Hello Sunshine Floral Border

The Hello Sunshine stamp set from Altenew has been on my wish list for a while, so I was excited when the Altenew restocks came in recently and I managed to get hold of it. 

I love the illustrative style of these flowers and leaves. I thought they would look great in black and white as there is a lot of detail to them.

I planned to use a stitched rectangle frame so I masked off the edges of a white card base so no stamping would appear outside the frame. I stamped directly onto the card base with black ink, to make a floral frame.

Next, I chose an accent colour (MFT Razzle Berry dye ink) and blended on some ink in two opposite corners of the rectangle frame, softening the colour out to white. I then added this to the card with liquid glue.

I die cut the Neat & Tangled Celebrate word die from white card, and blended on the same ink at the bottom, gradually fading to white. I added this to the card too, then stamped in the same pink ink, a small greeting from the Avery Elle Sentimental stamp set. 

I toyed with adding some pink sequins but decided to keep the accent colour to a minimum and used clear sequins instead.

This is a simple design to recreate with any of your floral stamp sets, but I think it works particularly well with Altenew Hello Sunshine.

Thanks for joining me today,

Gemma

MFT Single Stitch Rectangle Frames

Neat & Tangled Celebrate

Avery Elle Sentimental

Altenew Hello Sunshine

MFT Ink Cubes Set 9

A Couple of Keyrings

Hi there, hope you all had a great weekend :)

Do you remember the Coffee coasters I decorated last year? Well I bought a couple of  MDF tag shapes at the same time as the coasters and I thought I'd turn them into key-rings and share them with you today :)

They are quite large tags so probably not really the sort of key-ring you want to carry around with you all the time but I knew we needed a new one for our conservatory door so I naturally got out Altenews Garden Grow stamp set for one of them...

As with the coasters, I have painted the raw MDF with a few coats of chalk paint and 

sanded to a smooth finish before stamping the three plants onto the tag. I then made 

a negative mask for each plant pot with post it note paper so I could sponge ink

 onto them for some colour. 

I find dye ink is the best for this and the colours naturally soften as they sink

 into the chalky surface so you may need a few applications to get a stronger colour.

Yes I did make masks for the large leaves in the blue pot, quite a bit of scissor work but worth it in the end... 

for the smaller leaves and flowers I used a cotton bud to pick up ink and apply it :)

For the second key ring I chose a regal looking cat from MFT's Catitude stamp set and set about making a few negative masks so I could turn her into a tabby.... the very simplistic shapes match the whimsy style of image.

 I drew in a crown and added some extra images around the edge from various other cat 

stamp sets...some are quite subtle and don't show well in the photo 

These were great fun to make and are great gifts too with the possibility to personalise them for the recipient. 

To make them more robust I recommend a couple of coats of Matt Mod Podge to help 

protect them from knocks and scratches!!

  

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Butterfly Challenge

I set myself a little challenge this week to only use a maximum of 5 items to make each of my cards - sometimes I tend to throw everything at it, so it was nice to challenge myself to think about what my design actually "needed" before I started.

I decided to pick one stamp set and stick with it so I opted for the gorgeous new Butterfly Beauty from Concord and 9th and I managed 3 different cards so here we go.

My first one was inspired by a nature programme I once watched - did you ever see the Mexican Monarch butterfly migration?  The go from Canada each summer down to Mexico and its a site to behold as they all leave the trees at the same time turning the sky to orange.

For this card I used the stamp, Altenew's Warm & Cosy ink pack, Copper and White embossing powders and a scrap of black card.

I stamped the solid shading stamp in the lightest ink, then over stamped the detail one use two of the darker shades, adding the body in the mid-shade.  I dusted the whole card with an embossing buddy before embossing the outline over each of the large butterflies in copper ink.  To give the feeling of the sky full of migrating butterflies I added some of the smaller ones inking in the lightest shade then over inking parts with a darker shade.  A few copper embossed hearts filled in some spaces and carried the embossing theme to the background.   A simple black strip with a white sentiment and we're done - all in about 10 minutes.

For my second card I used the stamp, sugar plum cardstock, zig markers, watercolour cardstock and the Lil' Inker Designs Quilted Stitched So Sunny Die

This one was inspired by the way butterflies used to be displayed in museums when I was a kid, pinned in frames with name tags underneath.  For this second card I wanted to try a watercolour effect so I used 3 markers and coloured directly onto the detailed butterfly stamp and then spritz with water before stamping onto a scrap of watercolour card.  I cut it out by hand and then mounted it onto a white panel embossed with the new cover plate die as I like texture on the background of  CAS cards.  I added a purple matt and then stamped a sentiment onto more of the same card (whoops I used black ink so technically I used 6 products here - challenge fail)

For my final card I used the stamp, zig markers, Altenew's Rock Collection Ink Cubes and a purple pencil.

This card happened because there was still a lot of ink left on the stamp after the previous card so I spritzed it again and I actually prefer this stamping as its a lovely soft watercolour effect, so second generation may be the way to go for this technique.  This time I stamped onto standard thick white card stock as I wanted it smooth and simply popped direct onto a small square card after fussy cutting.  To draw the eye in I just free-handed a dotted and line border around the edge with a purple pencil.

I hope you'll all have a go at the 5 items challenge and see what you can come up with!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

• The long awaited delivery from Hero Arts finally arrived and we finished opening and checking it yesterday.  We now have to weigh it all, download images of everything from the Hero Arts website and upload all the product onto our site.  This will take some time as there is ALOT of new stuff to process.  We try not to work on weekends but we will be working through this weekend to try and get it online asap for you but please bear with us.  As is always the case with Hero Arts these days we did not get everything we ordered as they always seem to sell out before the UK distributor can order it on our behalf.  If an item is showing as out of stock from the get go, then its on back order and we will get it asap.  We've also had lots of requests for the new sets that are part of the February My Monthly Hero Kit - we do get these but as the kits are exclusive to Hero Arts, the extra stamps etc are not available to retailers straight away - as with the MFT kits we can usually only get them a couple of months after release.
• The Sugar Pea release has been delayed but is shipping to us on Monday so we should have it by Thursday/Friday customs willing.
• Some of the Lawn Fawn release sold out pretty quickly - we will be placing a restock order this week but it tends to take Lawn Fawn around 3 weeks to process and pack orders, particularly following a release, so it will be mid-late March before we get it.

See you next weekend

Happy Crafting!

Tara

Hugs and Kisses

Hey stampers, Anni here!
Today's card is featuring the beautiful set called Fancy Flowers by My Favorite Things. I love this set so much especially because of the artsy look of the flowers.

For this card I did a lot of masking, colouring and fussy cutting - all the things that I love about making a card.
At first I stamped all the big flowers on a piece of white paper and stamped them a second time on full adhesive post it notes.I masked of the big flowers and filled the gapes with the smaller flowers and the leaves.
I chose four colours for my flowers. I didn' t use them in equal amount but decided to go for the peachy color and purple as my main colours and added just a little amount of pink and lilac.
After finishing the colouring I fussy cut the upper edge of my flowers and adhered it with dimeansional adhesive to my cardbase.
For the sentiment I went with Hugs & Kisses from the My Favorite Things' set Lots of Hugs. I embossed it in white on dark grey cardstock.
With some dots of silver Stickles I finished up my card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.
Anni

   

Stamp layering with stars in your eyes.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I've got a simple starry design for you...

...turning 'Cant's into Can's' with Wplus9's Dreams into Plans.

Spring is so close I can almost taste it, and with that, the colour combo that 'springs' to my mind is always Navy blue and Yellow.  I'm not even sure why but think it must have something to do with the little Easter outfits we got as kids always having a sailor theme :)  Either way, I was feeling those colours so decided to do something using that theme.

I started with two same sized panels of white card and, using Altenew's Basic Borders, covered one piece entirely in stripes of yellow stars.  I then cut a star from the the centre of the other panel using Lawn Fawn's Puffy Stars, and stamped Wplus9's Dreams Into Plans straight over the top of both pieces, independently, in navy ink.  I then lined the pieces over the top of each other so that the sentiment is still clearly legible, but the the pretty yellow star pattern shows through the Puffy Star negative space.  

I adhered my top panel using foam tape so the added dimension would really help highlight the star space.

I really loved the clean simple boldness of the design at this point so matted onto navy blue cardstock and decided to leave it there.

I really hope you like it, I really enjoyed making it.  As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

 

Sparkling Watercolour

Hi there everyone and happy Thursday! Today I'm sharing a springtime card with a little added sparkle!  

I stamped some flowers and leaves from two Winnie & Walter stamp sets- Addie's Garden and Anna's Flora, on to some watercolour card with VersMark and then heat embossed with white embossing powder. I then watercoloured the images with Zig Clean Color Markers and added some Clear Wink Of Stella on top of the watercolouring.

 I cut these flower clusters out and added these to my card blank with foam pads for dimension. Before adding the clusters I did add a little black splatter for interest. For the sentiment I used Winnie & Walter 'The Big, the Bold & Greetings'. The large 'sending' I stamped and fussy cut out and added to my card with foam. I used the same stamp set to add the additional 'warm hugs' phrase to the sentiment.

I hope you enjoyed my card and I'll see you again next week. Hugs, Lydia x

Winnie & Walter- In Bloom: Anna's Flora Stamp Set	Winnie & Walter- In Bloom: Addie's Garden Stamp Set	Winnie & Walter- The Big, the Bold & Greetings (SHC)	Zig- Clean Color Real Brush Pens
A Wink Of Stella Brush Pen- Clear (SHC)

InLinkz.com

Watercolour birthday card using My Favorite Things and Zig pens

Hi everyone, it's Esther here with a bright watercoloured birthday card using My Favorite Things and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens.

I started by cutting a panel from some watercolour card and using Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens and a paint brush to add splodges of colour in yellow, green, blue and pink. When this was dry, I splattered over it with black ink. 

I then used My Favorite Things Happy Birthday to You Dienamics to die cut the sentiment from the panel and again from black card stock. I pieced these together as I wanted the lettering to be the same height as the panel and not recessed.

The panel was mounted to a slightly longer layer of black card stock and then onto a card base. 

Finally, I stamped, coloured with Zigs and die cut with the matching dies the balloon cluster from My Favorite Things Beary Special Birthday and popped it onto the top right side of the card.

It's a simple card to make but I love how bright and cheerful it feels.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

      

Ninjas in the City

Hello, Gemma here and I thought it would be fun to make a card featuring ninjas sneaking around a city at night.

I started with the background, blending ink on white card to make a sunset sky.

From black card, I cut the MFT Skyline, adding it over the top of the background. I cut a frame using MFT Blueprints 27 from dark blue card, then added them to an A2 white notecard. The Blueprints 27 die set is out of stock currently but I've found some great alternatives, which I've linked below.

I stamped two of the Mama Elephant Tiny Ninjas, adding colour with alcohol markers and wink of Stella glitter.

I cut a MFT Stitched Sentiment strip from the same dark blue cardstock, and white heat embossed a greeting from the ninja stamp set. I added the sentiment tag onto the card, then the ninjas with some foam adhesive.

I really enjoyed putting this card together and creating a scene for these Tiny Ninjas. Hope you like it.

Have a lovely day,
Gemma

ME Tiny Ninjas

MFT Blueprints 27

MFT Skyline

MFT Stitched Sentiment Strips

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