Project 372: A Day of the Dead anniversary card

I got these great puffy decorative skulls from my friend Carrie who came to visit and I knew immediately that they needed to be used for Claire and Sam's wedding anniversary card.

I heat embossed a Stampin' Up set and it came out really fuzzy but I thought it actually worked better. Not an oops, I'm embracing it. I blended over it in really bring colors, stopping half way through the card so that it was just the bottom half and didn't conflict with the skulls.

I layered them over some translucent plastic disks that came from Claire (I think they were with a purchase of something else?) and thought the colors went really well, especially since one had a big ampersand printed on it. I added a few smaller plastic dots and some black enamel dots to top it off, with a hand written greeting as I didn't want the sentiment to get in the way of the busy colors and textures.

Really happy with it - hope they like it too!

Project 371: Blended autumnal fox card

I was having a bad day and my guru Claire suggested I make a card that involved blending as she knows I love it.

I saw the sketch at Sketch Saturday and the photo inspiration at Retro Rubber and thought they would work well together:

I used a combination of Distress Inks to get the two colors for the background and blended them to get the depth. I laid down a stencil of a dandelion and spritzed water over it and dabbed over it to get a bleached effect. I then used a rich blue ink to stencil in the little fly away dandelions. It's a bit more blue than I anticipated but I guess the image is pretty blue as well.

The fox is a Unity Co stamp that is from last September, so just over a year old. The greeting came with the stamp set, and I love it, I can't believe it's been lying idle in my collection for so long. I colored it using Distress Inks and an aquabrush. The red paper is a scrap from American Crafts.

It's a bit busy, but I like it, it soothed my bad mood so i could enjoy what was left of the evening.

Project 370: Watercolored anchor card

As I've gotten into using Distress Inks as watercolors with an aquabrush I've realized I need better watercolor paper. I tried a new type today and thought I'd just have a play with some different colors and then construct something to fit afterwards.

I made a sheet of mixed blues from about 5 different Distress Inks and then flicked some of the darkest color as spots across it, plus some plain water bleach spots. I thought it would be perfect with the new set Claire sent me, which I love.  I stamped the sentiment and then used the matching anchor die in grey stock, raising it with tiny foam squares to make it pop a bit more.

It was a fun little experiment, I'm really happy I was able to get a card made from a little art session.

Project 369: Heat embossing x3 birthday cards

The past two weeks have been pretty busy so I haevn't had much time to myself for crafting. This weekend I just wanted to play and make a few specific cards for people and ignore challenges and just play with my stash.

The headline card wasn't exactly what I wanted but I loved the result all the same.I heat embossed a little arrow/chevron stamp in pink, thinking it was a neon powder that would stand out to the black base. It did not. So it looks like black on black. Still, I liked the texture and decided to work with it. I added enamel dots in a lot of colors and some neon stickers that are new from Hema. Even though it wasn't quite what I expected I still like it.

This next one was a silly little one for a friend who likes dinosaurs. The set is by Stampin' Up. I heat embossed two in black on a grey card stock, added a backing paper and topped it with a sentiment in white pigment. Super quick, really masculine.

This one is a new set from Simon Says Stamp and I didn't really like how the embossing came out, it just wasn't very crisp. I threw some watercolored Distress inks over to make it 'arty.' Maybe it works, not sure.

Bit of fun though, I really enjoyed getting back into it all and having a play session.

Project: Leaves and Trees at Moving Along With the Times

This week I'm pleased to host a Trees and Leaves challenge at Moving Along with the Times. It's autumn, my favourite time of year, and I want to see lovely colors and textures that make this time of year so special.

For my card I used Inkadoo Fossil Stamps with a dye ink on a corresponding piece of card and then fussy cut them out (they are simple shapes so that's easy!). I laid them across a kraft card that had been stamped with woodgrain in a brown dye ink. I wanted to incorporate something with a woodgrain pattern as I wasn't showing a full tree.

The hello greeting is a die cut from Claire and I painstakingly covered it in red glitter - I wanted it to pop more, my what a fuss!

I hope you find the theme inspiring, please join in the fun!

Project 368: Tricky heat embossed background stamp

On my playdate with Claire I decided to try a stamp that I won in a challenge ages ago but have been too afraid to use. It's a bit flimsy, not a clear stamp, and so detailed that I wasn't really sure how to use it. Claire told me to get over myself and try it anyway.

I heat embossed it in white and then blended over using a mix of muted greens. I haven't blended in a while and it was good to get the balance of colors right. I layered it over some brown and then used a scrap of yellow for the thanks die.

Once she gave me the confidence it didn't take very long at all!

And now as a freebie: this is an embossed purple cow from a new animal set Claire got. Super weird and random, right?

Project 367: Repeated sentiment cards

Claire and I got together for a playdate this weekend as she was in town and decided to try a technique she saw on Jennifer McGuire's blog. The idea was to stamp an image, mask it, then repeat a sentiment across/through it.

The card here does this, where I used a lovely little leaf stamp from Creative Stamping magazine earlier this year and used a stamp from Claire. I kept the layout simple and just added the stitched die to a green card blank.

The headline card is a bit different. I rediscovered the beautiful fish stamp from last June's Creative Stamping but I didn't think the shape would work well with masking. So instead I repeated the sentiment everywhere and then added the image as a fussy-cut-out layer raised on foam. The little corner dots are enamel accents though I may regret them...not sure about them now.

Final one doesn't have the same treatment but because of the horizontal stack I decided to include it in this post. The colored strips were cut off from other cards and I thought they worked really well against black stock. The OMG stamp is from the same set as Rad! above.

Really fun to try the new technique with Claire, I was sad we didn't blitz through more but it was the weekend and eating and drinking and chatting needed to be done as well!

Project 366: Mini donut card set

My girlfriend Carrie is coming to visit me next week and I can't wait! Ages ago she commented that she liked this donut stamp set by My Favorite Things and I thought it'd be fun if I had something silly for her when she arrived.

I only made a few of these and here are my favorite two. For all of them I used an aqua brush and distress inks to create a simple background. The donuts are die cut using concentric circle dies and then a smaller ring created in a bright color for icing. I added individual sprinkles in contrasting colors from the set. The sentiment was stamped straight over the background to complete them. Really impactful for such a sweet little set, I hope Carrie likes them!

Project 365: Fun fruity cards

Last year Claire got me this great fruit set from Sizzix in the Black Friday sale last year and I love it. The images are so joyful and fun to play with. I decided to have a bit of a play with the, the cards aren't for anyone in particular or for a challenge, they just took my fancy and I thought I'd make some cards!

The headline card was the product of serendipity - the green and blue cards are scraps that I had on my desk from an epic clear out of my scrap folders. I haphazardly threw the stamped and die cut fruit slices on my desk and as they landed on the pile of scraps I thought they looked good layered like that. I added some enamel accent dots around the edges to make it stand out a little bit. The greeting is from Claire - forgive me I can't remember where it's from - but I thought the bright blue ink made it really stand out.

This second make looks simple but has a bit more than meets the eye. The background is painted using Peacock Feathers and Blueprint Sketch distress inks and an aqua brush. The sentiment is heat embossed in white (the birthday is from Stampin' Up Endless Birthday Wishes set) so it stands out against the paint. The cherries are stamped and die-cut but I wasn't that impressed with the depth of color. So I went over them with enamel accents and now they really pop.

This set is so much fun, I'm pleased I took time to have a play with no real objective as it made me a lot more creative.