Technique – ink blending

Featuring ink blending

Basket of flowers

Hi there everyone!!

I’ve been taking a break from card challenges recently but when I saw that one of my favourite challenges, Freshly Made Sketches was celebrating a major milestone, I had to play along. This week’s challenge is number 700 meaning that the weekly challenge has been running for 14 years! 14 years!! Isn’t that amazing?! I’m really grateful to the team who always work so hard each week – coming up with amazing inspiration and leaving kind and uplifting comments. Thank you so much – I know being a challenge DT member is quite a commitment and I really appreciate all you do.

The challenge this week uses sketch number 14 and each DT member shared when they first started playing along with the challenge. I got curious and I think I started back in November 2016 for challenge number 261 – I didn’t have a blog back then but shared on Instagram only.

For my card, I used the gorgeous Into The Blooms – Above Ground die set by Papertrey Ink. This beautiful set was just released last month, and I just had to buy it from the US as I haven’t found a UK retailer for Papertrey. I love that basket and all the little elements… although I think some of those tiny dies may end up on the AWOL list before too long! I coloured the images with various inks and then arranged them on a card base that I had covered with four squares from the Dotted Postage Squares die set by Pinkfresh Studio.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG

Christmas in July 2025 – Day 29

Hi there!

It’s Day 29 of LucieG’s Christmas in July 2025 and I have another Twofer today!

Memory Box’s Winterland Tree die from 2011 take centre stage today. This is a rare die for me because it has a background die – which I just discovered was released two years later…. craft moved slower back then with far fewer releases each year. I wish I had background dies for other delicate Memory Box trees!

I created an ombre ink blended panel and cut the tree from that and a piece of glitter card. I adhered the tree outlines to two background die cuts and then inlaid the die cut pieces.

I paired the ombre tree with Memory Box’s Pinpoint Burst plate and a fabulous Hero Arts sentiment wood-mounted stamp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added the glitter version of the tree to an older Spellbinders folder and adhered a few pearls and a glittery sentiment to complete the card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, which version do you prefer?

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Christmas in July 2025 – Day 27

Hi there!

It’s Day 27 of LucieG’s Christmas in July 2025!

Back to the older Memory Box tree dies today! This one is called Sparkling Tile Tree and is from 2014.

I’ve always struggled with this die because it isn’t a traditional standalone die and cuts into the background. I’m sure there’s a special word for that type of die but I can’t think of it right now…. Anyway, today I created an ombre background with various inks and then adhered it behind each of the die cut trees.

I added some glitter card to one card and gems to the other.

The sentiments are by My Favorite Things.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Christmas in July 2025 – Day 19

Hi there

It’s Day 19 of LucieG’s Christmas in July 2025 and I have a another twofer for you today.

I love the large shaped card die sets that I have by Bibi Cameron/Spellbinders and have been hoping for a Christmas tree set at some point. Today, I decided that I would create my own shaped tree card with an older Concord & 9th tree die that I picked up in a sale recently.

I used a couple of shades of green ink to create backgrounds that I then die cut. I partially cut a couple of card bases to create a shaped card base and adhered the die cut trees on top, hiding the section of the folded card that was not die cut.

For the ornament tree, I used dies by Concorde & 9th and Memory Box. The glittery foliage card uses dies by Crealies, Spellbinders and Simply Graphic.

I am so pleased that both these cards stand nicely on the little trunks!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Christmas in July 2025 – Day 17

Hi there!

It’s Day 17 of LucieG’s Christmas in July 2025!

I love the Swirly Tree by Dixie Craft and was excited to use it again today. I had originally planned to use it with a diffused embossed background but I didn’t really like how it turned out so I CASE’d one of my own cards from November 2023. I created an ink blended background using Pinkfresh inks and added a little trunk from another die cut. I think it completes the image, don’t you?

I used a Spellbinders/Simon Hurley embossing folder with matt silver mirror card. The sentiment is by Mama Elephant.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Amazing Potted Shelves

Happy Saturday everyone!!

There’s quite a classic sketch for this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge but when I saw it I decide that I could actually use a new stamp and die set – the Mini Delight Potted Shelves stamp and die set.

I started by ink blending part of my card base and then stamped the shelf images using Distress Archival inks. I wish that the connectors had been a little longer so that I could stamp them from the top of the ink blending but I wanted to align the three shelves like the squares in the sketch so I decided I would use a die cut to anchor the top of the shelves.

I then had a lot of fun creating my little pots with Craft Consortium paper and also added a few Penny Black die cuts as well. Once I was happy with the images, I played around with various die cuts for the shelf anchors and ended up doing with The Stamp Market’s daisies cut from vellum.

To complete my card, I added a sentiment by The Greetery.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG