Masking and Stencil overlays...

 

Hey,

Happy Christmas Eve!

As it is Christmas Eve, I am showing you a card that I made for a friend who celebrates her birthday today.

She is a big fan of the Moomins (I mean who isn't?!) and I always think the gorgeous Hippos by Clearly Besotted look like Moomins.

I love using masking with stencils to create fun backgrounds. This card was a super easy version. 

First I stamped the Hippo and the drink and then stamped it again onto a sticky note and fussy cut it out (even if I have die's I tend to do this, so there is no white border). Now I have a mask.

I blended the grass first and then added the sunrays. Here is what it looked like.

Then all I had to do was colour in the image, stamp the sentiments and die-cut the panel to size. 

A very easy card that looks like it took way more work to create.

I used - Clearscraps - Sunburst stencil. Clearly Besotted - Coolin' Off stamp set. Distress Oxides in Squeezed Lemonade and Mowed Lawn.

I hope that you are having a great Christmas Eve wherever you are and it might not be exactly as you had planned/hoped, but if you are safe, well, and warm, it will be great.

See you next week, I'm having a few days of NFL over Christmas and not crafting..

Cx

Artsy Fartsy Reindeer...

 

Hey,

Today is my last day of work until 4th January - whooooop!!

I thought I'd share a card that I made for JT last year, I loved the idea so much that I made a bunch of them this year.

The photo shows it without a sentiment - because I foolishly forgot to take a photo of them when I added it!

I love super easy cards like this. I started by smooshing a piece of watercolour card in a variety of green distress inks. Then I die-cut the wreath's from this piece of card. The smooshing means the wreath gets a range of colour and intensity, making it feel more like a real wreath.

I used gold mousse through a stencil to create the background and to match the background the fabulous Reindeer was die-cut from gold glitter paper.

They looked so nice and shimmery and were a bit unusual. I love to make non-traditional Christmas cards.

I used Ellen Hutson - Wreath Die. Altenew - Festive Silhouettes stamp and die set. Clearly Besotted - Falling Snow stencil. Nuvo - Indian Gold Mousse.

Cx

Christmas Cards 2020: Concord & 9th Wreath...

 

Hey,

As we are only a couple of days away from Christmas, I thought I'd share a few more of my cards for 2020.

I love Concord & 9th turnabout stamp. I thought it would be fun to use their wreath turnabout with their new-ish inks.

For the left card I used - Cranberry, Sprout, Parsley, and Clover. The right card uses - Mushroom, Eggplant, Dove, and Wheat.

The sentiment die is by Hero Arts and the strips are by The Ton.

I love how elegant and pretty they are, and the inks worked so well. The non-traditional colours look lovely and Mushroom is my fave.

Cx

Blended Alien Stars...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

In our house we are all about recycling and as minimal waste as we can manage.

So when I was making cards for charity, I had the offcut stars from when I used this die. They sparked an idea, because I also had some spare Aliens from a earlier batch of cards.

I blended them with 2 shades of distress oxide and spritzed them with water to get a bit more of a space feel and voila! fancy blended stars.

Because the stars were so fun, I kept the card super simple and just added an Alien and a sentiment - both of which are by Lawn Fawn from the 'Beam me up' set, which has certainly earned its keep this year!

Gotta love an easy bulk make, especially one that uses offcuts.

Cx

 

A little bit of vanity...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

As this goes live, there are only 4 more days of work in 2020 for me - WHOOOOP!! I love my job, but I am TIRED.

My very talented friend Lianne made me the amazing card in the frame for my birthday. She used a photo from my Instragram account and I was just blown away by how good it is.

RIGHT!!!

I had to frame it, because it is just so awesome.

The best bit about it for me is that she made a leopard print background too! If you know me, you know I am ALL about leopard print.. I mean I wore it in the evening on my Wedding Day LOL!

Have a great weekend, NFL all weekend for me, some desk time, the odd zoon and just chillaxing.

Cx

MFT Stencils..

 

Hey,

Happy Saturday!

I hope you have fun (and safe) weekend plans. I will be at my desk, working out and watching NFL with Hubby.

I love stencils and currently I have a bit of an obsession with ones by MFT. They had a few sales and a couple of amazing ones had to be mine!

The main photo and the one below use the 'Show Me Your Stripes' stencil. For both cards, I used 4 different colours of distress oxides and blended each stripe using 1 colour. As I am not massively careful when doing this, they kind of blend into each other, which I really like.

They make really impactful backgrounds that I can stamp large sentiments over and adding Tayored Expressions simple strips sentiments is always a winning formula.

The next two cards use the 'rectangle trio' stencil. I am a big fan of straight, clean lines, so this stencil was a must-have, and as you can see it is super versatile. I rotated it for two very different looks.

The card below I blended 3 different distress oxides to create a mini ombre effect (inks used from right to left broken china, peacock feathers and mermaid lagoon) 

I love all of these cards, and I hope it's given you some ideas about how to use stencils in different ways.

Have a great weekend.

Claire

Rainbow, Unicorn, Sprinkles...

 

Hey,

Can you go ever go wrong with a card that has rainbows, a unicorn and a sweet sentiment?

I don't think so!!

I love this card and it went to my Goddaughter for her birthday.

I love the Rainbow stamp and stencil by Taylored Expressions and it plays so nicely with the Unicorn and sentiment from Ellen Hutson, I am a HUGE fan of Julie Ebersole critters.

I blended distress oxides through the stencil and stamped over it using x2 of the provided fancy rainbow arch stamps.

The Unicorn is an old fave and I think I could colour him blindfolded!!

Cx

Cloud Bear..

Hey,

I am a bit obsessed with the MFT cloud edger stencils.. now I understand how to use them!

I created the background strip shown on my card using the standard size cloud edger and 3 colours of distress oxide. There is a mini cloud edger, that I am also over using right now!

I actually created a 4x6 background and cut it into 3 strips to create 3 of these bear cards.

I thought the bear worked beautifully and the whole thing makes me really happy. The bear is also by MFT from their 'Beary Special Birthday' set.

I love simple clean cards like this, especially when they are so easy that you can create lots and lots of them at the same time.

Cx

Pixel Scrapper, Digital Scrapbooking and Me!

Hey,

Happy Monday!

As you all know, I taught myself Photoshop this year during the lockdown, so I could become a digital scrapbooker.

It has been a really awesome way to flex my creativity and use my HUGE archive of photos.

Over the last 7 month's I have made my home at x4 different scrapbooking sites. 

Today I thought I would talk about Pixel Scrapper, I love their site and I was lucky enough to be asked last month to become part of their Creative Team - WHOOP! Love how much progress I have made in this new hobby.

Pixel Scrapper was the first site that I used when I was starting to digi scrap. Partly because of their free download model (5 free items a day, for members), which was SO handy when I was starting out and didn't know what I needed or why.

I soon progressed to being a patron and bought a year's subscription, because it was such good value for money AND because they have so many goodies there.

The digi scrap world is very similar to my cardmaking one, there are lots of challenges that you can do. Which I have always loved as a cardmaker and now as a digi scrapper, I have found them really helpful, because at first I was getting overwhelmed with 'what to scrap' and challenges help me focus. 

I have been playing along with the Pixel Scrapper Challenges for several months now, here are a few of my layouts.

The mini kit I used here, just brought my honeymoon photo to life, that quote / wordart is amazing.

I seem to be a big fan of Sharon's mini kits, because I used another one for this layout about my 'happy corner' in my craft room.

I really like working with templates, which as a relative newbie just take away all the indecision and fear! I find that I use Marisa's ones even for challenges outside of Pixel Scrapper. This template is amazing and worked really well for a challenge on another site.

My main photo today is one of my fave layouts, the Pixel Scrapper owner / creative director Marisa Lerin makes awesome kits. I used Love Bundle for this layout and it is a kit I use over and over again!

If you are like me and are reasonably new to digital scrapbooking and interested in learning about what goes into making a digital scrapbook, just check out Pixel Scrapper's new article.

Feel free to reach out to me, if you are thinking about starting to digi scrap and want some tips on where to start.

Cx

Punny Dogs...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I hope you all had a good week. Mine was a bit crazy at work, but I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving with Hubby and Clint Catwood that I didn't mind too much.

During my recent vacation in November I made 100 cards for charity. I really love doing this, it's nice to do something for others and I have fun whilst I am doing it.

This time I was determined to trawl through some older neglected stamps and use them with some of the newer things in my stash.

I came across these awesome freebie dog stamps (they came with a craft magazine in the UK) and I thought that they would work really well with the newer Taylored Expressions 'Woof' simple strip sentiments. I love a pun, so these worked really well, as did the ones that came with the stamp set (main photo).

My amazing friend Lisette has the banner dies that coordinate with the strips and she cut me TONS of them, so kind.

I had previously made a card using these stamps and I coloured some of the dogs in random colours and others I left blank. I really like this as a technique and I believe if you just colour one, it is considered 'spotlight' stamping.

Here are a few more of the cards - 

Fun right?!

Have a great weekend, I am having a playdate with JT and watching endless sport on Sunday - WHOOP!

Cx

Retro Rubber Challenge #149 Merry Christmas...

Hey,

Welcome to the final Retro Rubber challenge of 2020.

And what a year it has been. I don't think any of us could have predicted a global pandemic that pretty much brought the world to its knees.

I hope that the weirdness of this year has made us all appreciate the little things in life - love, happiness, and family. The rest of it has felt like a nice to have, and I am very lucky to have a job that I have been able to keep doing from home.

As we are moving into the Christmas season, we have a photo inspiration for you this time.

I decided to focus on the colours and stars from the image.

I love stars, I have far too many star dies, stamp sets and stencils! The set I used here are by Clearly Besotted 'Super Star', which I have had since 2016. I added little stars from the Jillibean Soup 'Super Star' set that I have had since 2018. I stamped the stars using Concord & 9th Poppy ink - it is my new fave red ink!

I thought the Neat & Tangled 'Fa La Llama' set would work really well with my star scatter. I love this set, the Llama is so cute, I've had it since 2018.

I stamped, coloured, and die-cut my Llama before stamping my sentiment, as I wanted to see where he would sit first and work around him.

As this goes live, I have made and sent all of my Christmas cards, so this card will be added into my box for next year.

How will you be inspired by the photo? Can't wait to see what you come up with. Make sure that you pop over to Retro Rubber and get inspired by the things the DT have made.

Challenge ends December 11th.

Don't forget to tell us the age of your stamp, that is part of the fun of our challenge, and please only enter 10 challenges including Retro Rubber.

We'll see you in 2021 for challenge 150!! All of the team will still be around in blogland, if you want to swing by and say hi or see what we are up to!

Cx