Circles

Hello,
The other day I watched a you tube video of a technique I haven't tried before called the kissing technique. I thought it was really neat and wanted to give it a go. It involves using a shape stamp, in this case a circle, stamping it is a light colour and then inking up a background stamp and using the circle stamp to lift the ink from the background stamp and transfer it onto the light coloured circle already stamped. I was so excited when I tried it and it worked first time! My circle stamp is from Clarity Stamp and the background stamp is by Wow.

Here is my card:

I was originally going to stamp the circles randomly on the card front but I don't do random very well, so I ended up using the matching frame stamp in the darker colour and then cutting the circles out. I decided that this card was for Just Us Girls #500 as the theme is circles and so I stayed with the circle them and used my happy birthday die from The Works and a watercolored die cut circle that I had made some time ago.

Of course me being me, it took a long time to decide how to put it together. Eventually I decided on maintaining the circle theme with the circles round the circle. I like the flower look that it creates. Finally I mounted it on a square card.

This card is a bit different for me and I am quite pleased with the result. I think I will use this technique again.

I am also sharing this card at A Place To Start August challenge, paper piecing.




Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx

CAS Stencil Guest Designer

Hello,
Today I am thrilled and a little nervous to be guest designer on the CAS Stencil August Challenge.

This month the code word is Sprays and the challenge is hosted by Robyn of Waterlily Cards, she makes the most wonderful cards so her blog is well worth a visit. Sprays hmmmm, this was a bit of a challenge for me as I only have a bottle of cosmic shimmer spray (and the nozzle is blocked), but after some thought I decided to have a go at some cards using this rather than try to make some spray from my brusho paints or perfect pearls.

My first attempts weren't terribly successful, although I did manage to rescue them and make some cards that I will show you later. I went on to make this card:

I used a Neat and Tangled stencil called rice paddies and inked half my panel, after putting some post it tape down to mask it, with DI and a life changing blender brush (love them). I left the stencil in place and then sprayed the cosmic shimmer that I decanted into a mini mister. I discovered that you need as fine a spray as you can and you shouldn't over wet it or the liquid will seep under the stencil. This happened a little but not so much that I worried about it. You can see the effect in the picture below:

I really liked the end result, the fact that the shimmer is only on the inked stencil area enhances the effect of the stencil.

I die cut the little fish twice, once from a silvery shimmer paper and once from the same pale blue card as the base. I slightly offset them to enhance the look of the scales on the fish. I added the sentiment and die cut the panel. The base card is Adorable Scorable coated card, which I have been using a lot since I discovered it a few months ago.

I hope that my humble efforts will inspire you to take part in the challenge this month.

Here are a couple of the cards that I rescued:

The problem I had with this was the spray pooled in places and did not cover enough in others. In addition, I was using quite thin paper and it buckled badly when the spray wet it. It is actually grey paper although it looks brown in the picture. I had masked a panel and inked it before using the stencil (from AALL & CREATE) and spraying the cosmic shimmer. I decided I quite liked the effect even though it had gone a bit messy, so I rescued it by cutting the paper down using an edge die and mounting it on adorable scorable coated card. The sentiment is heat embossed in silver, which is another reason why I love this card - it takes heat embossing really well. I like the shimmeriness (is that a word?) created by the cosmic shimmer. The pictures don't really do it justice.

Here is another one:

I think that's enough from me for one day. Thank you so much for visiting, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx

Trouble with Daisy

Hello,
As soon as I saw the Addicted to CAS codeword daisy challenge, I knew I wanted to enter, but I have had very little time for card making in this fortnight. However, I decided that a simple CAS daisy card would be very quick and easy to make, but I was wrong. Although I had a simple idea in my head I just could not make it come together. Eventually today I have come up with this card:

I have recently bought some white gouache paint that I thought I would use on craft paper. The daisy stamp is by Clarity Stamp but I kept stamping it and painting the petals and it just looked a mess. Eventually I stamped and fussy cut it once from multimedia paper in addition to stamping it on the craft card. I used a pale pink watercolour pen to darken the bottom daisy and to give a pink tinge to the fussy cut petals. The flower centre is painted with watercolour. I still thought it needed something else so added little gold dots on the petals.

You can see it better on the close up:

I originally painted the frame in white but I couldn't do it neatly enough so covered it up with the gold pen. The fussy cut daisy was mounted on clear pads, the sentiment, from Uniko, was heat embossed on an adorable scorable base.

I am still not that happy with it but at least I managed to come up with something and am glad I haven't missed the deadline. I think I will have to get some practice in with the gouache before using it again on a card.

You can see the dimension on this picture:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx

July CCC Reveal

Hello,
It is time for the July CCC reveal, this month I sent my card to Cat Craig. I was so pleased to sign up after her as I was lucky enough to receive a card from Cat in June so I was very pleased to reciprocate this month.

Here is my card:

I used the sketch option:

I found the stamped and coloured die cut rectangle in my backgrounds folder. It was made some time ago with brusho paints. The background stamp is from My Favourite Things and I stamped and heat embossed it in cold and then cut it down to fit the card front ensuring that the coloured panel matched up with the stamping. I added a strip of gold card, arranged it on a coloured card base and heat embossed the sentiment with the same gold EP.

I have to say I was quite pleased with the result. I was also very pleased with the card I received from Janet in Mauritius her card is just beautiful. I took a photo to share here:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx

Gardens

Hello,
This is my third post today because I have had a busy time this July and it has, and is, taking me away from my craft room and computer. I have a few hours free today so I am posting the cards that I made last weekend. I don't want to miss the deadlines for the challenges I made them for and tomorrow I have my grandson, who is 6, coming to stay.  I shall be driving to London to pick him up, really looking forward to it as I haven't seen much of him recently.

My 2 cards in this post are for the July Twofer #18, the theme this month is garden.

Here are my cards:

The first card is a bit of a departure from my normal style but I saw Jennifer McGuire make one of these see through cards and wanted to give the technique a go. I used a layered rose die by Altenew that was free with Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine. Although the technique worked the rose was a little small so I had to add something else to fill the gaps and chose a small layered flower. This is the die that I used on both cards. I chose to secure my card front to the base along the side rather than the top as it was a little flimsy in places and I didn't think it would stand up if I attached it at the top. The message inside reads 'on your birthday'.

You can see the see-through effect in this picture.

My second card is a friendship card that came about during an afternoon spent with my alcohol inks last weekend. I created the alcohol ink background on yupo paper and stamped the small butterflies with archival ink that I then wiped away to leave the shadow of the stamp. I die cut the wreath and the flowers and arranged them with the little heart on the wreath. The wreath was then attached to the yupo paper which was mounted on some craft foam and attached to the card base. The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed in Wow pastel glazier mint EP. I was very pleased that the EP seemed to exactly match the blue coated card used for the wreath and heart.

I am going to enter this card in CAS mix it up July. I was also going to enter it in the Snippets playground but I have missed the deadline!



Finally here are some pictures of my garden taken this morning:

I am very proud of the Aeonium Zwartkop you can see in the white pot, it started with one small plant bought several years ago.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx