Good Friends Are Like (Glittery) Stars

We are still approaching Valentine's day and if you – like me – don't really like the traditional love cards or currently don't have anyone to give such a card to, maybe this will inspire you. Why not create valentine's cards for your friends and tell them how much you appreciate them? That's what I did with one of my favorite Avery Elle stamp sets, Written In the Stars.

The front panel was cut with a Mama Elephant die, and the circle with a Waffle Flower die – I just love the stitched effect around the circle, it makes it look so much more finished. Right behind that front panel, I mounted a sheet of vellum. On it, I created the sparkly starry heart with Elizabeth Craft Glitter. Carefully rub it with your finger to set it and voila – a super sparkly, stamped image:

I stamped a few stars on the card base behind the vellum with silver ink. You can not see the stars clearly, but that was okay because it works perfectly with the sentiment I had chosen.

I hope you enjoyed the card and will find new uses for some non-Valentine's themed stamp and die sets! Thanks for stopping by!

If any of the products I used for this project are not available in the store, I'm offering alternative products at the end the product listing below.

January Recycling Challenge Winners

It seems our recycling challenge was, well a little too "challenging" for most of you as our number of participants wasn't so high this month!   Sorry if you found it difficult but it is called a challenge after all and we believe it's good to try something new every once in a while.

We still had some AMAZING entries and our winner this month really entered into the recycling spirit to make this fabulous cake and candles card!   Congratulations Jennifer Grace - you win the £15 to spend in store!   You can see all the details in this photo and just how many items Jennifer recycled so do check out her entry post to see how she did it.

Our runners up this month were:

Caroline - we thought that recycling a tiny zip lock bag was a clever way to make a shaker card!

Jill - we like how she turned a plain old cardboard box into a great card with lots of dimension.

Hopefully you'll have a few more ideas if you see another recycling challenge out in blog land as we think these card prove recycling doesn't have to be difficult!

We'll be back on Sunday with a new challenge - no recycling required we promise!

 

Two Different Cards Using The Same Stamp Sets

Hello there and happy happy happy Friday!!! Lydia here with you today. It seems like this week would never end … the will it, won’t it snow and will the school get cancelled won’t matter tomorrow and I can stop worrying about it (yes I know I worry too much lol)

So I have two cards to share with you today....

The first card I have to share is a shaker...



I love the flowers on ‘The Big , The Bold Extras’ and I am so excited that W&W are bring out some new florals in this next release

I cut white panels using ME ‘Basic Set Dies’ (sorry OOS but you can now sign up to be emailed when its back in stock) and then created a shaker element with them using the largest circle from Wplus9 ‘Clear Cut Stackers’ for my shaker card window. Before adding the acetate to the window I stamped my sentiment through the die-cut circle into place on my back panel.

I stamped, coloured and fussy cut out two of the roses and then stamped the leaves behind them on the card layer before adding them with foam pads.

My next card is a lot different to my first…



Firstly I inked my card panel with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink, I added my ink always from the top and only added a little further down to create this ombre effect. I then took the tiny stamp from ‘The Big, The Bold Extras’ and stamped this repeatedly with gold ink, again I added more stamping to the top of my panel and sparingly at the bottom to add like a falling effect.

Then I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment from ‘The Big, The Bold And You’ in black. To finish I added acouple of splashes of Gold Color Shine, some clear sequins and some black enamel dots.

Hugs Lydia xxx

     

Fun with Dies

Hello! I wanted to stop by today to share some cards that I have been making with my new WPlus9 butterfly frame die.  I love the versatility of dies and when I saw it in the store I thought of so many things I could do with it.....

 

I die cut the frame in black cardstock and then gold embossed the bottom half several times.  I stamped the sentiment from Mama Elephant in Delicata gold ink and a range of sequins from Winnie and Walter in black and gold.  I love the drama of black and gold!

 

 

The frame of the die is perfect for making shaker cards so on this one I stacked up lots of frames to create a space for sequins.  The top frame is coloured with Mama Elephant ink.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

 

Finally I went for a different look by using the die cut as a stencil and smudging Mama Elephant blush ink around it to bring out the design.  I die cut the Hello sentiment from Mama Elephant several times for a bit of dimension.

 

Three different looks with the same die and, even better, it is 10% off in store at the moment.

 

Thanks for your visit today!

 

Sarah x

 

      

     

 

Hello Friend

Hello.

Have you seen our fantastic sale section in the shop? 

There are lots of your favourite stamp brands at bargain prices and i thought i would show you one today.

I have used Winnie and Walters stampets the gift stamp set which has these cute doggies as well as other images.

They are coloured with copics.

For the sentiment i used the big the bold happy, the big the bold confetti .

Click the images to got to the products.

Thanks for looking.

It Moose-tache Be Love!

 

Hi! Hope you're having a fun day.

I realise this card looks like an odd sheep with a dodgy moustache... but bear with me!

 

Last week I had more plans for this Critters in The Arctic set..

 

 

My original plan was for something fun- but then jodpea commented last week about whether my other idea for using this set was going to be a 'moose-tache'.

I'm not one for shying away from a challenge- so, I wanted to create a new character using the animals from this set.. the head is the mooses, the eyes are the owls and the beginnings of the moose-tache are the antlers!



So- with a bit of messing around, adding colours with my alcohol marker pens and a little 'gel-penning', I arrived at this funny fella.

 

Granted- the sentiment only really makes sense if you get the stamp set- but I'm hoping you can let me have a little punny leeway! I've tucked a simple banner shape from the Sweater Weather papers

 and you have a very silly card for Valentines Day for even the most unsentimental of valentines!
If I have the time, I'll try and create my first idea- but thankyou jodpea for the brilliant suggestion!

See you next week,

Keren xx

Knock Knock

Hello there :0)

The fun Wplus9 stamp set called Knock Knock Valentine appealed to me, it's something quite different and not just for Valentines either. When Paper Smooches came out with the Fruit People dies I just knew how I could mix the two for a card to send to a friend....

These  speech bubble jokes don't have to be used a s a text message but as that was the intention I thought I'd go with it. I started by stamping the bubbles in pigment inks onto a piece of white card, I found pigment inks work the best :0)
The phone case I made myself, there are dies and stamps out there in the craft market but it's quite a simple shape to do yourself.

The phone was always going to be huge in proportion to this little chap so I thought he could be holding it forward for you to read. I simply sketched a cluster of three ovals for his fingers and a curved oval for his thumb and shaded them to give some dimension. By placing the phone in front of his hand and arm it gives the illusion he's thrusting it towards you :0)


                          

Thanks for stopping by :0)
Jenny x

You Got This!

We got the latest release from Mama Elephant this week, and as I live with a comic book fan I couldn't wait to get my hands on tiny heroes (and neither could everyone else it seems as we only have a couple left in stock already!)

I paired one of the super heroes with the lots of stars die to create a bit of a background for her to match the stars in the stamp set.  I cut it 4 times on a panel and then used distress inks to make a blended background on the base card.  The hero was coloured with copics and cut out before sticking on top.  The sentiment in blue ties it all together - don't forget sentiments don't have to be black!  This would be a great card for someone fighting an illness or starting a new job or facing any of life's little challenges.

NEWS FROM THE STORE:

• Lawn Fawn restocks are in transit.

• Neat and Tangled's new release plus restocks are also on the way.

• The 'Lil Inker Designs parcel which should have been here by now has unfortunately gone under investigation at Customs.  This is the first time this has happened to me, so I am not sure exactly what happens but I have had to send off a lot of extra forms and paperwork and have been informed it could take up to 21 days for the investigation to be completed.   I will keep you updated as soon as I hear anything back from them.   Fingers crossed 21 days is a worst case scenario and it happens much quicker!

Catch you next weekend for more updates.

Tara

Birthday Card with Altenew Butterflies

Hello fellow crafters! I don't know how the weather is in your end of the world, but here in the south of Germany its cold and drizzly. So, naturally, I'm craving bright and cheerful colors … and butterflies.

First, I masked off the card so only the center would remain open. Then I used a Mama Elephant stamp and light grey ink to create a subtle background pattern. Once that was dry, I added the circles. Do you see the dashes around the centerpiece? I had lined up my stamp in a weird way so that there was a gap between where the pattern started and the edge of my mask. To "hide" this, I drew that border :)

The butterfly ... well. It took me a few attempts to get it right. I actually spent two evenings practicing each butterfly - bis to align the stamps, which color combinations work, how to combine dye and pigment inks. I also used a permanent marker to draw lines around the stamps that go together so it would be easier in the future to quickly pick out the pieces.

I fuzzy cut the butterfly when it was done and applies some Wink of Stella to give it some  sparkle. And of course now I can't wait to use the stamp set again :)

I hope you got inspired. Have a wonderful day!

If any of the products I used for this project are not available in the store, I'm offering alternating products for you in the product listing below.

Handwriten ( sort of) Hello

Hi there! Did you know that today is National Handwriting Day? ...well you do now ;)

Although I haven't used my own handwriting on my card today I have used the 'Hand Lettered Hello' from Wplus9.....

Firstly I stamped and heat embossed the medium 'hello' from Wplus9 'Hand Lettered Hello' in black. I then used Wplus9 'More Fresh Cuts' and stamped two floral clusters using Hero Arts Shadow Ink (Neon Pink, Soft Yellow, Lemon Yellow and Charcoal (double stamped).)

Once all the flowers were stamped I added the rest of the sentiment from the same set as the 'hello', a few clear sequins and some washi tape to the side to pull the colours together.

Have a great day!

Hugs Lydia xxx


       

Let's Party!

Hello - Sarah here :) 

I don't know about you but I am in the mood for a party to chase away the January blues!  And to make the party go with a swing did you know that there is 10% off the Altenew set that I am featuring today?

First up is a card to celebrate the first anniversary of the store re-opening - Tara has done an amazing job with the store and range of brands she has brought over to the UK so this card is for her.

 

It was this lovely banner stamp that first attracted me to the Altenew set and the sentiment is gorgeous too.  I coloured the banners and sentiment in with Inktense pencils and a waterbrush before adding a touch of Wink of Stella.  A few sequins finish off.  It is a simple card :)

 

 Before I go I wanted to share another party inspired card which combines the Altenew set with a great sentiment from Mama Elephant:

This time I coloured the banners in with alcohol markers.  I cut two of them out to layer them up a bit more.  The sequins from Winnie and Walter's Big, Bang, Bling are stamped in coordinating colours.

I hope these cards brighten your day!

Sarah x