Happy Gnome Birthday

Hello, Tallie here. I'm back today with a happy little gnome birthday card! This one reminds me a little of Gnomeo and Juliet. I used a bunch of Lawn Fawn products and the Oh Gnome! and Big Scripty Words stamp sets to create this scene card.

I started off by stamping out the gnomes, toadstools, flowers and wheelbarrow from the Oh Gnome! stamp set in some MFT Extreme Black Ink onto some blending cardstock. I coloured these in with my alcohol markers, sticking to bright gnome-like colours and cut them out with the coordinating dies.

To create the scene, I coloured up two panels in some Mowed Lawn/Twisted Citron and Salty Ocean/Faded Jeans Distress Oxide inks. I cut the blue panel with a Lawn Fawn Scalloped Rectangle and the green with the Grassy Border die. I also cut out some clouds using the Simple Puffy Clouds dies and coloured them in with some Weathered Wood Distress Ink. I adhered these directly to a card base, adding the coloured elements to create the scene.

I created the sentiment using two different sets. Firstly, I stamped the birthday greeting from the Big Scripty Words stamp set and die cut it with the coordinating die. I stamped out the HAPPY greeting from the Oh Gnome! set into a strip.

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

 

Pantone Colour of the Year 2019

Happy New Year to you all! 

For my first post of 2019, I keeping with my tradition of sharing a card that's inspired by the Pantone Colour of the Year. This year it's Living Coral, which is described by Pantone as 'an animating and life-affirming coral hue with a golden undertone that energises and enlivens with a softer edge'.

I began by die cutting the Reverse Confetti Stitched Rays cover die from white card. To this, I added a blend of distress oxide inks in abandoned coral, dried marigold and squeezed lemonade. I faded out the colour at the edges, then flicked the panel with water and bronze perfect pearls for some details.

For the sentiment, I die cut the MFT Happy Birthday script die from several layered of white card, and once from black. I layered these together with the black layer offset for a shadow.

I tried adding a coral patterned paper die cut to the top of the sentiment stack, but it wasn’t really standing out against the background. So instead, I layered some white glitter card on top for a sparkly look.

Before adding the word die to the card, I adhered a vellum circle onto the panel, to help the word die stand out a little more. An easy way to adhere vellum is to add some stick it adhesive sheet behind it first, which isn’t visible like other adhesives.

Have a lovely day,
Gemma

Reverse Confetti Stitched Rays

MFT Happy Birthday Script

It's Penguining to look a lot like Christmas!

Hello, Tallie here with some chilly little penguins getting ready for Christmas. I know it's Halloween but I don't celebrate the spooky holiday so I'm going festive today. Not to panic anyone but we only have 56 days to make all the cards!

I started by stamping out all the cute penguins and accessories in the Mama Elephant Cool Penguins set onto some blending cardstock using MFT Extreme Black Ink. I coloured these in with my Copic markers, sticking to a pretty basic festive colour scheme. When finished, I added a few finishing touches with my white gel pen and added a layer of Wink of Stella for some sparkle. I cut these out with my Scan N Cut, though there are coordinating dies available.

To build up the background scene, I used a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die to cut out two white panels. From one of these I used a Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Border die to cut out some snowy hills. I used some Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Ink to add some dimension to the top of the hills.

On the other panel, I blended on some Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Ink to create a bright background sky. I flicked on some water droplets and some watered down acrylic paint to give the impression of falling snow.

For the sentiment, I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Mama Elephant Cool Penguins set in the top left corner. Then all that was left to do was to put the scene together! I used a mixture of liquid glue and foam tape to give some dimension. Lastly, a few sequins to add a little sparkle to the background!

Thanks for reading and I hope I didn't panic you too much! :)

Tallie

Oh Happy Day

Happy Tuesday!

The Avery Elle Loads of Wishes stamp set is one of my favourite sentiment sets. I love the mix of fonts. For my card today, I’m focusing on this set.

I began by stamping a sentiment in black versafine ink, then clear heat embossing it. I also stamped some of the heart images from the same set around the sentiment, heat embossing them in gold.

Next, I layered the MFT Radiating Rays stencil over the top of the panel. I inked on distress oxide inks in spun sugar and picked raspberry.

I then removed the stencil and trimmed down the panel at the sides, where the stencil didn’t reach. I added some more picked raspberry distress oxide ink to the edges to soften the lines, the flicked the panel with water droplets.

I used liquid glue to add the panel to a white card base. I then cut some thin strips of gold glitter paper, adding the, to the edges of the panel for a nice finish.

Thanks for joining me,

Gemma

Accenting With Gold

Hello, Tallie here and a happy Wednesday to you!

Today I have a couple of cards that use gold accents to brighten up an otherwise clean and simple card design. I posted a couple of weeks ago using this Grateful for Everything set from Concord & 9th, but it really is fast becoming one of my favourites for a whole host of card designs.

The first set is a thank you card for a very kind and generous lady, and uses the main sentiment from the set. I love the mix of handwritten and typewriter fonts. I started out by masking off a strip along the top section of the card panel and stamping the main floral arrangement from the Grateful for Everything set. I then used the coordinating background stamps to stamp out the background in some Broken China Distress Oxide inks. This gave me a good base to colour with my alcohol markers.

I used a strip of gold mirror board to adhere along the bottom of the panel, stamping out the sentiment towards the bottom right corner. A gold gel pen helped to accent the colouring and tie in the gold strip.

As I was making this card I received the sad news that one of my family members passed away so my next card is a sympathy card. I followed the same process, only colouring in the flowers with yellows and oranges. Again, I used the gold strip at the bottom of the coloured panel and stamped out the 'WITH SYMPATHY' sentiment from the MFT Essential Sentiments set.

This design is really versatile, especially if you are limited on time and do not want to colour a whole panel. The background stamps really help to speed up the colouring process!

Thanks for reading!

Tallie

 

Firework Cheers

Today I have a fireworks card to share. I kept the colour scheme minimal for a classic look.

I began by inking a piece of card with distress oxides in black soot, faded jeans and hickory smoke. I put this aside to dry whilst I worked on the sentiment.

Using the MFT Cheers word die, I die cut it three times - twice from black card and one from blue glitter card. I had adhered stick-it adhesive behind each before die cutting, to make it easier to stick them together.

Back to the inked panel, I stamped the MFT Fireworks images and stars, heat embossing them with silver and white embossing powders.

I added the panel to a card base, then the die cut stacked sentiment in the centre. I flicked the card with water for some distress details. To finish, I added some embellishments and rounded two of the corners for interest.

Thanks for joining me today,
Gemma

Christmas Corners

With the thousands of stamp sets that pass through SHC HQ, it's easy to become jaded, but every so often a set comes along that it is just so different to anything I've seen before that I get over-excited and there was one such set in the new Avery Elle release for me - Corner Sentiments Holidays.  I was just so excited about the graphic style of the sentiments and the ease with which I knew I could batch make lots of really interesting but quick and easy Christmas cards.   Here are the first two I knocked up last night.

For the first one I just used one sentiment and the two snowflakes that are included in the set, embossed them with detail white powder (my go to now for all white embossing) onto a white card panel trimmed to fit a 4x6 card and then blended over the whole panel with tumbled glass and broken china distress oxide inks.  Job done.

For the second card I changed the orientation (the corners are so perfect for that - they fit either way!) and the sentiment and went with candy apple and fired brick oxides this time.  I added one of the adorable mice in their Christmas onesies from A Merry Little Christmas on top of the sentiment (stamped direct for the whiskers and tail then stamped again on white card to colour with markers and fussy cut without the difficult bits and layered up) and as he had his hand up added the guiding star in his eye line.  Any one of the cute characters would work - as would the polar peeking pals!

I can't wait to try out some more ideas with these corners and am hoping the fact that they called them Corner Sentiments Holidays means they are planning a range of corner sentiments for other occasions too!

See you Sunday........

Tara

Bold Sentiments

Hello, Gemma here today, sharing two cards featuring bold colour and sentiments. 

I took inspiration from a card sketch I found on Pinterest. I often look for sketches when I'm stuck for an idea as they can be a great starting point.

I began by cutting strips of white card - each 2 cm tall x 9.8 cm wide. I then blended on distress oxide inks in blues and pinks (including two of the new colours - spun sugar and tumbled glass!).

Next, I stamped a greeting from the Neat & Tangled Celebrate stamp set onto each card strip. A stamp positioner is really handy for this part.

I stamped the large 'Celebrate' on to two card bases, then added the coloured strips of card above with foam tape.

Thanks for joining me today,

Gemma

Tim Holtz Travel Stamp Platform

Neat & Tangled Celebrate

Distress Oxide Inks

City Blending

I couldn't wait to open the newest colours in the Distress Oxide range - and my favourite way to use them is for ink blending as they really make is SOOOOOOO easy!   So I decided to create a simple city scene using the AlteNew stencil and inks and pretty much nothing else....

If you've never given ink blending a go, or have tried it with poor results (as I often did in the past!) then trust me, distress oxides are your friend!  There is NO smoother, more blendable ink on the market that I've tried and it works for me every time.

I started by masking off the back edge of my card with post-it tape and then blending tumbled glass from the new colours (set 4) to the top.

Then I added the stencil over the top of the blue and did my first layer of city with hickory smoke (set 3)

For the next layer I used Dusty Concorde (set 4 again), moving the stencil over slightly to get different buildings on show, and as it was a darker shade I didn't even bother to clean the stencil in between colours.

Finally I went in with black soot (set 2) for the final layer as it is the foreground so you want a bolder colour.  This time I flipped the stencil around and used the other city skyline for a different look.

I went with a sentiment from Reverse Confetti's birthday wishes stamp set as the city made me think of New York and the "big" in the sentiment lead me to the "big apple" so I thought it fit.  I stamped and embossed it using Hero Art's Detail White embossing powder.  Again - if you've ever had trouble getting a crisp finish to your embossing then do try Hero Arts detail powders (currently in black or white) as I have found them to give me a brilliant finish even on the finest of details and outlines.  I added a little balloon (Waffle Flower Limo set but you will find a balloon on tonnes of your stamps I'm sure!) wafting over the city for a little bit of detail.

So if you are unsure if blending is for you - I do hope this encourages you to give it a try.  It opens up a whole world of techniques!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It will be a quieter week for stock this week - the only confirmed delivery is a VERY LARGE restock delivery from AlteNew which should be here on Monday but may not be in store until late Monday or early Tuesday depending on what time the driver arrives - we're finding they are all coming late as they are covering holidays for each other and don't know the routes.

We have the latest Waffle Flower release in transit but not sure when that will arrive as yet.

As we're heading towards the first week of the month however, all our regular monthly brands will start to send us our previews next week so we'll be busy ordering them all for you.

We already have Avery Elle and Lawn Fawn's HUGE Fall releases on order and they will be in store for release day on 9th and 23rd August respectively.   WE DO NOT DO PRE-ORDERS so check the store on those dates to grab your stock as soon as it arrives to avoid sell outs.

Hope the weather isn't too stormy or too hot depending on where you are this weekend.

Happy Crafting!
Tara