Sending Love

I acquired a couple of small envelope dies quite some time ago and could never quite understand why they had a small slit in them. Suddenly the light dawned and I realised that they were supposed to be interactive, in that a message could appear from out of the envelope. I spent ages fiddling around to work out how I could make it happen and get the stamping on the message in the correct place, but I managed in the end. I have no idea where the dies came from.

The bow was made with my bow maker threading the charm on as it was tied. The 'Sending' is by Simon Says Stamp, I think the LOVE is an old Spellbinder die. I stamped the envelope paper with a background stamp from SSS and the card for the sentiment was gold embossed using the same stamp.

I cut a slit in the front panel of the card to align with the slit in the envelope, so that the long tag could be inserted and hide the message until it was pulled out. I did put a stopper on the tag so that it couldn't be pulled out completely!

Mystery of the slit resolved!

Dare 2 B Artzy

 

Sending you love

I wonder if you ever see a technique and try it, but then don't know how to use the results of your labours. That happened with the backdrops for this card... it was so long ago that I made them, that I'm no longer sure of the technique I used. I know I used vellum, I think I used alcohol inks and blending solution... but I'm not sure.... anyway I quite like how the chopped up pieces look behind this die-cut. Speaking of which... I have had it for quite some time and never found a use for it before, until this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

I simply added a plain white foliage die cut (Alexandra Renke) and a simple sentiment (Clearly Besotted)

 

With Love

Here is a card made with scraps of offcuts. The stripy backdrop is from a die by Reverse Confetti,  the white hearts are the waste from a Memory Box heart circle die and the hearts on stems are from Impression Obsession. I made it with a couple of challenges in mind.

Freshly Made Sketches

and Just Add Ink 

 

I love you

I had fun messing around making this card this morning. I saw this sketch over at the Paper Players and thought I would have a go.

This cute bunny is by Alexandra Renke and comes with a little three legged stool, but today I thought I would let him have a go on the swing. I found a scrap of wood texture card and used that for the seat. In order to give some perspective I used a die which actually makes one quarter of a frame, I've had it for a long time and have no idea where it came from. It's from a set which makes different sized frames. I merely punched holes in each end and threaded through some twine.

The rectangle is actually dry embossed with clouds etc, but being white on white is scarcely visible!

This bunny reminds me of Anita Jeram's Little Nut Brown Hare in Guess How Much I Love You....hence the sentiment.

The seat and the bunny are stacked.

AAA Cards 

I'm sorry you can't really see the clouds, but I did emboss them!

Addicted to stamps and More

 

With Love

I just love how I really am challenged to either try new, or revisit old techniques for the challenges at CAS Mix UP!

My fingers now are a rather unpleasant shade of algae! A mix of the blues and greens I used for this card. In fact this is not my first attempt at this challenge today, there were quite a few abortive tries with a few ideas, none of which was particularly successful. The bin has had a generous donation or two! Anyway there's not a lot to show for the technique here but I dropped some small amounts of  alcohol inks and  some surgical spirit (rubbing alcohol) onto some vellum and just swished it around a little until it dried, which took just a moment or two. From this paper I cut the bases of the butterflies, plus some in plain white card. I also cut out the filigree sections from the white card and stacked the three together with the vellum in the middle.

I cut two pennants, shortening one slightly and stamping the sentiment on the other. It really is simplicity itself, but I kinda like it that way!

The butterfly dies are from Memory Box, they're part of a set of three.

 

Sending Love

Here is yet another new die from Simply Graphic. I think these blooms are SO cool! I think that the trickiest part of this card was getting the apertures lined up and spaced evenly! I used a ruler to get them square to the front panel die, but they kept just shifting slightly, not helped by the fact that my Big Shot plates are very warped. In the end rather than using tape to secure the little dies in place, I covered them with a piece of Press 'n' Seal, which worked brilliantly! I cut a second set of heads for the flowers to stack on top so that it would add a little dimension and coloured them with Distress Oxide ink in Spun Sugar for the base coat, then stamped some speckles and added a little shading in Worn Lipstick. The leaf die is another from Simply Graphic... (I had a lovely parcel of goodies delivered yesterday) I left some of the leaf parts in and  took others out!

The sentiment is from Sugar Pea Designs. It took about 4 tries to get it right... the first one wasn't cut centrally (I had to shorten the die cut a little), then when is was cut centrally I realised that it was too dark in Worn Lipstick, so I did it again in Spun Sugar!

AAA Cards Flowers

Time out - Inspiration - Spring

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday CAS Challenge

CAS on Friday - Flowers

 

Sending love

I surprised myself a little with this card. Usually I like to keep the shades of cardstock exactly alike, but for this one I departed from that a little. I decided that because of the nature of the hessian, I would use an ivory card base, but then I used white for the daisies, so I continued with the mix and used a creamy shade for the lace but stuck to the white for the vellum tendrils and the sentiment panel. I think it works!

I used the inspiration from Just US Girls

It was Cecile's choice and I just love her work... I also love daisies and hessian... so it was a real winner with me.

This week we'll be welcoming a new washing machine and a new sitting room carpet, so I'm going to have to get busy moving furniture... not exactly my favourite task, but hopefully the end result will be worth it!

 

Sending you love

I really enjoy working with a good CAS sketch and today I found one this one at Freshly Made Sketches

Looking through the Design Team's examples I saw one from Kim. I have always admired her work enormously and her card reminded me of a small envelope die which I've had for ages but can't remember ever using before.

SO with the Sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and the idea of envelopes from Kim my card evolved.

I found some scraps of DP to line the envelopes and cut a whole bunch of little hearts to spring out of them. I rummaged through my sentiments to try to find something suitable and thought this went perfectly. It's from Clearly Besotted. I thought that the postage stamp type edging for the front panel was also in sympathy with the feel of the card. I had to elongate the die cut a little as the dies are sized for American dimensions rather than ours.

Stay safe everyone!

Lots of dies

I love this colour combination. It's a mix of inks, card and scrap paper.

I sploshed a little Distress Ink in Pumice stone and Festive berries onto a piece of card before spritzing with water  then die cutting the flowers (by Alexandra Renke) when dry. For the squares, I simply daubed a little Pumice Stone ink randomly onto the card before die cutting.

To compose the card I began by stamping some grunge dots before layering the die cuts over each other and adding a little fine twine bow. The sentiment from Avery Elle was stamped onto a piece of scrap paper/card from the middle of a roll of wrapping paper and embossed in white.

Just Us Girls

 

The Flower Challenge - Anything Goes

I remember from my teaching days the wonderful stories by Barbara Firth  and also by David Bedford about a Big Bear and Little Bear and this stamp set from mama Elephant makes me think of those stories. 

They each love the other to the Moon and Back!

I layered the die cuts and because the bear has a grey outline (Memento London Fog), I decided to add a grey base layer to the stacked word die cuts and offset it slightly so it can just be seen.

Both parts were liberally sprinkled with Glamour Dust. I started off with the bears stamped directly onto the card, but it looked rather out of place against the dimension of the sentiment, so I stamped another and added it on dimensional pads over the first image.

CAS of Friday

Die Cut Words

Faux Stained Glass

I haven't done this technique for quite some time... I'm not a great one for patiently waiting for projects to dry, but for the faux stained glass process where Glossy Accents or the equivalent is used, it's necessary to wait until the liquid has set before completing the element.

I cut several of the Heart from SSS and colouring the base layer with Promarkers, then filling in each section with Glossy Accents,  I added a few more outline heart layers in white card with the final layer from silver card after the Glossy Accents were dry.

The love sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp.

I thought the front of the card looked a little sad, so I just embossed a stitched rectangle die onto the front to liven it up a little.

This is for the challenge at CAS Mix Up but I've just realised that I have omitted the stamping element of the challenge... oh well, I'll add it to the challenge anyway and get back to the drawing board!

Amended version to include stamping!

Archiscraps - Stained Glass

Big Bold Sentiment

For the second challenge of LIM's birthday month it's time for a one layer card with the Focus on the Sentiment.

Rummaging through my Stampin' Up sets of stamps, (whilst searching for something else, which I still haven't located) I came across this stamp. It's from a set with the title as on this sentiment...' Love you much'. I wanted to have the flower part coloured and the rest of the sentiment in black, so rather than try to ink all of the stamp with markers, I popped it in the microwave for a few seconds to loosen it from the wood block so that I could use it in my MISTI, and thereby stamp it in 2 takes. I coloured the stem and the flower with SU markers and stamped it, then cleaned that off and inked the rest of the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink...  the stray bits of ink on the stem were wiped away with a Q tip and then it was stamped for a second time. 

All I did after that was to colour in the LOVE part with a Wisp of Stella pen in Silver.

It's simplicity itself, and as February is the month of love, what could be better!

It's been great fun being back at Less is More and thanks once more to the terrific bunch of girls continuing the tradition!

To the moon and back

It's time for another Clean and Simple challenge at Happy Little Stampers!

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!

For this card I used an image and I LOVE YOU sentiment from Mama Elephant adding the bit about 'to the moon and back' with the computer.

I coloured the bears with Promarkers, cut them out and popped the image onto dimensional pads.

I stamped a couple of hearts and the moon from the same set and twinkled the latter gently with some Glamour Dust, also popping it onto 3d pads.

Love

Since coming back from my cruise I was asked to make some Valentine cards and here is the first of them. A card for someone from my choir for his wife... hence the musical reference!

The manuscript is from a large background stamp from Impression Obsession, the sentiment from Sir Stampalot, with the addition of a couple of tiny die cut hearts.

It's for the challenge at AAA Cards, where the theme is  LOVE

I love the frog in this picture!

Memory of Africa

We recently went on a cruise which ended in South Africa and we have lots of fabulous memories of our time spent in Africa.

This card for the challenge at Happy Little Stampers is a reminder of that fabulous vacation.

I made a circle aperture mask and brushed it with various shades of Distress Inks before stamping the Tim Holtz silhouette tree using black dye ink.The sentiment is from an old wooden stamp from Sir Stampalot. I distressed the edges of the sentiment card with scissors before mounting on foam pads. 

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

Our summer has been really busy looking after grandchildren, which was great fun but extremely tiring... maybe soon things will get back to normality!

Another day, another card!

Here is a card which I made to enter a couple of challenges.

The sketch is from CASe this Sketch...

...with the theme from CASology

The beautiful scroll is from Memory Box and the butterflies (cut from card which I smooched with Inka Gold and Aqua Tints) are from Penny Black. A simple touch of bling completes the look!

You and me

I just received these sentiment dies from CUTplorations and had to try them out.

The base layer ones are from Simon Says Stamp and it's just the simplest design, but it appeals to me!

The challenge at Time Out is to be inspired by this phrase!

The sentiment was cut from a piece of card which I had coloured using a marbling technique.

'Friends are connected heart to heart, distance and time can't break them apart'

 I think that this will fit the bill!

It's also for the CAS Challenge at Stamplorations ...I'm not sure if the pink is quite hot enough, but part of the marbling sheet I cut it from was!

Happy Valentine's Day

Another day, another card!

Here is a simple Valentine incorporating a few challenges!

I used the sketch from CASe this Sketch...

plus the requirements of the challenge at CAS Mix Up

and the theme from Just Us Girls

The sentiment is from an old Magenta stamp and the larger of the two punched hearts was punched from some card which I had stencilled a mix of ink and embossing paste, adding a little twinkle for good measure.

 I used a Lil Inkers die for the sentiment, elongating it slightly to accommodate the length of the stamp.

Beautiful die-cuts

Since I discovered the technique of smooshing, it has become a technique that I use again and again!

Here I incorporated a few Distress Inks with the Inka Gold paste for this background. I diecut the flowers from Concord and 9th from the background and from a piece of white card spritzed with Crafter's Companion Iridescent sparkle spray. I then inset one into the other ( and some of the bits were very fiddly I can tell you!)

The love sentiment is from Winnie and Walter. It's a sentiment that I use SO often on my cards!

                    

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