Penny Black Saturday Challenge Guest Designer - More Inspiration

It's time for some more inspiration for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the theme this month is 'Anything but a Card.'

For my second project I wanted to make some Vellum votives using the Penny Black Manger Die and some glitter cardstock.

I die cut 4 times each from Gold, Black and White glitter card, also punching tiny circles from the cardstock.

The votives were made by scoring a sheet of Bazzil 40 lb Vellum at 2.5", 5", 7.5" and 10" and gluing the flap to make little square votives.  I cut them widthways at 2.5", 5" and 7.5" to make 3 votives from one sheet of Vellum.  They can fold completely flat to include in a Christmas card.

I added some glue along edges with a Quickie glue pen and sprinkled with fine glitter and added some sequins. You could have a lot of fun decorating these votives!  Gems, pearls and snowflakes would be good.  I intend to use these on my Christmas table with battery operated tea lights.

Come and see what the Design Team have made for your inspiration at Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Beads and cardmaking

As I have quite a lot of beads I wanted to look at ways to include them in my cardmaking.  I found this rose that I watercoloured weeks ago and added some detail with coloured pencil, then sponged around the edges with Festive Berries.

I pierced holes in the watercolour card where I wanted to thread the seed beads then threaded a Big Eye beading needle (so much easier to thread!) and added little strings of seed beads.

The sentiment is Altenew.  

Now trying to think of other ways to use beads on cards.....

Ger x

Anything but a Card at Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Guest Designer!

Over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge this month the theme is 'Anything but a Card' and I am thrilled to be Guest Designer this month!  

I wanted to try Copic colouring on Vellum and I just love this Cones and Berries stamp from Penny Black.  I white heat embossed on heavyweight vellum then turned the vellum over and coloured randomly with Copics on the back.  I sprayed the whole thing with sparkle spray, added some sequins and that was the overlay done!

For the inside of the tag I scribbled colours on the stamp with watercolour markers, sprayed with water and stamped before scribbling some more and repeating until I was happy.  I then dried the tag and stamped with Versamark before heat embossing with clear embossing powder to give the image a nice gloss.  The MISTI makes all this easy.

I hope you like today's project.  Head on over to see the other Design Team's gorgeous work and to join in the fun at Penny Black Saturday Challenge!

Just Two Colours at Craft for the Craic

At Craft for the Craic this month we want to see what you can craft using just two colours.  I chose blue and red, and made a Christmas card.

I just love this Penny Black stamp and I coloured him with Copics.  I used a Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil with Salty Ocean distress ink and some Simon Says Stamp Stitched Snowflakes die cut from glitter paper and some cut from card, coloured with distress ink and sprayed with Tsukineko sparkle spray.

We want to see what you've crafted using just two colours at Craft for the Craic!

See you tomorrow with another card.

Ger x

Penny Black Nativity Bauble

I started by squishing Altenew ink cubes in purple and blue onto my craft sheet and spritzing with water.  Then I dragged the card panel through the puddles of ink, drying in between layers and dragging/dabbing again.

The Penny Black nativity die and Simon Says Stamp Stitched Flakes were die cut from Neenah white card and docrafts silver glitter paper (they have a gold one as well, both gorgeous).  The Yvonne designs sentiment was die cut from silver glitter paper.  I used a white Polychromos pencil to draw a string for the bauble.

My Christmas card stash is coming along nicely!

Thanks for visiting. Ger x

A Card and A Daylight Lamp

Happy Saturday! Two things to share today, one of which is a card. Hope you're all enjoying the weekend.  By the time you read this I will either be at the bog taking home turf or I will have managed to get out of doing it by promising to have food ready for the ones that didn't manage to escape going.  I don't mind helping with offloading the turf into the stack, I just hate going out to the bog.  It's so yukky, all muck and wellies, like a music festival without the music.  Or the craic.

Besides, I love cooking for hungry hordes.  But I'm getting off the subject.  I made this card some time ago and just realised I never shared.  The flowers and leaves are from Altenew Peony Bouquet and I cut a mask from Simon Says Stamp masking paper after stamping one of the flowers so that I could stamp the other flower overlapping, heat embossing the flowers with gold embossing powder and colouring the flowers with Copics and Polychromos coloured pencils.  

Altenew do these little sets of 4 inks in little cubes in greens, or pinks, or blues etc.  I have several of these cube sets, and I used greens to stamp the leaves, again using the mask I cut from stamping the flower.

The card panel was cut with a rectangle from Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes and the sentiment was die cut from gold card.  Gold splatters were added, and some gold sequins.  The panel was mounted on green card.

So the other thing I have to share is the daylight lamp which was delivered today.  I ordered it from Amazon:

you can see it here

I bought it because, as they say, winter is coming, and these dark evenings make it very difficult to craft.  House lights create shadows and false colours and it's difficult to properly see what you're doing and even harder to take photographs.  The card above was photographed using this lamp.  I'm delighted with it, I read the reviews before buying and I can't believe I got it at such a reasonable price.  I highly recommend this lamp.

Hopefully I will get some crafting done over the weekend to share with you because it's overtime again next week at work and then |I hope things will ease up and I can come home at a civilised hour.

Ger x

Use Kraft at Craft for the Craic

At Craft for the Craic this month we want you to use Kraft - either the colour or the product!

Craft for the Craic encourages you to enter your project whatever your chosen craft - papercraft, jewellery, baking, knitting, painting, crochet, whatever your craft is we want to see it.

I wanted to attempt no line colouring so I stamped this pretty stamp from Altenew Peony Bouquet in a light pink Altenew ink, colouring with Copics and pencils.  Then I stamped the leaves from Altenew Doodle Blooms Stamp Set with a light green Altenew ink and coloured with Copics, cutting them out with Altenew Doodle Blooms Die Set.  I placed everything on Neenah Desert Storm Kraft cardstock and white embossed he Altenew sentiment, adding clear sequins.

So let's see what you craft for the craic!

Ger x

Autumn Colours

I sprinkled Brusho powder paints in reds, oranges, yellows and greens onto cold pressed watercolour paper before spritzing with water, sprinkling more powders here and there and spritzing again.  

When the paper was dry I used Altenew Doodle Blooms Die Set to cut leaves from the piece, then stamped and die cut Doodle Blooms Stamp set, colouring the blooms with Copics.    I glued down some flowers and popped some up with foam tape.  The sentiment is from Altenew Label Love stamp set.

The card panel was lightly sponged with Salty Ocean distress ink.  I added some Pretty Pink Posh Clear droplets, colouring some of them with Copics.

I'd like to enter this into:

Altenew October 2016 Inspiration Challenge - Inspiration photo

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Halloween Inspiration

CAS Watercolour Challenge October - Create a Watercoloured Autumn Card

Addicted to CAS - Waterecolour

Thanks for visiting! Ger x

Crazy Birds Jigsaw

I used an X-Cut jigsaw to make this card, after stamping and colouring a bird from Tim Holtz's Crazy Birds and balloons from Simon Says Stamp.  I'm trying to remember who the sentiment is from ...

After cutting the image with the jigsaw die I mounted the pieces onto white card and added the number from a docrafts Gorjuss Girls A4 diecut pack.

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Watercolouring with similar colours - Altenew Academy

Catching up with homework from Altenew Academy!  This lesson involved watercolouring with similar colours, I chose pink and purple.  I decided to try hot pressed watercolour paper for a change, I usually use cold pressed. The images were heat embossed with silver pearl embossing powder, I loved this!

Here's a close up, which kinda shows the shine on the butterfly from the Spectrum Noir sparkle pen:

Here is another attempt using blues and cold pressed watercolour paper.  I added some sequins, and some clear droplets coloured with Copics.

I hope I get some more time for crafting today because it's overtime all this week at work!

Ger x

Papermania watercolour markers
Butterfly from Hero Arts
Trailing leaves and sentiment from Altenew

Monochromatic colouring at Altenew Academy

I'm taking the latest class at Altenew Academy - Polychromatic, and this lesson was about monochromatic colours.

I stamped the little peonies in a pink Altenew ink before colouring a little with Copics.  The 'happy' die was cut from some sparkly paper which came free with the latest edition of docrafts maagazine.  I added some gold sparkly sequins and white embossed the 'birthday'.  I then added some pink stitching all around with a Papermania pen.  

I loved this technique, I think it makes a very pretty background.

Today's lesson was fun also, I made some cards which I will have to wait for daylight to photograph and share with you tomorrow.

Ger x

Cones & Berries

This Penny Black stamp was coloured with Distress Markers and spritzed, and stamped and the process repeated (using the MISTI)  till I was happy.

Splatters were created with watercolour and Picket Fence Distress Stain, and Distress Inks were sponged onto the card panel.  The die cut word from Tim Holtz was covered with Glossy Accents for a bit of shine.

Ger x

Snowy scene with free stamps and die

There was a lovely set of stamps and embossing folder with Issue 137 of Papercraft Essentials and I used it to make this card.

I cut a hilly shape from some masking paper and stuck it to the card panel before using Altenew inks as watercolours to create the sky.  I stamped the little trees and house scene with Altenew ink, then heat embossed the tree stamps with white.  I added some snow shadows with watercolour and added some sparkly embossing powder to the sky.

The cute little reindeer was coloured with Copics before fussy cutting.  I used White Enamel Accents on his white spots.  The card was edged with Peacock Feathers distress ink.

See you tomorrow with another Christmas card.

Ger x

More Penny Black

I saw a video on the Penny Black blog using this stamp and the MISTI and I couldn't order fast enough!  The stamp was coloured with water based markers and spritzed with water before stamping, making you feel like a watercolour artist.  You can build up the colours and stamp again and again, using the MISTI you know you will stamp in the exact same place time after time.  I used Papermania watercolour markers and Distress Markers.

Click here to see the Penny Black blog video using this stamp

I'll be honest, when I first saw MISTI demonstrated, although I thought it was an amazing stamping tool I didn't think it was worth the money.  Once you have one and start using it, you soon change your mind about that!  The MISTI really does make you look at all your stamps in a whole new light.

Anyway, after all that stamping, I watercoloured around the image and then splattered with the same blue watercolour, then splattered with water before heat embossing using WOW embossing powder Rich Metallic Gold (the water droplets hold onto the embossing powder) and heat embossed the die cut sentiment with the same embossing powder.

I die cut the panel with Simon Says Stamp rectangle from Bundled Stitched Shapes and mounted on a card blank.

Going to be making a lot of watercolour Christmas cards!

I'd like to enter this into:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Nature

Penny Black at Allsorts Challenge - Add a Sentiment

See you tomorrow with another Christmas card

Ger x

Penny Black Christmas

I just love the new Penny Black Christmas stamps.  I haven't posted in a while because I'm dong a lot of overtime at work but I still found time to order the new stamps.  There's always time to order more stash, right? 

I've been having a lot of fun playing with Penny Black's Christmas stamps but I don't have much time or daylight to photograph them.  I did manage to take this pic this morning and I hope to get some more photographs taken at the weekend.

The lamp was coloured with distress inks and stamped repeatedly using the MISTI.  I wiped some ink away from around the candle before stamping to give the illusion of light shining there.  The candle was coloured with watercolour markers before stamping, the MISTI makes this easy.  I then used Versamark on the stamp and stamped again, heat embossing with clear ink to protect the image while I used watercolours all around the image to create the lamplight.  

Isn't that snowman just the cutest?  I watercoloured him, adding black enamel accents for eyes and buttons and some sparkle pen on his hat and scarf, and to some of the snow shadows but sparkle just doesn't show in photographs.

Hope to be back soon with more Christmas cards because these stamps are a joy to use.

Ger x

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It

Photo Inspiration at Craft for the Craic

We have an inspiration photo as the theme this month at Craft for the Craic, we hope you like it! It was taken by the super talented Alisha Reynolds

You can choose whatever you like from the photo - colours, textures, elements - we want to see what you are inspired to craft!

I took a fairly literal interpretation, and made this card.  I die-cut some Simon Says Stamp balloons, using the negative as a stencil to ink with Distress Inks.  I love how you can see the underneath colours and they blend to give new colours.

The happy die is from Altenew, I cut from Neenah card then coloured with Copics to get the ombre effect so on trend around the blogs at the moment.  Then I added some Wink of Stella for some shimmer but that never shows up in photos.  I die cut the word again, from pink fun foam and stuck the card onto the foam for some dimension.

The 'birthday' is from a Simon Says Stamp set and the sequins are also SSS.  I scribbled some strings for the balloons with a grey Polychromos pencil and mounted the panel on some grey card.

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Go Wild 

Ger x

Heat Wave at Online Card Classes

Day two of Heat Wave at Online Card Classes and here's some homework.

Okay here's what was supposed to happen.  Tim Holtz Flower Garden flowers stamped and coloured with Copics and Polychromos pencils (actually that did happen).  Some water droplets splashed at the card from a wet paintbrush and gold embossed, and also some details added to the centre of the flower with an embossing pen, again gold embossed (check, that went well).  Then the On the Edge die used to cut the top of the card - and hopefully this pic will show how I created a card from the die cut panel -

and that's where things started to go wrong.  The pressure in the Big Shot was such that dried up inks on the cutting plates smudged the card panel and had to be covered with sequins.  Also I put DST on the wrong surface of the grey card and had to pull it off, making a right hash of things.  

At least I know what not to do next time!

Ger x

Summer Breeze at Craft for the Craic

The July challenge at Craft for the Craic is 'Summer Breeze.'  I'm looking forward to seeing how you interpret the theme!

I chose some Altenew Peonies and leaves coloured with Copics and Inktense pencils.  I love the Altenew woodgrain paper and antique trims but I don't have either (yet) so I used a Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder on some Neenah white cardstock lightly sponged with Tumbled Glass DI, and used Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles and some gold card to cut a frame.  The sentiment is computer generated, mounted on a die cut tag.

For a little sparkle I finished with lots of Wink of Stella shimmer pen.

Ger x

Altenew Beautiful Details Day 5

Day 5 Homework from Altenew Academy Beautiful Details Class.

After stamping the outline stamp from Altenew's Peony Bouquet layered stamp set,I used an Inktense Watercolour Pencil and a water brush on watercolour paper to add detail, then fussy cut.  I added Wink of Stella but of course the camera doesn't capture the lovely shimmer.  

A Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder and some patterned paper from Dealz (yes, Dealz! they've got some lovely ones), a strip of grey card and some clear sparkling sequins were added, together with a Hero Arts sentiment.

Ger x

Beautiful Details class at Altenew

I'm really enjoying the Beautiful Details class at Altenew and it's so reasonably priced!

This is Day 1 homework, using Altenew Painted Rose stamps and a little stamp from Peony Bouquet (but you can use whatever stamps you have), coloured with a brush marker and using generatioinal stamping.  Details are added with a fine line marker (in my case, the other end of the Papermania brush marker).  What  a great way to stretch your stamps!

The awkwardly placed sequins are due to me smudging the Black enamel accents! So then I had to add a few more.

The sentiment is Altenew Label Love.

Below is my first attempt using Peony Bouquet

Ger x

Altenew Card Set

I wanted to send a card set to my sister this week and I don't think she reads my blog so it should be okay!

I used Altenew Painted Rose set with Altenew cube inks to build up the layers of roses.  The leaves were stamped using Altenew Green Fields.

 Using Altenew Cool Summer Night

 Using Altenew Red Cosmos

 and Altenew Shades of Purple

and here they are all boxed up with envelopes and ribbon ready to go.  The clear box is from Simon Says Stamp, ribbon from The Ribbon Girl.

Enjoy your weekend!

Ger x

I'd like to enter this into:

Penny Black and More June Challenge - Flower Power

CAS-ual Fridays - Florals

Addicted to CAS - Petals

June Inspiration Challenge at Altenew

I had to make a Wedding Card, and the photo inspiration above was my starting point.  I just loved the pretty sparkle on the dress, and the flowers.  Luckily, my order from Atlenew had just arrived and what a yummy parcel it is, I'll be playing lots with all the goodies!

I started by embossing some Neenah Solar White card with a Cuttlebug music folder. I then stamped the pretty flower from Peony Bouquet.  These are layered flowers, you build them up using gradually darker shades to stamp with.  Altenew make it easy with their little sets of four ink cubes, for this flower I used the Red Cosmos set.

Now I didn't have much time to make this card and the fussy cutting on the flower isn't perfect, but layering up these flowers is so much fun I think I'm going to have to buy the matching dies.

I die cut Simon Says Stamp clustered leaves from some green felt and the sentiment from Papermania pink textured card and scattered some Pretty Pink Posh clear droplets.

Altenew have some absolutely gorgeous layered flower stamps.  I'm going to have to go back for some more!

I'd like to enter this into:

Altenew June Inspiration Challenge - Photo Inspiration

Stamping Royalty SR#332 Flowers

Cuttlebug Mania - Embossing (Cuttlebug music background embossing folder)

Hoping to share more cards over this Bank Holiday Weekend so see you tomorrow!

Ger x

Graduation Card - Masculine Cards at Craft for the Craic

 

Good morning!  I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine for this Bank Holiday weekend.

 

It's a masculine theme this month over at Craft for the Craic.  I made a Graduation card, using papers from a paper pack I bought at TK Maxx, edged with some Broken China distress ink.  The sentiments are from Altenew Label Love, popped up on foam tape.  One of my sons cut out the mortar board from black card for me, when he saw me struggling! I know there are dies for this but I don't have one.  I added a silver tassel, and some numbers.

 

Come on over and join the fun at Craft for the Craic - all types of craft accepted.

 

Ger x

Just Because

Inspired by a card over on My Sweet Petunia blog, I watercoloured a panel and stamped it with a Hero Arts script stamp.  I die cut some pink vellum with Simon Says Stamp Clustered Leaves and then used some pink felt die cut with Tattered Florals.  

The sentiment is computer generated and I mounted the stitched rectangle panel onto some pale pink Adorable Scorable card.  Some gold and clear sequins to finish.

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Fun with Felt 
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Felt That

Simon Says Flowers

Hope you're all enjoying this fine weather.

I wanted to try the Altenew Build a Rose Stamp and Die set that came free with Issue 149 of Simply Card & Papercraft.  I used distress inks and Hero Arts bubblegum pink.  I think you are supposed to use die inks for best results, but I was very happy with the result.

I sponged Tumbled Glass DI through a stencil for the background and added some sequins, clear droplets and a Simon Says Stamp sentiment, together with a punched butterfly and a strip of pink cardstock.

I'm not finished playing with this Build a Rose set by a long way, it's a fabulous cover gift!

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Flowers

Supplies:

Altenew Build a Rose Stamp and Die set

Simon Says Stamp sequins

Pretty Pink Posh clear droplets

Simon Says Stamp sentiment

Distress Inks, Hero Arts ink

Neenah Solar White cardstock

docrafts Papermania textured cardstock

Step Back in Time with Craft for the Craic

Good Morning and Happy Friday!  

This month at Craft for the Craic we are taking a step back in time and we'd love to see how you interpret this.

I decided to make a vintage mixed media project because I've been dying to try out my layering stencils from Tim Holtz.  I took some Neenah cream cardstock and stamped it with a Hero Arts script stamp, 3rd generation stamped with Espresso distress ink, then I sponged the edges with Tea Dye distress ink and used the same ink with the brick layering stencil.  I mixed some Wendy Vecchi embossing paste with Tea Dye ink and applied through the Wildflower layering stencil.

I die cut some Spellbinders wildflowers and coloured them with watercolour and some Perfect Pearls splashes.  I also die cut Tattered Florals from docrafts sticky backed canvas and cork.  

I bought the word stickers in TK Maxx, not sure what brand they are.  I had a lot of fun with this and I'm going to try more mixed media projects.

So let's see how you interpret the theme, and remember, Craft for the Craic isn't just for cardmakers - whatever you've crafted, we want to see it!

Ger x

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stencil It

Happy Birthday

I bought a half dozen Distress Markers recently and started doodling with them.  This is the result - easy peasy flowers!

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Happy Birthday

Supplies:

Neenah Solar White Card

Grey Card

Distress Markers: Candied Apple, Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Tumbled Glass.

Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes

Simon Says Stamp Birthday Messages

Distress Ink Tumbled Glass