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

 

 

 

Spreading a little lunar love.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I've got some sweet little Lunar Animals...

...spreading a little love from My Favourite Things Peek-a-boo Windows Dienamic.

I have eyed this die up for soooo long, but wasn't sure I 'needed' it, (I've been trying to be a good girl...to avail), but eventually bit the bullet and treat myself...and now I can't put it down!  It is so simple yet so effective, I absolutely love it and can see me getting so much use from it!  Awesome buy :)

I started by cutting the fabulous Peek-a-boo die and doing a little ink blending on the back card in the areas which would 'peek' through.  I then took the adorable, and one of my all time favourites, Mama Elephant's Lunar Animals and stamped out onto some watercolour card.  I coloured all my images using Zig Real Brush Clean Colour Pens and fussy cut, leaving a neat white border.  I then placed my little Lunar Animals behind the Peek-a-boo die and adhered in place.  

My sentiment and little speech bubbles are from Mama Elephant's Everyday Greetings and are stamped in pale grey ink to keep the card light and bright.  I finished by adding a little heart balloon from Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine which is stamped using Zig Pens, and to which I added a piece of thread as the balloon string for a little added cuteness.

 I adhered my top panel over my background using foam tape to add some nice dimension and finished by adding a cute enamel heart.

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

See you next week.

Jillx

Going For Gold

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I am going ga-ga for gold!

Using the incredibly beautiful new Gansai Tambi Starry Colours Watercolour pan set.

And oh my goodness are they beautiful?  They are so shimmery and easy to use!

So me being me, the first thing I wanted to with them was, of course, a background wash.  I wanted to see how they would react with my Distress Inks and to see if the pretty shimmer would remain when mixed with another medium, and boy oh boy, it definitely did.

I started with a piece of watercolour card and stamped out this huge 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from Mama Elephant's Birthday Wishes set, in black Versafine, and clear heat embossed.  I then stamped out this cute little bunny from Mama Elephant's Lunar Animals, and the little balloon from Mama Elephant's Woodland Gifts, and again, clear heat embossed.  I then masked  off my little bunny with 'drawing gum', (if you haven't already got some - get some - it makes masking soooo much easier, especially with watercolour).  Then for the fun part...  So the Gansia Tambi Starry Colours set includes 6 different pans of different golds, all absolutely beautiful, and in varying degrees of intensity.  I had already tested out my colours on a piece of scrap card, and chose which golds I wanted to use.  I went for the more intense colours as I knew I wanted to us it along some Distress Inks, and wanted the gold to stand out.  I used them in exactly the same way I would any other watercolour, and just went in to create a wash over my sentiment, sploshing and swooshing the colours around wherever I saw fit.  I then introduced my Distress Ink, a variety of pinks as I thought the gold and pink would look so pretty, and again, swooshed them over by background, then set aside to dry.

I was not let down with the shimmer once dried, it is gorgeous, although blumming hard to photograph!  I removed the drawing gum from my bunny and balloon, and coloured them both using my Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Pens, another incredible product new to the store!

I matted my panel onto a piece of paper from My Favourite Things Off The Grid paper pad, (which I LOVE and am going to re-purchase so I NEVER run of of haha), mounted onto a dark grey card base, added a coat of Glossy accents to the balloon, a scattering of sequins to embellish, and there you have it.

I really hope you like it.  

As always, everything I have used is linked below, so be sure to take a look.

See you next week.

Jillx