New born card

 This card is similar to one I did last last year. I tried it  in lilac this time as it's  for  the parents of a new born girl. The teddy I coloured using Copic markers.  The text was obviously printed using a p.c.  I tied the insert in with lilac bakers twine.

Whiskey Business.

This set is a new set by Stampin' Up .It's called Whiskey Business... Two people sprung to mind  as soon as I saw it , so I just had to buy it.   

Coloured with Copics and mounted onto  Cajun Craze card stock and Cajun Craze DSP. 

I love the sentiments in this set too. Not Gushy or overly sentimental.

A  hint of humour on this one.

 Hubby says the Whiskey is too dark on this one.

 Maybe I was thinking of the bottle of Brandy sat in the kitchen or maybe it's just that my  honey coloured pen has run out of ink and had to make do with the colours I have.  

Part the appeal of this set is the fact the Decanter and glass are separate stamps making it more versatile. So you can have as many glasses as you want in any arrangement. 

This set will be great for Father's Day  cards as well as masculine birthday cards.

Pretty but Offensive Card.

 This Card was made as a joke. It's prettiness lulls the recipient into thinking they are getting a nice card, but the words inside are so offensive  you couldn't send it to anyone unless you are 100%  sure they would not be easily offended and find it funny.

Hubby came up with the alternative ending to the rhyme  on the front of this card.  
I would not be happy  writing the verse here as it contains one very nasty swear word.
The frame on the front was created using the Stampin' up   heirloom dies and  coordinating embossing folder.
I bought some pre cut plastic mirrors to make this card.

 I have had a little time to create this card for my uncle, who has been a keen fisherman for most of his 84 years.  I am hoping he'll  like this creation.

  To create the background paper for this card.  I cut a piece of white card 4  1/2 x 6  1/12 inches and scored it every half inch.   Using three  stampin' up ink pads : almost amethyst, bashful blue and  river rock,  (all of these colours are now retired,  but any felt style ink  pad in  a light purple, pale blue and   light beige/ brown will do.)

I tilted the ink pads at an angle and dragged the edge of the pad down the length of the card stock. I started with  the purple,  then pale blue and finally the brown to achieve this weathered paint look. 
Using a circle die I cut an aperture in the weathered wood layer. I cut a second piece of white card for the underneath layer. I stamped the  bulrushes onto this layer in the same area as the aperture on the top layer.

The images are from the Stampin' Up  stamp set called "Best Catch." ( apart from the rushes,  that's from another company).  
I coloured the images with Copic markers, before fussy cutting them out. 
I have to say  that  flippin' "fishing fly " was a pain in the butt to cut out. 
I think, I cut the hook off three times before I managed to cut out a complete fly.
  
To cut the hook out in one piece, I  had to cut it out a little wider than it actually is,  this left a white edge  that didn't look very nice.   
Once I had a whole fly cut out,  I  applied Versamark  to the hook and heat embossed it in silver several times.

I used a sponge roller to add a touch of blue and lilac to the background of the rushes.
All that was left to do was to stamp the sentiment and  arrange all the elements into a design I was happy with and stick them in place.

Another Sympathy card

 As you know if you are a regular reader, I 've been busy making sympathy cards.
 Here is another card. Hubby says it looks like I haven't put any effort into making it....  (Slap)

So I said there was probably just as much effort in this card than in the cards in my previous post.

Then I started to explain how I made this card. so he would understand just how much planning and thought went into this card....

 Well I lost him half way through  my first sentence.
So this tutorial is is really for him,  but if it's useful to anyone that's new to stamping that's a bonus.

 After stamping the frame,
I used a stamp positioning tool  to get the sentiment stamp, in the frame, evenly spaced and straight!
 Hubby is a stickler for getting things straight.

Once the ink was dry, I      masked off the frame with a post it note and then stamped the floral image over the top.

Again I waited for the ink to  was dry,  (My cherry cobbler ink pad is very juicy ) then I removed the mask and cut a frame to go over the image and then adhered the frame and image to the front of my white base card..

Well,  Hubby  dearest...I 'll know when you re reading this post as I will hear your raucous laughter coming from the dining room.

Autumn Splendour

Unfortunately I seem to using a lot of Get Well and Sympathy cards at the moment. I resurrected the  autumn splendour set. 

I really didn't like this set when it first came but now......I wouldn't part with it.

Stenciled stripes.

I love stripes so I thought I would have another attempt at creating them.  This time I used a stencil and a sponge brayer to create the stripes on this card. I can honestly say I am not impressed with this way of creating stripes the edges of the stripes  are not crisp enough for my liking. 

Not being impressed with the finished stripes I didn't put too much effort or imagination into the sentiment as it's a card that will never be sent or given to anyone..

The stripes on this black and white card were created in exactly the same way as the lilac one above, but this time I used a rule and a black marker to tidy up the edges of the stripes so they are much crisper. 

I finished this card using a sentiment from the birthday wit stamp set.......

Hubby says he doesn't like this card,,,,,he says it reminds him of the Tesco's value card. (below)

I can see what he means.  So I think I may add a few small flowers and sprigs of foliage  to this  card at a later date. But for now I'll be  trying to find a large striped  background stamp in red rubber.  If anyone knows  of a company that makes one,  please share that information with me.

It's taken me a week or so but I finally got round to adding some flowers to the black and white striped card. It looks a lot more feminine now.

Sweet Friendship Card.

This stamp is from Stampin' up it's in the 2018 Spring and Summer Catalogue. It's a sweet set of stamps. This is my favourite image in the set.
I think it's a perfect  image for  those,  less is more type cards.

Baby Card

Another Lili of the valley image for this simple card.   I have purchased quite  a few digital images from LOTV.  Their images are so sweet and I love to colour them .

 My preferred markers are Copics.

  I am undecided on the sentiment for this one, I'll add when a suitable occasion arises.

Pet Bereavement Card.

 I saw a CASE'd version of this card on FB done in red. As I own the cat punch from S.U. and some heart dies I decided to try this out for myself.  I don't know who the original creator was, but it certainly inspired me to try  it.

My first card attempt was done completely in black and white, then in red and black and finally I did it in red to give you an idea of the card that inspired me.






Although, I do think the original had  different smaller wording on the front and the sorry was on the inside of the card.

I think my favourite is the last black one.

To create this cat in the heart design.
 Cut a piece of card stock large enough for the heart die.
Punch out the cat from one side of the card.
Then lay your heart  shaped die over the  negative/ cut out of the cat and then die cut the heart shape.
The tiny heart is one of the shapes on the owl punch.

Sitting here.

Everyone knows I am not a fan of polymer stamps, but I couldn't resist this set  and so far I have had success using it.
It takes patience and some planning to get a good result, place those cushions too far apart and they wont fit on the swing.

I used the floral stamp from Awesomely Artistic to give the impression of a garden setting.

Wishing Well Card

I love this wishing well stamp and the sentiment stamps that come with this image from Stampin' up.
 I am not really sure how much use I will get out of this set but but it is such a pretty stamp that I couldn't resist buying it.

Coloured with Copic markers and mounted onto Berry burst and DSP card stock.
Card size 7 X 5.

Chameleon Card

I dragged out some old retired S.U. stamp sets for this card... The friendship wheel stamp and white craft ink were used to create the wordy  background strip, which was then stitched to a layer of vanilla card stock using a zigzag stitch.

The card stock used was S.U. Elegant Eggplant, although in this photo it looks more like the retired Concorde Crush and in another photo it looks  like Night of Navy, so I am calling this a my Chameleon  card.
The Sentiment stamp is from the stamp set called  "From my heart" and stamped onto vanilla card stock in Elegant  Eggplant  ink.

Get Well Card.

This has to be my favourite card today.. probably because I can sympathize with this poorly mouse.

 This card doesn't need a sentiment.... I think the image says it all.

 It's a wonderful image by House Mouse and I enjoyed colouring this one.

Birthday Blooms.

I am always using mirri card to mount my die cut images, but I tend to use the positive rather than the negative.

This time I decided to use the negative. Well... it survived going through my big shot  with it's very cut up and warped cutting plates, so I decided to use it as the background for the birthday blooms stamp.

I mounted the image onto black card stock.
I decided to hold off on adding a sentiment for now.  As I don't know what occasion this car will be used for.
The stamp set is called birthday blooms, but you can use it for pretty much any occasion and it's still available from S.U.
I coloured the image with copic markers.

Evie's Birthday Card.

Today's card is for a young lady who will be celebrating her 4th birthday later this week.
I used the now retired "Styling Girl" stamp set  from stampin' up!
 I coloured the image with Copic markers.

I think almost everything I used on this card is retired.

The Polka dot background was created using the retired  S.U Polka dot background stamp along Almost Amethyst ink pad stamped onto whisper white card stock.
All mounted onto Almost Amethyst card stock..also retired.
.
The dies I used to cut out the letters are an early set of alphabet dies that S.U sold sometime ago and are no longer available. 
As a hobby demo I don't tend to sell my retired sets as so many demonstrators do. I bought them because I liked them and every now again I 'll dig out the older stuff and create something new, as I have today. 

Gone Fishing

So this summer must be the wettest summer on record. I really can't remember a summer as wet as this. It's really getting me down now. It has stopped me doing all the jobs I have wanted to catch up on this holiday.

I shouldn't be surprised really, there is always something to mess to up my plans. Usually it's something involving me injuring myself and being incapacitated for several weeks.

                                 

I guess the wet weather is a good excuse to stay in a craft, and that's exactly what I have been doing.
For these cards,  I purchased digital stamps from

www.liliofthevalley.co.uk  
(Click on the  link to go to the website.)

You can buy the images as rubber stamps as well as in digital form from the website. 
I usually buy the rubber version when I go to craft shows, but I was in  hurry and the craft show isn't until next year and I wanted something I could colour RIGHT NOW,  so I chose digital stamps. 

The plus side to digital stamps is delivery is almost instant and I didn't have to leave the house to get them, saving me time, postal costs and hubby's fuel. lol. 
If you have never tried digital stamps yet, I recommend you give them a go at least once. The bonus to having digital stamps is you can re size the images to fit any card.
The down side to digital stamps is if you don't back up your pc (like Me) and your pc goes kaput,  you've lost your entire collect of images. 

The background for the two cards above were created by sponging three different coloured inks randomly over the card stock until the card was covered and the colour was quite intense, then I over stamped used a seaweed stamp and the darkest ink of my three. 

I used  Stampin' Up s:  Marina Mist,  Night of Navy and tempting turquoise on the top card.... Bashful Blue , Almost Amethyst and Night of Navy inks on the card card in the middle. I over stamped the sponging using the seaweed stamp from the by the tide stamp set.
The last card I used  printed paper in  masculine colours. I won't add the sentiments until I know who the card is going to and what the occasion  is.

Masculine card

This stamp was a very popular stamp for men's cards  some years ago. I don't know the make of the stamp but I can tell you it is a polymer stamp  and  surprisingly, one I can actually use.
regular readers will know, I fail big time with polymer stamps.

A few weeks ago I was digging through my stamps looking for some images I could  stamp off then colour while watching TV. 

I like to do something while watching TV, then I don't feel I have completely wasted the evening.

When I need to make a quick card I have a whole host of images coloured in ready to use.






Here is a picture of just a few of the images I've coloured in while watching TV.  
I have small box full of images ready to go. 
By colouring  images in advance I save loads of time when it comes to constructing  a card. 

Beautiful You ...again

Here is another card using the Beautiful You stamp set from this year's Spring and Summer catalogue.
I have been trying a few different things with this set over the last few weeks.
The idea for this card came from a Google search.  I can't remember the lady's name but I do remember that she said she had CASE d  the card on Pinterest.

I saw the card 24 hours before making this one, so I'll be interested to see  how mine differs.

CASE ing a card 24 hours or more after seeing it is something I like to try.  One reason is to test my memory and eye for detail. I have to say both are not good, so I usually end up with a similar card but never exactly the same.
 I stamped the image onto white card and cutaway the white card on the left side of the image.

I stuck a piece of black card down the hinge side of the card and then glued and butted up the straight edges of the white card against the black and sticking down the overlapping arm and etc.
I masked off the female and sponged some colour around the dancer.  The final step was to add colour to the image and stamp the sentiment.

Beautiful You....again.

I have been itching to use this technique on these stamps ever since the set arrived. I have finally found enough time to try out a few ideas tonight.
This is a nice quick and easy card to make.
To make this 6 x 6 card I cut a piece of DSP and mounted it onto a piece of dark grey card stock.  I adhered the DSp to the hinge side of the card. and stamped the sentiment in the bottom right hand corner.
 All that's left to do now is stamp the lady image twice.  Once onto white card stock and once onto a scrap of DSP.
I cut out the dress and the umbrella from the DSP and stuck the on top of the image stamped on the white card.
With Copic markers I added some colour to her legs, hair and the background. The final step was to die cut the image and mount the image on to another piece of grey card stock and stick it to the  prepared base card.