Wednesday 29 June 2016

Snowflake wreaths

I love stamping wreaths but I try not to do too many or I'd be sending similar cards out every year. Then I hit on the idea of using my favourite snowflake stamps for a wreath with a twist. 

I liked it so I made a couple more in different colours. 


 I think I like the first one best though.


I drew a faint pencil circle and then stamped using three snowflakes and first and second generation ink. Then I added the sentiment. Finally since it is for Christmas, a bit of magic and sparkle with glitter and Stickles. 
Last night, which may I remind you was June, we watched gales blow a branch blow down onto the power lines near our house, complete with flashes. It took out our power, of course. As it is June and doesn't get dark early, I was able to craft on the windowsill using the last of the light and add the glitter and cut out the matts as the light faded. Luckily the power companies raced to our rescue and had it fixed in a few hours. So I hope those of you in the UK are enjoying the summer!
So I'm happy to say I'm in time to link this with June's Rudolf Days. I've not made many Christmas cards recently  but now have a few more for my stash
Also linking to Pixie's Snippets Playground. I had to use new card for two card bases but all the rest was snippets. I should say that the cards are quite small, 11x11cm but I do have envelopes to fit! 
I'm happy to say I've used up all my plain white snippets of any decent size and now only have narrow strips so I need a plan for using those.



Thursday 9 June 2016

Inky swirls

A quick post as I should be getting ready to go away. Why do I always forget how much there is to do before you go?

The challenge at AAA Cards is 'Watercolours'. 

                                                         
 Here is my card:


 I made this by stamping and embossing the swirls in clear powder. The I sprinkled Brushos on and wet it with a spray bottle. I got it really wet so the ink spread about and pooled. Then the trick is to walk away and leave well alone!  I used green and yellow crystals and the blue comes out of the green.
When it was dry I ironed off the embossing powder which just leaves the swirls. I used copier paper above and below to soak up the embossing. 
To give credit the idea is a combinantion of several I saw on You Tube. One is here and I can't find the other. Oh, you can waste a lot of time on here, some amazing ideas, I just need to remember them. I've tried this one a couple of times and it works really well. 
I'm not sure how well you can see but it gives a really cool effect and no-one knows how you did it!


 I didn't want to cover up any of the swirls so I just added a simple sentiment.
 I hope to get a chance to visit some of the fabulous entries, I love looking at them but must get organised first. 
xxx


Sunday 5 June 2016

Purple petals

Sometimes a challenge grabs you and you just have to join in. This week Less is More are asking for Purple. I know many blogging card makers love purple and I am no exception. 

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 I rummaged though my very well organised (!) box of stuff and found a scrap of paper that I had coloured in an experimental inking session sometime. I think I'd crumpled the paper up, wet it, then inked. This is what it looked like:


 I wasn't sure where I was going with it except that I wanted to cut out purple flowers. 



The inky paper gives a lovely effect, rather like batik.
I used a Leane Creatief die, made the flowers and decided to inlay the bottom layer of each flower so I moved them all and cut out the shapes, trying to stick to where I'd decided I wanted them - which I mostly managed. The bottom left hand corner fell apart, predictably, but I was able to save the bit and stick it on.
I used a piece of thin card behind the white square to glue it all down onto. Once I had it all stuck down, heart in mouth, I trimmed two flowers as I wanted it to be off the edge. I knew if it didn't look right I'd ruined the whole thing! But I think it did and I hope you do too. 
The sentiment is Paper Smooches and the background swirl is one from and Artemio set. I've used them so many times. 
As it's all made from snippets I'm hopping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground where Miss has time off for good behaviour  I mean, she's doing teacher training so who knows what is going on while she's away?
I'm also linking to CASology very late in the day. Where it is week 200 and celebrations are underway.