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!