Project: Heat embossed anniversary card

I wanted to make something special for Claire's wedding anniversary so I set myself a challenge of using at least 3 tools and techniques.

It is her 6th anniversary so I decided to feature 6 stamped hearts that were heat embossed over a blended background. The stamps are from a Recollections set and she bought them for me as part of our $20 Michael's challenges that we set each other. The backround is a stitched die which completes my tool/process challenge. The sentiment is a combination of two peel off sets: I like the mini 'It's your' from a birthday set and liked the outcome of mixing fonts.

I can't wait to give it to her and wish her many more happy years!

Project: Leaves or trees for MAWTT

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another Team B challenge at Moving Along with the Times .

For this challenge we are looking for Trees or Leaves somewhere on your project.

For my card, I blended the background of an A5 card blank with Squeezed Lemon and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. I stamped a few fossilized leaves from Inkadoo and then heat embossed them using gold powder.

The sentiment is a chipboard piece that I have been holding on to for the 'right' project. If not this then I don't know what!

It's very CAS but I think it's going to be fun for the autumn. I can't wait to see what everyone else does this week!

Project 270: Two more Christmas cases

I was trying to do a few more little quick and easy Christmas cards and cased two cards that I had wanted to try.

The first one is cased from this card and features stamps from Papercraft Essentials magazine. They are all cut out into squares and inked around the edge using Fired Brick Distress Ink. The backing paper is a different paper from the My Mind's Eye. I added green and red glitter glue from Stickles to different parts of the stamp to make them a bit more festive.

This second case was from the same magazine as the stamp set and a good one to use up a bunch of my button stash. The tartan paper is from DoCrafts and it was really simple, just making a little snowflake pattern. I used peeloffs for the greeting just to make it stand out. I inked the edge of the card with Iced Spruce Distress Ink, once for a smooth color and one with a bit more ink to give it more edge. I added tiny silver glitter glue dots to better join up the lines.

I don't love either of them - to be perfectly honest - but I think they're still kind of fun and alternative.

Project 29: Trio of heat embossed Christmas cards

This year I'm taking it farily easy with my Christmas cards and trying to keep it fairly low key. I have one new stamp set but I've decided that is it (!) for new kit for the holidays. It's time I learned to better leverage what I have and what skills I've picked up this year.

Luckily one of those new techniques is heat embossing so my stamps have a new lease on life!

The trio here are all really straight forward.I stamped the stamps in a clear embossing ink and embossed with clear sparkly embossing powder. Claire bought me these great little square colored papers and I just layered two up to get the focal point.

The backing papers are all from my Christmas stash - I love a Nordic inspiration - and I added good old fashioned peel-offs for the sentiment on the reindeer.

The greeting on the wreath is from the same stamp set (from Papercraft magazine) as the others featured here.

Super easy, I think it took me less than 15 min a card, including the heat embossing, and I am pleased to have tried something new with some old favourites.

Project 268: An alternative Christmas card

I have been SO lazy in getting my butt in gear to make Christmas cards this year. Usually I'm done the making and on to the signing and posting by the end of October and I've barely done a thing. Yikes.

I pulled out all of my Christmas stamps to do a bit of a recce on what I had, what I could reuse, what I needed to top up and came across this Christmas stamp set that (I think) came in a magazine a year ago. That or I bought it in a sale. Either way, I think I only used it once or twice and fell in love all over again with its alternative images and slightly punk star flourishes.

I decided to use a My Mind's Eye paper stack that's all red, black and tan to help match the theme. All three papers used are from this set and I'm delighted to report two of them are scraps.

The bird is stamped and die cut on a label die and I balanced this by having a slightly off central greeting that sits next to a flourish already printed on the paper.

The stars are stamped separately (also from the set - how great are these? Why have I not discovered them and used them outside of Christmas??) in each corner and I added a red candy to add a bit more color and pop to the layout.  I considered adding more stuff (a punched border, a bit of ribbon, whatever) but I stopped. So pleased I did.

The whole thing took 10 minutes. In real life. If all of my holiday cards go this well we are seriously on to a win.

Project 267: A bit of playdate fun

A double trouble post for you following a fun playdate with Mrs G. We decided to use Pinterest as our inspiration as we haven't dug into our boards for a while and we shortlisted a few cards to CASE. It was wicked fun and these are two of the outputs.

The first one was based on this card featuring a technique that had you blend a strip and stamp over it with a texture stamp faintly, followed by a silhouette in black and a greeting. I made so many mistakes. Just so many. I messed up my masking (twice) I messed up the texture stamp (once) and decided, finally to abandon the official inspiration and just do it modified to what I was capable of at that moment. Sheesh. So much work for a card that looks so simple! But it's pretty and I like the final result. We decided the butterfly was too much and left it as is.

The blended inks are all Distress inks, the stamp is a wooden block from Claire, accented with a tiny bunch of flowers from a nautical set that I think is a Marshalls sale. The greeting is a lovely new one from Unity Stamps that I've used a few times, I think it's a wonderful sentiment.

And yes - full disclosure - I cheated and cut out the blended bit and mounted it on white because I messed up again. Honestly.

This next one was a fun make, and it's a great layout based on this card. Three strips (all based on scraps) and then a diecut sentiment in the middle. The plain papers are just from my stash and the yellow pattern is Studio Callico. Maybe the colors are inspired by the card above? Who could say. The white greeting is an offcut from a card gone wrong (see above) and the die is from Stampin Up. The sequins and gems are a mix from my stash. Super CAS and fun.

Project 266: A blended black cat

This stamp is from Little Claire and I've had it for at least a year or two yet I've never been able to really use it that well. As I've gotten more confident with blending and heat embossing I decided to give it another go and was really pleased with the resutl.

The background was blended with Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Spiced Maramlade Distress Inks. The stamp was embossed using black embossing powder and the greeting is from a sentiment set Claire bought me years ago.

I trimmed down a black card blank to make it a bit more propotional and I'm pleased with it. It looks simple but I know that I couldn't have gotten the cleanness right without months of embossing practice. A triumph I think!

Project 265: A simple bird set

I was clearing out my scrap folder and found a few pages of magazine paper freebies. These are the glossy kind that I don't normally like, but I had kept them because I liked the damask prints in different colors. I decided to whip up a quick card set so that I'd have it in my stash ahead of Christmas and I can give them away for people if I need a gift in my pocket.

These feature Stampin' Up bird punches and giant hearts (I think Woodware is the punch) - both from Claire's kit. I coordinated papers for the hearts and birds and made 4 in total. Simple but effective - the whole set took about 15 minutes I think! Must remember this for additional sets as I get closer to Christmas...

Project 264: For Fox Sake

If you saw my Donut cards yesterday you'll know I'm loving pun cards at the moment. Claire bought me this amazing Unity Stamp set and I just had to play with it as a set, it cracks me up.

The fox is stamped and die cut on a stitched border circle and colred with ProMarkers. The greeting is stmaped and die cut with a plain circle. The gingham border is from the same scrap that I used in one of yesterday's donut cards. The background paper I discovered in my stash with a big cut out of it. As I have no memory of where this paper is from, it's all a mystery (but I still get to feel good abotu using another scrap).

Super simple layout but gosh it's funny.

Project 263: Nuts for donut cards

Today I'm showcasing two cards I've made using some My Favorite Things stamps that I bought at The Inkpad while visiting Claire. Anna's shop is incredible and if you're in NYC you should check it out. It's a cubbyhole of wonders and when I saw this stamp set, I had to get it.

The headline card features a blended background in pink, I wanted it reminiscent of candy floss/cotton candy. The donut is die cut from beige stock, and then layered a brown ring on top for icing. I cut some waves by hand to make the icing irregular. The sprinkles are stamped using another stamp from the set and then I added some glitter glue to make them pop a bit more. The DONUT sentiment is head embossed with pink powder and I love how it came out against the background.

This second take features a similar donut using pink icing and red glitter sprinkles. The gingham paper is from a scrap I found this morning and I loved pairing it with this heart paper from Studio Callico. Different sentiment - this set has about 15! - and a candy to top it off.

So much fun. Have no idea how much the market will want donut stamps but I'm still happy even if they're just for personal use!

Project 262: A monochrome and blue wedding card

Tonight I'm going to the wedding drinks of friends I used to work with. That's right - I know both the bride and groom from previous jobs: sometimes the world is just a very small place! They actually got married in her home country of Romania and this is the big London party to celebrate with their friends here.

The are a cool couple, and from the wedding pics I saw it looked like she had a cool blue fascinator in her hair so I wanted to make blue an accent color in an otherwise monochrome scheme.

I wanted to feature this cool cake die but was struggling with a layout so I browsed around and thought the sketch at Sketch Saturday would be perfect:

I started with the cake die (which is from a sale, maybe Dies R Us?) on photo paper for a glossy shine and layered that over a grey card that I embossed with swiss dots (folder from Cuttlebug). The Mr & Mrs ribbon is by Recollections from Micheal's and the blue sentiment is from Stampin' Up. The grey ribbon is adhesive and by American Crafts. The damask print paper makes it a bit busy but I think it's ok - I like the overall texture that's created. The litle flowers are so old from my stash.

I can't believe I stumbled across this sketch just minutes after it was posted - I don't think I've been the first to post a card in a challenge ever! :)

Project 261: A double-dip challenge for a 30th

I haven't been doing many challenges recently but I wanted to dip into a few this week that I thought looked good.

When I saw the colors at the Color Throwdown Challenge I knew they would work really well for my red-headed colleague turning 30 this week.

And topping it off, the sketch challenge at Retro Sketches was perfect for a stamped image I stole from Claire when I saw her in NYC.

The image is colored with ProMarkers and I matched the palette best I could. The sentiment at the top is from Stampin' Up and I thought the whimsial font was perfect for the greeting. I topped the candles and ruffle of her dress with gold glitter and added gold foil numbes at the bottom to mark the special birthday.  Finally the twine across the bottom completes the sketch.

Really pleased I managed a bday call with such an autumnal theme that isn't overly autumnal!

Project 260: An elephant 50th

Really simple post today! Yesterday we went to the Ascot Beer Festival with my husband's parents and aunt and uncle to celebrate his aunt's 50th birthday. She loves elephants and always signs her cards with a little doodle so I wanted the ard to tie into the theme.

I used a Bugaboo elephant stamp and colored it with ProMarkers. Not my best coloring but oh well! I cut it out and layered it over two borders and a patterend yellow background. I made it personal by just spelling out my greeting with alphabet stickers. I like doing this for big birthdays as it just marks it as a bespoke effort.

And that was it! It's cheerful and fun and she loved it. Sometimes you don't need lots of kit to make a really effective and personal card.

Project 158: Fun with blending and embossing

 

A bit of fun this weekend with the blending and heat embossing tools. I came back from my trip with Claire all pumped up to play with the blending tool and try a few embossing tips. 

I love the headline card. If I could shout from the rooftops how proud I am of this card I still don't think I could express it. The pinks and purple are blended onto a stitched rectangle die. The stamp is a new gift from Claire and she's embossed with purple embossing powder which looks so good against the background. The sentimenet is from a completely different set that Claire got me from Michael's and I left it at that. I wanted it CAS and was glad I walked away. 

This stamp is from a Get Stamping magazine set. I blended green and blue and flicked just a bit of water to give it more texture. I heat embossed it in black and it looks so striking I think. The sentiment is actually paired with the image above, I just thought it worked so well here. I added a bright pink shiny candy just to give it a bit of pop.

I think embossing and blending is a great formula, expect many more experiments of this nature...

Project: Fairy challenge at MAWTT

Hello everyone and welcome back to another challenge at Moving Along with the Times!

We have a fun Fairy challenge so let's see your sprites and pixies in action!

The two stamps I used here are so old, I think it was a freebie with a magazine, and I have no idea where it's from. I stamped her on watercolor paper and used an aqua brush with water and distress ink to color it in. She's die cut on a stitched rectangle from Claire's stash. The papers are from a mix in my stash, all scraps I'm proud to say. The orange border is with punched with a Martha Stewart punch and the whole piece is wrapped with some lovely American Crafts twine in dark orange.

This stamp is from the same set. She's a bit interesting I think, carrying a little basket of berries and wearing a sporty little dress. She is colored with ProMarkers and accented with glitter glue. What fairy doesn't have a bit of glitter?

I decided to use her with a scrap from one of my favorite paper stacks by DCWV and the cream card is a corresponding sheet from the pack. The wood grain card is a scrap as well and I wrapped it with green and purple twine to coordinate with the papers.

And really other than that I wanted it quite simple with the neutral card absorbing a lot of the detail to make it feel a bit rustic.

Can't wait to see what magic little friends you have on your crafts this week!