On the Mend

Hello and happy Wednesday! Today my card is for anyone who is feeling under the weather - I hope it puts a smile on your face! I think the combination of rainbow and Lawn Fawn will always do that.

I started out by stamping six of the big plasters from the Lawn Fawn On the Mend stamp set with some MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink onto some blending card stock. I coloured these in with my alcohol markers in rainbow shades and cut them out with the coordinating dies.

On an A6 white card base I stamped the 'Get Well Soon' sentiment from Lawn Fawn Get Well Soon stamp set. I then blended some Tumbled Glass and Broken China ink onto the base, flicking additional splatter onto the card around the sentiment.

Once dry, I popped up the plasters on foam tape and adhered them to the card base. A few sequins to tie them together and you have a bright, cute get well soon card that I hope will cheer any patient up!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

 

Birthday in Space

My card today features one of my favourite stamp sets from last year - Lawn Fawn Out of this World.

I’d made some galaxy backgrounds a while back and still have a few left, so began by die cutting a circle of galaxy for my card.

I then die cut a larger scalloped circle from white card, and blended on some twisted citron distress oxide ink. I layered the circles on to a card base, using some foam tape behind the galaxy layer.

I stamped a greeting from the Lawn Fawn Out of this World stamp set directly onto the card base.

Next, I stamped, coloured, and cut out some images from the stamp set. I used colours for the planets to match the astronaut's space suit, which helps to tie everything together.

I added the three planets to the card with some tape, then the astronaut with some foam tape so he stood out a bit more.

I die cut a number, from the C&9th Double Cut Numbers, to add to one of the planets, then finished the card with some small die cut stars.

Thanks for joining me today,

Gemma

Lawn Fawn Out of this World

C&9th Double Cut Numbers

MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Circles

Lawn Fawn Starry Skies

Yay for Cake!

Good morning..... Jenny here today hoping you have a good start to the week :)

I've finally got around to playing with my Concord & 9th turnabout stamps and one of them is the Sprinkles background which makes a fab card base for a calorie-free cupcake ;)

I started by making a 5" square sprinkle background using three different inks and only stamping three turns. Then I used Antique Linen distress ink to stamp the large cupcake from Winnie & Walter's Wish Big on watercolour paper so I could practice no-line colouring using Distress inks.

I've haven't tried no line water-colouring for a while... I find it a lot easier than using alcohol markers to do this technique. When all finished and dry, I cut around the cake leaving a slim white border.

The back piece of the card base is brown card which I scored to bring a strip around to attach to the front stamped panel which I cut down to a smaller size.  I used a scalloped edge die to turn the straight edge into a fancy border and gold embossed a sentiment from MFT's  Handwritten Happiness onto the sprinkle background. It's rather annoying when your card warps under the heat-gun but leaving it under a heavy book overnight helps to flatten it out a bit..... it's worth it though for that lovely golden lettering :)

                              

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Happy Hellos

I've got a few cards to share today as I had one of my "I don't know what to make days" yesterday so just pulled out a die at random from my as yet unused pile as my starting point and just stared at it for a while until I came up with some ideas!  The die I opted for was the Hello Square Die from Reverse Confetti (there is also a thanks and congrats option too)
 
It's a big die that makes a bold statement all on its own but I fancied adding to it so pulled out the Golden Feather stamp and die set from AlteNew and created a couple of feathers in my fave shades with copper highlights.  To tie that into the card I used an embossing pen to pick out just the word hello from the die and copper embossed that with two layers for a smooth finish and added depth.  (You could get the same effect from using a copper brush marker if you didn't want to mess with embossing)  I popped it on a grey pearl card base to make the white frame pop but you could die cut the frame from coloured card and use a white base for the same effect.

Next I wanted to show off the simplicity of the die on its own - I love something I know I can knock out a card with in minutes when I'm in a rush.

I just did some really simply ink blending on a panel of white card and die cut the frame.  I think it makes a really happy hello card!

Then because I loved the colours so much I couldn't throw away the strips that come out of the frame at the bottom, so I used those and the waste from above the hello to create a striped background for another card (yes I am frugal Yorkshire through and through!)  I just cut strips in different widths and then spaced them up the card with the gaps between them growing as I went up.

I decided to add the scrumptious new Viking from MFT over my base panel.  I have been itching to colour him up since we got him.  I do love a Viking!   I simply coloured him with pencils and cut him with the co-ordinating die.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We will have new stock arriving over the next week or two but I don't have firm dates yet so cannot confirm what will be here when.  February will be SUPER BUSY with all the Creativation Trade Show releases.  We will be getting everything from all the brands we already stock.  We won't have new brands just yet but we're keeping a list of what took your fancy for the future so watch this space.  We just have to be careful not to grow too quickly as we have to balance cash flow - we have to pay for everything in advance so if things don't sell, we can't buy new stuff, simple as that.  There is no sale or return in imports!

We will have some stuff from AlteNew hopefully by the end of the week but they sold out of lots of items during the trade show so we have a huge back order list too which will be follow a few weeks later.

Avery Elle will be the first of the CHA releases to arrive and goes on sale in early February.

We have the end of the year release we missed from Stamping Bella shipping on Monday so hopefully that will be here in a week or so too customs willing.

For everything else - your "real time release" information portal is our Facebook page - so make sure you follow us and have your notification set to "see first" if you don't want to miss out on new arrivals as and when they happen.  We cannot answer individual emails about when products will arrive.

That's all for this week folks - catch you next weekend.

Tara

For a Beary Special Friend

Hey stampers, Anni here!

You know the saying Crafty Friends Are the Best - and it is totally true. I needed a Thank You card for a very special and kind friend I met through my crafty hobby - I just love how you can connect over stamping and make real good friends.

I started this card by stamping these super cute pandas from Reverse Confetti's Miso Happy. It took no time at all to color the panda bears - always a plus with pandas and other black and white creatures like penguins and ninjas for example. I just added a little bit of cool grey for shadows to the white parts and some pinks for the cheeks. Then I drew some white highlights with a white gel pen.
To create a little scene I also stamped the bamboos and the stones and coloured them with alcohol markers, too.

For the hill the pandas standing on I die cut a piece of cardstock with one of the dies of Mama Elephant's Borderline Trios and added some ink blending in green. I also stamped a sentiment from the Miso Happy set on it. The sky I created by ink blending, too.

I wanted to add the word Thanks, too. The die set Many Thanks by Concord & 9th is perfect for that. It is so versatile and you get a lot of possiblities for your money. I die cut the speech bubble from green cardstock matching my hill and the letters from black cardstock to go with the pandas.

Finally the whole scene was framed with a die cut cut with Mama Elephant's Framed Tags.


Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

        

Lovely Loving Piggies

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I've got some sweet, loving piggies...

...using the Lovely Piggies from Mama Elephant's latest release.

This was an instant 'must-have' for me as I have nothing like it in my stash, and everybody has a soft-spot for these sweet creatures surely?

You get a load of different designs of the Lovely Piggies in the set so the possibilities are endless.  I decided to make a Valentine's themed card because I just *had* to use the little cupid piggie first...so cute!

I wanted to do some no-line colouring but my skills really aren't that sharp so went the utter cheat route haha.  

I started by stamping out my piggies in a pale ink and coloured over-top using my Zig Real Brush Markers, (to disguise the line), mixed with water for a lazy laid-back watercolour look.  I created my background by using the cloud border from Mama Elephant's Landscape Trio as a stencil and gently ink blending over top to create a soft sky of pinks and blues.  My piggies are playing upon My Favourite Things Cloud 9 Dienamics and my sentiment is from Mama Elephant's Love Quotes (an oldy but a goody and comes out almost every time I get lovey dovey!).

I finished with a wrap of ribbon and a cute little bow and there you have it.

Lovely Piggies sending love this Valentines.

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

See you next week.

Jillx

 

  

XOXO Love Heart Card

Hi everyone, Taheerah here wishing you a happy Thursday!

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, believe it or not. And before we're overloaded with all the cheap sentiment that is on every aisle of every shop (at least it always seems that way to me!) I thought I'd make a start on a loved-up card or two to get ahead of the game!

I love letting the smaller stamps in a set have a turn in the spotlight. It might not always seem it, but those small stamps can be mighty! And it's even better when you can apply that to sentiments too. Today's card uses only the 'XOXO' stamp from the My Favorite Things Valentine Wishes set, proving that a simple sentiment can go a long way:

I think that little stamp has earned its keep, don't you?!

I stamped an entire card panel with the sentiment, then trimmed out a large heart shape to act as a mask. I sponged pink ink through it to create my focal point.

I decided the heart made more of a statement without the rest of the panel, so I trimmed it out and added it to a new card to finish. I might even use the negative piece for another design - waste not want not, right?!

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!

Cityscape Celebration

Hello, Happy Wednesday!

Today I have two cards to share with you. I don't usually send many New Year's cards out so I wanted to show you another, more generic congratulations option that could be used for any occasion. This idea has been rumbling around in my head for a while and it's surprisingly simple to create!

I started out with an A2 piece of white watercolour cardstock. Using several shades of blue in my Kuretake Gansai Tambi palette, I painted in a night sky with a vertical gradient. I made sure to leave the very bottom light and towards the top dark so my fireworks would stand out. Once dry, I took a very dry brush and painted in some white firework trail shapes. I used several layers to build up the colour, finishing off with some white and gold splatters. I set this aside to dry completely before mounting to A2 top folding card bases.

From some black cardstock I die cut two cityscapes using the Hero Arts Skyline Fancy die. Using a white get pen, I added a few random vertical lines to give some window reflections. I adhered this straight onto the background panel.

Out of some gold mirror card, I cut two sentiments. The first I cut the date using the Neat and Tangled Journaling Numbers Die. For the more generic card, I used the Lawn Fawn Scripty Congrats. To ground both of these and separate the water from the cityscape, I cut a simple white banner and stamped a sentiment from Altenew Sketchy Cities Abroad set in black ink.

Thanks for reading and I hope you are all having a Happy 2018!

Tallie

    

Year of the Dog

I’m ready to celebrate the Chinese New Year with my card today. 2018 is the Year of the Dog, so I got out the cute dog from the Mama Elephant Lunar Animals set, ready for some colouring.

I seem to be reaching for my Zig clean colour real brush pens more lately, as I’m enjoying watercolouring. I stamped the Dog with MFT Extreme Black ink, which is fine for watercolour. I can also recommend their black hybrid ink for using with your zig pens too.

I chose just three colours of markers - beige 72, dark brown 62, and light pink 26. I added a little of the beige colour first, blending out with water. I then dried the image with a heat tool and repeated this step 3 or 4 times to get a nice buildup and blend of colour. I then added a thin line of the dark brown around the edge, blending out with water again. Finally, I added some light pink to the cheeks and blended out with water to soften.

Once the image was dry, I added some black gel pen to the eyes, and some white gel pens dots to the cheeks.

For the background, I die cut a rounded rectangle from red cardstock. I used the MFT chevron stencil with versamark ink, then embossed the chevrons with clear embossing powder. I love the texture and shine this gives to the background. I added this to a white card base.

I stamped, in versamark ink, three of the lanterns from the Avery Elle Bunting stamp set. I embossed these with gold embossing powder. I used coordinating dies to die cut the strings and bows from gold metallic card. Unfortunately, the dies are out of stock currently, but the stamp set does come with string and bow stamps. By stamping and embossing these in gold on the background, it would give a similar look. Alternatively, some gold twine would look lovely too.

The year is die cut from gold metallic card, using the C&9th Double Cut Numbers. 

I added everything to the card, using either foam tape or liquid glue. To help ground the dog on the card, I added a grey oval shadow beneath him.

Thanks for joining me today,

Gemma

Avery Elle Bunting

Mama Elephant Lunar Animals

C&9th Double Cut Numbers

Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens

MFT Oval Shadows Dienamics

MFT Chevron Grid Stencil