Tuesday 21 November 2017

Lawn Fawn's Frosty Fairy Friends Scalloped Pop Up Box Card


Hello and welcome. Creating fairy inspired cards has been so much fun lately, that I have made a card using Lawn Fawn's Frosty Fairy Friends in a pop up card in a box, that is perfect for the Holiday season. 

This card was actually finished the day before Lawn Fawn's new Color Inspiration challenge came out and to my amazement the colors I chose where almost the same match with the exception of yellow. However, there is a very pale beige on there that could be interpreted in that way hehe.

Why not go and go check out Lawn Fawn's #17 - Color Inspiration challenge and hopefully you can join in the fun!


To create this card I have used Lawn Fawn's scallop box card pop up die, it's an awesome die that I love to use time and time again to create a fun 3D scene with. Strips of acetate sheets used to prop up the fairies and snowflakes to make them appear floating. 

Whisper White card stock used as the base and Lawn Fawn Knit Picky patterned paper used to decorate the visible facade. It's a lovely pattern and adds that subtle interest to dress it up.

For the inserts I have used Stampin' Up! glimmer paper for the snow. I have used both the Simple Stitched Hillside Borders and Meadow Borders from Lawn Fawn to create the landscape sloping up. The glimmer paper adds a nice finishing elegant snow texture and looks great on the fairy house that have been die cut using the coordinating dies from the Frosty Fairy Friends. 


The images have been coloured in with copic markers, the foliage stamped in Lawn Fawn's Celery Stick and Freshly Cut Grass and Guava ink for the fairy sentiment.

I have also played with a new toy that I recently purchased and that is the new Brother Scan N Cut CM900. It is just awesome and a great investment. It cuts out all the stamped images in a matter of minutes, it came in especially handy for the foliage. I also have the dies for the set which is I used for last minute die cut additions such as the snow flakes on the front with the sentiment. 


For the finishing touches, I have used Clear Wink of Stella on the berries, snowflakes and fairy wings for sparkle and clear glossy accents on the snowflakes, Christmas lights and windows for extra depth. 


I hope you have enjoyed and found inspiration. Fairy sets always captures my imagination and this set truly brings out the fun and magic of the season.  Thank you so much for stopping by, until next time - Happy Crafting! :) 






Thursday 16 November 2017

The Sassy Club - Magical Pals and Wizards. Crafty Friends are the best friends!


Hello and welcome! I finally received my long awaited new stamps from The Sassy Club featuring the Magical Pals and Wizard sets as part of their October release. I love anything Harry Potter and when I saw these sets, I just had to get them! Dobby is included which is a bonus! 

It was definitely worth the shipping from the US and very good customer service. Sandra the owner of the Sassy Club is such an amazing artist and has a YouTube channel that you can check out  and see all her creativity and stamp sets.


Here is the card I made using both sets. I knew from the moment I saw these sets, that I wanted to make an explosion of colour with the spell book image opened up. I have used Brusho Crystal colours for the watercolour background and love the effects that this vibrant medium creates. You only need to use a small amount and achieve such dramatic results. I also did a bit of ink smooshing to create the layers. Heat drying between each new colour is also good so to prevent them all mixing together and turning brown lol. 


The images have all been coloured in Copics and have practiced colouring the hair. Colouring using strokes makes it look more realistic rather than just simple shading and tends to look flat in the end. 

This set has a coordinating dies available and have used it to cut out the images. The only images without the dies are the open spell book, the feather ink and the choosing hat as are pretty easy to cut out by hand. I chose to have them die cut to make it easier to play around the desired scene and once happy, I mounted them with foam dimensionals to make them all pop from the background.

The white heat embossed sentiment used is not actually from the set and is from Altenew's Crafty Friends set. The font and size is perfect to fit in the space and compliments the group being best friends and also crafty! in terms of spell crafting hehe.  The sentiment is white heat embossed 




For added shine, I have added glossy accents to Harry Potter's glasses and ink glass, Clear Wink of Stella on the magical items including Dobby and sparkling sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Love using the large Stitched rectangle stackable die from Lawn Fawn just to give a finishing border to the card and makes all the card sizing consistent with A2.


I hope you have enjoyed and found inspiration. I was so glad how it turned out and love how Dobby is featured in this set - just pure magic and yet so humble! :) Thank you so much for stopping by, until next time - Happy Crafting! :) 





Saturday 11 November 2017

Memory Box Veggie Good - Thank You Cards


Hello and welcome crafty friends. Today's cards have been inspired and entered in the Memory Box Challenge #30 - Thank You Cards. The set I have used is 'Veggie Good', by Memory Box and absolutely love this set. The set has matching dies available which makes it so much easier to use and allows greater creativity. In a way this card is a celebratory thank you for waking up and wanted this set for it's delicious vegetable images that highly compliments my choice in becoming Vegan. I have been a vegan for 5 months now and going strong and loving it! The only regret is I wish I had done it sooner!  Going plant based and is the way to go, choose compassion over cruelty and ultimately saving the animals, environment and our health! Go Vegan - Eat VEGGIES not animals!  
The set comes with many Thank you add on greetings that can be interchanged to suit the occasion. Love the play on words on the add ons. The first card is 'Thank you a whole bunch' 

Both cards have been watercoloured using Gansai Tambi watercolors in a loose style. 

Images stamped with Versafine Onyx black ink on Arches watercolor paper 300gsm. Very Vanilla cardstock used to coordinate with the watercolor paper and are both A2 top folding. 

Coordinating Veggie Good dies used to cut them out. 

Sentiment has been white heat embossed on black cardstock and die cut out using Lawn Fawn's Everyday banner sentiments die.

Both the large and small stitched rectangle frames from Lawn Fawn have been used on both the base card and panel.

The black ink splatters is the Gorgeous Grunge from Stampin' Up! for a controlled ink splatter to give it some interest.

I have added both the small and medium clear droplets from Pretty Pink Posh on the vegetables on both cards to give a a realistic wet look impression as well as a subtle embellishment.  





The second card is 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart', denoting the artichokes which is so clever and have also added in the small heart that comes in the set. 

I decided to do a light ink wash for the background using Gansai Tambi watercolours again and have white heat embossed the ink splatters from Gorgeous Grunge stamp set for added texture.

The sentiment has been die cut using Stampin' Up! stitched circle die and have added gold thread that has been looped around underneath for extra embellishment. The sentiment and some of the artichokes have been mounted on foam dimensionals for extra depth. 





I hope you have enjoyed and found inspiration. These cards were so much fun to create and love the versatility and ease of use. Why not take part in the fun and inspiration from the Memory Box challenge and create a thank you card? Just need to use at least one of their sets and the challenge closes 28th November - so still of plenty of time left to enter. Thank you so much for stopping by, util next time - Happy Crafting! :) 



Wednesday 8 November 2017

Happy Day! New Design Team Member for Papercraft Business!



Hello and welcome. I'm so excited to share the news that I have been selected to be a design team member with Papercraft Business! Yay! A big thank you to Lisa Walsh, so looking forward to working with you and the team!


There will be a new challenge on the first day of each month and the first one starts 1st December 2017 - so stay tuned! The Papercraft Business has a great resource of information and offers FREE courses to help with improving your blog and online presence and many more. If you're new to paper crafting, it is definitely invaluable! Click here to check it out and find out more!

There are still some more design team member spots left to fill for the Papercraft Business. So if you're interested please click here for the DT Call!


Thank you so much for stopping by and will keep you posted for upcoming events and share this new exciting crafting adventure! 'Till next time - Happy Crafting! :)


Thursday 2 November 2017

Creating Kindness Design Team Guest Designer. Support For Family or Friend



Hello and welcome. I'm so excited and honoured to have been invited by the lovely Jenny Hall to be a guest designer for her Creating Kindness team blog hop today. The theme is support for family or friend, nothing can compare to a handmade card that is made with love to help brighten someone's day and showing how much you care and offering support. 

I started off with making one card and the creative flow just took over and made four cards in the end! The main set I have used is the appropriately named 'Lift me Up' stamp and dies and have paired it with the new 'Hometown Greetings Edgelits' dies. I was so thrilled to see this new die as it has so much potential to create scene building which I love to do and to compliment existing sets as well. 

The snowman has been covered up with another tree, which helps to extend the use of these dies for any occasion throughout the year.


The scene created with the first card is with the hot air balloons flying over the houses, and the new dies allows to do this very well. The edgelit die from Detailed Floral Thinlits is surprisingly versatile due to it's organic shape, it doubles up as a cloud and tree line just by flipping it over. To further add dimension and a 3D effect, I have made a window sheet panel allowing you to see inside of the card. 


Ink blending has become my specialty and especially rainbows, happy bright colours are sure to brighten and put a smile on any one's face. All inks used are Stampin' Up! and have used nearly every colour of the rainbow literally lol. Lemon Lime Twist is just gorgeous and love  this shade of green. 

Using Ranger's mini round ink blending tool is invaluable to achieving this seamless finish as well as a light hand and starting off light and slowly building the colours. 

Sponge daubers are also great use to on the stamped images and help creates a similar ink blended ombre look.

I have also incorporated a water and bleach solution that adds the splatter distressed ink effects. Only use in moderation and small droplets when using normal cardstock such as Whisper White.



The light rays have been done using strips of Eclipse masking paper and White craft pigment ink applied with sponge daubers. I have used a heat tool in between each process to help speed up the drying and complete the rays background. I love the soft almost transparent effect when it's fully dried. 


This is inside of the card with a closer look of the ink blending. The sentiment is from 'Weather Together' and love the  font style. 


This is the reverse side of the front. When making this kind of card, it's import to cover up the back to hide all the adhesives and helps to reinforce the front panel. The dies really help with this technique.


Here are the rest of the cards that I came up with using the one set and incorporating similar techniques from the first card.

This is a shaker card.

Sets used are: 
• Layering Squares Framelits to cut the window panel and the frame.
• Feather Together set for the sentiment, love the contrast of the fonts and is perfect.
• Swirly Bird for the ink splatters. To create the two tone ombre effect, I have used sponge daubers on the stamped image as you get more control of where to place the colour rather than the large ink pads and can blend better
• Colour Theory dsp in the daffodil gradient used as  the backing for the hot air balloon. This is an awesome paper stack, as all the ink blending gradient effects are all done for you.
• The enamel dots are also from the same Colour Theory suite.



For my last two cards, I have created an interactive sliding cards, where the hot air balloon can go up and down and side to side.

The hot air balloon on this card goes up and down and perfectly compliments the sentiment. 
The 'Post Script' stamp image has been used and have white heat embossed it over the ink blended background. Bermuda Bay and Pool Party inks used to create the ombre effect. Masking paper used once again to create the panel and the ink colour separation on the sentiment.




The last card is quite similar in design to the up and down sliding card, but this time it's going side to side and plays along with the sentiment. It actually spins in circles which is hilarious sight to see as I've used a round slider piece rather than and oval shape to make it slide straight from side to side as intended, but it adds a fun element hehe. 

The same 'Post Script' image used again but this time, ink stamped and shows the details a lot better. The masked rays have been applied with White pigment craft ink.

Sponge daubers used to apply  the ombre effect on the larger hot air balloon and sentiment.

The dotted edge border is from 'Swirly Snowflakes' thinlits dies and adds that visual interest on the side. 




Phew, that was long... but so worth making as these cards will be going to dear friends and family members who are far away, so had to be extra special. Thank you for taking the time to have a look. I hope it's given you some inspiration to get more out of your stamp sets both new and old. The Lift Me Up set is a favourite and have used complimentary sets to truly help bring the images to life and adding so much more creativity. Thank you Jenny and the Creating Kindness team for having me as your special guest, it means so much and it's greatly appreciated. Next up on the hop is the wonderful Danielle Bennenk and please be sure to check out all the amazing and heartfelt creations from the rest of the team from the list below for more creative inspirations. Until next time - Happy Crafting! :) 

Supplies used:

Stamps:
• Lift Me Up • Weather Together • Feather Together • Swirly Bird • Post Script
Dies:
• Up & Away Thinlits • Hometown Greetings Edgelits • Layering Squares Framelits
• Swirly Snowflakes thinlits • Detailed Floral thinlits
DSP:
• Color Theory paper stack
Inks:
• Pacfic Point, Perfect Plum, Real Red, Pumpkin Orange, Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, Emerald Envy, Bermuda Bay and Pool Party  • Memento Tuxedo black ink • White Craft pigment ink

Creative Circle Design Team Blog Hop - Thankful



Hello and welcome to the Creative Circle Design Team Blog Hop. The theme this month is 'Thankful', it's always good to have thank you cards on hand and have used the Basket of Wishes along with Sheltering Tree and Vintage Leaves sets to give a Thanksgiving and Fall feel. 

Both the Vintage Leaves and Basket of Wishes sets are great to colour in and especially love the sketchy style and detailed illustrations that both sets offer.  The handwritten style sentiment from Sheltering Tree perfectly compliments the hand drawn style of Basket of Wishes.

I have used Copic makers to colour the images and have stamped with Copic friendly Memento Tuxedo black ink. The instant shadows from both sets is a great guide and helps with the colouring.  


The focal image of the baskets have been created by masking each image and building up the layers to complete the grouping. I started with the foreground images first, the strawberries and basket of flowers and then basket of pumpkins. Using a stamp positioner tool such as the Misti makes this an easier process as you can multi stamp the image to get a better definition.

The tiny dots are from Sheltering Tree helps to add extra interest and texture. Soft Sky and Smoky Slate inks used to coordinate with the shaded areas.  


The leaves have been die cut out using the coordinating Vintage Leaves dies and have been mounted on with foam dimensionals. The excess have been trimmed off and the extra dimension helps to frame the main image. This would also look great using the masking technique with the leaves to create a one layer card and if you didn't have the dies this would be a great alternative.  


The front panel has been mounted on to an A2 top folding Wild Wasabi cardstock and helps bring out the green of the leaves. I hope you have enjoyed and found inspiration. Outlined images stamp sets are a lot of fun to colour in and would look great with any medium of preference. Make sure to continue to hop around and follow the list of names below to see all the creative projects from the talented design team for more great inspirations. Thanks so much for stopping by, 'til next time - Happy Crafting! :) 


Supplies:
• Basket of Wishes Photopolymer stamp set
• Sheltering Tree Photopolymer stamp set
• Vintage Leaves Photopolymer stamp set.
• Leaftlet Framelits dies
• Wild Wasabi and Whisper White cardstock
• Memento Tuxedo black ink
• Versafine Onyx black ink
• Soft Sky and Smokey Slate inks
• Copic Markers
• Judikins Eclipse art masking tape roll adhesive
• Misti Tool