Distressed Embossing

Today I have a masculine card to share. My favourite look for masculine cards is a distress oxide ink background with a bold word die. I added lots of distressed detail to this otherwise simple card.

I began by inking my card panel with distress oxide inks in black soot, faded jeans, and hickory smoke.

I let the panel dry for some time, before layering the Altenew Square Weave stencil over it and covering with embossing ink. I then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. The embossing doesn’t have to be perfect as it acts to the look if some areas are missed.

To get a more grungy distressed look to the card, I then flicked the panel first with water, then with pewter perfect pearls, and finally with white acrylic paint.

I adhered the panel to my card base, then worked on the sentiment. I die cut the MFT Wish dienamic, layering three black card die cuts and topping with a silver glitter die cut. I also die cut the flame from gold glitter card to make it stand out.

Have a lovely day,

Gemma

Altenew Square Weave Stencil

MFT Wish dienamic

Birthday Plaid

I have another birthday card to share today - actually two cards using the same design. As a fan of typography on cards, I thought I’d try the technique of the hidden message.

I began by stamping the C&9th Plaid background on white card. I used MFT inks and then embossed the lines with silver embossing powder. 

I trimmed the panels down to fit the width of my card bases. As they weren't tall enough, I added some thin strips of black card at the top and bottom of the panels. 

I die cut the MFT Wish dienamic from the panels, keeping the letters to put back into the cards later, before adhering the panels to the card bases.

I then die cut the Wish dienamic several more times from white card. I layered these into the spaces in the panel, creating some dimension to the word, before adhering the patterned letters on the top.

I white heat embossed a sentiment from the MFT You Wow Me stamp set onto black card, then adhered this to the card underneath the die cut words.

I felt like the cards needed something to help the word show a little more. I die cut the flame from Lawn Fawn gold glitter card, adding it to the die cut words to finish the card.

Thanks for joining me today,

Gemma

C&9th Plaid Background

MFT Wish die

LF Holiday Sparkle Cardstock

MFT You Wow Me

Wish Rainbow Stack

I’ve got a CAS card to share today, with a rainbow twist! 

I’m using the new Wish dienamic from MFT for this card. I die cut a piece of white card with a single stitched line rounded rectangle frame. On the inside piece, I die cut the Wish dienamic in the bottom right corner.

I added some rainbow colours to the frame, then adhered the panel and frame onto a white card base, and layered the positive 'Wish' die cut letters back onto the card. 

I then die cut the Wish dienamic from an assortment of coloured card stock, plus another white piece. 

Going in reverse rainbow order, I adhered the letters onto the card, one on top of each other. I then finished with the second white layer. In total, there are 7 layers.

When viewing the card from the front, the letters look white, but when viewed from the side, it gives a lovely rainbow effect.

I added an additional sentiment, from Lawn Fawn Upon a Star, on top of the stacked letters. Then I finished the card with some sequins on the background.

Thanks for joining me today,

Gemma

MFT Wish

Lawn Fawn Upon a Star

MFT Single Stitch Rounded Rectangle Frames

Liquid Watercolours and Mandalas

I've been having a play with the new liquid water colours from Avery Elle this weekend.  I must admit when I saw them being peeked at Creativation I wasn't sure what the fuss was about but so many people were raving about liquid water colours in general that I knew I had better get them in store for you or risk missing out on the next big trend (lots of brands have them - we'll have the Hero Arts version in a few weeks too)

Now I am no water colourist so was not about to create a landscape masterpiece, so I just decided to play and see what I could do with them.

Firstly I just tried a background technique - I wet a piece of thick watercolour paper all over with a water sprayer and then just dropped random drops of colour in shades of green and blue all over and allowed them to expand and run.  Once dry I added some neat drops for a stronger pigment look and then added a few spatters with a paintbrush.  I allowed it to dry again and then went about die cutting it to create a big birthday wish card using the big balloon border from MFT's Blue Prints 26, their new Wish word die and the simple alphabet from AlteNew.

Next I wanted to try painted with them over embossing.  I embossed the new MFT Mandala stamp from MFT using satin pearl embossing powder on watercolour paper and then got it good and wet.  I then just drew circles of colour -the bottles are great for this technique - and spread the colour with a paintbrush.

I trimmed it down to fit a 4x6 card once dry and stamped over a sentiment from the new Anything But Basic Birthday Sentiments from MFT using versafine black ink so it would hold on the embossing.  [My top tip is to have a Kuretake Sketching pen to hand for this - its a permanent marker so will fill in any gaps!]

Whilst I was playing with Mandalas, I wanted to play with the co-ordinating die - this does not cut the stamp - it's smaller but the same shape so you could do some fun layering.  I thought that it had a floral shape so die cut it twice from some old ombre purple paper and layered them over each other to create my floral shape.  I added some silver glitter highlights around and finished with another sentiment from the previous MFT set.

 NEWS FROM THE STORE

This week we will have the following:

• The new release from Mama Elephant - it has shipped so fingers crossed will be here for release day on the 15th.
• The current release from Concord and 9th is hopefully shipping to us tomorrow so we should have it by the end of the week customs willing.
• The new release from Newton's Nook  is shipping this week.
• The new release from Sugar Pea Designs is shipping to us this week hopefully.
• We are waiting for the new Altenew release to ship. 

• We are still waiting for the Hero Arts new release to reach the UK distributor - all we know is that it is "expected late February"
• The Lawn Fawn release date has been confirmed as 22nd February.  We will have it in store on that date.

We have our Stamping Bella delivery but due to the massive numbers of new releases we've still not managed to open it all and add it to the store yet (there's a tonne of it!) so bear with us - we'll fit it in around the new releases when we can.