September Challenge Winners

I hope you all enjoyed playing with our sketch challenge this month - the entries seemed to suggest you did as we had some fabulously creative ones!

Our winner this month is Ruth from Crafting Whilst The Baby Naps who shows that its worth getting an entry in even close to the deadline!   We loved Ruth's idea of combining a slider for the sentiment with shaker elements behind the circles which looked like portholes on a ship so tied her nautical theme together well.

Our runners up this month were, in no particular order:

Katherine - we loved her fun take on the challenge where the circles became plates 

for the BBQ goodies!

We loved how this card from Chez Moi interpreted the sketch and used the elements to create a story - really fun and interesting take on the challenge.

Finally we loved Gemma's take on the challenge with the mushrooms and acorns adding the additional elements around her framed hedgehogs.  Another great way to show how to interpret a sketch.

Here's your winners badge for your blogs.

If you didn't win then worry not - we'll be back with October's challenge on SUNDAY 2nd October.  We're starting a day later than normal as tomorrow is WORLD CARDMAKING DAY so we're running a "share your makes" competition through our social media platforms so if you're planning on a day full of crafting - and let's face it, a day just for us is the PERFECT excuse - then come and join in the fun on Facebook or Instagram.

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.

 

Adding Ink Shading To Solid Image Stamps

Hi there everyone!

Today I'm sharing a sweet card that uses solid stamps but I will show how to get variation in the colouring.

I used the beautiful set from Mama Elephant 'Brushed Florals' for both my images and sentiment. I started by stamping the sentiment in a black ink so I could then stamp the flowers and leaves without stamping over it.

To get the different shades of colour on the solid stamps, I first stamped the image in a light colour for a base. I then inked up the same image using a darker shade of ink but then took off the ink on the edges of the image with a small sponge and then stamped this on top of the lighter image I already stamped. I love this look and I think it does help you get more out of solid image stamps you have.

Once I finished stamping I wanted the sentiment to 'pop' more so I cut around it using Lil Inkers 'Stitched Circle Mats'. I adhered the panel to my card base flat and added the sentiment circle with foam tape.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you like my card.

Hugs, Lydia x

Mama Elephant- Brushed Florals Stamp Set

Lil Inker Designs- Stitched Mats: Circles Dis Set (SHC)

Altenew - Red Sunset Crisp Dye Ink Set

Altenew- Warm Greys Ink Cube Set (SHC)

InLinkz.com

Thanks

Hello.

Today as well as a card to share I have some news. 

I am taking a break from Seven hills crafts. 

Real life has gotten in the way of making but  you still have the most awesome talented design team.

Back to the important stuff ...Today's card features Concord and 9th.

I love clean and simple and today Ive gone for a one layer card.

I have stamped all of the images with distress inks but any water based inks will work and spritzed with water.

This gives a very different look. 

 If done with water colour card it works very well and gives a more water colour effect.

The small dots were stamped in versamark and then dusted with gold powder.

Then not being able to resist the gold water colours i splashed some gold gansai tambi paint over.

The sentiment was then stamped in black archival ink.

I love making thank you cards and I'd like to say thanks to Tara and to everyone that leaves comments.

Thanks for looking.

Friends from the Sea

I have a fun off the page project to share today - as soon as I saw the sneak peek of Lawn Fawn's Narwhal and Friends die set I knew it would make the perfect fun mobile!

If you haven't seen this die set - it is so clever - one basic die shape, a few added extras and hey presto you get a whale, a seal and a narwhal!

I die cut the front and back body shapes in 3 shades of grey card and then cut the other parts from card scraps and did a little shading with markers to add interest.  I assembled them using strong double sided tape sandwiching a length of silver sparkle twine inbetween each with the twine coming out of the top of their  heads to hang them from my mobile.  For added fun I popped some tiny googly eyes into the holes where you would normally add coloured card for the eyes.

 

To make the mobile itself, I did a little bit up upcycling and wrapped the cardboard inner of a roll of selotape in some winter plaid paper inside and out before using an awl (pokey tool) to make some holes to thread the twine through.  3 at the bottom for the characters (or more if you wanted to add some more items - some snowflakes would be fun) and 3 at the top spaced evenly to create the hanger.

It would be a really fun and easy project to do with kids over half term.

Catch you on Sunday!

Tara

Modern Colour Block Card Set

Good Monday morning to you :)

The autumnal feel to the weather has made me turn to a foliage set this week, I do love autumn and natures colourful show.... not so keen on the darker mornings though!

I've used the Altenew set called Freeform Greenery which has quite a bold, lino-cut feel to it so I went for a modern 'colour block' design to make a set of A6 notecards...

I was inspired by these images on Pinterest but decided to use bright strong colours to match the thicker lined images. This is a great project for using up scraps of card too.... I started by stamping out the images I wanted to use on scrap paper and working out the shape and colour ratio.

For smooth stamping, the coloured and white card is butted up right next to each other and adhered to a piece of copy paper. I decided to stamp the images following my scrap paper pattern before cutting them into their final shapes.

Just to lift them from the base card and to add some extra interest, I have used black card in various ways as a background for the panels and then added sentiments to most of them.... I had a good rummage through my stamps to find suitable fonts and phrases :)

Well I hope you like them, they have quite a contemporary feel which I know is not everyone's cup of tea! :) They make a lovely card set and another design that's suitable for the guys too I reckon.

                                                           

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Lacy Panels

It may surprise you that as a CAS crafter, the first item I wanted to grab from the new Waffle Flower release was the Lacy Panel die but I have a secret crush on intricate dies!   I often buy them, try to use them, find all the bits too hard to get out and stick them in a drawer.   However not with this one - it cuts like butter.   Also if you do ever have problems, Keren taught me a new trick she'd learnt whilst working with some tricky dies this week from a UK brand, if the bits are stuck, keep the paper in the die and change the plates on your machine so you can run it through again with an embossing mat as this will push the detailed areas back into the die and make them easier to get out.

For this first card I used the main panel but I cut around the dotted lines to remove the central panel so I could reveal the coloured card underneath.

I used a Concord and 9th Happy Hues card base and to turn lacy into fun and modern added one of the super cute characters from the Stamping Bella Christmas release - The Penguin & The Marshmallow who is just so adorable and fun to colour.  The sentiment is cut from glitter paper using a Paper Smooches Merry Christmas die.

Whilst I was in Christmas mood, I thought the floral element in middle of the panel could be coloured to look like a poinsettia (would make a good Lily for year round crafting too) so I knocked out a couple of quick Christmas cards for my stash (only about 300 to go...)

I used the Merry and Bright die from Lil' Inker Designs and coloured the lettering with copics and added shine with a red wink of stella pen.  I gave the die cut the same treatment and popped it over a green base card with some hand drawn green lines.

For a super traditional card, I took the same green base cards but added an embossed panel using Avery Elle's Double Pierced Rectangles.  I die cut the floral element twice and layered a white one behind the coloured one with a tiny offset to make it stand out from the green base.  The sentiment is my all time favourite Christmas die cut - Season's Greetings also by Avery Elle just cut from Gold mirri.  Finished with a sliver of red card to balance the flowers and some scattered red gems.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We are not expecting any deliveries this week.

We have ordered the new release from Altenew but it normally takes around 3 weeks for it to be processed so is unlikely to be here until early October.