Ahoy Happy Birthday

I love the Lawn Fawn sets as they include lots of stamps, making scene building fun and easy. Today I’m sharing a card using the Ahoy Matey stamp set.

I began by stamping lots of images from the Ahoy Matey stamp set, then colouring them with alcohol markers. I also stamped an image from the Duh Nuh stamp set, as these sets work so well together.

Once all the images were die cut out, I worked on my background. I love to use kraft card with these sets. I created a stamped map style background, using images from the set. I also added the stitched line image from the Avery Elle Bunting stamp set. I stamped all the images in brushed corduroy distress oxide ink, which gives a nice tone on tone look.

I adhered a strip of patterned paper across the centre of the card, then die cut a circle from white card to create my scene. I used some masking tape to mask an area for the sand, then added some salty ocean distress oxide waves and some tumbled glass distress oxide sky. I then removed the mask and blended on some scattered straw for the sand.

I used my alcohol markers to add details to the sky and sand. Once I’d adhered my images to my scene, I also added some shadows in the same way. I used liquid adhesive for all images apart from the pirate and parrot, which I used some foam tape for dimension.

I added the circle scene to my card, then finished by stamping some sentiments from the Ahoy Matey stamp set.

Have a lovely day,
Gemma

Love is in the Air.... Toadally!

Hello, Jenny here on this rather chilly Monday morning.... 

hopefully spreading some warmth with this little guy and his heart shaped balloons... 

Yes, I had this little toad all coloured up from my card last week but unfortunately 

the pond was too full for him so he got a card all of his own! His one arm/front leg raised up

made me think of him holding balloons and the floating toad idea was hatched.

I blended blue ink onto half of a card stock panel and added a few splatters of water 

for some texture.The balloons are cut in white card, coloured with markers 

and then arranged into a cluster which makes adhering them to the panel easier.

I used the 'Toadally' word from a Paper Smooches set and masked part of a 

sentiment from the frog/toad stamp set for the 'Love You'..... love the mix of fonts.

Just a heads up to say that both the Paper Smooches cloud dies and sentiment set I 

used are in the sale... links below :)

                    

 

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Rooted in love

I've got another soppy card to share today as we're awash with all the valentines releases at the moment but you can use most of the products for non-valentines cards too.

I used the very popular Heart Tree die from MFT which is now back in stock but I stretched what you can do with it by die cutting it twice and using the upper branches to form roots with the hearts "planted" in the ground too.

There is a neat trick to using fiddly dies such as this to get them aligned perfectly - press and seal (I got mine on amazon) which is like cling film but is coated with a low tack adhesive.  I pressed it on the back of the die to lift all the pieces out in the right place and then coloured them with markers whilst stuck to the press and seal.   I then used another piece on top and removed the one from the back so I could add glue and then pressed it onto the card front removing the press and seal once the glue dried.

I used the MFT Full of Heart stencil with oxide inks to create my "ground"  and then made my own sentiment on the computer (you could spell it out with alphabet stamps if you don't have a printer) and finished with a few bits of glitter here and there.

I think this would be a great anniversary card, or even a card to give to a member of your family who is going through a tough time to remind them of their strong roots.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

This weekend is the big trade show in Pheonix where lots of USA brands are showing off their new products for 2019.  We're not able to go but we're keeping an eye out on social media but do let us know if you spot anything you think we should consider.

In terms of arrivals this week you can expect:

• MFT's mid-month kit release (we can't get the kits but we do now get the stamps and dies at the same time the kit is released) will be in store on Tuesday
• We were slammed with Concord and 9th orders and sold out of the kits and many of the other items (we will try and reorder when they get stocks back themselves) so are a bit behind on adding other items but hope to finish adding the Stamping Bella release today.
• We have also just received the Chapter 1 release from Sizzix (not everything - we picked the lines we think you would like) including all the latest stuff from Tim Holtz from this release and Christmas.  We will get it in store as soon as we can but it will take some time as there is a tonne of it!
• We're waiting for the new release from Lil' Inker Designs to ship to us but we should have it next week.
• We should have a new release from AlteNew next week too along with the pens and build-a-flower that were aleady released earlier in the month.  We just get one shipment per month to make it easier to manage and keep costs down. 

The major releases that are being peeked by Lawn Fawn, Avery Elle etc, etc are not released until FEBRUARY so don't expect them any sooner - we will have them on their respective release days but they have not yet been confirmed.

We have plans on Friday so won't be in the office to ship orders or answer emails - we'll respond next Monday when we're back in the office.


Tara

Birthday Fishes

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Today I have a no line coloring fish birthday card for you! What medium do you use for no line coloring? I tend to reach for coloured pencils when I do this technique. In fact I never used another medium, I think.

For this card I used the stamp set Gill Friends by My Favorite Things. I stamped some of the fishes with My Favorite Things' Grout Gray Dye Ink which is a very light ink. Then I coloured with pencils, and added a lot of shading to define the shapes. The eyes I drew with a black gel pen and added some highlights with a white one.

For the background I ink blended some Distress Oxide ink on white cardstock. I used Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Blue Print Sketch and Black Soot. To create the bubbles I drew circles with only water and dabbed it away very carefully after a little bit of waiting.

I wanted to have a little bit of underwater plants. But I don't have that kind of dies in my stash so I had to improvise. If you believe it or not but these plants are Flora & Fauna's Holiday Foliage. I die cut it from several scraps of green cardstock.

I also stamped the sentiment in black direct on the cardbase - thanks to my stamping tool.
Then I assembled the card.

So let me know which medium you prefer for no line colouring! I really would like to know!

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend!
Anni

       

Tea Party!

I love tea and cats so Newton's Nook Caffeinated Cats stamp was a no-brainer must have for me from this new release.
 
Although this stamp is designed to fill the whole front of a card as it is part of their "Full Card Front" range they have cleverly designed them so that if you like to fussy cut you can cut them out and get more looks from one design so I decided to add some depth and dimension and layer up my first card with it decoupage style.  I use pinflair gel when layering up fiddly images as it allows you more wiggle room than foam pads but they would work too - whatever methods works for you.

I wanted a rainbow cups so I kept all my cats grey so they stood out and then went to town with pencils to colour in the cups as bright as I could make them.   I stamped the image 3 times and worked out which "layers" I wanted to cut (you could do more or less) and then coloured the images on just the layers I would use keeping the bits that wouldn't show uncoloured.  My top tip though is to colour the "edges" of the layer underneath so when people look sideways the white doesn't show.  [if you look closely you can see the difference as i missed the edges on the bottom layer!] 

I just finished with a sentiment I spelt out myself using Lawn Fawn's Violets ABCs but we have lots of alphabet stamps and dies and I would say one of each is a must have so you can say exactly what you want to say if the sentiment hasn't already been created for you!


That's all today folks - catch you Sunday.

Tara

Minimalist Masculine Thank You Card

Hi everyone, Taheerah here wishing you a happy Thursday!

When it comes to masculine cards I know a lot of people struggle. When you're so used to all the floral and cutesy stamp sets that companies put out en masse, it can be tricky to know what to resort to for guys!

In situations like this, I find that simple is often best.

I turned to the Flora And Fauna Texture Three stamp set to illustrate my point:

Awesome, right?! I love how this turned out!

I used the outline wonky equilateral triangle stamp to build my background. Smaller stamps like these really give you more options than you may realise! Here, a simple mistake when I was doing a practice run led to me making the actual card with a few triangles at an angle and overlapping the others - and I really think it helps bring some energy to the design!

I alternated the colours for some of the triangles for some added interest. The black splatters and sentiment finish things off perfectly!

I'd love to hear what you think of this card. Is there someone you know who'd love to receive it? Thanks for stopping by!

Metallic Wedding

Hello, Tallie here and today I'm tackling a couple of wedding themed cards. This is one category of cards I really struggle to get good inspiration for and my challenge to myself for this year is to go outside my comfort zone. That and my usual resolution to use my older supplies before buying more!

I chose Avery Elle's Love is in the Air stamp set as the basis - great timing because this stamp set is on sale in the SHC shop right now! I paired the set with some metallic inks and a Lawn Fawn sentiment to make two different variations in gold and silver.

I stamped out the solid hearts from the set using first gold and then silver metallic pigment ink onto some A6 top-folding white card bases.

I then made a mini-scene using the birds and heart string and fussy cut them out. I also stamped and die cut a coordinating 'congrats' sentiment using the Lawn Fawn Big Scripty Words set.

I adhered these directly to the background panels and added some Wink of Stella in gold and silver to the mini-scenes.

A little bit of coordinating twine finished off the cards. I think this design would also work perfectly for anniversary or engagement cards.

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie