Hello lovely readers! Sharing a very simple card with you today with the cutest set from last month's Clearly Besotted release. Sunday 5th was their latest release and I managed to get some more lovely stuff to play with - can't get enough of their things! The design team do such a good job of inspiring me.
On Wednesday it was nursery Sports Day and Graduation. Yes. Nursery graduation. It sounds like a silly idea, but really it's a way of saying farewell to those about to start school in September, and noting that they're about to start a new chapter. We went along to thank all the wonderful staff there who have helped our 4 year old turn into a confident and caring little girl. A card at least was required. (Don't worry, we also made thank you cakes!)
As you can see I've been
practicing with my Copic markers. I met up with a crafty friend last
Friday in the craft shop she works in not too far from here. She was so
wonderfully helpful and I managed to get some more Copics as well as a
myriad of other things.
Supplies: Clearly Besotted Let's Roll stamp and Let's Roll die set; Clearly Besotted Thanks Word die; Copic Ciao Markers; Stick It!; Foam Tape; Papermania 6x6 Capsule Collection; Ranger Multi Medium Matte; Memento Tuxedo Black
Apologies that the photo is not great. It's part of my birthday list to get a better camera, but that's not until November, I'm afraid.
It is so simple, just one of the CB Let's Roll hedgehogs stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Copic Ciaos (E57, E59 for the prickles; E53, E51 for the face; E18 for the feet and YR02 for the ears). I stamped the mortar board and scroll onto pink paper and die cut them - talk about tiny dies!!! I die cut out the CB Thanks die with some Stick It! on the back to make it easier to adhere to the panel of white card. Stuck the hedgehog in between using Multi Medium Matte glue then his mortar board on top and then the scroll at the bottom. The card blank has two strips of 1.5cm pink card stock at either side and this adds some colour - pink is her favourite colour, which is why I chose it. The main panel is adhered with foam tape and I added some Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents to the scroll. Simple and effective!
Thank you for reading as always. Have a fantastic weekend as always. Here's a picture of those Thank You cakes - pink as well of course. It was a brilliant day despite the weather - well it has to rain on Sports Day!
Hello! So who is still doing The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge? I'm still going, with the odd hiatus - sometimes you have to do housework! This card was inspired by Kathy Racoosin's Day 8 post, where she created an amazing card background just using a roll of tape and markers. It was pretty inspiring, so I came up with my own interpretation. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen the first few photos, but not the finished product!
Basically I started with a piece of watercolour paper and took a couple of my Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Circles and drew around them in a random pattern with some of my purple Spectrum Aquas, overlapping to create the different shapes. I then got to colouring in between the lines using all my different purple and blue markers and pencils - from my Spectrum Aquas, to my lonely blue Inktense and my Caran D'Ache water colours and my Artists pencils too. This was the result:
It looked a bit odd with the water colour pencil as is, so I blended those bits with water to soften it up. In hindsight, I shouldn't have used a water colour marker to draw the circles - they naturally bled a bit, and it looks a bit messy up close. You don't get anywhere by not experimenting though!
Pretty funky, but what to do with it? I've seen some great inlaid die cutting on cards, so after watching a Jennifer McGuire video and one from Lawn Fawn, I got busy with my CB Thanks die cutting it out from the corner of the funky panel and then several from white card stock:
I then glued the white Thanks together using my new bottle of Ranger Multi Medium Matte with its precision tip - that makes it much easier! - and then added the coloured panel on top. To stick it back into the panel, I put some double sided sticky tape on the back of the panel so the blank space for the thanks was now sticky. I stuck it on carefully, and put back in with my tweezers all the little extra die cut pieces from the 't' and 'h' and 'a' etc. Blimey, that is fiddly work!
I then simply attached it to my card blank. It's quite subtle because it blends in with the background, but some Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents help it pop out a bit more.
[Supplies: Water colour card; Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Circle Dies (out of stock where I purchased them); Spectrum Aqua - Floral; Derwent Artists' Pencils; Caran D'Ache Prismallo Aquarelles; Derwent Inktense Pencils; Clearly Besotted Thanks die; Wink of Stella; Glossy Accents; Ranger Multi Medium Matte; Precision tip; Double sided tape]
Thank you so much for reading and have a lovely weekend :)
It's been quite a week and amongst other things, the 30 Day Colouring Challenge hosted by the lovely Kathy Racoosin started. I am LOVING it. I've been posting on Instagram every day so far and there are so many people in social media land joining in, it's really inspirational. If you don't know what I'm on about, check out Kathy's blog for more information and join in if you can!
Enough rambling, did I actually make any cards? Well yes I did! I focused on Father's Day cards as that is coming up in a couple of weeks and I had three to make - my Dad, my Father in Law and my Husband!
I've been using some Lawn Fawn stamps I got a couple of months ago, which is nice because they haven't been out of their packet much! Here they are:
My Dad:
My Dad loves reading, so the CB Bookworm set linked with the LF Best Pun Ever fitted nicely. The cup was stamped in Lemon Twist Ranger Dye ink, and like the rest, coloured in using my Derwent Artist's pencils. I cut it from the matching die and covered it in Wink of Stella then glossy accents to make it stand out. I cut a slit in the top and popped in the die cut book worm. I think he's cute. The backing paper is LF Let's Polka.
My Father in Law:
Again I used the LF Best Pun Ever set, stamping the cheese onto a panel of water colour card stock in Lemon Twist and appropriately, Cheese Puff Ranger Dye ink, with the grater in Memento London Fog. I coloured them in with my Prismallo Aquaralles and gave them a light wash with water to bring the colour out. The sentiment is simply stamped in Ranger Jet Black Archival ink. The background is LF Let's Polka Mon Amie. I think he'll like the terrible pun!
My husband:
I love the little ice lollies from the Best Pun Ever set. The little faces that go with them are so so cute! As we have two little girls, it seemed appropriate to stamp the larger lolly in the middle of two little ones My husband likes green and my eldest loves pink, so that was the colour scheme I went with. They're simply stamped onto water colour cardstock with Ranger Jet Black Archival ink, coloured in with Spectrum Aquas (from the floral set), and given a light wash with water. I thought it would be fun to put the sentiment on the inside too - making the 'Coolest' blue (Blue Ribbon Ranger Dye)
[Supplies used on cards: Lawn Fawn Best Pun Ever; Lawn Fawn Let's Polka (currently out of stock where I purchased it) and Let's Polka Mon Amie; Clearly Besotted Book Worm; Ranger Dye Inks; Ranger Archival Ink; Derwent Artist's Pencils; Spectrum Aqua Pens; Caran D'Ache Prismallo Aquarelles]
It's so far been a productive week and we're only on Day 5 of the challenge - I don't think I've made so many cards in a week!
Thanks, as always, for reading and I hope you get the chance to join in with me and everyone else on the challenge. Oh and it's release day for Clearly Besotted Stamps - it's a good one ;)
Hello everyone! I've had quite a few goodies arrive in the post recently, not least the Sugar Pea 'Home' die that I've been waiting on for several weeks. It finally shipped over to the lovely people at Make The Day Special!
I've also three friends who have moved house recently, so I have to make those in the next week or so. Here's the first using that new die and also my new Spectrum Aqua markers that I got free through subscribing to Simply Cards and Papercraft. I've been playing around with them and watching lots of videos on YouTube for tips - I love the way they make really beautiful backgrounds so easily. Definitely a great free gift!
I started by taping down a piece of water colour paper onto my glass cutting mat and block colouring it using three of my Spectrum Aqua markers (Heather, Orchid and Wildflower). I then washed them over with water to blend them together. After waiting for it to dry, I splashed it with water and then blotted it dry, leaving nice splatters.
I then took the HOME die and cut it out twice from two shades of purple paper, adhering the houses in the bottom right. I placed the 'Home' as in the picture, accenting it with some die cut hearts from my Lawn Fawn Best Pun Ever set. I used one for the 'O' of 'Home' instead of the house and added some Wink of Stella and glossy accents to make it pop out a bit - Home is where the heart is after all!
I think this might be the first card I've made that didn't have any stamping on it!
I've followed the layout for this month's Make the Day Special Challenge, as I'd like to enter. They give such brilliant customer service, so any excuse to buy things there ;)
Hope you like it and thanks for reading!
Hello everyone, hope you're looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend - those in the UK, at least!
Tonight I'm bringing you my first ever shaker card. I have tried these before, without much success. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, but it does work and half the sequins aren't on the floor. I think I need a bit more practice, so this is hopefully the first of a few. No doubt a splurge on some nice sequins will be required - #impoverishedhappycrafter :)
I've made it using some of the new things I received the other day in my haul. It's a basic 6x6 card blank with a piece of Lawn Fawn Let's Polka as backing. The shaker part is a nice grey from my Papermania capsule collection, die cut with the new Lawn Fawn stitched squares - they cut beautifully - filled with some sequins from Hobbycraft. I need some Pretty Pink Posh!
I wanted to see the backing paper through the shaker box, so it is backed with acetate to contain the sequins before attaching to the card - did I mention before that usually they end up on the floor? Some time looking at how to make shaker card videos might be well spent over the next couple of days.
The set is Mama Elephant Up and Away, stamped in various Memento dye inks, coloured with Derwent pencils. The balloons are coloured using my metallic Caran D'Ache, with a bit of Wink of Stella and glossy accents. The fox is hanging on with some red baker's twine.
I'm just so happy it worked, I had a lot of fun making it.
Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend!
Morning! It's another lovely day here in W Yorkshire, baby is asleep and I've the cards I made yesterday to share. I have two occasions to make cards for. One is for our singing group leader who set up the group a year ago, and has done loads of work with us, and the second a birthday card for my future brother in law. Both were made pretty much in the same way and after some inspiration from Nichol Magouirk (the frame) and Pops (white on white).
Here they are:
After watching Nichol's video, I took my stitched edge rectangle dies and cut the frame using two of the dies from white Bazzill textured card stock. I then cut the inside panel from white card and stamped the musical notes (they are Twinchies from Inkylicious, but I can't find them on their website - I got them at a show) in various colours with Memento and Ranger Dye Inks, adding a little glossy accents to them. I then put some musical washi tape around the outside of the card base, added foam tape to the frame and stuck it on, adding the middle with double sided. I reckon it would have been easier the other way around, but I only thought of that later!
The words are both Clearly Besotted, happy birthday and thanks. I die cut them with double sided tape attached, a great tip for making it easier to stick down once you've cut them. I added a little green gem to the dot for the 'i', because I always lose it when I peel it out, it is so tiny!
Thank you for reading, hope you have a great weekend :)
