Happy birthday

Whenever I see an interesting simple sketch, I really feel the need to have a go... as was the case after seeing this from Freshly Made Sketches

It rang a bell for another challenge at Inkspirational to use Ink Splatters, so here it is!

In fact the splatters are stamped and not splattered, but I don't suppose that matters! I used a stamp from the SU Gorgeous Grunge set, which has been a favourite of mine for quite some time now!

The butterfly was cut with a Memory Box die from some smooshed card and given a plain mount so as to show up the filigree against the splatters.

The other day a friend asked me to make a card for her DIL's 30th birthday. She gave me pretty much free rein to do what I pleased but quite liked the  idea of flowers. I decided to make something that I thought she would like.

As it was a special birthday (it is today in fact) I thought we would go the whole hog and do something with a little dimension and make a box for it too!

This is a large card, (A4 sheet of card folded in half) and I had the idea that I wanted to use a soft blue and kraft for the colour scheme. I used Sahara Sand card from SU but didn't have any blue that I felt was quite right so I printed a sheet in Pink Petticoat's 'Ocean' shade. As I made the rolled flowers from this, I could use exactly the same colour for the sentiment. I pick up the RGB numbers by opening something in the colour into Paint and then using the dropper tool pick up a little of the colour to see what the combination of RGB is!

I used a bunch of dies, mainly Memory Box I think!

I thought I would add it to the challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Anything Goes

The CARD CONCEPT

Fancy Fold

A little time agao I saw a video from Jennifer McGuire demonstrating a Bridge fold card and so I thought I would try it. I have worked out a couple of sets of dimensions which will fit into British envelopes. This one is for a 150 x 150 mm envelope. The joy of these three dimensional cards is that they readily fold flat for mailing.

I began by making the card base and then searched for a set of heart dies which could make a frame to bridge the gap across the front. I found these from Little B amongst my stash. The Mr & Mrs die is from Kaisercraft, although I think it is now discontinued. It was just too small to attach across the heart so I cut a piece of acetate to put behind the heart on to which I could attach the words. I used an embossing folder from Couture Creations (which co-ordinated really well with the foliage sprig from Sizzix,) for the back panel. To complete the card I added a twinkle of Glamour Dust on the heart and the sentiment and added a few tiny pearls as berries. The edges of the front flaps were cut with a border die from Stampin' Up.

Addicted to CAS

Just Us Girls

Vellum or acetate

The challenge at Less is More this week is to use Vellum or Acetate.

Vellum is a really versatile medium and here I used it in a slightly different way from anything I have done before. 

I began by embossing a small sheet with a stencil and then dropped a variety of autumnal shades of alcohol ink and a little blending solution before allowing it to dry. I then cut some leaves from this and arranged them into a wreath shape and adding a layered die-cut sentiment from Stamplorations.

I attached them by spraying the reverse of the shapes with Spray and Stick, but I'm not too sure if they will remain secure... time will tell!

Die cut leaves are from Impression Obsession.

This one uses a little acetate to create the transparent part of this shaker card.

The die cuts are from Papertrey Ink and Cuttlebug.

Since photographing this I have moved the @ sign down a little... it irritated me that it wasn't quite in the right place... in fact I've also moved the Kim to the right and the 4 closer to the zero... maybe I should take another pic!

Here is another which I just made today at the request of a friend. 

It's for the daughter of a friend of hers who has just been awarded the OBE.
I began by printing an image of the medal on my laser printer and then foiling it in gold. So as to make the effect a little more subtle, I used a layer of vellum over this, to which I attached the sentiment. I used three different fonts for the die cuts and accentuated the OBE by using a larger set of dies and cutting them from gold card.
The dies used were from Memory Box (congrats and Mel) Avery Elle (celebrate) and Craft essentials Creative dies (OBE) The stars were a freebie from a magazine.

Alcohol inks

Recently I saw a technique on the Internet using alcohol inks and thought I would have a go. It involved dropping spots of ink onto an acetate sheet and blowing them through a straw. I quite like the effect, but had difficulty in getting the leaves, cut from card, coloured to match the depth of colour. I began by using a marbling technique also with alcohol inks, but these came out rather insipidly in comparison. I added a little extra colour using Distress ink, but I have yet to master the technique.

The acetate was backed with a piece of white card, attached using eyelets.

The leaves were die cut with a Cheery Lyn set of dies and the sentiment was also cut from acetate, using a Spellbinders die. 

There are a few challenges here

Addicted to CAS - Leaves

...and As you See it

AAA Cards - Autumn Colours

I'll try to do better next time.

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it!

From time to time, on the blog of the magazine Craft Stamper, where I am one of the designers, there is the  opportunity for crafters to have their cards published.

This time it's to create a card using acetate.

There are a few stipulations, but you can find the details here.

There are some terrific examples from members of the DT and the card to be published in the mag will be chosen by them from all the submissions at the end of the challenge.

Here I used some cor'dinations card which was embossed with a Cuttlebug chicken wire Embossing Folder and then sanded. This card was split into two pieces and a section of acetate was sandwiched between them.

The agapanthus flowers from Stampendous were inked with a couple of shades if distress ink and stamped inside the folded card to show through the acetate window.

The die cut butterfly from Marianne Creatables was inked with Distress inks, embossed and twinkled  with Glamour Dust, to tone with the flowers and the cardstock.

A simple sentiment was stamped, then die-cut with a Spellbinder tag.

Do give the challenge a try... you may see your card in print!

The dress

As our challenge at "Less is More" this week has been about acetate, I decided to have a play myself and this is the first time that I have tried added gilding flakes to it. I stamped the acetate with Stazon and then after adding some glue, I applied the gilding flakes in Variegated Green to the back of the image.
The acetate is attached to the Laura Ashley (I think) under paper only at the top and the DST is concealed by the MS punched, decorated  flap.
The sentiment is Penny Black stamped on the paper not the acetate.
Sir Stampalot - Ladies and fashion (no lady here but it's obviously for one!)

"Less is More" - Acetate

This week our challenge at "Less is More" is to use some acetate of some description. Here I have used  a piece for the front of my card, attaching it behind a flap which is an extension of the back of the card.
I lined the inner right hand side of the card with some brown  card and stamped on the acetate in white Stazon so that the image would show up.
Inside, I stamped the brown card with a larger version of the stamp using deep brown ink, so that it gave the impression of a shadow from the image on the front.

All that was left to do was to add a sentiment which I added in the corner on the front.

The images are a mixed bunch. Although the two  flower stamps are identical, apart from their size, one is from Inkylicious and the other from Magenta, at the moment I'm not sure which is which.
The sentiment is from Personal Impressions.





Finally here's another card, using a piece of scrap plastic which I punched with a Tonic butterfly punch, dabbed with alcohol ink, glued and glittered and added a few pearls. It's a simple way to use a little acetate (or like substance) even if you don't have any sheets of it.

The background of this card, uses a Stampin' Up background stamp and the flourish is from Inkylicious.


Do join in our challenge over at "Less is More" we love to see the inventiveness of our participants.