Silhouette scenes.. boy with plane

This is the card I posted on the demonstrators website it's had over 550 likes plus  a lot of comments , one of which was asking for a tutorial.  I am having issues again with videos so I've put together a photo tutorial in the post below. 

It's not a difficult card to make and doesn't take a great deal of time to do. 

 The stamp sets use are silhouette scenes and natures beauty, plus a few stamps from Lavinia Stamps. 

The Stampin' Up ink colours I used are; barely banana , melon mambo, highland heather, balmy blue and  black Versamark . 

Bleach splatters were applied after I had brushed the colours on and before stamping the black silhouettes.

 I use different foliage  stamps and changed the order of the colours on this .

The boy with binoculars  is from  the silhouette scenes stamp set too. I also sponged the  base card on this one, but I am not sure I like this though. The wisteria, rabbit and toadstool stamps are  from Lavinia stamp.

The girl on a swing is from the silhouette scenes stamp set. The foliage at the bottom of this scene are from the  retired Stampin' up set called pocket silhouettes. The branch and leaf stamp are from Lavinia stamps.

A nice anniversary card..... I think

This is a fairly quick and easy one to make.  It would have been quicker if I hadn't over inked my "craft" ink pad   (which Is a Slow drying ink) I had to wait for ages for the ink to dry, but it took so long I resorted to using the heat gun to finish it off.

This is a 6x4 inch card. I started by brushing ink in a  semi random way over the card stock. I brushed in a couple hills in the distance then  splattered some water over the card and waited for a about 30 seconds before blotting  off the excess water and the ink it lifted.

 I wanted the splatter marks to be a little brighter, so with an aqua painter  filled with bleach I added  tiny drops of bleach to each splatter and let it sit until the splatters where almost white then blotted off the excess.

  I stamped the silhouettes,  sponged  in the foreground and left it to dry.

  It was essential the ink was completely dry before I did the gold heating embossing.

 The  couple  are from the retired  stamps set Silhouette Scenes . The floral silhouette wild flowers  and willow are from Lavinia stamps.

 This is a long skinny card  at  3x7  inches.

 The stamps used on this are Pocket silhouettes, 

Silhouette scenes.

 and the over hanging willow stamp is from Lavinia stamps.

Spirited Snowmen

 I spent sometime time in my craft room this morning for the first time since my Bigshot jammed up last week.  I was surprised at how many times I thought " I'll  just run this through the Bigshot".... Then remembered it wasn't working.  So then I'd have to come up with another idea that didn't require any embossing or die cutting.

At lunchtime today my clever hubby took it apart and changed the bearing and  a gear.  He tells me,  a cir clip had sprung off and knackered one of the bearings.

Having changed the damaged  parts it's all working perfectly now.

Thanks Hubby you're a treasure. I have had fun playing with it this afternoon.

Anyway here's another Snowman card using the Spirited Snowmen set. I coloured the image with Copic markers.

 This time I have used a long since retired  Paisley background stamp. It's obviously not a Christmas stamp, but somehow it manages to look Christmassy on this card. 

Mirror image stamping.

Remember that mirror image stamping experiment I posted last week. I have now turned it into a card using some wood grain DSP a sentiment and a little ribbon.

Too Early for Christmas Cards?

Just two stamps  and  half a dozen markers were used to create this simple card. I think this stamp set is available for 2 more days before it retires.

Snowflakes

Nothing outstanding about this card, but I wanted to share how I did the snowflakes on this dark blue background.
Using a white gell pen can give  irregular and disappointing results.
Time to try something different....
Using a Japanese screw punch/book binders punch with a tiny hole attachment, I randomly punched tiny holes all over the background, then mounted the image onto white card stock and Hey Presto!!!  Regular shape, white snowflakes showing through the blue background and no blue ink bleeding into the white gell pen.  I also added  a little glue and glitter into each holes for sparkle.

Sharon's Wedding Invitation.

The postman delivered this  last week.

My friend Sharon is getting married in the summer and had made her own wedding invitations.
Glad to say,.... here is mine.

Sharon has used my  all time favourite floral stamp set.

I love the Stippled Blossom  set and I was very surprised it didn't stay in the catalogue longer.
To my mind it should be a permanent fixture in the catalogue, like Lovely as a tree. lol.

Inside Sharon has made pockets and  very pretty little labels with all the relevant information on.
I am guessing Sharon has used the S.U. scallope top label punch to  create these lovely labels.

I just wish she  had printed the details a little larger though as I had  trouble trying to read the small print and had to get a magnifying glass out to read the information. (This aging business is not much fun.)
Sharon if you read this, Thank you for inviting me and  I will be delighted to attend your wedding.
 I will be sending back the RSVP as soon as I have worked out which label is the RSVP.  LOL

A Delicate Aster... stamp and die set.

 

Another flower making post today.
But this time with  a very useful tip on lining up stamps with coordinating  dies.
I learnt this recently and just had to share.

I have only recently discovered Heartfelt Creations stamps and dies.... I have been an S.U junkie for the past five years so I haven't been looking at other company's products very much. But
 S. U  are making many changes at the moment, not only with their products but with the whole company and I am finding it difficult to get my head round all the changes. I am not sure I like the changes, the artwork or  the introduction of polymer stamps.
As you probably know I don't like polymer stamps much and S.U seem to be making more and more of their sets in polymer.  As a hobby demo,  I am finding less and less to spend my money on (which will come as a relief to my husband). So I have been looking around to see what else is available.
That's when I found these flower stamps and dies and just had to try them.

Unlike the Arianna Blooms stamp set these flowers are individual stamps and not in a block, so you have to cut one at a time.
You start by stamping the image on a piece of card stock a bit larger than you need.   I will call this..... Card stock A  for the purpose of this tutorial.

The cutting edge on these dies are NOT on the edge of the die, as it is on the Arianna Bloom set so it is difficult to line up the cutting edge with the stamped image.

Unless of course you already know the tip I am about to share with you.

Take a scrap of paper, smaller than card
stock A  but  big enough for the die,  tape the die face down to the paper, allow the tape to hang over the edge of the scrap paper.  As in the photo below.   


Run this through the die cutting machine and  then remove the flower from the centre of the die.  Leave the die attached to the paper along with the tape. 

Now flip the die  up as though  opening a door,  using the tape as a hinge.
Take your stamped image  Card stock A and place it under the paper template.  Line up the image with the aperture you have cut as accurately as you can. 

Once you have matched up the image with the aperture press those over hanging bits of tape down so they stick to the layer of card with your image on  Card stock A.  
Flip the die back over so it sits back into the original cut.  Do this carefully so not to disturb the card layers.   Then run it through a die cutting  machine again.   
                                            
These dies are designed to cut out the
 image without leaving a white border.
So positioning of the die is crucial.
 
Here you can see the over hanging sticky tape stuck to bottom layer of card and you can see the centre of the stamped flower through the hole in the centre off the die .                                                                    The next photo shows the flower after it's been cut out.     You can see how accurately you can cut these flowers out using this method.                                                            The next photo is of the left over card stock, just to prove the accuracy.

                                                                                To make the flower at the top of this post I used six layers of petals in total.  Two of the largest size, two of the next size down and two of the next size down.  To complete the flower  I sponged each petal with lilac ink.    I could however,  have just stamped the image onto lilac card stock in the first place.                          

The next step was to shape the flower.      Place the flower face side down on a sponge mat. Using a ball tool,  stroke  from just below the tip of the petal down to the centre. The petals will curl upwards as you do this.  

                                      

When all petals have been curled turn the flower over and with a ball tool draw a circle firmly around the centre of the flower following the base of each petal, do this a few times to get the petals to lift. 

Repeat these steps on all  the layers.          You can then layer them up and stick them together making sure you off set each layer as you add it.

For the centre of the flower, I cut a narrow strip of  yellow card and cut a fringe along the edge and rolled it up and stuck it in the centre of my flower.  These Aster dies do come with a small stamen die  which I chose not to use on this flower. 

Time for bed for me, it's the early hours of the morning yet again and this post has taken many hours to write up.    I have been having a lot of issue with my blog of late so I do hope all this makes sense. So this is  goodnight from one very tired  Laura. x

 

Oh Darn it!!! I forgot to mention there is a very good video on you tube on this technique. It By Emma Lou of Heartfelt Creations.  I can't remember which dies and stamps she uses to demonstrate this method but I know it's not this one.  She has quite a few videos all worth watching..... she also seems to have just as many hair styles. 

Apologies for the poor spacing and lay out of this post.......I am having some issues with my blog. The more I try to correct the issues the worse things gets.

                                                                                                                 

flourish card

 I saw a card made using this stamp from Hero Arts and I fell in love with it instantly.   It's one of those  stamps to die for,  it's so beautiful. So I went on a hunt for it and eventually found in the USA direct from Hero Arts. it was  reasonably priced so I just had to order it. 

It arrived yesterday much later than the given delivery dates. 
It's arrival  meant  PLAYTIME!!! 

These cards are the end result of my playtime. The first I heat embossed in gold , which is really hard to photograph well.  

The second card is also heat embossed in gold on white card stock and I applied   stampin' ups Pool Party  and Crumb Cake ink with a sponge afterwards.




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            




The last card I heat embossed in white on  Stampin' up's Cherry Cobbler  card stock.

Stippled Blossoms

 Here we are again with my favourite go to stamp set.  I love this stippled blossom  two step, stamp set from stampin' up.

The flowers are achieved by stamping the solid image stamp in a pale colour ink.

Then you over stamp with the detail stamp inked up with a darker coloured ink and that's all there is to it, but it gives stunning results.

 You can get very different results  just by changing the colours .

Horse Lover's Card

This card was created for my nephew's girlfriend Olivia. 
It was made in an awful hurry as I'd only found out her birthday is tomorrow several hours before we were going over to visit. 
I started making it before going to work , did a little more at lunchtime then completed it when I got home from work.

There is  a very big cock up on this card. If you look closely  the text on the the red background paper is upside down.

No time to start again or even correct it.
It had to be delivered with the fault.

Handmade card for a one year old.

My fifth and final post today is this little card created for a one year.
I used a combination of  products on this card, martha Stewarts Doily punch, A tatty bear stamp bought from the Range dirt cheap. 

Copic Markers to colour the bear. Stampin ups DSP to mount the topper on.  My lazer printer to print of the the figure one and  the verse for inside the card.

A small amount of toner foil to hot foil the  verse and the digit.

Once I had practised colouring this damn bear,  I quite enjoyed  doing it so I stamped him onto the envelope too.

Moving house card for a little girl.

My fourth  post this evening is this little card I made for my Granddaughter who has recently moved house.

I used another retired set from S.U If I recall this was a sale a bration set a few years ago. I can't remember what it's called at the moment though.

It have only used it once before  so I enjoyed getting it out and  playing with this set. 

I have to say  this is not an easy set to use and you definitely need a stamp positioning tool  to get the roofs on the houses right.

The foreground was created by sponging old olive ink below  and between the houses and then dotting on  a little white ink using a gel pen to give the impression of daisies growing in the grass. I then  dotted in some tiny  blades of grass  and some bushes between the houses with  the fine end of an old olive  marker.

The sky was sponged  on  using bashful blue ink .

Fine Feathers Cards

It's  another sunny  bank holiday  and  we had planned a trip to Shropshire to visit my father who has been very ill of late. Dad is now out of hospital and is now  basically having to fend for himself with just the occasional visit from the district nurse.  So a visit from us would have cheered him up no end. But Hubby has gone done with a cold and I really don't think it would be a good idea to visit and and pass on the cold to my dad in his weakened state. It's probably not fair on Hubby either to expect him to drive over 300 miles in a day when he is feeling like crap. So we have had to postpone the trip for now.

Fortunately his neighbours daughter has been popping in on him when she visits her mother.

Dad tells me she has even done some some house work for him. 

So you can guess who my next Thank you card will be for. 

Any enough  about my family and on to these cards . I bought the Fine Feathers stamp set some time ago and the other day I decided it was time they came out to play.

Here are the cards I made. They look much better in reality than in these photos .

Glittered cards are so hard to photograph. I stamped the the feathers using Concorde Crush ink from Stampin' Up ( Now retired) which has to be my favourite purple ink and coloured the feathers with a blender pen and a tiny amounts of Concorde Crush and Pool Party Ink .

With the two way glue pen I dotted some adhesive over the feathers and applied a little Dazzling Diamond glitter. 

I added some Pool Party Ribbon to one of the panels which actually looks awful in this photo but  in reality  it does look much better. I am not a big fan of this type of colour  but it does work amazingly well with purple.  I will probably change the ribbon to  a purple before I send it anyone. I am hoping SU will bring out a purple ribbon when the new catalogue comes out  that is closer to Concorde Crush than the Elegant Eggplant Grosgrain they sell at present.  Rumour has it there is a new purple ink on the horizon so finger crossed  there will be ribbon to match.  Actually it's more than  a rumour, I have seen a photo of it. It's going to be at the  top of my shopping list in July.

I mounted each piece of feathered card to  card in the same colours as the inks used and the stuck them to the front of my white cards and added my greeting stamped in purple .

Here's a close up so you can see the glitter as it doesn't show up on the above photos.

Nautical 21st Card in a Box

 This card in a box has been done with a Nautical theme for a young man that will be 21 years old at beginning of next week.
It only seems like yesterday I was making his 18th card.... where does the time go.


This Box is much larger than the previous card in boxes I have done before.
This means it needs more stuff sprouting out of it. So this box has 5 bridges inside to hold all the lollipops  (so to speak)

 The stamps sets I used to fill this box were "Open Sea"
 "By the tide", "Banner Blast",  "Cheers to you", Hello Sailor,"  all from Stampin up although some are now retired. They were all heat embossed using black embossing powder, then sponged over with three different inks.
bashful blue,so saffron,  and lucky limeade.

 I think I used Stampin' ups whole range of circle punches plus the bigz circles die to cut out all the designs and backing  circles.  The corresponding banner blast punch was used to cut the banners.

Glimmer paper was used along with the number dies to make the 21 a little more glimmer paper touches in the form of a banner and a little heart as the card will be from his mum,  who obviously loves him so the tiny heart seemed a subtle way of adding some love.


Mum also chose the words I typed up and added to the back section of the box, leaving her plenty of room to add some extra messages if she so wishes.
I used the "The World" stamp  by Stampin' Up to decorated the side panels of the box. Heat embossed in black and again sponged with the above mentioned colours.
The base of the box was stamped  using the new "hardwood" background stamp from S.U.

The lighthouse is just a small section of a stamp I have owned for many years and only ever used once. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get it out again. 

I have to get it in post now or it won't arrive in time for his birthday.

Christmas Mice Card.

I had a little sort of my stamp drawers and found  this set of stamps.
I bought these gorgeous  mouse stamps many years ago and have never got round to using them. I think they are from craft companions but I can't remember what the set was called.
There was also a CD or DVD that you could purchase to go with them. If I recall the CD had scenes on that you could print off to use as backgrounds for these mice. Yep!  I bought that too.

Here are two tunnel cards I have created over the last couple of nights that I have been unable to sleep.


The tunnel  is created by scoring and folding  every 1/2 inch on the side panels  (3 of navy top and sides and one white the base)  to form a concertina and then interlocked the sides with the ends.

Once the concertina frame was formed I sponged some whisper white card stock ( the same size as the overall frame)  with daffodil delight ink  in the area I thought the lantern would hang.  (This will be the background.)

Then I sponged the surrounding area  with night of navy ink,  slightly overlapping the yellow. But not too much as I didn't want to turn the yellow green.
Once happy with the effect I stamped the large group of trees from the " Lovely as a tree" (stamp set from Stampin Up) in black ink and then again in white ink, almost directly over the black image to give the trees a frosted look. I then cut a frame and stamped it with white snow flakes from the serene snowflake stamp set again from S.U but  it is now retired.



For the larger card I took a different tack and cut a piece of navy card ( the same size as the overall frame)  and stamped snowflakes with white craft  ink then mounted the frame onto the background.

I cut some snow drifts in differing depths and slotted them in  between the ridges of the concertinaed base.

The Mouse family were stamped, then coloured in with markers and then cut out.
 I left a white tab about 1 cm square at the foot of each mouse for glue. I placed a small amount of glue on the front of the tabs and positioned the the characters tabs behind the snow drifts making sure the feet were in line with the top of the snow drift    they were standing on. Without this tab you would have to glue the the back of the shoes and stick them to the front of the drift. As the shoes are so tiny they may not support the characters as well as the larger gluing area of the tab.                                    

The lamp post also came with the mice and I made use of it in the larger card. But it was too tall for the smaller square card.

I made a navy frame and stamped it with snowflakes  in white ink. While the white ink was drying I cut a sheet of sheet of acetate the same size as the overall frame and stamped white snowflakes over the top half of the acetate using white Stazon ink. (As it will not rub off or smudge once it is dry.)
The acetate was then stuck over the aperture of the card and the snowflake frame stuck on top.
I guess with this one I could have added some glitter and turned it into a shaker card. But I thought it may have been a little too much.
When complete I made a book style cover for the framed scene to go in . No photo Because I haven't decorated it yet.

Swallowtail Card

This is just a quicky as it's very late and I need to get some sleep.
When I got in from work today I thought I would have a leisurely look on You Tube and see if there were any video' s that might inspire me to get off my backside and in my craft room  to clean it up and get creating again.

Wow! was I in for a surprise I came across a video for making this card,  after watching it,  I immediately rushed upstairs and cleared a space on my work bench to have ago. 
It was very quick and easy and I was pleased with the result. Why Not Pop over to You Tube and check out her videos for yourself.

The lady who made the video is called Brenda Keenan. (Keenan Kreations)
She has made a few videos and they are worth watching. Believe me.... She managed to get me off my butt and into my craft room after watching only one video .

 I have since watched a few more of Brenda s videos  and I definitely  will be attempting to case several of Brenda's beautiful cards. But for now it's off to bed.

finger print mice

I haven't done much in the way of crafting for quite some time now.  I have been very busy trying to have a sort out  in the house since we broke up for the summer. If you can call this summer  that is. Very little chance of getting a sun tan here in the uk . We more likely to get  rust, as it has been so wet.
Anyway  this is a little card I made  yesterday . The mice were created by dabbing  my little finger onto the ink pad and then onto the paper. It's not a new idea by any means but it's quite effective. I used the matching marker to draw in the ears and whiskers. Using a small hole punch, I punched holes for the tails then threaded  some  jute threw threw the holes. I did  colour the jute but rolling it across  the ink pad and smoothed the fibres down  using a little crystal effects and allowed it to dry before threading it through the tail holes. I used the grass stamp from the dinoroar stamp set to stamp the grass.

Stamp a ma jig Tutorial

This was  a fun video to make.  But my  battery died before I had the time to  say the imaging sheet  comes with a blue sticker in the centre.

 I  strongly recommend that you leave this sticker on the sheet. You very rarely need to use the centre of the sheet for positioning your stamp. So it doesn't affect your work.  What it does do however,  is helps you find it.

Being an opaque  plastic square it is hard to see, especially if your work space is as messy as mine. I have spent many hours trying to find this sheet during and after a crafting session. (I have a tendency to use the it and  put it down rather than put it back in it's box)   When looking for it now I  look for the blue sticker rather than a opaque plastic square.

 One last thing I am curious to know why I sound like I have a lisp on this video, I didn't have one before on the original  recording, Perhaps you get a free lisp with every video uploaded on blogspot. lol

Outlined Occassions

I loved doing this one, it was so simple but every effective and because I stamped the image using versamark ink and heat embossed the image with white embossing powder it helped me stay with in the lines of the image. If I did accident slip out of line the ink wiped off the embossing powder with out staining it.
How cool it that.

I tied a knot in a length of cherry cobbler seam binding and wrapped it around my top layer of card, which is the crumb cake card from Stampin' up.

The stamp set is called Outlined Occassions and was one of the free sets from Stampin' up in this year s sale-a-bration promotion.