Birthday card

February is a birthday heavy month and I have lots of cards to make, so needed to get a head start rather than leave it all to the last minute as I sometimes do...

 I used a couple of sprays onto a shimmer card panel and added some ink with sponges for the background on this one.

Once it was all dry I over-stamped the gorgeous tree image  and  the sentiment in Black Archival ink.

I popped the whole image onto a bright yellow mat and adhered that to the front of my card base.

Image  was one of the stamps on a plate of rubber form VLVS. The sentiment is by Stampin' Up! and is from the Happy Birthday Everybody set.

Until next time,

Cxx

Choose Happiness

I was playing around in my craft room today with some emboss resist and some floating colour. The centre panel was one of my off cut test pieces but I really liked the soft embossed flower on the cream pearly card so I added some more water and some Brushos ...

With the freedom that comes  with free-fall crafting, I opened the box of Brushos and ,  without even looking to see what they were, grabbed three at random  and added them to the panel. To ground the flower I stamped a couple of leaf stems and added colour to them with a blender pen. I  stamped and heat embossed the sentiment at the bottom of the panel.

By the time I had finished working on this panel it was pretty warped from all the water I had used so I stuck it firmly to some purple card and then using lots of foam tape added that panel to another piece of the cream pearl card and that formed my completed mat panel for the centre of the card.

I really didn't want any more stamping or patterned papers around the focal image panel but I wasn't so keen on the plain card either side, so I embossed the edges with a border embossing folder (from Stampin' Up!) and I liked that as a frame for my panel. I punched a bow from a scrap of the painted pearl card and added that with a glue dot. A purple gem finished it off.

Inside I added a cream panel which I sponged with ink all around the edges , added a stamped greeting and a die cut butterfly...and that was my card, born out of a scrap of inky card. I just love it when something simply falls into place. That is Serendipity!

Until next time, take care

Cxx

Keeping it simple

I was sorting through some of my stamps last evening and came across a plate of Alice in Wonderland themed stamps which included this one.

I really liked the black on white for this image and I stamped it onto linen card which gave it a more line art effect. I adhered  the stamped image onto a red  mat to make it pop.

I wasn't sure about the flat plain background of the base card and decided to add texture by embossing the front of the card. For this I used an 8x8 folder in a basket weave pattern.

I haven't added any sentiment or greeting as yet because this truly is an all occasions card and I shall keep it in my cards to go basket until its needed.

Until next time
Cxx

Be adorable....

Within my buddy swap partners this month I had a male crafter and decided this caped boy image  would be perfect along with one my favourite wording stamps the A-Z stamp... Be Adorable, be brilliant, be crazy, be daring... etc that I used on my 2016 New Year postcard project. Both stamps are from VLVS.

This time I opted for a plainer background than I used on the postcard project, and I stamped the boy and sponged the shading using midnight muse ink (from SU) on plain white card and over-stamped the wording with black archival ink. The stars were made with gold embossing texture paste through a  Heidi Swapp stencil.

I really enjoyed making this card and I'm delighted to report that the recipient loved the card too... and although he's not a stamper (yet) he  has decided to give stamping a try... What's not to like? .

Until next time,

Cxx

Dream Big

Sticking with some of my fabulous VLVS stamps,  this one was another  card I made for a buddy swap this month.

I used a variety of sprays for the background and then I used the spritzer tool and markers to fill in some gaps and add some extra depth. As this was a sort of New Year theme (at least in my head)  I added the stamped burst in a shade of bright gold and stamped the Dream Big in archival black.

I decided to use the little girl with the crown for this one and I stamped her on a separate sheet and decided to colour only the crown and the sash and rose detail on her dress.

 Once this was done I fussy cut the image and decided on placement. ...But before I adhered her to the card I wanted to ground her ,rather than have her appearing to be  hanging in mid air. For this, I grabbed another VLVS stamp (designed by my friend - the fabulous DeeDee Catron) and over-stamped along the base using perfect pearls and some water mist. This gave some added interest, texture and a little shimmer too. Once everything was dry I ink edged the decorated panel, popped it onto a coordinating mat and once all was adhered I popped the little girl on the front using foam pads and added some teeny drops of crystal lacquer to adorn her crown.

I was pleased with the end result and hope my swap- buddy likes it too.

Until next time, take care

Cxx

Make a Wish

 This week I have been  busy trying to get my chaotic craft space into some kind of organised shape. Its a mammoth task and not made any easier by the fact just about everything I pick up makes me want to start making something...

and with that in mind it stands to reason that  trying to sort out my VLVS collection of rubber stamps would  lead to a creative halt in the organising..

and it did. BUT I  am glad because I love this card!

 I masked off the circle and  used a couple of Heidi Swapp sprays to make the background. Once that as dry I used four shades of distress markers to freehand the frame around the circle and used vintage photo distress ink all around the edges of the card panel before adhering it to a  chocolate brown mat.

On a separate sheet I stamped the girl in archival black and the balloon in red and then heat embossed the balloon for the  clear glossy effect.I also stamped and fussy cut some teeny flowers and added crystal lacquer to the centre of each. I stamped a few leaves around the framed circle and adhered the  flowers, girl and the balloon  with foam pads.

I used the same four distress markers as before to ink the sentiment which  cut out and light edged with the vintage photo ink before sticking it to the card.This card is now on its way across the ocean to a swap partner who I hope will love it.

Until next time
C xx

2016 starts here...

2015 was a particularly difficult  and horribly unforgettable year for us ..but it is gone now and a fresh and shiny new  year lies ahead.  I have never been one for making New Year's Resolutions, we often set ourselves up to fail  with vague and sweeping resolution, and I am not about to start now.
That said, I do want to make sure that 2016 is a better year than its predecessor and so I thought that the sentiment I used on this project was a good one for the year.

The A-Z stamp is from VLVS (as is the boy with a cape)  and I think it is a good template to live by... Be adorable, be brilliant, be crazy....
be  daring, be excellent, be fun...
be gracious, be humble, be inspired...
be  joyful, be kind, be loving...
be nice, be original, be punctual...
be quiet be random, be spontaneous...
be thankful, be unique, be vivacious...
be eXtravagant, be young, be zealous...

 and of course we really should not need to be reminded to do more of what makes us happy... but this SU sentiment says it anyway and I could not resist.

So I make no resolutions for the new year but I plan to make this one the best I can ... and I wish you and yours the kind of 2016 you really need.

Cxx