Encouragement

Note of encouragement

Hi again!

Next up today is another card created with products kindly sent to me by Penny Black from their new Scent of Spring release.

I have been wanting to try out the new-to-me dry embossing/colouring technique that I saw Cindy (@crncards) demonstrate over on Instagram.

After dry embossing the image, you colour the debossed images and then swipe an ink pad over the whole panel. In theory, this should result in coloured images against an inked background….

For my first attempt, I decided to start with an easy take on the technique! I embossed a panel of gold card with one of my favourite embossing folders – Dots and Dashes (65-020) and then rubbed my Broken China Distress Oxide ink pad over the debossed side. Sure enough, the colour from the ink pad did not get into the debossed image!

I think this may be the best technique to showcase embossing folders and I’m excited to step up and colour my images next!

Anyway, I turned my practice panel into a card by adding the die cuts from the Note Edger set (51-812) and sentiments from the Note Builder mini stamp set (31-046).

You may have spotted that I added a few dots after the die cut word and before the stamped sentiment (using a cocktail stick) – this is because I felt that the Note Edger wasn’t fully centred across my card but I didn’t have much gold card left to cut another one. I think my dots balanced it out, do you?

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Love yoga

 

Hello everyone!

Today I’m paying tribute to my yoga journey with a card using products kindly sent to me by Penny Black.

In late 2020, a post popped up on my instagram feed about Adriene’s 30 day yoga programme and in January 2021 I rolled out my old, seldom-used mat with zero expectations… I had no intention to practice daily beyond January! Yet that is exactly what has happened! Today, we had our first day of yoga for this year’s 30 day programme and I had my 1,095th consecutive day of practice. Some days my practice has been short, other days I’ve done a long practice or even two sessions… but the important thing is that I made time for it EVERY SINGLE DAY. I love it and feel much better because of it!

So onto the card… This one certainly evolved and what started as a CAS card ended up using a lot of fun products. I stamped, coloured and fussy cut one of my favourite images from the New Adventures set (30-902) and then I just went wild with dies!! I used: Immense Love (51-757), Border Collection (51-717), Cloudy (51-728), Flourish and Butterflies (51-198) and Nestlings (51-755). I almost didn’t add that little bird because the robins are driving me wild at the moment – constant chirping, even at 2am!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Just Us Girls Guest Designer Week 4

Happy Saturday!

I have the honour of being June Guest Designer for the Just Us Girls challenge and today is my last GD post as it’s the last Saturday in June. I can’t believe it, the month has flown by! Thanks to all the lovely design team members who have been so welcoming and supportive!

This week is photo week and there’s a fun beachy/pineapple scene! When I saw it, I thought I would use a beach scene stamp as I don’t have any pineapple dies or stamps. Then I remembered my Taylored Expressions red rubber/cling pineapple layering set… I really struggled with it when I tried it and thought I’d never use it again, but for some reason I held onto it…. So I decided to give it another go….

I watched a how-to video by Taylor who made it look very easy and so, armed with acetate and my MISTI, I was determined to create a host of fun pineapple….

My first couple of attempts were OK, the position of the layers looked fine but I didn’t like the colours I used. Alas, when I found a colour combo that I liked, I messed up the stamping… SO. MANY. TIMES….. and always with THE. LAST. LAYER! Argh!

I had originally envisaged at least three pineapples on my card but I have to admit that I quickly changed my mind and stopped stamping as soon as I had one pineapple that that looked OK!

I used Tumbled Glass distress ink to create an oval in the centre of my card and stamped the sentiment from the set. I fussy cut my pineapple and added it to my card base with some heart gems to complete my CAS card.

And that stamp set? It has gone right into the ‘too difficult for LucieG’ box!!

Head over to the Just Us Girls challenge to see the amazing inspiration from the talented design team – we hope you can play along this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Just Us Girls Guest Designer Week 3

Happy Saturday!

I have the honour of being June Guest Designer for the Just Us Girls challenge!

Time for a colour challenge this week – using the three primary colours plus one other. I knew I wanted to use a white card base but wasn’t sure if that would have to be the fourth colour… I went back over past colour challenges and saw that neutrals were allowed in addition to challenge colours so I then felt comfortable choosing another colour – green!

I kept my card super simple, using  just one die set (Memory Box’s Seed Stems), distress inks and lots of stickles! I added a Memory Box sentiment and will send this card to an old friend who has had a rather torrid 2022 so far.

Head over to the Just Us Girls challenge to see the amazing inspiration from the talented design team – we hope you can play along this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Yoga Butterfly

Happy Monday everyone!

Today I’m playing along with the sketch challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches using products kindly send to me by Penny Black.

When I saw the sketch, I thought it would be perfect to showcase an image from the  New Adventures stamp set (30-902) – I love yoga since taking it up last year and this stamp set is perfect for me, although my poses don’t look anything like the yoga girls in the set!! Anyway, I stamped the girl with butterfly wings and fussy cut around it! I coloured her with my Twinkling H2Os and added some stickles.

Then I created a frame for her to sit in using distress inks and a die from the Framed die set (51-622)

I used the Textural die (51- 729) for the strip on the left side of my card base and adhered the frame and image. Finally I stamped a sentiment from the Yoga Builder set (30-714).

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

My yoga journey

Hello everyone!

Today I’m paying tribute to my 2021 yoga journey with a card using products from Penny Black!

But first, a little background story. About a year ago, a post popped up on my instagram feed about Adriene’s 30 day yoga programme. I was intrigued… I had tried yoga before but it hadn’t stuck – I had always become bored and demotivated and stopped… but something about this programme made me want to try it. So I did…. and somewhere along the way something just clicked.  By Day 20, I had started to feel disappointed that the programme was coming to an end…. And then I discovered that each month the Yoga with Adriene team issues a new calendar of mostly older sessions – I was delighted – I knew that I needed the variety that a curated calendar would provide.

I started last January with zero expectations. Certainly no intention to practice daily beyond January! Yet that is exactly what has happened! Today, I completed my 361st consecutive day of practice (1 January was an intro session)! And I feel so much better for it! Some days I have practiced for an hour. Other days, 10-15 minutes…. But I have got on that mat every single day! I still have a long way to go – I know that the impact of decades of my western lifestyle can’t be erased over a year or two or three. But that’s ok. I love my daily sessions and I know have made progress this year. I’m in it for the long haul.

So onto the card! To start with, I created an ink-blended background section using distress inks and then stamped, coloured and fussy cut the main image from the Breathe mini set (30-473). Next, I cut some flourishes and butterflies from vellum using dies from the Flourish and Butterflies die set, 51-198) and adhered everything to my card base. Finally I stamped the sentiment from the Breathe set.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.