Link in the chain - October

 It's the second of the month which, as ever, means it's reveal day over at Card Chain Challenge.

Mine went to the lovely Hilary this time. As it didn't have to go through  the airmail system, I went a little bit more dimensional and indulged the fist thing that sprang into my head when I saw that crepe was one of the product or technique options by making flowers.

I've actually crammed in more options that usual this time! I used the colour palette, the theme of fall and both the crepe and string block stamping from the product or technique options.

I wound crochet thread round a small acrylic block, stamped repeatedly in one direction to make a strip then turned the block and stamped again to make a little grid pattern. It looks a bit like a cheesecloth or hessian fabric, I think!

The flowers are made by die cutting small circles of crepe paper, stretching them slightly and pinching the base to make petal shapes before gluing to a base. I inked the edges and added die cut centres.

Stamps:
Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Heavy crepe
Dark brown

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent chocolate, Pearlescent Sky Blue)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Adirondack by Ranger (Sunset Orange)

Other:
Circle dies (Spellbinder)
Leaves dies (Impression Obsession, no longer with us)
Christmas Roses dies (Sue Wilson/Creative Expressions)
Crochet thread
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! Come and join us in spreading some hand made fun around the globe, there are a few more days to sign up for the November chain!

 

Autumn colours

Something rather lovely happened in our little town a couple of months ago. What started life as a "craft swap dresser" in a shop that sold fabric, hand sewn gift items and ran sewing workshops has become a shop in its own right. Three days a week, you can have a browse through pre-loved crafty items. The idea is to give unwanted things a new home so all the items are donated and they're sold on at very low prices, basically just to cover the running costs of the shop. There's fabric, yarn, papercraft goodies, books, patterns, artist materials - nothing is guaranteed and anything is possible! 

Last week I got an A4 stamp set (the sort that comes packaged with a magazine) and a Versafine Clair ink pad for the princely sum of 50p each. This is my first play with a couple of the stamps from the set. I thought they'd be perfect for the We Love Stamping challenge theme of autumn colours this time and then completely missed the deadline — oops!

Courtesy of some basic masking, the rather handsome fox is sitting in front of an oak bough with a ribbon wound through it. On toned grey paper, I used a base layer of Copic colouring and then used pencils on top.

I tried something different with the matting — I cut a square out of the centre of the green mat and then used a stylus to trace the edge of that aperture into the image panel. I quite like the effect.

Stamps:
Wild and Free (magazine freebie/Practical Publishing)

Paper:
Strathmore Toned Grey
Green DCWV
Cream

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukinko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

 Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Square dies (Presscut)
Perfect Layers rulers

Thanks for stopping by!

A Gothic Christmas

Jo and her October elf, Carol, set a challenging challenge at Christmas Kickstart this month: Gothic Christmas! You wouldn't believe how many different ideas I played with and ultimately rejected. In the end I've combined with the Die Cut Divas who want to see shaped cards this month.

Gothic architecture seemed like it might offer some inspiration. Unusually for me I've gone for a sort of hybrid approach here and included some imagery printed from the computer. I found some lovely fantasy stained glass images from an Etsy seller (here) and after playing with the idea of making some of the circular images into baubles (I might come back to that!) I returned to the initial window idea as this is such a classic gothic shape. I also decided candles can be quite a gothic element so added a chunky church style one with some winter greenery.

The mat and the card itself are hand cut (I basically eyeballed and pencilled in the border round the printed image after cutting that out). I decided I wanted a bit of texture - that got added by rubbing a ball tool over the card on an embossing folder and moving it around pretty randomly.

The candle and fir branches are die cut, the ivy is fussy cut from another window image and I've added some Stickles and Wink of Stella to the flame and Glossy Accents to the jewelled bits of the frame. The colours are richer in real life, I think maybe the amount of black confuses the camera!

Stamps: Compliments of the Season (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Black

Ink: 
Versamark by Tsukineko
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Pine Needles, Antique Linen)

Other:
Gold detail embossing powder
Fantasy Stained Glass digital images (Old World Pages on Etsy)
Candle die (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Stickles (Candy Cane)
Brickwork 3D embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Glossy Accents
Spica glitter pen (green)
Wink of Stella (clear) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Penny pusher!

I’m combining a few challenges today — this week’s mixed media challenge at Splitcoast (here) is an intriguing technique that produces a sort of wonky grid by pushing a coin with a pencil. It made me think of the slightly off-square pastries in the current photo inspiration challenge at Time Out and I made it a trio by using a “thank you” sentiment to fit another Splitcoast challenge.

As well as the pastries at Time Out, I took inspiration from the orange, yellow, beige and brown colours and the fluted outline of pattypan squash always makes me think of a flower!

The sunflower and leaf sprays were in my bits box, the background piece had the grid filled in with watercolour and Copic markers, the pencil lines were traced over with a fineliner and the cross over points have little copper gel pen details.

Stamps: Enjoy quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate) 

Other:
Copic markers
Watercolours
Fineliner
Copper gel pen
Sunflower Serenade Dies (Spellbinder) 
Fresh Foliage die (Memory Box)

Thanks for stopping by!

Poinsettia and snowflakes

I’m managing to play early in the month for CAS Christmas this time, I might even manage another one later! The theme this time is poinsettia. I had most of this made yesterday but it was lacking something. Today's featured stamper challenge at Splitcoast gave me the final idea and I added a few die cut snowflakes for extra interest and am now happier with it.

I’ve had this Penny Black stamp set for at least a couple of years and have only just opened the packaging — better late than never, eh? The poinsettia was stamped twice, fussy cut and layered up. I used a gold acrylic paste for the centre and once each little blob had skinned over but not thoroughly hardened, I pressed down with a ball stylus to make little dimples.

A debossed frame and a simple sentiment strip finish it off. The strip is slightly curved.

Stamps: 
Wonder (Penny Black Transparent)
Bright Season (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper: Cryogen white

Ink: 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black) 
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Ivy)

Other: 
Zig Clean Colour marker (red) 
Coloured pencils 
Gold acrylic paste 
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us) 
Labels dies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix) 
Double stitched rectangle dies (Moonstone) 
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! 

Link in the chain — September

It’s time for the reveal of the Card Chain Challenge cards that flew around the globe for September. There were 29 players this time and lots of lovely different takes on the options — one of the great things about the reveal post is seeing so many styles and approaches to the same set of prompts all in one place!

For some reason I really struggled this month. My first effort (which took up an entire crafty day) ended up in the bin after I slept on it and decided nope, I still hated it! So, unusually for me I ended up with only the colour palette of peony, scarlet and plum (although I guess my little butterflies might count as tone on tone).

I didn’t have a suitable pink ink so I scribbled a watercolour pencil onto a piece of acetate and smooshed the background with that. The butterfly is heat embossed and coloured with a mix of Zig Clean Colour and water colour pencils. The antennae are hand drawn as there was no way I was going to attempt fussy cutting those!

A little scatter of clear sequins finished things off 

Stamps: Wings (Darkroom Door)

Paper: Watercolour

Ink: 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Memories (Soft Rose)

Other:
Stitched rectangle A6 size die (Paper Rose)
Water colour pencils
Zig Clean Colour marker
Clear iridescent sequins
Detail embossing powder (black)
Fineliner 

There are still a few days to sign up for the next chain if you would like to join the fun:

Woodland greetings

The CAS Christmas challenge for September is all about woodland critters — I'm just managing to sneak in before month end!

This card ended up taking a very long time to make — nothing to do with the card itself, everything to do with the fact I cut a mask for a stamp (pine cone) and then absolutely could not find the stamp I'd just used. Don't you just hate it when that happens?! After about an hour of searching I gave up and went with just the branches - our squirrel friend will have to keep searching for his Christmas lunch!

Simple stamping, colouring and a few sequins here, nothing fancy. I did add a bit of glitter pen to some of the pine needles for a bit of festive sparkle. The sweet little squirrel is definitely a red — he has those tufty ears that the greys lack.

Stamps:
Squirrel surprise (Carabelle Studio, no longer with us) 
Pine Branch Small and Merry Christmas (Lesia Zgharda)

Paper: Cryogen white

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Coffee Bean, Pearlescent Ivy)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Clear iridescent sequins
Spica glitter pen (green)
Fineliner
Pan Pastel (Pthalo green tint)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

An autumn birthday

I'm combining a few challenges today. Retro Rubber has a tic tac toe board and I really wanted to play along with this lovely stamp, using the splatter/leaves/kraft row of the board. The stamp has too much fine detail to give a good impression on anything textured and kraft inevitably has a bit too much, even if you use a stamping platform and have a few goes at it. I eventually settled for stamping on smooth and framing in kraft.

We Love Stamping has a trees and leaves theme this month so this is my second entry there and the current challenge at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is all about leaves (sorry girls, no snark this time!).

I kept this pretty simple as it's for my brother and like most of the men I make cards for, he doesn't really go in for a lot of "doodads". Stamped, coloured with markers, masked and then ink blended some Distress round the leaves and finished with some splattered ink in the same colour.  

Stamps:
Oak Branch (Beeswax stamps, I've had mine since 2013)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Kraft

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass) 
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Happy Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)
Copic markers
Stitched square frame dies (Paper Rose) 

A robot celebration

I'm not typically a sticker user but recently the lovely Jo at Dotty Pudding sent me a few to play with, including a couple of cute robots. This week I was struggling to come up with an idea for a friend’s birthday card — remembering that her academic research includes software for robotics at about the time I moved Jo's card to a new spot gave me my eureka moment.

The flow chart elements (computer generated) are a riff on something in one of our friend's research papers (yes, I went looking for extra inspiration!), background elements are a circuit board stamp; Jo’s cute robot is part of a set she got here. He’s raised up a little with some cardstock scraps. 

I used up a few extra stars left over from the tomato paste tube embellishments I cut recently for the Die Cut Divas "recycle" challenge (on this card) so I'm linking up again there. They form part of the celebratory explosion of shiny things (nail art gems being the others).

Stamps: Circuit board backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper: Cryogen white

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Rusty Hinge)

Other:
Robot sticker
Fineliner
Tomato paste tube metal 
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Nail art gems
Computer generated text

Thanks for stopping by!

Olive lover

September’s challenge at We Love Stamping is all about trees and leaves. I’ve bucked the autumn trend in terms of classic colours but olives are generally picked from September onwards so I’m still being seasonal!

The branches and olives are stamped in a fairly light grey ink so this is pretty much “no line” colouring. I filled in a bit of pale background colour with a swipe of Pan Pastel and used pencils for the colouring with some white paint pen to accentuate the blossom (artistic licence, I know it wouldn’t be there with the ripe olives!). A few clear sequins stand in for the Mediterranean sun shimmering through the trees.

Stamps:
New Awakening (Studio Light)
Birthday (Letter It range by Ranger)
Happy (from a Wasltzingmouse stamps set)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink:
Hero Arts shadow ink (Soft Granite)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Pan Pastel (Pthalo green tint)
Colored pencils
Posca paint pen
Clear iridescent sequins 

Recyled rustic reindeer

Christmas Kickstart this month is all about the reindeer with host Jo and guest elf Loll looking forward to some reindeer games filling up the gallery. Meanwhile, the Die Cut Divas are focusing on the three Rs — recycle, reuse, repurpose!

I've combined those two challenges and come up with three Rs of my own — a recycled rustic reindeer! All the die cut parts other than the stars are cut from a board envelope (you know, the ones that come from that global giant online retailer). I wasn't sure the wafer thin dies would go through but it cut perfectly and obviously it posed no problem for the steel rule die used for the banner and laurel wreath.

The gold stars are the other bit of recycling — they're die cut from a tomato paste tube, one of my favourite materials for homemade metallic embellishments.

The reindeer has a strip of card behind the top of his head to push it forward slightly and the antlers are not stuck down at all. I curved the sentiment slightly to match the curve of the banner before stamping, added some stamped plaid tone on tone for an extra rustic touch, then assembled it all.

Stamps:
Plaid Scrapblock stamp (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Sentiment from an old Technique Tuesday stamp set

Ink: 
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Memento Luxe ink by Tsukineko (Love Letter)
Adirondack pigment ink by Ranger (Snowcap)

Paper:
Red, ivory and board envelope

Other:
Cool Yule thinlets dies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Regal Crest bigz die (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Copic markers
Coloured pencil (pale pink)
Glossy Accents by Ranger
Tomato paste tube metal
White paint pen by Posca

Thanks for stopping by! You can find details of both challenges by clicking the graphics below:

Link in the chain — August

The second of the month can only mean one thing — time for the reveal of August's cards for the Card Chain challenge where 26 players exchanged happy mail around the globe.

This time I chose the theme of elephants and/or mice and the sketch to play with and my card has travelled to the lovely Gail in Norway.

I planned to use the mouse from the Katzelkraft Russian Cats set but having got it out of the cupboard I put it down somewhere and promptly lost it! In the end I decided this little Penny Black mouse would make a cheerful substitute, I think he's about to offer that daisy as a little gift in an attempt to lift poor Ellie's mood. Hopefully the cats will turn up now I don’t need them!

I did stamp and mask the mouse before stamping the elephant but made the mistake of doing it in a lighter ink colour and it really didn’t look right so I fussy cut a second one and stuck it over the top. The flower that's part of the stamp got a bit lost somehow so I made a daisy to stick over it. It's a couple of die cuts that are supposed to be flower centres and a circle made with a hole punch.

Stamps:
Les Jungles (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Enjoy Sayings (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Critter Party (Penny Black Transparent)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Broken China)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Christmas rose dies (Sue Wilson/Creative Expressions)
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by! The September sign up is open for a few more days, click the badge for details if you’d like to join.

Masculine op art

August's challenge at Lost Coast Designs is all about the men in our lives — feature a man or make a card for a man. Retro Rubber is “anything goes” this time, just use a stamp older than a year.

I've gone monochrome and simple, most of the men I know don't go in for lots of "stuff" on cards! This is going to a young man in his early 20s and after approving of it, hubby's comment was "I hope he's not drunk when he looks at it"!

I used a stamping platform to position the Perspective Flooring stamp so I could stamp both sides of a horizon line. Lost Coast actually make a stamp that does it for you (it's called Fourth Dimension) but I'm never one to make things easy for myself, am I? Actually, looking again at the challenge post I realise Riet used it for her sample card, maybe I was subliminally influenced although it’s used quite differently to what I’ve done here!

The die cut lettering has a slight ombre effect courtesy of a bit of Copic colouring and then I gave them the Glossy Accents treatment before sticking them on. The only other thing here is a skinny silver border added with a paint pen.

Stamps:
Perspective Floor (Lost Coast Designs, not sure how long it’s been in their catalogue but I’ve had mine since 2022)

Paper: 
Bristol board
Smooth black

Ink: Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Font One dies (Spellbinder)
Alphanumeric Classic Lowercase dies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Copic markers
Glossy Accents
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
silver paint pen (Posca)

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

Santa's sleigh

The challenge theme over at CAS Christmas this month is Santa’s Sleigh. I’ve gone a bit vintage-flavoured with mine this time. It’s ages since I made a card in landscape orientation!

I used kraft for my card base and then used a stitched rectangle die to emboss a frame into a layer cut slightly smaller than the card front. My gift-filled sleigh definitely looked like it could use some height and having failed to find a suitable Christmas tree image for my first idea, I realised the big man himself would fit the bill. 

The sleigh die cuts all in one piece but I wanted the body to be separate so I cut one and rubbed gold wax on the runners then cut a second in dark red card, cut the body free  and rubbed very lightly with the wax to catch the embossed detail then stuck it over the runners. The parcels and Santa are stamped, coloured and fussy cut then arranged to fill the sleigh.

I used a glitter pen to trace over the stamped sentiment (which is rapidly becoming my go-to sentiment stamp for Christmas cards!) and added a few sequins so there’s some festive glitz.

Stamps:
Christmas Mail (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us — Santa image)
Christmas Sayings (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Santa Stamp Here (freebie set with Making Cards & Papercraft Magazine — gift images)

Paper:
Kraft
Bristol board
Dark red

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Crimson Red, Onyx Black)

Other:
Sleigh die (Marianne Designs) 
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Stitched rectangles dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
Coloured pencils
Spica glitter pen (red)
Copper gel pen
Clear iridescent sequins

Thanks for stopping by! Click the badge for all the challenge details:

Rose in bloom

I’ve once again combined two challenges here, We Love Stamping would like to see summer blooms and Time Out has a “take two” challenge (chose at least two from monochrome, geometric, floral, stitching, birthday, CAS). I snuck in a Splitcoast Stampers CAS challenge as well (we’re using gems this week).

For my summer bloom I decided to take a trip down memory lane and use this lovely delicate wild rose from an old Waltzingmouse set. For some reason it took me an absolute age to colour today so I was glad I’d decided to go CAS and only wanted a single bloom!

I managed everything except monochrome from the Time Out options (my stitching is faux).

Stamps:
Roses in Bloom (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
P009 Geometric Abstraction (Lesia Zgharda)
Sentiment so old I don’t remember where it came from

Paper:Bristol board

Ink:
Fade Out by Ink on 3
Versafine by Tsukinkeo (Smokey Grey)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Nail art gems
Memento marker (Fog Grey)

North Pole pals

The theme over at Christmas Kickstart this month is friends. I confess I made this a wee while ago but never got round to blogging it and it seemed perfect for the challenge theme so here it is.

The rectangle is a piece salvaged from a card that didn’t quite pan out. Likewise the image was coloured and cut out and then fell out of favour and was substituted with something else on another card so it was in my “bits box”.

Santa’s little helper has obviously put in a long shift and has snuggled up to his polar bear pal for a bit of R&R, along with his chubby robin companion.

Stamps:
Santa’s Workshop (Helz Cuppleditch)
Christmas Sayings (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Grunge Flakes (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)

Paper:
Watercolour
Bristol board
Black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Brilliance by Tsukinkeo (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (various blues)

Other:
Copic Markers
Coloured pencils
Enamel Accents by Ranger (white)
Silver detail embossing powder

Fresh as a daisy

The challenge at Die Cut Divas this month is white with a splash of colour.

The Sunflower Serenade die set was recently on sale at Spellbinders and since I don’t have anything similar I caved and bought it. I thought it would make a nice daisy giving me white flowers with yellow for my splash of colour. 

I’ve never really got to grips with white on white but I figured plenty of texture was probably the way to go. I used a border embossing folder with a little bit of shenanigans — it’s not quite long enough to do the whole panel so I figured out where the daisy would be and embossed up to there then flipped round and embossed down from the top to the same point and the flower covers the flattened join.

I wanted to give the centres that lovely pillowy domed effect that daisies have. After inking the edges, I used a large ball stylus and a foam mat to gently shape them. Running a bead of glue just round the very edge stuck them to the next layer just fine. I gave them the Wink of Stella treatment as well. The daisy at the bottom has Wink of Stella on the petals too which might be just about visible on this detail picture.

Supplies:
Sunflower Serenade dies (Spellbinder)
Pop Culture border embossing folders (Cuttlebug)
Stitched Rectangle dies, A6 size (Paper Rose)
Bristol board
Smooth yellow cardstock
Sentiment stamp (so old I can’t remember where it came from!)
Smokey Grey Versafine ink
Sunshine Yellow Adirondack ink by Ranger
Clear gems (unknown maker, they were a gift from Mia)
Clear Wink of Stella pen

Thanks for stopping by! Click the badge for all the challenge details:

Link in the chain -- July

It’s the second of the month and that can only mean one thing — reveal day at Card Chain Challenge! There were 26 players this month, sending little bits of happy mail around the world. Mine has gone to Chris in Illinois this time.

From the options on offer I chose cocktails from the themes and ink blending from the techniques, aiming for a kind of “drinks by the pool” vibe.

As usual, it’s a one layer card so it’s light and flat for airmailing. I used reverse masks to blend inks inside the glasses for my cocktails and regular masks so that I could put one glass behind the other and use a stencil for the background. Not sure what the colourful cocktail on the right is but I found a picture online and used it as a guide! I used water to lift a bit of the colour from the ice cubes and a tiny bit of white pencil on the highest spots as well for highlight lines on each glass.

Stamps:
Cocktails (Visible Image)
Birthday (Letter It range by Ranger)

Paper: Bristol Board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukinko (Smoky Grey, Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Mint Julep)

Other:
Fibres Stencil (Visible Image)
White pencil
Gansai Tambi Starry watercolours (White gold)
Sequins
Corner Chomper

There are a few more days left to sign up for the August chain if you would like to receive some handmade happy mail. You just need to make one to send and you’ll get one for yourself:

Summer posies

I’m combining challenges again today. I’ve been meaning to play for ages at the CAS on Friday challenge where the current theme is flowers, Time Out is looking to Mother Nature for inspiration and Retro Rubber has given us a tic tac toe board to play with.

For Retro Rubber I chose the downward left to right diagonal of sparkle/your choice/flowers from the board, with die cuts as the wild card element. I have three sorts of sparkle going on — the card base, the trellis and the flowers are all Cryogen White cardstock which is a beautiful pale ivory with a lovely subtle shimmer, there are nail art gems in the flower centres and a few clear sequins scattered about the place!

The flowers are stamped and heat embossed and then coloured with some reinker and fussy cut. The die cut leaf sprig was lying about on my desk from another project — I coloured it with a Copic marker before tucking it in between the flowers. The pretty trellis was a bargain die I picked up a while ago for the princely sum of £3.20 for a package of three dies! I do love Cutting Edge Crafts for the occasional bargain splurge! (I have no affiliation, just a happy customer.)

I did try to work in a couple of tiny butterflies for an extra dose of Mother Nature but I couldn’t make anything look quite right so decided I should leave well enough alone and walk away before doing anything I might regret!

Stamps: Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday, no longer with us, 2011)

Paper: Cryogen White

Ink: 
Versamark by Tsukineko
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress reinker by Ranger (Picked Raspberry)

Other:
Detail clear embossing powder
Honeycomb dies (Simply Screens by Tonic)
Christmas roses dies (Sue Wilson/Creative Expressions)
Copic marker
Nail art gems
Clear/iridescent sequins
Corner Chomper  

Simple snowman

After a long break Loll and the team have brought back the CAS Christmas challenge where July’s theme is snowman. As I've gone die cut heavy, I’m combining with the Die Cut Divas for my second play there this month where the focus is on Christmas in July.

I die cut all the pieces for my snowman from white card and coloured with a combination of Copics and coloured pencils before assembling. As I wanted my snowman to face left and the scarf cuts with the longer bit that side, I flipped it over and smoothed down the edges with a bone folder before colouring. He has a little bit of chalk blush on his cheeks and a hand drawn smile. I used a white paint pen to make tiny dots all over his face for a slightly textured look and used Enamel Accents to make his eyes shine. The holly on his hat was stamped and fussy cut. 

Once I’d stamped the sentiment and stuck the snowman down with some scrap card underneath to raise him up just a tiny bit, I decided it needed something a little extra so tucked in some die cut snowflakes and added a few sequins. I finished off with my usual single rounded corner.

Stamps:
Christmas Sayings (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Christmas Joy (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink: Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Cool Yule dies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Posca paint pen (white)
Enamel Accents by Ranger (black)
Clear iridescent sequins
Black fineliner
Corner Chomper

Summertime

It seems to have been Christmas for some time on the blog so I thought I should try to change gear! This month’s challenge at We Love Stamping has a focus on summer. As it’s the classic season for travel, I’ve gone that way as I needed a birthday card for someone who does quite a lot of travelling.

It’s personalised by having a destination hand written on the ticket. I hope he gets to fly in something a bit more comfortable than an open bi-plane, though! 

I used torn paper to create fluffy clouds in my blue summer sky, masking all the various elements first (including the edges masked with low tack tape). I would probably have added some colour to the globe but hubby liked it without and as he requested the card I went with leaving it black and white. The ticket has just a touch of pencil colouring and there’s a drop shadow added to the globe with a marker.

Stamps:
Vintage Transport (Tanda Stamps, no longer with us)
Be Happy Today (Hero Arts, retired I think)
Travel (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

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

Other:
Coloured pencils
Grey Copic
Fineliner 

Thanks for stopping by!