Stencil Cheers

I think stencils are a great item to have in your craft room. They are easy to store, inexpensive, and come in a variety of different styles.

Altenew have recently released some new stencils so I thought I’d use one on my card today.

I layered the Altenew Sunburst stencil over my white card base, then used some distress oxide inks in cracked pistachio, peacock feathers, and faded jeans to add colour radiating out from the centre. This takes hardly any time at all to do and the colours are easy to blend to give a lovely gradient effect.

After removing the stencil, I spritzed some water over it to get those lovely droplets.

For the sentiment, I kept things simple. I die cut the MFT Cheers dienamic three times from black card, stacking them together for a dimensional look. I used some liquid glue to attach it to the card, then finished with some enamel dots around the sentiment.

That’s all from me for 2018. I’ll be back on the blog again in the new year. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year.

Gemma

Altenew Sunburst Stencil

MFT Cheers

Distress Oxide Inks

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

Cheers to the New Year

This year seems to have gone by so fast! Hard to believe we'll be in 2018 in a few short weeks. With that in mind, I have a New Years card to share today. 

I began with a square card base, then die cut a zig-zag square to go on the top. From that, I die cut a stitched star peek-a-boo window. You could easily turn this into a shaker card, using one of the fabulous MFT shaker pouches.

Next, I reached for one of my favourite stamp sets - Avery Elle Bunting. This was actually the first stamp set I bought when I started making cards again in 2015! I am still finding new ways to use it, too.

I reached for the stars, circles and starburst shapes from this set, and heat embossed them around the star with gold embossing powder.

Before adding the zig-zag square to the card base, I layered a piece of black card behind the star.

I added a gold glitter 'Cheers' word die over the top of the star. The black background really helps it stand out. If I made this again, though, I think I’d layer a few of the word die cuts for some more dimension.

To finish, I added some sequins for extra sparkle.

Thanks for joining me today and throughout the year. 

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Gemma

MFT Stitched Star Peek-a-boo Window

MFT Cheers

Avery Elle Bunting

Lawn Fawn Zig Zag Squares

Pop the Bubbly!!

Hi there, Jenny here with a final card for you before Christmas and the New year so I thought I'd showcase this brilliant Champagne Pop die from Waffleflower which is ideal for any celebratory card including seeing in the New Year...

I chose a shimmery green card scrap to cut the bottle with and then kept to the traditional red and gold trimmings.... I love the little extra dies in the set to make a highlight and give the rim of the bottle top some dimension too. The top of the bottle has a slit in it so you can insert the cork or allow the champagne to flow out... I'm sure there's scope for an interactive card there somehow!!

I have used the Neat & Tangled Falling Circles cover plate to emboss a wite background panel, the circles resembled bubbles to me :) I also cut a Zig Zag circle aperture to make a focal point for the bottle and to allow the sparkly white 'Cheers' to stand out. I don't usually send New Years cards so I thought I'd add a simple 'to you' under the sentiment so this card could be used for any occasion :)

Well that's all from me now before Christmas so I'd like to wish you all a Happy and Peaceful Christmas and I'll be back again in the New Year :)

Jenny x

                                       
                                     

A teeny weeny gin truck

Hi it's Tara back today as Taheerah is super busy with her Advent Extravaganza on her own blog - do go and visit if you haven't as she has lots of prizes to be won every day.

So today I have a fun idea to share - as soon as I saw the truck die from Neat and Tangled I had the instant idea of using it to make my place cards for the Christmas table and adding a little festive cheer to it.

As you can see it's perfectly sized to add a miniature (gin for me naturally!) and by adding the guest's name to the number plate then you get a super cute place card come gift all in one handy and super cute little truck! 

At first it looks a little complicated as there are lots of little bits in the die but as they have given you a couple of each little piece it means you can cut out lots in one go.  The die for the truck is very large and doesn't fit straight away on a standard platform on a big shot but as I don't have an extended platform I just used standard partial die cutting techniques to run it all through in two passes.   However on this example, I actually cut off the top to make a pick up truck so didn't need to cut the roof and didn't need the extra pass.

I just die cut the windows and added acetate behind and then for the side and back panels I added patterned paper rather than extra windows as I wanted some snowflakes to match my Christmas table theme this year.

It is much easier to add all your decorations before you build the truck so I just folded all the score lines, creased them with a bone folder and then opened it up again to add the elements before sticking it all together with red line tape for strength.

I added a Cheers die to the front to go with the bottle inside but you could also add the person's name there or on the side if their name is too long to fit on the number plate.

If you wanted to make a children's version you could add a little pack of crayons and some candy canes sticking out of the top or keep the roof on and add some little chocolates.

They could also be a cute way of handing over cash - much more fun to open the roof and find the cash folded inside than just opening an envelope!

I could also see them in different colours becoming a bit of a race game around the Christmas table to keep little people occupied whilst the turkey's carved...

That's all from me for now - see you on Sunday!

Tara

Cheers To You!

Today I thought I'd share something a bit different. Both MFT and Avery Elle released wine tag dies recently. They are a great way to dress up a bottle, and can be decorated many ways for many occasions.

I'm using her MFT Wine Tag dienamic for this project, which I die cut from white card.

On another piece of white card, I blended some MFT inks in purple to create an ombré. From this, I die cut the MFT Cheers dienamic several times. I layered these onto the tag, cutting off any letters overhanging the tag.

I left some space empty at the top of the tag so I could add a sentiment from the MFT Uncorked stamp set. I finished the tag with a few gold glitter die cut hearts.

Thanks for joining me today,

Gemma

MFT Uncorked

MFT Cheers

MFT Wine Tag

Wine A Little

I've gone full-on wino this week lol!  I may be a gin girl but all my mates are wine drinkers so all the new wine themed products we've had in store recently will be getting a lot of use!

Firstly I did a simple card using the MFT dies Wine Service and Cheers

I die cut a frame using the peek-a-boo window (sorry it just sold out again but we will get it back as soon as we can) so I had somewhere to sit my bottle.   I die cut the bottle and glass and did some quick colouring with alcohol markers before covering both with a thick layer of clear embossing.  I added a gold die cut cap and a wine label - the stamping of which came from one of the sentiments in MFT's Uncorked using the selective inking technique using a momento pen to ink up each word one at a time.  I finished with a gold matt and a matching gold Cheers sentiment.

For my second card I wanted to make a shaped card so I switched dies to the larger wine bottle from Avery Elle and used it in a slightly different way than they intended!

The die cuts the bottle in 4 pieces which you then align on your card.  However as I wanted a stand alone bottle, I just drew around the die twice on some green card and cut them out with scissors.  It's an easy shape to cut so it's no great hardship. I then die cut the label part from kraft and did some scruffy embossing to the edges to give the label a distressed feel and stamped one of the larger sentiments from Uncorked onto it again.  Another gold top finished the top bottle off - to make it into a card I just scored under the gold top to create a crease to lift the front up with and then used a little strong tape behind it to glue the two bottles together.  You could make fun bottle gift tags if you just did single ones too. 

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It will be a busy week in store again this week:

• Lil' Inker Designs have a new release tomorrow which will be live in store after they release it in the USA
• This month's Concord and 9th release was delayed in customs in the USA (we are finding they are tightening up on  regulations and parcels are being held up for the smallest of reasons so we are facing many unhelpful delays) but should be here in a couple of days.
• The much anticipated Lawn Fawn release will finally be released by Lawn Fawn in the USA on the 23rd February.  We will have ours tomorrow but retailers are not allowed to sell it until they have released it in the USA so we won't be releasing ours until they do.
• The SugarPea release from last Friday will hopefully ship to us early this week so we should have it in around a week to 10 days.
• We are still waiting for the Hero Arts release but it reached the UK distributor on Friday so hopefully it won't take them too long to sort out everyone's orders and get it out to us.

Champagne Shaker

Happy Valentines Day!

Today I'm sharing a card that I think would work for many different occasions - valentines, engagement, wedding, anniversary, even a special birthday.

I'm using the new Wine Service and Cheers die-namics from MFT. I love all the wine related items from the February MFT release. They work so well together with the wine bottle tag, but also look great on cards.

I die cut two of the largest Stitched Traditional tags, set one aside and from the other I die cut the two wine glasses.

I added acetate behind the tag and a double layer of foam tape around the die cut windows and over the back of the tag. Before adding my gold sequins, I dusted on some talc around the edges of the foam tape. This removes some of the adhesive, meaning your sequins are less likely to stick and can move more freely. I used some sequins I found in my stash, but I've linked below to a pretty store option that I like.

Once I'd added the sequins, I stuck down the other die cut tag at the back to create a shaker tag. If you wanted to make just a tag to use on a present, don't forget to add a punched hole to both tags before putting it together. That way you can add some twine or ribbon.

To add some detail to the card base, I used the Basic Stitch Lines die-namics across the middle. I then added my shaker tag at a slight angle on the card.

On the positive die cuts of the wine glasses, I added some pink ink before trimming them down to just the stems. I added these stems back on the card, then added some gold glitter bows to the glasses.

I die cut a gold glitter 'Cheers' - the font is so pretty! I used stick-it adhesive at the back so it was very easy to attach to the card.

To finish, I added some gold glitter and pink sequin hearts above the wine glasses.

Have a wonderful day,
Gemma

MFT Wine Service

MFT Cheers

MFT Stitched Traditional Tags

MFT Basic Stitch Lines

Stick-It Adhesive

Pixie Dust Sequins

Avery Elle Bunting