Ombre Art Journal pages...

I bought the Creative Expression 'Bluebird Edger' die a few months ago.  Its a clever die - cuts positive and negative elements, the bird's and butterfly's wings are cut so they lift away from the cut panel - its clever.

I made a couple of cards using the die but what I really had in mind to create was a tip in page in my small art journal... and ombre journal spread.

I love how dramatic the die cut looks against the hot colours of the ombre background (Cerise, Coral and Butternut).

I really wanted to keep the clean and simple look of the spread - otherwise the die-cut get 'lost' (imho) and so I only added a few flowers to the left hand page.

These Sizzix Thinlit dies (Wildflower 664163) are great silhouettes.  I added a single stem to the inside of the right hand page positioning it so it couldn't be seen until the tipped in die cut page was turned.

Its a relatively simple spread but it packs a punch!  I might have to try another one - maybe with a vintage vibe...

I'm not sure I ever put the cards I made here on the blog so here they are (just in case)...

Thanks for stopping by

Colour puddle card....

... I reeeally like painting 'colour puddles' and usually use them as the base to stamp flowers. I'm always thinking and looking for other ways to use them... when I saw a post on Instagram (linking to the Sizzix blog) where they had used these (very lovely) flower dies as a stencil on cards I had a lightbulb moment... and this card is the result...

I posted this photo on Instagram and said I would put simple instructions here on my blog - 'simple' because it is reeaally simple..

Step 1.  Paint a colour puddle... this is done by painting a circle of paint (going round and round and round until the paint on your brush runs out..) then adding another circle/ring of paint in a second colour and painting round and round and round and round until your paint runs out again - blending the colours as you go...  its very relaxing! 
NB. The photo below shows the colour puddle cut to size to fit the card.

Step 2. Die cut the chosen flower in the bottom right hand corner of the card blank (mine is 12.5x12.5cm)

Step 3. Attach 3d foam pads around the edges of the colour puddle panel.

Step 4.  Attach the colour puddle panel to the inside of the card.

I really liked the clean and simple look of this card... but realised it was a bit too clean and simple! I mean there is such a thing as too much white space surely! lol

Step 5. Cut the white card blank in half and cut the front panel down to fit a 12.5x12.5cm kraft card blank - this will warm the card up and give a frame all around.

Add a strip of coordinating washi tape, a small tag and tiny die cut heart. Still clean and simple but not quite so much.

I wasn't kidding was I when I said it was a simple card - simple but lovely (in my humble opinion! lol)


Thanks for popping by!

Fly my pretties, fly!

This spread in my small Dylusions journal makes me smile - its so... erm... busy!! Painting, stencilling, stamping, more painting....

I seem to be going through a 'add more colour, and make them bright!' stage at the moment... do you think its because I want it to be summer when all the flowers and colour starts appearing everywhere?

I've used Kay Carley's 'butterfly' on this spread - I loved it as soon as I saw it! It might make regular appearances - I think its going to look lovely with my flowers!

 Thanks for stopping by!

Mini mash-ups!

In January and February I went to the 3 craft industry trade shows - had a fun, tiring and inspiring time at all of them.... I demo'd at all 3 - some of my samples are over on the PaperArtsy blog as part of my post about the new stamps (HERE) and here are a couple more.  When I'm demo'ing I like to mix up the PaperArtsy ranges to see how they'll look together, and mix old and new of the JOFY stamps too... always fun to do...

Green and teal/turquoise blue is always a lovely combination...

The PaperArtsy mini stamp I used on here is one that Leandra had chosen for the stamps on the demo desk - I'd forgotten what a lovely little stamp it is.  I'm very tempted to buy another one so I can cut it up and have an alphabet set to use on journaling - the 'open' design means the letters could be coloured in... very useful!

This next sample has lots of white space (I do love a bit (a lot) of white space!) and is a mash-up of mine and Tracy Scott's newly released ETC24...

Thanks for stopping by...

Christmas cards....

.... are on the {ever growing} christmas 'to-do' list... and I wanted to share with you a couple of cards I made using stamp set JOFY69 and the smaller of the two trees...  they're quite simple, a little bit 'less-is-more', bit of paper piecing and a sprinkle of glitter...

When I designed these trees this is how I planned to use them - layering up different patterned papers.  I picked out some papers from the 8x8in pads I have in my stash (Basic Grey... sigh.. I miss their papers). 

I chose three patterns that I thought worked nicely together and, using my stamping platform, stamped 3 trees and cut them out.

I cut the trees up ready to be layered - leaving a tier above or below the required tier so that there is something to attached it to (that's quite hard to explain lol) 

The trees below are created from the trees above... (I used a Tombow glue stick to attach them together as it gives a bit of wiggle time)

The trees looked a bit flat so I added depth by shading below the line of each tier to create shadow. (Tombow Brush Marker in pale grey) - simple but makes a big difference when you compare the above and below photos.  (I also added a white top tier to one of the trees, I thought it didn't have enough pattern changes).

I stamped the tree trunk several times onto brown printed paper and cut out leaving excess at the top (looks like a little mushroom!) so the trunk could be attached to the tree.

Here's the trunk from the front.

These trees are a bit time consuming but worth it! (in my humble opinion).

To make the cards I took a 10cm panel of kraft card and stamped JM07 down one edge (this snowflake stamps is a definite 'go-to' for me!), mounted it onto a 12.5cm card and 3d mounted the tree on top - overlapping the edge to tie the two panels together.

This card is the opposite colour combination to the card above - they're the same but different.  I like that.  I added a touch of glitter (Stickles) and gold paint (PaperArtsy White Fire Fresco) for a bit of sparkle.

I think this is a good card to make sitting down in front of the tv with a nice christmas film... a bit of stamping, bit of fussy (but not too fussy) cutting and some sticking!... and you can attack the stash in the process.!  ho ho ho!

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas, and not so christmas, makes...

First up, a card using 'christmas' from JOFY68 and the stars from JOFY70...

  

Next is a gift bag stamped/decorated with the same stars.. and a tag using one of the circle/star/box motifs from JOFY65

A single one of these motifs can be used by masking off the the others (and the sentiment that runs above it)...

On that stamp set I designed word stamps that fit in the boxes but you don't have to use them - I left the box blank enabling me to personalise it with the recipients name...

Now something un-christmassy... the words can be assembled so they can be used for a birthday card...

I 3d mounted the stars, and added shading on the edges of the boxes to give the impression of 3d mounting... (Tombox pens were used for the colouring on this card)... great for mens cards ?!?

Thanks for stopping by

Watercolour paints.... (part 1)

... aren't something I use very often...

 ... and when I say watercolour paints I mean palettes of traditional watercolours... but I 'recently' bought a set of Prima watercolour paints to use with my flower stamps and am loving how this simple mini stamp (JM59) looks when painted with these fabulous colours!

I really enjoyed painted in watercolour - I really like how the paint can be moved about, diluted and layered up... you have to be quite gentle with it though! lol

 I assembled all the flowers and leaves I painted onto a card:

The leaves are from JOFY61 and seem to be my 'go to' foliage at the moment - they seem to go with everything!.

I'm looking forward to working with these paints more in the future....

All that glitters....

I may have mentioned before that I like a bit of sparkle and shine, and today its all about the SHINE!

I made several cards featuring the seedhead silhouette from JOFY63.  They are the same but different - on each card I used simple clean and simple layouts and the same embossing powder which was WOW's Metallic Gold Rich Super Fine - very lovely & great at keeping the delicate detailed line of image.

I think I like kraft as much (probably more) than I like shine! I like to team them up & I was keen to use the silhouette stamp solo on a card :

The second card I made teamed the silhouette seedhead with the original line drawing from JOFY38 on a white background. 
Very happy with how they look together! :o)  (its like I plan these things! lol)

This is my favourite of the three cards.
I painted an ombre background using Infusions (A Bit Jaded) on a wet Fresco Finish (Mermaid) base and brushed it in - how GORGEOUS is that background!  even before the seedheads were stamped and embossed on top! swoon!  I really like how the different colours in the Infusions become lines across the panel - especially the dark slashes which are the walnut stain powders.

Here are the cards together - great to see how they are the same but different... I would happily frame the Infusions one and put it on the wall!

Thanks for visiting!