Christmas tile

Minimal or what!

The challenge at AAA cards is an INCHIE and only an INCHIE, so I tried to put a lot into a very little space.

To make the tile, I cut the square and coloured it with Barn Door Distress Oxide ink and spritzed with water. I then added a little Inka Gold, stamped a couple of times with a tiny script stamp in gold and then black, added a couple of tiny die cut holly leaves and then heat embossed about three times. After the final embossing and while the melted powder was still molten, I stamped another small round script stamp in Gold Brilliance ink, which left both an image and an impression.

I added a couple of tiny pearls for berries and it was done... mounted on a little foam tape to add just a touch of dimension!

I think this card would be OK for a chap too!

 

Just one inch

I was determined to make an inchie which pleased me...  and this one does.

I began by cutting a few squares, then dropping a little Festive Berries Distress Ink onto one before spritzing with water. 

The next stage was to smear a little  Old Silver Inka Gold onto part of it and spritzing again. When dry, the next thing was to stamp a tiny script stamp from SU(French Foliage) over it. I die cut a couple of  holly leaves in green paper and added them before triple embossing... or maybe it was quadruple embossing (as I didn't use UTEE) with fine clear embossing powder. Whilst still molten, I stamped the circular stamp with Brilliance Gold ink into the corner. When cool I added the couple of pearls for berries.

I love that the card is so big, yet the image so small it really draws the eye as there's nothing else to look at!

I think this works for both  Challenges CAS Mix Up and CAS Watercolour

          

Now for a trip to the park with my littlest grandchild!

Framed

Last month I came upon a Memory Box Challenge. I was delighted to find it as I have loads of Memory Box dies ...they are one of my very favourite manufacturers of dies. I was fortunate enough to have the card I entered chosen as the winner! and I was naturally simply thrilled. This month the challenge is to include a frame of some sort. 

For my card I used a piece of card which I had smooshed with Inka Gold and some distress inks and cut with the Memory Box base Layer of Christmas trees. I used gold card for the outline of the trees and the sentiment. I cut the front panel with SSS stitched rectangle dies to make the frame.

I'm not sure of the make of the sentiment die, (I keep my dies on magnetic sheets in box files and the packaging is stored away elsewhere.) I chose it because I fancied one which began with a capital letter and was not too overpowering for the delicacy of the trees.

I dry embossed a little piece of card with a snow folder from Sheena Douglass to pop behind the trees.

Outside the Box

My second card today is also framed but in a slightly different way... this one has a dry embossed frame around the 4 inchies.

The challenge at CAS Mix Up is to use inchies. 

I don't remember making any inchies before despite having owned this Inkadinkadoo stamp set for several years! I think I picked it up in a Michael's somewhere or other on one of our trips to the USA.

I dug out a piece of card with some failed acrylic pouring on it, which looked dreadful, but I saved it anyway!

I stamped the inchies onto selected bits of this card and clear embossed them, before cutting out with a Sizzix die, It is actually a 3 squares die, but I just used an end one each time to cut them out. Once cut, I triple clear embossed them to make them into tiny tiles, then mounted them onto a black square.

The sentiment, embossed in white, is from Sugar Peas Designs.

I don't feel that this card was my finest hour so I will be trying again very soon!

Another triple embossed leaf

here is another triple embossed leaf which I made a little time ago. This time I have gone with darker shades and mounted it on Hessian on a kraft backdrop. The colour of card used for the berry spray picks up some of the colour in the leaf.. probably from the Perfect Pearls which I used to add colour to the embossing. The sentiment die is from Crafter's Companion, and I used the colours of the card base and back drop for this. The kraft card is rather flimsy, I'm not sure of the weight but it needed a more sturdy base to support it!

I used the sketch from CASe this Sketch, I love the simplicity of it!

Allsorts Challenge Your favourite season - Autumn 

Inkspirational - Use Your Stash (I've had the hessian and the gems for yonks )

More Triple Embossing

Whilst I was doing a little triple embossing the other day I decided to use a few other die cuts and stamps.

My Sizzix leaf was cut and triple embossed in black EP, then a few shades of Perfect Pearls added over a layer of Versamark. After reheating I stamped into the molten liquid really heavily with a Large Tim Holtz stamp inked with Brilliance gold ink.

The background grid stencil was made by cutting a piece of vellum with a Memory Box Distressed Collage die. I placed the stencil over a piece of card and tapped out  few grains of Dark Brown and White Brushos before spritzing with water and dabbing dry with a paper towel. The berry spray die was the least fussy of the ones in my die store but I'm not exactly sure of its origin, I know I had to add two shims before it cut cleanly. I have quite a few of these kind of dies, I guess I'm attracted to them ...(berries not ones which need to have a shim)!

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted, stamped with SU Chocolate Chip ink to match the dark brown card Base.

It's for a few challenges

CAS Stencil Challenge - Use Powdered Inks

CAS Mix Up Challenge - Dimensional Die Cuts

Addicted to CAS - Grid

It was fun making this card, I need to try to use lighter colours on the die cuts next time!

Dimensional die cuts

The challenge at CAS Mix Up is to add some dimension to die cuts.

Here I cut a couple of butterflies in very thick card with some Bigz Movers and Shakers dies, I then triple embossed them in Black EP adding some Perfect Pearls powders over a layer of Versamark. Next I reheated the butterflies to make the powder molten once more and stamped with a Tim Holtz stamp with Brilliance Gold ink.

There really is some pretty texture on this butterfly, the sheen is lovely in the light. I embossed a little foliage behind the peek a boo die cut window and added a sentiment from Clearly Besotted.

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.

Valentine

I wanted to make some Valentine cards to take to my choir and was trying to think of something a little different. I came up with the idea of triple embossing, something I have done many times in the past but always with a deeply etched stamp. This time I used an embossing folder!

Details of the process are in this video.

The tiny hearts are embossed from a Stampin' Up tiny stamp from the confetti set. The scalloped edge is from a Lawn Fawn die, the frilly heart is Simon Says Stamp and the sentiment from a Winnie and Walter Big and Bold set.

The Card Concept Challenge has a Love theme so this is for that.

Timeout has the challenge, Valentine's Day with the optional twist of hearts... there are quite a few hearts here!

WOW Embossing Guest Designer

Yet more embossing!

I was asked recently to be the first Guest Designer on the WOW Embossing Powder blog. Their theme this time is Love and Romance.

Here is the card I made although the picture doesn't show the lovely gold sheen on the tag as well as I had hoped.

I stamped the WOW manuscript in red and clear embossed it, then cut it to the required size with a Nestabilities die. I cut the tag shape using a Quickutz die and punched a hole in one end.

I triple embossed this with WOW! Burgundy Red embossing powder, stamping into the third layer of molten powder with a triple heart stamp from the WOW! Gratitude set inked with Metallic gold. I brushed parts of the tag with Perfect Pearls in Heritage Gold. (Sadly I didn’t photograph this too well).

I added the ribbon through the hole, stamped part of the Shakespearean quote in a similar fashion to the music and added these to a topper layer and rounded the corners at the base of the card.

Embossing is one of my most favourite techniques and I have an article on the Split Negative Embossing technique, using WOW powders, in the March edition of Craft Stamper magazine.

Photo Inspiration - Guest Designer No Time to Stamp

For my second week as Guest Designer at No Time to Stamp we have this wonderful photograph of an Asian Bride ready for her wedding for the challenge inspiration. Isn't it a stunning picture!
Firstly I chose colours from a similar palette and decorated the blue panel with a paisley embossing folder which I had inked with gold ink and used it on the debossed side.
The main motif is a triple embossed square using gold and copper embossing powder and stamped with a lovely stamp from Stampin' Up. The brown paper is embossed with a Papermania folder and highlighted with a little gold ink. The turquoise ribbon is just a little wider than the brown, so that just a touch shows from beneath it.
I made the sentiment on the computer, which I mounted on Nesties and finished the card off with some brown adhesive gems and a couple of Quickutz swirly things.
It was a project which I really enjoyed making.
The team at No Time to Stamp make the most amazing creations, so do visit their blogs and check out their fabulous work, you'll be truly inspired. They'd love to see what you can create.
Sharon Johnson:  No Time to Stamp

Deb Neerman: Paper, Ink, Scissors & Stamps

Barbara Anders: Paper Pursuits

Jenny Gropp: One Krafty Kat

Janine Orchard: 2bKrafty

AJ Otto: The Willow Garden

Deb Saaranen: Dream In Color

Barb Schram: Explore. Dream. Discover