Polar Pals

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I swapped days with sweet Gemma, that's why you see me posting here on a Tuesday!
Today I have a set of four cards for you! Sometimes when I have an idea in mind that is easy to realize then I make more than one card.

For this set I started to create backgrounds using my alcohol inks. When they were dry I die cut stitched squares using My Favorite Things' Inside And Out Stitched Square STAX.

I stamped all the animals except the narwhal (he was a little bit to smal for my square) from the set Polar Pals by My Favorite Things, coloured them with alcohol marker and fussy cut them (of course there are coordinating dies available). I added some shading with coloured pencils.
For all crittes I stamped an ice floe, too, so they have something to sit on.

For the sentiments I chose Lawn Fawn's Tiny Tag Sayings. I really love the size and the fonts in this set - so cute!
I die cut speech bubbles from Lawn Fawn's A Birdie Told Me and a part of one of Mama Elephant's Slim Tags Trio.
For the finishing touches I added some Nuvo drops in different colours.

Do you make set of cards? Or do you always just make one card?

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty week.
Anni

            

Just a Couple of Bears

Taheerah is taking a little break this week so I've made a couple of extra cards to share this week and today I'm all about bears.

I started off with the super cute bear in the new Polar Pals set from MFT - I mean come on - a polar bear in a jumper???  What could be cuter?

I picked a really simple colour scheme to start with - turquoise, purple and green and used that to theme my card.  I coloured the bear using markers from my zig set with teal and purple on his jumper and light grey to add shadows to his fur.  I die cut the starry circles background from MFT and did a light colour wash using the same markers I coloured the jumper with but with lots of water.  I used green with a hint of yellow on the trees and then fussy cut them out.  I added a dotted snow hill over the bottom of the starry background and then added all the items on top.

To frame the scene on the base card I added a die cut scalloped circle from green paper from the knock on wood pack from Lawn Fawn and to ensure the sentiment matched I stamped that on a scrap of card coloured with the same purple marker. 

For my second card I finally got around to playing with the fabulous Paper Layering Bear die  from Hero Arts - isn't he just so handsome?

I simply die cut him from some water colour card and using the zig markers in two shades of blue coloured his scarf.  Using a little grey to define his shape and black for his eyes and hey presto - he's done!

The sentiment is from the Polar Pals stamp set and is die cut using the stitched fishtail sentiment dies from MFT and coloured with the same blues.  It would be a great die for all year round as he's not totally Christmassy so I think with this sentiment you could use it for a winter birthday too.

That's all from me today - catch you on Sunday.

Tara

Snow much fun

I've been having far too much fun with snow globes this weekend.  I had an idea for a 3D layer inside the new shaker domes from MFT and I liked the first one so much I made a couple more!

I figured that the snowy drifts dies from Hero Arts would be a perfect fit and wanted to see if I could get some layers of dimension inside the shakers so I layered them up with thin foam tape after colouring them with my ancient whispers markers.  I added some chunky glitter (will be back in stock this week) to create the shaker bit and secured it to my base card.  I used the co-ordinating snow globes dienamic to die cut a hole in some green card stock so I could layer it over and cover up the edges of the shaker domes, adding the base of the snow globe from the die in silver mirri underneath.

To finish the card I embossed a fab sentiment from Hero Arts underneath the snow globe in silver - my top tip would be to do any embossing first - I didn't know how I was going to finish it and found I slightly melted the bottom of my first globe!  In this shot you can see the layers a little more clearly.

For my second globe I tried a similar effect but this time using the log cabin mountainscape die from SugarPea Designs.  Although not designed to be layered, it can be used that way quite successfully.  Again I coloured the items over the white hills and layered them up - this time adding colour to the sky on the base card too before repeating the steps to cover the shaker in the first card.

For the final card I wanted to create a cute scene and I didn't think things come much cuter than the new polar pals from MFT!   I mean - how could you resist this little penguin!

This time I switched to my color clean pens and a water brush so I could get some really soft and subtle colour.   I created a soft sunset background with blues and purples and then layered up a simple die cut hill.  I stamped the igloo twice and did a colour wash then added some stronger blue to the edges of each cube.  I fussy cut the "entrance" a second time and layered it over the base image and stuck both onto a 3rd piece of card with the central entrance area coloured in grey.   I added the tree behind and the penguin in front (adding foam tape behind the body of the penguin only above the hill so he layed flat overall.  I finished with some tiny snowballs from my stash but you could easily make your own from cotton wool if you don't have any.  The sentiment on the base of the globe was taken from a couple of stamps in the Winter Wonderland stamp set from MFT (currently on sale for a bargain £10 as it has been discontinued by MFT so grab it whilst we still have it!)  This time I changed the orientation and used one of the great wooden textured papers from Lawn Fawn's Knock On Wood paper pad to cover the edges of the dome.

 

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We'll have the following in store this week:

• Lawn Fawn restocks
• The new Waffle Flower release plus lots of restocks
• The new release from Neat & Tangled (plus restocks on some items but many were out of stock at their end this month) 
• Hopefully by the end of the week we will also finally have the AlteNew release which has been stuck in customs clearance hell for over a week now due to various levels of incompetence of customs and couriers.

• The new release from Concord and 9th should ship on Monday and there is therefore also a slim chance we'll have it before the end of the week but we can't promise.
  
• We are waiting for our Stamping Bella order to ship which includes the last release-the one due to be released this week, plus some restocks.   Hopefully we will have it soon.
  
• We have also already ordered the as yet to be release from Newton's Nook and Mama Elephant - I wish I could share them already as they are both amazing!!!

We have several off site meetings this week too so please bear with us if shipping is a little slower than normal.  We'll do our best as always to keep on top of things but appreciate your patience.

Catch you later

Tara