Selective Colour Florals

Hello and thanks for joining me.

My card today is inspired by selective colour photos, where one part of the image stays in colour whilst the rest is black and white.

On a white card base, I stamped the flower and leaf outlines from the WPlus9 Pretty Peonies set. I left gaps around each image as, without colour, they need some separation to stand out.

On the largest peony, I stamped the other layers in colour, using some Altenew inks.

For the sentiment, I white heat embossed a greeting on black card. I used a Lawn Fawn banner die to cut it out (alternative option linked below) and added it to the card with foam squares for dimension. To bring out the colour of the peony some more, I added some pink sequins.

I was pleased with the design so I created two more in different colours, with matching enamel dots.

For the orange flower card, I rotated the design for a different look. I've added links to the end of the post for the supplies used.

Have a lovely day,

Gemma

WPlus9 Pretty Peonies

Altenew Birthday Greetings

LF Everyday Sentiment Banners

Altenew inks

Altenew Inks

WPlus9 Banner Trio

This Little Piggy

Hello there and happy Monday to you.... the last of January!! Wow, where did that month go??

Today I'm back with another Reverse Confetti stamp set and this one is called Cured.... I love animals but pigs are a definite favourite and I love this range of stamps from Reverse Confetti using Dawn Machell illustrations too :)

So for this card the "little piggy" is coloured using the no-line water-colouring technique and distress inks...

I stamped him in Tattered Rose and then used that, and Victorian Velvet to colour him and I'm quite chuffed how he turned out. To make him look in the birthday mood I gave him a party hat which is a banner flag from the RC Leaping Lions set. I stamped it and added a bobble before blending the colours and adding shading with a water brush.

The banner background on the card base are die cuts made using the Avery Elle Bunting dies which are cut using the same colour card as the base so they add a texture but don't distract from the focal image.... It almost looks like embossing :)

If water-colouring isn't your thing and just to show the versatility of these stamps, I used them for a paper pieced scene too....

I think the style of the images really suits patterned paper, almost like stuffed toys :)

They're not too fiddly to cut but you could easily use the dies too and have a small border with patterned paper :)

To complete my piggy scene I added a muddy wallow which is actually a puddle from Weather it Together and I used the sun and cloud from that same set too :)

So here are the sets I used for these two cards:

              

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Reflections of Sympathy

I've got a quick faux water colour card for you today.  I've had this idea in my head for ages, for a simple sympathy card using pine trees reflected in water, but it turned out to be better in my head than on paper, but I'm sure you can take my idea and run with it!

I started with a piece of water colour card stock and gently inked a couple of shades of light blue - one for sky and one for water.  I then stamped the trees from Whispering Pines by Newton's Nook first in teal ink and then over stamping in dark green.  With both ink colours I flipped the stamp upside down to do second generation stamping for the reflection in the water.  I then used the dark green ink with a water brush to create a bit of land in between and added some brown detail with a pencil.  I used a darker blue ink picked up off the back of an acrylic block spritz with water with a wide paint brush to create a "drag effect" over the reflections - that's where I went a bit wrong, and I was going to start again but I decided to share my imperfections with you to show we all make them!  I had to over stamp the trees again gently to bring them back to life.

I added one of the gorgeous sentiments from My Favorite Things Deepest Sympathy set - its brilliant for those times when you just have no words to offer comfort - we all have to make those cards sometimes unfortunately so this was a must have set for me.



NEWS FROM THE STORE

• The Stamping Bella release is finally online today after numerous delays.  https://sevenhillscrafts.co.uk/brands/stamping-bella.html?limit=all
• We will be getting a small restock delivery of Hero Arts this week - the new items are on order but we had to get the UK distributor to add some additional items that were missing from their offering so we need to go back and get those once they have uploaded them.  They are expected into the UK in mid-February but Hero Arts can be very hit and miss with what actually turns up.
• We think we will be getting some new Echo Park items this week too but again aren't sure exactly what is coming until it turns up.
• The new release from Altenew was finally opened to retailers on Friday and our order went straight in.  This includes the markers, the new inks and new stamps that were shown at CHA. Again we expect to receive those in around 2-3 weeks depending on their shipping schedule as they are currently in Germany.   The 3 layer dies that were shown at CHA are not going to be released until April.
• I know many of you spotted the new pearly colours of gansai tambi paints from Kuretake - we know they have a whole new range of products coming soon and will order them as soon as they are available but I believe it could be April before they hit the UK.
• There are new releases coming from Neat and Tangled, MFT, Wplus9 and Avery Elle in early February and from Mama Elephant, Lil' Inker Designs and Lawn Fawn in mid-late February too.

Happy Birthday Wishes

Hey stampers, Anni here!
Hope you all have a fun and relaxing weekend with a lot of time for crafting.
I can't seem to stay away from my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens lately. So I made another card using them and a set with lovely flower stamps from Altenew called Best Mom.

I started by stamping the flowers with an embossing ink and embossed it with white embossing powder on watercolor paper. Then I colored the image with my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens. These pens are really easy to use but of course you could color with whatever watercolor medium you have on hand. I used two or three different shades of pinks and reds for the flowers and kep the leaves simple and subtle. I fussy cut the image by hand.

For the sentiment I needed something not too eyecatching but something to add a little bit of intrest. I went with this beautiful word die by W Plus 9 called Happy Wishes Word Die. To match the flowers I added a little bit of the same color but with much more water to keep it light. For a little bit of contrast I embossed a small Birthday on dark grey cardstock.

To finish the card I added some sequins and tiny pearls.

Thanks for stopping by!
Anni

   

Crazy colour & camouflage die-cut

Hi everybody, 

Jill here, and this week I am going crazy with colour...

...creating an explosion of butterflies and camouflaging my message.

I was looking at my Instagram feed the other day and realised I was in dire need of some colour, so that's what inspired today's card.

I used Brusho's to create my background (if you haven't heard of them already - Google/You Tube them - amaaaazing product!), but of course you could use anything; inks, Zig Clean Colour Pens, Watercolour, basically whatever your preferred medium is.  I simply sprinkled them on my background, spritzed with water & POW, an explosion of colour.  I then added a whole load of flicks and splashes using Kuretake Starry Colours & Zig Pens mixed with water.  I coloured a separate piece of card in the same way at the same time and used this piece to cut a load of Waffle Flower Teeny Wings butterflies from.  I also cut a load of the same Teeny Wings from plain white card too.

I then took Lawn Fawn's Scripty Wishes, and die-cut from the front of my card.  I added a layer of foam to the back, and in-laid the whole thing back in.  I wanted my die to remain 'camouflaged' into the background, but I didn't want to lose it completely, so I added a layer of vellum, again cut from the same die, and adhered over the top using Stick-It to give it a different finish to the rest of the card.

I then added my scattering of Teeny Wing butterflies, fluttering out from my die and colour explosion, and adhered them in place.

I white heat embossed 'Happy' from Lawn Fawn's Hello Baby onto black card, cut into a little flag and added to my card front to finish off my sentiment.

I then matted my panel onto black card, mounted the whole thing to a card base, and there you have it.

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

See you next week.

Jillx

      

A Floral Birthday (if your name is January!)

Hello there! I've popped back for a quick visit whilst Lydia is having her brief break.

It's lovely to be back with you all, and today I wanted to combine two Concord & 9th sets to create a bloom filled birthday greeting.

First up, the newer 'All Year Long' set

Don't dismiss this set as one for planner people or just Birthdays; there are some lovely flowers that are incredibly versatile. Granted , this card might only be suitable for people called January ;-) but the sentiments are perfect for lots of occasions and the contrast in fonts is really beautiful.

I decided to pair it with another set; Flourish

To add colour to the flowers and leaves I used some of the Hero Arts Ombre inks

 I've secured most of the fussy cut stems to the reverse of the die cut circle although I did have to use a little extra acetate 'scaffolding' in a curved shape. Granted it may not fit in a standard envelope but with the dreary January days, we all need a riot of colour, right?!

Thanks for joining me today, hope you enjoyed seeing how gloriously these two sets combine!

Keren xx

Mama Elephant Botanic Hello - watercolour and black card

Hi everyone, hope you're having a good week! It's Esther here with a card using Mama Elephant Botanic Hello. I fell in love with this stamp the first time I saw it, and I had a feeling it would look great in a whole range of styles.

Today I've gone for pretty floral watercolours using shades from my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens set of 60. I heat embossed the image in off-white, so the outlines wouldn't be too stark. After colouring the image and adding soft pale blue into the background bits I wouldn't be able to easily remove, I fussy cut the image.

I mounted the cut image onto a stitched rectangle of black card stock cut with the largest Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangles. I then mounted that panel onto a heavy weight card base. I decided not to add either of the two sentiment strips that come in the set, but it has them if you want them, plus a set of two overlapping wonky stitched lines.

The great think about this stamp is that it will work really well with different colour palettes and mediums (watercolour, alcohol markers, coloured pencils - whatever you like to use) against all sorts of backgrounds. Before I settled on black, I tried the coloured image against lilac, dark blue, dark grey and chocolate brown panels, and they ALL looked fab. It gives a totally different look each time.

Thanks for stopping by!

      

Cute Fruit and Glitter Embossing

Hello, Gemma here with a cute fruit card to share with you.

I began by stamping the pear and orange stamps from the Paper Smooches Cute Fruit stamp set. I wanted some texture to the fruit, so I wasn't concerned about getting perfect stamping. I used the MFT mini ink cubes, leaving some of the stamp clear for a highlight and adding dimension by stamping a second time with darker ink around the edges. I added the face stamps in black ink.

I wanted to add some sparkle to the fruit. To do this, I stamped over both fruit images again, this time using Versamark ink. I added clear glitter embossing powder and heat set it. This gives a lovely sparkly gloss look to the fruit.

I also stamped stalks and leaves, but didn't add any embossing to these. I cut out everything, glued on the stalks and leaves, then set them aside whilst I worked on the rest of the card.

I used one of the dies from the MFT Stitched Scallop Basic Edges, to cut down a piece of A6 white card. These are currently out of stock but I've linked to some great alternatives at the end of the post.

I arranged the fruit on the card to help me work out where the arms should go, then stamped these in MFT Kraft dye ink. I added the fruit images with foam tape. 

Once I had added the orange, I realised that the arms were a little further out than I wanted and there were gaps. I grabbed an alcohol marker and drew in the tops of the arms - problem solved! 

I added the white panel to a Kraft card base, then finished the card with a stamped greeting from the cute fruits stamp set.

Thanks for joining me today.

Gemma

PS Cute Fruit

MFT Stitched Basic Edges

MFT Stitched Scallop Edges 2

Versamark

Hero Arts Clear Glitter Embossing Powder