Oh dear . . . .

Is it really more than a year since I last posted one of my cards on here? Clearly it is, as it’s 2022 and most of the world (but not most of Russia) is watching the terrible events unfold in Ukraine.

An aunt celebrates her birthday today and it seemed appropriate to make a card for her using Ukraine’s national flower, the sunflower, in the shape of the Inkylicious Sunkissed Wishes stamps which have been in my stash for several years.

I kept it simple: the flowers were stamped & embossed in white embossing powder on watercolour card, then watercoloured using my Winsor & Newton watercolour set. The greeting (by Clearly Besotted) is stamped in Grey Flannel Memento Ink.

#cardsforukraine

Still Here . . . .

Well, what a year it’s been. I somehow knew when I packed up my real office to start working from home that it would be a while, but even I didn’t think it would be THIS long – a month or two, I thought – but not almost a year. My craft room became my office, and spending more than 9 hours a day in there, working, stifled pretty much all of my creativity. I have made some cards over the last year, particularly for family members who celebrated big lockdown birthdays. Over the coming months I’ll try to catch up on blogging about a few of them.

This was a new – to me, at least – technique called “faux stained glass”, described by Jennifer McGuire here. I found it really simple to do but very effective although the second picture shows the finish much better.

This picture shows the glossy finish really well. Definitely a technique I’ll do again.

It’s Been a While . . .

I’ve neglected this blog for far too long; I still make cards sometimes, and enjoy it when I do, but dressmaking has become my main hobby and I don’t have time for both so the blogging takes a back seat to the creating.

Anyway, without further ado this card for my nephew’s wife was inspired by a Christmas gift from my crafty friend Vicky, which was the lovely set of stamps by Crafters Companion which comes with matching dies. This card wasn’t planned, I just went with whatever I fancied doing. The background was inked with Distress Inks in Broken China and Tumbled Glass, so the stamps were also inked with Broken China. As they’re new and I was using Distress Inks, the images didn’t stamp cleanly, but I decided I liked the effect and just re-stamped where the ink was a little too patchy.

I finished off with a sentiment by Altenew, embossed with Wow! Bright White embossing powder (which really isn’t bright white at all), and some off-white sequins to match.

In the Frame

My card-making mojo has deserted me just lately but the Color Inspiration Link Up, for images which have been hand-coloured, caught my attention this week because of the sheer simplicity of the challenge. Frames also seem to be cropping up in a number of cards, too, so I combine both sources of inspiration to create the card above.

The frame was created using square dies by Gummiapan & Tonic; the car stamp is by Visible Image, coloured in my only 2 Copic markers! The greys are Promarkers, and although it isn’t obvious in the photos I used Anita’s Clear Gloss on the headlights. The greeting is by Simon Says Stamp, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black then embossed with clear embossing powder. Done!

Flowers Galore!

I’ve only got time for one hobby at the moment and for the last couple of months that’s been sewing, although I haven’t got much to show for it yet. I still enjoy card making when I get chance, and made this card recently which I’m going to enter into this month’s challenge at Stamping Sensations. The theme is “Anything with Flowers”, and the main image must be stamped, for obvious reasons. Well, there are flowers aplenty on the front of this card, all individually stamped.

I took my inspiration from this card but adapted it using stamps from various sets including Paula Pascual & Banana Frog (sadly no longer trading), inked in various brands/colours of inks. The die cut word is by Mama Elephant, cut in normal cardstock then glossed with Anita’s Clear Gloss, and the birthday greeting is by Clearly Besotted. I then added a few gems for the obligatory bling!

CTS #247

I always think masculine cards should be simple – no fuss & definitely no frills! So the sketch at Case This Sketch this week appealed to me and I took the opportunity to use up some of my (huge!) stash of patterned paper in the process. The greeting is by Woodware, I stamped it with Versafine Onyx Black and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then spent ages trying to work out what to do for the curved shape but settled, in the end, on a simple circle shape using a die by Swedish House Crafts.

Two for the Price of One

Challenges, that is. I’ve combined the challenges at Addicted to CAS, where the theme is leaves and AAACards, where the theme is ink blending.

I die-cut a Nestabilities oval and created a stencil through which I blended Adirondack inks in Cool Peri & Eggplant. I slipped a bit with my sponge so the birds (all by Inkylicious) were to hide the mistakes!

I then die cut the Sizzix leaves out of Docrafts metallic adhesive card, and spent ages with an embossing tool & a mouse mat trying to smooth out the many “dimples” which result from the holes in the die. I decided to keep the greeting very simple, choosing a stamp by Clearly Besotted from their Brushed Greetings II set.

It’s a Classic!

A quick post to enter this card into the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, where the sketches frequently provide me with much-needed inspiration. This card is for the birthday of my old (old being the operative word!) boss.

The car stamp by Visible Image is a recent purchase, the car & background being watercoloured with my Zigs, and the trees are a stamp by Inkylicious. The numbers are by Sapphire Crafts, the greeting is computer generated. I added Anita’s Clear Gloss to the numbers & headlights to add a bit of dimension.

FMS #307

Another coloured pencil creation today, although to me this illustrates the difference between cheap coloured pencils & the more expensive Polychromos as the finish on the red golf bag is not as good as I’d like. It also shows the difference between colouring in artificial light and daylight, as it really doesn’t stand up to close up photography. Thankfully it does look better in real life! The layout is based on this week’s sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

The golfing stamp is from an old set by Crafts UK, the golf ball was made using a Cuttlebug embossing folder (it’s the reverse side), the spotty flag was stamped with a dotty background stamp & cut using an MFT die. The greeting is a Clearly Besotted stamp, embossed and then cut out with another MFT die.

Friends Forever

A quick post to enter this into a few challenges:

• Addicted to CAS
• Darnell’s NBUS challenge number 12
• Addicted to Stamps & More

I haven’t used coloured pencils for quite a while, but this quick & simple card uses my only Polychromos, which worked really well on the kraft cardstock. I heat embossed the flowers from the Clearly Besotted Friends Forever set, which is a recent purchase and therefore qualifies as my NBUS. I kept the card simple (although not very original!) by using a simple stamped greeting (again, Clearly Besotted) on an MFT die-cut flag and a few sequins.