to balance it out, so I spent half an hour trying out rows of different colour buttons (I've got to start using them up, I'm sure they're breeding).

But they're not doing it for me, so back in the box they go. Instead I dig out some mulberry paper and a leaf die (this one's part of a 3-set from Cuttlebug). I've dabbed a bit of Icicle Stickles on them with my finger. I wasn't sure what to stick them down with as they're so see-through, but Collall photo glue seems to have done the trick.

Well, that's about it for now, I hope to catch up with you soon.

Dabbling with shaving foam

Morning Peeps, hope you're all having a good weekend. 

 

We had a play with shaving foam at club last time - messy but fun!

The cleaner's mind must have boggled on finding the bin chock full of foamy kitchen towel.

 

 

This first background is using yellow, pink and green alcohol inks on white linen card.

 (Alium and sentiment stamps from Inkylicious)

 

 

This one was made with blue and green Distress Ink reinkers onto smooth white card. I've added icicles and snowflakes die-cut from thin white card then mounted it all onto a blue card blank.

 

(Christmas sentiment from Clarity Stamps)

 

 

The tag and background here were made with green, blue and purple inkydinks from Imagination Crafts.  My first attempt at stamping the thistle didn't come out very well as the shaving foam makes the card less absorbent. This second attempt was stamped with black archival, which came out much better.

 I've finished it off with blue and purple gems and organza ribbon.

 

 

 

Watch this space for what we're doing on the 25th ...

Tag, you're it

Morning peeps.

Hasn't the weather been glorious?  

I've been making the most of it (i.e. lying semi comatose
out in the back garden), hence no blogging for a while.

The theme for club this week is "Pockets and Tags".  

 

I made up this 7"x7" card this morning with a Papermania tag, some Wellington background paper, Pesto Adirondack ink and clear/white embossing powders. 

 

 

The heron and the trees are both from Claritystamp, so I'm entering this card in the current Clarity Challenge (Masculine).  

 

My original intention was to have it in a little pocket that I'd made by running some Prima paper through a text embossing folder. 

 

 

 But I think it looks better on its own (less is more and all that). 

What do you think?

 

 

Here's another pocket & tag card I did back in November for my God-daughter Molly.

 

 

Can you spot the tag?

No?

 'Ere tis ...

I used the shape of the kennel as a template for the tag, which I cut out of white card. 

There was a spare roof as part of the decoupage sheet (from Nitwits) which I stuck at the top of the tag. The 'chimney' was one of the sentiments on the sheet.

To make the pocket I just put a line of 3D foam pads all around the left/bottom/right sides of the green topper and stuck it to the background.

Well, that's all for now. See you at club on Thursday ladies xx

Club theme for the 12th

Hi Peeps, just a quick one today, my hands are playing up.

 

We'll be making cards based on sketches at club next Thursday.

 

This one is based on Sketch 15 from Lili of the Valley which I am entering into their Male or Sporty challenge for June.

 

 

 

I grabbed the Fishing boy from my stash of images that I'd already coloured in, so I just needed to find papers and buttons to match. The base card (7"x7") is covered with a Craft Artist/Daisytrail paper then I taped down a width of raffia ribbon on top. I distressed the edges of the diamond paper with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and coloured in the feathers with promarkers.

 

 Handily the fish charm had a hole in the back to thread the feathers and string through so I was able to tie it on instead of glueing it (I wasn't sure glue would be strong enough).

 

I'll try and make some more cards up before Thursday (hands permitting).

 

Ta ra for now, hope you're enjoying your Sunday.

By the Light of the Silvery Moon

Evenin' All.

 

I've made this card today for the Claritystamp challenge

 "It's All About The Words"

 

 

I have used:

Clarity paper

 Treescape Stencil

 Silver Shoon verse stamp

 small Birch Leaves stamp
Black Memento

Versamark

Silver Embossing Powder

 

First cut the paper down to the same size as the stencil.

Cut a circle out of a post-it note for the moon and place it top right.

Load up a speed-ball brayer with black memento ink and colour the top half of the paper
 (I had to reload several times).

 Flick small amounts of water at the paper and then blot to get the 'stars'.

Remove your moon mask.

  Dab Versamark ink all over the stencil, lay it face down over your paper

and then run it through an ebosser to transfer the ink.

Sprinkle with silver embossing powder and heat

 



 

As you can tell I was a bit slow doing this so the result is a bit patchy!

I coloured in some of the missing bits with a Versamark pen and added more embossing powder.

 

 

That's better.

 

But then I thought "I wonder what it would look like with gilding flake instead?"  

So I started again...

 

 

I replaced the Versamark with Flitterglu,

and silver embossing powder with silver flakes,

et voila...

 

 

Aarggh. It's more patchy than before, and there's gilding flake EVERYWHERE.

Back to Plan A I think.

 

I cut down a smaller piece of Clarity paper (5x8.5cm),

stamped the verse on with black memento ink and then

stamped around the edge with the small birch leaves

 (alternating first and second generation ink)

 

After a bit of trimming and mounting on black/white card...

 

 

 It's looking nothing like I imagined it when I started, but kind of liking the distressed look.

 

 

 I finished off with a Sizzix leaf cut from silver paper.

It was much too bright and shiny, so I went over it with sandpaper and now it looks the part.

 

Well, it's tea time again, so that's all for now.

 My better half is kindly cooking us pizza.

Nom nom.

 

Beyond Words

Hi Peeps. Thought I'd have a go at gilding this morning.

 

I wanted to use the words that came in the free IndigoBlu set from Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine last month but didn't want to use them as a block, so I cut the stamp up.

 

The heart has been stamped and clear embossed onto white card, then coloured with Distress Inks. The words are stamped using Flitter glue and I've pressed on Chariots of Fire mega flake

 

 

Entered in the IndigoBlu Blog Challenge which ends today.

 

Oh well, I'd better get off to work now, catch up with you soon x

Catch-up Part 2

More of my samples from our Cardmaking Club,

these are all from this year (most recent first).

Playing with Stencils

1 - Vaseline and Distress inks 

Thank you to Ali Reeve for this fabulous technique.

Lightly dab through the mask with Vaseline on some Cut and Dry foam, blend over with Distress Inks and then stamp the verse over the top.

 Verse by Clarity Stamps, stencil by Pronty

 2 - Texture Paste

Place the stencil over some patterned paper and tape down with low tack masking tape. Make sure each edge is masked (I also masked off part of the stencil as I only wanted one cage)
Spread texture paste through the stencil thinly with a pallet knife.
Remove tape and stencil (wash immediately).
Once the paste is dry, mount onto navy card then a white card blank.
The bird is stamped onto the same patterned paper, coloured in with Promarkers and cut out.

(The bird cage stencil is from The Crafters Workshop, the bird stamp is by Hobby Art,
alphabet by Docrafts Forever Friends)

Flags and bunting   

Horseshoe stamp is by Lili of the Valley

 Owl stamps by Hobby Art

 Owl stamp from Joanna Sheen

Stamping into UTEE

 

Owl and foliage stamps from Stamps Away

 

I stamped the owl onto some patterned paper (from Robot Rust digikit) and highlighted the eyes, beak and talons with a white gel pen.

Colour some mount board with brown Distress Ink and then cover with Versamark ink. Sprinkle with UTEE and heat (do this twice). After the second layer sprinkle metallic embossing powders around the edges and heat again. Do one final layer of Versamark/UTEE and heat until you can see it moving. While it is still runny, stamp into it with a foliage stamp inked with up silver ink.

 This is one is a similar technique but I have coloured in the seahorse with Promarkers.
For the 'seaweed' going up the left hand side I've used the Tattered Leaves die again.
To colour them, dab blue and yellow Distress Inks onto your craft mat, spritz with water and then swirl the leaves around in it. When dry, dab Distress Stickles over them with your finger.

The seahorse and seaweed stamps are by Sheena Douglass.

Teepee cards

Thank you to Quick Cards Made Easy magazine for the instructions

The shape just screams out 'pyramid', doesn't it?

For the brick pattern I used an Inkylicious stamp with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I don't know who the stamp is by, I bought it second-hand without the packaging.

Fishing Boy stamp by Lili of the Valley

 Greeting stamps by Marion Emberson, flower stamp from Inkadinkado,
papers by Prima

That's all folks (for now). I'm off to have my tea.

Hmmm, Chinese take-away sounds very tempting