Birthday

Birthday Pomander

Hello all!

Today I’m playing along with the current Case This sketch challenge. It’s one of THOSE sketches this week – you know when you have a thousand ideas but have to choose just one!

In the end, I decided to use my new Altenew Prettiest Pomander set. I played with this set at the Simon Says Create Make and Takes and of course I HAD to have it after!! I don’t usually stamp the outline image when doing layered stamping, but this one need it because there’s at least one berry that wouldn’t have a stem otherwise. I used a black ink outline for the card I made at Create and I felt that was a little too heavy for the delicate image. This time, I chose a very light grey Altenew ink (Limestone) and a very gentle touch and I’m happy with how it turned out this time!

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and the embossing folder that I used is Radiant Rays by Creative Expressions. I saw Jennifer McGuire use this folder at the weekend and started to hunt for it online afterwards! And then I discovered that I bought it in January!! Honestly! Well at least I made that discovery before I bought it again!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Embossed butterflies

Happy Sunday!

It’s time for a new challenge over at AAA Cards! This fortnight we are challenging you to make a card in ‘minutes’ with the optional twist of one of my favourite techniques – dry embossing! Our sponsor is Heffydoodle who are offering a price of a £25 voucher to their store!

What do we mean by ‘made in minutes’? Well, after planning your card and gathering your supplies you card should take 15 – 30 minutes to complete!

Now, I confess, I was nervous about this challenge as I am not a fast cardmaker. I don’t like rushing the creative process, I enjoy it! Anyway, I knew I had to focus on die cutting as that’s a pretty quick technique and I wanted to case one of my older cards where I inlaid embossed die cuts.

I chose a simple die, some previously-rejected ink blending and a couple of embossing folders and got to work. It probably took me about 20 minutes to assemble this card, and then another 20 to find a stencil that I decided I needed for the card base once I’d assembled my die cut image!!

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and I used embossing folders by Cuttlebug and Crafts Too.

My team mates  have created some gorgeous CAS cards over at AAA Cards and we are joined by guest designer Kateryna who has some amazing cards on her Instagram feed.

Hope you can play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Birthday leaves

Happy Saturday friends!

Today, I’ve been tying to play along with the sketch challenge over at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog. I say trying because I couldn’t bring myself to put a sentiment over every single circle image I created! In the end I resorted to using an older Circle Leaves die from Simon Says Stamp that I have used a lot, but even then, I had to tweak the positioning of the sentiment!

Anyway, the colours for this week Color Throwdown Challenge are beautiful (mauve, green and cream) so I made a couple of distress oxide panels (milled lavender and bundled sage) which I then used for my die cut image. Once I had adhered the circle die to my cream base card, I added a Savvy Stamps sentiment, which I had originally cut in white. But something didn’t seem quite right so I changed to grey cardstock which I felt worked much better! Finally I added a few pearls to complete my card.

I’m also entering this into the current Simon Says Stamp Flickr challenge where the theme is ‘anything goes’.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Peek-a-boo card

Hello!

I’m back with my second Crafts-U-Love DT post for the month.

As you may recall, I received the sweet My Favorite Things Spectacular Birthday* stamp set and a pack of Lawn Fawn ink cubes*. The first card I created with these is here.

While the stamp set could be used to create some amazing scenes, I decided to do something a bit different again… I rarely make interactive cards, but I love seeing Anita Chang’s cards on Instagram and a peek-a-boo card has been on my ‘to make’ list for quite a while. So I decided to leap in and attempt one.

Let me reassure you – it’s super simple!

There are some amazing video tutorials out there – Jennifer McGuire created one last year that you might want to check out. My video skills are still pretty basic, so I’ve written a rather photo-intensive tutorial for you instead! But, I have managed to upload a very quick video to You Tube showing how it turned out!

Steps 1 and 2 – prepare your card components

 

I created a UK A6 card (105mm x 148mm ) with some heavyweight cardstock.  First of all I created and scored three panels as follows:

Back of card – 105mm x 158 mm – score at 148mm, making a thin strip on the right side

Centre card – 105mm x 210mm – score at 105mm, making a square card

Front of card – 105mm x 220mm – score at 148mm, making a 70mm ‘flap’ (note the reverse of the panel is shown in the photo above)

Steps 3 and 4 – create the front

For this card, you need to die cut a shape in the right hand side of the card front (the crease should be on the left hand side).

After adhering some Lawn Fawn paper to the front of the panel, I found it helpful to place the sentiment I wanted to use on top of the panel (Creative Expressions Happy Birthday) to help position the die. Once cut, line up the square centre card to the right hand side of the front panel (the crease of the centre card should be on the left hand side).

Steps 5 and 6 – die cut the centre piece

Draw around the die cut to create a die placement guide on the square centre card. Keep the square centre card folded so that you can cut through both sections… although you might need to run this through your cutting machine a couple of times!

Then put the front panel to one side.

Steps 7 and 8 – begin assembling the card

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Taking the back of the card, add a piece of strong double-sided tape to the small creased strip (which should be on your right hand side).

Open up the centre square card and decorate as you wish – this will be what your recipient will see when they open the card. I simply stamped a sentiment from the set.

Make sure the crease of the centre square card is still on your left hand side and then adhere the right side of the centre square card to the back of the card.

Steps 9 and 10 – adhere the front of the card

Close the square centre card and cover the top of it generously with adhesive. Then adhere the card front, ensuring that the die cuts line up.

Step 11

 

 

Tuck the flap from the front panel behind the square centre card and close the card.

 

The base peek-a-boo card is complete and now we can think about how to decorate it!

 

 

Steps 12 and 13 – create the images

I stamped a couple of the stamps from the MFT set and coloured them using the Lawn Fawn inks diluted with some water. I actually re-stamped them on watercolour paper which worked much better for me as I found I had more control over the ink! Once I was happy with the colouring, I added a generous layer of Nuvo Aqua Shimmer.

Steps 14 and 15 – Slot the images into place

Select the image that you want the recipient to see when the card is closed and adhere it to the back of the card.

The other image (which will be seen when the card is open) needs to be adhered to the small flap (from the card front) that sits behind the square centre card.

Et voila! The card mechanism should be finished! See how it works in my very short You Tube debut here!

If you find that the card is getting caught on the images, add some Scotch tape to the edges of the image – fabulous tip courtesy of Jennifer McGuire.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Products marked with a ‘*’ were sent to me by Crafts-U-Love for this DT assignment.

Butterfly birthday wishes

Hi everyone!

Today I’m sharing the super quick card I made for the current Freshly Made sketches challenge.

I created a stencil using a Reverse Confetti die and then blended some Distress Oxide ink over the base card.

I then used Impression Obsession butterfly dies to cut a background panel that I created sometime ago using more Distress Oxide inks.

To finish off my quick card, I stamped a Clearly Besotted sentiment – and resisted the urge to cover the card in bling!!

I’m also entering this into the current Time Out challenge where the theme is ‘birthday wishes’.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Botanical Branch

Hi there!

I’m trying to add to my birthday card pile as it always seems to run low!

I created a lot of distress oxide backgrounds a while ago and today I decided to used one of them with the fabulous Pinkfresh Studios Botanical Branch die. I liked the negative so much that I created a second card with silver pearl cardstock.

The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.