Technique – Stamping

Featuring stamping

Turning autumn to spring

Happy Friyay!

As soon as I saw the rather sad Instagram post by Hero Arts today, I decided to make a card to reflect how I feel about the company that got me into this wonderful world of cardmaking! Its leaders seem to try to balance business and kindness/generosity/transparency – all admirable traits. But quite honestly, it has always been about the quality of their products and amazing designs for me.

Anyway, I fell in love with the My Monthly Hero September 2018 kit as soon as I saw it! I have been stalking the website for a while – I couldn’t believe that it hadn’t sold out and I finally snapped one up last month. While it is clearly an autumn set, I decided to repurpose it for spring, inspired by the fabulous Color Throwdown challenge colour palette (purple, yellow, green and grey). I turned a couple of sprigs into two beautiful yellow spring shrubs, kerria and forsythia which was actually the easiest part of the card! Everything else seemed to go wrong – even stamping the sentiment! But I got there in the end!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Easter comparison

Hello Friends and happy almost Friday!

With Easter only a few weeks away I decided it was high time I dusted down my Easter supplies and get to work as I do like to make and send out Easter cards!

I unearthed a cute stamp set by Pink & Main which I think arrived too late for Easter last year so I decided to use them for a super quick CAS card. I wanted to play along with the colour challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches and selected a few Altenew inks which seemed to match the challenge colours. Then my eyes landed on my newly-acquired Gina K inks and I decided it would be good to test them out on these stamps – so I ended up with two cards!

 

First up here, the Altenew inks card. I LOVE the Altenew inks and find they stamp very well – in fact I have all of them in my collection! I added a Lawn Fawn sentiment which I had smothered in Nuvo Aqua shimmer – love the delicate sheen!

 

 

Next my Gina K inks. I won some at Simon Says Create and have been trying to swatch them since I got home. They also stamp very nicely and the colours are so vibrant. Think I’ll be reaching for these a lot too! I used the same Lawn Fawn die cut but in the interests of comparison, I painted the die cut with a layer of Ink On 3’s Pixie Dust. Oh my goodness! Can you see that shimmer? Wonderful! Now I want to PIXIE DUST ALL THINGS!!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Birthday Pomander

Hello all!

Today I’m playing along with the current Case This sketch challenge. It’s one of THOSE sketches this week – you know when you have a thousand ideas but have to choose just one!

In the end, I decided to use my new Altenew Prettiest Pomander set. I played with this set at the Simon Says Create Make and Takes and of course I HAD to have it after!! I don’t usually stamp the outline image when doing layered stamping, but this one need it because there’s at least one berry that wouldn’t have a stem otherwise. I used a black ink outline for the card I made at Create and I felt that was a little too heavy for the delicate image. This time, I chose a very light grey Altenew ink (Limestone) and a very gentle touch and I’m happy with how it turned out this time!

The sentiment is by Hero Arts and the embossing folder that I used is Radiant Rays by Creative Expressions. I saw Jennifer McGuire use this folder at the weekend and started to hunt for it online afterwards! And then I discovered that I bought it in January!! Honestly! Well at least I made that discovery before I bought it again!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Hi everyone!

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

I stamped the Pretty Pink Posh Spring Wreath in Antique Linen Distress Oxide and embossed it with clear powder.

I coloured it in and then die cut the wreath.  I used an Echo Park stencil to apply a few subtle hearts to the background before adhering the wreath.

Finally I added an Avery Elle sentiment… and a few small gems (AFTER I had taken these photos).

I’m entering this into the current CAS Colours and Sketches challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Peek-a-boo card

Hello!

I’m back with my second Crafts-U-Love DT post for the month.

As you may recall, I received the sweet My Favorite Things Spectacular Birthday* stamp set and a pack of Lawn Fawn ink cubes*. The first card I created with these is here.

While the stamp set could be used to create some amazing scenes, I decided to do something a bit different again… I rarely make interactive cards, but I love seeing Anita Chang’s cards on Instagram and a peek-a-boo card has been on my ‘to make’ list for quite a while. So I decided to leap in and attempt one.

Let me reassure you – it’s super simple!

There are some amazing video tutorials out there – Jennifer McGuire created one last year that you might want to check out. My video skills are still pretty basic, so I’ve written a rather photo-intensive tutorial for you instead! But, I have managed to upload a very quick video to You Tube showing how it turned out!

Steps 1 and 2 – prepare your card components

 

I created a UK A6 card (105mm x 148mm ) with some heavyweight cardstock.  First of all I created and scored three panels as follows:

Back of card – 105mm x 158 mm – score at 148mm, making a thin strip on the right side

Centre card – 105mm x 210mm – score at 105mm, making a square card

Front of card – 105mm x 220mm – score at 148mm, making a 70mm ‘flap’ (note the reverse of the panel is shown in the photo above)

Steps 3 and 4 – create the front

For this card, you need to die cut a shape in the right hand side of the card front (the crease should be on the left hand side).

After adhering some Lawn Fawn paper to the front of the panel, I found it helpful to place the sentiment I wanted to use on top of the panel (Creative Expressions Happy Birthday) to help position the die. Once cut, line up the square centre card to the right hand side of the front panel (the crease of the centre card should be on the left hand side).

Steps 5 and 6 – die cut the centre piece

Draw around the die cut to create a die placement guide on the square centre card. Keep the square centre card folded so that you can cut through both sections… although you might need to run this through your cutting machine a couple of times!

Then put the front panel to one side.

Steps 7 and 8 – begin assembling the card

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Taking the back of the card, add a piece of strong double-sided tape to the small creased strip (which should be on your right hand side).

Open up the centre square card and decorate as you wish – this will be what your recipient will see when they open the card. I simply stamped a sentiment from the set.

Make sure the crease of the centre square card is still on your left hand side and then adhere the right side of the centre square card to the back of the card.

Steps 9 and 10 – adhere the front of the card

Close the square centre card and cover the top of it generously with adhesive. Then adhere the card front, ensuring that the die cuts line up.

Step 11

 

 

Tuck the flap from the front panel behind the square centre card and close the card.

 

The base peek-a-boo card is complete and now we can think about how to decorate it!

 

 

Steps 12 and 13 – create the images

I stamped a couple of the stamps from the MFT set and coloured them using the Lawn Fawn inks diluted with some water. I actually re-stamped them on watercolour paper which worked much better for me as I found I had more control over the ink! Once I was happy with the colouring, I added a generous layer of Nuvo Aqua Shimmer.

Steps 14 and 15 – Slot the images into place

Select the image that you want the recipient to see when the card is closed and adhere it to the back of the card.

The other image (which will be seen when the card is open) needs to be adhered to the small flap (from the card front) that sits behind the square centre card.

Et voila! The card mechanism should be finished! See how it works in my very short You Tube debut here!

If you find that the card is getting caught on the images, add some Scotch tape to the edges of the image – fabulous tip courtesy of Jennifer McGuire.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Products marked with a ‘*’ were sent to me by Crafts-U-Love for this DT assignment.

Best wishes to you

Hello everyone!

Today, I’m playing along with the current colour challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches.

I started by stencilling some Pumice Stone distress ink to my base card using a Tim Holtz stencil. Then I stamped an older Penny Black cling stamp (All you need…) and added a Penny Black sentiment. I still wanted to add a bit more blue to my card so I used a Penny Black butterfly die and added a few of the tiny hearts from the butterfly to embellish my card. And I couldn’t resist adding a few dots of Stickles for a bit of sparkle!

I’m also entering this into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the theme is ‘anything goes’ with an optional twist of CAS. I think this card covers both of those!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.