Grungy Tag Cards..

 Hey,

At the start of my Christmas break I decided to step out of my comfort zone and play with some tags, stencils and paint.

I bought these great tags on sale at Paper Source as I thought they would be great for Ranger distress techniques.

Turns out they are and they aren't..they take the ink and paint perfectly, but they rumple a bit whilst you are working..that annoyed me a bit!

Anyway...moving past my brat like behaviour..

I used distress inks to colour both the tags and then I stamped and stenciled various things onto them before adding some distress paint splashes in white, black and blue.

I was pretty pleased with how they looked after even those few steps.

I used grey card blanks and stamped directly onto these using distress inks and I spritzed them a teeny amount for a bit of blur. I added washi tape to both bases for a bit of interest.

I had been planning to make both cards Happy Birthday, but I had a spare 'Hey Girl' on my desk and it seemed to fit the card below perfectly.

I really like them and they are a bit different to my normal style, they feel a bit like my art journal, which is a world apart from my cards..not sure why that is..

Cx

$20 Challenge haul playdate..

Hey,

Last week as both JT and I were on Christmas break, we had an epic 5hr Skype playdate.

It also meant we could open the $20 Challenge BF haul we bought each other.

Here is what I got from JT -

Didn't I do well. I love it all and I am really looking forward to playing with it all a bit more this year.

All the cards today were made using the new goodies - I made two other cards, but one is a DT make, so you'll have to wait a while for that one and the other I already posted.

The main photo today used this awesome chevron die plate and as with all these bigger die-plates it was a beast to cut, but I am liking leaving parts in. I affixed it to a lime green piece of paper and added it to my card blank. The sentiment is ancient and a firm fave by Woodware. I added some coordinating enamel dots. Feels like a 'man / boy' card to me and I love it.

This card uses the great Your Next Stamp 'Silly Monsters Too' set, which I gave to JT as part of the BF haul. The gorgeous Hexagon Circle die is from JT and by Simon Says Stamp.

You get the background circle too, so I blended 3 green distress inks and die-cut the hexagon part using a shimmery green paper. I wasn't intending on a green monster, but JT preferred him to the blue one and she was right, so I went with it. I ADORE these mini square kraft card blanks and I cannot get them in the US, so JT buys them for me..

The final card uses the awesome mini Crazy Birds by Tim Holtz, this set is from Michael's and comes with bird stamps, sentiment stamps, dies and an embossing folder. I surprised JT I think with my delight at getting this set, I have been holding it and touching it for MONTHS, but was being mean about buying it..good job eh!

I created the background using a great stencil by Dutch Doobadoo, I love their stencils. I used tumbled glass distress ink through the stencil. The birds I coloured using Zigs and the sentiment is from the set. LOVE this card, it's so fun and was super easy too.

Great haul, love it all. Craft buddies that happen to be one of your besties are the best kind of friends..

Cx

Distress Ink backgrounds..

Hey,

Back to work today!!

It has been a lovely break, I have enjoyed every minute of it.

I love playing with Distress Inks to create backgrounds.

Sometimes I spend an hour or so at my desk just creating backgrounds, so much fun and nothing is ever wrong, no matter what weird colour combo or pattern I get..

I was playing with Candied Apple and Abandoned Coral and created the background you see on my card today..I love it, just enough white space to break it up and I really like all the odd splodges.

I looked at it for a while and thought it would make a really great anniversary card.

The birdies are new from Unity Stamp Co. they come with some great sentiments. The sentiment here is by Hero Arts.

Another super simple card that doesn't look it - win!

Cx

Spotty Thank You...

Hey,

Last day of my Christmas break today..

Hubby is also off, so we are hanging out, playing video games ;)

I wanted to play with the HOTP acetate that you can heat emboss and it doesn't warp. So I decided to make a Thank You card for my parents.

I love how crisp the heat embossing came out. The 'Thank You' stamp is by Stampin' Up.

I created the background, by blending some distress inks and then I used a darker ink on my Penny Black 'Dots in Space' background stamp, spritzed it and laid the distressed panel onto it.

The die-cut is an ancient Spellbinders die, I love these dies and are always my default when I want an interesting shape.

The card is not a true shaker, I glued the bigger sewuins to the card base and added a few teeny tiny loose ones before adding my finished front panel using foam tape, so that the loose sequins don't fall out!

Simple, but elegant.

Cx

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to 2017...

This is the first New Year since we have lived in NYC that Lemon has not joined us.

Due to my operation in 3 weeks time, we opted for a more low key Christmas and New Year and we will be going on holiday with Lemon in April.

So I thought it would be nice to make her a special card.

I got these great stamps by Tim Holtz in a BF sale -

Awesome right?!

I figured that they would make an awesome NYE scene.. I chose the London one, as both Lemon and I are from London.

I blended the background first, using distress inks and created a darker grey panel for the bottom of the card to anchor the stamp a bit.

I used a bit of artistic license and went with a 'day' sky, not a 'night' sky which would have been more appropriate for fireworks, but it was what I wanted..

I stamped the London Cityscape..it worked out so well, I was super dooper pleased.

The fireworks were a bit of luck, I remembered that one of my Simon Says Stamp cardkits came with a firework stencil that I had never used, so cue approx 45 mins of hunting to find the teeny tiny little beast and voila! fireworks!! I used distress inks first through the stencil, then I used Spectrum Noir sparkle markers to add some shimmer.

I added the strip for the sentiment at the last minute, I was planning on stamping in the grey distress section, but I tried it and didn't like it, so needed a fix..happier now..

Of course there had to be bling..I mean what kind of New Year card would it be without bling?!

Happy with the final card (I kinda wanted to keep it lol)

Back to work in 2 days..that went quickly, but it's been nice, now let's hope it's not cray cray straightaway..

Cx