I made a stamp!

Hello - I have a bit of a different card today - not because of the colours, or the techniques, or the design, but because the leaf stamp that I used is handmade. 

Handmade by me!!!

My brother gave me a lino cutter and stamp carving kit a little while ago. It has some little rubber discs and a mini lino-cutting tool and blades, so that you can design and carve your own stamps! (The kit is from a company in the UK called Essdee - you can find them HERE). 

So, you start with a blank white disk of adhesive-backed rubber:

 You draw your design on it in pencil:

 You get out the appropriate blades - I remembered a little bit about doing lino cutting in school, and I started with the smallest blade to carve the detail, and then used the wider blade to remove the background:

I then decided to cut the stamp down so there was less background, and I mounted it onto an old acrylic block to test it with black ink.  This allowed me to decide which bits needed to be carved out a bit more:

I then cleaned it thoroughly before inking it with Versamark to white-emboss the leaves. Then I blended some Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks over the top, then stamped the leaf using the same ink colours over the top. I wiped the excess ink of the top off the white embossing with the ink blending tool. 

 I then prepped the card surface with my powder tool, before I used my MIST to stamp the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's "Big Scripty Greetings" in Versafine Onyx Black ink, and then embossed with clear embossing powder.

 Thanks for visiting :)

New baby congrats

 A Blog Named Hero has a Vellum challenge running all this month - have you entered yet?

I made this card using a cover up die from Lil' Inkers, a bunch of Distress Inks, and the Hero Arts "Congrats" stamp and cut set.

 I'm going to share this card at Virginia's View challenge "All about colours".

Thanks for visiting :)

Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Today, I am joining in with the summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop (anyone who knows me knows that I can't stand coffee, so I'm just pretending that this is a cup of tea!)

I used a tiny little stamp set that I have from the Gossamer Blue March 2014 main kit, and a stencil called "Pinwheel" from Kite. 

I'm going to share this card at Virginia's View challenge "All about colours", as I've used a rainbow!

Thanks for visiting :) 

Blues and greens shimmer and shine!

Hi, all! I'm here today with a card that I made 4 times - because each time I made it, I either made a mistake that was irretrievable, or my phone stopped recording the video. In the end, I gave up on recording a full video, but I have a teeny tiny video snippet to show how much this card shines!
*UPDATE - I went and made a video after all! You can check it out below.*  

I started by using the "leafy" stencil by Dina Wakley and added Distress Inks in Cracked Pistachio, Lucky Clover, Peacock Feathers and Blueprint Sketch.  I then added some Perfect Pearls powder in interference blue and interference green, before spraying with some Perfect Pearls mist over the top (all while the stencil was still in place).  I then cleaned off the stencil and dried the card with my heat gun, before replacing the stencil and adding Versamark over the stenciled design, and then adding Hero Arts clear embossing powder over the lot.  When I heat set that, the shimmer from the Perfect Pearls got trapped behind the shine of the embossing powder, to give a double kick of shimmer and shine.

 And because the photo does not do the shine justice, here's a video:

 I'm going to share this card at Virginia's View challenge "All about colours" - which includes colour blending. 

 I'll also be sharing over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - the theme this week is "add some shimmer"

Thanks for visiting :)

Vellum, copics and dies for A Blog Named Hero

I have a post over at A Blog Named Hero today, using vellum for our latest challenge, and a die from Lil' Inker Designs. Here's a sneak peek:

 Thanks for visiting :)

Rescuing a smudged card

Do you ever make the same card twice? I do, but I also make lots of mistakes! That's where this card came from - I made a card (you might have seen it a couple of weeks ago), but the first time I made it, I completely smudged the sentiment. The smudged version has been sitting on my desk until today, when I decided to cut the good bit of stamping out and add it to a new card.

And yes, it's not a white card base! (Shock horror!) I decided that the white background to the stamped flowers needed some colour for contrast (putting it onto white would make it look like an obvious mistake - but now that I've told you that it was a mistake anyway, it's irrelevant anyway!)

Thanks for visiting :)

My oldest Hero Arts stamp

Hi, everyone,
I have an extra post over at A Blog Named Hero today - please come and visit me there, because there is a chance to win a gift voucher!

I'll be linking this card up over at Virginia's View Challenge - all about colours!

Thanks for visiting :)

More rainbow butterflies

I couldn't resist making another rainbow butterfly card! 

I masked and stamped the butterfly from Hero Arts "Antique Engravings" multiple times in Hero Arts Intense Black ink, before colouring in a rainbow of Copic markers. I added some white gel pen dots, and some Wink of Stella over the butterflies. The sentiment is from Wplus9 "Strictly Sentiments. The front white panels were cut with the puffy cloud borders die from Lawn Fawn, and popped up on some dimensional adhesive.

I'll be linking this card up over at Virginia's View Challenge - all about colours!

I'll also be joining in at Lawnscaping challenge, where the theme is "off kilter" 

Thanks for visiting :)

Rainbow butterflies

Just dropping in to share a card with you before I get right back to marking exams. I used my favourite Hero Arts butterfly for this card, with lots of masking and Copic colouring.

I will be sharing this card over at CAS(e) this sketch.

I'm also linking this card up over at Virginia's View Challenge - all about colours!

Thanks for visiting :)

Matilda

I am taking my three nieces to see Matilda the Musical in early July - it was a surprise until last week, when we had a family birthday celebration and the three girls were given their cards:

The looks on their faces when they all opened up their cards was fabulous!

 Thanks for visiting :)

Beautiful vellum

How do you attach vellum to a card when you don't want to wrap it around a panel on the card front?  Hide the adhesive under sequins, enamel dots and under the stamping!

I created a watercolour panel using Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Blueprint Sketch. I then cut it on a curve with dies from Lawn Fawn. 
The vellum was cut using a Lil' Inkers designs stitched circle die, and then stamped and white embossed with Hero Arts "You're so lovely" stamp set and white embossing powder.  I added a sprinkling of sequins and enamel dots, mainly to hide the adhesive!

Thanks for visiting :)

Vellum birthday card for A Blog Named Hero

I have a card over at A Blog Named Hero today - here's a sneak peek:

 Thanks for visiting :)

a2z clean and simple challenge

I have a bright, happy, clean and simple card to share with you today.

I used the "You're so Lovely" stamp set from Hero Arts, along with a bunch of Hero Arts shadow inks.  I flipped the flower stamps over and inked up the back with pale ink to stamp around the flower images. The sentiment was stamped in Versafine with my MISTI, and then clear embossed it. **  I finished with a sprinkling of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

 **confession - I made this card twice, because on my first attempt, I totally smudged the sentiment!

I made this card to join in with the Clean and Simple challenge at a2z Scrapbooking - you can find the challenge HERE.

CASology also has a CAS  challenge this week - and it's a very special challenge! #200!  Congratulations to everyone at CASology for this exciting milestone!

Thanks for visiting :)