This card was sort of inspired by both Jennifer Maguire (her video made me grab the stamp) and instagram YVON0202 who I had seen using this stamp with a few colours … but I did go for a different style in the end so inspired by but far from copied!
I used stampin write markers to colour the image in using lots of different greens and some water spray which helped to blend them. If you want to see how I made it I did video it!
I decided to then use the Forever Flourishing dies and Biggest wish stamp set for the main elements with an embossed white panel behind the focal image. The twine and the sparkly gems finished it off.
I took some pics the night I made the card but this next one shows the colours better in the daylight.
Love that twine bow and the colour mix in the background and love even more that I have a second background yet to be used.
Once again I also videoed the process which you can watch if you fancy it!
So I blogged yesterday that my daughter had been doing a photo shoot with some of my craft supplies … and whilst playing in the light box she made for the photo shoot she decided to have some sprayed backgrounds to her subject matter. Well I couldn’t let lovely backgrounds go to waste so had a quick play cutting one up and used it on a cute little slimline card.
I used some Concord and 9th stamps to add the butterflies and the sentiment.
I mounted the panel onto black and then used some of the lovely black and white checked ribbon and some black gems to embellish.
I decided to then add to the zingy yellow card stock from the stash which I made into a slimline card base.
Pretty and good use of some paper leftover from the photo shoot. I’ve got a few more pieces so cut them into backgrounds to use at some point in the future!
Firstly I forgot how much I loved this combo of the jar of flowers stamps and the jar punch… but I also forgot how fiddly working with vellum can be if you don’t like seeing adhesive through the vellum! So let me explain what I did for this card.
Well I started with a cream base and used an old Memories and More card I had in the stash to make the background because that has some distraction just in case I needed it when it came to adhering the jar of flowers!
The flowers and stems I stamped, coloured and fussy cut from cream cardstock. What you can’t see is that I didn’t line them up to meet as I knew I would be adding the jar ‘lid’ so I skipped a bit and that helped me extend the length of the stems a little. But I actually ended up cutting them short in the end as they didn’t look right as the longer length! Ah well.
I then punched the jar from the vellum. Stampin up vellum is a nice weight of vellum to deal with and I would not want to do this with a lighter one as it would not sit as well on the card and may curl upwards or not emboss well.
I stamped and embossed the lid. Now I know if the jar did have a lid you wouldn’t be able to put the flowers in but I decided on artistic licence because I needed some part of the vellum jar to not be see through so I could use that part and the part where the twine was to add adhesive.
So once I had heat embossed I added glue behind the stamped element and then added the flowers. I then also tied the twine round so it went round the flowers as well as the jar.
Now I wanted to raise them a little off the background so I added some scraps of cardstock behind the flowers and then a little behind the stems in the jar this allowed the jar to slightly angle as I had more dimension behind the flowers than the stems which I hope means that the jar is less likely to bend upwards as I am not adhering the bottom as such!
What I did do to add to this though was to place a sentiment on both the jar and the background to try and anchor it in place further down.
I then added the little gold flower sequins as embellishment and called it done! What do you think?
I’ve made a lot of cards using the jar of flowers combo and still get pleasure out of doing so … so you can probably tell this one is staying in the stash for a little longer!
I always like to send thank you cards after Christmas although these days it isn’t really about thanking people for gifts … but still I like to acknowledge and thank my parents for their presence with us at Christmas and how much it means to us.
This is this years card.
I started out with the stamped panel of vintage French print which I stamped in cherry cobbler. This is a wood mount stamp and I got it a few years ago as a good mixed media/journaling type stamp. As I am assessing the usefulness of all my crafting supplies at the moment I wanted to see how well this stamped… and as it turned out well I thought it would work for a layered element on a card and this then became the thank you card!
I made the card base from cream and then made a layer slightly smaller that I could add as the background. I decided to ink up the Old paper embossing folder with what a sand for a light contrast to the texture.
To be honest I inked up the wrong side and also embossed the panel as portrait not landscape in error but as it’s not a distinct text and was just forming a background I decided it would be fine. Sometimes you just learn to live with these things!
I decided I wanted to use the Splendid Stems as the focal feature and also grabbed a piece of the wide striped ribbon from the stash to add some different texture.
The stamped stem I added colour using stampin Blends pens in cherry cobbler and then die cut the other stems from black and the Kraft.
I also added in a scrunched piece of Kraft which I had added some white pigment ink to just to add something a little different.
I then chose to use the Artistically inked set for the sentiment which I fussy cut out.
I did add some scrap card for dimension under both the background layer and the cherry cobbler stamped print piece but this is less raised than if using foam so a little more subtle.
Then I added pearls as finishing touches.
Whilst that’s taken a while to explain how I made it it actually didn’t take too long at all to make and came together very easily.
I’m going to try to join in the UK stampers forum tag swap every month this year. I missed a few last year but I really enjoy making them so going to make an effort to keep joining in this year. So here is the first one ready to start the year straight away.
I used some of the gorgeous flowers and leaves from Creative Stamping magazine which I stamped and coloured a while ago and fussy cut ready to be used.
I added in a label die cut from the Christmas labels dies and this became the main focal image but I decided to do a bit of an inked panel in the background.
I used a claritystamps stencil and some distress inks and then added some splatters of water as a subtle finish.
I then used the Arrange a wreath stamps to add the green ring of leaves.
I decided to make this panel slightly smaller than the main tag so there is a little border. Then I cut the bottom part off so it is slightly shorter.
I stamped and embossed the sentiment. And fussy cut it out.
Next I added the little flower embellishments as a little bit of extra texture and the ribbon and twine to finish off.
I’m diving straight into the new year with a patterned paper project to keep up with the monthly challenge even though Hazel has retired the blog I was a design team member on. I’ve planned out a bit for the year and decided my plan for this challenge of using up Patterned paper is to do fussy cutting out of 12 x 12 papers and use those to make up the cards. In prep I’ve already chosen 12 pieces of 12 x 12 and for some I’ve done my fussy cutting out already and popped them into pouches so they are ready for me to grab and work out what to do with them.
So this first one I grabbed a beautiful piece of the floral paper and set to with my paper snips. I did cut a couple of panels so I could still get to use the back of the dsp but this is the pile of bits left at the end of my fussy cutting session!
I know there are still some of those tiny flowers left but I didn’t think I would be able to make use of them even if I did cut them out.
So I ended up with a nice selection of flowers to play with … and of course that gorgeous herringbone patterned paper too. I knew when cutting it out I wouldn’t use all of it in one project but having them in a little pouch means that I have them ready to do other projects at another point.
So here is what I made. I went with a Cherry Cobbler base to the card and then just started playing and adding elements together.
As there is a black base to the florals I added in the black cardstock for the mat and the sentiment. I also added some white dots using a paint pen.
The ribbon is a black and white ribbon but I added the colour using my stampin blends so that it had got a cherry Cobbler hue.
Love all the dimension on this card. So pleased to get the first project of the year done and dusted and a piece of dsp all cut with a few additional flowers left to play with on other projects.
Thought I would pop on today and give you a flavour of what my crafty plans are for 2023 although clearly the title gives you an idea of what my plan is.
I have a lot of stash in my craft room and over 2022 I did start rationalising and getting rid of unlikely to use stash. I think I need to do that again and be really clear about what I NEED to keep, what I LOVE and can’t part with and what realistically is never really going to get used.
I also need to be a bit frugal this year as we have a lot of things as a family we want to save for … so apart from basic supplies like cardstock, adhesive and envelopes/card blanks … I have decided to say NO BUYING.
I think I could well end up caving but I really don’t want to at the moment as I have so much stash going unused it is silly to buy more.
Small confession in that I did spend a little Christmas money on Boxing Day so I do have a few new bits and bobs to use but my plan is no spend in 2023… so going to ignore that little splurge even though I’m still waiting for it to turn up!
So with this in mind prepare to see some old products and stash appearing rather than lots of new stamps and dies … hope this is not a disappointment to you dear blog reader!
Sure I will find some stash hidden away that I loved using and will find a new way to use it though so hopefully the projects I make will still be fun and not old fashioned! Lol!
So with that in mind I have a project to share today using old stash…. getting myself geared up for 2023’s challenge …
The stamped bird is a polkadoodles image I stamped and coloured probably about 5 years ago and never used till now… the dsp is old magazine kit paper again just sitting there in the stash…. the twine was gifted in a swap and has found its happy place on the card and the cardstock (with the exception of the black card base) were all scraps lying on the desk.
Finished off the inside with another of the birds and some scraps of the dsp on a white panel for writing on.
So here’s to 2023…. let’s be frugal and make good use of stash we already have!
Wow this is getting close now … but still progressing with my Christmas card challenge and onto week 9!
This week I went simple for florals and grabbed a magazine kit that had a whole host of products but stuck to the papers and printed images for these cards.
Simple, traditional colours and poinsettias with the added elements of an organza bow, pearls and a sentiment topper I had in the stash.
I did raise up the floral elements I had fussy cut and the sentiment also is raised on foam.
Think I prefer this one to the other, but both pretty and very simple to make.
And you probably recognise the green check from the santa cards from a few weeks ago as they were from the same magazine kit.
Well… the big question is will I actually manage to finish the challenge or not? Fingers crossed… one more week to go.
And if you’ve been playing along with my challenge let me know as I’d love to see what you are making either here or on Instagram… just drop me a message.
Kelly at Creative Knockouts gave us the theme of Snow much fun to play with this week and here is my design team contribution… four cards!
As soon as I saw snow I had to have fun with the Snow Crystal stamp… such a fabulous stamp to play with and use different techniques. This time I used some lilac cardstock and stamped it four times in versamark and then used different heat embossing powders to create four similar but different cards.
Here is how they looked at the beginning…
Firstly clear embossing… (bottom right). After the embossing I took some distress inks and a bit of distress oxide to blend around the embossing.
This created a resist finish where the snowflake retains the original cardstock colour and then the background and area around the stamped image changes colour. I also added some splatters of white paint to add a matt splatter. I chose to finish all the cards with a sentiment from Christmas to remember and some scraps of different ribbons and twines. I also raided the gem box for different gems.
I’ve just realised when looking at these photos for blogging that this is missing the bow I added so will have to take another pic and add that in later!
Secondly a glitter embossing powder which is mixed with opaque white (top right).
I also added distress ink to this but more of the pink tones. This one I added some of the holographic little snowflake embellishments too. I did add both white paint splatters and pink ink splatters to the background on this too.
Next up a dark embossing powder… this was actually Baked Texture but the qualities of baked texture don’t really apply when doing this as it was mainly the dark blue colour that stuck to the detailed image (bottom left).
This one I inked heavily a d added purple ink splatters. I like the contrast of the sheer organza ribbon on this. I also heavily inked the sentiment label to have it match better.
Finally…. I hate glitter but decided to throw caution to the wind and use the heat and stick powder and use loose glitter. (Top left).
Well as much as this is super pretty and was an easy card to make (no inking or splattering) the clear up after using loose glitter is awful and I am very shimmery after making this card. I am very tempted to just chuck away the pot of glitter as I hate using it so much but that would be wasteful and maybe in a couple of years I will embrace the glitter again!
Love all four cards for how different they look … but still regretting the use of loose glitter so have to say that final one will not be going on my “must make again” list! 🤪
How do you feel about glitter? Is it a love or a hate thing?
Happy crafting!
Catherine
Edit: photo of the clear emboss with the bow! That looks better!
So another UK Stampers forum swap tag to share with you today using leftover papers from the Craftyhazelnuts patterned paper challenge at the beginning of the month, this time teamed with Nature’s Prints.
I made the tag from white cardstock then added strips of the paper from the Making Cards magazine old stash I made the Christmas cards from.
Then I added the die cut wreath,. The stamped and die cut foliage the punched circles of mirror card and the sentiment I fussy cut out.
Inkyfingeredcat 