Make It Simple Monday - Legendary Ride #simplestamping

Hello and thank you for stopping by today. This week I will be making some more cards using the Legendary Ride stamp set and dies too later in the week. I thought that as it's nearly Father's Day here in the UK it's an appropriate time to. My first card of the week is a very simple one of course. Using the smaller of the motorbike stamps, I stamped it all over a piece of white card to fit the front of the black card base. I'm a little surprised I chose black but black it is! After stamping the little ones, I took a larger white mat and stamped the large motorbike in Memento black ink which has come out really well thankfully. I trimmed the mat down to just larger than the bike itself and 'walked' the mat onto the ink pad. I made sure that all 4 edges were nicely black to give the impression that it's on a black mat too. A sentiment from the stamp set, I trimmed the front mat down and added the sentiment inside and out and this card was completed.

 

 

Make it SImple Monday - Magnolia Mood

Hello on this cool Monday morning. As you no doubt were aware, we held our annual retreat just over a week ago and I believe that everyone had a wonderful time. There was lots of laughter, creativity of course, food and most of all fun. It was wonderful. Now back to our normality. Cary's card last week were as always brilliant so I have to follow those! No pressure!! :))  This week I will be aiming to inspire you with the gorgeous Magnolia Mood stamp set. It does have dies to match but I won't be using them just yet. This is a sneak peak of one of the NEW stamp sets to be released very shortly.

Today's card as always is a simple one. I started by stamping a simple sentiment in the centre of a white mat and then lots of the leaves all around. I stamped and extra 3 and cut them out by hand and added them using foam shapes. 

Make It Simple Monday - Simply Zinnia

 Hello, this is our crazy week as we have our weekend retreat this coming weekend so as you can imagine we are a little busy! It is also my son Jonathan's birthday today and we have our card and a cuppa event today too! However, we still have time for the blog. This week I will be playing with the NEW stamp set called Simply Zinnia. It's due to come out very soon so look out for some more beautiful products.This is of course a really lovely set with amazing coordinating paper, dies and gems. As it's Monday, we have our #simplestamping card first. This is ideal for the beginner stamper. I first stamped the single flower several times over the front of a card mat and added a few leaves. That's it. I coloured them in using some cheap colouring pencils in a soft yellow, orange and green. It took about 15 minutes to make, so ideal if you need a card in a hurry.

Make It Simple Monday - Cheerful Daisies

 Hello and welcome back this week. As always, Cary made some marvellous cards with those cheeky little monkeys last week didn't she? My cards this week will be using the gorgeous Cheerful Daisies stamp set. There is something about seeing daisies at the beginning of spring that I just love. So delicate and simple they come up year after year without fail. Perfect! My simple card for today is some #simplestamping. I started by adding a strip of sticky note across the centre of the page and stamped around and over it using Smoky Slate, a very soft gray. Then using the fill-in stamp, I stamped using the beautiful NEW colour of Lemon Lolly, a beautiful soft lemon-yellow ink inside. That was it. Simple enough?

Watercolour Wednesday - Love Cats

Today's card isn't my favourite I'm afraid. I can never profess to be any good at painting and today I can show you it! Love Cats is a great stamp set and I'm sure that anyone can make a better job of it than I have. Sorry. 

Anyway, I started off by colouring the water using blue reinker and lots of water. Once it was dry, I used the Stamparatus and repeat stamped the cat in Black Memento ink. I then stamped it onto a silicone mat and once done, I reversed the image onto the card. I added some leaves using the Wisteria Wishes stamp set. 

Make It Simple Monday - Love Cats - #simplestamping

Hello and welcome back to the crazy 2 Big Girls Crafting! Yes, this week is absolutely crazy as we have our annual retreat this coming weekend and there is so much to do and such a little time to do it in too!! We will survive it, I know we will! However, this week I am starting off by using the cute Love Cats stamp set. Now those who know me know that I am a dog person, not cats but this stamp set is gorgeous to say the least. 

A simple cat curled up on it's back having fallen head over heels!

So cute!

Make It Simple Monday - Decorative Borders

Hello and thank you for joining me. I hope that you are all having a wonderful Christmas holiday and I wish you well for the New Year.  This week I will be using the new stamp set called Decorative Borders. It is one of the new stamp sets that you'll be able to see coming from the Seasonal Catalogue for Spring 2023. I have coordinated today's cards with the Charming Sentiments from the annual catalogue. This simple card for today I have only used the 1 stamp for the images. I stamped the image across the mat in both directions to form a border in the centre. This gives a really effective space for the sentiment. Simplestamping is... 1 ink pad, 1 card base and stamp set/s. Most stamp sets have sentiments with but I chose one without any this time.

  

Make It Simple Monday - Family and Friends

 Well, it seems like such a long time since I was last here but here I am. Lots has happened but mainly, Cary and many other demonstrators all went on a trip to New Orleans for an annual conference. They had a great time and came back yesterday. Thoroughly exhausted after a very long day to get back home. I think she deserves a rest! Anyway, this week I am going to make some cards using the stamp set called Family and Friends. It is based around Christmas but I have managed to use it for non-Christmas too. 

My first card is a quick and simple card that can be mass produced. An image of the whole family on the front stamped siomg Smoky Slate Ink pad and using colouring pencils to brighten it up, it's then complete. That simple.

 

Throwback Thursday Sale-A-Bration

 Today I'm revisiting an old favourite... Fussy cutting! I know its a bit of a marmite thing... you either love it or hate it!! But both Gill and I love it 😀. So what will I fussy cut 🤔 well as I'm sharing inspiration with the July and August Sale-A-Bration offering I thought what better way to show how useful pattern paper it!! I chose to use the gorgeous Rings of love paper as my starting point. 

These papers coordinate with items from the July to December mini catalogue and many others from the annual catalogue.  But I feel they are stand alone and can be mixed with so many themes and celebrations. 

The patterns I chose were the mandala and the houses one. I was inspired by a card created by one of the Stampin' Up! Artisan Design team and just love the gentle colour palette. 

Are the colours just beautiful?  Gentle and subtle blues and greens. They make for an elegant colour palette. 

To start my card I fussy cut one of the mandala that was printed along the edge of the paper, wast not want not after all!! Next I decided which house to ise and cut some of the trees and a small bush as well.

I wanted the edges of the mandala to not stand out too much on my white mat so took a blending brush and the same shade of green ink, mint macaroon is it's name, and added a gentle blended patch. The blended patch extended beyond the area where the fussy cut paper was going and gently faded outwards . 

To add a little extra to the mat I took an alcohol marker in the same colour and spattered all around.

Next I adhered the mandala flat and added the house and trees with 3d foam. I created the sentiment for the card by stamping and cutting up various phrases to create my own from the Amazing Phrasing stamp set that is also an exclusive Sale-A-Bration offering. 

Once I'd stamped and cut my sentiment I took my blending brush that I'd used to create the background and gently applied a little colour arounf the edges. This ensures that the cut edges aren't quite so harsh against the background. 

I think this card would work well for a leaving card or a moving away card. 

The dimension that placing the house and trees on 3d foam give helps to make sure they don't just meld into the background. 

All in all this card came together quickly and easily. The fussy cutting wasn't hard as there weren't any intricate bits 😉

So my top tip is sometimes let the paper do the talking!!!

Technique Tuesday - Love of Leaves

 Today's card is really another simple card but this time I used most of the leaf dies. I started with a piece of white card 10cm by 14.4cm and placed all of the dies over the mat and die cut them out. To add a little more texture, I embossed the white mat with the Hive embossing folder. I cut a piece of the Rainbow Glimmer papers just under the measurements of the white mat. I fixed the white over the glimmer paper using Dimensionals or foam adhesive shapes. I love the way that the different colours of the glimmer shows through. 

A simple sentiment from the stamp set and one of the die cuts that I cut from the mat completes this card.

Simple enough?

Make It Simple Monday - #simplestamping - Slim Sayings

 Hello and welcome back on this cold Monday morning. Didn't Cary make some gorgeous cards with the Daffodils last week? I love them! Today I am starting some projects using the NEW stamp set called Slim Sayings. As the name suggests they are aimed for tall cards or as is the fashion at the moment, DL shaped cards. Saying that thought, they are just as simple to use for the standard shaped or even square cards too.

My #simplestamping card is very that. I used my Marker pens to colour the stamps and as you can see from the pictures, I literally brushed a strip along each part of the stamp. I stamped this onto a plain white mat and then just edged the piece with one of the pens. For the inside, I repeated the same technique with the marker pens only this time, across the stamp. Adding a white card base underneath it completes the first card of the week.

Stampin' Write Marker pens are brilliant as you can buy them in 1 set as a whole lot. That is a set of 40 pens which includes the strong carry case or in a smaller set of a set of 10 pens. You can then add each of the other sets as and when you want to. The bonus is that you can also buy the In Colour pens to go with the sets too. They are a really good investment too as I've had my pens for over 11 years now and they are still going strong. If they start to dry out, you can just top them up with the re-inker bottles in each colour.