More Pollycrafts

I said I'd got another of the lovely new Pollycrafts digi stamps coloured up ready to be made into a card and I've finally managed to get it finished tonight.

I used the sketch at Seize The Birthday as my starting point to create the card behind the super cute hippo I coloured with copics and fussy cut 

http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/seize-birthday-17-sponsored-by-bugaboo.html

 I stamped and embossed in white ep the HA numbers background and then used 3 shades of distress inks to blend over it.  I selected some stripey DP in co-ordinating colours and layered it up as per the sketch.  I die cut a couple of balloons and coloured them with ink and stamped sentiments that came with the matching stamp set (whimsey) linking them to the hippo with some twine.

There's a new crew over at Pollycrafts now - the Candy Floss Crew - do check them out http://pollycraftdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/meet-new-crew.html  I'll be colouring them up asap.  I'm entering this to the DT call again  http://pollycraftdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/new-images-and-dt-call.html

Hello Handsome

Another stunning Maille card over at CASE Study again this week http://casestudychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/case-study-challenge-141.html  I instantly fell in love with the colours and layout and for once felt inspired to play along (I often find the case study's quite indimindating!)

I decided to go one layer but instead of hearts wanted to try out my paint splatter stamp from The Artistic Stamper (I know I could just "splatter" by hand but it's hard to control it!) and just used the one stamp (there are two in the set along with swirls and rings and other exciting and useful things) in 3 shades of HA shadow ink (butter bar, orange soda and tide pool) rotating the stamp each time to add variety.  Rather than die cutting a sentiment I decided I wanted a strong black inked sentiment instead so instead turned to Year Round Sentiments from Hero Arts adding a little black pearl heart and a couple of black half pearls to draw the eye in.

I've spent a lot of time in the craft room this week unsuccessfully making "nothing" so I'm really pleased with how this turned out - first time - with no more wasted card stock for the bin!

Enjoy what's left of your weekend all.

Ho cubed

I was very happy with the theme at Less is More this week - nice and simple - just feature cats or dogs (or both) and in my case I opted for both http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/week-120-theme.html

For me it was a clear opportunity to start on my Christmas cards (yes I know it's only May but it's never too early!) with an image I got last year too late to make my cards as it's an exclusive from Simon Says Stamps in the USA.

I used a falling snow embossing folder on a 4" square card leaving the bottom clear so I could sit my trio on a hill of snow.  I stamped them onto coated card stock and coloured with copics and then paper pieced their hats and scarf before fussy cutting them out and gluing in place.  I know I fussy cut and paper piece a lot and I've had a few comments about it - my top two tips are to find some scissors you are comfortable with - I like Westcott's Titanium Ultra Smooth (I even do most of the "innie" bits with them as I'm not great with a craft knife) and then to move your image not your scissors and you'll get a much smoother cut.    I hand drew the hill and stamped the sentiment from the same set which I just love the humour of.   I'll be making a nice set of these for Christmas for sure.

Right - I need to get ready as I'm off to an art exhibition today - an one day event by our favourite local artist Pete McKee and this one is all about Sheffield so should be full of nostalgia!

Blooming Marvelous!

You'd think that the cue word of "BLOOMING" would be a blooming breeze - we all love flowers - have tonnes of flowers in our stash and loads of ways of using them right?  Well, it is the cue at CASology this week http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/week-44-bloom.html  and I've been VERY unsuccessfully trying to do "something different" with flowers all week for it.....

I played with felt, with masks, with stamps, with die cuts - you name it - I probably played with it - but everything was just bleugh!   I did spot this card by Maille as part of the new release for PTI this week though and I was really drawn to how she "squared off" the stamped and die cut images and I decided to try and case it.  I went with a die cut daisy which it turns out, is not the easiest shape to do this with - too much open space between the petals (hence the double daisy for the largest flower) but after a lot of messing around and taking things on and off about 2,638,452 times - I ended up with this.....

I used PTI embroidered blooms to add interest to the die cut centres and layered them up for dimension using the die cuts in the xcut daisy set (it has round and scalloped centres of different sizes to match)  The card stock is American Crafts Tropical set (another lovely bargain from TK Maxx) along with some spotty DP from my snippets draw.  I thought it needed quite a large sentiment to balance the flowers so went with one of my favourites from Many Birthday Wishes from Hero Arts

I'm also going to enter this into the simon says flower power challenge this week http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/simon-saysflower-power.html

and into Di's Sunday Snippets challenge - I didn't make much of a dint in my stash with this one - just half of a left over half sheet - but as the famous supermarket says "every little helps!"  http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/pixies-crafty-snippets-playground-week_12.html

Birthday Mood Board

I loved the inspiration photo on the Monday Mood Board over on the WPlus9 blog this week - the orange and green really spoke to me.  http://stampawaywithme.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/monday-mood-board-12.html   The Birthday theme is because both Dawn and her DH have birthdays coming up - so what better way to celebrate than with a gallery full of birthday cards ;-)

I wanted to add some solid blocks of the orange and green so immediately jumped on Quilt Prints and stamped up a full background with pear tart and morocco momento inks using the dotted diamond to pick up on the confetti in the image.  I LOVE stamping up this background - it's so relaxing - and soooo thrilling when the last bit of the pattern is stamped in place and all the little bits mean the design possibilities are near endless!

I took further inspiration from the stacked cups and threw in some red using my new favourite Fresh Baked set stacking up bowls and a jug and coating in glossy accents and adding a thin fussy cut black border to help it stand out from the quilt pattern.  Simply finished with an embossed black sentiment also from Fresh Baked and a black mat before mounting onto a 3 x 3 card base.

Pollycrafts is Back..........

Well I don't know about you, but I for one was very pleased when I found out that the closure of the Pollycrafts Digi store turned out to be much less of a permanent thing that we'd feared!   Good to have you back Paula - and with some GORGEOUS new designs and a DT call too - woo-hoo!  http://pollycraftdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/new-images-and-dt-call.html

For my first play I went with the "udderly" adorable birthday cow (comes with a sentiment too) - isn't just great?  I love the slightly fed up facial expression - looks like me whenever anyone tries to take my photo!!!  She's coloured with copics and fussy cut then layered on a circular nestie and on DP with a vellum border using an old MS punch as I'd forgotten just how much I like those too - sometimes its good to dig out your old stash.  Finished with some faux stitching to tie it all together and a HA sentiment forced into a curve around the nestie.

I have a hippo coloured up and ready to be made into a card from the same animal set so watch this space!   Pop on over to the blog and store to see the new designs (there's even a discount code for your first order....)

Clearly Besotted Day

I'm having a lovely crafting and reading day today - inside with the heating back on as it's blinking freezing in Yorkshire today.  I've played along in a few challenges - all with my new stash from Clearly Besotted.   Firstly, my favourite challenge of the week - the original CAS challenge - Less is More and this week is one layer week with the challenge of using a coloured base card.  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/week-119-one-layer.html  I went with a sheet of purple card from Stampin Up so cut it in half and made two sympathy cards.

I stamped and embossed the stunning orchid from Thinking of You in white detail and then embossed the large vase from Just Fabulous underneath.  I coloured the orchids with pencils - polychromos from faber castel - they work really well on dark card stock.  I finished each with different sentiments from Thinking of You and a little gentle splattering of watercolour paint using colours found in the flowers.

Next up, when I saw Lesley's challenge image over at Fusion, I knew I had to play along using my new My Cup of Tea stamps.  http://fusioncardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/fusion-card-challenge-hypothesis-6.html

I decided to try the fusion approach and use Jackie's sketch as well and this is what I came up with.

I used two of the tea cup stamps in 5 different shades of ink and die cut them with the matching cup die.  Once adhered on the black backround I added some co-ordinating ribbon, made a flag with more black card and added a sentiment and die cut teapot on top to finish.

For the final card I used the same stamps but this time for the 10 minute craft dash http://prettypinkposh.com/2013/05/10-minute-craft-dash-17.html

Annoyingly, I didn't press stop on my phone stopwatch when I finished the card so I don't have my time clock to share, which is a shame, as it's my quickest one yet!  It was on 7 min 44 seconds when I thought I pressed stop!   Very simply die cutting, stamping and a couple of hand drawn stitch lines.  I love the teapot in blue - reminds me of Wedgewood.

Embossed Felt

Even though it's been a 3 week trigger, I've only just found time to play along with the gorgeous image that Kath chose to inspire us all http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2013/04/tuesday-trigger-pretty-little-petits.html

I really loved this image (well it features cake and I LOVE cake!) but I really liked the thick texture of the woodgrain icing background and I really wanted to replicate that element of it in my card.  So to get the depth I wanted, rather than embossing paper with my SU Woodgrain folder, I decided to try embossing felt - the problem was it doesn't "hold" the detail, it just springs back to practically flat and normal.  So I was toying with the idea of trying a diluted pva on it but I was worried I'd ruin my folder, when I hit upon the idea an old fashioned household product - spray starch!   (Apparently you use it when ironing, but as I don't really know where the iron is kept I wouldn't know about that lol!)   However, it does work BRILLIANTLY in this instance.   I simply trimmed an oval of white felt, sprayed it heavily with starch and then popped it in the folder and through my big kick.   I rolled it back to the centre to keep the fold shut and left it there for 20 mins so it could "dry" in situ.  It came out a little damp still so I left it flat to air dry over night and washed the folder straight away.  In the morning I had a beautiful little crisp oval with deep embossed detail (it really doesn't show up nearly as well as I'd like on the photo) with lots of thick dimension from the felt.

For the rest of the elements of my card I took inspiration from the pretty cherry blossom flowers on top of the petits fours - I stamped the cherry blossom twig from the delightful Happy Everything stamp set from Clearly Besottted and embossed it with white EP and then coloured it with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush adding a gentle blue highlight around with a broken china distress marker.  I fussy cut it leaving a border and mounted it over my felt oval.

I brought in the darker pink from the flowers for the background to my sentiment which is also from Clearly Besotted, this time the newly released Just Fabulous set.  I then made one large pink petits four as a pink mat behind the oval and mounted onto a small square card.  This is one of my favourite recent makes - much more girly than my normal style but really pretty.

I'm also going to link it up the "just add woodgrain" challenge over at Just Add Ink this week - http://just-add-ink.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/jai165-just-addwoodgrain.html

It's turning out to be a Clearly Besotted Day - will be back with another post featuring more of their new stamps shortly.