Grids for Birds!

Good morning! Hope you're all ok and enjoying all the gorgeous autumnal colours. Today's card isn't autumn inspired but was as a result of a technique we were doing last week at a stamping club I attend. It's called the grid technique except I didn't do a full square grid as my piece was already too 'busy'. Ideally you'd add vertical lines between the images and add colour and little images in some squared sections. Instead I just highlighted the lines & added some colour from alcohol markers. You can get more Mama Elephant stamps in our shop here
I've used this set called Rustic Spring

I know it's a bit too fussy- if there's not enough 'white space' I get a bit jittery! I think I'll go and have a cup of tea to calm myself down ;-) 

See you next Tuesday.

Happy stamping,

Keren x

An Autumn Palette

Well hello there :0)

I've stepped back from Christmas to Autumn this week with a colourful card made with Paper Smooches Leafy Greens set. This is my DT card for this weeks challenge at the Paper Smooches Sparks blog which is a photo inspiration of autumnal leaves.

Those seasonal colours gave me the excuse to play with my Distress inks and the solid leaves really allow you to get creative with your inking too.... as you can see there's some double stamping gone on alongside some rockin n' rollin too. 

The water droplets are dots of glossy accents which really add some natural texture along with some ink splatters and veins made with the thin stem from the Calico stamp set. I finished off with a simple sentiment from Many Thanks which has some great phrases as well as a mix of fabulous fonts (available in the next Paper Smooches pre-order)

Those colours make me happy.... I'm definitely not ready for autumn to change to winter yet although with the clocks going yesterday, we're slipping that way.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to hop over to the Sparks blog and check out the new challenge details :0)

Jenny x

Let it snow....

Hope you all enjoyed your extra hour in bed this morning.   As the much of the UK is braced for storms tonight, my thoughts turned to winter and I decided to play my Mama Elephant Polar Pals again but this time I set them in the snow...

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the word snow in large capital letters from some white cardstock but I left them on the mat while I worked on creating my scene across them.   Firstly I used the smallest snowflake from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Snow to emboss some falling snow at the top of the letters.  I used a memory box die to create a mask and then using distress inks to create a sky adding an aurora borealis with neon green from from Hero Arts.   I created snowy hills in the foreground with more distress inks and some pearl spritz.  At this point the letters came off the sheet and onto the card before being edged with a stitched line.

Then it was time to add my pals - I stamped them onto more white card, coloured them with copics and glitter, before fussy cutting and adding to the card.   I finished by handwriting "let it" in the corner with a teal calligraphy pen.

It's a fun technique and you can do it with any word you fancy, just create your scene before moving the letters and then make sure the gaps stay the same when transferring to your project.

I've just noticed that both these sets are currently out of stock - I'm sure they'll be back in soon

Hope the storm passes you all without any problems....
See you next Sunday
Tara

Fabulous!

Hi! I've gone for a spot of fabulousness that could be used for a guy.  Taking advantage of the time to play with two new sets from Mama Elephant! 

 

Kept the colours quite masculine but this would also work really well in girly themed colours.   The stamp sets are Hello and Basic Borders.  Nothing too complex.. just enough to get the message across!

 

Basic Borders is a fabby set - with Washi Tape being so on trend at the moment this set is very flexible - there are larger borders or thin borders - stamped and cut out on either paper or vellum gives you an instant washi look!

Hope you like!

 

Tracyx

Little Set, Big Dimension

So sorry for being a little later than usual but I was waiting for the weather to cheer up a little to take a photo but alas it looks like it's going to stay miserable all day (so sorry for all the white in the photos background I was trying to get as much reflection as I could).

For my card today I have used on of the little tiny sets from Lawn Fawn 'So Thankful....

This is such a cute little set and although I'm not a huge fan of the taste, I still love the look of these orange beauties! There is something about these orange (or even green) spherical veggies that makes me feel all cozy and autumny inside.

Even though this is a small set it doesn't mean that these sweet images can't be layered up, either masking them or layering up using foam dots- have I used the later technique for my fun little pumpkin patch....

I have used my Copics to colour in the pumpkins. to create the shadow I stuck them down using foam pads and then used a grey Copic behind to add the dimension. 

Hope you likie, see you next week!!

Hugs, Lydia xxxx

PS. There is still a Wplus9 pre-order going on so if you wanted anything from the last 2 releases make sure you head on over to the Make The Day Special store and get your order in.

Fanfare

Hello.

My card today uses Fanfare from Avery Elle.

I have used the sketch for their October challenge  for my card.

I wanted a silhouette  of the cake but it didn't look right so i stamped on the black card with silver versa color.

The background is made up of lots of sequins.

If you join in the challenge do share with us what you made :)

Thanks for looking.

A Retro Christmas!!

Hi there, I still seem to be in Christmas card-making mode at the moment ... have you started to make yours yet???
I'ts my second and last time guesting with the Lawnscaping challenge blog this month, this time around the girls are asking you to use your Lawn Fawn stamps and be inspired by something you've found on Pinterest. Are you a pinterest fan?.....I love it and knew exactly which image would inspire my card.....

and here's the pinterest image

                                                           

(source)

I really think that Lawn Fawn's Ornate Ornarnaments lend themselves perfectly to that retro printed style and by using some masking and Distress inks it was quite easy to do too.... I love the angular lines that don't follow the curves of the bows and the bold blocks of colour :0)

Please hop over here and check out the challenge details and thanks for stopping by today :0)

Jenny x

The Elephants are in the House

So, have you seen, we've got Mama Elephant stamps in the shop now - woo-hoo!  I love these stamps, the designs are fresh and funky and they stamp beautifully!   The hardest job I had this week was deciding which of my new sets to make a card with but in the end the penguins won the toss......

Only I decided to not go traditionally Christmas with them - I thought they looked a little like they were pointing at each other in that way kids do when they're blaming each other so I paired them with a sentiment from Say What to give it a fun twist.

I stamped the stitched hill a few times in grey and then stood the penguins on the hill and coloured them with copics but now realise I put the yellow in the wrong place for an emperor penguin - I need to watch more David Attenborough programmes lol!   They're still cute though ;-)

Enjoy the rest of you weekend - I'll catch you next Sunday.

Happy Crafting!
Tara

Two Totally Different Cards

After a really early night last night I have woken up ready for action.  Action being cleaning the kitchen and having at least 27 tea partys with Minty before nap/my crafty time. I do think that being a Mum is the greatest job but that hour of crafty time is most certainly needed, just to have a little break is awesome as little Tills is a bathroom stalker.... so no time to myself for that little trip ..lol.

Anyways I'm sharing with you two cards today.... I know 5 card shares in two days I have been a very busy girl ;) The first card is just one that I would send to someone just to let them know you are thinking about them and you think they are fab!

How cute is little tea set?!?!? This sweet little teapot and cups are from the Lawn Fawn stamp set 'My Cup Of Tea'. Now in the set these stamps are solid but I have used them differently - firstly I stamped the images in VersaMark ink onto patterned paper and embossed in clear powder. Then using a black fineliner pen I went around the clear embossed image. Cool huh?!?!? I hope I may have inspired you to used your solid stamps a little differently. 

My second card features some items that are coming in the next pre-order to Make The Day Special....... my fave, Wplus9! Whoo-hoo so excited about this one as Heartfelt Holiday will definitely be finding itself in my basket. 

I have used the two stand alone feather dies from the Fanciful Feathers die set and cut a number of them using the same card that I then layered then on in a diagonal pattern. When cutting around this layer I thought I would be fun to leave a few full feathers sticking out. 

I stamped and gold gilded the sentiment and frame onto acetate. I used foam pads so it was raised off the card. As I finishing touch I coloured around the edge of the base card gold so when I added the white layer it would be framed by gold.

Now I'm off for a fake cake and air tea, have a great day!

Hugs, Lydia xxx

1000 post giveaway winner!

Hi Everyone

Sorry it is rather late in the day but I am here to announce the winner of our little giveaway.

The person who's comment was chosen by random.org was Tracy please can you email Louise on  admin@makethedayspecial.co.uk with your postal address and I will get the stamps sent off to you.

Thank you to everyone who took part

Emily

Mama Elephant

Hello.

Mama Elephant stamps have landed at Make the day special.

I know us DT girls are all very please about this :)

I didn't know which set to use for my card today so i went with two.

The card above uses Up and away.

This is a really cute set with little characters along with accessories and sentiments.

I used the little foxy and balloons, they are all coloured with copics.

There was lots of masking inking and spritzing going on  to get the sky and clouds and to get the balloons behind the head rather than over his cute little face lol.

The balloons are really 3D i will try and get a close up picture as you cant see it at all .

I used a round embossing tool to make each balloon rounded so it wasn't a flat image then raised it up on two lots of sticky foam.

This card uses the beautiful Water Blooms set.

It comes with groups of flowers ready to stamp and single flowers, leaves  and 3 sentiments.

I wanted a different feel for this card  so raided my momento inks for oranges and browns.

The flowers are all fussy cut and are all at different levels so its not just flat.

Added a doily some twine and ink blots and liquid pearls.

Look out for Emily's winners post :) Good luck

Thanks for looking.

Christmas Wreath!

Good morning! Yay; managed to post in the morning!
Is it too early to post about Christmas? Will you throttle me?
I did warn you if you didn't clean the shop out of Harvest of Memories, that I'd be back with a Christmas one.. so ta daaa!
I've been surprised at how versatile this set is.. just look..

I've not even got around to focussing on the bigger stamps yet!

The poinsettias are made from the leaves too- just trimming of the stem portions and adhering two together. Just shows how fab those 5 little plain leaves are. I'd die-cut a circle out of the card & made a 'hoop' out of cardstock to mount the leaves on, which meant I could easily raise the wreath off the card blank too.

Having been Christmas crafting for some months now, I'm getting ready for the next 'occasion'. That might well be Easter or Valentines. Maybe I just might do this set again next week ?

Well- better vamoosh!

See you next Tuesday,

Keren xx

1000 post celebration!

Hi Everyone

Its Emily here today popping in on this momentous occasion, can't quite believe it our blog has reached 1000 posts!

I have a little give away for you, how would you like to win this selection of stamps from across the fab ranges MTDS sells?  Look good?

Just leave a comment on this post before 9am UK time on Wednesday 16th October for a chance to win.  Do spread the word to any crafty friends too.

I will be back next week to announce the winner

Happy stamping
Emily

Making Spirits Bright!!

Hello there... hope this Monday finds you feeling bright or do you feel more like this chap on todays card???

Yep, I'm sharing my DT card for the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge with you and this week is a great sketch to inspire your creativity.
I love the expression on this chubby walrus's face .... definitely one I can associate with over the Christmas period, so I had to go with irony and pair him up with this sentiment from Joyful Greetings.

Wrapping the lights around him mean't some fiddly cutting but the pop of glossy colour really is worth while. To tame the twine into behaving how you want it too, try the trick of rubbing on Claudine Helmuth Studio Matt medium with your fingers before shaping and twisting the loops and leave it to dry on a non stick craft sheet.

Stamps used : Chilly Chums, All Yule Need, Joyful Greetings and Shadows.

So if your curious to see this weeks sketch, hop over to the PS Sparks blog and play along with us :0)

Thanks for stopping by, see you next Monday with some Lawn Fawn inspiration!!
Jenny x

Black Diamonds

It's Tara here again and this week I'm back on my Avery Elle Rounded Diamonds fix...  Well we did have a week off last week for Lawn Fawn, and rumour has it that Mama Elephant will be in the house soon, so I thought I'd squeeze in another card with this versatile set while I can.

Now normally I'm really not a gold girl - I tend towards silver - but gold is this season's metallic apparently so I thought I'd give it a go and I decided to try embossing the leaf like diamond in gold onto black patterned paper.  I've done a close up shot to show the paper but it doesn't show up brilliantly.  It's a black on black floral and I think embossing on subtle patterns like this can give a very classy look.

I also used the little line stamp from the set in two different ways - I embossed it directly onto the corners of the card base to draw your eye into my flower and I also embossed it onto vellum and fussy cut it to create my stamen layer.  All finished with a little bling in the corners and a big blingy crystal in the centre.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday - if the weather where you are is anything like Sheffield then it's definitely crafting weather!

Simply Amazing!

Hello! It's my Saturday turn again!  I hope everyone is looking forward to a good weekend!

My inspiration for this card came easily as it was my wedding anniversary yesterday and these words just seemed to work! (this isn't the card that I used - this was just me playing!)

I had a good rummage through all my MTDS goodies to see what I could use.  Here's my card for today!

 

I used mainly WPlus9, with some Paper Smooches thrown in too! 

 

WPlus9 Quilt Cuts 1 Die for the hexagons

WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals stamps and dies for the flowers and leaves

WPlus9 Quite Like You for the sentiment

Paper Smooches Love Word die

 

I hope you like my card!   Have a lovely weekend! I'm away for a weekend of being spoiled in the country!

 

Love Tracyx

Oh Shoot

Happy Friday to all of you stampy-inky-paper-holics out there (and yes I do class myself as one of this awesome breed ;) hehe)

So it's Lydia here with you today here at Make The Day Special today and I can say truthfully that this is my most favourite place to get my stamps from.... I don't know anywhere in the UK that sells Avery Elle, Unity and my most favourite Wplus9!.... and Lou the owner is just the sweetest DT leader I know :)

Today I'm sharing with you a very CAS card......

As you can see I'm still obsessed with gold..... last month hated it ...this month I just can't get enough out the gorgeousness lushishness ..yum!

I have used two of the fab sets from Avery Elle... Oh Happy Day (sorry out of skock) and Petals and Stems . The flowers on this set would also work well on a scrapbook page as they are such a great size.....if it's still in stock in two weeks I'll do a layout to show how great they look as embellishments.

I really hope you all have a great weekend and see you next week with a card using the next pre-order at Make The Day Special...intrigued????

Hugs, Lydia xxxx

BLOG HOP WINNER!!!

 

Thanks to everyone who joined us on our World Card Making Day Blog Hop - we hope you all had a great day making cards and ignoring the housework!

So are you in the running for getting this gorgeous set of critters from Lawn Fawn?   Want to find out?

We used the random number generator tool to pick the winner and it selected No 2 - MissCraftCreation

Congratulations to you!   Drop an email to the shop and we'll get your prize out to you in the post asap :-)

Miss you

Hello :)

I'm here today after showing some of my paper smooches ink for the first time.

The sets i used aren't in stock, you can check out our paper smooches HERE.

I wanted to focus on the background.

I wiped momento dew drops on a craft matt and sprayed with water in a mini mister. 

Then place my card over the top and left to dry.

I was going to use flowers as a silhouette but as the colours i used looked more like a sunset i went with the buildings from "Super" although you can also use the buildings from "Metropolis".

This technique would work with lots of different stamps and any colour inks.

Thanks for looking,

Hanging Leaves !

 

 



 

Hey! How are you all? I'm popping by with another card using the set from last week.

I'm quite smitten by all those leaves & rather than imitate movement, I thought I'd suspend them on thread & hang them from a thin rectangle of card.

By simply adding two layers of 3D foam pads- there's enough clearance for them to 'float' and give the impression of falling.

I've used this Unity set 'Harvest of Memories'

 

 

It's a wonderful set- if you don't go and clear and the store out of this gorgeous set- I'll do a Christmas themed card next time!

 

Happy creating!

 

Keren xx

www.kerenbaker.wordpress.com

Winter in the Park

Hello there

If you are a Lawn Fawn addict like 'moi' you will have heard of the Lawnscaping challenge blog where you can indulge your LF obsession passion and todays new challenge is to use Patterned Paper. What has this got to do with Make the Day Special you say???? well.... I'm guest designing with the Lawnscaping girls this month and I thought I'd share my card with you here on the blog too :0)

This is one of the new Lawn Fawn sets available for pre-order right just here along with the rest of the yummy new release.
                                           
I just love the wintery scenes you can create with this timeless set not to mention the sparkle you can use on the snow and lanterns and I'm not usually a 'sparkle' kinda girl :0)
I've stamped the lamp posts onto patterned paper from the Fa La La La paper pad and given them a frosty look with white pencil and a touch of pearlescent glitter. The tiny asterix shape makes great twinkling lights and I've added chalk around them to make them glow in the dewey winter air. I love the sculptured snow cap on the back of the bench too.... I'm one of those people that likes to leave the snow un-touched :0)

This means I've actually made a start on my Christmas cards this year, how about you?? I hope you take advantage of the Lawn Fawn  pre-order and hop over to check out the Lawnscaping Challenge too.. see you in the gallery :0)

Thanks for stopping by
Jenny x

Warm Winter Wishes

Good Morning folks - hope you're having a lovely weekend - Tara here again with my Sunday morning slot and this week I've finally made a start on my Christmas cards and I started with Winter Fox from Lawn Fawn (although this little guy could work equally well for a winter birthday too).

He may only be a little stamp but with a little decoupage and some paper piecing he can pack a real punch!  He's coloured with copics and layered with gel for dimension and his white tipped tail is given a fluffy look with some white puff paint.   I cut him out with a label nestie using the out of the frame technique - I forget the number as I just think of it as the bean can label.  A little glittery steam on his hot chocolate was all that was needed to finish off the front so I could turn my attention to the inside.

I used the smaller labels with the same paper and dotted lines and inked up the sentiment with reds and oranges to match Mr Fox on the outside.

That's all for me today but don't forget you still have a little over 24 hours to link up a card to our World Card Making Day Blog Hop for the chance to win another fabulous Lawn Fawn set....    Check out yesterday's post for the details.

World Card Making Day Blog Hop

As today is World Card Making Day we thought we'd have a little blog hop to join in the fun and festivities that are happening today all across the globe.

The Make the Day Special Design Team have a whole host of gorgeous inspiration to show you today so hop on over to Louise who is kicking us off and then follow all the girls back to here where you can then join in the hop with us ;-)

Lousie

Jenny

Kate

Lydia

Tara

We hope you're all finding time for a little crafting fun today and in the spirit of world card making day we thought we'd offer a little prize to anyone who wants to join in our hop.   Just link up a card you make in the next 48 hours and you could win this adorable set of critters from Lawn Fawn

Your card can be anything you like, but please, in the spirit of the day, new cards only please no back linking!   One entry per person.  We'll select a random winner on Monday.   

Happy Crafting!

CAS Embossing

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have all had a great week and have a super weekend on the cards.. hehehe see what I did there?! ;) 

It's Lydia here today at Make The Day Special . I have made a card using just one of the fab sets from Paper Smooches...... 'Salutations'. Now this is a sentiment set and at first glace you may think that this is an add-on set to an image but I believe that all those words look awesome as a background!

I simply arranged some of the sentiments on the set into a square shape and stamped it repeating until I had covered the background layer and embossed it in white.

To make to main sentiment pop I inked the background in teal after I had heat embossed the words.

Oh and then because I am totally addicted to gold right now I used a gold paint pen to go around the edges.

Thanks for popping in!

Hugs Lydia xxxx

So happy for you

Hello.

I'm here today with a flowery card using W plus 9 stamps.

I have used Folk art florals and Strictly sentiments 2.

I started by spraying some dylusions spray inks then added some washi tape.

The leaves and flowers are stamped in various inks in greens and pale blues and turquoise before i added a blue resin flower.

I sneaked in some pale blue and turquoise liquid pearls to finish.

Thanks for looking.

Autumn Thanks!

Good morning- or should I say Afternoon! 

It's a little blowy & the leaves are falling & it made me think of this set. 

and yes, I did cut out EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE LEAVES!

and no, my hand is fine- I just watched TV whilst I was doing it. Cutting out the leaves was far more interesting and is strangely therapeutic.

I love the riot of colour & just making a feature of such small stamps in the set! Wish my back garden looked just as pretty!

Well, better fly off,

plenty more crafting to do.. keep an eye out on here.. rumours have it that an exciting chance to pre-order is about to present itself!

Happy Tuesday, and Happy Autumn,

Keren xx