Technique – die cutting

Featuring die cutting

Penny Black flowers and exciting news!

Hello everyone!

For today’s colouring, I chose a smaller image from a set by Penny Black. I think I would have preferred to have watercoloured these beautiful flowers, but as I’m trying to use The Day Marker 30 Day Challenge to practice with other mediums, I pulled out my Prismacolour pencils again! I really do love the texture of these pencils! What’s more the waxy surface can help with crafting missteps! Want to know mine?

Well, the original stamp has dots around the centres of the flowers, so I thought I’d use a black gelly roll pen to add them on after I had assembled the card. Big mistake. The black dots were far to heavy for the delicate image. At first, I tried to correct it with a white pen and then I realised I could lift off the dots with a craft knife. Seriously, those heavy pen dots slid off so easily! I added the dots with grey pencil instead, but they don’t really show.

I used the Avery Elle Burst die to create a frame for the image and raised it from the base card using some funky foam. Oh, and can you see that I caved and used my Twinkling H2Os – for the background. They are so shimmery, I love using them!

I’m entering this into the current Flower Challenge (use a previous challenge – I’m going with Challenge number 18 – ‘anything goes’); the Penny Black Saturday Challenge (also ‘anything goes’) and the Penny Black and More challenge (‘in the garden’).

Now onto my Exciting News!

I’m am so delighted to say that I am joining the design team of my nearest craft store, Crafts-U-Love. I think most of us have to buy our crafty stuff online nowadays and nothing beats seeing the products in person. I’m so pleased that Crafts-U-Love has an amazing store, crammed full of fabulousness, within driving distance and when I saw a DT call, I just HAD to apply. I’m so excited to be joining the team this year! My first design post will be around 15 June! Such fun!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Happy Birthday, Lovely

Hi everyone!

For Day 2 of the Daily marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge, I coloured this beautiful Concord & 9th ‘Hello Lovely’ floral stamp. I just don’t use this beauty enough.

I used my new Prismacolor pencils again – I am loving the learning process! Colouring with them definitely takes me longer than when I use my Twinkling H2Os but I love the texture!

Once I had finished colouring, I decided to add some hidden die cutting. I always find this so nerve-wracking as I always worry I’ll mess up the beautiful image, but this one worked out! Phew!

Thanks for stopping  by!

LucieG.

Stencilled birthday

Happy Friyay everyone!

Simon Says Stamp is hosting quite a few stencil challenges this week so I decided it was time to open up the Simon Says Stamp ‘Hope Blooms’ stencil!

I used regular distress inks to create the flowery background and then used a stamp from a flower set to create the centres. I didn’t want to overpower the delicate flowers with stencilled leaves, so I used a stencil from the Bokeh set to add a spotted background.

To finish off the card,I added a die cut greeting, also from Simon Says Stamp.

I’m entering this into the current Simon Says Stamp Flickr challenge, Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (all three themes ‘Stencil It’) and the Color Throwdown Challenge (aqua, lime green and white)

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

You are so kind

Happy Sunday everyone!

It’s time for a new challenge over at AAA Cards! This fortnight’s theme is ‘inspired by nature’ and our sponsor is Happy Little Stampers shop.

For my card, I used the Beautiful Branches stamp set and dies from Concord & 9th. After stamping the branch using Distress Oxide ink, I cut to blossoms from some pink and white vellum that I’ve had in my stash for many years! Once I had an arrangement I was happy with, I stuck down the flowers and added a stamped greeting and a few Nuvo drops to finish the card.

My teammates have shared some gorgeous CAS cards on the AAA Cards blog and we are also joined by Nancy from Paper Trail of Smiles and Christine from Poppaea Cards. They both have some fabulous creations – you must check out their sites if you haven’t already done so!

I’m also entering this into the current Where Creativity Meets C9 challenge – floral.

Thanks for stopping by – I do hope you play along with us!

LucieG.

 

The world is your oyster

Happy Sunday everyone!

I spent a very happy morning in my craft room, playing with some supplies I put aside yesterday!

I decided to play along with the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge and use some of my city-scape dies. I love them and can’t seem to stop buying them… buy I need to use them! Do you have that problem?!

Anyway, for this card, I used the Poppystamps Urban Skyline collage die and then added a couple of buildings from a Sue Wilson/Creative Expressions die. If you click on the photos you can see the subtle embossing on the tallest building.

After sticking the scene to a blended background, I looked for a suitable sentiment – I really wanted this to be a ‘good luck in your new job’ card. You know, I have hundreds of stamps, HUNDREDS… and how many do you think say ‘good luck’ let alone ‘good luck in your new job’? The answer is very few, my friends, very few. I think I have found a gap in the market! We need more good luck stamps.

Unfortunately my good luck/new job sentiment felt a little too big for the card. So I replaced it with a Clearly Besotted sentiment that I still felt conveyed the same kind of sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

 

 

Cattail Triptych

Hi everyone!

Why is it that when you’re super busy, you have tons of ideas, but when you finally have time to craft, your mojo disappears? So annoying!

This took much longer to create than it should have done… hope my mojo returns soon!

I used dies by Simon Says Stamp, Savvy Stamps and Memory Box and adhered the die cut panel to a background I created using Distress Inks and Color Bursts.

I’m entering this into the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge – ‘animal kingdom’.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.