Technique – ink blending

Featuring ink blending

AAA Cards Along the edge with die cuts only twist

Hi there!

It’s time for another challenge at AAA Cards!  This fortnight we’d like you to create a CAS card using just one edge of your card. Our optional twist this time is ‘die cuts only’.

This is one of my favourite twists – I absolutely love using my dies! Although this card was a little nerve-wracking…

It’s almost cherry blossom season, so I pulled out my Penny Black Swinging die set and used the branch and flowers to create a little spring scene! I coloured all the die cuts with my distress inks and added a little detail to the blossoms with a coloured pencil before adhering them to the top of my card.

Now for the nerve-wracking part…

I had originally decided to use a die cut sentiment on my card, but they all looked a little heavy with the delicate die cut… so rather than stamp a greeting, or leave the card blank, I decided to use a Simply Graphic die to cut a sentiment into the card base. That late decision meant I had to put the assembled card through my Gemini to cut the sentiment…. Yep, I held my breath when I fed those plates through!! I was so relieved when it turned out exactly as I’d hoped and my die cuts were intact. Phew!

My team mates have come up with some beautiful cards which are on the AAA Cards challenge blog. We are also joined by a previous challenge winner Wendi who has some really cute inspiration on her instagram feed!

Hope you can play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Leaf -trimmed egg

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Today I’m playing along with the Color Throwdown which has a St Patrick-themed palette for us this week (gold, light green, dark green and white).

As you know I’m in the throes of Easter cardmaking and when I saw the colour combo I was a little perplexed – how could I use this in an Easter card. Then I stumbled across some amazing Easter cards on Instagram. The designer had used some leafy die cuts on an egg – suddenly inspiration struck! I pulled out the Poppystamps Sylvan Sprig, a Memory Box egg die and distress inks and got to work!

I was originally going to add a die cut gold sentiment, but in the end I used the Marianne Design Art Texture Mesh die for the gold accent and a stamped sentiment by Taylored Expressions.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

A Nest of Eggs

Hi there!

As you know, I love playing along with challenges whenever I can but this week’s Freshly Made Sketches really made me think! You see, I wanted to use it for an Easter card but everything I tried just looked odd! I toyed with rotating the sketch so that the focal point would be in the bottom right corner, which I use all the time…. but my competitive side didn’t want to give up on that top left corner…

I flicked through my Easter supplies and spotted the Memory Box Twiggy Nest that I bought last year but sadly never got round to using. I knew it would be perfect for this sketch! I blended some Frayed Burlap distress ink on my card base and then adhered the nest, some eggs from the Poppystamps Folk Decorated Eggs set and branches from a Sizzix set. The sentiment is also by Memory Box.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Happy Mother’s Day 2021!

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to share one of the cards I gave to my lovely mum today!

My mum adores all cats and so I knew one card I made for her would have to be kitty-themed. I pulled out another unused die that I bought when it popped up in Simon Says Stamp’s ‘deals and steals’ section – the Kitty Cat die.

I made three cats, colouring them with distress ink and adding a little face to each of them. Their whiskers are from the cats in the Penny Black set – I just love those curly whiskers, don’t you?

Finally I added an Avery Elle sentiment… and a few small gems.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Color Throwdown – Just Because

Hello everyone!

I’m delighted to be the Guest Designer over at one of my favourite challenges, the Color Throwdown. They have a lovely peaceful palette this week – light blue, grey and kraft

I used dies from a few different manufacturers – Penny Black (cat), Altenew (sentiment) and Poppystamps (circle). I sponged Hickory Smoke and Stormy Sky distress ink to quickly colour the images.

The Color Throwdown team are all sharing some gorgeous inspiration over on the blog. Hope you can play along too!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Happy St David’s Day 2021

Happy St David’s Day everyone!

I really can’t believe it’s March already, can you? Spring is definitely in the air in my part of the world at the moment so that’s the them I chose for my take on one of my favourite sketch challenges – Freshly Made Sketches.

To start with, I die cut some patterned paper using a die from the Penny Black Geometic Borders die set and adhered it to my card base. Then I adhered a vellum square on top. I stamped, coloured and fussy cut a beautiful daffodil image by Clearly Besotted which I stuck to the vellum square, hiding the glue I used to adhere the square.

To complete my card, I added a little bow from baker’s twine and a sentiment from Memory Box.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.