Bingo!

The lovely Dawn is setting our challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and in a nod to her mum's love of bingo she's given us a board to choose our elements from. You can go up, down or diagonal with your line or even try to get a full house!

I managed the middle row and bottom left to top right diagonal. 

The onesie is stamped on watercolour paper so that's something different than the card base and has a slight textile texture which seemed appropriate. Die cuts for the circles, the tiny heart and stars as well as baby's initial. That's the middle row covered!

It's a clean and simple card and the onesie is heat embossed on the watercolour paper so that's the diagonal covered too!

Stamps:
Little One (Altenew)

Paper:
Bristol board
Watercolour

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Salty Ocean)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Detail white embossing powder
Fine Frames circle die (Altenew)
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Font 1 dies (Spellbinder)
Mega Flake (Indigo Blu - Sheffield Steel)
Corner Chomper

Here's the bingo board, we'd love you to come and join us at DCM to see what you make of these elements! There’s a great range of inspiration on display from the team, too!

String theory

Kathy has set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week and she'd like us to get tied up - use any sort of string, fibres, yarn etc on our projects.

I needed a baby card and as I didn't have any baby clothes stamps for my first thought of doing a washing line, I took the easy option of just using some white crochet cotton as a bit of an accent.

This bear is super-cute and the photographic detail stamps beautifully.

I was lucky enough to have my name come out of the hat for a challenge at The Craft Barn recently and I chose the Little Stars embossing folder plus as part of my prize - there's a matching die with the folder. I embossed the white section, used die cut stars on the pink for a slightly more scattered look and I have a border of outline stars to use on another project!

Stamps:
Hello Baby Vol 1 by Darkroom Door

Paper:
Bristol board
DCWV textured

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate and Pearlescent Orchid)

Other:
Little Stars embossing folder plus by Marianne Design
Tags dies by Sizzix/Tim Holtz
Crochet cotton
Baby feet charm
Copic marker
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome Alice!

Friends along the road have just welcomed a new baby; this is the card I made for them.

This "quilt" technique is really useful for baby cards - just sponge off the edge of a piece of acetate, move it along and sponge again until you have diagonal lines right across the card in one direction then flip it through 90 degrees and repeat so you get squares. I used the tiny heart from the set to stamp in some of the squares for a quilt pattern. With a bit of judicious masking, you can make a one layer card with plenty of interest.

I used Mega Flakes on die cut lettering for a slightly shabby-chic look on baby's name to personalise the card.

Stamps:
Hello Baby Vol 1 by Darkroom Door

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineo - Pearlescent Chocolate
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger - Antique Linen

Other:
Font One upper and lower case dies by Spellbinder
Flitter Glu by Indigo Blu
Mega Flake by Indigo Blu - Chariot of Fire
Copic markers
Black fineline marker
White Posca paint pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome Little One

The March/April issue of the American Paper Crafts magazine is available now. One of the featured sections is for baby cards in non traditional colours (no pink or blue!). I was delighted to have this card accepted for publication (it's on p.58).

This little chap is from a set called Journaling which also includes a little snippet of script style writing, the word Journal and an ink bottle but I think he makes a cute baby card and the little leaf motif is perfect as a design on a "quilt".

The sentiment is computer generated using Edwardian Script and Courier New fonts and changed to match the colour of the Espresso ink I used for the stamping (R:67 G:52 B:49 is a pretty good match if you're trying this).

Stamps: Journaling set (Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Sugar Daddy (Bazzill Bling)
Cryogen white

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Computer generated sentiment
Scor-It
Silk ribbon

Thanks for stopping by!

Cherish the moments

I like to find different ways to use the stamps in my collection and I've been having some fun looking for images that will work on inchies, even though they're not designed with that format in mind.

Lots of the images in the Baby Dear set lend themselves to an inchie treatment and it changes the look of them significantly. This sweet image of a mother enjoying smiles with her little one is actually circular if you just stamp and go. To switch up the look by making it into an inchie try cutting or punching a one inch square in a piece of scrap paper and laying the square hole over your stamped image to select the portion you want.

Some DCWV cardstock in a pretty duck egg shade with a strong contrast (chocolate brown) makes for a quick and easy vintage look, especially if you sand lightly round the edges and finish off with some silk ribbon!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Baby Dear (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Simply Heavy Chocolate
Simply Smooth White
DCWV white core

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite black)
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
copic markers
Silk ribbon
Edge punch by Fiskars (Threading Water)

You may have heard already but Liz and Richard, owners of Cornish Heritage Farms, have decided to move on. The business is up for sale and while the hunt for a buyer is on, they'll be running down their levels of stock and offering some discounts as the weeks wear on. You can find full details of what's happening here if you'd like them. I hope you'll join me in wishing Liz and Richard every success in whatever adventure they embark on next and in hoping that there'll be a buyer for CHF who will carry the catalogue forward and bounce to even higher rubber heights!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Inchie baby

Inchie Inklings is a blog that's been around for a while but has been sleeping for quite some time as its owner, Ellen Hutson, has been busy with other stuff. 'Mona' Lisa Strahl has just taken on the role of waking it up with regular updates including a weekly sketch challenge. I worked with Mona when she was Art Director at CHF and it's fun to see her indulging her passion for teeny weeny artwork!

Here's my take on the second Inchie Inklings sketch - a vintage baby card. Steering away from blue or pink means you can have some cards on hand for those babies whose gender is unknown before they're born (I think it's much more common in the US for you to know in advance - UK mums seem to opt for a surprise much more often!).

I softened the look of the the chocolate card base by stamping the Fine Houndstooth in sand pigment ink. A really quick and simple card since there's minimal colouring to do and splitting the image over two inchies adds just that little bit extra interest. Thanks for the sketch, Mona!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Baby Dear (Rummage Bin line)
Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock

Paper:
Simply Heavy Chocolate (CHF)
Simply smooth Vanilla (CHF)
Chipboard inchies

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Sand)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic markers
Threading water/Scalloped lace edge punch by Fiskars
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby love

Do you have some types of card that you always struggle with? For me, it's baby and wedding cards! I think the baby ones just got easier though - Baby Dear and Vintage Baby Expressions should help things along! I do like a bit of vintage so if I just forget the baby bit and focus on the vintage bit things should go along much easier!

I went for a mono sepia look on this card, aiming for a sort of vintage photo look. The base layer and the border inside the cut out circle are coloured with a marker so this is a minimum supplies project - just white cardstock, a handful of markers, embossing folder, a couple of pearls and a die cut.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Baby Dear (Rummage Bin line)
vintage Baby Expression (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Smooth White

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Textile Texture Embossing Folder
Pearls (Kaiser)
Labels Four Nestabilites by Spellbinder
Fiskars circle cutter

I bought the blossom top box template from Everything Creative a few weeks back and finally got chance to play. I was so pleased to find that the ETA stamp from the Baby Dear set is an absolutely perfect fit! I alternated it with the stork from the Vintage Baby Expressions set around the six sides of the box and finished off with faux brads - they're just cardstock punched out with a Crop-a-Dile and coloured with the ink pad.

Wouldn't this be a cute way to present a tiny gift to an expectant mum? Any favour box would look great with the same treatment.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Baby Dear (Rummage Bin line)
vintage Baby Expression (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Smooth White

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Pearls (Kaiser)
Labels Four Nestabilites by Spellbinder
Fiskars circle cutter

Thanks for stopping by!

Pink Elephants on Parade!

Or maybe that should be "Pink elephants on the hop" since we're blog hopping today. Don't worry, I'm not going to show you any scary cartoon sequences. What were those animators on - yikes! The pink elephants here are a darn sight cuter than Dumbo's hallucinatory experiences too, lol!

This is the second of my projects in the Cornish Heritage Farms and Shimmerz swap.

What's more girly than Bubblegum pink? Bubblegum pink with some shimmer, of course!

I found Shimmerz works well with watercolours so I added a little pink watercolour pencil to the lower part of each elephant and then used the paint to blend the pencil and colour the rest of each image. I decided not to add a sentiment just yet - I think this design would be cute with a personalised tag added when baby arrives - maybe pinned to a twill bow with a mini safety pin?

Here's a detail shot so you can see the shimmery pinkness here - super-girly huh?

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Baby Love (Kim Hughes Collection)

Paper:
Kraft
Razzleberry Medium (Prism Papers)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Shimmerz Paint (Bubblegum)
Watercolour pencils
Sewing machine and thread
Corner Chomper

The next stop on the hop is Kristine - she'd love to welcome you in sunny California to see what's Shimmering there!

I'll have one final Shimmerz project tomorrow which is very different from the two shown so far and then Friday I'll be serving up that fruit and veg I promised you last week ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Cuteasaurous Brother!

My friend Ann just had her second baby, a little brother for their three year old daughter. There's a knitted blanket on the way for them but he arrived a few days early and beat me to it (the lining still needs stitching in!) so I made this little set as a "welcome" gift in the meantime.

The baby vests (onesies if you're reading this in North America!) started life as plain white ones from M&S - nice smooth close-knit fabric that gives a great surface for stamping on.

I used Versacraft ink for the stamping, it's permanent if you iron it and gives a nice clear impression. The colouring is done with Copics. You need to colour carefully, keeping well inside the lines as the colour tends to travel a little along the knit of the fabric so you need to allow for the spread - just three colours is fine for this kind of simple design, no need to try for too much shading (which would probably result in soaking the fabric too much and having the colour bleed further).

I made a coordinating gift tote just by following the basic bag-a-lope method and then trimming the top to make a deep handle shape.

Ann's reaction? "Ooooh great, he'll be able to have t-shirts with the same things on as he gets bigger!"

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Little Guy and Baby Love sets (Kim Hughes Collection)

Ink: Versacraft by Tsukineko (black)

Other: Cotton baby vests Copic markers (Putty, Raw Silk and Cool Gray 1) Envelope and ribbon for tote

Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome Baby!

I love the idea that all new babies have their name and birth recorded somewhere. I know in practice it's the boring old Registry Office but isn't it lovely to think that somewhere there's a cherub who has the job of writing it all down in a big old book? I thought this little guy from the Crafty Secrets Journaling set might be doing just that so I used him to make a card to welcome a new addition to the family.

The card base was scored on the diagonal to make a quilted effect and then I stamped the little sprig from the set to make the pattern in the centre of each quilt square. I used blue thread for my stitching but you could use an ivory or beige thread to make a 'neutral' card if you don't know whether you'll be welcoming a boy or a girl.

The silk ribbon is another of my adventures in natural dyes. Believe it or not, this one was beetroot (red beets for my American visitors). I was expecting red or at least pink but I gold this pretty dark ivory/champagne colour which is perfect with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress ink!

Supplies: Journaling set (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets), my own design sentiment stamps, Versafine (Vintage Sepia), Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen), scoring board, Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump, Spica clear glitter pen, silk ribbon, sewing machine and thread, sponge.

Thanks for visiting today, much appreciated!

Anything but paper

Stampers stamp on paper and make cards, right? Maybe the odd scrapbook LO? One of the background blitz challenges last week at Cornish Heritage Farms was to stamp on anything but paper and there was some fabulous creative thinking going on!

I still made a card but I stamped on a piece of white cotton fabric salvaged from an old shirt. I picked a fancy stitch on my sewing machine to create more of a border between the fabric panel and the border - I thought it looked kind of like a cot quilt.




Supplies: Polka dot backgrounder (CHF), wording stamps are my own design, Brilliance Pearlescent Sky ink, tiny safety pin, silver baby feet charm, narrow sheer ribbon, sewing machine and thread, cotton fabric

Thanks for stopping by today!

Raise it up

Oooh, I love embossing! Lythan has set this week's dare over at DCM and it's an embossing theme. Any kind of embossing will do! I've got a load of Cuttlebug embossing folders on order but they haven't arrived yet otherwise you'd probably have been overwhelmed by Cuttlebug textures. Instead, I've done two cards with some DIY embossing plates I made ages ago:



The Bundle of Joy sentiment is embossed onto pale pink cardstock with the trusty old corner rounder and chalk ink in Rouge swiped round the edge. I punched holes in the star, covered in lots of layers of silver sparkle embossing powder to make a 'button' and attached it with a bit of ribbon. A border of machine stitching and a bit of gingham ribbon finish it off.



Same basic techniques here but the embossing is on DCWV cardstock so I've distressed it a bit with a Silkimitt. The big flower is a Bosskut die and the little ones are the QK flower doodads. I used chalk ink and a freebie foam stamp to do the border pattern.

If you fancy the DIY approach all you need is some die cuts and a die cutter plus an embossing mat (or funkyfoam at a stretch). Stick your diecuts as you want them onto a piece of card stock cut to a size that will go through your die cutter. If you're using shapes made of reasonably lightweight card then you can build up a couple of layers to give it a bit more 'bite'. Then just plunk your cardstock on top, add your foam layer and put it through your die cutter. You can have any sentiment or texture you want and it will be unique to you. I've given mine a coat of paper varnish to give them a bit of protection but they'd probably be fine without.