Better with Special friends...

Hi everybody,

Here's my second post for the awesome Make The Day Special Blog.  I still can't believe I'm part of their amazing Design Team! Unreal chuffed :)  And here's my post...


Today I'm sharing a card I have made using the 'oh-soooo cute' Mama Elephant's, 'Ella & Friends'.

I fell in love with this set the second my eyes caught sight of it.  It feels like Elephants are everywhere at the moment, and I've gotta say - Ella is by far my favourite!  But you know what, it's Ella's friends who really make my heart skip a beat.  I just LOVE them, and can picture using them in so many different ways.  And here's my card -

  I love how sweet and naive the images in the Ella set are, and wanted to carry that theme through my card.  So, after stamping out my scene, I coloured it using Spectrum Noir pencils.  As I said, the little critters are my true stars, so I stamped Ella off the page to make them the main focus.  Once I'd finished colouring, I stamped out my sentiment, from the same set, in black ink and clear heat embossed.  To keep my card sweet and simple, I added only a little detail beneath my scene using Paper Smooches 'Dots and Dashes' die, and embellished using only a couple of clear gems to incorporate the bubble fun!  

I mounted onto an Avery Elle Notecard, from the Midnight Collection, in a beautiful smoky grey, off-setting it to one corner.  And there you have it.  A sweet and simple little scene using the cutest critters around!

I really hope you like it.  Everything I used is linked below so make you go have a peek!

See you next week.

Jillx

               

A dream come true...

Hi everybody,

Well, well, well ... I have got the best news ever to share (well, for me!) - I have been asked to join the Design Team over at my favourite place on The Internet....Make the Day Special!  I can't believe it, I am such a megafan of their blog, and their shop - oh my oh my - I think I own half of it haha.  Pretty much my full stamp collection is from there - Tara who runs it (amazingly well, and all on her own I might add!), has THE best taste, and the prices are unreal amazing.  Yes, I'm gushing, but i really really love it!!!  So I obviously wanted to share my very first post here as well - and here it is :)
...

Jill here.  I can't tell you how pleased I am to be part of this amazing and talented team, it really is a dream come true.  I only hope I do you guys, and all the awesome products we all love, justice!

So, without further ado,  here's a sneak peek at my first offering...

Deciding what to do for my first post was such a tough decision!  I came to the conclusion that the best way to introduce myself was to stick to a couple of my, (and hopefully your) favourite things - Mama Elephant and watercolouring!

I used Mama Elephant's 'In My Heart' set, Lawn Fawn's 'Grassy Border', and 'Spring Showers' dies and a whole lot of watercolour, to create my bright Springtime scene.  

I die cut my back panel into several pieces, giving each piece a watercolour wash using Distress Inks, and pieced it back together so it remained in one layer.  My little cutie patooties from the 'In My Heart' set, are watercoloured, again using Distress Inks, fussy cut, and added to the front of my card using foam adhesive to really make them 'pop' off the page.  I stamped out my sentiment direct onto my card, and heat embossed using a Black Sparkle powder.  I finished  by embellishing with a couple of bright yellow enamel hearts to give an extra splash of colour, and there you have it.  The sun isn't shining up here in the North of England, so I thought I'd make it shine on my card!

I really hope you like it, and all the products I used are listed below, so go and give them a closer look!

See you all next week.

Jill

                  

*I should have published this post on 1st May...oopsy*

A new dimension of Tic Tac Toe...

Hi everybody,

Well, Spring has eventually sprung here in Newcastle...and I'm full of cold :( ...typical!  In any case, to cheer me up, I made a card to play along with the current challeges going on over at the, always awesome, Make The Day Special Challenge Blog, and, my other favourite place on the internet, the delightful Lawnscaping Challenge Blog.

This month's challenge at Lawnscaping, is 'Dimension', and here's all the details -

Lawnscaping Challenge Blog - Dimenion

And this month's Challenge at MTDS is 'Tic Tac Toe', a grid where you choose 3 of the items that make up a line, and use these 3 items to make up your creation!  Amazing idea, I've never heard of it before but what fun, loads of different variations to choose from.

Here's the 'Grid' -

And here's my card -

So, can you guess which line I chose :) ?  Yup, I went - Wood + Circles + Die cuts.

I used these gorgeous Wooden Veneers which I got from MTDS (and have been hoarding for a while now haha) for my wooden elements.  I used Lawn Fawn's 'Thanks' die, (the scripty words from Lawn Fawn are possibly my favourite sentiment die's of all time - I just LOVE the font!), and a circle die, and, with a bit of creative cutting, managed to get this one piece effect.  I backed with more wood veneer, mounted on thick foam adhesive to give some great dimension.  I loved the CAS look of the wood and the die-cutting, so kept things simple by embellishing with die cut, and pre-cut, wood veneer hearts and stars, adhered using gel glue to add more dimension.  I LOVE how the negative space in the hearts creates a whole new depth of dimension all on their own, and think the shadows created by all the dimension, look pretty cool too.

Hope you like it, please feel free to leave a comment :)

Jillxxx

Make The Day Colourful...

Hi there,

I'd love to share a card I have made for this month's challenge going on at the awesome, Make The Day Special Challenge blog, which this time round, is a colour challenge.  Pick your palette, and go for it...

I chose those beautiful chilled out tones of the first option, and here's my card...

I used Mama Elephant's, 'Zenith Borders', stamp set to create my background.  I stamped out one of my borders, a couple of times, in Versamark, and heat embossed it clear powder.  I used Distress Inks, in Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Squeezed Lemonade, and Dusty Concord mixed with a little Victorian Velvet, to wash all over the top of my stamped borders.  Once everything was dry, I ironed the embossing powder off to create this kind of flat, batik effect.  I then used Mama Elephant's, 'Happy' die to cut right out the centre.  I also cut this die a few other times, on kraft card stock, and, using the double sided adhesive Stick-it, stacked the dies on top of each other, adding the coloured piece to the top, and inlaying the whole thing back into my panel for a really dimensional look.  I finished my sentiment by stamping out 'vibes' from Mama Elephant's 'Happy Everything' set, which is just A-MAY-ZING, a sentiment for any occasion. and just sooo cool looking, I LOVE it!!!  I finished off by embellishing with a few co-ordinating sequins and mounted the whole thing onto a kraft card base...and there you have it.

I'm really happy with how this card came out, which is a lot more down to Mama Elephant and there awesome products than me haha, but hey ho.

I'd love to know what you think, so please feel free to leave a comment.

Hopefully see you next time.

Jillxxx