Showing posts with label MFT Jumbo Peek-a-boo die. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MFT Jumbo Peek-a-boo die. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 November 2015

Create Depth and Dimension with Copic Coloring

Are you sick of Christmas cards yet? I sure hope not, but I thought that it would be fun to do something non-Christmas related today. It's the season of snow and cold and mulled wine, but also the season of running noses and sore throats. To be prepared for the inevitable cold, which this year will hopefully not strike me down at Christmas, I decided to prepare a few "get well" cards, just to have them handy.


There are a few aspects to this card that I would like to point out, specifically because I have struggled in the past a bit to make sure that my cards have a strong focus point but not a lot of distraction. I either ended up with cards that were too white with a focal point that was not interesting enough, or too much clutter on my card.

First and foremost, I tried to create interest for my focal point (the boot with the flowers) with my Copic markers. You know that I like high contrast coloring, which means I have deep shadows and light highlights. I tried to do this on this board here and I also added a few black dots, simply to give the boot more character.

I could have just mounted it on the white card base, but I decided to use some sponge daubers to create a blended background. I kept with a fall color scheme that would complement of the colors of the boot and flowers. I had the images fussy cut with my Scan ’n Cut machine and the slim white border helps for additional contrast against the background.

By having such a strong colored image and the colorful background, it's much easier and pleasing to the eye to leave the rest of the card white. You have one area on the card that draws in your attention. I even accentuated it by adhering some half pearls to the scallops on the diecut circle.


I had originally intended to add another butterfly on the front panel of the card, outside of the circle, but when I had placed it on my card I saw immediately that it wouldn't work. To have a contained area of color helps to draw the attention and to make that area pop even more against the rest of the card which is stark white.

I hope you have enjoyed this project and have a fantastic weekend!

Saturday, 10 October 2015

Pumpkin Goodness - Stretch Your Stamps

Hi there, crafters! Today I'm back with one of the stamp and die set combos which has quickly turned into one of my all time favorites this fall season! At first glance, the "Witch Way is the Candy" set by My Favorite Things is all about Halloween, but you can totally use it for Thanksgiving and fall-themed cards as well!


I kept the card very simple – just a die cut window for which I choose a circle, but you can do a scalloped circle, a square or whatever else strikes your fancy. I wanted the focus to be on the gorgeous pumpkins and the contrasting green grass.

Of course you could turn this card easily into a shaker card, or add more pumpkins to make it an entire field of orange deliciousness (pumpkin soup, anyone??), or even use the pumpkins themselves as shaker elements! There really is no limit to what you can do with them. I simply added a few gold dots with a glossy finish to add a little bit of interest.


To finish up the card, I grabbed one of my all time favorite sentiment sets by Paper Smooches. It's so incredibly versatile and fits almost any occasion, so that's a great one to have handy at any time.

Thanks for stopping by today – I hope you enjoyed the project and have a great day!

Saturday, 26 September 2015

Cute Bird Bath Card with My Favorite Things

Hi crafty friends! For my cards today I am using a stamp set by My Favorite Things which is called "Things with Wings". I wanted to keep the card as clean and white as possible, so I created a window to look through onto the card base with a die by My Favorite Things. The background was created with distress colors.


The coloring of the bird and the bird bath was done with Polychromos Pencils and I also used some blending solution to smooth it out. If you want to see it in detail, check out my blog (link in the sidebar to the left) for a video of the entire process.


I punched two holes into the card front to add some twine … just for additional interest because it seemed to me that the card was a little too bland otherwise.

Hope you enjoyed the project! See you again in a week.

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Needle Free Embroidery


Hi, Tara here today in a rare mid-week appearance as Kate is taking a day off but don't worry she'll be back next week with her usual stunning creations.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to have a quick play with the new release from Neat and Tangled as I really love cross stitch so was very excited when they brought out a hand stitched stamp set to pair with the fabulous Hoop die.  The hoop is unfortunately still out of stock as there was a manufacturing issue with it - the problem with dies is there is only ONE manufacturer in the whole of the USA so everyone uses the same place and therefore getting "rush" jobs through is never easy as they are always busy.   Rest assured though I will get it back as soon as I can as I have some lovely projects made with it I'm dying to share with you!    For now though here are a couple of cards made just with the stamps instead which are just as fun as the dies!


For this one I stamped the hoop and added some shading with copics and then just arranged the stitched stamps inside for a quick mini card.


For this one I used the jumbo peek-a-boo dies from My Favorite Things to create a frame and then used a selective inking technique to ink the flowers and leaves in different colours.  I love that the stamp has French knots as I could never master those in embroidery - they always came out on the back of my fabric!   So I used a lot of them here as stamping them is much easier!   I hand drew the stitched border around the edge.