Inlaid die cutting - Poinsettia

I have another card for Winnie&Walter's belated 2nd birthday bash.

I stamped the poinsettia image from W&W's In bloom: Elsa's florals repeatedly onto a white panel and my red card base (SSS) using red ink (Grapevine, Altenew) and my MISTI, and then trimmed down my white panel on all sides. After marking where I wanted to place my Merry sentiment (W&W), I first cut away the strip where I wanted the red cs to show and then temporarily put the pieces back together using some post-it tape at the back of my panel. This made it easier to die cut the sentiment from my panel with the correct spacing. I then die cut the sentiment again from a piece of thin gold paper that I had mounted onto a scrap of cardstock. Using the (hardly visible) stamping on my red cardstock, I adhered the top part of my stamped panel, followed by the die cut sentiment and the lower part of my stamped panel.

Challenges:

W&W - Mayuri's inlaid die cutting challenge

Stamping Sensations - Anything goes (with a stamp)

Penny Black and More - Anything goes with a stamp and a die cut

Stamplorations CAS challenge - Anything CAS goes (optional: red)
February Rudolph Days - Anything Christmas goes
SSS Wednesday challenge - Anything goes

Custom packaging

When I saw Kate's Anything but a card challenge for the Winnie&Walter birthday bash, I was determined to try my hand at some handmade packaging. And I thought it would be fun to use many of the small stamps of the Ring in the Celebration stamp set that was included in the SOA Young at heart (birthday) collection, which arrived earlier this month.

I started with a sheet of A4 cardstock and stamped the images in a random pattern using 5 colours of Studio Calico inks that most closely matched the colours of the W&W logo. After I had finished stamping, I created a small box using my score board and wrapped a piece of matching baker's twine around my box. The sentiment is made up of words from the The big, the bold and the merry stamp set and was stamped in black onto a scrap of cardstock. After cutting it to size, I swiped the edges over my blue ink pad and tucked the sentiment strip under the bow.

Challenges:

W&W - Kate's Anything but a card challenge

SSS Wednesday challenge - Anything goes

Seize the Birthday - Anything birthday goes

Gelatos rainbow

When I saw Laurel Beard showing us this fun and easy technique using Gelatos earlier this month, I just knew I had to have a go at it, and Winnie&Walter's rainbow challenge was the perfect incentive to give it a try.

After applying a layer of gesso and masking off the sides of my panel, I applied gelatos in rainbow order, smoothed them out and then removed the colour through a stencil that I had cut using the W&W Leaf effect cutaway.

I used my MISTI to stamp the HI sentiment from the Scenery: Bigger Bang Confetti set several times using Archival Jet black ink. Because of the watercolour cardstock and the gesso, I could not get perfect coverage, even after several rounds of stamping, so I used a black Micron pen to fill in the blank spots. To finish off, I heat embossed the sentiment in clear embossing powder, mounted the panel to my card base and added a few sequins.

In hindsight, I should have mounted the panel onto a heavier weight cardstock to prevent warping and it would be better to apply a fixative to avoid smearing of the gelatos, but I suppose I can still fix this before sending out my card.

In case you hadn't noticed, Winnie & Walter are hosting a Belated 2nd Birthday Bash event all month. If you love Winnie&Walter products as much as I do, check out their blog posts here and here for a chance to win the special Birthday Bash release or all of their 2016 stamp sets.

Although I created this card for 

W&W - Vanessa's rainbow challenge,

it also fits the theme of the

W&W - Gayatri's background challenge

I'm also playing at:
AAA Cards - 58 Sequins
Stamplorations - Anything CAS goes (optional: red)'
Kathy's 4th 30 day colouring challenge

Happy birthday friend

Today's card was inspired by Heather P's colour challenge for Winnie&Walter's 2nd birthday bash. Her challenge was to create a card incorporating coral, lime/chartreuse and aqua/light turquoise.

I used the yet to be released Pattern of the Rings stencil by W&W (also used for my cards in this post) as a guide to stamp the burst image from Eva's Favorite Flowers (W&W; both the stencil and the stamp set were included in Catherine Pooler's first SOA box, the Friend collection, as was the Friend die by CAS-ual Fridays) in Abandoned coral distress ink.

I then used a sponge dauber to apply Salty ocean distress ink through the diamond apertures in the stencil and then stamped the small flower heart from the Eva stamp set on top using Limeade ice ink by Papertrey Ink. The friend sentiment was die cut from black cs and from white cs to which I applied the coral ink I had also used for my stamping. The happy birthday sentiment is from a small stamp set by Avery Elle and was stamped in black. The stamped panel was then cut to size and adhered to my black card base.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

W&W - Heather P's colour challenge

W&W - Gayatri's background challenge

I'm also playing at:

Seize the Birthday - Anything goes, no toppings for me
ATSM - 181 Anything goes
Happy Little Stampers - Pre Birthday Celebration

W&W - Brushos on pearlescent cardstock

The two cards I'm showing today, started with the same cardstock and the same technique.
Some time ago, I read about using Brushos on glossy cardstock, which made me wonder if I could also use it on the Centura Pearl ivory cardstock that I had hoarded but never used until now.

I first tried with some brown Brushos, because I thought it would look nice with the ivory cardstock and it did. It looks sooo pretty, but I haven't turned my panels into cards as yet. On today's cards, I used red Brushos, but it turned a very pretty pink because of my cardstock.

For my first card, I simply heat embossed the sentiment stamp and the bird using my new WOW gold embossing powder. When I shook the powder unto my stamped panel I was afraid I would totally mess up, because this embossing powder is so chunky, but it turned out beautifully. I mounted my panel onto a card base made from the same Centura Pearl cardstock using foam tape and added a few sequins from one of Lucy's shaker mixes as a finishing touch.

I'm entering this card into the following Winnie&Walter birthday bash challenge:

Heather H's gold and watercolour challenge

I'm also entering my card into the following challenges:

Sweet Stamps - Anything goes
ATSM - 181 Anything goes

Jingle Belles - Text me

For my second card, I went a slightly different route. This time I combined my brusho panel with white heat embossing (SSS). The poinsettia image is from W&W In bloom: Elsa's florals and the sentiment is from the W&W Happy Christmas set. I mounted my panel directly onto a card made from white pearlescent cardstock and added some extra interest using a few sequins and glosssy accents in the flower heart.

On the picture below you can see the lovely sheen of the pearlescent cardstock.

This card fits the themes of the following Winnie&Walter challenges:

Lydia's Floral challenge

Shay's Two challenge
(2 layers, 2 stamps from 2 different sets, a 2 word sentiment)

Kelly's Over the edge challenge

I'm also entering this card into the following challenge:

Sweet Stampin' - Clean and simple
ATCAS - 81 Bloom

ABC Christmas challenge - D for Don't overdo it.

W&W belated 2nd birthday bash

Winnie&Walter are celebrating their second birthday this month with a huge giveaway and 10 fun challenges. Since I had quite a bit of play time this week, I let myself be inspired to play along and once I got started, the inspiration kept flowing. Such a rare and wonderful feeling for me, since normally my crafting sessions are short and far between. But maybe I should simply loosen up and go with the flow.

For my first two cards, I was inspired by Taheerah's inpiration image challenge, but I combined it with elements from several other challenges. After seeing the floor covering in the inspiration image and Taheerah's use of the yet to be released stencil, I just had to play along using this exact same stencil, which was included in Catherine Pooler's first Stamp of Approval collection (the Friend collection).

On the first card, I used Hero Arts soft granite ink and the Ranger mini blending tool to apply the ink onto a soft stone cardbase (Papertrey Ink). For the flower panel, I heat-embossed the flower image from the W&W In Bloom: Anna's Flora set in white embossing powder (SSS) and then applied a heavy coat of distress inks (Dusty concord and Chipped sapphire) and then bleached out the flower image using a water brush. After that, I dropped in a little Picked raspberry. You can find a detailed explanation on this technique, including a video, on Jennifer McGuire's blog.

I cut the strip right up to the flower and then fussy cut around the top and bottom of the flower. I finished my design off with two small strips of lime green cardstock, a heat-embossed sentiment (W&W Winter Woodland and The Big, the Bold and the Merry), and a few sequins. And clear Wink of Stella on the flower of course.

I really liked how the flower turned out, but I really wanted to make a soft pink version to mimick the decorative element on the table in the inspiration image.

Therefore I decided to make a second version, this time using Memento Smoke blue ink for the background and Memento Elderberry for the narrow panel. I stamped the flower image onto a separate piece of cardstock and used softer pinks this time around. The sentiment (from the EH Mondo Magnolia set) was heat-embossed in Ranger silver pearl embossing powder to tie in with the smoky blue background. As in the first card, I used strips of lime green cardstock, clear Wink of Stella and a few sequins as a finishing touch.

W&W - Taheerah's inspiration challenge

W&W - Lydia's floral challenge

W&W - Gayatri's background challenge

I'm also entering my cards into the following challenge:

Seize the Birthday - no toppings for me

Stamping Sensations - Anything goes

Kathy's 4th 30 day colouring challenge

Magnolia

So happy I managed to create a few cards this week. I had taken the week off because my husband was scheduled for surgery, but surgery has been postponed for at least two weeks until his condition is better. So instead of running to and from the hospital, I could stay at home and play (and taking some rest now that I'm fighting a cold).

Anyway, I had a little play with my new Zig brush markers onto some Bristol smooth cardstock. Some people seem to like this combination, but of course this cs does not take water as well as watercolour cardstock. I stamped the Mondo Magnolia stamp (Essentials by EH) twice and played around to see how the Zig markers worked. The first image did not turn out the way I wanted (too much colour, too little water) but the second one turned out quite nicely. So I cut out a square containing the part I did like (using a SSS stitch rectange die) and matted that onto a square of black cs. I then used my MISTI to stamp the image again onto my card base making sure to line it up with the image on my square. To finish off, I cut the MFT hello die three times from black cardstock and adhered them together using Multi medium matte. And of course I could not resist adding a little clear Wink of Stella.

Challenges:

Kathy Racoosin's 4th 30 Day Colouring Challenge

ATCAS - 81 Bloom

Allsorts - 349 Clean and Simple

Penny Black and More - Anything goes with a stamp and a die