Sequin love...

Hi everyone,

I'm sharing another card I made for the 'Sequins' challenge going on over at Avery Elle.

Avery Elle challenge #14 Sequins

Now I'm not much of a girly girl, and I'm not much a magpie - I don't just go for anything that sparkles, but boy oh boy do I love a sequin!

And here's my card...

So I started by stamping out my sentiment from this beautiful Avery Elle set, 'Lots of Love'.  This has got to be one of my favourite sets of all time, it is just jam packed with sweet gorgeous sentiments for the one you love.  I then drew a heart around it and filled the heart with a mixture of pink, pearl and silver sequins, all finished off with a little dot of silver in their centres.  I wanted to keep it very simple so the lovely sentiment could speak for itself, so I embellished with a simple twine bow and matted onto black card.

I really like how this card came out, simple but effective, I really hope you do too.

As always, I'd love to read your comments so please feel free to leave them!

Jillxxx

Clearly obsessed with Simon...

Hi everyone,

I'm sharing a card I have been dyyyeing to have a blast at!  I eventually put my order in at the awesome Clearly Besotted, and also treat myself to the beautiful  'Gansai Tambi' watercolour set from Kuretake, on the recommendation of the one and only Jennifer Mcguire (we all wanna be Jennifer, right?).   And as the Wednesday Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp this week is, 'Anything Goes', I figure I may as well pop it in there as well.

You can find all the deets for the Simon challenge here...

Anything goes

And here's my card...

 

...So I think it's pretty clear to see I need to practise practise practise my watercolour skills! ...but I tell you what - that will be an absolute pleasure with these stamps (Clearly Besotted, 'Fresh Flowers'), and these paints!

These paints really are the most beautiful colours with the most amazing texture.  Just delightful!

So the card is very simple, just a case of heat embossing one of the flower stamps, watercolouring it  using the Gansai Tambi paints, and adding this gorgeous 'Thank you' sentiment form Wplus9's 'Hand Letter Thanks' set, then matting it all onto this lovely pool coloured glitter card, and adding a few clear gems to finish it off.

I hope you like it, as always, I would love to read your comments.

See you soon.

jillxxx

Sequins and wishes...

Hi everyone,

I am sharing a card I have made for the challenge going on over at Avery Elle, which this week, is sequins!  And you can find all the deets here...

I heart Avery Elle

Now I am already out and proud on this one...I LOVE SEQUINS!!!  This is one trend that I don't mind sticking around for a while.  They're just so lovely and shiny, and lovely and shiny and..., well you get my gist.

And here's my card...

I started with a piece of watercolour card and inked the background using distress inks (Chipped Saphire, Seedless Preserve, Broken China, and Mustard Seed ), going from dark around the edge, to light in the middle.  I've seen a few of these 'galaxy' effect backgrounds recently, and wanted to give it a whirl, the idea I had in my head was of a night sky with the sequins representing stars, which double as wishes...you still following?  So....once my card was inked up I die-cut a star from the middle using Lawn Fawn's 'Puffy Stars'.  At the same time, I also cut a star from the fornt of my card blank, and a frame to border my aperture, all from the same die set.  I then turned my attention back to my background and added some water drops, some shimmer mist, and some white and silver paint splats.  I heat embossed my star frame in Ranger's 'Liquid Platinum' and adhered it to my card front.  I stamped this delightful 'Make a Wish' sentiment from Avery Elle's gorgeous 'Storybook' stamp set onto acetatate and heat embossed in Ranger's 'Black Sparkle', adhered to the back of my star aperture, surrounded in shaker tape, and filled with sequins of all different colours, shapes and sizes.  I then covered up at the back with more acetate so that you can see through the whole aperture.  I added a piece of lovely silver glitter card to the inside of my card for a little added shimmer, embellished with another few sequins...coz enough is NEVER enough, right?  And there you have it.  I really enjoyed making this card and think it's full of fun...and of course wishes :)

As always, I would love to read any comments so feel free to leave them.

Thanks for looking.

Jillxxx

Ombre Ombre Arriba Arriba (sorry, just could not reisit)

Hi everyone,

I'm back with another card I have made for this weeks A blog named hero challenge.  The theme this week is 'Ombre', hence my ridiculous post title...it's the small things in life eh?

You can find all the deets here...

A Blog Named Hero 'Ombre' Challenge

And here's my card...

I started with a piece of card and inked it up using 'Peacock Feathers' Distress Ink, making sure to put a really heavy layer along the bottom, and to ease off and lighten gradually as I went up, to create the 'Ombre' effect.  I then stencilled over the top with Ranger's texture paste, using Hero Arts' 'Triangle Pattern Stencil', and left aside to dry.  Once dry, I placed my stencil back over the texture paste, and repeated my 'ombre' inking, over the top.  i stamped this lovely sentiment, from Hero Arts', 'Heyday Sentiments', and framed it in a speech bubble from the Clearly Besotted 'You Said It' set.  I wrapped some twine around my card to give focus to the message, I do love a tone on tone look, but it does sometimes mean things can get lost.  I cut a piece of grey card to use as a mat, stamped some vertical stripes onto it in Versmark ink, and heat embossed in clear powder, for extra interest.  I then embellished with some grey enamel dots, some clear 'waterdrop' gems, and a little ribbon flag right in the top corner, and put it all together.

I'm really happy with this card, I think it would work great as a 'guy card'.

I hope you like it, as always, please feel free to comment as I love reading 'em :).

See you soon.

Jillxxx

Ombre delight...

Hi everyone,

Well, I am in the middle of a delightful week off work so have been on a crafty frenzy.  I love having time to indulge your-self in the things you love!

So the first card I'm sharing is a card I have made to enter into this week's challenge over at a blog called hero, which this week is 'Ombre', and you'll find all the details here...

a blog named hero challenge #50 'Ombre'

And here's my card...

 

I started by stamping out Hero Arts' 'Open Flower' in Versamark ink, various times, onto a piece of watercolour paper, and  heat embossed in a pearl white embossing powder.  I watercoloured each separate flower in a different coloured distress ink (Seedless Preserve, Salty Ocean, Peacock feathers, and Picked Raspberry), creating my 'ombre' effect by adding more and more water as I went to make the ink lighter .  I'm not gonna lie, this wasn't the quickest process, especially with the flower petals being so teeny tiny...but I love the effect it created, and like I say...I'm on holiday so had the time to just lose myself, and very relaxing it was too!  I then inked up a separate piece of card in 'Peacock feathers', again, creating an 'ombre' effect, by putting a load of ink down at the bottom, and getting lighter as I inked further up the card.  I then die-cut the 'Thanks' sentiment using WPlus9's 'hand lettered thanks die' from it.  I also cut the same die from a sheet of balsa wood to use as a backing and to give a little extra oomph!  I then  embellished with a few sequins and added a strip of kraft card down the side which I had stamped with vertical stripes, and clear embossed.

I really love the Ombre look and am happy with how this card turned out.  I like the softness of the watercolour but think the colours still pack a punch.

As always, I love to read any comments so please feel free to leave them.

See you soon.

Jillxxx

Summer colour with the greats...

Hi there,

I'm sharing another card I made which combines both criteria for Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, which this week is 'Summer' (I live in the North of England, so 'Summer' only really exists in my imagination ha), and the August colour palette challenge going on over at the delightful Make The Day Special....

        

So I chose scheme 'B', from the MtDS colour scheme, and incorperated it with  the 'summer' theme from SSS, and here's where it took me...

I used Altenew's 'Hannah Elements' stamp set and stamped out these gorgeous images from it, off the page and around the edges, and heat embossed them in white powder.  I then watercoloured the background and images using Peerless watercolour in the lovely deep red, deep purple and greens from the colour pallet.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's 'Our friendship grows' set and is heat embossed using Ranger's 'Black Sparkle' embossing powder.  I embellished with a few purple glitter enamel dots, and there you have it..  I really like how this card came out.  The Peerless watercolours (which I bought on the recommendation of the one and only, queen of cards, Jennifer Mcguire) are just so gorgeous, the colours are so intense and vibrant, I can't wait to practise and play more with them.

Well, it's late here, so that's all from me folks.

As always, I would love to read your comments so feel free to leave them :)

See you soon.

Jillxxx

Summer haze...

Hi everyone,

Today I'm sharing a card I made for the blog challenges going on over at Simon Says Stamp and Make the day Special, two of the best places on the entire interweb in my opinion haha, enablers at their finest!

Make the Day Special's challenge this month is a colour palette theme - choose your palette and make a design based around it -

And this week's theme over at the Simon Say Stamp Wednesday Challenge is 'Summer' -

So I took option 'A' from Make the day Specials challenge, and the theme from Simon Says Stamp challenge, and this is where it took me...

I used Lawn Fawn's 'Blue Skies' stamp set and my Peerless Watercolours, and that's pretty much it.  I used watercolour card and, after putting a blue wash over the background, stamped out my individual elements I wanted to use onto a separate sheet , watercoloured them and cut them out (including the teeny tiny bits where the strings attach to the basket - a test of patience for an impatient girl like my-self!).  I adhered my clouds directly to the background, but added varying widths of foam tape to my balloons to give real dimension and the impression of space and distance as they float, on the summer breeze, through the sky. I finished my panel with a quick blend of Mustard Seed' Distress Ink around the edge to really create that lovely summer evening haze.  

At this point, for safety reasons, I think it's fair we all ask...'hold on just one second...who on earth is piloting the balloons?'...well, I'm not sure, so my story, and I'm sticking to it, is...they are anchored to the ground with a rope we can't see, awaiting passengers, or, if there is such a thing, auto pilot :)

I stamped my sentiment, also from the Blue Skies set, onto vellum, heat embossed in white, and used Mama Elephant's 'Landscape Trio Cuts' die to make it look like it is on a rolling hill.  I finished with a single enamel heart, and there you have it.

I hope you like it.  As always, I'd love to read your comments so feel free to leave any :)

Until next time,

Jillxxx

Paper Scratcher...

Hi everyone,

A quick post to share a card I made for Simon Say's Stamp's Monday challenge.

This week, the challenge is 'Scratch it', and the idea is to embrace your grungy side.  Well, as a teen of the nineties who had (and let's face it - still does) a major obsession with 'grunge'...nobody needs to ask me twice to embrace it :)

And here's my card...

Now...what did I do?  ...It would probably be easier to tell you what I didn't do haha -  Went to town, that's what I did!  But seriously, I had such fun getting mucky and messed up with this card.  

The background is a watercolour wash using distress stains, with watercolour overstamping using Kaisercaft's Script stamp and distressed edges using Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo.  I then stenciled some large flowers in embossing paste, also coloured to match using Peeled Paint, over the top and covered in a sparkly embossing powder which I melted once my paste was dry.  The hearts are from, what I think is Balsa Wood (??), I got it from a hobby shop aaaages ago and have been dieing to colour and die-cut it, so I did.  I dyed it using more distress stains, mixed with mica powder to give them shimmer (doesn't show up too great on the pics), and over stamped them in Vintage Photo using Kaisercraft's 'Sheet Music'.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts 'Friend set and is stamped on an off-cut of the background.  I then matted everything on to black card and mounted onto a kraft card card blank.  Phew *Takes a breath and wipes brow*

I loved making this card, and loved how it turned out.  

Hope you like it too.  Thanks for looking.  As always, all comments are more than welcome :)

Jillxxx

We all ♥ Avery Elle

Hi everyone,

A quick post to share a card I have made for the challenge going on over at the brilliant Avery Elle Challenge blog.

This week the challenge is...Kraftt!!! Woooooo Hoooooo!!!  I LOVE KRAFT!!!

And here are all the deets...

AEIHeartUChallenge

And here's what I came up with...

I love using kraft card and wanted to show how kraft can still be really bright, jazzy and fun...so thought I would use my gilding flakes on it for some real dazzle!

I started by making my own card base from Neenah Desert Storm kraft card, and cut a smaller piece of the same kraft card to use as a topper.  I then stamped this piece with the amazing Tweed background stamp, from Hero Arts, in Versmark ink and heat embossed over it using Ranger's 'Sticky embossing powder'.  This stuff is awesome, it works in the exact same way as an embossing powder, but stays 'sticky' when melted so you can add all sorts to it - gilding flakes, glitters, flocks , foils, and it all just sticks to it!  Awesome.  So, in any case...once melted, I added my gorgeous silver gilding flakes.  Ohhhhh gilding flakes, so beautiful and luxurious, just lush :)  I then die-cut a circle aperture form it and used the reverse side of my circle to repeat the gilding flakes process, but this time, stamping out my gorgeous 'Happy Birthday to you' sentiment form my 'go to' birthday set from Avery Elle, 'Cake and Candles'.  Just love this set, so fun.

I then matted with a backing of bright yellow paper from Lawn Fawn ' Let's Polka' paper pad, and adhered my stamped circle to the backing.  I used double stacked foam pads on my topper to give some real dimension, and embellished with a few cute ribbons, made into flags and tabs, and a little twine bow.

And there we go.  I really hope you like it, as always, I would love to read your comments.

Jillxxx