Ho, Ho, Ho - Merry Christmas!

Hey!

It's Bev here today. I am really getting into the Christmas spirit now and I have a trio of Christmas cards to share with you using the recently released Winter Stencil Strips from MFT.

I didn't think I would really get into using stencils, but they are really good fun and there are so many techniques you can use them with. Plus they are really good value too, especially this one at £5.50 and a choice of 4 designs in one!

For my first card today, I couldn't wait to try out the MFT Merry Christmas Blend stamp and give it a rainbow look! 

Choosing to stamp it in a rainbow of colours was quite time consuming and required some masking while inking up. But with the use of a stamping tool it was pretty easy and straight forward. I used Altenew inks in Ruby Red, Orange Cream, Fresh Lemon, Parrot, Ultramarine, Azurite & Ultraviolet.

After I had stamped the sentiment, I went and added the snowflake stencil in Altenew Silver Lake ink and added some sparkly liquid adhesive to the snowflake centres. With the stencil having four designs in one, you need to use a scrap piece of paper to mask the designs off that you don't want to ink!

Next I used the same snowflake design to create a lovely background using Altenew Dew Drop ink.

I added gloss white liquid adhesive to the snowflake centres and this time finished the design with a trio of snowflakes and the 'Let it Snow' banner sentiment from Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages Stamp Set.

The sentiment and snowflakes are adhered to the card using foam adhesive so that they stand out from the background. I used Altenew Aqualicious and Teal Cave ink colours.

Lastly for today I have a super quick clean and simple card using the HO, HO, HO design on the stencil.

I used Altenew Ruby Red ink for the stencilling and I added the 'Believe' sentiment, also from Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black ink onto a scrap of white card & adhered using foam adhesive.

So much fun with one stencil and a couple of stamp sets. I hope I have inspired your Christmas card making a little. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Bev 

Altenew Ink colours used can be found HERE in the Seven Hills Crafts Store and all the colour families I have used are currently in stock :)

Lapis Lazuli 

Enchanted Garden

Gentlemans Gray

Sweet Dreams

Pocketful of Sunshine

Tropical Forest

Warm & Cozy

Red Cosmos

Fun with Geometrics

Happy Thursday!

It's Bev here today with a FUN geometric and masculine birthday card. It's my Dad's birthday at the weekend, and so I needed to make a card for him.

I was looking though my supplies to make my card and with limited masculine themed products, I was inspired to use the Waffle Flower Color Combos For Inkpads stamp set. As I've not got round to my intended purpose for using these stamps (swatching all my ink pads), it was nice to ink them up to create this fun background. 

I decided to use the Altenew Lapis Lazuli collection which features two bright blues and two softer shades creating a fun combination. I used my stamping tool to stamp all of the shapes, this was to ensure I achieved even coverage with them being solid and new stamps. 

The 'Happiest Birthday' sentiment is from Concord & 9th Confetti Turnabout stamp set and the DAD is die cut using the My Favourite Things Impact Alphabet dies and adhered to the card using foam adhesive for a little dimension.

This card would look great in all kinds of colour combinations, for women and all different occasions. Geometrics are my 'go to' for masculine cards and they come in all types of products too, not just stamps. 

I hope I have inspired you today & I hope to share more masculine makes with you soon. Until next week, thanks for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs

Bev

Products Used...

Joy, Love, Peace

Hey & Happy Thursday!

Today I have a little bit of Joy, Love & Peace to share with you using more products from the most recent My Favourite Things release. There was so much of this release I wanted to purchase, but these two products really appealed to me and instantly fell into my basket ;)

For my first card I was inspired to use the Joy, Love, Peace Stencil with some sparkly embossing paste...

It's hard to see from my photos, but this stuff is super sparkly and so festive. I wasn't 100% sure where I was going next with this card, but when I hit this wall I turn to blog challenges to inspire me. For this card I turned to CAS Colours & Sketches for inspiration and this week they have a colour scheme seen HERE and below.

This made me think of adding a simple trio of die cut Christmas trees from the Joy, Love, Peace Die to the lower left corner and adhered using foam adhesive.

Lastly for today I had to use the Joy, Love, Peace Dies on their own...

I love how these dies are wonderfully quirky and have the images of the modern snowflake, heart and Christmas tree as part of the words. It adds interest without the need for pairing them with any other products. 

I decided to choose some bright non traditional Christmas colours to die cut the words and simply adhered them to a white panel of card adhered to my card base using foam adhesive. Super quick and super simple.

That's all from me today, I hope you have enjoyed my cards and you are feeling creative. Have a wonderful day!

Crafty Hugs 

Bev 

Festive Friday!

Hey!

It's Bev here (again). I'm stepping if for Tara this week as she gets some important accounting done and she promises to be back in a couple of weeks with a bumper issue of Found on Friday.

Did you see the NEW MFT Release this week? If you didn't you must have been hiding under a rock or you are avoiding Christmas OR you are so scared your bank balance will be wiped out in an instant that you daren't look!

Well, I looked and caved for more than I intended! Isn't that always the case?! My goodies arrived on Thursday (my selfie day) and I couldn't wait to ink up the new Christmas sELFies clear stamp set...

Now, I'm not big lover of cute, I've never been one of those types of girls. But this set is just my style of fun and cute. Plus I have a thing for polaroid photos!

This first card was pretty quick to make. I used colour pencils to colour the image and when I am excited about a new stamp, I opt for quick flat colouring with minimal fuss and shading. Which is exactly what I have done with this image.

Next, I had a fun layering design in my head in which I was able to use all of the sELFie images from the set.

This was so fun to make and the masking was super quick too, with the images being square. Again some quick simple, flat colouring and one of the sentiments from the set & I was done.

That's all I had time to make yesterday using this set, but I am sure I will be reaching for it again soon!

Now if you've had your eye on this set, you might want to snag one quickly HERE before the stock Tara ordered in of this one has gone, it's going FAST!

Thanks for stopping by & have a wonderful day!

Bev

Simple birthday card

Hello and welcome back everyone! 

Hope you're having a great day. 

 Today I'm back with a simple birthday card, featuring MFT Up In The Air stamp set and ink blending.

I started with stamping all the critters from the "Up in the air" stamp set on to a watercolour paper with waterproof black ink and colouring them with Zig real brush markers. 

I also added details with a white gel pen.

For my background, I decided to do my favourite technique - ink blending. I used distress oxides here, as the results are always great. I added gold splatters for more interest.

My next step was to die cut oval window in the card front. For that, I chose Hero Arts Nesting Oval Infinity Dies. 
I adhered my card panel on top of the inked background with foam tape and added critters inside the window.

For the sentiment, I decided to use one of the greetings from MFT Handwritten Happiness stamp set and stamped it with black ink

To finish off this card, I added a few grey Nuvo drops.

That's all for today! I love love love this colour combination. I'm sure to be back with more cards in the same colour scheme.

Thank you for stopping by! See you soon.

Anna

Simple cards with MFT Plentiful Petals set.

Hello everyone.

 I'm back with 3 simple cards, featuring older, " Plentiful Petals" stamp set from MFT.

Summer is in full swing and I decided to share a few quick card ideas, that takes little time to make and are full of colour.

For all of my examples, I've mostly used MFT dye inks to create the backgrounds, I also decided to do simple repetitive stamping, using different size flowers from Plentiful Petals set.

 The florals in this particular set are solid images, that you can stamp together to create different looking flowers. I really like how quick and easy it is to fill the card panel with these. 

I must mention that the Altenew alphabet dies used here is unfortunately out of stock, and it will be back in store soon, but as an alternative option, I definitely recommend the Concord &9th Simple Serif Alphabet dies, which are very similar in style.

 I heat embossed my alphabet dies several times, using sparkle embossing powder and embossing ink for additional dimension.

All the little sentiments are from Avery Elle Simple Sentiments stamp set.   

For this card, I decided to use MFT Daffodil dye ink for my stamping. I also added centres to  all the florals with dark grey ink. I like that my little sentiment matches the colour of the petals and do not distract from this very cheerful background.  To achieve that, I used the direct-to-paper method to ink up the sentiment strip before I added my greeting to it.

I love how soft and elegant this background is. I used Manatee dye ink from Lawn Fawn and second generation stamping for even lighter results. For flower centres and sentiment strip, I went with MFT Peach Bellini dye ink. 

Last but not least, is this super fun rainbow card. I used the whole bunch of colours here - starting from MFT Poppy Red, though Daffodil, LimeLight and Summer Splash, finishing with Lawn Fawn Sugar Plum, which is very pretty violet.

Simple white sentiment strip and bold alphabet dies are really standing out from this busy background.

After all my card panels were complete, I cut them to be about 1/2 inch smaller than my card base.  I used craft foam and double-sided tape to adhere everything in place and added details with nuvo drops. 

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping here with me. Hopefully, I've inspired you to make a few simple cards this summer. 

See you soon! Anna

X's and O's

Hello, it's Liz here today. This week I have made two lovey dovey cards for the romantics amongst you! They would be perfect for anniversaries, valentines or just to tell someone you love them. They were quick and easy to make and, I think, have a really modern look.

The stamp set is called X's and O's and is from My Favourite Things (it's on sale just now). The frame on the card above and the background on the one below have been diecut using the Stitched Squares die set by Reverse Confetti.

Thanks for stopping by today, happy crafting!