An Off-Piste Cable Experience!

Hey! How are you? 

I know it's getting chillier and thought I'd use this really fantastic die set

 I got out the set and stared at it for a while and got a little stuck. I cut out the snow drifts and lay them onto the card base and that's when, the pre-trimmed elements just looked right. The snow extending past the card looked in proportion and then as I added the cable cars, it grew into the design that it is!

 Now, granted, it's a little bit of fun. By extending past the card I've gone 'off-piste' (does the title make sense now ;-) )
I've also used the gorgeous notecards

       

You can see the little animals sticking out of the decorated cable cars. I've added acetate to the windows too!

The cute animals are from the Storybook set, but this set would do just as well

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the trees are in fact mountains. You can really change them all around- it's a wonderful versatile die set.

I'll go back to my shivering now! See you next week,

Keren xx

Coffee Spills

Hi! Hope you're all raring to go and bright eyed and bushy tailed? No?

Maybe you need some of this... a coffee fountain!

 Some days, I'm not sure even this would do the trick, although I'd probably have substantial palpitations trying to down such a lot!
I've used this set from Avery Elle

As long as you don't mind cutting a few coffee cups out- or actually, masking them would work just as well.

The little hearts in the set are perfect for adding a little colour to the scene and if you fancied making them cute, you could add the face that's in the set too!

The spillage was just using some distress ink with water added onto an acrylic block and then painted using a water brush to keep the ink fluid

I got a little paint-happy and sloshed it everywhere. I wasn't meaning for it to get quite that spilled, it even ended up in the left hand corner of the card too.
It was just like the butterscotch sauce all over my kitchen floor on Sunday.. but that's another story ;-)

It's a great set- full of fun images and useful sentiments.
Hope you have a great day, and don't drink too much coffee, (unless it's the really good stuff!)

See you next week,

Keren x

Pizza Mountains!

 Hi! How are you today?
I thought we've all been good enough for some pizza.
It looks vaguely like pizza?
Maybe a tomato tart?!
Well- strictly speaking, these slices are in fact the snowcapped mountains on the 'Snow Caps' dies from Avery Elle

Hope you can see here where I was going with it?

 I even used the little trees as the basis for some extra cheese!

 It might have looked more realistic if the  cheese was over more of the pizza but hey, this pizza's a low-cal version ;-)

The sentiment is using another Avery Elle set 'Sending You'

I did try to add a little definition onto the pizza slices using some of the Ombre ink

 and also gently bent the edges of the slices down to give more 3D look to them. Hopefully you can see that in the first photos.

Well, if you want a proper look at the dies are actually supposed to do- here's Tara's take on them in this post

If you want a pizza the action (oops!), do grab yourself a set of the dies- they're wonderfully versatile and there are lots of dies in there ready for more 'alternative treatment'!

Enjoy your Tuesday,

Keren xx

More Pass The Parcel!

Hi! However your Tuesday is panning out, I'm here with a cautionary tale (well, sort of!) and a fun card.

The card is part of our 'pass the parcel' feature, or, more precisely, send the same stamp and die set around the country and beyond for us all to get inspiration from. Here's the first caution-

Always have a peek before you design your team project for the week, that someone else hasn't posted the same thing the day before.

Yup, sorry.

Although, to be fair, Lou's treatment of this card is really different to mine- a monochromatic stunner, so I'm hoping you lovely people will tolerate mine!

So, onto the set. On the off chance you've missed seeing it, here's the set in question

Taking the smallest element (as I often like to do), I thought I'd create something just with that. 

                                     

I die cut one of the candles and arranged it around a small circle (to help get them spaced evenly). It took 2 attempts.

 Then I die cut them out... it took two more rather frustrating attempts ;-) - secret? just tape them down first before you die cut and they won't move then!

I'm fast forwarding to the finished article so my next few sentences will make sense. 

I had in mind one of the spirally twisty elements where the spiral appears to be getting bigger all the time when you move it? I die cut a large circle and created a spiral with alcohol markers.

Caution- if you're going to pencil lines out first, don't go over them with a light coloured alcohol marker as you can't get the pencil markings to rub out. It was very annoying and nearly rubbed out portions of the cardstock in my vain attempts

 Caution no.2 - think backwards. Because you have a front layer, the central layer and the back layer, getting the brad (which you can see just peeking above the 'celebrate' in the photo below), you need to make sure the top layer is firmly stuck to the brad and the bottom layer the same. Lets just say that the 'swirly motion' is more like 'stick your hand through the candle spaces and turn it yourself'! The wash tape on the photo above is a good idea, but you need decent sticking power on the top layer too! Duh.

 See this detail- the flowery decorative part? I've used the gift bows which I've trimmed down and added around a circle. The idea was to help you turn the circle, but then it's a little pointless for my card (ha ha!)

The other cautionary bits are as follows- check your whites are the same shade. My absolute favourite paper this year (which I'm about to use up!- I know, I never normally get through a whole pad) is the Everyday Collection papers from Avery Elle

The white on the heart papers is more creamy than my blue white so it shows up more. Don't look- it is a bit obvious. And whilst you're checking, don't look to closely at the masked off sentiment. I didn't want the 'let's' bit of the lets celebrate so I just stamped the latter half. Thing is- if you brush over ink that isn't completely dry with a wet glitter- guess what, the ink bleeds.

Humph.

Anyhow, despite my catalogue of basic errors, I hope you like my fun card. Don't worry-if you come back tomorrow, it won't be another 'Pass the Parcel' card as I've not sent it overseas yet!

Have a lovely Tuesday - and do tell me, what's your worst crafting disaster!

Keren xx

Simply, Pretty Peonies

Hi everybody,

I've got a very simple, pretty card to share with you today.

I used the new 'Peonies' stamp set from Avery Elle for my card.

I fell in love with this stamp set the second I set eyes on it, and new instantly I wanted to do some pretty watercolour with it.

I found a picture to use as inspiration, and set about colouring my pretty scene.

I used my new favourite toys, the 'Zig Clean Colour Brush Pens', for my watercolour, but obviously you could use anything.  

I stamped my scene, masking off as I went, and clear heat embossed (you could use white powder for the exact same effect, I just find clear easier to work with).  I LOVE the look of watercolour with white lines.  I think it just makes it so soft and gentle, even when using such vivid colours as I have here.  

 This beautiful set includes a choice of Peonies, foliage, and sentiments, so you can create any arrangement your heart desires.  I think it would look awesome to create a whole cluster of peonies, all slightly different shades.  It's also a perfect set for practising your colouring, be it watercolour, or alcohol markers, or whatever medium you choose.

My sentiment is stamped in Black Versafine and embossed, again, in clear powder.  I finished by embellishing with a scatter of pearls to compliment the pretty vibe and matted onto one of the black Avery Elle card bases.  And there you have it...pretty in pink peonies.

As always, everything I used is linked below so go and have little peak.

See you next week.

Jillx

    

Slider Pull Plane!

Hey! Hope you've a few minutes to spare- this is a bit of a longer post than usual, but thought I'd show you how to create this card, for those of you who've not made a slider before! Here's what happens when you pull the Congrats bit...

 To start with- grab yourself a few supplies- this fab Avery Elle set

plus for a quick shortcut- this Mama Elephant Slim Tags die set

and lastly this beautiful double sided Avery Elle Everyday Collection paper pack

Here goes the quick tutorial. Cut out a piece of paper & die cut one of the Mama Elephant slim tags from the centre.

Stamp and cut out two clouds and the plane. You need to have a base of something that's wider than the aperture you've created so I created a cloud background.

Next, colour in and punch out two circles- again these have to be slightly bigger than the aperture. Fold each circle in half and add glue to the edges of the two folded sides and press together. Once the glue has dried, open them out carefully to create this 3D shape.

                                       

Now stick the plane onto the 3D circle shape so the glued join is in the centre and you can then ease the back two circle 'flaps' onto the reverse of the aperture. This gives the plane the sideways movement. Hopefully the picture makes more sense!

Add a stamped and trimmed out 'congrats' to the edge of the plane and cut out a strip of card that is wider than the aperture. Stick the plane onto this strip so the end of the 'congrats' matches up to the edge of the card strip & secure with some 3D foam pads at the end

 Next, lay the aperture over the top of a base card  that you've added a cloud effect to and a strip of paper. Position the sentiment stamp over (aren't clear stamps just perfect for aligning easily!).Make sure that when the plane is pushed to the right, you can see the sentiment and when pushed to the left, it hides it. Mark the edges of the aperture lightly to help with lining up at the next stage.

                                      

Now you just need to turn the aperture piece over and run foam tape (or individual pads but it takes an age to place them all down!) along the top and bottom edges (just slightly away from the card pull piece) and on the opposite edge to the pull strip (the right hand side when the piece is turned over on the wrong side).

Remove the tops of the foam tape and position back over the base card, lining up with the pencil markings... and that's it. An easy and fun birthday card!

Why not try making an interactive card- it's easy once you get going!
See you next week!
Keren xx

PS- anyone spot the rookie error in my finished photographs? x

Florals in pencil.

Hello.

I have two  cards to share today using flower stamps from Avery Elle.

I saw this pencil technique a few places and gave it a try and i love that its a different look to copics or watercolours.

I used the large bloom flower from Petals and stems for this card.

To start i stamped it in pixie ink and let dry.

I then used coloursoft pencils to colour over the ink.

I used the same technique with this flower from blossoms and blooms.

This time stamping in silver fox ink so that is shows on the coloured card.

Click the images below to go to the products used in today's cards.

 

  

  

Thanks for looking.