Sympathy

This is definitely not my favourite card to make and also not one I can make and have on hand as that makes me feel like I’m tempting fate. I bought this die from crafters companion a year ago, I had to have it and this is its first outing, isn’t that always the case lol.

Runsational the sequel

Yet again I have used this stamp not in the way I intended lol. I was going to do the spotlight technique and only colour the one who is supposed to resemble the recipient in colour and colour the others in shades of grey. Of course I looked at the one I made last time and started colouring the lady before I remembered this card was for a guy lol. 

I am a huge lovely legs fan and might have bought a few on my recent trip to Florida, hopefully you will get to see those soon.

Ingredients

Image: Runsational from the Lovely legs by Colorado Craft Company

Sentiment: as above

Dies: A2 stitched rectangle stax from MFT

Card: Pacific blue from Stamping Up

Inks:

Stencil:

Happy Anniversary

So this year I have a few anniversary cards to make, even thought I love making cards engagement, anniversary and wedding are ones I struggle with. As soon as I saw this set I knew it would be very useful and as I only make anniversary cards for the big ones I am sure it will get a lot of use.

I have tried with the 1st anniversary cards to imitate the invitations for the weddings and the colour schemes whereas the 25th was easier lol.

Ingredients
Image and Sentiment: "anniversary" lovely legs from Colorado Craft Company
Embossing Powders : Silver ranger and pale gold from WOW
Dies: blueprints 27 from MFT
Card: silver glitter from The works and boysenberry from MFT
Ink: Boysenberry from MFT

White Christmas Version 2

This is the second version of the one from yesterday, this time I used the snowman and I think I should have used the car and tree as well, oh well there is always next year.

Ingredients
Images: "white christmas" Stampin Up
Sentiment: "christmas sparkle" Clearly Besotted,
Embossing Powder: "liquid platinum" Ranger
Dies: Blueprints 29

Copics
Shadow - W1, 0
Snowman - W2, 0, R29, YG67
Trees - E77
Sky - B69, 66

White Christmas

I made an almost identical card to this a few years ago and as I am fast running out of ideas for cards I decided to recreate it again.

On the previous one I inked the background this time I decided to copic colour. I used different colours than I intended as my B26 was awaiting a refill and I think this is a combo for future reference as it's a lovely shade.

Ingredients
Images: "white christmas" Stampin Up
Sentiment: "christmas sparkle" Clearly Besotted,
Embossing Powder: "liquid platinum" Ranger
Dies: Blueprints 29

Copics
Shadow - W1, 0
Bear - W2, 0
Trees - E77
Sky - B69, 66

Beautiful Blooms

Tim Holtz and Ranger released some clear stamp and stencil sets just before my recent Florida trip, they were called "mixed media" and I bought quite a few. This card came after watching Kristina Werner colour the larger version of the stamps with zig clean colour real brush pens, now I don't own any of those so I used my stampin up markers direct to paper and although it's not perfect I did enjoy colouring it.

Ingredients
Image and sentiment: Mixed media from Ranger and Tim Holtz
Dies: Blueprints 27 from MFT
Card: "

Markers
Yellow - So Saffron and Daffodil delight
Green - always artichoke and old olive
Pink/red - cherry cobbler and Rose red
Coral - calypso coral and tangelo
Grey - pumice stone distress ink

Sparkle Pens

I watched a video from Carissa Wiley where she used the new sparkle pens from Crafters Companion to watercolour an image, the pens stay wet longer and are able to blend with each other. I was intrigued as I love a bit of sparkle so when Crafters companion had the pens on offer I bought three packs. Technically though one pack doesn't count as its clear lol.

The fig and cosmos blended perfectly together to create a beautiful purple so they were my starting point for the flowers, I only had one green so to lighten it I used the clear, I also used the blue and clear for the water. They were even easier to use than I thought/hoped they would be and I nearly ordered the other packs as soon as the card was finished lol.

Ingredients
Image: "delightful day" Clearly Besotted
Card: "violet" Lifetree crafts and Ranger watercolour
Dies: Blueprints 20 from MFT
Dots - Dollar tree
Sparkle Pens - Fig, Cosmos, Sage, clear and moonstone from Crafters Companion

Thinking of You

I still think these cards are the most difficult to make, you want to let the family know you are thinking of them but it isn't easy to make them when you are upset. This is also the one type of card I don't keep on hand and I'm not sure I want to.

Anyway the card is a simple construction, I masked the area, stamped a leaf branch from a stampin up set, white embossed and then used my distress inks to colour the background. After this was dry I used liquid platinum to heat emboss the sentiment.

Ingredients
Stamps: "hope blooms" and "curly cute" both Stampin Up
Inks:"cracked pistachio" and "peacock feathers" both Distress inks
Embossing Powders: "white" stampendous. "liquid platinum" Ranger
Dies: Blueprints 15 from MFT

Christmas Cheer

This stamp was released in about 2009 and I have wanted it ever since, until I got it in my hands though I never realised how big it was. My normal a2 cards were swamped by it and it was a bit too small for an a5 so I had to order a set of 7x5 cards for it.

It was during the making of these cards that I discovered I don't have any gold embossing powder so I think I need to remedy that post haste lol.

For the glitter background I have used three different things and none of them meant for crafting, The silver glitter ribbon is from Wilko's christmas wrapping range, the gold glitter tape is from Marks and Spencer's Christmas wrapping range and finally the silver less glittery paper is actually wall paper from B and M Bargains.

Glitter Tape

Wallpaper

Ribbon

Ingredients
Image: "christmas cheer" Papermania
Embossing Powder: "liquid platinum"  and "silver detail' both from Ranger
Gems: Adhesive dome stickers from the Classic Decadence Forever Friends Papermania Range

Last of the Magazine Freebies - I Promise

This is my last magazine freebie post, well with the paper craft essentials freebies anyway lol. I was about to put the stamp set away after making the christmas tree set of cards when I spotted a stamp I hadn't used and it looked interesting, its a tree comprised of sentiments and I thought it would make a perfect card for my more modern family. I only made two as that was all the time I had but this is definitely a design I will use again.

Ingredients
Image: "freebie" papercraft essentials
Card: "cherry cobbler" stampin up and "jellybean green" MFT
Dies: Blueprints 20
Embossing powder: "liquid platinum" and " silver" both Ranger

Christmas Wreath - More Magazine Freebies

Well I've been heat embossing the freebie stamps again, this time though I've used the wreath from the set. Once I'd heat embossed it I thought it needed a pop of colour so out came the Copics.

Brass

Silver

Platinum

Pewter

Ingredients
Image: "freebie" papercraft essentials
Card: "jellybean green" MFT and "cherry cobbler" from stampin up
Dies: Blueprints 20 and 13
Embossing powder: "liquid platinum" and "silver" from Ranger, "pewter" from stampin up and "metallic brass" from WOW.
Sentiment: "grand holiday greetings" MFT

Shoot for the Stars

I made this card to wish my neighbour good luck at University. I wanted her to know I was thinking of her and that I I know she will do very well and enjoy it immensely.

I was looking for something inspiring and this set was on my desk, ok confession time it had fallen out of the MFT box and I had forgotten to put it back lol, the quote seemed perfect and I thought a galaxy background would work perfectly. The distress inks blend so beautifully on the watercolour card, much better than standard card. I was going to try the water droplet technique but went with the sprays instead, they give the paper a lovely shimmer.

It looks much darker on the screen than it does in real life.

Ingredients
Sentiment: "count the stars" MFT
Embossing powder: Ranger silver fine detail
Stars: "Sketchy stars" Papertrey Ink
Card: Snippet folder and Tim Holtz watercolour
Sequins: "charcoal" and "clear" pretty pink posh
Distress inks: "seedless preserves", "chipped sapphire" and "black soot"
Sprays: "amethyst" and "white" both Heidi Swapp

Hanging Around Set 2

I bought the new blueprints 20 set from mft and decided to change up the previous hanging around cards I had made, I can't believe I have almost finished my christmas cards and I have only coloured a few images, Im hoping that next year I will get more time but that is probably famous last words lol.

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "teal zeal" memento dew drop
Dies: Blueprint 20  by mft stamps
Card: "island indigo" Stampin Up
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "simply chartreuse"papertrey ink
Dies: Blueprint 20  by mft stamps
Card: "simply chartreuse"papertrey ink
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "plum pudding"papertrey ink
Dies: Blueprint 20  by mft stamps
Card:  "plum pudding"papertrey ink
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Hanging Around Set 1

I saw this card on Michelle's blog and I knew I needed that set. I love Michelle's clean and simple style and wanted to try to recreate something similar for my family christmas cards. Normally I colour an image and make most of them more individual but this year time wasn't on my side so I needed a design I could replicate easily.

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "teal zeal" memento dew drop
Dies: "rectangle stax 1" and Blueprint 15 both by mft stamps
Card: "island indigo" Stampin Up
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "simply chartreuse" Papertrey Ink
Dies: "rectangle stax 1" and Blueprint 15 both by mft stamps
Card: "simply chartreuse" Papertrey Ink
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "pure poppy" Papertrey Ink
Dies: "rectangle stax 1" and Blueprint 15 both by mft stamps
Card: "real red" Stampin Up
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "berrylicious" Mft Stamps
Dies: "rectangle stax 1" and Blueprint 15 both by mft stamps
Card: "berrylicious" Mft Stamps
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "pure poppy" Papertrey Ink
Dies: "rectangle stax 1" and Blueprint 15 both by mft stamps
Card: "real red" Stampin Up
Embossing Powder: "Detail Gold" Ranger

Christmas Sparkle

Another set of batch cards, this time using the "christmas sparkle" set from clearly besotted. I have been trying to create cards without lots of layers as posting them has become so expensive, luckily this card doesn't need any additional postage so I think this might be a winner.

Ingredients
Image and sentiment: "christmas sparkle" clearly besotted
Ink: "picked raspberry, seedless preserves and dusty concord" distress inks
Embossing Powder: "detail silver" ranger
Dies: Blueprints 15 by Mft

Ingredients
Image and sentiment: "christmas sparkle" clearly besotted
Ink: "tumbled glass, broken china and faded jeans" distress inks
Embossing Powder: "liquid platinum" ranger
Dies: Blueprints 15 by Mft

Ingredients
Image and sentiment: "christmas sparkle" clearly besotted
Ink: "evergreen bough, peacock feathers and salty ocean" distress inks
Embossing Powder: "detail silver" ranger
Dies: Blueprints 15 by Mft