Say it with Flowers

Hello there and Happy New Year... I think it's still early enough to say that :0)

I'm easing myself gently back into the crafting groove today with a simple...'almost' one layer card using an Avery Elle set that hasn't seen ink yet!!!

Thank You cards are the order of the day for me after Christmas and they need to be simple and easy to make. I've used Fabulous Florals because this set has a mixture of solid and outline images to play with and they take pigment ink so well too.
Although the set has a gorgeous collection of sentiments in a lovely font, I thought this 'Thank You' from the Many Thanks set was a more suitable size for the white space :0)

                                                   

Thats all from me today.... Paper Smooches Sparks have an Anything Goes challenge this week which my teamies have some great inspiration projects for and keep an eye out for our own January challenge here at Make the Day Special Stamp Store, details coming later today in a blog post :0)

Jenny x

A Cute Christmas Wreath

Good morning :0)

You could say my card today is the 'B-side' to my traditional coloured card for our Challenge on Saturday's blog post as I've used the same Paper Smooches set called Jolly Holly and made a wreath in frosty silver and blue...

I've silver embossed the scribbled circle in the set on white card and then cut it out using two circle punches to make a neat inside and outside edge which I could never do with scissors!! ..Lol. You could also use circle dies to do this but my punches were closer to hand :0) The bow is stamped and trimmed out with scissors and then it was just a case of adding gems and wrapping a length of wire around to decorate my wreath..... this picture does it more justice, although still not the same as seeing the wreath in real life...

These cute little wreaths could be easily made up in batches in front of the TV and would also work in other colour ways too... ooooo, I'm thinking how lovely a neutral colour palette would be with tiny wooden stars and a hemp bow *wink*

                                                        

As I mentioned above, I used this same stamp set for my challenge card this month and went with more traditional colours for a Christmas card. I used Avery Elle pigment inks in Jungle, Celery, Silver Fox and Cherry and I just love how vibrant they are on the Kraft coloured card, the extra details on the images are added using Prisma coloured pencils but this is totally optional. The sentiment is from All Yule Need

This is perfect timing to remind you about the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge this week and it's Anything Goes so if you use any of your PS stamps or dies in your projects this week don't forget to pop them in the gallery... it's open to crafters from around the globe so I hope you can join in :0)

Jenny x

Faux Painting on Wood

Good Morning :0)
Well it's been an indulgent weekend here with new Lawn Fawn stamps and dies arriving :0)
I also picked up a pack of the Wood Veneers that Tara has in store and I thought I'd have a play with them to see what I could make...

As you can see straight away, it's green!! I took the piece of pine veneer and sponged white pigment ink across it before swiping Bundled Sage distress paint over the whole piece... I love that you can see the grain through the colours.

I wanted to achieve a stencilled paint look so I used Lawn Fawn's Penelopes Blossoms stamped first in Memento Pistachio dye ink to give a tone on tone effect. I then used this as a guide to over stamp the individual leaves and flowers using a selection of Avery Elle and Memento pigment inks.... had you noticed the individual elements in Penelopes Blossoms are exactly the same size used in the semi-circular display???

Being pigment inks you have to remember they need drying time although you can easily use a heat tool on this veneer at a gentle heat and remembering to keep the tool moving!!
Whilst the pigment inks give good coverage on the wood I still love the translucent quality of some of the colours, to finish I edged the trimmed piece with white ink and matted onto grey card for contrast :0)
The veneer has a self adhesive backing which is super sticky and makes life a lot easier :0)

                                      

It's the 1st of September so our next monthly challenge will be launched later today and this time we have a sketch for you so stay tuned for that and as always a reminder that the new Paper Smooches Sparks challenge went live yesterday. It's Anything Goes and I've used Market Fresh and Streamers for my DT card... check out the challenge details here :0)

Thanks for stopping by :0)
Jenny x