Be your own Barista!!

 Hi there :)

I have a couple of cards today bearing gift cards of the beverage kind so I have used a new stamp set from Concord & 9th called Lets Chat.... I love the way you're looking down on the cup and saucer which makes it so different from anything else I've seen from any stamp companies :)

The set comes with some scripty sayings to stamp inside your cup but as Christmas is coming, I thought I'd try to be a creative barista myself and use the Paper Smooches Holly dies to make my own seasonal design on this cappuccino!! I made a stencil using a piece of scrap acetate and inked through it with brown distress ink. To take away the sharp edges I turned the stencil over and gently brushed the inky side against the watercolour card to highlight the texture of the card and make it look more like a dusting of chocolate :) The checked tablecloth is made by inking through this Candy Cane stripe stencil.

The body of the card is made using the really useful MFT Blueprints 16 dies... this set has some great components for gate-fold cards... you can see the MFT video here about this set and how to use the components. I have used two different coloured card bases to make my card and used the MFT Gift card Grooves dies on the inside to hold the gift card in place :)

For my second card I have used the same cup image but I was determined to use one of the circle stamps from the Lots of Blots set by Concord & 9th in my coffee cup!!

The circular blot stamps are smaller than the space in the cup so I found it easier to use a damp brush to add some ink around the rim of the cup before stamping the solid blot. I then over stamped the whole lot with the solid coffee stamp in the Lets Chat set with a light brown ink which takes the stark white lettering away and helps to blend the stamping and water-colouring... I hope that makes sense!!

Inside I've used another die from the gift card grooves set again ...

I love this stamp set and I will have to have a search through my stash to see what else I can use to be a creative barista for other occasions too ;)

                                      
                           

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Deck the Tree with lots of Snowflakes

Hi there :)

I have a few extra decorations to add to my Christmas tree this year thanks to the Pierced Snowflake dies from MFT. They are just gorgeous dies, there are three different shapes and sizes with beautiful pierced detail patterns on them.... I made two sets to show you just how lovely they are...

The first set are cut and layered brown card stock with the top layer of the stack cut from the Peel and Stick Wood Veneer paper in store... these are my favourite as the colours and texture are what Christmas is all about to me :)

I think I layered at least four brown snowflakes plus the wood paper layer... this gave them enough thickness and of course they are super lightweight too :)

I have inked the edges of the wood paper with dark brown ink but you could easily go to town with white gel pen highlights instead and give them a very Scandinavian feel. The greenery at the top is made using the Under the Mistletoe dies from Wplus9..... I cut a few branches from card in two different greens, trimmed them into smaller segments and arranged them on the tops of the snowflakes. The red berries are dots of red liquid pearls but glitter glue or small gems would work too :)

The second set are more traditional snowflake colour and texture......

...for these I cut and layered white card with a glitter paper as my top layer..... if you wanted you could have a glittery layer on the back too... easy to do as they're symmetrical :)
To stick them together I used little spots of wet glue as it gives you extra wiggle time to line the layers up ;)

For these, I just felt a white ribbon bow and silver bells finished them off perfectly... I used white thread and a needle to attach the bells to the bows.

This little project was a whole lot of die-cutting but totally worth it... oh and be prepared for your desk and floor being covered in all those little waste shapes that pop out of the snowflakes too!!

These were tricky little things to photograph staggered on the branches and the gloomy weather didn't help so I put them onto patterned paper for a group shot ;)

I'm sure you can think of lots more materials and themes for these dies and of course you can easily match them to your own Christmas colour scheme by making them yourself ...... or how about making them as a gift for friends and family on the run up to Christmas :)

    

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Garden Grown Birthday Wishes

Hello there :)

I'm back using one of my favourite stamp sets, perfect for those green-fingered folks. This time I have used the selection of potted plants in the Garden Grow Stamp set from Altenew and their matching dies which are a must for cutting out those intricate shapes ;)

I started by stamping and colouring the plants with Promarkers and Copics then cut them all out with the dies so I could play around arranging my little display :)

To make a subtle background I masked around the edge of the card to leave a rectangle in the centre. I then arranged all the small words and phrases in the set onto a long acrylic block in two staggered lines, making sure I could repeat stamp them across and down the card front. I used three shades of grey ink and started with the lightest at the top.

I felt the space needed some soft inking to help define the edges, especially around the lightest grey text at the top, so I sponged light grey ink in from the edges and faded it to nothing in the centre.

The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is from an old discontinued Hero Arts stamp set in my stash that I felt fitted the card perfectly.

I absolutely love this set... so many uses and possibilities and it was also good to remind myself of a different way to use the smaller text stamps in the set too :)

                    

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Retro Floral Circles

Hello there :)

My card today started as a complete blank canvas !!... one of those occasions where I didn't have a stamp set, design or colour palette in mind... just that it was an Anniversary card. How do you decide what to make???
Well, I flipped through my stamps and eventually decided to use the Flower Circles from Waffleflower, I've used it a few times before but this time I wanted to step it up a bit and find a 'different for me' colour combo....

I always use pinterest for colour inspiration and use my ink colour swatch to match up the inks I have to the palette. I used a scrap of paper to plan out a design before preparing a card panel, running it through my bigshot with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Border die, then stamping the floral design.

I die cut the panel with the Avery Elle Simply Said: Happy die and then cut three more in brown card.... I did have the plan to add the original word over the brown layers but decided I preferred it with a contrasting colour showing. I used a Winnie & Walter set for the anniversary sentiment and embellished with sequins, enamel and glossy accents...... I love how it highlights those little black dots :)

I just love the colours and definitely not a combination I would have thought of 

without the help of Pinterest ... the retro shades also a great match for the stamps :)

How do you go about designing and making a card? What do you start with?

Do you always use the same process or do you change it up occasionally?? 

         

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Warm Woolly Wishes

Good Monday morning to you :)

I'm thinking of warm, cosy winter hats and gloves today and I've teamed up an old and new stamp set from Wplus9 for my seasonal birthday card.... these sets are a perfect pair together :)

The Holiday Cheer stamp set is a great set and not just for Christmas.... I've used the outline images of the hat and mitts on textured card and used one of the small patterns from Background Builders: Knit to add a pattern to them. I've used the same set to add a pattern to my card base and I love how the texture of the card adds to the knitted effect :)

I used Silver Fox and Winter pigment inks for a lovely cool colour palette on both the background and the garments. To add colour to the rib and bobble, I selectively inked the matching solid stamp then I used a coloured pencil for extra shading.

I mounted them onto a double stitched rectangle, the smallest I could go so as not to cover too much of the knitted background, and added a simple sentiment from Avery Elle's Let it Snow. The HUGS tag is made using Lil'inkers All About Ampersand

    

  

All this talk of winter mitts and hats but actually it's rather unseasonally mild at the moment... I'm sure I've usually had my gloves on by now for our daily dog walk!! Still I'm not complaining :)

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x

Home for a Gnome

Hi there :)

Does your home have a gnome?? Perhaps not... I must admit that we don't have any of the pint sized ornaments in the garden but I couldn't resist this cute set from MFT called You Gnome Me and all four of the little folk had to go on my card :)

I started by colouring the 'gift giving' gnome with pencils and trimming him out with scissors. To make him the focal point I stamped the rest of the gnomes on the Kraft card base in black ink and shaded them in a 'tone on tone' style using a brown and white pencil, this gives the gnomes some shape but keeps them in the background :)

For a sentiment I chose to use the Bella letters set from Mama Elephant so I could make my own... I thought this little guy looked like he was bearing gifts for a new home owner :)

                             

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x