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

Welcome, Little One!

Hello, Tallie here.

Today I have a couple of baby cards featuring the MFT Hello, Little One set. I made one in pink and one in blue, though I plan to colour up some more in green and purples sometime in the near future.

I stamped out the characters in the set onto some blending card stock using some MFT Black Hybrid ink. I coloured them in with my alcohol markers, keeping to pinky-reds and teals, with some warm greys for the stork. I cut these out with my Scan N Cut, though there are coordinating dies available.

On two A6 top folding white card bases I lightly blended some Broken China and Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide inks, concentrating the majority of the colour in the centre of the card to give something to back my characters. I also blended the same colours, this time heavier, onto another piece of cardstock which I ran through my die cutting machine using the MFT Congrats die. The Lawn Fawn Scripty Congrats die is a great alternative. I layered these up twice and then covered them in a layer of Wink of Stella.

I arranged the elements onto the card, adhering them with some liquid glue. Using the same inks as the backgrounds, I stamped out a sentiment from the set onto a slim strip of card, popping this up on some foam tape. A few sequins and a little more glitter and here are some fun cards any expectant/new parents will love!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

    

Dragon Thanks

Hello, Tallie here. I hope those of you in the UK are enjoying our heatwave. The temperature inspired my card today with a bright, hot background for my dragon. Like many card makers, I absolutely love this stamp set and just had to colour these characters up like Toothless and Hiccup!

I started out by stamping the dragon and the boy rider from the Mama Elephant Me and My Dragon stamp set onto some blending cardstock using some MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink. I had to mask off the top of the dragon's head with a post-it note to make it look as though the boy is sitting on the dragon's back. I coloured the dragon in with my alcohol markers using some cool greys, using at least 5 markers to ensure the depth of colour. For the boy, I chose some greens and browns. I then fussy cut the characters out, though there are coordinating dies available.

Since it's been hot here, I used some Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade and Fossilized Amber to blend on some Distress Oxide ink over the MFT Mini Cloud Edges stencil. Working from the top down, I kept the darker colours to the bottom to add dimension so it looks as though there are layers of clouds. I then adhered this directly to a top-folding A6 card base.

I blended on some Black Soot Distress Oxide Ink onto another white panel and cut two pieces out using two of the Mama Elephant Kingdom Trio Dies. I layered these up at the bottom using some foam tape, white heat embossing the 'THANK YOU SO MUCH' sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Simply Sentiments set. A few sequins and a little dusting of Wink of Stella finish off the card nicely!

Enjoy the heat whilst it lasts!

Tallie

 

Cowboy Sunsets

I sadly don't have anyone to make father's day cards for anymore, but felt in the mood for a masculine make so knocked up a few cards that could work for father's day but gave them an every day twist with added cowboys....

My inspiration was the new Desert Sunshine fancy die from Hero Arts - this really is my kind of product, I love a silhouette die and an excuse for some ink blending.  I die cut a circle from kraft using the Lil Inkers Stitched Mat Circles and trimmed the panel to fit my base card and lightly traced around it so i knew where to ink blend.   I used oxide inks to blend from purple to yellow on the white base and fixed the kraft panel in place over it once dry.  I then die cut the desert sunshine silhouette from black and used the same circle die to trim around it to get a circle to fit in my aperture and glued that in place.  I wanted to add some clouds so used some white liquid pearls - and then discovered it reactivated the oxides so my clouds turned golden (let's just call that the sunset effect shall we!)  To finish I wanted a really strong masculine sentiment to match with the strong black silhouette so used the large happy birthday from Snarky Mix and Match sentiments also from Hero Arts.

So I had a circle of kraft card left and I am trying to not through away bits of card, but also NOT add to my scraps stash, so I made another card....   I used the same inks and blended them as before but the effects were so much more subtle on the kraft as you can see here from the side by side shot.  I quite like the softer look.

Once dry I ran it through my die cutter using the safari sunset die to get the cloud effect as its a perfect size to match the silhouette die..  I die cut another desert sunshine from black and used a large circle from the circle infinity die set to again get another circular frame but this time without the stitched detail.  I popped them onto a white base card again and finished with a sentiment from AlteNew's Birthday Builder set.

 Finally I decided to go full on cowboy using bits from the die paired with the new Cowboy Adventure stamp set.

I started with the sunset stamp and embossed it with detail white powder [this stuff in the bomb by the way - I'll be doing a future post featuring detail white and black powders as they really are amazing] and then masked off the back of my base card so I could ink blend a sunset sky.

I added hills and a "canyon edge" foreground using Mama Elephant's Kingdom Trio die just using plain white card blended with more oxide inks.  I stamped the grand canyon elements from the stamp set and used pencils to get some extra colour depth to those which I then fussy cut as I didn't want the borders from a die showing in this card.  I tucked the two on the right behind the foreground so their lack of a bottom edge didn't show.  I die cur the cacti from the desert sunshine die twice from scraps of black left from previous card and just trimmed the bottom edges with scissors to get a bit of ground for them.  Finished by stamping the cowboy in black across the two layers [use a fine pen to draw in any bits that don't meet up] and a sentiment from the same stamp set.

 NEWS FROM THE STORE

• We will have the new release form Lil' Inker Designs in store tomorrow - it's a fab one for coffee lovers!
• We will also have a small new release from Echo Park with papers and stencils and a couple of dies
• We also have a small Hero Arts restock of products that didn't arrive with our last order and were on back order.  The new kit add-ons should be here later this month.
• There is a fab new release from Newton's Nook coming this week and we will have it for release day.
• We are still waiting for the Sugar Pea Designs and AlteNew to ship our orders for their releases.  We HOPE they will do it this week.

That's all from me this week - hope all of you who still have them around are making the most of father's day.

Tara