Stencil fun

The cards below would not have been created today if it hadn't been for the big box of new goodies that arrived by courier this afternoon...

In addition to my rather early birthday present (my birthday isn't until the end of October but what's a girl to do if she spots an offer that is too good to pass up on), the box also contained a bunch of Imagination Crafts 6x6 stencils that were a bargain at about 1 dollar apiece.

I dug up the very few ink and shimmer sprays that I own and decided to use two of those with my beach hut stencil, resulting in a stenciled design and a monoprint using the ink that was left on the stencil.

I cut down my first panel using a stitched rectangle die and foam-mounted it to a grey card. I heat-embossed the sentiment in white onto a strip of cardstock that I had 'inked up' using the same spray that I had used for my stenciled design.

I used a larger stitched rectangle for my monoprint panel and added some distress inks (antique linen, tumbled glass and weathered wood to the white parts. The shells were stamped, inked up (antique linen) and fussy cut. The sentiment was stamped using DOI.

My Hello card is playing at:

CAS Stencil - Sprays

My twofer cards are playing at:

Twofer Card Challenge - Nautical

Paper towel transfer

When I took out some of my butterfly stamps for the current CAS Watercolour challenge, I realised that the paper towel transfer I had made earlier for the CAS Mix Up challenge (see my previous post) would be perfect as a kind of underpainting form my Tim Holtz trio of butterflies.

I stamped the image in black archival ink and then selected a few Tombow markers in colours matching my background, scribbled some ink on an acrylic block and picked up the colour using a waterbrush. I had received some new goodies this week, including a three-piece frame die set. I used two of these to create my black and white frame.

I'm playing at:

CAS Watercolour - Colourful butterflies

CAS Mix Up - Stamping, paper towel transfer + 

watercolouring, die cutting

Stamping Sensations - Things with wings

HLS Watercolour - Anything goes

SSS Wednesday - CAS

Paper towel background

Hello everyone. I have had a few busy days crafting to create a few cards for some favourite challenges.

At CAS Mix Up, this month's challenge was to use paper towel. When I was trying to do some organising in the craft room, I found a few saturated paper towels from earlier projects. I first tried transferring some ink onto a card panel, but the colours were too soft to work as a background for my die cut wild flower frame, so I decided to use the paper towel instead. This has the added advantage of providing some texture as well. I sandwiched the paper towel between my flower frame and a square of white cardstock, trimmed off the paper towel and foam-mounted my panel onto a soft grey card to which I had added some score lines. To finish off, I stamped the sentiment in Versafine onyx black, applied a little shimmer to my black frame using a SN sparkle pen and adhered a few gems.

I'm playing at:

CAS Mix Up - Stamping, paper towel background +

die cutting, scoring, shimmer, gems

SSS Wednesday - CAS

HLS Anything goes with dies

Twofer shells

Now that I'm finally feeling more crafty again (at the end of my 3-week break from work), I'm trying hard to finish up a few cards for some of my favourite challenges.

I had several ideas for this month's Twofer Card Challenge, which has a nautical theme. In the end, I decided to finish up this pair first, so that I did have something to show for.

I started my first card by stamping the shells from my Apple Blossom set onto a panel of Neenah desert storm and heat embossing it in white (SSS). The sentiment was heat embossed onto a scrap of vellum. To make the sentiment stand out from the background, I blended DOI on the back of the vellum and also added some water splatters to give it a more weathered look (which does not really show up in the photograph). Before adhering the sentiment strip using glue dots behind the text and a thin strip of double-sided tape at the right-hand side, I coloured in the shells using a Spectrum Noir clear shimmer pen. I also added a few splatters. To add a bit more interest, I then added some 'shading' using a gold Wink of Stella shimmer pen.

For my second card, I took one of the shell stamps to create a circle of yummie ice-creams. I stamped them in Archival black ink and coloured them in using Tombow markers and a watercolour brush. The sentiment is from an old Stampendous sentiment set.

My friendship card is also playing at:

ATSM - #355 Photo inspiration 

(I focused on the sand and the shells)

My ice cream card is also playing at:

SSS Wednesday - CAS

Colour Crazy - #33 AG colouring

HLS Watercolour - AG

MFT Camp Create - days 1 and 2

Hello everyone! It seems I'm finally getting around to enjoying some play time in my craft room again. I have managed to create a few cards for the current Camp Create event at the MFT blog.

First up, I have a card for Day 1 featuring inlaid die cutting.

Afterr masking off a panel and creating a subtle sky background using an MFT cloud stencil, I used the MFT balloon shaker dies and MFT papers to create my inlaid balloons and then added the die cut Hello (Wplus9) on top and foam mounted my panel to my card base.

I'm also linking up this card at:

HLS Anything goes with dies

Day 2 was about Magnificant Masking, and just like Stephanie, I created two cards using both the inside and outside masks that I had created using the MFT Christmas tree die and an older background stamp by Hero Arts (Magical Background). I love how the combination of simple masking and emboss resist gives a whole new look to your background stamps.

I'm also linking up my Christmas cards at:

SSS Wednesday - Clean and simple

HLS Christmas - Anything goes

ABNH - Stretch your stamps

CCAYR - Add a tree

A beary happy birthday

I'm popping in today with a birthday card and thanks to this watercolour panel from my UFO box, it was a quick one.

I used goodies from my latest purchase from Winnie and Walter to create my card, including the baker's twine that was used to keep the products together.

I had originally planned to do some inlaid die-cutting, but I loved how my panel looked with most of the letters still in position that I decided to put double-sided tape on the back and use the entire panel as is. I stamped the heart garland and the drummer bear in Black Jack ink (CP ink) and then added a little more grey using a coloured pencil.

I'm playing at:

W&W June/July Colour Combo with Heather

Seize the Birthday - #171 Anything goes (no toppings for me)

SSS Wednesday - Add a die cut

Quick Christmas card

Hello, hello! I'm finally back with another card. Life has been rather hectic this past month, both with work and a husband with back problems, meaning I have had to take over most of his daily chores. Thank goodness, he is on the mend and has resumed his short morning walks with our dog, Bernie, which means I get more sleep and don't have to rush things in the morning, which suits me just fine.

Anyway, I'm happy I managed to create a quick Christmas card for a couple of my favourite challenges. Once again, I have been saved by something from my UFO box or, rather, my snippets box. I had this snippet of an alcohol ink background which fitted just perfectly behind the aperture of my die cut NBUS tree by CUTplorations, that I had die cut from a panel of glitter card (Marianne Design). For my background I used a panel of rustic cream cardstock (PTI) that I scored using my score board.

To finish off, I added a few gold glitter jewels that seem to pick up the darker streaks from my AI background.

I'm playing at:

Jingle Belles - Inspiration photo

July Rudolph Days at Maureen's blog

Pixie's Snippets Playground #357

Watercooler Wednesday - WWC232 Anything goes

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes