Christmas Cards 2020: Let's Prance...

 

Hey,

Happy Friday!!

I am super excited as it is my birthday on Monday AND I have the week off!

Continuing on this week with my Clearly Besotted posts - accidentally a themed week..

I love the Let's Prance set by CB. I have had it for 4 years since I saw Debby Hughes make these cards with it. I use it every year and I follow the same idea of creating a background and making a bunch of cards (as shown in the main photo) from that background.

This year I thought I would show you what my backgrounds look like once they are stamped and after they are watercoloured.

Stamped backgrounds - 

Watercoloured backgrounds - 

I always love the different cards I can make from one background. It's a thing I actually do quite a lot.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

OCC: Spring Card Camp Days 1-10

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I have spent a happy 20 days taking part in the Online Card Classes 'Spring Card Camp'.

It was fun and the theme was 2 from 1, so I ended up with a TON of cards LOL.. like that is a problem right now, I am Hallmark (I worked out that I have made approx 250-300 cards in the 7 weeks we have been home - WTAF).

I can't show everything in this post, so I'll show you some of the cards from days 1 to 10 and then I'll do a part two.

The main photo is the cards from Day 4, I didn't show the first x3 days as I am not a massive fan of the cards I made on those days.
Day 4 was taught by Julie Ebersole - who I LOVE. I couldn't quite do exactly what Julie had done, as at that time my Big Shot had broken and I was waiting on the new one! Thank god for a tiny die-cutter meaning I could still die-cut smaller elements.
I really love these cards, it was a great way to use the Recollections Cactus Love set and I combined it with x2 fun sentiments - left is by Flora & Fauna, right is Hero Arts.

Day 5 was fun and taught by Debby Hughes, another big craft crush of mine. It was a bit fiddly, but I am pleased with the end results.

Day 6 was great, I got a TON of cards out of this one. Kristina Werner supplied a great template, that I didn't use, as I don't love working with an exacto knife that much, So I made mine smaller and stuck to easy rectangle shapes to create these mini quilt cards.

Day 7 came out SO well. I loved the graduated stenciling and the foam mounted sentiments really pop, Laurie Willison was a new teacher for me and I really liked her.

Day 8 I learnt a new trick - how to create a shaker box - easily. I need to try this again with different colours, I wasn't happy with my choices, they don't flow together that well. I also fell in love with Cathy Zielske!

Day 9 - taught by Channin Pelletier - generated x6 cards and this was my fave of all the sets - the rainbow one, basically, you blend through a stencil and then spritz the stencil and get a second paler imprint. FUN. I also have never ever used that red/orange embossing powder and it is AMAZING!!

I had a lot of fun with the first 10 days and I got to learn some new things and revisit some older techniques that I haven't used in a while.

If you particularly want to know what I used to create a card, DM me, there are so many supplies here, that I only listed the main photo.

Cx

Christmas Card 2017: Let's Prance...Again...

Hey,

As I have been traveling a bit recently and I am in the midst of Christmas Card making, it has been smart to recycle some ideas from 2016.

I LOVE this Clearly Besotted 'Let's Prance' set and I was inspired last year by Debby Hughes to make these.

So I used the same formula to create the background, but this year with a MISTI - HALLELUJAH! So much less work.

But I got all crafty. Why have just 5 cards, when you can cut a circle out of your background and get 10 beautiful cards - WIN!!

I feel like this stamp set is going to always be part of my Christmas Card makes.

Cx

Valentine's Day Card Frenzy....

Hey,

Happy Valentine's Day.

A rare second post for me.

I love to make Valentine's cards..even though I think VDay is a nonsense, I can say I love you all year round!

The main photo today shows all the cards I made, most are sets of 4. I wanted to send cards to all the lovely people that have helped me get back on my feet and stay positive following my surgery and the subsequent complication.

I used so many different products by great companies, it was a lot of fun to dig through my stash. The writing out was tedious though...I always forget about that part LOL.

Here are a few of them close-up.

Constellation, using an idea by Debby Hughes, stamps by Simon Says Stamp, Hero Arts and Clearly Besotted

Monster-ous Valentines, using stamps by Your Next Stamp and Simon Says Stamp and adhesive googly eyes and a lot of masking for the sentiment. Thank god for the Misti.

Viking Valentine's, using Avery Elle Stamps and Lil Inker and Spellbinder dies

Cx

OCC: Watercolouring for Card Makers Day 2..part 1

Hey,

Hope you had a lovely Christmas..

I did and I am looking forward to a very relaxing week off.

Over the Thanksgiving break I FINALLY got to go and have a play with Day 2 of the Watercolouring class I bought forever ago over at OCC.

This part of Day 2 was all about using background stamps with watercolour and was taught by Debby Hughes.

This is already one of my fave techniques. Ink up the stamp, spritz with water, lay the paper on top..hope you get a decent impression!!

I made x4 backgrounds, using the same stamp (Hero Arts CG504), here is what I got..

The blue background got contaminated by the red ink, because I didn't clean my stamp properly, but I like it..

I decided to make x4 cards and make them a thank you set for a friend.

The first x2 use the entire background, as seen in the main card and this card -

Supplies for these 2 cards - Paper Source glitter heart stickers, Simon Says Stamp thanks on a line die, American Crafts glitter paper, EK Success mini heart punch, Tim Holtz Thank You word dies and glittery star and papers are from my stash.

The next x2 cards had a shape die-cut out of the background I created. I went for stars and hearts.

Supplies for these 2 cards - Lawn Fawn Scripty Thanks die, Sizzix Heart dies, xCut Star dies, Nuvo drops, Tim Holtz Distress Markers.

They were fun to make and it was good to start with the backgrounds giving me some food for thought.

Part 2 tomorrow...

Cx

Lets Prance...

Hey,

So I am SUPER excited today, as my Dad arrives for a visit for the first time ever and I have next week off to hang out with him and show him my adopted City.

I thought I would share a fun set of Christmas cards I made.

I CASEd Debby Hughes... her card is below top left...

I loved Debby's card so much and I love the Lets Prance set by Clearly Besotted. Once I had seen Debby's card it was totally a no brainer...must CASE.

It was so much fun to do I made a bunch of them..

I used distress inks and an aquabrush to colour them, I stamped the sentiments onto scraps and attached to my cards using mini staples. The main card was die-cut using a Gina Marie scalloped die, the 2nd card I added a little bit of sparkly paper behind the Rudolf panel.

Hope you have a great weekend. I will be posting sporadically next week, as I am running around town with my Pops.

Cx

Constellations....

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I thought I would show you some fun things I made last weekend.

I had a fun time CASEing the wonderful cards that Debby Hughes made using the August Simon Says Stamp cardkit -

I ADORE Debby's work, she is so talented and I have learnt a lot watching her tutorials and reading her blog.

This cardkit threw me a bit, so having inspiration was helpful.

The technique to create the circular blue constellation pool looks like it would be complex, but it was infact very easy.

I punched a large circle out of a piece of scrap paper, I figured that this would help me decide where the blue circle should go and would help me stay circular when painting.

I pretty much followed Debby's instructions - heat emboss the stars in white onto my white panel, so they resist the blue watercolour. Like Debby I used Chipped Sapphire distress ink for the blue and I dug out an ancient silver watercolour pan to create the accents.

I kept drying and pooling more ink into the circle until I achieved the look I was happy with. Also because my silver watercolour is shimmery, the whole circle has a shimmer to it close-up - accidental bonus!

I don't have a white gel pen that I like :( so I used a white chalk marker to add little dots and I stamped stars in a Versafine Majestic Blue ink, so they were visible, but not leaping out at you.

I finished 3 of them in a similar way to Debby, by using a kraft background paper, twine and a star.

This one I finished differently -

I thought because of the heart constellation it would make a nice unusual Anniversary card and so I used a sentiment from Unity Stamp Co. and just rounded the corners of the white panel and the card blank - simple.

I love them all, they were so easy to make, yet look like oodles of time and effort went into them..more of these..

Have a great weekend, I will be packing..1 week until MEXICO!!!!

Cx

Card kit fun...

Hey,

Hope you had a nice weekend. I had a very quiet one - mainly spent at my desk, resting my foot.

Yesterday I got a lovely surprise as my Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit was delivered - yes on a Sunday!!

So after dinner I sat down and had a play..

I loved the card Debby Hughes made that was used on the inspiration sheet -

It made me, super happy - it is gorgeous!

So whilst this isn't a true CASE, I felt I should show what inspired my card.

I used the stamp set from the kit and added a punched star with a Stickles dot. The blue piece of paper at the bottom of the card is a scrap and like the main rectangle it was die cut to size using a MFT stitched rectangle die.

I wanted a more scripty thanks, so used one by Paper Smooches, from their Simply Said set.

I love this little card, so cute, great way to start the week.

Cx

Simon Says Stamp CASE...

Hey,

Hope you had a nice weekend. I had a very relaxing one.

I really wanted to make cards for my July card swap. I usually turn to my Simon Says Stamp cardkit when making the cards for card swap.

I think I choose the kits because when I can make anything I want my stash can be a bit daunting!! So I look for inspiration with the kits and get to pull in other items..

This time, I saw this great idea on the inspiration sheet -

It's by Debby Hughes - I love her work..

My stitched circle dies arrived recently, so I was totally able to do something similar.

I used papers from the kit, a sentiment stamp and the smile die. The little starburst stamp is from another SSS stamp set - sorry I forget which one, as this handy little stamp permanently lives on my desk :)

These cards are so bright and cheery - thanks to Debby for inspiring my July swaps.

Cx