Think of a number

Shabneez is setting our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week and she’d like to see some numbers — they could take a starring role or sit in the background as long as they’re there!

The young lady this is for is very maths and science oriented so it seemed appropriate to add a numbers background and DNA code as well as her age. 

The inky flower is coloured with a single ink — the colour breaks down a bit with water to produce some interesting variations. I gave the big numbers some drop shadow with a grey marker and doodled a border.

Stamps:
Creative Chaos (Visible Image)
Numbers border (Kaisercraft)
A&P Numbers (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Mint Julep)

Other:
Black fine liner
Grey Copic marker

Little ones

Miri is setting our challenge today at Daring Cardmakers with the theme of “little ones” — make a card for the little ones in your life or think small in other ways!

I’m also playing along with Stay Crafty with a Blog Named Hero — this month’s theme is “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. I really got the Beach Please set for the umbrella image so of course the first thing I use is the cocktail glass! I don’t often get matching dies for stamps but I’m glad I had them here — these little glasses would have been a horror to fussy cut and the option to cut them out and pop them up is great. 

I’ve gone for the slightly lateral interpretation at DCM as I don’t have any babies or small children to make for. I lined up some little cocktails in rainbow colours, courtesy of Distress inks, for a clean and simple card. The glasses are stuck on with gel glue for a bit of lift and there’s Wink of Stella on the ice cubes, only obvious if you catch the light just right!

Stamps:
Beach Please Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)
Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Blueprint Sketch, Mowed Lawn, Wilted Violet, Weathered Wood, Black Soot)

Other:
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Pinflair gel glue
Corner Chomper

Hero Arts — Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Stripy scarves!

Kathy has set our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week — she wants to see spots and/or stripes. Mr Mojo has taken a holiday and I was feeling distinctly uninspired so went searching for extra inspiration (I often find that figuring out a way to combine a couple of challenges helps get things moving). 

I haven’t played in Jo’s Christmas Kickstarter for ages but I always look to see what the month’s challenge is. This time around it’s all wrapped up with scarves. That combined with the stripes theme in my head to steer me to use these adorable bears with their striped scarves. 

The bears are stamped and masked, edges of the card covered with low tack tape before blending in some blue Distress inks. A little Copic colouring and just a few dimensional paint dots along with a sentiment finish off a simple one layer creation.

The rest of the team have created a lovely spring vibe with their creations, it’s just me reflecting the weather outside the window at the moment! Do check out the DCM blog for a breath of something warmer (link from the graphic below) and why not get the stash of Christmas cards under way with a visit to Christmas Kickstart too?

Stamps:
Polar Bear Pals (MFT)
Sparkle All the Way (Crafter's Companion)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch)

Other:
Copic Markers
Pearl pen by Viva Decor ((Ice White)
Corner Chomper 

Elements for March

Miri has chosen our inspiration picture for the "elemental" challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week — as ever, just choose at least three elements from the picture to kickstart your project.

The spiral shape of the caterpillar made me think of this lovely shell stamp and I ended up going down a sort of naturalist’s sketch book route (after quite a lot of playing with ideas that didn’t work out). Other elements are flower, butterfly and some of the colours. 

The butterfly is stamped directly on the panel, the other images are cut out and stuck on with gel glue for some differences in height. I had intended more muted colouring, not quite sure what happened there!

Stamps:
Antique Engravings (Hero Arts, retired)
Magnolia (Stampendous)
Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Copic markers
Square dies (Presscut)
Fineliner
Pinflair gel glue

Link in the chain - February

It’s reveal day at Card Chain Challenge. There were 33 players for February and my card has gone to Mia in Greece this time.

From the options on offer I chose the theme (hearts) and product (gauze) ones. I wanted to do something a bit different with my gauze so I used black acrylic paint to stick it to some card, let it dry and then highlighted with some gilding wax. 

I think my Delicata ink pad has started to separate out, or maybe it was the painted surface, either way I couldn’t get the little hearts to show up clearly so I used a gel pen to draw round the inside of the stamped shape.

The butterfly is stamped, coloured and cut out and glued on along with some die cut rings and a sentiment strip.

Stamps:
Antique Engravings and Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Delicata by Tsukineko (Golden Glitz)

Other:
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
Copic markers
Fine frames circle die (Altenew)
Acrylic paint
Gauze
Rub n Buff (Gold Leaf)

There’s still time to sign up for the March chain if you fancy it — just make one card and receive one from the next link in the chain, it’s a lovely way to spread a little hand crafted love around the world. 

Waxing Lyrical

My turn to set the challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week and I’d like to see wax incorporated somehow, further details on the blog.

As ever when you set a challenge, it proves to be harder than tackling somebody else’s! To help me along a bit, I looked for extra inspiration and found it in the current Hero Arts challenge where the theme is “animal crackers” — use any sort of creature. That gave me the perfect excuse to pull out the lovely detailed octopus and make a watery scene. 

I started by splashing melted candle wax* onto my paper and giving it a minute to harden. Then I brushed on a few shades of blue and scraped off the wax (an old credit card is perfect for this) to reveal the splashy resist pattern. It was only after stamping the octopus I decided I’d like something extra so I stencilled carefully to avoid going over the white bits. 

*It probably goes without saying but if you’re doing this, do be extremely careful with a lit candle in your craft space — all those papercrafting supplies are very flammable!

Stamps:
Layering Octopus (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Hero Arts (Soft Granite, Charcoal)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Salty Ocean)

Other:
Tea light
Fibres stencil (Visible Image)
Enamel Accents by Ranger
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)

Stay Crafty with a Blog Named Hero — Animal Crackers

All loved up

As Valentine’s Day is almost upon us, Dawn has set us a challenge with the theme of "all loved up" at Daring Cardmakers this week. 

I’ve gone for hearts and made a fairly masculine card. I’ve also tied in with a couple of other challenges — Lost Coast Designs where the theme is love and hearts along with stamping and Die Cut Divas who would like to see some gold along with using your die cutter. 

I was lucky enough to have my name come out of the LCD challenge hat recently and chose the fabulous Perspective Floor stamp as part of my prize. Of course, being me the first thing I did was something other than use it as a floor! I’ve stamped in a vertical orientation, turned and matched up the pattern (there’s actually a stamp in the LCD catalogue that would do the job for you — it’s called Fourth Dimension — but I’m never one for making things easy for myself, am I?!).

I haven’t used these primitive hearts for ages so it was nice to revisit those. The design sort of evolved a bit, I messed up what I originally planned for the smaller heart and then remembered the Die Cut Divas challenge and covered it all up with gold leafing! I used a two way glue pen and deliberately tried to introduce some texture. It's very shiny and reflective and difficult to photograph!

Stamps:
Perspective Floor  (Lost Coast Designs)
Everyday Petites (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Barn Door, Fired Brick)

Other:
Mega Flake by Indigo Blu (Chariot of Fire)
Zig two way glue pen
Primitive Hearts Bigz die (Sizzix)
Stitched rectangles dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
Fineliner

 

February’s elements

It’s the first Friday of a new month and at Daring Cardmakers that always means an “elemental” challenge — just chose at least three elements from the inspiration picture to kick start your project. 

Nat has chosen a very pretty picture this time but I must confess to “brain freeze”, I’m nearly as bad with pastel colours as I am with patterned paper! Using the colours isn’t necessary but I just couldn’t see past them for some reason. In the end I focused on just two colours (the pale green and blue from the stack of what I suspect are socks), the heart shape and knitted texture. 

Unusually for me, there’s no stamping other than the sentiment. I stuck the die cut hearts to a white panel and then ran it through an embossing folder to embed the hearts for a seamless kind of look. I got the knitted pattern embossing folder as a Christmas gift and it’s a beauty, gives a lovely deep and detailed impression.

Stamps:
Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Scraps of pale blue and green
Textured black

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko 

Other:
Heart dies (Waltzingmouse, no longer with us)
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
White detail embossing powder by Wow!
Knitted 3D embossing folder (Sizzix)

Link in the chain January

It’s time for the reveal of January’s Card Chain Challenge. There were 25 links in the chain and mine has gone over the Pond to the lovely Linda this time. The cyber “incident” at Royal Mail May have slowed its progress somewhat but it will get there eventually, we hope!

From this month’s options I chose the theme of cocktails, the product option of Distress inks and the colour palette (candyfloss, bubblegum, mulberry) with the addition of green — although I might have been able to argue for a pink citrus slice (pink grapefruit, perhaps?) I couldn’t bring myself to do pink mint leaves! 

It’s a very simple one layer creation, just stamping, colouring and a few tiny gems. The cocktail and background are Distress inks used as watercolours, the leaves and lime slice are Copic coloured. The Seedless Preserves Distress ink gave an impressive range of shades, depending on how dilute it was and using the Misti to stamp the sentiment a couple of times made it extra dark there — I thought it looked nicer in the same shade as the background rather than using black ink.

Stamps:
Cocktail Time (Crafter’s Companion)
Birthday sentiment set (Letter It range from Ranger)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves)

Other:
Copic markers
Nail art gems
Corner Chomper

Around the house

It’s my turn to set our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week and we’re looking “around the house” this time. Either use something from around the house to help in making your creation (e.g. foil from the kitchen, scrape a design in paint with the prongs of a fork) or feature a household object (e.g. TV, food mixer). You could even do both if you’re feeling brave!

I went for using something from around the house and used dry wall tape to stencil a patterned stripe on my card base. I used a bit of low tack tape as well so I could create solid borders and then added a fineliner edge for even more definition. The hearts are simply stamped, fussy cut and the front one is stuck on with gel glue for a bit of dimension.

I’m also playing along at A Blog Named Hero where this month’s theme is “crazy little thing called love” since my trusty HA hearts came out to play.

Stamps:
Unnamed Hearts (Hero Arts, maybe retired?)
Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Textured black

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves)

Other:
Dry wall tape
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
White Enamel Accents by Ranger
Fineliner

Magnificent magenta

Rizwana is setting our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week — as the Pantone colour of the year is Viva Magenta, she’d like to see magenta featuring on our creations. 

I confess I was relieved to see Rizwana’s mood board features what I think of as magenta. The Pantone colour looks too red to me and when I first saw it several weeks back my first thought was “yuk!” (partly influenced by the choice of image on Pantone’s own mood board, I suspect). As it is, I struggled a bit to find an appropriate colour in my stash. I managed to find a Copic that was ok to lay down a base layer of colour and then a couple of pencils to shade over the top. The rose is stamped once, masked and stamped again. I gave it just a bit of green pencil “halo” for some contrast and a few nail art gems for some glitz.

Stamps:
Jumbo Rose (Stampendous)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic marker
Coloured pencils
Nail art gems
Corner Chomper
Fineliner

New year, new crafty things

Miri is setting our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers today — it's a new year and so she'd like to see something you've not used before on your card. It might be newly acquired, or just something in your stash that you haven’t got round to using yet!

I've used this row of corks stamp before but not the die that coordinates with it. The real "new" element though is the embossing folder - I've seen lots of cards with this Tim Holtz folder and find it hard to resist woodgrain so it made it on to my Christmas wish list and I was lucky enough to find it under the tree! I thought it would make a good wine crate background for the corks. To personalise the card, I stamped the vintage before embossing in the folder. For some reason the camera has made it more prominent than it looks in real life where it’s more of a background element. 

Oh, I used a new square die as well! Perhaps not the most exciting shape but I got a new set for Christmas that gives me bigger squares as well as more options than the Nesties I’ve had for a long time. 

Stamps:
Row of corks (Spellbinder, set with dies)
My Type (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Ivory flecked

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Latte, Espresso)

Other:
Lumber embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Plain square nesting dies (Presscut)
Copic markers
Tomato paste tube
Fineline marker

January elements

Hello, welcome to the first challenge of 2023 from the Daring Cardmakers — as ever the first challenge of the month is an “elemental” one, just choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture to kickstart your project. 

I chose some of the colours, a fabric look to the square (might be too subtle for the camera), pinked edges, foliage and white dots to create a clean and simple birthday card to add to my stash. The square is coloured with a Copic marker and cross hatched with a fine liner in a shade darker blue (because I didn’t plan anything before I started, I’d probably have used a stamp if I’d had any idea what I was going to do!). I don’t have any pinked edge dies but I do have pinking shears. The die cut leafy sprig is coloured with a Copic and then a bit of detail added with a coloured pencil.  

Stamps:
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Chipped Sapphire)

Other:
Pinking shears
Copic markers
Coloured pencil
Back to Nature Thinlets dies (Sizzix)
White enamel accents by Ranger

Link in the chain — December

Happy New Year! It’s reveal day at Card Chain Challenge and having forgotten to sign up for November’s I made sure I was early in the sign up list for December. It’s the month that departs from the usual pattern of sketch/colour palette/theme etc and gives us a tic-tac-toe board to play with. 

 It’s a five by five board and even though I’m usually up for extra challenge I find 25 options a bit too much! So I played the “regular” way and chose the penultimate horizontal line — squares, deer, emboss, splats, Santa. I hope Rudolph counts in the “deer” category!

I used a square card base and embossed with a die for more squares before stamping the image, masking it and using low tack tape to mask off the edges, blending three shades of blue ink and splattering with metallic watercolour. The image is coloured with Copics and then came the scary bit! I thought it should work to do an eclipse style sentiment using an embossing folder rather than cutting out and sticking back the lettering. It was still a bit nerve-wracking putting the carefully coloured card into the folder and squishing it through the Big Shot. It worked pretty well I think, just like a “traditional” eclipse sentiment, it shows more at some angles than others.

All that embossing and masking means I managed to stick to my one layer preference for CCC. It’s gone to Arlene in California, hope she likes it!

Stamps:
Holly Jolly (Penny Johnson/Stampavie)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire)

Other:
Stitched square frame dies (Paper Rose)
Copic markers 
Sayings embossing folder (Darice)
Gansai Tambi Starry Colours watercolour paints