Tim Holtz/Ranger

Featuring Tim Holtz/Ranger products

AAA Cards One Inch Strip with small stamps twist

Hi there!

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

Although I have a zillion small stamps, I didn’t actually use them for this challenge. Instead I used parts of a Carabelle Studio background stamp (Circles collage). I stamped various circles from onto an inky background I created with distress inks some time ago, leaving a space in the centre of the one inch strip. I then lifted some ink from the centre of the circles using water.

I was originally going to add a die cut sentiment, but how many sentiment dies do I own that are less than an inch? The answer is not many…. and those that I do have didn’t really work so in the end I went with a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Brush Stroke Messages set which fit perfectly in the space.

My team mates have come up with some beautiful cards which are on the AAA Cards challenge blog. We are also joined a previous challenge winner, Asa, who has come lovely cards on her instagram feed!!

Hope you can play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Fluttering by…

Happy Friyay friends!

I’m playing with more products from Penny Black’s beautiful Daydream collection.

After a snowy start to the week, it’s starting to look more springlike here now, although it’s still pretty chilly. Sadly the magnolia blooms have a lot of frost damage, but we’ve got a few cherry blossoms, so I decided to use them, along with the Time Out challenge photo, as my inspiration today.

I lightly blended some distress ink over part of my card base and then using Distress Oxide ink and markers, I stamped the main flower image from the Flying Colors stamp set (40-739). I used my Prismacolour pencils to add some detail to the flowers.

I stamped a large sentiment from the Snippets (30-283) set and then added some ink splatters. I thought they were a little dark at first but I’ve got used to them now!

Finally I added a few butterfliew from the fabulous Flourish & Butterflies die set (51-198).

I’m entering this into the current Time Out Challenge .

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Floral band

Hello Friends

Happy Saturday! Today I’m playing along with the  Freshly Made Sketches challenge using new-to-me products by Simon Says Stamp.

I heat embossed the beautiful SSS Floral Background stamp and coloured it using distress ink. I used a wavy background die to cut a piece of white card and then adhered the three panels to my card base. To complete my card, I added a die cut sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Hummingbird wishes

Hello Friends

I’ve been busy in my craft room this long weekend! First up today is the card I made for this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge using products by Penny Black.

I knew I wanted to use the wonderful fuchsia die (51-045) as well as the gorgeous hummingbird stamp from the Flying Colors set (40-739) set.

After colouring the fuchsia with distress inks, I googled images for hummingbirds…. which I don’t think I have ever seen in real life – they aren’t native to Europe and I don’t recall seeing them on my travels at all. Anyway, I digress, I couldn’t believe it when I found this image – look at the colours of that bird – and he is with a fuchsia! Amazing!

I coloured the hummingbird with distress markers and then fussy cut the image. I created a blended background with some distress inks and then cut a panel using the Antique Frames dies (51-397).

Following the sketch, I added a die cut strip (Geometric borders – 51-196) and then adhered the panel and images. To complete my card, I added a few iridescent gems and a sentiment from the Snippets set (30-283).

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

AAA Two Quarters with rainbow twist

Happy Easter!

Well, we certainly have an interesting new challenge at AAA Cards!  This fortnight we’d like you to create a CAS card using two quarters of your card. Our optional twist this time is ‘Rainbow’.

Now, as a predominantly CAS cardmaker, I found this pretty difficult as I generally prefer to leave more than half my card base as ‘white’ space on my CAS cards… Luckily for us DT members, Jane came up with some great ideas for us and I decided to use a design which reminded me of this card I made last year.

As this challenge starts on Easter Sunday, I really wanted to make an Easter card…. but I found it quite difficult to think of a way of using the optional twist… At first, I planned to use patterned paper but that felt a little heavy. In the end, I embossed the Taylored Expressions Eggceptional Background stamp and then randomly coloured a few in rainbow colours using distress inks. I then cut up my panel and adhered it to the card base.

To complete my card, I added a Sugar Pea Designs sentiment. I played around with various positions for the small sentiment. I liked the centred positioning best…. but this really overlaps into two other quarters, so I suppose technically I used all four quarters of the card! However, the AAA DT is going to allow sentiments to straddle/go outside of the two used quarters for this challenge.

So, what do you think? Did I manage to use two quarters AND create the illusion of having more white space than ‘used’ space?

My team mates have come up with some beautiful cards which are on the AAA Cards challenge blog. We are also joined a previous challenge winner, Katrina, who has some great cards on her blog.

Hope you can play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Thank you posy

Hi there!

I’m playing with more products from Penny Black’s beautiful Daydream collection.

I stamped the main flower image from the Enliven mini set (30-705) before blending a light circle with distress ink. I didn’t bother masking the image as I knew I was going to be using darker colours on the petals and leaves, but I did lift off some ink using a little water.

After colouring the image with my Twinkling H2Os, I decided to add a few gold splatters. Annoyingly, as I was about to do this a large drop of water fell off my brush and into the centre of my ink-blended area. Argh! I ended up soaking up the water and adding a little more to create a whiter centre…. not what I intended but I think it worked out OK. After adding the splatters, I stamped a sentiment from the Flower Sparks set (30-281)

I was originally intending to make a square card but decided to trim down the panel to create a standard (UK A6) card and added a butterfly from the fabulous Flourish & Butterflies die set (51-198).

I’m entering this into the current Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the optional theme is Flowers.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.