On your Special Day

CAS Mix Up has been taking a break for a while but we are back again with a new fun challenge, which this time is to use pastes or gels.

Some time ago I discovered how to make embossing paste after being faced with a solid lump of the stuff when I wanted to make a card. Being a creature of impulse I wanted to do it straight away, so after tossing the dried up pot of the stuff, I made my own. Here is a video I made, demonstrating how I made it.

For this card I used two stencils, the Paisley type one, and a circle one over the top. I spread the embossing paste through it using a palette knife and sprinkled it with Gold Glamour Dust when still wet.

The twiggy die cut is stacked a few times to add dimension, the heat embossed sentiment is by Personal Impressions.

 

Just Because

Here is another card using the Faux Cloisonne technique. It's the challenge this month at CAS Mix Up. For this one I used an old calendar from Guide Dogs for the Blind. When I first started contributing to this charity, the dog I was sponsoring was a German Shepherd with a floppy ear, called Monty, but after about a year or so, he didn't make the cut as he was too nervous in traffic and so now lives with a family. My new puppy is a black lab called Niko. Anyway enough of this, this stamp is from Rubbernecker, which was stamped onto a calendar page and embossed in gold.  They are cut out and mounted over a strip of hessian and given a sentiment by Memory Box.

Why not join in the fun with this terrific challenge! 

Here is a video I made showing the process

 

Snowflakes

I love to follow a good simple sketch and there is one such at CAS Colours and Sketches this week. Here is it!.

I couldn't decide whether I liked it better with or without the sentiment.

I began by embossing a Kaisercraft background stamp onto black card and embossing in white EP. Then I cut around the edge of the design at the bottom and die cut the top to fit my card panel. Next was to inlay the lower snowflake into the embossed card. There is a plain snowflake on the top,  a more elaborate snowflake which is stacked and then embellished with a few pearls.

 

FRIEND

I made this card to send to a fellow crafter whom I "met" on Facebook. I guess it just about sums up what I feel about the many, many people with whom I have had interaction over the internet. Questions are answered, techniques are shared and I guess this is the friendship of the 21st century! Some of these lovely people I have had the good fortune to actually meet in person... at craft shows, retreats and the like and I feel truly blessed to have all these associations.

As to the card... I began by embossing a background stamp by WOW with gold and silver embossing powder on a black base card.  The word friend is from a new alphabet die set by Memory Box called Twiggy Alphabet, which consists of the letters and their backgrounds. The flourishes are from MFT. I quite like the opulent look of this one!

The colours are from this challenge at Color Throwdown

 

Christmas WISHES

I was having a little fun with embossing powders for this card. It's a background stamp by Kaisercraft, which I embossed with a mix of Gold and Silver embossing powders. The WISHES is part of an extremely old die whose origin has long since escaped me, the rest of the dies are by Alexandra Renke. I stacked the words three times, but on looking at it I think that I should have used black instead of white card for the lower layers.

I made it with the challenge at CAS Christmas in mind as it requests Silver and Gold!

 

 

Thank you

On a wander round Blogland I spotted the challenge at Inkspirational where there is a photo for  inspiration this time. I used a Simon Says Stamp background stamp embossed in gold on black card for the panel and added a stacked die cut crane (or heron... not 100% sure of my birds) and a simple stacked sentiment.

I ummed and ahhed about whether to do something surrounding the panel but in the end just left well alone. I really like gold embossing on deep coloured cardstock!

 

Good Luck

Another week, another challenge at Stamps & Fun = Creativity and another occasion for me to be a Guest Designer.

The theme this time is Lantern! I guess that at this time of year most people would think of a Halloween lantern... a pumpkin hollowed out and card to make a face, but I don't generally make Halloween cards so I thought I would do a Chinese lantern instead.

To make this one, I heat embossed a WOW background stamp in Gold onto a piece of red card and then I die cut an oval and put it through my paper rippler or corrugator or whatever the piece of kit is called. Actually I think it's called a crimper. Then I grabbed two tiny rectangles from a small part of a complicated die for the top and bottom of the lantern and then added a loop at the top. I didn't have any black thread, so I coloured a piece of stripy thread with a black marker.

I cut two fish tail banners and dry embossed the top one. The sentiment, from Clearly Besotted was also heat embossed in gold.

Despite all, I think it does look quite like a lantern!

 

Happy Birthday

A dear friend of ours will be having a birthday very soon... I never know what to make for him but it usually has a link with music somehow or other. He is a musician, a composer, a singer and all round great fun chap. Here the reference is from a stamp by Artemio and a random quaver... or should I say eighth note for our friends across the pond. Years ago when we lived in Virginia for a while, I had to get used to all sort of different musical terms when we joined a local choir.... including all the names of the notes and measures instead of bars!

The Male Room - Black & White

 

Merry Christmas

I had some new stamps to play with today and this cheery bear was one of them. He's from MFT and I also availed myself of the set of matching dies. The trees are from a Poppy Stamps set, but I cut those out by hand... the sentiment is from Memory Box and the few tiny stars are from a freebie set.

I simply die cut the hillside, coloured in the images with Copic pens and added a little Glamour Dust. A few of the elements are popped onto foam tape.

Christmas Card Throwdown

The Holly and Ivy challenge - Anything Goes

Christmas with the Cuties - Clean and Simple

Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes

 

Happy Birthday

Here I began by inking a background with a couple of shades of Distress Oxide inks and then heat embossing a WOW background stamp in silver. From this I cut the butterfly die, plus 2 more from white card. I stacked the white die-cuts and inlaid them with the inked versions. The frames of each butterfly are quite flimsy, so in order to get them stuck to the card front accurately, I dry embossed the die into the card to give me the exact position for securing outlines. This meant that all the inlays fit perfectly.

Seize the Birthday

Addicted to stamps and more

Happy Little Stampers 

Watercooler Wednesday 

Merci

Some time ago I was selected as Chic of the Week for a challenge at Just US Girls. With that accolade comes the chance of being selected to be their Guest Designer for a month and that honour has also been bestowed on me and here is my first contribution for the month of July!

GUEST DESIGNER Just US Girls

For the script element on my card I used a really old stamp from  Hero Arts which is written in old French script. To continue the French theme, I used a couple of fab dies from Simply Graphic, a French company introduced to me by one of JUG'S fabulous designers... Cecile. Her work is totally inspirational.. and she has been the reason that I've found myself spending a considerable number of Euros on their fabulous merchandise. 

If anyone would like to join in with this fab challenge follow the link to Just US Girls!

 

Happy Birthday

Here I used a little more of the distressed shaving foam technique print, (which I used on the card in my last post) but sadly picked a background stamp to emboss over the top which was too busy, so you actually can't see too much of the blues beneath...But I thought I would use it anyway!

I took a strip of card and die cut the tips of the butterflies' wings from it then dry embossed it. I cut two butterflies from the blue/gold embossed card and popped them into the gaps, adding bodies and a sentiment.

AAA Cards

Do butterflies count as critters? I guess they might!

Here is another card made with a similar layout, similar shaving foam print and similar technique of partially inlaying the dies. This is my attempt at the Photo inspiration at Just Us Girls.

I think it's quite a tricky one! The DT inspiration is awesome... do take a look!

This card base is one of the two different types of linen-y card that I'm using to try to replace the one that Paper Mill Direct has ceased producing... much to my chagrin. This one is from Amazon.

 

Congrats

 I really love the large background stamp (from Simon Says Stamp), which I used to make the panels for this card. I embossed a piece of black card using WOW Pale Gold EP and then cut it into three strips. The sentiment, (which is die cut and popped up on dimensional pads) is from Stampin' Up!

Addicted to Stamps and More

Colours and Sketches

I am getting a little concerned about letters not arriving when posted at my nearest post box. A card I posted last Friday to Portsmouth with a first class stamp, still hasn't arrived at its destination. Several packages of masks I made and other mail posted there also have gone astray. Something very odd is going on! I may have to pursue the matter further!

 

A couple of cards

Here is my final contribution to the colour challenge at CAS Christmas.

What a lovely challenge to celebrate their 3rd Birthday. Congratulations girls!

For this card I used a piece of DP for the gnome's clothes, I used an embossing folder to add some texture to his beard, it was part of a damask design I believe and I added a little interest to the bottom panel by heat embossing a French Script stamp in WOW Opaque white EP. The dies and sentiment are from Simon Says Stamp.

Just US Girls 

I often use embossing folders to add interest to die-cuts.

Addicted to Stamps and More 

Merry Little Christmas

Anything Christmas Goes

Here is another card for the inchie challenge at AAA Cards

I wasn't sure if I preferred it with or without a sentiment

Here it is with a sentiment. It's for some friends who have just moved house. I guess that as the challenge says One Inchie, the one without the sentiment is closer to the mark, however adding the sentiment does make the card a little more appropriate for the recipients!

The little bird house comes from a long line of houses on an Artemio stamp, which I masked with tape before inking, so as to have just one!

An inch looks very small doesn't it!

 

Winter Blues

For this card I used a piece of navy card onto which I had heat embossed a snowflake design with white embossing powder. I cut the gnome's hat and clothes from this and added a white beard and white nose. I played with the idea of a blue nose and a patterned nose or even a red one but decided to keep it white, but it is stacked, so that it is slightly raised from the rest of the die cut pieces. The gnome is from SSS, the aperture tree die from Memory Box and I can't remember the make of the sentiment.

The theme at Christmas Craft Creations this time is Winter Blues... so I just went with the colour rather than any other interpretation!

I hope that everyone is staying safe, these are such difficult times, but hopefully the advent of the vaccine will gradually start to get things back to normal!

Take Care.

 

HAPPY Birthday

I recently bought this large HAPPY die from SSS, I actually thought that I would use it with lots of colours, but somehow gold and black just kind of happened. The 'birthday' was joined to another 'Happy' at the t and d, but I chopped it off. I actually like a mix of print and script for sentiments, both die cut and stamped  as well as computer generated.  I began by stamping  a simple grungy dot background and heat embossed it in gold. Whenever I use this leaf spray die I seem to lose some of the leaf inserts, I did think of using just the outline, but the dotty background looked a little odd through the leaves. I spent ages looking for one bit which pinged onto the floor! I sometimes find bits inside my slippers!

Just us Girls

I don't know if anyone else has had a similar experience with the new Blogger,  but several times I have had to save a challenge icon before I could add it to my Blog... usually I would just copy and paste it. It's a bit of a pain really! Today was a case in point with these two badges. I wonder if it's anything to do with the way the badge is added initially? Who knows!

CASe this Sketch

 

Christmas Blessings

Recently I saw two things which caught my eye, one was a sketch and the other was a colour combination so I thought I would try top combine the tow.

Here is the sketch at CASe this sketch

 

...and this is the colour combo at Color Throwdown

The base of this card is cut from some ivory hessian or hopsack (not sure which) card from Paper Mill Direct. It's a lovely creamy shade. I cut the poinsettia from some card which I had heat embossed in gold (to add a little interest). The edges of the holly leaves were gently inked with some Pumice Stone Distress Ink  to relieve the slightly flat appearance of the bare card. The heat embossed gold sentiment is from MFT. Looking at it now I think that a little smidge from a gold inkpad here and there might have looked quite good. Maybe next time!

The leaves are really starting to change now and in a couple of weeks when the clocks go back, it will seem that winter won't be far away!

Gold Embossing

Here I combined a few challenges.

I made a stencil from a die using vellum and then inked through it onto black card and embossed in gold. I found an odd snippet of manuscript card in my left over card drawers and so utilised the sketch from Fab Friday... I had to alter the positioning a little because of a) the tiny back sentiment strip and b) the position of the staves on the manuscript die cut. I hope this is permissible. I would have liked to use the sketch exactly, so I may do another card for that.

My son and family should have been flying to friends in the States for a skiing break in Maine today, but their host found himself in quarantine (with flu like symptoms) and so they have had to cancel and remain home... not very happy bunnies! Not very happy for their friend either!

               CAS Stencil                      

 Fab Friday Sketch        

 ABC Christmas

       Embossing & Gold  

Just US Girls