Christmas, New Year and Winter

New Year balloons

Hi there everyone!

For this card, I finally inked up the gorgeous balloon background stamp from Create a Smile stamps. I’d wanted this stamp for a while and was so pleased to see it in stock when I placed an order with them earlier this month.

Anyway, I embossed it with white embossing powder and then set to colouring! I decided to try out the ‘Stained Glass Watercolour’ technique Jennifer McGuire showcased a few weeks ago. I decided to use distress markers. Not sure if it was me, but I found it quite difficult to move a lot of colour and went back to a number of balloons several times until I was happy with how they were looking… I have a few Tombow pens so I may try with them….

Once I was happy with the balloons, I had to cut the watercolour panel. I was a bit hesitant because I often change my mind about the design of a card when I’m assembling it….. However, I was following a sketch, so bit the bullet and cut! I ended up making a birthday card with the other half.

I layered my panel onto some coloured card and finished off the card with a Hero Arts sentiment stamp.

I’m entering this into the current Freshly Made sketches challenge and also the current Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge .

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Distress crayon new year

 

Hi everyone!

I’m sharing another New Year card today! I just love creating and giving these cards!

For this one, I pulled out my new metallic distress crayons! I was very pleasantly surprised by just how metallic they are – the Tarnished Brass is definitely my favourite one at the moment!

To create my background, I coated some cardstock with Distress Collage Medium to make it easier to blend the crayons. I had originally planned to use the Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Brushed Pewter crayons but I preferred the look when I substituted the Tarnished Brass for the Brushed Pewter! Anyway, once I finished blending, I cut the background with a Taylored Expressions Background die – as soon as I saw this die, it just screamed ‘New Year celebration’ to me and I was relieved to see how it turned out. Look at that shine from the metallic crayon!

Anyway, I stuck it to a base card and then stamped a Hero Arts sentiment using distress oxide ink (in Peacock Feathers).

I’m entering this into the current Timeout Challenge (new beginnings) and I’m adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday challenge as I’m using two new items – the metallic distress crayons and the background die!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Written in the stars – 2018

Hi everyone!

Happy 2018!

I seriously can’t believe how quickly 2017 disappeared. I’m really happy that I managed to spend a lot of time in my craft room and finally set up this blog! I’m looking forward to continuing my creative journey in 2018 and even hope to start doing some process videos – just got to learn how to do them first! I’ll keep you posted!

For today’s card, I used the fabulous Hero Arts star confetti die. I knew that I wanted to create the ‘2018’ from the stars using the inlaid die cutting technique but I didn’t want to spend ages fiddling with die cut stars. So, I embossed the die onto some white card and coloured stars in pencil, erasing multiple times until I had a pattern that I was happy with. Then I ran the die once through my Big Shot – this was enough to cut the stars and still leave most of them in situ when I removed the card from the die. I stuck it lightly to a card base using Kokuyo tape which I knew would give me the flexibility to remove some of the blue stars and replace them with silver ones.

I used the die with some silver glitter paper and got to work replacing the blue stars with silver glitter ones as per my embossed template. This part was really quick – I’m so grateful I thought of creating a template! I must confess that once I was finished, I stuck a few silver stars on top of the base card to reduce the gaps between some stars and make the numbers clearer.

To finish off the card, I added a Hero Arts sentiment which I had stamped using the gorgeous Delicata blue shimmer ink.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG

 

Bold new year

 

Hello everyone!

I’m still confused about days…. Crimbo Limbo continues!  But I do know it’s not long until New Year’s Day and so it’s definitely time to focus on a few cards for that holiday!

For today’s card, I used the sketch from the current Less is More challenge and the fabulous Hero Arts infinity 12 point star dies with lots of glitter paper!

Whilst this card came together really quickly, I had a moment of self doubt and redid it in landscape rather than portrait, before changing my mind again! Thank goodness that I used the Kokuyo tape to adhere the stars – made them easily repositionable!

Julia shared a great Instagram post today about the trial and error that often go on before we share cards on social media and I remembered other comments from crafters that we rarely see things that go ‘wrong’. I think in 2018, I will share a little more about some of my card mishaps…. and maybe others will do the same….

While this isn’t an example of a ‘mishap’, it is representative of my crafty procrastination, which can be as much of a frustration as a crafty mishap, so I decided to share it!

And what do you prefer, portrait or landscape?

Anyway, I’m also entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (party) and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (anything goes).

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Stencilled trees

Happy Christmas Saturday people!

It’s been a while (ie a couple of weeks) since I posted a card of a Christmas tree! I have so many Christmas tree dies and stamps, I love them!

For these cards, I decided to used the technique I learnt for this tag. I created two  rainbow stencilled backgrounds using an Altenew stencil and a Newton’s Nook stencil. I then embossed over the stencilling with clear embossing powder. I covered the rest of the card in a few different shades of distress ink and wiped the excess ink from the ‘baubles’ and snowflakes.

I then cut the card using a simple tree die from Poppystamps – I must confess, I wasted spent quite a bit of time trying to work out the ‘best’ part of the card to cut, but I think I would have got a nice range of coloured baubles and snowflakes whatever I did.  But, well you know what it’s like, trying for ‘perfection’!!!

To create the card backgrounds, I applied some glitter paste through two stencils (a Tim Holtz stencil  and an Echo Park Paper Co stencil which is fast becoming one of my favourite stencils (star stencil)) and a little distress ink to ‘ground’ the trees. To finish off the cards, I stamped a sentiment by My Sentiments Exactly.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Purple winter birds

Hi everyone!

I love my old wood-mounted rubber stamps, I really do! Yes, they take up a lot of storage space and you can’t ‘restamp’ an image like you can with a cling or clear stamp, but I still love them and could never part with them! I have a storage system that works well for me, it’s just that with all the new crafty stuff being released each month, they don’t get as much ‘airtime’ as they should!

And this Christmas has been no exception unfortunately. I’m going to make a conscious effort in 2018 to use at least one of my old wood-mounted stamps a week!

Anyway, on to today’s card! This week’s Less is More challenge is ‘birds/feathers’, so I pulled out this older Magenta image which I coloured with my Prismacolor pencils. The purples look more vibrant in the photo than they are in real life. I think I need to revisit my light setting!

Anyway, I cut some of my older patterned paper with a banner die and then stuck the image panel on top. To finish the card off, I added a Penny Black sentiment and some Nuvo glitter drops.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.