Stencil Fun

Hello

Today I have a batch of cards that I made with my new stencil set from Uniko. You can tell that I enjoyed making these because I made 6 in different colours! I am really happy with how they turned out.

All were made with Catherine Pooler inks and the edges of the mats were inked with the darkest colour used.

Sometimes I mounted the design the other way up.

All the sentiments are hot foiled

The stencils work well on a square card too.

I added a little heart above the leaves when I used the design this way up.

And finally a close up.

Can you guess which is my favourite? Anyone who know my love of green will have no trouble.

Which is yours?

I am sharing at:

Just us Girls #711 - Anything goes with a stencil. The green one, card 6

Stencils are our game - January anything goes. The turquoise one, card 1

NBUS #58 - This is the first outing for these stencils and my second entry to NBUS this month

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

Sparkle and shine

It was my younger daughters 43rd birthday the other day (it is so hard to get my head around that), and I made her this card:

Everything is foiled, I do love foiling these days. The flower spray (spellbinders) is foiled onto white coated card and lightly coloured with alcohol markers. It was cut with the matching die and mounted onto a black panel that I first cut with a frame die (Lisa Horton) and then foiled with a tiny heart cover plate die (Sunny Studio). You can't see it very well in the photo above, but it shows a little better in the other pictures.

The birthday sentiment is by Alex Siberia. It has a matching shadow die so I mounted the foiled element onto the white shadow to help it stand out. The happy is also foiled onto the same white coated card. I mounted the panel onto a white mat and then onto a pink cardbase.

You all know how hard it is to photograph shiny things, but I hope the pictures do give you an idea. I was very pleased with it in the end. I also used the heart cover die to cut the detail on the insert.

I can hear it getting windy again. We had a big storm pass on Sunday night and now on Tuesday, there is another one heading our way. Our house sits on top of a hill so we are always impacted by wind, it is really distressing to hear it howling round the building. Especially at night.

I am sharing this at:

Double D Jan Challenge - Sparkle and shine

Seize The Birthday - Anything goes. This is my second entry this month. I hope that is allowed. I couldn't find any mention of the number of entries allowed in the rules. One has been with the topping and one without.

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

You Are Special

Hello

Before I show you my card I have a little request to make. Someone on my last post asked me a question, but I am afraid I am unable to answer it directly as she is a no reply blogger and her blog profile had no blog or email listed. I don't like it when someone takes the trouble to read a post and ask a question and then I can't respond, it is upsetting, so before asking please ensure there is a way to reply. I am very happy to answer any questions. Thanks.

Today I am sharing 2 quick cards. This one was inspired by this card made by the wonderful Cat Craig. Her post was perfect timing because I had just taken delivery of my Spellbinders order (I fell for the sale over Christmas), and this wonderful embossing folder was included. It always amazes me how well these folders emboss with no cracking and the most amazing texture.

After seeing Cat's card I had a look through my word dies and found this one, it was even already cut from this gold faux glitter paper. All I had to do was cut 2 more from scrap card, glue them together and attach to my panel.

I chose a cream card base to keep it simple and embossed the insert and the envelope, which I debossed by mistake!

Don't you just love all that texture, I don't think it needs anything else. 

I had these little flowers sitting on my desk, so I made another one. The stamp and matching die are called wonder flower by Altenew. I coloured them with Stabilo watercolour pens.

I am sharing card 1 at:

Word Power 1 - 

Can you handle the pressure - Anything Goes

NBUS #58 - the embossing folder is new

I am sharing card 2 at:

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge - Anything floral goes

Triple B January Challenge - 

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

We Love Stamping January Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder for the current challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where we love to see you using your stamps. 

This year the design team will all be selecting a monthly option to reflect their own individual style of crafting or favourite themes. On the remaining months we will continue as before with a general theme along with an anything goes option, as previously.

Mervi has chosen our theme this month:

** Something New **

My something new is a stamp. I was very lucky to win this Michael Powell stamp at Snippets Playground a few weeks ago so I set about using it by stamping it onto some hot pressed water colour paper. In the end I decided to follow the colour scheme on the packaging as I felt quite stumped as to where to begin. I used my Zig clean colour real brush pens and was surprised to find it easier than I thought it would be.

Once painted the next decision was how to mount it. After much thought I found a snippet of black paper and used an edge die to create the ric rac look and gave the image a small frame on the other 3 sides. I mounted the panel on a coloured card base and chose the foiled sentiment from a pile already made.

This is quite different for me, but I enjoyed making it and am pleased with the finished look. I think it makes a good masculine card.

I recognised the image as being Michael Powell because some years ago I made a cross stitch picture from one of his designs. You can see it below. I didn't realise, until now, that you could also get stamps of his images. I do like his art, it is very quirky. Here is the link to his website if you are interested.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month there are 3 prizes of stamp sets from Stampendous. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose a top three for special mention. From now on any seasoned stampers (not digital) interested in being considered for a Guest Designer spot should add GD against their name when entering the challenge. We will select a guest designer form those names and the DT will still select their top 3.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure that stamping (including digi) is featured somewhere your card. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anythings goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 31st Jan

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

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

So Many Colours

Today I am sharing the 12 remaining cards that I made before Christmas, as mentioned in my WLS reminder blog post found here. When I get out my turnabout stamps (which isn't very often), I will usually make a number of panels using different colour ways.

This stamp set is by Concord & 9th and is called 'wreath turnabout stamp set'. I love it when a name helpfully describes exactly what it is. There are 2 turnabout stamps in this set and I stamped each one in 6 different colour ways, so ended up with 12 cards.

I used my Catherine Pooler inks. I really like how they come in sets, although I think they might have stopped doing that now (not sure). If they have, it is a shame because it makes choosing colours for this sort of project really easy. I mostly have the mini ink cube sets and keep them together in the boxes they come in. That way I can just choose a set and pick the colours from that set, knowing that they are going to work well together. So easy. Otherwise I would agonise for hours!

I generally don't make many square cards, but that is going to change over the coming months because I have a large supply of square card bases and I have decided that I really must use them up. These round designs sit nicely on a square card too.

To add extra interest and to also ensure I also use my embossing folders, I cut square pieces of card stock and embossed my backgrounds. The stamped wreaths were die cut using either a plain circle die or my hemstitch circle dies (Spellbinders).

The sentiments are all hot foiled. I created 2 sets of 10 and made them into sets of notecards which I gave to my 2 daughters for Christmas.

Here they are ready to be wrapped.

The ribbon was a gift from Gundi (thanks Gundi, I have nearly used it all).

I must say, I enjoyed this little project and was pleased with the results. Do you have a favourite colour combo?

I am sharing the first card at:

Seize the Birthday #275 - embossing wet or dry

Can you handle the pressure - anything goes embossing

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

Celebrating 12 years

Hello

Today I am sharing a card I made for a great niece who celebrated her 12th birthday just after Christmas. I knew I had to share it at the special Snippets Playground #471 as Di is celebrating 12yrs in the playground and I made this card using the balloon die that I won at the playground in November.

My snippets are the green water colour elements that I found in my big bag of unused and left over backgrounds and I used white card snippets to cut more balloons to create the dimension for the shaker.

Congratulation on keeping this wonderful challenge going all that time, so impressive. I am afraid I don't manage to play as often as I should. I will try harder this year.

I am also sharing this at:

Creations in Pink #66

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

January We love Stamping Challenge

Happy New Year to you and welcome to the first We Love Stamping challenge of the year. A warm welcome to our first challenge of 2024 with a fresh approach to our monthly challenge. This year the design team will all be selecting a monthly option to reflect their own individual style of crafting or favourite themes. On the remaining months we will continue as before with a general theme along with an anything goes option, as previously.

Mervi has chosen our theme this month:

** Something New **

I would like to welcome our guest designer Reeta. I hope you get a chance to visit her.

This stamp set by Uniko has been on my wish list for a while and when Bev announced that her prices were going to have to rise in January, I took the opportunity to add it to my stash. I stamped and clear heat embossed the images, before colouring them with alcohol markers and cutting them out. It was then just a simple matter of arranging them on a textured card base and adding the foiled sentiment.

The light was terrible when I took these photos, but you might be able to see the detail better on the photo below. I added a few clear gems to finish.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month there are 3 prizes of stamp sets from Stampendous. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose a top three for special mention. From now on any seasoned stampers (not digital) interested in being considered for a Guest Designer spot should add GD against their name when entering the challenge. We will select a guest designer form those names and the DT will still select their top 3.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure stamping (including digi) is seen somewhere on your card front, it no longer needs to be the main focus. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anythings goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 31st January.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

I am also sharing this at:

NBUS #58 - the bauhaus blocks stamp by Uniko is NBUS

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