Tips tricks and techniques Tuesday Simply Zinnia

 Do you like pattern paper? Do you stoke it and look at it lovingly only to put it back in it's pack ? Do you? Well I do! There the truth is out I love pattern paper but rarely use it! Usually because it's too nice to waste 🤣 The other side of the coin is what do you do with those papers that just aren't quite you? You know the ones that just don't spark your creativity!  Well I have a rule that may help. When you get a pack of pattern paper tell yourself that you can't use any of it until you've made a card using some of the paper you like the least! And that is just what I've done for today's sample!

The amazing Simply Zinnia stamps are a part of a gorgeous suite of products that include the awesome Flowering Zinnia pattern papers! The colours are bold and bright as are the images. Some of the flowers can be cut out using the coordinating Simply Zinnia dies! 

These papers sure do pack a punch ! But for me there is one that just didn't speak to my creativity.  The paper is the top left corner one so following the use the one you like the least first rule I knew what need to be done.

My top tip for papers that are not to your taste, to bold for you or ones you just don't like is to use it in one of 2 ways. The first is to cover the piece entirely with a piece of vellum . This mutes the paper and allows it to receed into the background and allows your focal point to shine.

The second way that you can use the paper is to use  small pieces. This is what I've done for today's sample. The card is clean and simple yet uses the most powerful of the papers! 

Top tip for doing this technique is to remember to place the pieces in order as you cut them so that you don't have to spend time matching the patter up! Ask me how I know 🤣

By keeping the colour palette white with just pops of colour the overall effect isn't as super busy as it might be .

For the next sample I have used the same idea but stepped it up a little. The paper isn't quite as busy as the first which allows there to be a little more going on. 

 

Because the background of the paper is white this makes it a little less busy. So adding texture to the panel behind the paper strips makes the card a little more. Splitting and fussy cutting the sentiment out also brings another touch of something something along with the sequins.

All in all both these card show how you can use those bold papers to create beautiful cards using the simple trick of cutting the paper up!

Make it simple Monday Simply Zinnia

 Hello and welcome to our blog. My name's Cary and I'll  be sharing post's this week using the Simply Zinnia stamps as well as other coordinating products. The stamps are great for all types of styles and techniques. 

Monday's are always make it simple projects and it doesn’t get any simpler than the sample I'm sharing! Sometimes all you need are stamps, ink, paper and a little colour inspiration. 

Today's card was inspired by a pack of seeds! The picture on the front of the packet of zinnia seed showed beautiful bold and bright flowers. So taking the colours from the packet, and after stamping the largest stamp from  the Simply Zinnia set onto a basic white card base, I grabbed my watercolour pencils and copied the colours!

Can I share a secret 🙊?  I'm a frustrated painter 🎨 I've always wanted to be able too draw and paint beautiful things! Sadly I'm not talented that way 😔 But using stamps and ink and a colouring medium it's possible to pretend that you can paint!

This stamped image and the addition of some watercolour pencils has created a beautiful image that I'm proud to say I made and I just know that anyone who wanted to could make one too!

Join me tomorrow for more Simply Zinnia inspiration ✨️ 

Fun Fold Friday - Crafting With You

 Well, I can't believe that it's Friday already! Where has the week gone? Anyway, for my last card this week using the Crafting With You stamps and dies, I have had a ball!! I have really gone to town on this one as it seemed appropriate to go out with a pop!

I made an Easel card with a difference. A standard square card base 14.85 x 29.7cm and scored at 14.85cm again. This is a 5,3/4" square card as I used a piece of A4 card and scored it in half and then made the height the same as the width. I have used a sheet of Stampin' Up! grid paper to cover the whole card back and front and then edged it off with some of the remnants of the Bright and Beautiful Designer Series Papers which have carried over to this years new catalogue fortunately.

 I then went die cutting mad! I have literally almost die cut every shape and image several times and splattered them all over the card. I am chuffed with the final result! It's different but I like it! 😍

Thank you for joining me this week again. Cary will be back on Monday to share her creations. 

Until I return the week after next, please take care, stay safe but as always...

KEEP ON CRAFTING. 

😍😍😍  xx Gill xx  😍😍😍

This or That Thursday - Crafting With You

 Hello and here we are already set for the 2 cards at once day. Before I found paper crafting I used to sew as I have said already this week. It was my passion, my daily focus once the children were at school and as I said before I would often be up until the very early hours of the morning making a garment of one kind or another. I have made wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses, suits for a pop group, uniforms, going out and staying in clothes too. The list goes on but now my new love and passion is making cards especially with Stampin' Up! products. There is no searching around lots and lots of different shops trying tol find card, paper to match, ribbons, buttons, gems etc all again to match. It was an impossible nightmare...Until Cary met someone who introduced us to the Stampin' Up! way of buying craft products. We were hooked! We still are nearly 20 years later. We would have been before but it didn't come to the UK until I believe 2008 or 2009. We became demonstrators within a very short space of time and still feel the same about it to this day. So today's card using the Crafting With You stamp set and dies, I have encompassed both of my passions into 2 different but very similar cards. Using Sticky notes, or Post It notes, I made several masks of both sewing maching and Cut and Emboss machine. I hope that you can choose which you prefer. 

THIS and THAT

  THIS

 

THAT

  

Watercolour Wednesday - Crafting With You

 Hello on another wet Wednesday. Using the lovely stamp set Crafting With You today, I have gone back to school so to speak! My uniform when at school was exactly the colours I have used here... Black Skirt, Yellow blouse and black or white socks! This was purely by accident until I had finished the card I hadn't realised what I'd done! I think it was the board and easel stand that I suddenly saw my uniform again! Anyway, a semi simple watercolour today. I started by stamping the board and easel onto a plain white mat and then with some cut offs of watercolour paper that I had, I laid them out in the order you see and stamped the image again. It worked!! I used the watercolour from the block technique as it works really well so it was just a case of adding the colour to the flowers and leaves and it was complete. I used Stazon Jet Black Ink for the easel but it looks red here??? How odd! 

Apologies for the wrong pictures to start off with. Here are the correct ones!

Tech 4 Stampers blog hop

 Hello and welcome to this month's Tech 4 Stampers blog hop. The theme this month is no images just words! As you can imagine it certainly got us all thinking outside the box! 

Having a challenge is a great way to get the creative juices flowing and a blog hop is a great way to see how differently we all create when given the same guidelines. 

The first 2 cards I'm sharing are simply sentiment stamps, ink and white cardstock. 

Whilst creating these cards I realised that they are fab for those tricky card recipients... men and teenagers!

If you'd like to see how these cards came together then please watch the video below.

The next card is a little more stepped up. It used lots of coloured ink, coloured cardstock mats and a few sparkling rhinestones. 

If you'd like to see how this one came to be please watch the video below.

Well I hope that these 3 cards have helped to inspire you to think out side the box and have a go at creating cards using no images just sentiments 😀 

Please hop over to the next person in the blog hop and remember to leave comments as you go. ( as creators we really do appreciate it when you comment )

Tips Tricks and Techniques Tuesday - Crafting With You

 Hello and thank you for joining me again. Firstly , I must apologise. I am sorry but I thought that Cary had made some projects using the Crafting With You stamp set before. It turned out it was me! The second thing is that Cary has now decided to buy the set too!! 😁😁 Anyway, today's card is a techy one as it folds and holds together with just a simple flower spray. Before I found crafting, I was an avid sewing nut! I loved to sew and you would always find me up until the very early and late hours of the morning making or altering something for me or someone else. Sadly, my hands don't work well enough so I stick with my second love, Crafting. 

I made a card base half the full length of an A4 piece of card and 10.5cm wide. It is a side fold card but landscape style instead of portrait. I added another smaller piece of card to the right and made a small fold then attached it to the main card base.  I used some of the papers from the new In Colour series of papers. I chose the peachy colour. It's gorgeous. I stamped a sewing machine in Smoky slate and fussy cut it out. I had a few die cuts from an old set of dies which have retired and used them. They were from the Stitched Nested Labels. I embossed the front one with the Fun Patterns folder again another retired one. I must take all of my retired ones out!

Make It Simple Monday - Crafting With You

 Hello and thank you for joining me today. I loved the submarines or airships that Cary made last week, weren't they cute? Today, I am doing something completely different of course. I am working with the Crafting With You stamp set this week and today being #simplestamping is the perfect thing to use. Now I know that Cary used them some while ago but I think it's time I put my hands to it too. 

My very simple card has 3 stamped images on the front and 2 on the inside. Sound simple enough? I hope so. I kept to Memento black for the sentiments and the yellow for the flowers and plumb colour for the easel and canvas. I did use an ink pen to go over the leaves. They looked a little silly in yellow!

Fun fold Friday Submarine Life

 Happy Friday everyone 😀 and welcome to my final post for this week using the fab Submarine Life stamps and coordinating punch. Today as always on a Friday it's a fun fold and I had this one in mind as soon as I saw the stamp set!

Called a diorama card this version is very easy thankfully! It all starts with 2 pieces of cardstock measuring 10.5cm x 14.5cm and another piece measuring 12.5cm x 10.5cm.

Take both of the longer pieces and score at 1cm and 2 cm in from each end on the long side.  Next you'll need to create an appature in the center of one of these pieces.  Then a slightly smaller appature in the center of the smaller piece of cardstock. These appatures can be any shape you can use dies, punches or cut them yourself. 

Now I suggest that you gather all the item you wish for the scene you'll be building within the card. I chose to fussy cut a lot of the elements from the submarine Life stamps as they are just too cute 😍.  Once you have the pieces fold the score lines on the 2 larger pieces of cardstock starting with a valley fold then a mountain fold on all four sides. You are then going to sandwich the 3rd piece in-between the folds to create the diorama. But don't adhere anything until you are happy with the scene adding any stamped or texture to the panels in advance. When your happy adhere the sides together sandwiching the center panel so that it resembles the image below. 

The great thing about a diorama card is that you get to create a real 3d scene out of 2d materials!

Achieve the look by adhering your details at different levels within the appature.  I have used a small scrap of acetate so that the submarine appears too be floating through the sea! It's great fun to create 😀

You can add a panel measuring 10cm x 10cm on the back to give you a place to write your message and another area to decorate of course 😉 

Now don't worry the card will still fold flat for posting and with the dimensions given will fit a standard C6 envelope. 

Well that's  all from me this week but don't panic Gill will be here next week sharing her inspiration with us all. So please remember to pop by 😀

Have a great weekend and..

Have fun

Cary xx

This or That Thursday Submarine Life

 Is it under the sea? Or flying through the air?  Who knew a submarine could be both!!! Well when you're using the amazing Submarine Life stamps and punch they can be both 😃 That is one of the amazing things about creating with stamps,  ink and paper the only limit is your imagination! 

So here is the under the sea version...

And the flying through the air version....

Both cards are simply made using stamps, ink , paper and utilising the coordinating punch. The clouds on the in the air version are from a die set but could so easily have just been cut by hand.

So which are you?  Team under the sea? Or team flying through the air? 

Watercolour Wednesday Submarine Life

 Today's project uses a fun watercolour background. Of course it had to be an under water scene for the Submarine Life stamps and coordinating builder Punch! 

The background was created on watercolour paper using ink pads, a rectangular acrylic and a water spritzer.  Start by inking up the acrylic block then spritzing it well with water. Next place it onto the watercolour paper and squish and shimmy it over the area you want coloured. Let the ink dry either naturally or with a heat tool then repeat as desired.

The finished effect is mottled and give a really textured look to the piece. You can then sprinkle with water all over and mop up immediately with a paper towel if desired.

I wanted the card to look like a fish tank with a toy submarine in it. To do this I cut an appature from a piece of cardstock and placed a piece of acetate behind it. Next adhere the watercolour panel to the middle of a card base. 

The seaweed is stamped and fussy cut out and adhered to the inside of the frame. The submarine is adhered to the watercolour panel using 3d foam.

 Then using 3d foam adhere the frame and acetate over the watercolour panel. 

For the inside of the card I just had to include the cute critters from the submarine Life stamps along with an offcut of the sandy layer from the background panel.

All throughout making this sample I was singing.... " We all live in a yellow submarine,  a yellow submarine a yellow submarine ...." So of course it had to be done... A yellow Submarine 💛