This Little Piggy.

A quick little card using the Burlap background stamp and this cute little piggy from the current S.U catalogue.
This little piggy.

Here I have put Baked Brown Sugar ink  and Blackberry Bliss  Card stock together.

For the flower,  I punched out two layers of petals shaped them and added a tiny gem stone.

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.

Stippled Blossoms.

 My all time favourite  floral stamp set came out for these two cards. 
The retired  set.. Stippled Blossoms  retired some years ago, but I still love it and use it whenever I can.

 I have used Flirty Flamingo and  Cajun Craze ink  pads for this card.
You won't find many cards made by me in orange as it it is my least favourite colour, followed very closely by

yellow.

For the  second card  I used Almost Amethyst and Concorde Crush.


For the leaves I used,  Mellow Moss and Always Artichokes ink pads.
I heat embossed the sentiment on the second card in gold.

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.

Merry Patterns Stamp Set

I used the stamp set  Merry Patterns  to create this card.  

                          

This set should offer lots of  variety.

I have kept this card really simple and I only use four of the stamps in the set. I chose to colour the candles with markers rather than using the candle infill  stamps.

The back ground was created using a wheel stamp and white ink.

On my second card I used the candle infill stamps to add a pattern to the candles.
I stamped some pine needles around the base of the candles and added a few berries of red glitter or with  white gel pen.
I haven't got round to using the deer stamps yet.

Another Acetate Card

Another acetate card. This time I used the  retired Serene  Snowflakes stamp set and White Stazon ink.  A little tip here; when stamping on acetate don't use a brand new ink pad or one that you have recently re inked.  The juicier the ink pad is the more chance of the stamp slipping on the acetate, leaving you with blurry images instead of nice crisp images.
The candle image is from a set that was free from S.U  with a qualifying order.
I coloured the images with Copic markers.

Small square aperture card

I have been making a couple of embroidered cards this week so die cutting the fabric and sticking the onto a card was not an option.  

                                          For a professional look,   all the raw fabric edges need to be concealed within the card.

So I thought I 'd share how I make my small  square aperture cards for embroidered pieces. Although I will be using an image on card stock rather than a piece of embroidery. 

Taking an  A4 sheet of card stock place it in your paper trimmer length ways and cut off a strip  3  7/8" ths  wide by the whole length of the card.

  

Then turn it sideways and score at  3 7/8ths fold on the score line and score again at 3 7/8ths.  You should have 3 panels all measuring 3 7/8 square. 

Place a die in the centre of the central panel and run it through your die cutting machine.

Remove the die and the cut out piece.

 







If desired you can now stamp the front middle panel.
Here I used the Serene Snowflakes stamp set and white craft ink.







Once the ink is dry adhere the embroidered piece to the inside of the middle panel. I recommend using a dry glue like fast fuse to adhere the fabric as you will be able to re position the fabric to get the framing of your work perfect.

Apply a  thin line wet glue like Tom Bow around the edges of the middle panel and along the edges of the fabric, then fold the right side panel  (Looking  at it from the front) over to conceal the back of the fabric.

Acrylic Block Stamping.

After creating and sharing this card on social media I was asked to do a tutorial on this technique, so this is for you Sarah  Hardy.

I find this technique to be a little hit and miss at the best of times, but in the main most pieces can be used for something.

Choose three colours of ink pad, I like the colours in the  photo best for this technique. Earthy colours seem to look best. Starting with the lightest colour, dab it onto one end of an acrylic block, repeat this with the next two colours.  You will also need some water colour paper for this technique.

I recommend starting with the lightest colour so you do not contaminate your light colour ink pad with the darker ink as you dab the pads on the block. lighter colour will not affect your darker ink pads.






Spritz the inked up block with  a fine misting of water 2 or 3 squirts is usually enough, but a lot depends on how fine the mist is from your bottle.
You don't want your block so wet that all ink water runs off as you turn it over.



                                            You will need some  water colour paper to stamp on for best results, although I have previously tried this technique on a heavy cartridge paper with limited success.
Once you have misted  your block flip it over and lay it on the water colour paper. Press the block down gently to spread the ink /water mix underneath.


Don't press too hard or it will ooze out the sides.  If you're lucky  and get good coverage, you will be able to remove the acrylic block and allow it to dry before stamping over it.

If you're not so lucky you could try the following to avoid or filling in those dry patches.
Spritz the water colour paper with water and wipe off the excess water with kitchen tissue before stamping with the block.



Another thing I do to improve the coverage is to  lift the opposite end of the block to the dry patches very slowly until a puddle forms at the other end, but  do not take the block off the paper completely. 






If necessary, I will lay the block back down and then lift the opposite end of the block until the puddle forms at the opposite end.


 Once I am happy with the coverage and with some kitchen roll in hand,  I lift the block off and mop up the excess moisture from the block and the puddle left on the card stock.



When the card has dried out  you can then stamp over with the images of your choice. My favourite stamp set to use with this technique is the retired Happy Scenes stamp set.
The trees are a perfect for the size blocks I stamp with.










To finish  I apply a little glue using the two way glue pen and sprinkle with white glitter. Then  bush off the excess glitter with a soft brush.







Too much glitter  can over power these little scenes, so it's important you only apply the tiniest amounts of glitter.



If you find you have too much glitter on your project, you can remove it using an adhesive remover.










All that's left to do now is turn your image into a card. I like to keep the card clean and simple so as not to distract from the focal point.
For me that means  mounting the image onto some dark card with a very narrow border  then adhered to either a white of cream base card with a simple sentiment

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.

Bauble card

Another retired Christmas Stamp  from the Ornament  Keepsake set and die cut with the coordinating die.
The sentiment is from a set called  Greetings of the Season.

Bauble Christmas card

 A simple background was created by using a suitable stamp and white craft ink pad.
 I used a wheel stamp that I cannot remember the name of and the bauble stamp is from a set called  Merry and Type.
Both the wheel stamp and  Merry and Type are retired.

Christmas Card

The embossing folder used for the background is called gently falling from S.U.
The Sentiment is from the set called Carols of Christmas, new this year.

This one was a little out of my comfort zone. I don't usually  work with large sentiment stamps so I had trouble deciding on shape and size of card, then what on earth I was going to put with it.
Some banner strips and some fussy cut holly was all I could come up with.

Embroidered Christmas card.

During my craft room clean up, I found this piece of embroidery I did some years ago. Rather than throw it out, I decided to turn it into a  Christmas card.

I heat embossed a sentiment in silver beneath the embroidered image.

Here is the finished result.

Before you ask... I don't have the patience or the time or skills to embroider this image by hand.
So the credit should go to my sewing machine.

Glittery crafty cards.

The image on these two cards is in the Crafting forever stamp set from Stampin' Up.


The very sparkly backgrounds for these images was created by applying embossing paste over a brass stencil on card stock and then applying glitter over the  paste pattern that's left on the card stock and then left to dry.








It's  a messy business and requires more time and  cleaning up than  some with other techniques, so I don't use this technique very often.
I wish the photo would show just how sparkly this green glittered card really is.

I used a different brand of glitter on the pink card, it's nowhere near as sparkly as the green one, but still effective,

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.

Teddy New Years card.

I have had a bit of a clear out of my craft room over the half term holiday.
During my sorting I came across this  photocopied image. It's signed with my maiden name, meaning I drew this a very long time ago, way before I discovered stamping.
I remember,  I drew a series of these bear images and photocopied them onto vanilla card stock, so I could water colour the images without having the ink run and because I wanted to make more than one of each image without actually having to re draw the images.
 When I found this  uncoloured image I just had to try colouring it with my Copic markers, even though the card stock isn't ideal for use with alcohol markers it didn't turn out too bad. The cable knit embossed background makes it look better.

Celebrating Friendship.

 A very quick and simple card using two stamps from  Crafting Forever stamp set.

I used Berry Burst and Marina Mist card stock for the layers and banner strips along with a little DSP in black for contrast.

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.

Exam good luck card.

This image from Lilli of the Valley would make a great card for any female studying for an exam. This one will probably go to a young lady who will be doing her SATs next May.

I used the new  Berry Burst card stock from S.U and die cut two holes into the card front and adhered it to the front of of my base card.  The sentiment and image were die cut using the same dies used to cut the holes.  Then I just popped them into the holes in the Berry Burst card stock....with a little adhesive on the back of course.

Cat cards

 I created this  card in red and orange yesterday so today I thought I'd try different colours today.  I rather like the purple one best.
For this effect I cut a large circle in a post it not and placed the negative where I wanted my Moon to be.  Using the splatter stamp from Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and versamark ink I stamped over the aperture several times and allowed the ink to dry.
Once dry I lightly sponged over the moon area with my lightest purple ink. Almost Amethyst.  Then I removed the negative mask and placed the positive mask over the sponged moon to prevent it getting  any darker or mucky.

Using  sponge brayers  and  Almost Amethyst ink I sponged over the top two thirds of my card stock until the white card was  evenly covered.  Using a sponge dauber and  Concorde Crush ink pad,  I  worked the darker purple all around the edges of the card and bringing it in towards the moon, but not all the way, You still want some of the lighter purple showing around the moon and along the horizon.
With a sponge dauber and Memento black ink I filled in the bottom third of the card to create an  uneven  horizon. I kept adding ink until the card was saturated with black ink. I didn't want it to dry patchy.
 I  then stamped some foliage along the horizon  and in the top corner using the same black ink.
It's important to allow the card to dry out at this stage. Once dry I stuck on the punched out cat and added a sentiment that overlapped  the base of the cat to prevent the cat from looking like it had just been plonked on.

With a white gel pen I started adding highlights to the edges of the leaves and adding stars to the sky. If the sky is not completely dry the gel pen will not work very well.
The blue car was done in exactly the same way, but I used Marina Mist and Night of Navy ink pads.

Christmas in the making.

I fell in love with the stamp set this image came from. It's called Christmas in the making and it's available from Stampin' up until the end of the year when the autumn/ winter catalogue ends.


My stamp set only arrived yesterday and this is the result of my first play with it.


Coloured with Copic markers and with a little glitter added for sparkle.

Thanks for Dinner.

This is the perfect card to send as a Thank You  for a wonderful meal.

I should be sending one of these too my brother in law every time we  go over there for a meal.

He always cooks us a wonderful meal, his Beef wellington is to die for.

These stamps are from a retired S.U. set called compliments to the chef.
I added touches of pale greys to colour the image and layered the image on black card stock  then onto a white base card for a crisp, clean card.

Wintery Christmas card.

A cute wintery  Lili of the valley image for this card.  The background was stamped using white craft ink.

Christmas Mice.

I have had these Crafter's Companion mice stamps for many years and they are one of my  favourite sets for Christmas.

They are all individual stamps so they can be positioned as close or as far apart as you wish. I like them huddled together,  so that means  there is a bit of masking  to do.

I coloured the images with Copic markers. once the ink was dry,  I stamped over the sky area with white craft ink.

Halloween card.

Love this new cat punch from S.U this autumn.
Perfect for a Halloween card, if you're into that kind if thing.
I personally am not a fan of Halloween and it's traditions.
But this cat silhouette  was crying out for this type of card.

I sponged the sunset using the sponge brayers S.U sell and Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red ink pads.

The bats are from a retired stamp set called "Wicked Cool" by S.U.
The foliage is from another  stamp set called "Wetlands".