Simply Sweet Forest Friends

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I'm keeping things sweet & simple...

...using the adorable Sweet Forest Friends from My Favourite Things.

Oh my, the little critters in this Sweet Forest Friends are soooo cute...I just can't!  The style of this set is so sweet, and lines so simple I wanted to stick with the same theme with my design and create a very cute and clean card.

I started by cutting my frames using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rectangles.  I took the centre panel and stamped my design onto it.  I masked off as I went so the little critters could all be gathering in front of the tree.  I stamped my sentiment from the same Sweet Forest Friends set onto my panel and clear heat embossed.  I then coloured my images and my background using Zig Clean Colour Real Brush markers and left to dry.

Whilst that was drying, I took my outer frame and stamped one of the teeny flowers from the set all over it, I also took this time to stamp out a ton of the small flowers from the set onto a spare scrap of card.  I then coloured all of my pieces, again, using my Zigs and fussy-cut the teeny weeny flowers.

Once all my colouring was compete and my pieces were dry, I pieced them back together, adding an extra layer beneath my main panel so it stands slightly forward.

I then added my little flowers to my scene.  Once my scene was complete, I felt it was lacking one little touch, so stamped out, coloured and fussy cut a few of the little butterflies from the set and added them to my card.  This finished off my piece a treat and added some lovely dimension.

I finished by adding Glossy Accents to my critters eyes and noses and there you have.

I really hope you like it.

As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

    

Celebrate the summer

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I'm celebrating the arrival of summer!!!

With a whole load of Lawn Fawn loveliness & a helping hand from Hero Arts.

Can you actually believe how hot it's been?  Of course, typically, we couldn't handle it and started praying for rain...which we only had to wait two days for up here in Newcastle whilst the rest of the country continues to bake & now we all want the sun back haha.

I started my card by inking up my background with some bright yellows, gradually fading it out. I added a sprinkle of water to pick up some colour & a spritz of white ink to add a little interest.  I then mixed some texture paste with some of the yellow ink and, using a spatula, spread it over this lovely Hero Arts Honeycomb stencil.  I then set my background aside to dry.

My sweet summery bees are from Lawn Fawn's  Hello Sunshine which I stamped out and coloured using my Zig Real Brush markers.  I fussy cut them, purposefully chopping off their wings (ouch-eee, sorry little fellas); I then stamped them out again onto vellum, this time time fussy cutting the little wings and adding them back onto the bodies.  

My flutter of foliage is from Lawn Fawn's Fab Flowers, stamped out in an array of bright colours and cut using the matching dies.

My sentiment is Lawn Fawn's Scripty Hello which I cut several times and adhered together to create a more substantial piece which, once built-up, I covered in a couple of layers of clear embossing powder to give it a lovely shiny finish.  I finished my sentiment by partially stamping the 'Hello Sunshine' from Mama Elephant's Spring Garden, stamped onto vellum and cut into a a banner.  I love creating my own message by mixing different sentiments together.

I built up my scene and once I was happy with the placement of my pieces, I adhered them in place.  I then mounted my panel onto a dark grey cardbase, up into the corner, and there you have it.

A nice bright summery card to celebrate the sunshine...now where's that fan...

As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx 

Helping Easter chicks party hearty!

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week - I've got a question.  How do you turn a bunch of Easter chicks into all year round party animals?

Add party hats & balloons of course!  We all know there ain't no party until the balloons & hats make an appearance!

I'm sure you are the same as me and have plenty adorable sets, like the Chirpy Chirp Chirp set from Lawn Fawn which I've used here, that you dearly love and want to use all year round but they're focused on a certain theme, like with this set it's Easter.  So this week I thought I'd do a quick design to share how easy it is, with a few simple accessories, to stretch your stamps to fit any occasion.

I started by stamping out a simple scene using Lawn Fawn's Chirpy Chirp Chirp and colouring using my Zig Real Brush Markers with water to create a watercolour effect.  I also used my pens to create a wash across my background.  I then took Lawn Fawn's Party Animals set and stamped out the party accessories I wanted to add to my Easter chicks. I chose a selection of hats & stamped out a couple of balloons.  I then coloured these using my Zigs and carefully fussy-cut.

I then took Lawn Fawn's Scripty Cheers die and cut it straight from my background, cutting it a few times from black card at the same time.  I then built all my cuts back up to add depth, and pieced it back into my background.

I then built up my scene by adding the party hats and balloons to my little cute chicks, using foam adhesive to add dimension after already stamping the balloon strings straight onto my card.

I added a slick of Glossy accent to my balloons, hats, and chiks beaks, and a scattering of clear sequins to add a little sparkle and there you have it.

Easter Chicks ready to party hearty all year through!

I really hope you like it and it encourages you to get more from your themed sets.

As always everything I used is linked below.See you next week.

Jillx

Dreaming of adventure.

Hi everybody,

Jill here and this week, I'm dreaming of adventure...

...using the incredibly beautiful Boho Vibes from Reverse Confetti.

I'm a fully fledged unadulterated hippy to the core, so this set is right up my alley.  I love anything that sends a message as oppose to just a sentiment so fell in love with this set the second I saw it.

I wanted to keep in theme with the design of the set and was hoping to achieve a chilled out, laid back cool, tie-die kinda vibe.

I started by heat embossing one of the large arrows from the set across my background in white.  I then took a load of my favourite inks, smooshing them on my craft mat then adding them to my background with a ton of water allowing them to mix and blend into each other, but quickly mopping up any areas that became too 'muddy'.  I wanted my panel to be completely flat as I knew I was going to do more stamping and heat embossing over the top so, once my background was dry, I ironed my panel in between 2 sheets of copier paper.  If you've never tried this technique before it is awesome; you get all the gorgeous pooling and gathering from the emboss resist, but once you've ironed the powder off, it leaves your panel totally flat.  Perfect for backgrounds and an incredibly handy technique to know!

Now I had a nice flat panel to work on, I set about stamping my main images.

The sentiment, arrow and dream catcher are all from the same Boho Vibes set.  I wanted my stamping to be done in silver embossing powder as I thought it would look beautiful against the ink colours, but it is also very easy for silver to get a little lost against a strong background so I had the idea to stamp it out first in black ink and clear heat emboss that, then re-stamp over the top in Versamark and add the silver.  it worked a treat, it gave a much stronger impression and added height to the embossing.

Despite it only being one layer so far, there was already a lot going on on this card so, after colouring the centre heart bright red, decided to leave it there.

I really like how this card came out, I hippy hope you do too!

As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

Racy in lacey for you

Hi everybody,

Jill here and this week I'm going a little racy in lace...

...using the beautiful Lace background from My Favourite Things mixed up with a few other delightful pieces.

I'm a background fiend, I love em'.  I see them, I fall for them, and I am absolutely powerless against snapping them up and, boy oh boy, this divine beauty from My Favourite Things was no exception, it absolutely knocked my socks off, just stunning.

I wanted to create a really luxurious card, over the top and bursting with different textures and materials, so that's what I was aiming for here.

I started by stamping out the Lace background and heat embossing in white.  I then made a mask from a heart die and ink blended through it onto my background in gorgeous deep purples, lightening up towards the middle.  Once I was happy with my blend, I added a few flicks of gold paint to add another layer of luxury.  I then cut the awesome For You from Lawn Fawn a few times and glued them together to create a nice big substantial sentiment.  I then smooshed my sentiment in Versamark ink and covered in gold sparkle embossing powder, repeating this a few times to make it very thick and molten metal like.  I then finished with another couple of layers of clear embossing powder to give it a final finishing touch and I'm glad I did as it really gave then sentiment a lovely look.

At this point I was already happy with how my card looked but like I said, I wanted this card to be over the top luxurious so wanted to add another element and another texture so I cut myself a couple of the Stitched Butterflies form Lil Inkers Design in vellum and layered them up one on top of the other and tied them together with some gold thread leaving a long tail for a further flutter of fancy :)

I finished with a scattering of sequins and by mounting my piece onto a dark grey card base.

I really hope you like it.

As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx