Butterflies

Hello, 

I thought it was about time that I played along with the Twofer challenge, particularly as the prompt is butterflies and who hasn't got a number of options for this one?

I used a layering stamp by Hero Arts.

For my first card (a friendship card) I chose an off white coated card base and I heat embossed the layers finishing the top layer and the sentiment with gold EP.

You can see the embossing better on this picture:

I am also sharing this card at:

AAA Cards #170 Maxi white space. this is my second entry - I hope that's OK.

For my second card (a birthday card) I stamped the butterflies on some white card, then masked them and used stencils to create the background, I trimmed it down, mounted it on a coated card base and added 2 strips of red holographic card. The simple sentiment by Uniko was heat embossed in white.

I used some clear heat embossing on the final layer of the middle butterfly just to add some extra interest. You can see it in the next photo.

I am also sharing this card at:

Seize the birthday #195 - non-neutral card base

Don't forget to let me know what you think, I love to read your comments.

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

xx

Digital Stamp

Hello, 

I recently purchased some digital stamps from Rachel Vass as I thought it would be good to get more familiar with using them and I love her designs.

This is the first card I made:

Once I had worked out the sizing and positioning of the stamp and sentiment on my card this was so quick and easy to make, for me anyway, as I always take ages over my cards. Once the panel was printed I coloured the image with fineliner pens, cut it with a scolloped die and mounted it on a coloured card base.  I then agonised (of course) over the placement of a few sequins but I was quite pleased with the result.

I love the daintiness of this image. I think I might try and used digital stamps a bit more often, but it is a different skill set and I don't tend to do so much on my computer these days.

Anyway, I hope you like it, let me know what you think.

I am sharing it at:

AAA cards CAS Game #170 - maxi white space

Krafty Chicks #516 Week 3 CAS

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

xx

Reminder July CAS Mix Up

Hello, 

It is the 15th July so time to remind you that there is still time to join us at CAS Mix Up for this month challenge which is hosted by Nancy.  This month we are looking for cards with stencil tracing, this is not something I have done much on my cards but I think I might be a convert to the technique as it really does make the stencil pop.

 

My card changed during the course of making it. I started it by masking the front panel and then stencilling through a striped stencil with distress ink. I then outlined the inked lines with a waterproof fineliner pen. At this point I realised that my masking was very slightly skew-whiff, once I had noticed it I just couldn't live with it, so I used a scalloped die to cut it out. This was then mounted on some orange fun foam and added to a coloured card base. I finished it off with a sentiment from Uniko (my go to sentiment set) and die-cut leaves. 

You have until the 24th to get your entry in, I hope to see you in the gallery.

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

xx

My First House-Mouse card

Hello, 

Today I am sharing a simple card made with a House Mouse image and some colouring:

The image was printed onto Strathmore toned gray paper and then coloured with Derwent coloursoft pencils. I discovered that this paper is really nice to colour onto. I mounted it onto some bright yellow craft foam and then onto a grey A2 card base after stamping the sentiment in Memento London fog ink.

I am new to Housemouse designs and am thrilled to have finally discovered them.

I am sharing this at:

Housemouse #320 - Always anything goes

CAS on Friday #184 - Anything but white

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

 xx

Remember when?

Hello, 

Today I have a card to share that I made a little while ago and have been waiting for the right challenge to share it. Well, today I have discovered the challenge at Time Out where the prompt is days gone by.

My card is made using the magazine transfer technique with a gelli plate:

I saw the technique demonstrated by Joanne and was motivated to give it a go after I had watched a few YouTube videos to get the detail of how to do it. I was very thrilled that it worked for me first time as I have tried it again since without any luck. The image is from one of my husbands music magazines that I found in our recycle bin.

This photo shows the whole image, but in order for it to fit an A6 card I decided to just use the very retro looking lady, as I love her outfit. The image was cut with a Waffle Flower postage stamp die and mounted on purple cardstock. I then mounted that on a darker piece of linen effect card that I had embossed with a 3d flourish EF by Crafters Companion. I made the sentiment on my computer with an old typewriter font to maintain the retro feel. To finish it off I added some decoration to the insert and envelope with a flourish stencil.

I was very pleased with the result and sent it to an artist friend (she is a proper artist) when we were in the height of our lockdown.  I hope you like it, I would love to know what you think.

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

 xx

A Special gift from Greece

Hello, 

Today I am sharing the generosity of the lovely Mia who is lucky enough to live in Athens. Back in May Mia celebrated her 3rd Blogaversary by inviting us to make a card using one of her free digital mandala stamps. She has several to choose from. I joined her to help her celebrate and made this card. Then life moved on and I had forgotten that Mia said she would send a prize to everyone who participated, so one day last week a little packet arrived on my doormat.

This is what it contained:

There was one of Mia's lovely cards, a stencil, a stamp and some mdf butterflies.

She had 25 entries, so that must have meant 25 prizes like this. I can't get over how generous this is and how much time she must have spent sorting it all out. You can see all the cards made with her mandalas here, they are pretty impressive so well worth a look.

 Thank you Mia

Here I have stamped the beautiful bears picnic stamp ready for colouring and have made a couple of background panels with the stencil. I used distress inks and a blending brush. I hope to make them into cards soon.

Of course a special thank you card will be winging it's way to Greece soon.

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

Hilary 

xx

June CCC Reveal

Hello, 

Today is the 2nd of July so it is time for the June Card Chain Challenge to be revealed. After all the excitement of the celebrations last month, it is time to back to normal business. My card this month went to Suze in New Zealand, what a long way it has to travel and I thought it would take a very long time due to the Covid 19 issues, but it didn't, it is nice to know that the card has been received before the reveal post goes out.

I struggled to come up with my card this month. I kept looking at the layout and the colours and just could not find any inspiration but then I realised there is a theme option as well and this month one of them was 'The Beach', so I changed tack and produced this card:

The stamps are from a set that came free with issue 72 of Creative Stamping.

I coloured it with my Zig clean colour pens and a wet brush.

I was quite pleased with the end result, I think my practicing with watercolours might just be starting to payoff.

This month I was very lucky to receive one of Cat's gorgeous cards and it arrived from the US in record time, which was an added bonus.  Here is her gorgeous card:

If you haven't ever taken part in the Card Chain Challenge I would highly recommend it and June was a special celebratory month to recognise the sending of over 3000 cards worldwide in around 10 years, it is lovely to be part of it.

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

xx

July CAS Mix Up

Hello, 

It's the first of July so time for another challenge at CAS Mix Up. This month it is stencils, our host is Nancy and she has asked us to use stencil tracing. We also have 3 guest designers this month:

Greta

Sandie

Kia

I hope you get a chance to pay them a visit.

I know that this is one of Nancy' favourite techniques to use with stencils so if you visit her blog you will find plenty of examples.

I have kept my card very simple this month:

I started by masking the card front with post it tape and lightly blending distress oxide onto the card. Then I place the stencil (from TCW) and added more colour with blending brushes. Once I was happy with that I removed the stencil and traced round the outline with a fineliner pen. I also used a fineliner to draw the frame. The simple sentiment is stamped in varsafine ink.

I hummed and ha'd for ages about adding embellishments and nothing really looked right so in the end I settled on 3 tiny little star gems, just to give a tiny bit of added interest.

Do check out The challenge blog for much more inspiration and I hope to see your creation in the gallery. This is such a good technique, it has to be worth a try.

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

xx