Christmas Elf to Birthday Pixie

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and today, I'm mixing up a brand new Christmas set...

By taking the cutest little Christmas elf out there, and changing her into the cutest little Birthday Pixie...

I have no doubt you are all in the same boat as me, whereby we want NEEEED all the newest sets as soon as they're released, but obviously we don't all have a bottomless pit of money, so sadly, we need to reason with ourselves make excuses on how we can justify our spends haha.  And, again, if you're anything like me, no time does this come more into play, than with the Christmas releases.  They're always awesome, always adorable, and always impossible to resist - but because you only use them once a year - it makes it all the more important to be able to stretch them.  So that's what I've hoped to do for you today.

I used Mama Elephant's 'Chrismtas Spirit' set, changing it up into a little 'Happy Birthday' scene.  I die-cut a panel of card into various pieces to create my scene, using Mama Elephant's Landscape Trio, and Lawn Fawn's Grassy Border, watercolour washed them, and die-cut a circle from it.  I also die-cut a circle from by plain white background panel  and in-laid my scene into it.  I then stamped out my little cute character and several presents from the 'Christmas Spirit' set, and a couple of balloons from Paper Smooches Hullabaloo set.  I then watercoloured and fussy cut them all and built up my scene using foam adhesive.  I then stamped out my sentiment from Mama Elephant's 'Woodland Gifts' set.  I added some black strings to my balloons, mounted onto black card to make my scene 'pop', and there you have it.

I hope this has gave you the excuse you need to get EVERYTHING you want haha - Go on, you deserve it - there's always other ways to stretch our sets :)

As always, everything is linked below, so be sure to have a peek in store.

See you next week.

Jillx

      

  

Need a Hug?

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and today, I'm offering up some hugs!

I used the new Paper Smooches 'Comforting Hugs' set again this week.  I just can't put it down, such an incredibly delightful set of images and sentiments.  The designs themselves are oh so sweet and simple, so I stuck with a pretty simple design of my own.

I started by stamping out my sentiment and this cute little cactus onto the centre of my card, and colouring the cheerful little chap using Distress Inks as watercolour.  I then gave him a wash of clear Wink of Stella, a layer of Glossy Accents, and left to dry completely.  I then created a circle mask, and used a chevron border stamp to create a background within the circle, using Versamark ink and clear heat embossing to act as a resist.  Whilst the mask was still in place, I washed over a mix of  Distress Inks, (Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, and Mustard Seed), not taking too much care as I wanted it to spill and splodge around the edge.  I then created a few little flicks of the same inks to create a little more interest to the backdrop.  I embellished with co-ordinating enamel dots and a scattering of clear sequins, matted onto black card, and mounted everything onto a Kraft card base.

                             

This set is one of those rare finds for me, whereby I want to use every single image, and every single sentiment from it!  I just think it's so adorable!  

As always, everything I used is linked below, and I have also linked an almost identical chevron set to the one I used, so be sure to check it out.

See you next week.

Jillx

         

Paper Smooches Paper Piecing...

Hi everybody,

Jill here with some pretty simple paper piecing for you...

I used Comforting Hugs from Paper Smooches newest release to make my card, and boy what a release it was!  And Lawn Fawn's Let's Polka Mon Amie, 6 x 6" paper pad.

This Comforting Hugs set is just so cuuute!  I am a hugger, and a hug lover, so it is perfect for me!  So many cute images, and sentiments that can fit so many occasions!  The gentle softness of the Let's Polka Mon Amie paper pad just seemed to match perfectly.

I stamped my image out onto a few different patterned papers from the same pad, fussy cut the various pieces, and adhered back in place.  I then cut my panels using Mama Elephant's Index Card Creative Card's Die, and my hill using Mama Elephant's Landscape Border Trio Die.  The Clouds are cut from plain white card  using Paper Smooches Curly Clouds Die, and the sun is from Lawn Fawn's Spring Shower's set.

My sentiment is from the same gorgeous 'Comforting Hugs' set, and is stamped in black and clear heat embossed on cream card.  I have embellished with a couple of enamel dots, matted onto kraft card, then the whole thing mounted onto a cream card base.  And there you have it, a really simple but, hopefully, cheerful, bright, and effective card.

As always, everything I have used is linked below.

One last thing before I go...did you notice my blunder?  Take a closer look...I stuck my sun on the wrong way round so the hearts are lying on their side!  DOH!  What a dafty.  Never mind, I'm sure we've all been there!  10 points to whoever spotted it :) 

See you next week.

Jillx

  

     

  

Pretty Paisley Patterns...

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and today I've got two cards for you...

Using the same stamp, in the same way, creating the same style, but resulting in two very different looks...

I used Wplus9's Paisley Patterns to create my cards.  I have had this stamp set for so long, and, every time I look at it, I love it...but was still to actually make something with it!  Shocking, I know.  So about blumming time, I showed it some love.

I concentrated on my background for both of my cards.  Heat embossing, in white, on karft card on one; and stamping out in colourful Hero Arts inks on the other.  You get loads of stamps in this set, and can build the patterns up in so many different ways, so many possibilities in one set.  I filled in all my empty space with the gorgeous little flourish stamps in the set, and added a touch of clear heat embossing to the Kraft card. 

I then used Wplus9's Hand Lettered Thanks Die, and cut it from the front of each panel.  I cut it several times, from scrap card, to build it up, and in-laid it back in.  I then cut the same die from vellum, covered on both sides in Stick-It.  I added the vellum to the top of the die-cut, added a layer of white glitter over the top, and sealed it all in with a layer of Glossy Accents.

I embellished the kraft card with a scattering of pearls, and the colourful card with a scattering of sequins, and there you have it.  Two, pretty  much, identically built cards, but two very different looks.

I hope you like them.  As always, everything I used is linked below, so be sure to go have a peek.

See you next week.

Jillx

   

The Sunday Strolling Walking Dead.

Hi everybody.

Holy macaroni - October already?!  That can only mean one thing...HALLOWEEEEEN!  And I'm getting into the spirit of things this week...

I saw this card doing the rounds in blogland this week, where one very talented lady had turned Mama Elephant's Penguins into Zombies!  It was so clever, and so funny, I just had to try something similar...

I used Mama Elephant's Sunday Stroll and Sunday Sentiments to build up my scene as the way the little boy and girl are standing looks just like the way zombies walk haha.

I added some scars and scratches to my little characters, and coloured using Distress Inks as watercolour.  If I had the time, I would have for sure re-done this card in a slightly different colour way as it has way too much blue and green, but hey ho, such is life.  I added the purple as that kind of smoky ground haze you always get in Zombie films lol.

I finished off my sentiment using Mama Elephant's Starry Night set to help make the card make sense...kind of haha.  Just go with me on this one, I didn't have any 'Zombie sentiments' lol.

This was so much fun to do...and I now want to 'Zombify' everything...I'm going to spend all of October turning my cute stamps into mean monsters!

I really hope you like it.  As always, everything is linked below so go make your own monsters!

See you next week.

Jillx

    

Decoupage for today

Hi everybody,

Jill here, I hope you're all well.  I've got a bit of simple, modern decoupage to share with you today...

I don't think I'm the only one who thinks of decoupage as maybe being a little dated, and it conjuring up images of little quaint cottages etc, but as soon as I saw this gorgeous set from Paper Smooches, I knew I wanted to decoupage this little beauty right up!

...and hopefully put a little modern twist on it with a CAS design

I stamped out my image, from Paper Smooches 'Best Buds', (an amazing set with a fresh modern take on florals - the stamps are almost tattoo like in their design - very cool), several times, and coloured them all the same using my Zig Real Brush Colour Pens and water.  I then worked out which bits would go where, what would be at the back, what would be at the front, (Ok Ok, it's a tiny simple design, it wasn't exactly brain surgary!), and cut out accordingly.  I washed a small section on my card panel in Peacock Feathers and Mustard Seed Distress Ink, and built up my decoupaged banner over the top, using tiny slithers of foam tape to give depth and dimension.

I wanted to keep everything clean and crisp, so matted onto some black card, and that was that.

I really hope you like it, as always, everything is linked up below so be sure to go have peek.

See you next week.

Jillx