Cheers!

It's my turn to set our challenge at Daring Cardmakers and we’re raising our glasses to our shared hobby this week. Cocktail, mocktail, beer or orange juice — show us what you’re drinking!

My hubby is somewhat of a wine buff so this is the card I made for his birthday.   It’s one layer, no frills which is pretty much how all the men I make cards for like their cards!

Stamps:
Wine Corks (Spellbinder)
Ink Splats (Visible Image)
Celebrate (Letter It range by Ranger)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso, Cranberry)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Charcoal pencil
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

New year, new crafty things

Miri is setting our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers today — it's a new year and so she'd like to see something you've not used before on your card. It might be newly acquired, or just something in your stash that you haven’t got round to using yet!

I've used this row of corks stamp before but not the die that coordinates with it. The real "new" element though is the embossing folder - I've seen lots of cards with this Tim Holtz folder and find it hard to resist woodgrain so it made it on to my Christmas wish list and I was lucky enough to find it under the tree! I thought it would make a good wine crate background for the corks. To personalise the card, I stamped the vintage before embossing in the folder. For some reason the camera has made it more prominent than it looks in real life where it’s more of a background element. 

Oh, I used a new square die as well! Perhaps not the most exciting shape but I got a new set for Christmas that gives me bigger squares as well as more options than the Nesties I’ve had for a long time. 

Stamps:
Row of corks (Spellbinder, set with dies)
My Type (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Ivory flecked

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Latte, Espresso)

Other:
Lumber embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Plain square nesting dies (Presscut)
Copic markers
Tomato paste tube
Fineline marker

Make it Manly

It’s time for a new challenge at Let’s Squash It and I’m delighted to be joining Gail and Jo as guest designer for this one. You can use any embossing folder you like as long as your card is manly! All the details are here.

My hubby is a bit of a wine buff so when I saw this stamp and die set at a bargain price a few months ago I knew I had to get it! Several other family members and friends will likely be seeing it too. There’s a die as well but I actually cut the row of corks out by hand as I wanted to make it shorter by cutting one off the end - it's an easy shape to cut. The word is die cut from tomato paste tube and has come out very shiny on the photo! 

The embossing folder seemed appropriate as I thought the circles might be a bit reminiscent of cork ends and the optical illusion of them bulging in the centre might be an indication of a glass too many!

I find keeping a limited, neutral colour palette is always useful when you’re trying to make a more masculine card.

Stamps:
Wine corks (Spellbinder, stamp and die set)

Paper:
Bristol board and smooth black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
3D Circles embossing folder (cArt-US)
Stitched rectangles dies, A6 size (Paper Rose)

Thanks for stopping by - we'd love to see you over at Let's Squash It with some manly makes!

Say it loud

Nat has set our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers today and she’d like to see words take centre stage - oversized, mixed fonts, negative die cuts, just choose a way to make the words the focal point of your design. 

I opted for a subtle image in the background with a bold word on top for a card with a masculine feel. I added some grounding with a regular pencil, a few pearl dots and some white highlights on the lettering just to accentuate it a bit more.  

Stamps:
Birthday (Letter It range by Ranger)
Champagne Celebration (Crafters Companion)

Paper:
Bristol board

Strathmore toned grey

Ink:
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Soft Granite)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
Black fineliner
Pearl pen by Viva Decor (Ice White)
White paint pen by Posca

Thanks for stopping by!

April elements

Nat has chosen the inspiration picture for the Daring Cardmaker's first challenge for a new month. As usual, just choose at least three elements from the inspiration to kickstart your card.

I chose champagne glasses, the pretty green of the frame, the crackle texture behind the sign and a sentiment in mixed fonts.

I smooshed Distress Oxide ink onto the card with a piece of acetate and stamped the glasses over it once dry. I lifted a bit of the colour inside the glasses using a paintbrush and water, masked them and stamped the crackle texture. The champagne is shimmery Perfect Pearls and I used Wink of Stella pen on the rest of the glass so it has subtle sparkle too.

Stamps:
Champagne Celebration (Crafter’s Companion)
Crackleglaze background (Indigo Blu)
Putting on the Ritz (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide (Cracked Pistachio)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Smokey Grey)

Other:
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Sunflower Sparkle)
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
Corner Chomper

Here’s the mood board if you’d like to join in with us over at DCM. Thanks for stopping by!

Recycle it

The lovely Svenja is setting our challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like us to do a bit of recycling. It could be a failed project that you've given a makeover to turn it into something fabulous or it could be bits and pieces you rescue from the recyle bin and put to good crafty use.

I used three bits of "recylcing" here: a magazine page to make a print using a gel plate, my sentiment word is cut from a piece of tomato paste tube and I used a "stencil" that is actually a piece of plastic that came on a computer keyboard as a protector while in transit.

If you have a gel plate and haven't played with the magazine transfer technique it's a fun thing to do - this video is a good introduction if you want to have a play! Premium weight copy paper seems to make a good surface to pull prints and it's not expensive so it doesn't feel too awful if something doesn't work!

I used a white pencil to add some gentle highlighting and a charcoal pencil for some grounding shadows.

This is for a friend with whom we enjoy the odd wine tasting!

Supplies:
Page from Decanter magazine
Gelli plate
Acrylic paints (black, yellow green, turquoise)
White pencil
Charcoal pencil
Happy Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)
Tomato paste tube
Keyboard “stencil”
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Mowed Grass) 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Black Copic marker
Corner chomper

Thanks for stopping by!