A Sketchy Hello...

Hi There,

I would like to share a card I have made for the current challenge going on over at the awesome A Blog Named Hero.

Here are all the details...

Here is the sketch...

                                                        

And here is my card...

So, the awesome and delightful,  Krisitna Werner,  did a 'Live Chat' on YouTube the other day.  I asked her, 'with so many new stamp sets released all the time, how do you make sure your older sets still see the light of day'.  Kristina answered that she regularly goes through her collection, and pulls out any sets she hasn't use in a while and would like to re-visit, and makes sure to use them.  'Well', I thought, 'if it's good enough for Kristina, it's good enough for me!'.  So that's exactly what I did, and I chose to give some love to the gorgeous little chaps form the Hero arts 'Happy Day Animals' Set.

I started by stamping out my sentiment from the Hero Arts 'Heyday Sentiments' set, and heat embossing in white powder, to use as a resist.  I then washed over the rest of my card using Distress Inks - Mermaid Lagoon, Tumbled Glass, and Evergreen Bough - then set aside to dry.

I punched out three circles and stamped out my chosen characters.  I then grabbed everyone's new favourite toys - my Zig Real Colour Brush Pens - and coloured my little cuties in.  I added a band of teeny little love hearts across the top of my card, in Mustard Seed Distress Ink, (mixed with a little water), to keep in line with the original sketch, and covered these in Glossy Accents for a little extra interest.  I added a wrap of bright yellow twine before adhering my little framed fellas over the top, using foam adhesive to add some dimension.  I then matted the whole thing onto a black card base, leaving only the edges peeking out because, well, because I like it like that :)

And there you have it.  I have loved giving this older set some love, and am going to make sure all my collection receives the love it so rightly deserves!

I hope you like it.

see you next time.

Jillxxx

Dancing Bear

Hi everybody,

Hope you are all well.

I've got a fun card to share with you today.

I used Lawn Fawn's 'Party Animal's' set as the main focus of my card.  As soon as I set eyes on this set, I thought it looked like the animals were dancing - and I couldn't wait to help them shake what their mama's gave them!  So that's exactly what I done...

I have no idea what this type of card is called - but the little cute bear is on invisible thread, so spins, and twirls, and dances like the party animal he is :)

Woah...check me out...yeah I added a video...(I think)!  Excuse my inky fingers - but I'm sure I'm in the right crowd to understand!

Everything on this card is Lawn Fawn, (megafan).  The cute critter's and my sentiment are from the the Party Animal set, the tree's are from Joy to the Woods, the banner is from Home Sweet Home, I used the Grassy Border die for my grass (state the obvious why don't you, Jill?), and all the patterned paper is, yup, from Lawn Fawn.  

I took all the elements I wanted to use to create my scene, stamped them out, coloured them using alcohol markers, and fussy cut.  I gave the bear a party pat, and some cutlery, (because everybody knows the best thing about a party is the party food!), which are included in the set, and all of which I had to stamp, colour, and cut twice, as I needed the matching image on the front and back.

I inked up my background, cut a circle from the centre, and built my scene around it.  To make my bear 'dance', I simply stuck the two coloured images back to back, with a string of invisible thread sandwiched between the two, then adhered the thread at the top and bottom of my die cut circle.  To keep everything nice, neat and tidy, I covered the back with a piece of matching die cut card.  I added a piece of patterned paper on the back wall, so it looks pretty through the peep hole, and there you have it.  a dancing bear all ready to party with his pals :)

I hope you like it.

As always, everything  I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

         

Do more of what you love...

Hi everyone,

A quick post to share a card I have made for the current challenge going on over at the awesome Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog, and this time round, 'Simon Says Use Your Favourite Technique and/or Product'.

Now, I'm greedy, so I went with my Favourite EVERYTHING!!!  And here's where it took me...

So, my favourite things in this delightful world of craft are - watercolour washes (especially when used with a resist), Distress Inks (especially when used as a watercolour wash), and in-laid die-cutting (especially when used with a Distress Ink water colour wash :) )

I used Neat and Tangled's 'Hello There' stamp and matching die set for my card.  

I started with a piece of watercolour card, and stamped out the first line of my sentiment in clear powder, and heat embossed.  I then washed over the front of my card with three different Distress Inks - Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, and Peacock Feathers - allowing a slight overlap of each colour to create a soft blend.  once dry, I die-cut this gorgeous swirly 'Hello' from my piece, and, after adding a few layers to the back to give some dimension and to allow it to pop forward form the page, I 'in-laid' it back onto my card panel.

I used the same three Distress Inks to create splatters across my card front, and there you have it.

All my favourite products and techniques, whilst staying true to my favourite kind of design...Simple, yet bright and bold!

I really hope you like it.

Jillx

In the White Room...

Hi everybody,

I would love to share a card I have made for the current Mama Elephant Blog Challenge, which this time round, is 'White Space'.  Now this challenge is actually held over on Mama Elephant's Flickr, so go check it out to see all the other entries, but I like to share everything here as well...so I am :)

And here's my card...

I used Mama Elephant's 'Bloomsies', and the ridiculously cute and adorable little mouse from the newer, 'Woodland Gifts' set, to create my card.

I started by die-cutting a small circle from my card front, stamping out this lil' cute guy onto it, and colouring him with alcohol markers, adding the little heart flowers from the 'In My Heart' set.  I then took a selection of flowers from the 'Bloomsies' set, and stamped them out, around the circle, in some lovely bright vibrant inks, to create a kind of bouquet vibe.  I added a few layers of black card behind my circle die-cut, to make it 'pop' off the page, and in-laid it back into the card front.  I then stamped out my sentiment, also from the 'Woodland Gifts' set, and heat embossed it in Black Sparkle powder.  I embellished very simply, with few black enamel dots, and there you have it.

Nice, bright and colourful, yet simple and sweet with a whole load of white space.

I really hope you like it.

see you next time.

Jillx

Wishing on a Starry Rainbow...

Hi everybody,

I'd love to share a card I have made for the current challenge going on over at the delightful AE I Heart U Challenge Blog.  And this time around, the theme is 'Rainbow'.

And here's where i went with it...

So, obviously, I went with a really CAS design.  

I started by tracing around a small circle die, and stamping out this wee little cute star from the Storybook set several times around it, rubbing out my pencil marks afterwards.  And then for the fun part...I got to play with my brand spanking new Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Pens...eeeeek!!!  These bad boys seem to have taking the craft world by storm of late, so, obviously, I HAD to have them.  Now, you can see how small these wee little stars are, so by 'play', I guess I mean more 'unwrap them and hold them lovingly for a while', but the colours are beautiful and intense so worked wonderfully for the 'rainbow' of stars I wanted to create.  Once I'd coloured my stars, I coated them in glossy accents, and gave each one a small sprinkle of glitter,..because rainbows are beautiful and magical...and should always be covered in glitter :)  I stamped out my sentiment, also from the Storybook set, and heat embossed in Black Sparkle powder.  I finished by matting my panel onto black card, and adding to my card base with foam adhesive.

And there you have it, a Clean and Simple. rainbow of stars.

I really hope you like it.

Jillx

Stars, Stripes, and Shakers...

Hi everyone,

Id love to share a card I have made for the current Lawnscaping Challenge, which this time around, in honour of the upcoming 4th July, is 'Stars and Stripes'.

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

So, obviously, it's a wee little shaker card!  I'm not sure if we're meant to be 'done' with shakers yet, if it's time to 'move on'...but I'm not, I refuse to, I ain't ever giving them up coz i love em'!

I started by creating my own patterned paper, stamping out a couple of different widths of stripes in blue and red, and adding the dashed line form Belinda's Borders in green.  I stamped out the little star from Trim the Tree, gave them all a cute little face from the Milk & Cookies set, coloured them all using alcohol markers, and cut them out.  I used the journal die to cut the centre out of my panel and added acetate and shaker tape behind to create my shaker space.  I added all my cute stars, some wood veneers, and backed with some delicious, sparkly, striped patterned paper.  My sentiment is from the Chit Chat set, and is stamped on black card, heat embossed in white powder, and cut out.  I embellished with a scattering of die cut black hearts, and there you have it.

A simple, stripey, star filled, shaker :)

I really hope you like it.

See you next time.

Jillx

The Boys are back in town...

Hi everyone,

So, this week, it's all about the boys. boys, boys!

I know it's a bit of a 'thing' that we as crafter's all share a dreaded fear of 'men's cards', but honestly, I think that's only because it conjures up visions involving generic images of golfing, fishing, cars, and gardening!  It doesn't have to be that way surely!  

I'm a massive fan of graphic cards, and love nothing more than a cool background with a bold sentiment - so that's what I went for.

I started with one of the cool designs from Mama Elephant's 'Zennith Borders' set, stamped it out three times, and heat embossed it in white powder to use as a resit.  I then washed over using various blue toned Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Salty Ocean - and set aside to dry.  I cut a panel of vellum, slightly thinner than my background, and, built up and stamped out this huge, awesome sentiment from Mama Elephant's 'Happy Everything' set, (still one of my favourite sets...EVER!), and heat embossed in Platinum Sparkle (...even boys deserve a little sparkle in their world!).

The Zennith Borders set includes a bunch of little geometric shapes that work alongside the different borders, so I took the little triangle from the set, stamped it out a load of times, and heat embossed them all, again, in Platinum sparkle.  I then cut the shapes out, and used them to build up the graphic design of the card.  I fixed my vellum panel to my background by adding tiny dots of glue behind each little triangle, so that nothing would show through the front.  

Now granted, this isn't exactly a 'butch/blokey' card, but that's kind of my point - does it really need to be?  I don't think so, and I know that any of the chaps in my life would be happy as Larry to receive a less stereotypical card!

I hope you like it.  As always, all the products I used are linked below, so be sure to go check them out.

See you next week.

Jillx