Project 352: Scraps and remakes

This weekend I wanted to clear my desk of some of the scraps and botched cards that have been cluttering it up for some time. I limited myself to using a scrap as a starting point for each card I made all day. It is amazing what you can make when you use this as a brief.

The headline card is going to be my anniversary card for my husband. I had blended this card weeks ago because I got a bunch of new distress inks in a sale and just went to town blending to see what they looked like next to each other. I had used a concentrated red piece for a card for Claire ages ago, and this orange and yellow piece was lingering. I used a sunbeam stencil and spritzed it with water to get bleached rays coming out of the middle. Kind of worked, not great. Oh well. I diecut a yellow circle, then stamped the sun over it so it went on to the backgroun. The greeting is heat-embossed in bright yellow and I added the little hand-written message beneath it.

As I trimmed the card to fit there was still some blended paper left in a thin strip so I decided to case my own card from a few weeks ago and make a little Balloon Celebration card using my Stampin' Up stamps and punch. The outline stamp and punch worked well with the richness of the colors.

This one is busy but is actually a remake of a card I goofed. I had made a card with this stripey paper and had something else in the middle but I really didn't like it. So I ripped that middle bit out and let it sit on my desk for a few months. Yes months. I used a stencilled scrap from Claire and decided to just got border mad -I added orange scraps, green scraps, punched those and die-cut a greeting out of a brown scrap. So much going on but who cares, it's fun and summery.

Finally this card is another remake: the background had been stuck down and I had a big diecut featured image but it was really odd and I just didn't love it. So ripped that off and replaced it with a black scrap heat embossed with a greeting from Stampin' Up Endless Birthday Wishes.  Big flowers and an enamel dot, this is a classic layout and it always delivers big impact.

My desk is so much clearer! Two remade cards with loads of scraps (especially that third card) and a fun use of a big blended card. I feel better than if I'd had a proper clear out!

Project 351: Black , white and blue seahorse card

This weekend I made a commitment to only use scraps and bits on my desk as they were starting to take over. Plus it feels great to use the little bits and bobs in a fun way. I have had this blue oval cut on my desk for ages as I had intended it for a project but then didn't use it. I thought it would be a great base for CAS-ual Friday's challenge to use Black, White and one other color.

I wanted to keep it pretty clean so I cut another white oval out of another scrap and stamped using my little seahorse stamp. He just called to me, I recently rediscovered him. The background is splattered with Broken China, Salty Ocean and Black Soot Distress Inks using an Aquabrush. 

The sentiment didn't come out as clean as I would have liked but oh well. I added the pewter gems just to give it a tiny bit of bling. 

Really simple and fairly quick, it's cheerful and fresh and I'm always pleased to get a scrap off my desk! 

Project 350: Summery sketch challenge entry

Little stamps normally pose a challenge to me. Like, how do other people use them so naturally and have them come out cute and fun as they are intended? Claire and I bought a little summer set from Michael's in the $1 sale bin 3 months ago and I have never found a good use for them. Until now.

CAS(E)This Sketch had a challenge that was perfect for the little guys and I thought ok, let's make it work:

I started by heat embossing the sentiment, also Recollections by Michael's, in a matte gold. I then used an Aquabrush in Mustard Seed Distress Ink as a watercolor as a streaky background.

Then I diecut 5 little blue circles from a scrap on my desk using a stitched die and stamped the little stamps on to each circle. I supplemented the 5th circle with a sun from Unity Co stamps as the Recollections set only had 4 images. I used the same gold heat embossing for these. I raised them using sticky foam to give it some dimension.

It came together really quickly once I figured out a plan and I'm so pleased I got the inspiration from the sketch challenge.

Project 350: Summery sketch challenge entry

Little stamps normally pose a challenge to me. Like, how do other people use them so naturally and have them come out cute and fun as they are intended? Claire and I bought a little summer set from Michael's in the $1 sale bin 3 months ago and I have never found a good use for them. Until now.

CAS(E)This Sketch had a challenge that was perfect for the little guys and I thought ok, let's make it work:

I started by heat embossing the sentiment, also Recollections by Michael's, in a matte gold. I then used an Aquabrush in Mustard Seed Distress Ink as a watercolor as a streaky background.

Then I diecut 5 little blue circles from a scrap on my desk using a stitched die and stamped the little stamps on to each circle. I supplemented the 5th circle with a sun from Unity Co stamps as the Recollections set only had 4 images. I used the same gold heat embossing for these. I raised them using sticky foam to give it some dimension.

It came together really quickly once I figured out a plan and I'm so pleased I got the inspiration from the sketch challenge.

Project 349: Simple cake birthday card

I have been travelling for work for the past week so I wanted to get back and get a little craft session in. I browsed some challenges and really liked a few that I could combine:

Sketch by Retro Rubber 

Something sweet at Paper Players 

Die cut at I love ProMarkers 

So here's what I did: I colored the cake from a Fishers set that is about 3 years old - it could actually be almost 4 as I think Claire got it for me in autumn 2013 when I was back home for Black Friday...anyway. It's been around for a while. The paper is Recollections Neapolitan stack and this is one of the last little scraps.

The cake is colored with ProMarkers in Yellow, Grass, Pressed Leaf, Cinnamon and Walnut. I die cut using stitched circles and added an extra color to make it stand out a bit more. The cake is enhanced with gold glitter glue and green Enamel Accents from Ranger. I just got this and I LOVE IT. I added the little chipboard star to match the sketch.

The sentiment is a set Claire gave me a while ago, maybe about 18 months?

It was a card of much indecision, which is strange as it's so simple, but I like when I can combine a few things that make me think harder about my choices.

Project 348: Ombre balloon birthday cards

I have been visiting Pinterest this week for inspiration and came across this great card featuring the Stampin' Up Balloon Celebration set from Inking Idaho:

 

I thought, oh man that's good. So I cased it as soon as I could. 

The headline card was my first attempt, using 3 dye inks to build up the ombre effect. I added a big greeting that I have had for ages and that was that. I really like the cracks in the ink, it looks like bit like a screen print. 

For this second card I was playing with format to get a higher concentration. I used the smaller balloon stamp and mixed dye and pigment inks for greater variety. I used a Fiskars birthday greeting that is so cheerful. 

Super easy once you get the hang of it, I think I will make these in bulk to give away to people.

Project: CAS project at Moving Along With the Times

Hello and welcome to another challenge at Moving Along with the Times. The challenge for the next two weeks is Clean And Simples (CAS) and this is one of my favourite themes, thanks Sue!

I spent a long time crafting my card - it might not look it but I conceived the idea and then spent three attempts trying to get it right. Like Goldilocks - this one feels just right! 

I masked off the edge of my card and used Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean to blend the margin. The balloon is from Balloon Celebration by Stampin' Up. I heat embossed it using gold shimmer embossing powder - this was a second attempt but I'm pleased with it. 

One of my earlier attempts had a greeting that didn't use the space as it should have. So I had an idea; what if I introduced a big block of color to serve as my greeting? I added a little Happy Birthday from a Creative Stamping magazine freebie set (maybe from June this year?) and then I die cut out the letters of my buddy Nick who turns 30-something in a few weeks. I needed a short name and he was the next in line that met my requirements! I chose corrugated orange card from Claire - a previous attempt had this in yellow but it was too flimsy. Another lesson learned. Corrugated card is a joy to die-cut, by the way. So clean! So sharp! 

All in all I am super happy with it and how bold and clean it is. 

Can't wait to see what you come up with, you have until the 31st of August to enter! 

Project 347: Party girl birthday card

Today's card is an example of looking at a sketch for ages, wondering what to do and then everything coming together in about 10 minutes. I was inspried by the sketch at Sketch Saturday and really wanted to find a way to make it work but all my ideas were just sort of meh. I was flipping through my stamps when I came across this image from Creative Stamping's Oscar-inspired set this winter.

I colored her with ProMarkers, and I would like to enter the I <3 ProMarkers Birthday challenge this week. 

The paper is from the Neopolitan collection from Recollections.The birthday greeting is a combination of two stamps from Stampin' Up Endless birthday wishes. 

I added the bling and that was that - I was pleased I was able to make work after struggling so much to start!

Project 346: Masking, blending, embossing - oh my!

I was really intrigued by the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch this week - it leaves a lot up to interpretation. I hope the team like my idea here.

I used a new stamp set that Claire gave me featuring different travel image - this bi-plane looked cute on an angle and I thought it was a fun way to represent the curly swoosh of the sketch.

I heat embossed the planes in black and then heat embossed a Sizzix greeting in bright yellow. I masked off a strip down the side and left an inch strip for blending. I used Salty Ocean distress ink to pop against the yellow. A few little enamel dots and that was it.

I really liked the techniques used and was pleased how it all came together.

Project 345: CAS balloon birthday card

This week I was looking through Pinterest and stumbled across this fabulous card by a Stampin Up demonstrator in the Netherlands called Jacqueline.

I had to case it. Immediately.

The colors at Color Throwdown this week were perfect:

The stamp set (balloons, greeting and stars) are all from Balloon Celebration by Stampin' Up and the balloons are punched with the coordinating punch set. I hand drew the border as I thought that was a lovely detail on the inspiration card.

I am so pleased with the result and am so glad I found this inspiration on Pinterest.

Project 344: A simple fairy card

I stole this image from Claire a few months' back from her folder of stamped but not colored images. We share our kit and thieving is one of the ways we validate our stash. I loved this Stampin Bella image and thought she would look great in green, a bit different from the normal sickly pinks of fairy princesses.

I decided to color her with ProMarkers and fussy cut her out. I used this warm grey tile print paper as the background and added a Recollections greeting from a Valentine's day set featuring flamingos...I thought it was great with her.

I'm not convinced by the bling in the top, I felt like it needed something but I'm not sure that was it...

Simple card but I really enjoyed it. Might consider swapping something for that corner though!

Project 343: An artsy watercolour cards

The last few posts have been pretty dedicated to using Distress Inks in different ways and the fun continues here. It was a friend's birthday and I wanted to have something special for her when I catch up with her later in the week.

I know she likes dusky pink and deep, bright blues so I choose Victorian Velvet and Blueprint Sketch inks. I tried a few different things (as watercolours, blended, acrylic blocks) and none of them came out as I wanted. They will get used in other projects but I really wanted the vibrancy and contrast for this friend. The technique that won was inking my craft mat, spritzing water and smooshing my paper  in it. Bingo.

I added some big lined circles from Stampin' Up Balloon Celebration and used the little 'let us celebrate' greeting from that set.

It's a bit artsy fartsy but I like it, I hope she does too!

Proejct 343: Using inks like watercolors

I have been having a play this weekend with some fun new techniques and really embracing distress inks as watercolor.

For the headline card I used Mown Lawn and Broken China inks and applied it directly to an acrylic block. I spritzed with water and then dragged it across a piece of card. I saw this idea in Creative Stamping magazine with a cassette tape and black thread unwound like old tape. I heat embossed the tape and then colored it in with a grey promarker then cut it out. I added little gluee dots to keep the thread all looped up but still a bit flexible. The greeting is from Stampin' Up endless birthday wishes. I love this card. I want to make so many more of them.

Next I played with a Sizzix set that Claire gave me in the Black Friday $20 challenge. The image was stamped on green card stock using a pink pigment ink. I die cut out the slices, adding some dark green stripes to make it pop a bit more. I used black and white paint to give it some dimension. I used Peacock Feathers ink with an aquabrush down the side to make it stand out. The Sweet is from the same Sizzix set and is heat embossed in black and then diecut out. I added the smaller text from the same endless birthday wishes set.

Finally is another card that uses a dye based ink instead of distress ink. Claire got me this great Kaleidescope ink pad. I inked directly on a block and spritzed with water. This was dragged across the paper twice to give it a more vibrant hue. I used white poweder and heat embossed the hummingbird. The greeting is a Tim Holtz sticker and thought it was perfect for this image. The little enamel dots are hidden in their respective colors.

Really loved this session, that headline card fills me with lots of joy.

Project 342: Die cuts and textured backgrounds

I had a really great play session in the craft room today and I decided to use some of the textured scraps or backgrounds I recently accumulated. I thought dies would be a fun way to keep things simple.

The headline card has a background that Claire created - I stole it from her mixed media bag. I loved the colors, stamped with that gorgeous hexagon and spritzed to give it some groovy variation. I layered it in ollive and added the maroon Stampin'Up bird punch. Love the simplicity and the retro colors.

For this one, I featured an embossed card where Claire had added ink to the folder. She didn't love it but I thought it would look great with my robot. I love working with a star behind him and thought the color worked brilliantly with this folder. I added tiny little dots of paint for texture and added color. Love this one as well.

Final one here! For this one I used a woodgrain stamp in Stampin' Up khaki dye ink directly on a kraft card square blank. I used a tree die that Claire gave me and I've struggled to use it for a while. But then I had this idea to add little flowers and suddenly it's transformed. I added little gold dots and a greeting and it's a cute little card.

Really happy to go back to basics with these and I have to remember in the future that simple things can make great projects.

Project 341: Painted anchor card

I had a commision for a nautical birthday card for a colleague to give to her sibling and I loved the brief as I knew I could go a lot of different ways with it. I particularly wanted to stretch myself with a combination of challenges:

Sketch layout at CAS(E)this sketch:

Color challenge at Retro Rubber:

My greeting is over a year old, from stampin' up endless birthday wishes. 

Tic Tac Toe at Paper Players:

I went for the top line: Enamel dots, CAS, masculine

Here's what I did: I followed a new tutorial for applying distress ink to an acrylic block and then spritzing with water and dragging across card stock. Love. Love. Love.  I used Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean to be on brief with the color theme, and then overlapped them in the middle to try to get a middle stripe to meet the sketch.

The anchor is from Claire, the last in my stash as she die cuts them for me and brings them over.

All in all I was really pleased with the combination of challenges and how it all came together. I hope my colleague likes it too!