Turning a negative into a positive.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and today, I'm being a little negative...

...but don't worry, it's all in the name of creating something pretty, by using the negative space from a die-cut!

I love a cool background and a statement sentiment to make up a card, so thought I would try this technique out to see if it was enough to stand on it's own.

I started by creating my background.  I inked up a piece of card using various Distress Inks, going form dark to light green, creating an ombre effect.  I wanted a kind of teal/turquoise colour, of which there are not nearly enough of yet (Come on Tim!), so went over the whole piece in a light blue to create my own colour.  I then inked up My Favourite Things 'Sketched Chevron' background stamp, (still one of my favourite ever background stamps, it very rarely leaves my craft table.  It's just so subtle, and pretty, and versatile.  Love it!), in the same ombre of inks, gave a very light spritz of water, and stamped onto my card.  I then added a few sploshes and splashes of water, and of some pearl and copper mica powder sprays I had made up, to add extra interest.

I knew I was going to need even dimension across my whole piece of card, so that the less supported areas didn't droop and distort, so I adhered a piece of of black foam sheet across the back of my entire piece, making sure to hit every area with glue so even my teeny pieces would stay intact once cut.  I then took Lawn Fawn's 'Scripty Cheers' die, and cut it from the upper centre of my card.  Once cut, I made sure to keep the piece in the card using a piece of low-tack tape, so everything stayed exactly where it should be.  

I then took another piece of card, slightly bigger than my main panel, and heat embossed, pretty much the whole thing, (that powder just goes on and on doesn't it?!) in this kind of copper/rose gold colour, paying extra attention to the edges and the area which would peek through my die-cut space.  I then put glue all over the back of my main panel, apart from the actual die-cut itself, and adhered to my embossed card.  Once in place, I carefully removed my 'Scripty Cheers' die-cut, leaving the negative space, and the wee little pieces, in place.  

I built up my sentiment to say a little more by heat embossing another stamp from my stash, onto vellum in the same powder, cutting into a little flag, and adhering to my card using a scattering of sequins I used to embellish with.  I mounted my whole piece onto a cream card blank, and that was that.

I really like how this turned out and am going to go back through my stash and see what else would work well.  So don't just look at your dies as the piece that actually cuts, think how many awesome designs you can get from the space it leaves behind, and turn your negative, into a positive :)

I hope you like it.  As always, everything I used is linked below so be sure to go have a quick snoop around the store!

See you next week.

Jillx

  

Hello, new baby.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I've got some simple Spring watercolour...

...to welcome a new arrival to this world.

I used Mama Elephant's gorgeous 'New Family' set to make my card.  It is such a beautiful and sweet set, full of soft and gentle images.

I started with a piece of watercolour card and, using a mix of Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, brushed some simple stripes across my card.  I wanted it to look really loose, relaxed and laid back so did it free hand, I wanted to embrace the imperfections.

I then stamped out all my New Family images and coloured them, again intentionally keeping them soft and not over-thought, using my Zig Clean Colour Brush Pens, then fussy cut.  I die-cut a small circle from my front panel, and created a little scalloped edge border using a die from my stash, to create a little aperture from which to build my scene.  I then took a separate piece of card and stamped out the amazing Sketched Chevrons background from MFT, heat embossed in white and washed over it in blue - I wanted a simple but pretty background for my scene.

My sentiment is from the same gorgeous New Family set, and is simply stamped in black and clear heat embossed.

I built up my sweet little scene behind my aperture, adhered the whole thing in place and added my main panel over the top using foam adhesive to give my aperture scene some dimension.  I then mounted the whole thing onto a piece of light grey card, added a scattering of clear sequins, and there you have it.

I really hope you like it.

As always, everything is linked below, and I shall see you all next week 

Jillxxx

One for the Guys!

Hello there :)

I'm on a bit of an Avery Elle kick at the moment as I've used another of their latest stamp sets to make a couple of guys cards although I'm sure with some creative drawing the characters could be adapted for girls too :)

Stoked is a great set for those hard to make guys cards .. you have a skateboarder, snowboarder and drummer and it would be great if Avery Elle could expand on this theme in future releases... lets hope they're listening ;)

I have made a scene for my adrenaline junkie snowboarder using the Backdrop builders dies from Paper Smooches. I cut the ramp freehand and used an icicle border from my stash to make the snowy edge... it also makes good trees for the distant scenery when turned up the other way and coloured green :) The sentiment is from the same set and I used the sketchy chevron background on my card base.

For my second card I used the drummer...  and my goodness, he's really going for it!!

I love that the small sentiments in the set will fit in the bass drum and I decided to die cut an aperture and use vellum for a more realistic look. I went a step further and added some beads behind the vellum to make a shaker element in the drum :)

These are the three layers I used to make the shaker element... the co-ordinating dies come in really helpful here ;)

• Far left is the top layer of card which has an aperture cut into the bass drum ( I found a circle die in my stash to do this) 
• The middle piece is cut from funky foam, I cut the aperture in the same place in this layer too.
• Far right is the bottom layer of card that will seal your shaker element.

I embossed the wording onto the vellum before attaching it between the top and middle layer and then added black seed beads before adhering the back piece of card.

The sentiment is from a Neat & Tangled set called Across the Card.... I love how the line sort of grounds the image :) I wanted a background that didn't over power the drummer so I went with this background from Wplus9 and soft soft grey inks.

     

     

 I think what I like most about these guys is they all have their tongue sticking out due to the concentration needed in their hobby/sport and that would totally be me as well .. Lol :)

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x