Happy mothers day

Hello.

Its Mothers day on Sunday (in the UK) so i have made my mums card using Winnie and Walters the party stamp set and  Avery Elle happy die and build a banner stamps and dies.

On some water colour card i stamped the images from Winnie and Walter in versa mark.

So that i didn't over lap to much i had to keep tilting the card so i could see where i had already stamped. 

I then heat embossed in gold powder and coloured using watercolour paints.

While that was drying i die cut the happy word die from black card and covered in some glitter.

Next i stamped and die cut the banner saying mothers day. 

The dies are really easy to line up as they are just outlines.

I finished with some clear sequins.

Click the images below to go straight to the products.

Thanks for looking.

Peeking Bunny!

 Hi! Hope you're all ok and busy with all your new stamps & dies.
I dug out some sets I'd not seen in quite a while & had great fun messing around with this Creative Cuts Tag set

I've got so much use out of this die set; if you're a fan of shaker cards, you'll definitely want this set as the tiny shapes are perfect for adding into shaker cards and obviously you can cut any colour or metal or metallic card to go inside. I've strung them onto ordinary embroidery thread and added a fine sprinkling of glitter

On to the stamp sets; Honey Bunny

 

..grab it quick while there are a few sets - Easter is coming and they will be gone in a flash!

this set is gorgeous and a perfect all year round set of images & lastly I've used

this set which is subtly under the sentiment if you look closely

The little bunny is actually hiding behind a vellum layer, and just sticking his little foot out! I've just about got away with the gold embossed image-- stamping onto a first layer with a layer slightly below is always tricky ! I missed a tiny bit of the image when stamping and couldn't find my Versamark pen so just popped a glue pen over where the missing part of the sentiment was, sprinkled more embossing powder over..and Bob's your uncle!

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Back next Tuesday ( once I've made my Mothers Day cards ;-) )

Keren xx

3D stencilling

I'm sharing a great way to use your background stencils today on my card, its a technique I saw whilst browsing blogland so certainly not my idea. By sponging white pigment ink through the stencil first onto your cardstock and then slightly off-setting the stencil and sponging a dye ink through you get a fabulous 3 dimensional effect ....

I used Unicorn white pigment ink through a Hero Arts stencil called Triangle pattern and then allowed the ink to dry...this is an important step and can be speeded up by using your heatgun to gently dry the ink.
To make that uber-cool three dimensional effect I re-applied the stencil, but slightly off set, and sponged through Hero Arts Cup O' Joe ink. You can see where layering over the white ink and card gives you two different shades of brown :)
Depending on the stencil design you get different effects... this looked a bit like stonework to me..... a good backdrop for these cute cacti from Lawn fawn :)

These prickly little fellas have been stamped in dye inks and then I added extra dimension with Prismacolour pencils.... the sentiment is from the same set too :)

                                      
                              
Why not give it a go...another way to get more mileage from your stencils and don't forget to check out the stencils in store ....we've just had a couple of new designs from Hero arts arrive too :)

As always a quick reminder about the new Paper Smooches Sparks challenge this week, we have a photo inspiration for you and here's my take using the Patterns 1 dies with pigment inks and Sassy letters dies.

Thanks for stopping by
Jenny x

Party Time for Elephants

It's Reverse Confetti release day and we managed to get the new goodies here in time to release alongside the US release date - yee-hah!    So I had to use some of the new goodies for my card today but I also couldn't resist using the gorgeous little elephant from Wplus9's Unforgettable stamp set before it goes out of stock again!   We doubled our order on the restock but it is flying out the door again already so be quick if you want one!

The new folded tag sentiment blocks which are designed to fit on the matching dies to make super cute little gift cards screamed ABC blocks to me so I decided to use 3 to make something for my elephant to sit on.  I stamped them with mint julep ink and cut them with part of the die and popped them up on foam tape.  The elephant and balloon were coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut and popped up on foam tape too.   The top of the card was decorated with birthday banners using the new die also from Reverse Confetti - double banner - which I cut from white and patterned paper from the Beachside pad from Lawn Fawn.  One cool blue tall tone one tone card - hope you like it!

NEWS FROM THE STORE:

• Reverse Confetti new release and restocks in store now!
• Wplus9 Restocks arrived earlier in the week and are selling fast.
• We had a small shipment of new items from Hero Arts this week but didn't get everything we ordered.  More should follow in a couple of weeks.
• Avery Elle restocks are in transit and should be in store mid-week.
• Lawn Fawn restocks have been ordered and we are just awaiting a shipping date from Lawn Fawn.
• Mama Elephant restocks and the March release were ordered last week and again we are just waiting on Mama Elephant to ship them.
• Lil Inker's latest release will be shipping soon.
• Neat and Tangled's new release will be shipping soon.

That's all folks - don't forget to join in the challenge.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll catch you on the flip side.
Tara
x

March Challenge - Week 2

We're here with a little reminder about this month's prize challenge with the chance to win £15 to spend in store.   Just pick 3 colours from one of the 3 palettes below and make something using one of the products we sell.  Hopefully can kick start your inspiration with the makes this week from our Design Team.

Keren

Kate

You have until 10pm on Sunday 22nd March to link it up on our challenge page

I'll be back this afternoon with my regular weekly post and news from the store.

Tara
 

Stamping with Markers-to-Stamp Technique + Watercolor Effect

Hello fellow crafters! I hope you are well and have some time to be creative. Today's card is using one of my favorite Mama Elephant stamp sets.

I don't even recall when I saw this technique first: someone took their markers (Distress, Memento, Stampin Up) directly to the stamp and was able to use different colors on a complex image. I never had luck with it – the impressions I got were never crisp and of the quality I liked, so I forgot about the technique again. Recently, I wondered: so what if it's not perfect. If I use Distress Markers, I can reactivate them with water. So, I gave it another go and look where it got me:

Of course, you could also mask parts of your stamp and then ink it up individually and achieve a similar result, but a) I am too lazy and b) I really wanted to see if I could create a watercolor look despite stamping. And I'm happy to report: yes, I could make it work.

The original stamped image looked blotchy and not very crips – no surprises there, as the Distress Markers/Inks are not made for stamping. But with some water, they turned out beautifully – I guess if you give this card to someone who's not familiar with crafting, you might sell them on the idea you drew the elements ;)

I added some blue stickles and splashes of gold spray to sparkle up the card, then stamped the sentiment and mounted it. All done. Not a lot to this card, but it looks rather pretty, doesn't it?

Thanks for stopping by! And if you want to see a video of how I created these effects, hop on over to my blog. You'll find the link in the sidebar.

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

An Owly Birthday Card

Happy Friday! Hope you had a good week… this one seemed to rush by in the blink of an eye !

Today I have a card to share using a super cute stamp from Reverse Confetti, called Oliver Owl.



How cute is he? I coloured him up using Copics and then adding more shading with pencil. Instead of colouring in all of the image I have paper pieced his tie and collar with patterned paper. To tie in the design I used these same patterned paper for the banner strips that the owl in resting on.

For the soft sky background I cut the smaller cloud die from Lawn Fawn 'Spring Showers' die (sorry OOS but you can sign up to be emailed when more arrive in stock or use the search function to search for other cloud dies as there are many options in stock from other brands http://www.makethedayspecial.co.uk/shop.php#!/~/search/inview=product46678127&keywords=clouds&offset=0&sort=relevance) out of masking paper and then inked around it.



I really love the font on this sentiment is just so fun and playful. To add some more fun to this card I added some Glossy Accents to his glasses and gave him some goggly eyes.



I would really love to know what you think of my card!

I hope you have a beautiful day and I will see you again soon.

Hugs Lydia xxx