Distressed hugs...

Hi there,

I'd love to share another card I have made for, the awesome, Lawnscaping Challenge Blog, and this time round, the theme is 'Distress Addict'.  Lawn Fawn and Distress, the stuff dreams are made of :)

And here's my card...

I started by choosing a few different Lawn Fawn patterned papers, and cutting them into strips.  I distressed all the edges, both with my distress tool, and with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and adhered to my panel.  Once everything was in place, I die-cut Lawn Fawn's 'Hugs' die from the centre, die-cutting another few out of kraft card, for me to build the die cut up with.  I then stuck these all together, in-laid them, and added my original piece of distressed patterned papers, to the top.  I stamped these oh-so cute little hedgehogs form the 'sending hedgehugs' set; a mini set that I love more and more every time i use it!  I coloured them using, yup, obviously, more Distress Inks.  I die cut a few Lawn Fawn hearts and also washed these in Ink.  So that  was all my elements made up, now on with finishing my sentiment.  I stamped out 'sending hedge...' from the same set onto vellum, by masking off the last part of the sentiment as, obviously, I had my raised die cut to finish off my greeting.  I cut my vellum into a banner, and adhered it to my card front by entwining it behind it the die cut, and one of my hearts.  I finished off with another few hearts, and there you have it...don't be distressed, hug it out :)  I really hope you like it and would love to read your comments.

Until next time...

Jillxxx

Delightful Distress...

Hi there,

A quick post before I have to go to work (booooo), to share a card I have made to enter into the current challenge going on over at the, always awesome, Lawnscaping Challenge blog.  Please excuse me as I brag for a moment...but I LOVE this blog, and was beyond thrilled to discover I won the last challenge...how exciting?!  So in any case, back to the task at hand, sorry, I just couldn't help but share my awesome news :)

Now, this time round, the theme is 'Distress Addicts'.  And here's my card...

I am out and proud...My name is Jill and I am a Distress Ink addict.  Like out of control, head over heels, in love, couldn't live without them, kind of addict.  So Lawn Fawn, plus Distress...I was obviously only ever going one direction!

I started by stamping out the heart border for, 'Belinda's Borders', several times to create a background, and heat embossing in clear powder.  I then smooshed and spritzed Abandoned Coral (February's release...and oh my what a release!), Worn Lipstick, and Tea Dye Distress Inks, on my craft sheet, pulled my card through the ink, and put aside to dry.  I then stamped out these gorgeous little bunnies, from the 'Snow Day' set, and painted them up using, yup, you guessed it, Distress Inks.  I added a wee little bow from the 'Monster Mash' set to my little girl bunny.  I also stamped out my speech bubbles from the 'Chit Chat' set, and added the 'U' to an empty bubble to complete my loved up sentiment, (I plan on giving this card to my amazing boyfriend as we are about to celebrate our 10th year together).  I coloured my speech bubbles using the gold watercolour form the Kuretake Gansai Tambi set, and used my finger to smudge some of the colour away to add to the 'distress' look.  I stamped out  the heart, also from the 'Snow Day' set, heat embossed in Platinum Sparkle, and cut out.  I also heat embossed some tiny hearts confetti at the same time to use as embellishments.  I used a couple of border punches on vellum, some ribbon, and some raw twine to ground my scene, and adhered all my bits in place using foam adhesive.  I added my little hearts to go all out on my loved up setting, and mounted onto a kraft card blank.  And there you have it.  I like how this card came together, and love the way my background came out.  I hope you do too.

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

Hopefully see you soon.

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

Foiled again...

Hi everyone,

I'd love to share a card I have made for this month's challenge over at the delightful Avery Elle Challenge Blog, which this time round, is 'Stripes'.

And here's my card...

So stripes are a pretty bold statement all on their own, but I thought, why not go all out and add some foil into the mix!  Go bold or go home, right?  So I kept the design really simple, and the stripes really, well, bold.  I used various sizes of double sided tape to adhere my foil to my front panel, leaving a space along the centre in which to place my greeting.  I stamped my sentiment, and a load of these cute stripey flowers and leaves, (what a coincidence :) ), from Avery Elle's, 'So Happy' set, and heat embossed in Gold Sparkle powder.  I then cut all my pieces out, and adhered them to my front panel, adding a wee heat embossed heart to finish off.  And, pretty much, that was that.

It's all about the foil at the moment, so I was really glad to give it a whirl.  I'm not gonna lie, it can be tricky to work with, and marks really easy, but I kind of like the look that creates, and I love how unashamedly flamboyant foil is!

I really hope you like it and would love to read your thoughts, so please feel free to leave a comment.

See you next time.

Jillxxx

dotty for dots and stripes...

Hi everybody,

I'd love to share a card I have made for the current challenge going on over at the awesome Lawnscaping Challenge blog, where this time round, the theme is 'Dots & Stripes'.  Cool. huh?  I am very partial to a good dot or stripe!

And here's my card...

I was admiring (touching, stroking, smelling - as you do), my delicious new Lawn Fawn 'Bugs and kisses' set, and thought, 'perfect', there right in front of me was those adorable little bugs, the bumble bee and ladybird, already perfectly making their own 'dots and stripes' statement, so how could I not let them lead the way?!  I used a few different Lawn Fawn sets to make up my scene.  The bugs and jar are from 'Bugs and kisses', the trees are from, 'Let's Play', and the leaves are from, 'Our friendship grows'.  I stamped out all my pieces and coloured them all using alcohol markers, and stamped my jar onto acetate.  My background is made up of all different delightful papers from Lawn Fawn's 'dots and stripes' pads in beautiful bright spring colours, well, because why not?  My aperture is created using Mama Elephant's 'Index Card' dies, and again built using Lawn Fawn paper pads.  My sentiment is from the Bugs and kisses' set, and stamped and heat embossed in Black Sparkle powder, on vellum, then cut using the cloud die from Mama Elephant's  'Landscape trio' set. I built up my scene using dimensional adhesive, and left my lid 'ajar' so my cute little bugs could fly free!  

I've gotta admit, I'm really happy with how this card turned out.  It's different from my normal style, but I had loads of fun building it up, and I think it's really cheery :)  

I hope you like it and these cute little fellas help brighten your day like they did mine.

See you next time.

Jillxxx

*edited-Amazing news - this scoped me 1st prize woop woop :)*

http://lawnscaping.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/winners-dots-stripes-queen-of-green-top.html

Behind the mask...

Hi everybody,

I'd like to share  a card I have made for the current  challenge going on over at A Blog Named Hero, which this time round is 'Masking'. 

 

 

I will also link up to, the always awesome, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge blog, where over there this week, 'Anything Goes'!

And here's my card...

I used Hero Arts 'Dotted Grid' background stamp, Lawn Fawn's, 'Scripty Hugs' die, a whole lotta Distress Ink, and some rubber cement to make my card.  I started by inking up my Dotted Grid stamp in Versmark and clear heat embossing, creating a resist to act as a mask.  I then watercolour washed my piece using Distress Inks in Cracked Pistachio (The perfect addition to the Distress family...in love!) , Peacock Feathers, and Worn Lipstick.  I then die cut my 'Hugs' sentiment in masking paper.  I wanted to watercolour around my die cut, but find when I use masking paper alone, especially when using a lot of water, it seeps under and I don't end up with a very good image, so instead, I used the negative space from my die-cut, and sponged rubber cement through it (a technique Jennifer Mcguire recently shared using a plastic mask), left to dry, and then went to town with my Distress Inks as watercolours again.  When all my pieces were dry, I ironed off the clear embossing powder to leave a flat piece, almost batik like, and rubbed away my rubber cement.  I used Avery Elle's Custom Panels die to cut my top piece for some added interest, and edged with some card I had heat embossed in Silver Sparkle.  I also embossed a few little hearts in the same powder and used these to embellish.  And there you have it.  The rubber cement worked great with all that water swooshing all over it, although I think a thicker coat would work even better.

I made another card in the exact same way, but in reverse, to get most use out of all my pieces, you can see the other card blow.

Well, I really hope you like it, please feel free to leave a comment.

See you next time.

Jillxxx

It's the little things...

Hi everybody,

I'd like to share a card I have made for this weeks challenge over at CASology.  It  is the first time I am linking up there, despite the fact I stalk it all the time LOL.  There is such an incredible amount of talent over there, so thought I would give it a go and hope some of their awesomeness rubs off on me :)

I will also link up to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge, where this week, 'Anything goes'! 

  

So this week's 'cue word' on the Casology blog, is 'mini', and here's my card...

I decided I wanted to make a card that featured mini shakers.  I love a shaker card, and they're all the rage at the minute, so why not make them 'mini'?  I used Mama Elephant's 'Shooting Star' stamp and matching die set.  I cut the star three times from the front of my card, and stamped the teeny little star from the stamp set, three separate times onto acetate, to put behind my windows.  I stamped out my sentiment in black Archival and clear heat embossed.  I adhered my cute star fellas in place, and filled my teeny tiny shakers with tiny little micro beads, (I think they're meant for nail art but, hey, they worked a treat!), and glitter, in three different colour ways.  I adhered my panel to a white card blank, and there you have it.  

Cute and clean, I hope you agree, and I really hope you like it.

See you next time,

Jillxxx