Crafty Friends are the BEST!

I've got a fun post today where I am sharing not only the cards I've made for today's post, but also the cards I've received from customers in the post this weekend.   Some of our wonderful customers in our VIP group have declared the 7th of the 7th to be International Seven Hills Appreciation Day [blush]  We were really touched by the idea and cards have been arriving for the last few days so I kept them and opened them in bed this morning.   What a way to start the day!   Thank you to everyone who took the time to make and send us a card - we love them all!

So for my post today I thought I would use the new "crafty" stash from Hero Arts as crafty friends really are the best you can have!   So I took the theme of rainbows (it is pride weekend too) and paired it with Crafty Messages and the crafting border and played around with a few different methods of making rainbow backgrounds using liquid watercolours.

First off I went fairly simple and just allowed the colours to "run" down a sheet of watercolour card stock - give it a bit of a spray with water and then just drop a drop of each colour at the top holding the card vertically.

Once dry I added the die cut frame in white and stamped the sentiment in the middle in versafine onyx black.

For the second one, I decided to see if I could "spin" a rainbow so dug out my little used cake decorating turntable, but if you don't have one you can make a simple version using marbles and a couple of plates (check YouTube for DIY lazy susans).   I added the inks in circle in the centre, sprayed with water and then spun the turntable - make sure you cover your table with newspaper - it will get splattered!

You can see that the teal ink was a bit too dry so there is a dark spot where it didn't spin, but its not bad for a first attempt - I will see what else I can do with the turntable now I dug it out.  This time a black border - not sure which I prefer, might try grey next, and another sentiment from the same stamp set.

For the final background I dug out my hand air brush tool which is designed to get an airbrush effect from markers, but as it puffs air you can use it to blow around colour too (or use a straw if you've not got an air brush)

On this one I didn't wet the paper all over.  I wanted more colour separation so I did the red, then the green, then went back to orange when the red was nearly dry etc.   I just added a drop of colour, a tiny spritz of water and then puffed away directing the tendrils of colour where I wanted them.

I think this one is my favourite but that's because I'm a control freak and don't do well with random outcomes - this one allowed me to control the colour much more, but the spinning was the most fun!

So - if you don't know what to craft today, why not try to spin or blow or drip a rainbow?

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It's going to be a busy week for new stock:

• We have the latest release from Waffle Flower Crafts and will be adding it today or tomorrow
• MFT's new release will be here on Tuesday fingers crossed
• The latest release from Colorado Craft Company should be here this week featuring some fabulous new legs (including a set Jenny and I had a hand in designing) and some brilliant big bold cakes and ice creams!
• Concord and 9th have a release on the 9th as always, but as always they don't ship to retailers until a couple of days after release so we usually get it around the 15th.
• The new release from Stamp Bella has been ordered - we're just waiting for them to process and ship it.
• The new release from Reverse Confetti has also been ordered so we just waiting for it to ship.
• There is NO Mama Elephant release this month OR August.  They are taking the summer off again and will be back with a mega release in September to celebrate their birthday.

That's all the news for this week - catch you next Sunday.

Tara

Lotus

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I've been experimenting with various kinds of watercolouring in the last weeks and today I am showing you one kind I happen to like a lot: Colouring with Distress Ink reinkers.
I find it really easy and I like the results.

My favourite thing to colour with watercolours are flowers. And extra beautiful ones you can find in the Waffle Flower’s Lotus set. I stamped all of the flowers in the set and one leaf in a very light ink to do some no line colouring. I used a palette and added tiny drops of the reinker. You just need a very little amount. It is important to colour one piece at a time and then go to another part of the image.

The big flowers took a good part of the card so my card didn't need much more. I added some splashes of the colours that I used for the images to the background. For the sentiment I chose one of W Plus 9’s Strictly Sentiments 1.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.

Anni

     

Customisable Coffee Cup Sentiments Card

Hi everyone, Taheerah here wishing you a happy Friday!

Coffee culture. There's no avoiding it. Whether you're a fan of the black stuff or can't stand the taste of it, we all almost certainly known someone who's a coffee fan. Personally it's far too bitter for my sweet tooth, but I love the smell of it, and of course the scientist in me loves the whole science of coffee making.

The Waffle Flower Crafts Coffee Cup Sentiments stamp set is the perfect salute for the coffee lover in your life. I love the idea of customising your sentiment by ticking the various options on the cup! I couldn't wait to put this set to use:

I love how this turned out! Pretty cool, right?!

I started by stamping the sentiment part of the design using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I added my ticks using the same ink but also tapping my stamp into the Versafine Clair Ink in the colour Twilight for a bit more of an 'inky' pen look!

I wanted the card to resemble a 'close-up' of the cup, or at least it being seen from a side angle, so I stamped the circle partially off the edge of my card for a fun detail!

I wanted to show how easy it is to create the look of a coffee cup without needing any dies. So I trimmed a few strips of black cardstock, adhered them together to resemble a lid, then adhered that to the top of my base to finish off the look! There's a lot of white space between the sentiment and the 'lid' because it's a large cup. *smile*

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!

Scooter Balloons

Hello everyone!

I'm back with another card. Today I'm using Scooter Ballons stamp set from Lil' Inker Designs.

My first step was to create the background. For this, I chose distress oxide inks in refreshing greens and simple inks blending technique.
I also added splatters, using a small paintbrush.

Next, I stamped all the images I needed on to piece of watercolour paper and coloured them with zig real brush markers. 

I then fussy cut everything out and adhered to my card panel with foam squares.

For my sentiment, I chose one from the same set and stamped it with Versafine Onyx Black on to a strip of white paper. I used my trimmer to cut it and adhered with some liquid glue, next to my little scooter.
My last step was to add a few Nuvo crystal drops and glossy accents to all the balloons.   

All done! I loved working with this cute set from Lil' Inker Designs.

Thank you for stopping by! See you soon with anoher card! 

Anna 

Monster Hugs and Kisses

Hello, Tallie here. Hope you're enjoying the sunny weather!

I had three requirements for today's card: 1) bright colours, 2) can be sent to a boy or a girl, and 3) it had to use the Concord & 9th Monster Love set. This one's been sitting in my stash for a little while and it's too cute to stay there!

I started out by stamping the little furry guy and two balloons onto some blending cardstock with some MFT Extreme black ink. I then coloured him in with my alcohol markers, using lots of tiny strokes to give the fur effect. I stuck to bright colours and cut them out with the coordinating dies when finished.

I chose a simple background of green cardstock and used a strip of my pre-stamped background paper I mentioned a couple of weeks ago to ground the little guy. A sentiment strip from the Mama Elephant Birthday Messages set and a marker for to add some balloon strings finishes off the card nicely.

The design is simple and flexible so I made a bunch of different designs to bulk up my birthday card stash!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

Gnomes with a secret

Hello, it's Liz here today. How cute are these two? I wonder what secret they are sharing! They are from Stamping Bella and the set is called Gnomes with a secret, the matching die is here. The fairy garden sign is also Stamping Bella and the matching die for that one is here.

I love stamps that have bigger areas to colour as you can achieve a real watercolour look. The watercolours I used are by Altenew and remember you will need to stamp on watercolour paper/card for best results.

The background paper is from my Simple Vintage Botanicals pad by Simple Stories and has been die cut using the Wonky Stitches die.

Thanks for stopping by today, happy crafting!

Sound the Alarm!!

I thought I'd try a 'new to me' design of card today using this great new car stamp from Avery Elle which is a fun accessory for the peek-a-boo pals stamp sets...

This is what I call a 'floating floor' card and is another easy way of making a pop up scene in your card. It's not my own idea and if you look on You Tube you will find a few tutorials on how to make them. I thought the design would work well for this dinosaur who is driving from the city to deliver birthday wishes..

I started with a regular card base and blended blue ink onto the inside top half for a sky. The floating floor is the same width as the card base and the length depends on how long you want the floor to be plus the depth of the float.... I went with 1cm depth plus a bit extra to join the floor to the card base.

I coloured and die cut the skyscrapers from Concord & 9th's City Stacks for the background scenery which is adhered flat to the top half of the card base. I coloured and die cut the car, dinosaur and accessories for both. I used masking to ink blend the road and grass verge on the floating base before cutting slits to insert the card strips through.

It's easier to then assemble the base and poke the scored card strips through the floor and attach them to the base.... all you have to do then is add your images to the pieces of card left sticking up out of the floating floor.

For clean lines I stamped and embossed the red light flashes and balloon strings on Heat Resistant acetate and trimmed them out so I could attach them almost invisibly.

I just added a small sentiment in the foreground leaving space for the 'to and from' part of the message. The card does shut but depending on the number of elements you use it may not stay closed so I made a belly band to slip around it...

I used patterned paper to cover the card base and then used Waffleflower dies to cut a white and red border speech bubble. I've used Mama Elephants Colour Me alphabet to create the siren's 'Nee-Naw' sound ( yes I checked the correct spelling 😉)... I love the font and think it carries the fun feel of the scene inside..

I'm really pleased with how this little scene came out, definitely worth watching a tutorial if you can although its not that hard to make without if not.... just a case of trial and error. The main thing to remember is making sure the pop up elements don't stick out of the card base when its closed... this will determine the shape and orientation of the card base and where elements are placed on the floating floor. Have fun with it, you'll love the result too 😊

   

 

 

Thank you for stopping by :)

Jenny x