Hello! I’m so pleased my Happy Little Stampers challenge blogs are back after our little break. This time it is the turn of the Anything Goes with Dies challenge and I have the Mother’s Day card I made for my Mum … so shhhh… don’t tell her you’ve already seen it! Lol!
I used a few different dies… Playful Alphabets, stitched circles and some Splendid stems … and used lots of old dsp and some gorgeous flowers stamps from Creative Stamping magazine. A bit of a hodgepodge if I am honest but I love it!
I also did a bit of hand sewing and added charms and pearls. Just love how it all came together from my stash.
Hope you like this … of course please leave me a message below and then come and join in over at Happy Little Stampers.
Hubby and I have had a restful day off work together today which has been fab … and then we are off to the cinema with M tonight to watch Antman which I am excited to see. So I am glad I am late in posting the card I made for my cousins son, James. (To be fair I was also late in physically posting it to him too …. But then again Auntie C is always late in posting cards … my theory is I am just extending the birthday!).
I used some very old patterned paper I’ve had in the stash for years and years as the base and the letters and paired it with the red cardstock to make a simple but funky card for a teenager!
Given male themed cards and teenager cards are not my go to make I am pleased with this one … I used a stack of paper from DCWV which has some encapsulated glitter but isn’t overly sparkly. It also has alphabets as the theme so grabbed the large J and then the rest of the letters from another piece and this created the focal point of his name. I then built up around that with punched circles and card candi.
I added the sentiment embossed from Paperartsy and pretty much left it at that… layered pieces of paper and cardstock!
There is some dimension with the j and the birthday sentiment raised and then the whole background raised off the card blank too.
Inside the card I added some scraps of paper, another punched circle and another embossed sentiment (I couldn’t work out whether to go with black or white on the front so did both!)
Really love how this came together… funky but also super simple really!
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!
I had some leftover pieces of patterned paper and I just couldn’t bear to throw them away …. and so I decided to cut them into strips and have them create a new patterned paper! I then sewed down the edge of each side of the strip to secure them in place.
This created a lovely panel for a longer line card (DL). I mounted it on Blackberry Bliss which teamed perfectly with the papers and then had a hunt through the stash for an image to work with the panel.
I settled on this image which was a digital stamp printed and coloured with promarkers. I fussy cut her out and then decided an oval shape would look nice for her to sit on.
After die cutting the oval I grabbed my embossing folder and made the oval all textured and this pattern worked well with the papers.
Now for the card base. I made it out of Smoky Slate but I added a splatter of black wink of Stella so that it had got some interest going on. Then I added the main panel and image.
I embellished with some sari silk ribbon in a bow and some lavender shaded pearls and the bright pink sentiment strip!
So cute and a lovely card considering it started as scraps of paper.
I decided to do a mainly green image which was white embossed onto white but used lots of different green colours and added the ink using a waterbrush.
I then added layers under the main image with dsp and cardstock. I then wrapped with a green coloured twine and the sentiment circle is a brown to coordinate.
I then added some green glitter enamel gems.
Love this and think this is different for me especially with the colour scheme.
Todays card I used the gorgeous iridescent medium through a stencil I got a long time ago (no idea of brand sorry!) But haven’t used for a while.
I used a palette knife but wasn’t exactly careful so it did seep through the stencil in a few places but as the iridescent finish is so pretty I don’t care!
I had cut the panel to be 15mm smaller than my card blank as I wanted it to have a good border around plus this meant it fit nicely in the stencil area.
I had to let that dry for a while so I didn’t smear it or lose the dimension so I started creating the top cluster I wanted for the card.
I stamped and embossed in silver both the larger leaf image from Splendid Thoughts and the Happy from Biggest Wish. The die cut leaf I then added some colour to using a few colours of pinks and purples and the blending brushes.
I had a die cut circle on the desk already so I decided to ink that up too with the purples.
I stamped the birthday in Perfect Plum and then fussy cut that. Then I grabbed some die cuts from scraps in pinks and purples for adding to the cluster.
I felt it needed something else though to ground it and so die cut a Wreath from white using a spellbinders die. I die cut it twice to give it some more dimension.
Then I clustered them together and adhered them to some foam so they would sit nicely above the texture of the background.
Before sticking them down, and once the texture medium was dry I splattered some purple ink as I felt it needed some splatters to finish it off!
I added the top panel onto more foam to then add it to the card blank and then added the gems I found in the stash.
Because I am a little mad I’ve joined in on another Christmas challenge …. this time the one Martin is hosting.
Day 1 was … Something Red … so here is my card using the lovely Paperartsy stamps my friend Darcy designed. Coloured them using ink blending, embossed a layer and added a ribbon. Sentiment heat embossed with a dark red colour powder.
I raised the sentiment circle and the leaves up on foam to give dimension. Cute! Well I think so.
Will be unlikely to do every day for the 30 day’s but will share what I do/did make.
Todays blog post I decided to film the making of … so check it out on YouTube.
It is a design team contribution for Creative Knockouts and the challenge is to make a card that is anything but square. We are sponsored by LeeAnn’s World 101 and I received the Rudy image to work with.
I decided to colour him with promarkers and then fussy cut him out.
I decided a circle shaped card would work OK with the image and my largest circle die was just about the right dimensions to cut out the card blank.
I then used a panel I had already die cut with the stitched snowflakes and die cut the circle and then the green ring were already on my desk.
I added the sentiment on the front and in the middle from the Christmas to remember set in white embossing.
I added the lovely laser cut snowflake embellishments and glossy accents for the finishing touches.
To be honest this project has taken me weeks as the current heatwave in the UK has well and truly zonked me out! I’m not really built for this kind of weather and my craft space is the hottest room in the house! Anyway… it started as playtime for the new Colorado Craft Company stamps and coordinating dies I bought …
and then I wanted to use 12×12 sheet of dsp slightly differently as a OSW!
So I started by cutting the paper into 9 4×4 squares and then played with diecutting using the Stitched Framelits to create different shapes and designs for 6 of them and then the Pine Woods dies for the other three. I did end up with a few circle frames od dsp left at the end but otherwise very little waste from the dsp.
The main feature of course is the word stamps and dies which I am very happy with. Might try embossing them next time as I love the size of these words.
I then decided to do them in batches of three to make them similar but clearly each one different.
For the circles I made them all using the Christmas word and chose to add Merry from the Christmas to Remember set. I stamped and die cut a few trees from the In the Pines set and then the leftover bits of green dsp I die cut the filigree tree and added this to a white die cut.
I added die cut stars from the speciality paper I still have a few sheets of left from last year.
This final one I added more dimension to with foam under the frame element and then the tree and word were floating across the lower circle. These yellow stars are also old embellishments but I thought they made a nice contrast.
Now onto squares…
These ones I chose to use non Christmas stamps and dies to add decoration … the Nature’s Prints bundle. I thought the leaf worked well with the Peace word. I blended the ink on the stamp to give a more interesting stamped image.
My sending word was from the Peace and Joy set as I felt it just needed something simple with that large leaf and the glimmer paper die cuts.
As with the circles I added more dimension as I went along. This one had foam and triple layered squares to give some texture to the background.
And finally the trees…
I love these Pine Woods dies. Especially the one that just cuts out the inside and not the outside edge so it creates a frame. This one I added black card behind and then foam to raise up the panel. Very funky!
The large solid shape die cuts out the full frame for the tree and so I die cut it from the dsp and then white for the filigree and this I could then inlay into the dsp. Behind it I added the glimmer paper for some bling.
This one I kept as an element on my base of dsp … probably the most simple to end on! But can you see the dimension on this and on most of the die cuts I used? I stacked most of them two or three high by diecutting extra trees or leaves and then adhering them together. It gives them dimension without squish like the foam would add and makes them strong so they don’t bend or warp.
So pleased with how they all turned out… now off for another ice-cream to try and cool down!
Todays card was actually inspired by Martin from a Christmas card he made … my result is very different but I think you can see where the inspiration came from.
Look at the colour on this!
I am so pleased with this one I have to admit. So I started with a square of white cardstock and inked it up using a rainbow of colours… the tip to this kind of inking is to keep adding more and going back and forth with the colours so they blend and a decent amount of ink is laid down.
Then I laid the stencil over the top (think this is a Claritystamps stencil) and went back over the colours again adding more yellow where the yellow is, green where the green is etc.
Then when the stencil is removed you get the stencil pattern darker than the background.
This does leave a fair amount of ink on the stencil … so I sprayed it and then ran it through the Big shot to adhere the ink … hey presto a second background created … put this aside for now but sure it will make a pretty card sometime soon!
Back to the actual card… Once I had trimmed it down a little I decided to make a mini shaker and to add a black and white butterfly as the main feature … to be honest I just wanted to enjoy the background! Lol!
I ended up watering down some black gesso and splattering and then die cutting and stacking lots of the black squares to make the shaker element. Then I added some of the die cut stars I had in a pot on my desk and added those both inside the shaker and added a few on the outside too.
I used the Butterfly Brilliance stamp and die to create the butterfly and then grabbed the Lawn Fawn stamps and dies for the sentiment.
I mounted the panel onto another piece of black then onto a 6×6 card blank.
Love how this came out … so vibrant and fun. Looking forward to creating with the bonus panel too!
Inkyfingeredcat 