Altenew Washi Sympathy Cards

Recently we lost my Auntie Pat to Cancer so I found myself in need of several sympathy cards. These are never easy to make when you need them, so I decided to design three cards and make a few multiples of them so that I'd have some spare cards to hand when I require them in future.

Altenew have a range of really beautiful, wide washi tapes and I thought that the stunning Botanical Rhapsody (which is simply printed black on white) would be ideal for making Sympathy cards.

I started by covering three large (A3) sheets of white card with the washi tape, smoothing it down with a bone folder as I stuck it down. Then I cut several card fronts with my paper trimmer - I managed to get four 5" x 7" panels, four 6" square panels and had just enough left for three strips to add to DL cards. I stuck these to the card blanks using double sided tape, before adding various sentiments.

For the four 5' x 7" cards I used Altenew's Thinking of You die to cut several sentiments from black card. I stacked and glued three sentiments together for each card, to add some extra dimension. The "with deepest sympathy" sentiment is from Altenew's Wildflower Garden stamp set and I chose to stamp it with Versamark ink and heat emboss with detail white embossing powder onto black card. I cut the card into flag shapes and used foam tape to mount them onto my card fronts.

The 6" square cards were made in a similar way, but I used black card blanks and trimmed the panels down a little so that a narrow border was showing.

The Sympathy die that I used for these is by Sugar Pea Designs. Again I glued three of the words together before gluing them to my card. Lawn Fawn's fundamentals glue tube is perfect for this as it has a really fine applicator tip and the glue dries clear too. 

The "Thinking of You" sentiment is from Altenew's Beautiful Inside stamp set. I also used one of the longer messages from the set for the inside of each card. 

On the remaining three panels I decided to colour in the washi tape background using my new Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. I don't have many of these yet as I've just started my collection by buying a few individual pencils, but they are so lovely to use that I'm sure I'll be adding some more colours as soon as I'm able to. The coloured panels were then matted onto purple card and then added to black DL card blanks. The "with sympathy" sentiment is one of Altenew's Painted Greetings stamps and again I used white embossing powder on black card. I used My Favourite Things Stitched Fishtail Sentiment Strip dies to cut out the sentiments and added them with foam tape for dimension.

I was really pleased that I'd managed to make eleven cards in total and that I won't be caught short next time I need to send a sympathy card. 

The Altenew washi tape roll is a generous ten metres long (x 175mm) so I have plenty left to make some more cards in future. The lovely botanical design would lend itself well to lots of occasions and I'm looking forward to colouring in some more card panels in brighter colours to make some happier cards next.

Peacock Anniversary Card

Hello, today I have made an anniversary card featuring the My Favourite Things Playful Peacock stamp and die set.

I started with a 6" square pearlescent card blank and layered some pretty paper from the MFT Tiny Hearts Pastels paper pad. Then I die cut a panel using one of the MFT Stitched Tag-Corner Rectangle dynamics and stamped a sentiment from the MFT Together Forever stamp set. The two peacocks were stamped with MFT Tropical Teal dye ink and coloured with Copic markers. I used the co-ordinating dies to cut them both out and popped them onto the panel using some foam tape for dimension.  

These stamps were lovely to work with and I have lots of ideas for using the other images in the set too. Thanks for looking.

MFT Heart Tree cards

Hello, today I'm sharing a couple of cards that I've made using the lovely Heart Tree die from My Favourite Things. I've also used their Essential Fishtail Sentiment dies, Watercolour Wash Brights paper and sentiment stamps from the Essential Sentiments and From The Heart stamp sets.

After die cutting the tree I laid some green watercolour wash paper beneath it. Then I coloured the three hearts and the tree trunk using my Copic markers and inlaid them into the spaces in the tree. The sentiments were embossed in white onto velum.

I am entering these into the My Favourite Things sketch challenge number 427. Thanks for looking.

A Mice Time To Celebrate.

Hello, I'm just popping in to share a card that I've made using the super cute My Favourite Things "A mice time to celebrate" stamp set, which was designed by the very talented Stacey Yacula. 

I featured the colours Grout Grey, Tickled Pink, Wild Wisteria and Steel Grey and I coloured the mice with matching Copic pens. The balloon shaker windows were made with the Heart Trio Shaker Window dies and co-ordinating pouches, which I backed with papers from the MFT Tiny Hearts Pastels paper pack. I used crochet thread to make the balloon strings and tied them to the mice paws with the help of a needle and a pokey tool so that I could thread them behind the bodies of the mice. I stamped the hats, gifts and the arm of the mouse on the right twice and layered them up with Pinflair glue gel for added dimension. The sentiments were heat embossed in white onto banners cut with the Stitched Fishtail Sentiment Strip dies and added to a plain banner using foam tape. 

I'm entering this card in My Favourite Things "the birthday project challenge" which this month requires the inclusion of one or more birthday presents. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Bundles of Blossoms

Happy Halloween! Today I am featuring two cards which I made using the My Favourite Things "Bundles of Blossoms background" stamp and Zig clean colour real brush markers. Although I've used the same stamp and layout for both cards, they each have a very different feel about them.

For my first card I used very vibrant colours as I am entering it into a "Shades of Halloween" colour challenge. I cut the word "hooray" twice in purple and orange card, using a My Favourite Things Die-namics die,  and layered them to give a shadow effect. The "Let's Celebrate You" sentiment is from the "More Essential Sentiments" set, also by My Favourite Things. I stamped it with Versamark ink and used Zing Apricot embossing powder to heat set it. The sentiment strip was then added to my card with some foam tape for added dimension.

My second card has a very Autumnal feel and features the "Celebrate" Die-namics by MFT and another sentiment from the "More Essential Sentiments" set. This time I used Wow! Primary Chartreuse embossing powder and layered the sentiment strip again to make it stand out from the background a bit more.

Each card was a labour of love as they took ages to colour in all the intricate details, but it was very relaxing to do and I think that the end results were worth it! 

Altenew Beautiful Lady cards

Good morning! I'm back to share some more cards that I've made using Altenew's Beautiful Lady stamps and matching die. I found myself needing a lot of cards in March and April - and I didn't have a lot of time to make them all. So I came up with a basic design and made sixteen different cards by varying the colours, backgrounds and sentiments. All of the flowers were coloured with Copic Ciao markers. This post is rather photo heavy, but I wanted to show you all sixteen cards as they all have variations in spite of using the same set of stamps and die.

The first three cards were made in the same colourway, but I used different patterned papers for the background. The first had a stamped sentiment (all sentiments are from the same Altenew stamp set) on a Waltzingmouse stitched rectangle die. The next two had diecut sentiments by Spellbinders and the flowers were raised on foam tape.

My fourth card was a slightly different shade had an embossed hearts background and a stamped sentiment on a My Favourite Things stitched fishtail flag die.

My next card used the same hearts embossing folder for the background, but this time in a jade colour. The sentiment was stamped onto a Lil' inker stitched sentiment flag diecut. I love this little die and use it loads!

 

Next we have four similar pink cards, all using a Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossed background with various sentiments.

 

I also made four cards in a golden yellow and green colour combination. The backgrounds are made from a lovely green vellum with a gold sheen and were done using another Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossing folder. Two of the cards have Spellbinders diecut sentiments and two have stamped sentiments.

Finally I made three blue cards, this time using the Burlap Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossing folder for the backgrounds. Again Spellbinders dies were used for the sentiments. I found that the addition of some "Stick-It" to the back of the card before I cut the sentiments made it so much easier to adhere them to the card fronts - it's wonderful stuff!

I have to say that I am in love with Altenew's gorgeous stamps and dies, so you can expect to see a lot more made with their supplies here on my blog in future.

Lynn x

2015 Winter/Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Hello and welcome! Today I am taking part in the current Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. You can find all the details and loads of inspiring projects Here . This time the theme for the hop is Winter/Christmas holiday and we were invited to include projects featuring hot chocolate as well as tea and coffee.

This year I decided to make some of my Christmas gifts, so I started by cutting several tags using the stitched tag die set  from Waltzingmouse Stamps. Then I used My Favourite Things "Hot Cocoa Cups" dies to cut lots of mugs from red card, the cocoa insert from brown card and the whipped cream from ivory card. Then I took the MFT "hug in a mug" stamps and added the chocolate sprinkles to the cream. The white wooden snowflakes were a find from Sainsburys supermarket and gives the mugs just the right Christmassy feel!

The sentiments and snowflakes on the white tags were from the same "hug in a mug" stamp set and I added coloured reinforcement rings to match the top tags. I found some lovely red spotty ribbon in my stash that was just the job for tying the tags onto my gift bags.

I bought the gift bags from Amazon, cut a rectangle of sturdy card to fit into the bottom of the bag, then filled each bag with a "Beprovad" glass mug from Ikea (a bargain at 85p each), a sachet of Cadbury's hot chocolate drink, a candy cane, a bag of tiny marshmallows and a bag of mini gingerbread men - yum!

I had two different sorts of bags, so I used blue tags on the snowman ones and grey tags on the red tree ones. I think they look quite festive! I made a total of 30 of these gifts, so many of my friends and family will be getting a hot chocolate kit next week to keep them warm!

Thank you for reading this far and I hope that I have inspired you to try making your own gifts too.

Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop

Today I am joining in with the Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop which has been organised by Amy Tsuruta for the coffee loving cardmakers group. You can find all the details and other entries here. We were asked to make a card with the theme of Coffee, Tea or Cocoa and a Spring feel to it. I chose to go with tea, since I have more stamps and dies that are tea related than coffee ones. Here is my entry.

I used a 5" x 7" white landscape card blank and added some pretty patterned paper from Graphic 45's Botanical Tea collection. Where the papers joined I covered the seam with some Spring Rain Papertrey card which I had diecut with a Cottage Cutz "Tea Time Border" die. I used some of Ken Oliver's Stick It adhesive before I cut the border and I can highly recommend it as it saves so much fiddling about with glue and is really secure. 

The fancy teapot, cups and saucers and teaspoons were all cut and stamped with My Favourite Things Die-namics "Always Time For Tea" stamp and die set and more of the Graphic 45 Botanical Tea papers. They were added to the card with some clear foam tape for added dimension. Finally the sentiment, also from the same MFT stamp set, was added (appropriately) in Espresso Truffle Memento dye ink.

I decided to make a second card, which was almost identical to the first, apart from the design and position of the tea set. I wanted to ensure that the text on the background paper was visible on each card since it is a quote about tea and friendship and ties in nicely with my chosen sentiment.

There are already over 400 entries in this blog hop - that's an awful lot of beautiful inspiration! Thank you for taking the time to read this far! 

Lynn