Saying Goodbye with my ‘Ride or dies’

Hi everybody, 

Jill here, and this week, well, this week the time has come to say goodbye.  This will be my last post as a regular DT member for the awesome, incredible, off-the-scale amazing, Seven Hills Crafts, and I thought the only way to go out was with a mash-up of my all time fave, my ‘Ride or Die’, the one, the only....

Mama Elephant!

I’ve also thrown in a sneaky nod to my first ever post for Seven Hills Crafts and recreated the same background using one of my all-time favourite techniques with one of my all-time favourite mediums: die-inlay and watercolour. 

So like I say, I simply had to showcase Mama Elephant in my farewell post.  They’ve been my favourite stamping company for so long.  I simply adore their characters, bursting with personality through their sweet, whimsical illustrations, always accompanied by some meaningful sentiments in some beautiful font.  I love em!  Always have, always will.  So I thought it would be quite fun, and only fitting, to grab a few of my absolute faves, and create a sweet little scene to wish all of you, all the happiness in the world.

I started by taking a panel of watercolour card and, using Mama Elephant’s Landscape Trio, cut my background into pieces.  I then cut Mama Elephants ‘Happy Script Die’ a ton of times and built on top of each other.  I then coloured each piece of my background, and the top piece of my ‘Happy’ sentiment using Distress Inks mixed with water, and set aside to dry.

I then stamped out my gorgeous Mama Elephant friends from various sets.  The rabbit is Lunar Animals, the hedgehog and cutest mouse in the universe (now see, this is what I mean with Mama Elephant, the teeniest tiniest image can turn my heart to mush and make me NEEEED an entire set!) are from Ella and Friends, and my cool dude doggy riding his skateboard is from Little Dog Agenda.  I coloured all my friends using, of course, my all-time favourite colour medium...my ever faithful trusty Zigs, and fussy-cut leaving a wee white edge.  

I finished off my sentiment by stamping onto black card and white heat-embossing, then built up my scene adhering everything in place.  



So there you have it, a feast of faves all in one place!  I really hope you like it and of course, everything I used is linked below. 

So all that’s left is for me to say ‘Goodbye’.  I would like to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read, comment, or simply look at my posts week after week; your time and kindness is so very much appreciated.  And of course to my Design Team members, and to the fantastic Mr & Mrs Seven Hills Crafts themselves, Tara and Rick.  I thank you with all my heart for such an incredible opportunity to play a part in such an amazing company and community, it has been an absolute honour and I have loved every second of it! 

My face will hopefully still pop up here and there from time to time, but from me to you, take care of yourselves and I wish you all, Happy Everything xxx

 

 

 

Lovely Loving Piggies

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I've got some sweet, loving piggies...

...using the Lovely Piggies from Mama Elephant's latest release.

This was an instant 'must-have' for me as I have nothing like it in my stash, and everybody has a soft-spot for these sweet creatures surely?

You get a load of different designs of the Lovely Piggies in the set so the possibilities are endless.  I decided to make a Valentine's themed card because I just *had* to use the little cupid piggie first...so cute!

I wanted to do some no-line colouring but my skills really aren't that sharp so went the utter cheat route haha.  

I started by stamping out my piggies in a pale ink and coloured over-top using my Zig Real Brush Markers, (to disguise the line), mixed with water for a lazy laid-back watercolour look.  I created my background by using the cloud border from Mama Elephant's Landscape Trio as a stencil and gently ink blending over top to create a soft sky of pinks and blues.  My piggies are playing upon My Favourite Things Cloud 9 Dienamics and my sentiment is from Mama Elephant's Love Quotes (an oldy but a goody and comes out almost every time I get lovey dovey!).

I finished with a wrap of ribbon and a cute little bow and there you have it.

Lovely Piggies sending love this Valentines.

I really hope you like it.  As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

 

  

A Cheery Birthday Chat.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I've got a little cheerful birthday chat going on...

Using Wplus9's 'Going Places' set as my main feature.

I adore this set, the little characters are just so unbelievably sweet.  The set comes with a hot air balloon, and the sweet critters can sit inside the basket, but I wanted to put them in a different scenario to show how versatile they can be.  I always think, when they're alongside each other, they look like they're having a little natter, so decided to build a little birthday gathering.

I started by stamping out all the images I wanted to use, colouring them using my Copics, and cutting them out using the matching dies.  I don't always get matching dies as I'd rather spend my money on stamps, (more and more yummy stamps haha), but these ones are well worth getting as they cut the little arms out so you can have them peeking over things.  Just so cute.

I then took a piece of white card, cut it into a panel using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rectangle's, then cut it into several sections using Mama Elephant's Landscape Trio Dies, Lawn Fawn's Speech Bubble die, and Lawn Fawn's Grassy Border die.  I then inked blended onto my pieces to colour them accordingly, and pieced them back together.  I also cut Mama Elephant's Picket Fence, and another slither of Lawn Fawns Grassy Border to add to the front.  I positioned my little gang in place onto my second Grassy Border, then attached to the front of my card using foam tape for dimension.

I cut a second piece of white card into a speech bubble, then die cut Lawn Fawn's 'Cheers' die from it, using the negative space as my sentiment and adding some black card behind to make it 'pop', and adhered this piece using more foam tape.  I added a couple of little balloons, tying them to their hands using black string...coz it ain't a birthday party until a balloon has made an appearance!

I added a few co-ordinating sequins to add some sparkle, mounted the whole panel onto a kraft card base, and there you have it, a little chatty birthday cheer.

I really hope you like it and, as always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

Some pencil colouring with Somebunny.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I've got some simple pencil colouring...

...using My Favourite Thing's sweet Somebunny set.

I decided it had been too long since I had a good play with my colour pencils, so used them to create and colour my card.  I love the simple naivety you get from using pencils, so decided to colour onto kraft card to add to the organic feel.

I started with a panel of kraft card, cut into sections using Mama elephant's Landscape Trio dies, and Lawn Fawn's Grassy Border die, and coloured each section using my pencils with a little help when needing from some paper stumps and some blending solution.  I then stamped out, coloured and fussy-cut the gorgeous sweet images from My Favourite Things Somebunny.  I also cut and coloured Mama Elephant's Picket Fence to help build up my little scene.

I used Lawn Fawn's Small Cross Stitched Rectangles to give my panel a decorative edge, and stamped out my sentiment, from the same sweet Somebunny set, heat embossing in white powder.  I then matted my piece onto grey card, and mounted onto a card base.

I didn't want to mess with the simplistic look of my card, so skipped on embellishments and left it there.

I really hope you like it, and as always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

  

A wild Ride...

Hi everybody,

Jill here.  I hope you're all well.

I've got some of the newest release from WPlus9 for you today, and boy oh boy what a killer release it was!

I used the 'Going Places' stamp and matching die sets to make my card.  I'm not sure if it shows well on the pictures, but I added a sneaky little shaker behind the hot air balloon!  

I started by stamping out my elements, and watercolouring them using Distress Ink.  I washed over my background at the same time, to create a pretty sky of pinks and blues.  I then took the matching die set, and cut out my pieces, cutting the balloon from my background at the same time.  I only needed to cut the balloon to create my little shaker window, so inlaid the rest back in.  I covered my window in acetate, filled with some beautiful Neat and Tangled sequins, and sealed up.  I cut a couple of layers of clouds using Mama Elephant's 'Landscape Trio die', one layer from white card, and one layer from vellum.  I then put all my pieces together and built up my scene.  I stamped my sentiment onto vellum and adhered using 'Stick-it' (I can't stop sticking vellum any, and every, where now I know 'Stick-it' is invisible!).  I matted onto another layer of vellum, and another piece of card I had washed with Distress Ink, then onto a soft grey card base.  I embellished with a couple of black enamel hearts, and there you have it.

I hope you like it and would love to read what you think of the newest Wplus9 release.

Everything I used is linked below, so be sure to go and be blown away by how awesome the new sets are!

See you next week.

Jillx