Found on Friday

It's time for another edition of our popular Found on Friday feature where we select projects that caught our eye in our customer only VIP group on Facebook.   We're going to run this feature twice a month from now on.

Kicking us off in this issue we have this awesome selfie-style photo card from Emma.   She's clustered together all the animals on the farm from MFT's The Whole Herd stamp set and her no-line colouring on them adds some realism to the photo!

Next up we have Kate's awesome Kraken card using the newly released Legendary Stamp set from Avery Elle.  I loved how she got such shimmer into the sea and how stamping that one word in the sentiment in a different colour really emphasises the pun.

We also loved how Claudia turned the die designed to make raindrops sideways to turn them into shooting stars!   She used the Falling from the Clouds die from MFT which is sadly out of stock, but we will get it back as soon as we can.

Sometimes we want to use a small image on a card that can look lost on its own - Natalie shows on her fabulous congratulations card that you can give weight to a focal image with a great background die.   The Chevron Mat die from Avery Elle she used is on sale too if you fancy giving her idea a go!

Sylvia created this really fun card combining a couple of sets of Mama Elephant's Little Agenda sets - Fairies in the sky and Mermaiden in the ocean on her gorgeous tall card.    I think we often forget to shop our stash and look at how we can combine different sets and Sylvia's card is a perfect reminder to do just that!

Finally in this issue we have Anne-Marie's brilliant trifold jungle themed birthday card - we loved how you just get a little peek of the birthday surprise hiding in those leaves with the elephant from Big News before you open it fully to reveal the Wild Roar in the back!

There are so many incredible cards being shared in the group I wish I could pick them all every issue!   So if you think you are missing out (and you are if you haven't joined) then head on over to the group - provide a valid order number to gain entry as it really is only for customers - then join in the fun and crafty conversations.

We'll be back with the next issue mid-June!

Seas and Rainbows

Hello - its me again - I am sure you are fed up of me by now, but I am happy to report that this is the last week I will be doing multiple posts for a while as from June we will be back to a full compliment of Design Team members so you won't have to put up with me 3 days a week anymore!   Taheerah will be back, but is switching to Fridays every other week as we will be keeping our fan feature of Found on Friday too.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays we will have some new blood on the team, but I'm keeping their details under wraps for now - you'll have to tune in next week to find out who is joining us!

For today though you have got me and I've been playing with (some) of my favourites from the new Avery Elle release so I am bringing you some sea scenes and a big fat rainbow too!

Let's start with the sea - I do think Caryn from Avery Elle designs the best sea creature sets ever so her Celeb-RAY-tion set  was slap bang at the top of my shopping list for this release.  Rays are my absolute favourite sea creature, watching them swim is mesmerising.

I decided to do two cards using the same supplies but flipping them.  So I started with the Sea Scene die and die cut it twice - once from white glitter card and once from blue (currently on sale) and put the waves that it die cuts from one into the other.

To add more design behind the die cut I used the fabulous bubbles embossing folder from Echo Park once from white and once from blue card so they could sit behind their opposite coloured die cuts.  To keep the opposite theme going too I used the white with the embossing facing down (so the bubbles are debossed into the card) and facing up on the blue - you do get a really different look from the same embossing folder doing it that way so more bang for your buck!

I then stamped the rays and the hammerhead shark onto grey cardstock and added shading around the edges and some dotted details using pencils before cutting them out with the co-ordinating dies.  The hat was stamped onto glitter card too and coloured with copic markers.   I stamped the sentiments from the same stamp set onto glitter card using versafine inks.

For the rainbow, I wanted to create a fun shaker card so just used the Rainbows Die to create my card without the co-ordinating stamp as the die is a perfect stand-alone piece too which works well with lots of the rainbow sentiments you may already have in your stash.

I cut the die 3 times - twice from white card and once from white kids craft foam sheet.  I used copic markers to colour the first white card die cut in rainbow colours and glued that to my blue base card.

I stamped the sentiment from Waffle Flowers' Rainbows stamp set in blue onto the white cloud at the base of the rainbow.

Then I added the foam using strong wet glue and then let it dry before adding coloured seed beads in co-ordinating rainbow colours to each rainbow stripe and some clear and silver ones into the cloud.

I trimmed a piece of acetate to be the shape of the die cut by drawing around the outside of the die so I got a solid sheet of acetate and used the wet glue to glue that in place over the foam and topped that with the remaining white die cut to cover it all up.   You need to leave that to dry again before moving it (don't get impatient to try it like I did or you too will end up with seed beads stuck in the glue!)   Once dry you've then got a fun rainbow coloured shaker card.

Hope that's inspired you to go under water or to reach for the sky!

See you on Sunday with my regular weekly post.

Tara

Plus One Bundle of Joy

Hi, Tallie here. I was given the challenge to create some new baby cards this week by a family member, so I made two mini scene cards based around the Lawn Fawn Plus One stamp set.

I started out with two A6 panels of Lawn Fawn Sticky Note cardstock. For some background detail, I stamped one with a small star from the Plus One stamp set and the other with the MFT All Lined Up background stamp. I used a Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Circle die to cut a circle from the middle of the card panels, plus additional ones from Mermaid and Paper Bag cardstock. I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Woodgrain Backdrop die to add some texture to the kraft circle and then cut them with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Border dies.

I stamped out the items from the set onto some blending cardstock using some MFT Extreme Black Ink and coloured them with my alcohol markers. I had requests for pink and blue, but I think I need to create some additional cards in purples and greens! I cut these out with the coordinating dies.

A coordinating die cut using the Lawn Fawn Scripty Congrats die and a sentiment from the set cut with a Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banner die finished the scene off nicely.

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

 

 

Leave a Little Sparkle

Today I thought I’d leave you all a little sparkle, as it’s my last regular post on the blog. I’ve had a fabulous time as one of the Seven Hills Crafts design team. A huge thank you to Tara and Rick for letting me share my projects with you each week.

My card today features the Lovely Legs 'Be a Mermaid’ stamp set from Colorado Craft Company. The stamp sets in this collection are perfect for different colouring techniques. 

One of my favourite ways to colour is to use alcohol markers as a base layer, then add coloured pencils over the top for finer details.

I stamped the mermaid image on white card with MFT Grout Gray Hybrid ink. This ink is alcohol ink friendly and light enough for no line colouring.

On my card base, I added a strip of Lawn Fawn Really Rainbow Scallops patterned paper and some silver glitter card. I then trimmed down the mermaid panel and embossed a sentiment from the same set at the top in silver.

I adhered the panel to my card base, then finished the card with a few embellishments for extra sparkle.

Thank you for joining me each week and for all the lovely comments on my blog posts. I hope to pop back here every now and then so, until next time, have a fabulous day and leave a little sparkle wherever you go.

Gemma 

Pool Friends

Last week saw the new summer release from Avery Elle and whilst waiting patiently for 

my goodies to arrive I thought I'd play again with this fab pool 

set called Splash from last year.... it's fun to revisit older stamp sets and mix 

them with newer stash like this sentiment from MFT...

What I love about the pool from the coordinating die set is that you can cut

it to make a larger pool that goes off the edge of the card. On the light blue card base I 

used the Receding Background from Neat and Tangled to make a rippled water effect.

I  stamped it three times so the ripples don't all line up for more of water movement effect.

I coloured and die-cut the ladies and their pool floaties along with a diving board 

and steps which looked better half the length on this card.

The sentiment is just perfect for this pool scene... the only thing 

they're missing is a glass of something bubbly!

   

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Sentimentally Speaking

I've got a couple of cards to share today, based around the theme of sentiments in speech bubbles using the two new speech bubble background dies from the latest Lawn Fawn release - I had to have both as I really love them.

First off I went with the Stitched Speech Bubble Die which doesn't die cut the shapes, but impresses dotted details to form the speech bubbles all the way across an A2 background.

I die cut it from Dove White card and then stamped the doggy sentiments from the Critter Chats pets using Versafine Onyx Black ink.   Although Lawn Fawn have made pets stamps to go with the sentiments I wanted a bigger and bolder image and the new Walking Woofs from Newton's Nook fits the bill to perfection.  I stamped it on more dove white so that the whites matched perfectly and coloured it with copics.  Now the Hero Arts cardstock is not a blending card like neenah, but actually I found it worked with with copics (this was the first time I'd tried it).   I cut it with the matching die and also die cut another layer of card with the die so I could get some dimension and to make sure the image stood out from the background used a couple of shades of grey markers to add a shadow line around it.   Finished with the translation sentiment from the Critter Chat set stamped onto tonal cardstock to tie it all together.

For my second card I wanted to show that you can get a different look from the other version of the die - the speech bubble backdrop - which actually cuts all the speech bubbles out so you can do lots of different things with it.   I wanted to show that although all Lawn Fawn's examples were with the critter chat, you can use lots of other sentiments with them too.

I've gone for a birthday theme and have used sentiments from Hero Arts Mini Messages and Mama Elephant's Mini Everyday Messages again stamped with Onyx Black.

I die cut it again from Dove White and stuck the frame straight onto a side fold base card so I could pop my speech bubbles in as I worked my way down the card and make sure my rainbow inking was level (ish).  I used oxide inks and a blending tool and just made my way down inking each speech bubble individually in colours of the rainbow for a bright and happy background.  You could leave the bubbles in the frame to do your inking and then just cut a new set to get a clean white frame if you don't want the fuss of doing each one individually, but I'm a Yorkshire lass through and through so didn't want to waste the cardstock!

For my focal image I was inspired by the peekaboo sentiment so opted for the Cactus Baby peeking out of a pot from a recent Stamping Bella release.  I cut it with the matching die and used that to also cut some foam so I could get some real depth to it.

I think these background dies will become perennial favourites as they are such a fun and useful way to get a card full of sentiments.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It will thankfully be a quieter week for releases although we are hoping the new Hero Arts will be arriving in the UK very soon.

We'll be catching up on adding items that have been waiting a while so some paper and embellishments from Simple Stories and some  stickles from Ranger.

Tara