Arctic Amour

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I’ve got a Valentine’s love story...

...starring Mama Elephant’s adorable Arctic Penguins.

I think I have a tendency to see these delights as a Christmassy set for some reason. Well, no more! These perfect penguins are free to play any time, and what better time is there for such wonderful creatures to make an appearance, (I mean...partners for life *heart strings officially pulled*), than to help celebrate the day of love, Valentine’s.

I started by cutting a heart stencil and using the negative piece to colour inside with a mixture of Zig Markers & water. I then added a few flicks and splashes across my background, and a ton of tiny hearts. I then stamped out my perfect pair of penguins, added a wee touch of colour, & cut out. My sentiment is from Wplus9’s wonderful, That is all, which is a set with so many different options for how to build your sentiment up in a really gorgeous font, absolutely love it. I stamped my sentiment straight onto my card and clear heat embossed. I cut some Tiny Hearts from Paper Smooches (seriously the best value dies I have EVER bought), and added to my card front.

I adhered my sweet couple onto the front of my card using foam tape for a little dimension, and finished with a slick of gloss to the hearts and penguins' beaks and skates.

I really hope you like it.

As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

    

Tiny Hearts and Lots of Love

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I'm getting all romantic...

...using the beautiful Love Quotes from Mama Elephant with a scattering of Tiny Hearts from Altenew and even more Tiny Hearts from Paper Smooches.

If I had to choose my all time favourite sentiment, it would be this one...'And suddenly all the love songs were about you'.  I'm a sucker for soppy and I just think it's so beautiful, so romantic to let your special someone know how you feel.  It's perfect for anniversaries, Valentine's Day, but you know what, it's perfect for just letting your special someone know they still give you butterflies, anytime!

I started by stamping out the adorable Tiny Hearts from Altenew across the top of my background, allowing them to gradually fade out towards the bottom, then ink blending over the top in a variety of pink inks to create an ombré effect emboss resist.  I then added a few sprinkles of water to pick up some of the ink adding interest & texture.

I stamped out my sentiment onto vellum and heat embossed in white;  I always think white embossing on vellum looks romantic!  I then cut my vellum into a banner shape and adhered in place with tiny dots of clear glue so it wouldn't show through.

I then covered a piece of card in a white sparkle embossing powder and cut a load of Paper Smooches Tiny Hearts from it which I then used to sprinkle around my card.

I finished by added a bow of white string to bring my design together.

I really hope you like it and it makes you want to express your soppy side too :)

As always, everything I used is linked below so be sure to stop by the store and check out the rest of the lovey dovey sentiments on this awesome set.

See you next week.

Jillx

Stretch your stencils and say what you want!

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I'm starting the year with a nice, bright and cheerful card to add a little light to these dark winter days (they don't half mess with my crafting time!)...

...using Echo Park's Hearts Stencils and Lawn Fawn's Quinn's abc's (lower case).

I LOVE this Heart's Stencil, and use it A LOT, so decided to stretch it's use and use the reverse side of it.  I spread and smudged my ink all over my actual stencil, spritzed it with water, and pressed my card onto it to pick up the print; an old but brilliant technique that means you get two designs for the price of one on all of your stencils!  Once dry, I took my Quinn's lower case abc's from Lawn Fawn, and cut my sentiment from the front, taking care to keep all the fiddly bits from inside the letters so I could add them back in.

I inked up another piece of card to use as my background, and adhered a piece of vellum behind my cut-out letters to mute the effect.  I inked another piece of card to match my background, and cut these gorgeous little sprigs using Reverse Confetti's Layered Laurel's Confetti Cuts to draw your eye in.  I added a wrap of twine and a little heart, cut using Paper Smooches Tiny Hearts and embossed in Silver Sparkle powder, to finish off my design.

I mounted my piece onto a card blank, and there you have it.

I really hope you like it, and I can't wait to see what amazing creations you all come up with in 2017!  As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

  

  

Going For Gold,

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I'm going for gold!

Using My Favourite Things Chevron Grid Background as my main element, and smothering it in all things gold!

I started by stamping out the, brand new and beautiful, Chevron Grid Background from My Favourite Things onto some watercolour card and covered in gold embossing powder.  I didn't want it to cover my entire card panel so, using a soft cloth, gently brushed away the gold embossing powder from the edges, leaving an interesting shape, and heat set.  I then took the (truly beautiful) Gansai Tambi Starry Watercolours and, using one of the lighter more transparent colours, painted in every other chevron.  I then took the light grey colour from the Zig Clean Colour Brush Pens, added a teeny amount of ink to every other chevron, and painted out with water.  Once that was all dry, I went back to my Starry Colours and added a few flicks and splatters of gold across my background.

I then heat embossed another piece of card in the same gold powder, and cut my 'Celebrate' by Sugar Pea Designs sentiment from it, along with the hearts & arrow from Paper Smooches Tiny Hearts die (hands down the most value for money die I have ever purchased).  Once cut, I then added another layer of gold embossing powder to my pieces to give them a nice finish.

I wanted some form of vellum to go behind my sentiment to anchor everything in place without taking away from the beautiful Chevron design and shimmery paint, so opted to cut My Favourite Things Fringe Dienamic to add to my background (it didn't show up too great in the photos, but worked just as I wanted it too in 'real life'!).

I added a twirl of gold twine to the back of my card, and built all my elements upon it.

I added a scattering of clear sequins from Neat and Tangled to help tie my design together and, after mounting onto an Avery Elle  Silver Fox Notecard, left it at that.

I really hope you like it, as always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

 

A little bit of Good Luck.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I've got a little bit of Good Luck for you...

...using the little elements of loveliness from Lawn Fawn's 'My Lucky Charm' set.

I've had this set for a while now, and love all the cute bits and pieces you get in it, but was yet to ink it up, (I know, shameful behaviour!), so thought I'd eventually let it see the light of day, and make a cute and simple card using the smallest parts of the set.

I started by stamping out all the elements I wanted to use, coloured using Copics, and fussy cut.  You get a sweet little smiley face in the set so I added that to my largest star.  I wanted my lucky wishbone to be metallic, so heat embossed a piece of card in gold, and stamped my wee bone onto that and, again, fussy cut.  I knew I wanted to make a little scattered scene of all my small elements, so die cut a circle in the middle of my panel as a focus point, and covered in a piece of vellum for a little added interest.  

I stamped out the sentiment from the same, 'My Lucky Charm' set, and heat embossed in red.  I also heat embossed a piece of card in the same red powder, and cut a load of the Paper Smooches 'Tiny Hearts' from it to add as embellishments around my scene.  This tiny little die set form Paper Smooches is a)incredible value for money, I mean, yes, it is tiny, but woah...check it out; and b)sooooo cute with really cool shaped hearts, and the cutest little arrow.  Definitely worth a place in your stash - I use mine all of the time.  

So I added a twirl of twine, and built up my little scene using tiny bits of foam adhesive for dimension.

I added my panel to a kraft card base and that was that, an easy, quick and cute card using the teeny little stamps we sometimes over-look.

I really hope you like it, and as always, everything I have used is linked below so be sure to go check it out.

See you next week.

Jillx