A Special card ...

I can now share a card I actually made a while ago but needed it to be seen by the recipients before I could share it.  I made this card for my daughter and son-in-law to celebrate their first wedding anniversary - I don't suppose anyone could have guessed what their first year of marriage would be like, certainly nothing like 2020 has turned out to be!!

 

I created a water colour wash down the left hand side and across about a third up from the bottom.  I then stamped over the blue with picked raspberry distress ink and some background stamps.  I finished the card with the die cut heart and the sentiment strip which was hear embossed.

I'm going to enter the current challenge at AAA Cards #178 with out the optional twist

Stay well and Keep Crafting!

Less is More Colour Challenge ...

 Good morning all ... it is time for a new challenge at Less is More ... today is all about colour:

I have two cards to share both using the blue and silver option and both using a stamp set from this month's sponsors CAS-UAL Friday:

I used:

CAS-UAL Friday - Snowy Sayings

Distress Inks/Oxides - Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch

WOW Platinum Embossing Powder

Perfect Impressions Silver Dollar Embossing Powder

I hope you will join in with the challenge ... remember if you need more inspiration check out the blog.

Stay Safe!

Kraft and Yellow ...

A quick post this evening to share a birthday card ... inspired by the current Color Hues challenge to use Kraft and Yellow.  Although I'm trying to only create Christmas cards at the moment I just could not come up with an idea using these colours but I did have an idea for a birthday card:

The card base really is kraft coloured but seems to appear very grey in this photograph!

I will see if I can get a better photograph in the daylight tomorrow.

I used:

STAMPlorations - Framed Carnation Stamp

Poppystamps Stick Frame die

Distress Inks - Scattered Straw, Squeezed Lemonade and Fossilized Amber

Color Hues #5

Stay safe and keep crafting!

25 Days of Christmas tags ...

Do you like making tags? Do you like Christmas?   Tracey McNeely is hosting the 25 Days of Tags for Christmas:

 The STAMPlorations design teams are joining in along with lots of other papercraft companies - each day someone different.  Today is STAMPlorations day, this is my tag designed to inspire and celebrate!

I die cut the tag and then applied texture paste through the snowflakes stencil before colouring the background using distress inks and oxides.  On a separate piece of card that I had coloured with distress inks I stamped all of the words and then fussy cut then.  I die cut the bauble from navy card and the 'Let it snow' from the water coloured card.  All the elements were then adhered together and some ribbon added to the top of the tag.

I used:

STAMPlorations - Joyful

CUTplorations - Christmas Bauble #1, Let it Snow, Stitched Tags Nesting Dies

Artplorations - Snowflake Stencil

A selection of holiday/Christmas themed products are on special sale at the moment with between 10% and 20% off. Check them out here , if you decide to order remember to use my discount code: STAMPGIRLELAINE and you will receive an additional 20% off.

(This post contains affiliate links. When you click on them and place an order, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you)

These are the companies that are involved with the fun:

Pop over to Tracey's blog and keep popping over to check out the incredible tags and join in with all the fun!

Stay Safe and Keep Creating!

Christmas 2020 ...

 I'm finding it difficult to imagine what Christmas will look like this year ... one thing I do know is that I will still be sending cards to my family and friends, maintaining contact has never been as valuable as it is at the moment! 

As always I'm trying to find that one design that I like enough to make multiples of ... I like the design of this card but it does take more time to create than some of my other designs but on reflection since I retired last November and with lockdowns I do not seem to be short of time!! (I'm often short of motivation though!!)

First, I stamped and heat embossed the seasonal words down the left hand side of the panel before colouring with a wash of distress inks.  I coloured some embossing paste with ink before spreading it through a stencil. As this was trying I die cut the other elements out of a piece of scrap card - the sentiment was die cut numerous times before gluing into a stack.  As I had the supplies on my desk I made a second card with slight changes:

The main difference in this card is that I left the paste white and then sprinkled blue embossing powder on the top and then heat embossed it - this adds a bit of sparkle to the background (unfortunately it doesn't show in the photograph!).

I used:

STAMPlorations - Joyful stampset

Stampin Up - Star Stencil and Not Quite Navy Ink

Ranger Embossing Powder

Distress Inks - Peacock Feathers and Tumbled Glass

I'm entering the following challenge:

TIME OUT Challenge #174

Stay Safe and Keep Crafting!

Live Your Life ...

 We continue to live in strange times and I wonder when things will return to normal and what that normal might be!  England goes back into country wide lockdown on Thursday, seeing friends and family will be restricted, it is not going to be easy but I guess we've done it once we can do it again! I find remaining positive almost impossible but I keep trying.  

Keeping occupied is essential to me and with the wet cold weather now here there is a limit to what I can do in the garden but there are no limits to what I can create in my craft room.  I have a couple of knitting projects on the go as well as plans to return to dressmaking.  I always have card making on my list of 'things to do' and increasingly I am creating non-card projects, there are limits to how many cards I need!  I enjoy the process of creating but also need purpose - part of this is I achieve through entering online challenges, just to give me purpose for the project as well as for fun.

Many of the challenges that I enter are geared towards cardmaking so I've been hunting for challenges that include all paper projects and are not aimed at CAS projects.  My card making style is definitely Clean and Simple (CAS) but I like to try my hand at mixed media projects - tags, journal pages, ATCs, etc..  I found a new (to me) challenge Country View Challenges, I found it through Jane Tyrell (jane-janesjournal.blogspot.co.uk) one of the designers for the challenge (Jane is also on a STAMPlorations design team) - I love Jane's work especially the mixed media projects she has created recently.

I decided to enter this tag into the challenge:

The background was created using stencils and acrylic paints on a gelli plate - layering each colour and letting it dry before adding another colour.  The remaining elements were die cut from scraps of card before being adhered onto the tag.  The words were the final addition and were mounted with dimensional foam to give a little more dimension.

I used:

Tim Holtz - Splat die

Sue Wilson - Dandelion Posies

STAMPlorations - Newsprint Backround Bits #1 Clear stickers

Tim Holtz - Small Talk

Plus a variety of leaf stencils and some random pots of acrylic paint.

The November challenge at Country View Challenges is for anything but a card - just what I was looking for!!

This could also be a costly find for me as it has led me to the Country View Crafts is an online craft retailer .... something else I'm always on the lookout for!!

Stay safe!

STAMPlorations November Theme and Photo ...

Wow, here we are November already and time for a new challenge at STAMPlorations Theme and Photo  ... I hope you are ready to join in with the fun.  This month the challenge is:

My project takes inspiration from the photograph of lined images and the stark contrast of black and white, as well as the contrast between line and solid.

I used:

STAMPlorations - Yuletide Deer

CUTplorations - Wonky Stitch Texture Plate; Basic A2 Nesting Dies, Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

(This post contains affiliate links. When you click on them and place an order, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you)

I've been working on my Christmas cards for a couple of months now.  This is the first black and white card for this year ... it did lead me on to making a couple of others but you'll have to wait until the reminder post on 15th November to see those designs!

I hope you are inspired to join in and don't forget to check out the STAMPlorations blog for lots of more designs to inspire and delight from the rest of the Design Team.

Take care!