Home via Snail

Hello - Again! Friday seems to come round with increasing alacrity these days - or maybe I'm just getting old....

So I've been playing around with my beloved Inktense pencils again. As part of the 30 Day Colouring Challenge, I finally did a swatch of all 72 one evening (see Instagram!) and while doing so, I realised there were some colours I'd never used, so I decided to use them...

These cards started out as late birthday cards and morphed into New Home shaker cards - it was one of those evenings!!!

I started out by colouring in the snail from Newton's Nook In Slow Motion using a range of different Inktense pencils. This always takes a while and I love that I can colour in bits of it, go away, come back and do some more. It's a slow build up of layers, leaving each of them to try in between.

Once I'd fussy cut them out, that's when I totally went off tack and started die cutting bits of Bazzill card I had that matched the snail - lucky! I then remembered my Sugar Pea Designs 'Home' die and decided that would be great for some paper piecing, and so that's what I did on the background. If I'd thought about it first, I'd have used some Stick It!, but I found that a couple of bits of double sided tape on the back worked really well for popping in the die cut piece and even those tiny hearts and windows in the opposite colour.

So, once the background piece was stuck onto my card blank, I added a piece of acetate to the back of the frame and a whole pile of foam pads round the outside. It's fiddly because they are so small, but I like the height of them and that they can be placed into any shape - easier for round apertures I find. I then took a couple of my favourite shaker sequin selections (who am I kidding, I love them all!!), French Lavender and Phosphorescence and placed them on top of the word Home, then the frame around it - this works much better for me than placing the sequins into the frame and plonking the card on top - it always ends up squint. I then just added the snail to the corner with some Tombow liguid glue.

Isn't he cute?? Seriously, I never thought a snail could be so cute!

[Supplies: Newton's Nook In Slow Motion; SugarPea Designs Home; Derwent Inktense Pencils 72 set; Derwent Small tip waterbrush; Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black; Bazzill Basics 12x12 Papers; Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles; Little Things from Lucy's Cards - French Lavender and Phosphorescence; Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue; Foam pads; Hobbycraft A4 Premium White Cardstock 300gsm; EK Success Powder Tool]

I do love a shaker and the colours are so wacky!

Thanks for joining me again. Will be back with more Copic colouring next week. In the mean time, thanks for all your lovely comments and have a great weekend :)

Christmas - Already?

Hello, fellow Craftaholics! Can you believe I've made some Christmas cards? Me who never considers Christmas until after her birthday at the end of November? Well, issue 142 of Simply Cards and Papercraft landed on the doormat and as soon as I saw the stamps I had to ink them up (see Instagram for pictures!). It's taken me a couple of days to get round to finishing the cards, but here they are:

That snow globe was crying out to be a shaker card, and so that's what I made!

For the snowman card, I stamped the snow globe onto some white card using Versafine Onyx Black ink - it's my new pad, so I'm trying it out lots! I then cut a rectangle out around it using my Memory Box stitched rectangle dies. I then cut out the centre of the snow globe with a craft knife - if you have circle dies, check them first to see if they fit - definitely makes it easier. 

I covered the aperture with acetate and surrounded it on the back with foam pads. I then used my powder tool on the acetate to stop the sequins from sticking, put the last of my Glacier sequins in and attached a piece of watercolour paper that I'd previously made (see Instagram again!) to the back to secure it all in place. I then adhered it to an A2 card base which I'd covered with some Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh paper. I glued the snowman into place and added the sentiment to the top - I also added a bit of Wink of Stella to the snowman, the snow globe and the sentiment - a bit? I.e. A lot!

For the other snow globe, I did much the same with creating the shaker section. I used two thicknesses of fun foam rather than foam pads, and used another of the stamps to create a background to the snow globe and added in a whole load of Pretty Pink Posh Clear Sparkling sequins that I won in Lydia Evans' giveaway. They are lovely sequins! I like how it covers the 'Let It Snow' and when you tip the card up, it reveals it.

[Supplies: Simply Cards and Papercraft Issue 142; Hobbycraft Premium White A4 Card 300gsm; VersaFine Onyx Black; Craft knife; Memory Box Stitched Rectangles Dies; Foam Pads; Fun Foam; Little Things from Lucy's Cards - Glacier Shaker Selection; Double Sided Tape; Sticky Red Tape; Pretty Pink Posh Clear Sparkling Sequins; Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh in the Snow Paper Pad; Glitz Black and White Paper Pad; Wink of Stella Brush Pen; Wink of Stella 8mm Tip Pen; Caran D'Ache Metallic Pencils]

I then attached it to an A6 card base that I covered in some patterned paper I won in Liz McGuire's giveaway. I have won a lot of giveaways lately!!!

For the price of a magazine, this has fantastic stamps and there's even an embossing folder. I have a huge number of Christmas stamps now, it's unlikely I will need many more ever.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my ramblings. Also a huge hello to all of you who popped over to see me from Aileen's blog, Colour and Sparkle and from Liz's blog as well, I've really appreciated it. Look out for more Copic colouring next week. I haven't coloured for a couple of days and I have been missing it!

More Thanks with Mama Elephant

Ha, bet you didn't expect to see me again so soon, but I told you I couldn't put down the Mama Elephant Heartfelt Wishes stamp, didn't I, so I have these to show you too!

This is the stamp set that just keeps on giving! You could do this design in so many different ways and I have plans to make a couple a week until after Christmas so I can use them to say thanks for Christmas gifts :)

The first two were so much fun to make, I made some more the next day!

Really simple with stamping the same sentiment in grey ink - I used Memento London Fog, but I don't think it gives terribly great coverage - across a piece of card cut to fit the card blank. I stamped the 'Thanks' onto the card too in varying Ranger Dye ink colours, but then decided I wanted it to pop out more, so stamped it again onto another piece of card, cut it out and adhered it with foam tape. I attached this to the card front, then added enamel dots and sequins (with glossy accents for a change!). Which do you prefer? I think I might have to get some enamel dots, I really liked them on the blue and red cards. They were part of my giveaway win from Liz over at Buttons For Brains.

Supplies: Neenah Classic Crest 110lb card stock; Paper trimmer; Memento London Fog; Ranger Dye Inks; Foam Tape; Little Things from Lucy's Cards Lemon Sherbet and Lime Cordial; Enamel dots; Ranger Glossy Accents

As always, thank you so much for reading my blog and leaving your lovely comments. Hope the rest of the weekend continues to be great for you.

A whole lot of Thanks with Mama Elephant

Hello again, Crafty Friends. So in my last post I mentioned I had been quite busy, but didn't want to post the cards until they'd got to their intended recipients. I'm fairly confident that Royal Mail will have now delivered them, so I'm free to write them up :)

The stamp set I've used, or over used since I can't seem to put it down, is the new Heartfelt Wishes set from Mama Elephant. I absolutely love it and it seemed appropriate to use it to make some cards to send some of the lovely people I've met over the past few months online - and also in person! 

I've been amazed at how kind and friendly crafty people are. I've received so many positive words, informative emails, and extremely kind gifts. I couldn't let all that kindness go unnoticed, so these cards went off with some little gifts. I enjoyed doing it so much, I plan to send some more over the next few weeks!!

First up were these cards using Spectrum Aquas and heat embossing, with some of those lovely sequins from Lucy's Cards. 

I had a lot of fun deciding on the colours to use and then sploshing them around on the water colour cardstock. I always use dry card stock, scribble the colours on an acrylic block, then pick up the colour with my waterbrush and drop it onto the card. I used Sunflower, Yellow, Gold and Purple, Wildflower and Heather. Once dry, I then splatter the piece with water and dab off with a kitchen towel to add a little bit of interest.

 

I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed with some embossing powder and heat set it. I added a second sentiment underneath in archival ink, then attached some coloured card to the front of my card blank finally placing the water colour panel on top with some fun foam.

I then added the sequins with some Multi Medium Matte.

 

I'm really pleased with the results and hope the recipients liked them too. I can tell this is going to be a well used stamp set!

Supplies: Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock; WH Smith Watercolour paper; Spectrum Aquas Floral and Primary; Acrylic Blocks; EK Success Powder Tool; Derwent Small tip Waterbrush; Small paint brush; Heat Tool; Versa Mark Ink; WOW! Gold Embossing glitter; Papermania Silver Tinsel embossing powder; Ranger archival Jet Black Ink; Little Things from Lucy's Cards Gilded Rose and French Lavendar; Multi Medium Matte; Fun Foam; Super Sticky Red Tape; Coloured Papers 

Thank you so much for reading, and for all your positive comments on my blog. It really makes me smile - so another Thanks to you all! Have a great weekend.