The Hop To Stop - part two.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month in the USA and the lovely Becca Cruger has organised a blog hop to help. Over the course of their lifetimes a staggering 1 in 3 women will experience domestic violence! Whilst I have been lucky, someone who I'm very close to has suffered in the past and still has recurring nightmares about it, so I'm happy to help raise awareness here.

 The stop to hop can be found HERE.

We were challenged to make cards featuring the colour purple - the chosen colour for the charity. Here is my second card. I thought the peace dove was an appropriate image for this hop. 

All stamps and dies are by Waltzingmouse Stamps. The lovely dove is from the new "Rustic Christmas" stamp set, the trees are from the "Flurries set" and the leafy spring is from "Country Labels Four". I stamped the dove in Memento Grape Jelly ink, masked the image then added the sky with Shaded Lilac Distress ink. I used Memento Northern Pine ink for the sprigs on the background. 

Yay - that's my first Christmas card made for this year! Thanks for looking.

Lynn

The Hop To Stop - part one.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month in the USA and the lovely Becca Cruger has organised a blog hop to help. Over the course of their lifetimes a staggering 1 in 3 women will experience domestic violence! Whilst I have been lucky, someone who I'm very close to has suffered in the past and still has recurring nightmares about it, so I'm happy to help raise awareness here.

 The hop to stop can be found HERE.

We were challenged to make cards featuring the colour purple - the chosen colour for the charity. I thought about what it must be like to suffer in this way and decided to use a quote and feathers from Waltzingmouse Stamps "Fine Feathers" stamp set, together with the matching dies.

The other dies used are also by Waltzingmouse. I started with a large stitched rectangle panel and heat embossed two of the small feather images all over using clear embossing powder. Then I blended Shaded Lilac, Milled Lavender, Wilted Violet and Dusty Concord Distress Inks over the panel, before removing the embossing with a hot iron. (One of the only times I tend to use an iron)! The feathers were stamped onto their matching diecuts using Memento Grape Jelly ink, which I also used for the sentiment.

I love all the fine detail in the feathers and I'm pleased with how this turned out! I'll be back later with another card to share. Thanks for looking.

Lynn

Pink Roses of Love

Our lovely next-door neighbours celebrated their 49th Wedding Anniversary yesterday so I wanted to make them a card. I thought that the gorgeous Roses of Love stamp set from Make It Crafty would be perfect, as they love their garden.

I started with a pink card blank and added a background using tiny heart and flower stamps from Waltzingmouse stamps "Gift Card It" and Wendy Vecchi's Pink Peony embossing powder. The white card panel was also cut with a Waltzingmouse scalloped stitched rectangle die. I stamped the beautiful roses using Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink and coloured the image with my Copic Ciao markers (RV10, RV21, RV23, RV13, YG11, YG03, YG23 and YG17). Finally the sentiment (from Waltzingmouse "Sweethearts" stamp set) was stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed with Wendy Vecchi's Pink Peony embossing powder.  

This stamped rose image was an absolute pleasure to colour and I shall certainly be using it again! Make It Crafty also have it available as a digital download and they have loads of other lovely images for colouring too. 

Thanks for visiting.

Word Dies and Heat Shrink Craft Foam.

I am currently taking part in the Online Card Class "Stretch Your Dies" which is run by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner. The lessons are spread over seven days and there are loads of useful tips and galleries full of inspiration. I was late to the party, due to ongoing problems with our broadband connection and not being able to view the video classes until recently - but I plan to work my way through all of them and post my cards here as I get time.

The very first lesson was a video by the very talented Jennifer McGuire, showing how to use word dies to create a tone on tone background and how to make fun little embellishments out of die cut Craft Foam. Here is my finished card. It was very time consuming to make (I was fiddling with it for about three days), but I am so pleased with the finished result!
I started with a black C6 card blank and used WOW opaque white embossing powder to heat emboss the long border stamp from Waltzingmouse Stamps "My Heart" set down the left hand side. The white background panel was made using several die cuts from a Papertrey Ink Birthday die (I used Stick It on the back of my card before cutting each word out, so that they would be easier to adhere to my card). I added a strip of gold foil and mounted the panel onto a rectangle of white craft foam, before adding it to the card.

Then I got rather carried away die cutting all these individual small flowers and leaves from Craft Foam! I used a selection of dies from Papertrey Ink, Waltzingmouse, Impression Obsession, Magnolia, Poppystamps, X-cut and Simon Says Stamp.

Next came the fun part! I used my heat gun to heat shrink the flowers and leaves until they were much smaller. The Birthday word was cut from black foam and shrunk in the same way. The photo below shows the foam before it was shrunk on the top row, with the smaller heat shrunk versions below.

I stuck everything to the card front using Ranger's multi - medium matte and added pearls as a finishing touch. 

Thanks for looking!

Lynn

Catching up!

It is such a long time since I last blogged - so sorry that I've been AWOL for so long! December saw me frantically making several birthday and thank you cards, together with over 100 Christmas cards - which then had to be written and posted, so there was no time to write blog posts at all. Over the Christmas and New Year period we were busy entertaining our family and friends, then we came down with the dreaded lurgey and were forced to retreat to bed to hibernate until we felt better.

Anyway, now that things are getting back to normal, I thought that I would share a few photos of some of the cards that I made over the last couple of months.

The first one is a thank you card made with a Lili of the Valley cute image stamp and papers, Spellbinders dies and sentiments by Waltzingmouse Stamps. We took this to the Stroke Unit at Fairfield Hospital, Bury to thank the staff there for looking after my husband David when he first had his stroke last year.

My second card was for my Brother-in-law Les' 80th birthday. He loves the countryside and there are squirrels in the trees behind their house, so I decided to go with a woodland themed card. I used a Spellbinders embossing folder for the green background panel which I added to a 5" x 7" white card blank. I embossed the Papertrey Ink tree cover plate onto Bockingford watercolour paper, watercoloured the tree trunk and leaves, then stamped the trunk with the co-ordinating PTI stamp to get the bark effect. The tree panel was matted onto chocolate brown card, which I also used to cut some branches and an assortment of small birds with a selection of Memory Box and Poppystamps dies. The squirrels and acorns were cut with Impression Obsession dies, then I highlighted the acorns and the squirrels' eyes with a tiny amount of glossy accents. I was really pleased with how this turned out.

The next card was made for my Sister-in-law Alison for her birthday. I used a similar technique to the previous card, this time using a Papertrey floral coverplate and watercolouring as before. The small stitched flag was cut using a Li'l Inker die and stamped with a Waltzingmouse stamps sentiment. Lime green and pink card layers and some co-ordinating ribbons were all that were needed to complete my design.

Below you can see a similar version of the card above, this time using Papertrey Bitty Dot background paper and matching ribbon, with an orange and lime green colour scheme.

My next card was designed to be produced en mass and was based upon a card that had been featured on the Less is More challenge blog. The stitched rectangle die is from a set of Lawn Fawn dies, the sentiment is a Magenta stamp, the snowflakes are by Waltzingmouse stamps and the legs are part of a Prima Valentine doll stamp. I used Memento dye inks and Copic Ciao markers to colour the legs and shoes, adding a touch of clear Wink of Stella pen to the shoes to make them sparkle. The snowflakes were stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with WOW sparkling embossing powder. I made a total of 65 of these C6 sized cards - which took me ages!

Finally we have my other batch Christmas card for 2014. I made about 35 of these 6" square green cards and stamped the backgrounds using red Memento dye ink and a candy stamp from Waltzingmouse. Then came a red linen card layer and a square of mottled green card embossed with a Cuttlebug candy cane embossing folder. The striped candy canes, bow and gingerbread man were all Waltzingmouse stamps, cut with their matching dies and coloured with Copic Ciao markers. A touch of red and white bakers twine completed the look.

Apologies for the long post and thanks for reading this far!

Lynn

Cure For The Monday Blues Challenge # 34 - Child's Play

Hello! Today I am joining in with Taheerah's Cure for the Monday Blues challenge number 34. You can find all the details here .

This week's inspiration photo chosen by Taheerah is a bright and cheerful child's bedroom. I decided to focus on the pink chevron bedding, the zig - zag shape on the white wall, the tiny triangles and the little house at the bottom right of the photo.

I started with a 6" square white card blank, Memento dye inks in Angel Pink and Tuxedo Black, Versamark ink, Papertrey Ink in Melon Berry, Ocean Tides and Fresh Snow, some WOW Sparkling Snow embossing glitter and some Ranger Distress Stickles in Picket Fence. I decided to use the lovely Alpine Christmas stamps and matching dies from Waltzingmouse Stamps, together with their big zig zag background stamp. 

Please click on photo for an enlarged view.

I stamped some of the very small snowflakes directly onto the top of the card blank with Angel Pink ink, then I used the same ink to stamp the zig zag background onto some white card. I used the mountain range die to cut the top of the card panel then stamped the mountains with versamark ink and heat embossed with WOW Sparking Snow embossing powder. I also diecut a house and three snowflakes which were then overstamped. The snowflakes were heat embossed and the windows of the house were coloured in with a yellow Copic Ciao marker pen. I stamped the sentiment in black and added the tiny triangular trees and the smaller houses nestling amongst them. Finally I adhered the panel to the card with foam tape for dimension and added some Picket Fence distress stickles to the mountain ridge, snowflakes and the roofs of the houses.

It's much more sparkly and dimensional in real life, but my photo doesn't do it justice! Thanks for looking.

Lynn

Waltzingmouse Stamps November Pajama Party - Challenge 3, Old Pajamas

This is my fourth post today - please scroll down for my two Runway Inspired Challenge posts.

I am back again this evening to join in with the Waltzingmouse November Pajama party. You can find all the details here

The third challenge is to create a card using some of the older Waltzingmouse Stamps. I chose to use the Folk Art Medallion set and the Folk Art Christmas Additions set. I stamped using Memento Gray Flannel dye ink and PTI Pure Poppy Dye ink (second generation stamping).

I layered my background panel onto some Pure Poppy card and a 5" x 7" white tent fold card blank. The sweet deer was stamped in Pure Poppy ink and cut with the matching die. I added a small black pearl for his eye and mounted him to the card using clear foam tape for dimension. The sentiment was stamped in black on a panel cut with the Pretty Panel Two die. I think my deer looks suitably festive!

Thanks for looking,

Lynn.

Waltzingmouse October Pajama Party - Challenge 1. Texturise it.

Hello! Today I am joining in with the Waltzingmouse Stamps October Pajama Party - challenge 1 - Texturise it. You can check out the full details here http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/welcome-to-october-pj-party.html .

This challenge was to use embossed textures but without using an embossing folder. I decided to make my own embossing plate by cutting lots of the Gingerbread Family shapes using my WMS Cutting Edge dies.

I started by cutting lots of the smaller gingerbread boys and girls out of thick greyboard, so that I could use them to make an embossing plate. While I had the dies out I also cut several of each size and shape out of some self adhesive cork sheet, which was ideal as they looked like real gingerbread men!

I took a piece of smooth, thick greyboard and marked out the size of my card blank (5" x 7") in pencil. Inside that I marked out a 6" x 4" panel with a small border to represent the area which I wanted to emboss. The card was also divided vertically, horizontally and diagonally in order to assist with the placement of the tiny gingerbread boys and girls, which I stuck in place with some strong red - lined double sided tape. 

Here is the finished embossing plate complete with eighteen little gingerbread men in neat rows.

I took a piece of 6" x 4" Core'dinations red Kraft-Core card from the Tim Holtz Nostalgic collection and held it in place with some low tack masking tape to prevent it from moving as I passed it through my Grand Calibur machine (using the tan mat and pale pink embossing plate). The photo above shows the embossed piece before I sanded it to reveal the kraft core.

Here is my finished card, matted and layered onto a Kraft card blank with red paper and kraft gingham card. The cork gingerbread men were stamped with Versamark ink, coated with Zing Opaque White embossing powder and heat set to give the effect of icing. They turned out really textured too and I think they look very effective! The sentiment was from the same stamp set - Oven Fresh Gingerbread Joy - and was heat embossed onto a small stitched sentiment flag die cut from a Lil' inker designs die and using kraft card.

I'm very happy with my first Christmas card make of this year and I have enough pairs of Gingerbread men ready to make eight cards in total - so that's a result! Thanks for looking!

Lynn