Wings

Hello,
Today I have made a card to share at Stamping Sensations August challenge - things with wings.

As I was so lucky and privileged to win the May challenge at Stamping Sensations I thought I should make use of my prize for my August entry. One of the Chocolate Baroque Stamp sets that I won was called Honey Bee so my things with wings are honey bees.

I stamped and heat embossed the image in wow gold pearl EP on hot pressed watercolour paper and then coloured the image with my Zig real brush pens. I put a strip of post it tape across the card to keep a clean line. The sentiment was also heat embossed and to finish I die cut the panel and propped it up on some craft foam.

I was surprised at how quickly this came together and I am pleased with the end result as it is a bit of a departure from my norm. I also really like these stamps. I am new to using unmounted rubber stamps and I am liking the detail.

You can see the shine in this picture:

and the detail in this one:

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

Aug Cas Stencil Reminder

Hello,
Today I have a reminder for the August CAS Stencil Challenge. If you haven't already entered you still have time. The challenge is hosted this month by Robyn of Water Lily Cards.

I have used cosmic shimmer spray again for my reminder card which I hope will bring a little ray of sunshine to your day.

I put a piece of post it tape across my panel and inked it up with DI, I then laid on the stencil (from Clarity Stamp) and sprayed the cosmic shimmer. As you can see I did get a bit of bleeding and pooling but it really doesn't detract from the overall effect of the shimmery rays. I used a stitched rectangle die for the panel, added the die cut sentiment and mounted it onto silver card - done.

If you read my first post for this challenge you will know that I shared some of my early attempts with using a spray with stencils but managed to rescue them and create a set of notecards. Here are the final 2 cards that I made from that process:

The imperfection in the spraying is more marked in the photos as in trying to show the shine, the light has caught the blobs more!

Anyway I hope I might have inspired you to take part in the challenge.

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

No Stamps

Hello,
Today I have a card for:
1.  Just Add Ink #470, no stamping
2.  Snippets Playground #359

This card is made with Altenew dainty blooms cover die, which is cut from a light bronze foiled card. I am afraid the picture isn't very good, the colours seem a bit muted. To make it I first lightly embossed an A2 panel with the die and then coloured it with  alcohol markers before placing the die over the top. The banner is my snippet which was an offset of white card that I coloured with the darker shade of blue used on the flowers. The sentiment die is from Concord & 9th and is cut from a snippet of left over foiled card.

I enjoyed doing this so much that I made several in different colours:

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

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