Hello

It's time for another challenge at CAS Mix Up, which this time is to include Emboss Resist!

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Emboss Resist is an old technique using different Heat Embossing techniques.

I highly recommend you watch one or more of the videos that have been 

provided by our design team.  I guarantee that you will be inspired to play along!

We can't wait to see your Clean and Simple Mixed Media cards:-)

Video Tutorials:

2 Ways to do Emboss Resist by Kristina Werner (10:52)

Emboss Resist with Stencils by Lydia (6:01)

Emboss Resist WITHOUT Embossing by Natasha Foote (5:25)

Black Embossed Resist by Jennifer McGuire (9:08)

Heat Emboss Resist with Watercolour Wash by Debby Hughes (5:11)

Faux Batik Cards by Channin Pelletier (7:13)

Welcome to our wonderful Guest Designer

 Brenda (Inkspired to Stamp)

I thought that this small Stamplorations bubble wrap stamp looked rather like honeycomb, so I stamped in Versamark, embossed with clear embossing powder and inked with a few shades of Distress Oxide Inks, applied with blending brushes. I'm not sure of the origin of the bee die cut, but it was coloured with marker pens and then glazed with Nuvo Crystal Glaze. The hello is from a long string die, but I chopped off the ends.

 

Merry Christmas

For this card I dug out some Artemio snowflake stamps and a splodge stamp from SU to create an emboss resist corner. After stamping with Versamark and clear embossing, I inked with a couple of shades of Distress Oxide inks using blending brushes. The sentiment is stacked tow or three times... the Merry from Sizzix and the Christmas from Create a Smile. The card was completed with a small star from Memory Box and a few tiny, tiny gems.

Just Us Girls - Merry

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

 

Noel

It's funny how a card develops... this started with a colour and a circle. The colour is Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink, although it looks a tad dark in this picture. 

I stamped some splatters in Versamark and then heat embossed with clear EP. Then I dabbed on the ink, trying to get it as deep a colour as possible. I used the tree aperture die from Simon Says Stamp, together with a Presscut circular die which was just a tad bigger in order to make the frame. In fact I cut two and stacked them. I embossed just the lower section of the front panel with part of an embossing folder and  added a few stars which were the waste from a previous card and were still on my desk. The simple one word sentiment was stacked three times with the top layer in the blue, but it was overpowering and didn't go with the white frame of the image, so I cut another one in white and added it over the blue... you can just see some of the blue from some angles.

CASology - One word sentiment, one focal image!

Happy Little Stampers - Christmas

I don't think duck egg blue is a traditional Christmas colour!

 

CAS Watercolour Guest Designer

Loll and Bonnie must put in hours of work to make their Challenge Blogs so informative, interesting, stimulating, challenging and downright fun!

The Watercolour challenge this time is to use Cool Colours and I am simply delighted to have been invited to be a Guest Designer for this challenge

CAS Watercolour Challenge

For my card I began by stamping a My Favorite Things background stamp with Versamark and embossing in Silver.

I then spritzed it with water and added some sprinkles of Brusho powders and spritzed some more, dabbing with a paper towel and adding more powder and water until I got an effect which I liked. I then dried it off with my heat tool.

This kind of card always makes two versions.... the negative and the positive. I cut the SSS Tulip die from the centre of the coloured, embossed  card and then three or four layers from white card, which I stacked and then inlaid the coloured sections from the first cut. 

This is the card which I made with the remaining die cuts. I recessed the tulip die-cut and added a dry embossed backdrop for it, to add a little interest. I chose a folder with similar lines to the die cut and the original stamping. Not quite so CAS as the first card but still has fairly clean lines. The frame is mounted on dimensional pads.

Let it Snow

The December Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers is Anything Goes with the optional twist of using SNOW as a theme!

Here I used some Artemio stamps, clear embossed using Versamark ink and then coloured with Distress inks using sponge daubers. After inking I buffed up the embossing with a paper towel to remove any excess ink from it. The die-cut sentiment is from CUTplorations.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

It's practically time for our Anniversary cruise and I'm really looking forward to it! Warmer climes here we come!

Christmas is coming

Here is a card for the new CAS Christmas challenge, started by Loll.

As you can see the theme this time is Holly and I used a Tim Holtz stamp which I stamped in Versamark and clear embossed. I then inked it with some SU Bashful Blue ink using a sponge dauber, adding a little Iced Spruce distress ink in the centre of the holly sprays. Following this I cut the panel into tiles using a square die and then triple embossed each tile with clear embossing powder, adding a few gems for the berries.

These were mounted on a die cut and embossed panel.

I stamped the Hero Arts, Brushed Greetings sentiment using Iced Spruce Distress Ink, but it needed several goes to make a satisfactory image. Fortunately my MISTI ensured that each stamping was in exactly the same place. I quickly added a little clear embossing powder to this so that the finish would match that of the tiles.

It's also for the One Third challenge at AAA Cards 

This seems an unusual colour choice for a Christmas card but I think it just about works.

Midnight

At Addicted to CAS the challenge is Midnight, so a silhouette type image sprang to mind. Here is a Sheena Douglass freebie from a magazine, over a bit of Distress inking. I cut the panel into three and mounted it with a postage stamp type die from Memory Box, which I altered in length slightly to fit the card. The Thanks is from Wplus9, double layered. One lot of 'stars' was stamped and clear embossed before inking and the other set was done with the faux bleach technique after inking.

At Sea!

At "Less is More" it's time for  One Layer with the theme At Sea!

I love these sea birds from The Rubber Stamp Gallery. I began by stamping them and then covering them with some Elmers Rubber Cement, before Inking with various Distress Inks over a torn mask. I then over-stamped with a few Stamplorations grunge type stamps using some of the same Distress Inks.

The sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers!

Here I used an image from a kids downloadable colouring page, re-sized one and coloured them with watercolour pencils, blending the colours with a water brush and adding Glossy Accents when dry. The sentiment is computer generated.

This is another stamp from the Rubber Stamp Gallery. I embossed the circles, then masked them before stamping the image and again colouring with watercolour pencils.

The sentiment is from Imagine That.

Another sea picture similar to the first one, This time I stamped and clear embossed the waves using  a grunge stamp from Stamplorations, then inked with various shades of Distress Ink using sponge daubers.

I then stamped the sea bird from The Rubber Stamp Gallery and clear embossed that,  then cut a mask for his body before inking the sky, also using sponge daubers.

I wondered about a sentiment but thought I might leave that until it's needed!

Lots of texture

Less is More this week has the challenges to add some texture whilst still keeping the card CAS.

This is a card with stamps made from funky foam cut with All Occasion Dies.

These particular dies are super for this technique as they are quite intricate and so make a good impression when cut and inked.

I simply stuck them onto an acrylic block with a glue stick, inked them and was away!

The impressions were clear heat embossed and a few splat stamps were added. Finally I used a regular cut from the die to add as an embellishment!
This is also for Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes

When making some Thank you cards for a charity, I embossed the front of one card on the wrong side so cut it off to re-use, so here it is as the front panel of this card. The embossing folder is from Hobby Solutions. The butterfly is cut from some smooshed card with a die from All Occasions. The sentiment is from Penny Black.

This dinosaur is from Joanna Sheen, cut from a smooshed piece of card and inked around the edges afterwards!

The background is the debossed side from a Crafter's Companion EF and the sentiment from Taylored Expressions.

Favourite technique

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge 

this month is to use your favourite technique

This was a difficult choice for me as I love doing so many different techniques, but one which always gives me pleasure is Emboss Resist!

Here I coloured the Penny Black Stamp using Distress re-inkers and a paint brush. After stamping I embossed the image with clear embossing powder, then masked off a horizontal strip encompassing part of the image, using Post It notes. This area was then gently inked, again using Distress Inks this time applied with sponge daubers. Some grunge dots were stamped and the sentiment added, which was also clear embossed.

This challenge is sponsored by

Winner will receive this stamp set

Berry Colours

The first week of the month is always the time for a colour challenge at "Less is more". 

Here I combined a couple of my favourite techniques, emboss resist and inlaid dies.

The stamp is from the Rubber Stamp Gallery, clear embossed and inked with a variety of berry shade inks, including Rich Razzleberry, Aged Mahogany, Festive Berries, Fired Brick and Ripe Persimmon. A little over-stamping with the teazel stamp and some grunge dots completed the effect.

The dies are from MFT (border) and Poppy (thank you).

I don't know if you can see the layered inlaid letters a little better here!

It's always fun to do!

Missing Mojo

I have been trying to get some cards made but the success rate has been rather low! I have a couple here which sort of do something but there are so many incarnations in the bin!

This one is for the sketch at Happy Little Stampers and is a fairly literal translation of it as you can see.

I stamped the sentiment is Versamark and embossed in white (the clear version didn't fare so well). After this I applied drops of Aqua Tint Inks with a fairly large watercolour brush, which I spritzed with water to allow the colours to bleed into each other and the surrounding card.

The panel was then mounted on some toning card and die cut with the holes.

I kind of mis-recalled a sketch for this one... I omitted a fundamental element of it and then, because of the image I had chosen, couldn't manage to add that element to the card, so I'll have to start again with that challenge. This is however for the challenge at Casology - News, the Springtime challenge from AAA cards and Addicted to Stamps Clean and Simple. The stamp is from Stampin' Up.   

               

One Layer Week at "Less is More"

The theme for one layer week at "Less is More" is SNOW!

I have had such a busy time this week, with lots of engagements singing carols... three times at Manor Farm for their Nativity in the farmyard, one rehearsal on the Isle of Wight plus our normal choir rehearsal for our Christmas concert this evening. Phew!

Here is an emboss resist , with various snowflakes (mainly freebies), stamped in Versamark and clear embossed. The ink was applied with sponge daubers in Bashful Blue and Soft Sky SU ink. A few extra snowflakes were stamped on top of the ink and embossed in silver.

The sentiment is from Butterfly Kisses.

Here are a couple of digi images from Dearie Dolls. They are coloured with Mirage Pens and twinkled with Glamour Dust. I think they're fun!

For this last one I used a Memory Box stencil with Pearlescent White Embossing Paste, again sprinkled with Glamour Dust whilst still wet. In order to get the sentiment to match I did use a die from Clearly Besotted. To be truly one layer I should probably have used the negative of the die cut as a stencil too, but sticking all the loopy bits in was a little daunting and as I've had a busy week, I'm afraid I chickened out! It is also twinkled with Glamour Dust!

Inspiration

There are a few crafters whose work never fails to inspire me. One such of these is Heather Telford. Not only is she inspirational but she is always more than willing to share her expertise with others.

The other day I saw one of her cards which just made me itch to have a try at something similar!

Here is her card!

Mine is not a direct copy but I tried a similar technique, using similar stamps and colours. Long may your inspiration continue Heather... and thank you!

Contrasts

At CASology the cue word this week is Contrast

I decided to show the contrast between the stark white of the card, preserved with the clear embossed foliage image against the inkiness of the background colours!The stamps are by Unity.

The sentiment is computer generated!

CASology