Technique Tuesday - Christmas Lights

 Happy Tuesday everyone. Today's card is similar to one that I have made before. This time I used the Christmas Lights, mainly the 2 strings of lights across the card mat in yellow and soft purple then I chopped the panel into 3 and reconstructed it by adding another colour, the gorgeous green of Shaded Spruce behind it. Each of the panels was added to the lower one using Dimensionals to add height. I cut the tree twice, once in the green and the other, just the whole tree in yellow and popped it directly behind it to accentuate the 'lights' on the tree. Looking at it now, I think it needs a yellow gem on the top of the tree to complete it, so I will be adding that very shortly. Once again, I used the Brightest Glow stamps for the sentiments. It is a very simple card to replicate and use for all sorts of occasion.

 

Make It Simple Monday - #simplestamping - Count On Me

 Hello and welcome back this week. On Saturday just gone, we held an all-day class at our usual rooms and it is so good to be back in there. Well, it would be if I had been there! Unfortunately, I came down with the dreaded Covid last week so had to stay home on Zoom! Never mind, it kept everyone else safe! This week, however, I am going to continue making animal cards. I have chosen one set that I didn't use and that is called Count On Me. 

The all-day class was based on which ever creature stamp set the attendees wanted and Cary and I made cards that could be adapted for any kind of animal stamps. It would appear to have been a good idea as everyone enjoyed being able to choose their own stamp set. Bonus! The cards on a Monday are all simple cards and this is no exception. An image and a sentiment, a squiggle with a colouring pencil and it's completed.

   

Make It Monday - Pampered Pets

 Hello and welcome back to the 2 Big Girls Crafting Blog. I hope you have all been crafting crazy and you are all well? I'm in my element as I've been making cards galore this week and having a ball! I couldn't decide which stamp set to use this week so I asked my granddaughter Bella to choose a set. She chose the lovely Pampered Pets. As soon as I saw it I fell in love with it. We have 2 dogs, both Cocker Spaniels no cats but these cat images are gorgeous.

My first card is aimed at a beginner to make. The idea is that anyone just starting out would have a stamp set, ink pad, paper and/or card. So today's card is a way to help a beginner crafter get started. I stamped the images onto a basic white mat (a piece of card or paper) 0.5cm smaller than the card base, which in this case, when folded in half is 14.85cm by 10.5cm. 

If you would like more information on this stamp set or other products, please click HERE 

It will open up in a new page. 

Technique Tuesday - Batik Bouquet

 Hello for another day of crafting. Using Batik Bouquet stamp set, today's card is all about repetitive stamping. I like this method of stamping as you really cannot go wrong. I stamped a row of the whole flowers and then using the infill stamps, I added the flower centres and the lower part of the leaves. The rest of the images were coloured in using Stampin' Blends pens. I've left it with a very simple background as I like the simplicity of it. Colouring can always be done with any colouring tool. If you don't have the exact tools just yet, make do with the children's pens or pencils. Then treat yourself to some lovely marker pens or the amazing Stampin' Blends pens. They really are amazing, no lies! A simple Happy Birthday and another sentiment on the inside completes this one. This time, I used the Many Messages stamp set for the sentiments. It has 18 different messages on this one stamp. It's a brilliant single stamp that has an individual die to go with it. It cuts out all of the sentiments. Which is great as you will have a bunch of sentiments ready for your next project. 

Make It Monday - Batik Bouquet

 Hello and thank you for joining me today. I will be using the Batik Bouquet stamp set this week for my cards.  Today I have used only Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad for this card. #Simplestamping is the theme for Monday's and with this card today, this is just the ticket! I have stamped the flower, the centre of the flower, and the leaves with the Memento and then drew a line using a Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker Pen. I have coordinated the stamps this week with the sentiments from Best Year. 

Technique Tuesday - Bamboo Beauty

 Thank you for stopping by our blog post today. Continuing with the Bamboo Beauty stamp set, today's technique, such as it is, is layers. Japanese culture I understand is calm, ordered and structured and I have attempted to show all of these today. The strong gray, otherwise known as Basic Gray, is              co-oordinated with Basic White card for the pure simplicity of monochrome which I love to see.  Bamboo Beauty has been a real pleasure to play with already this week. 

The design on my card is so simple but my family say it looks classy! Whether it does or not is up to you but my only thing to say is that no matter how simple a stamp set looks, look beyond what you first see and play with all of the stamps. I really have enjoyed all of the stamps in this set and at only £20 it's a brilliant investment. Have fun with all of your stamp sets, they really are worth playing with all of the time.  More information on the stamp set HERE  it will open up in a new page.

 

 

Make it Monday - Timeless Tropical

 Hello and thank you for stopping by. This week I am going to show some projects made with this lovely stamp set and occasionally the dies too. The set is called Timeless Tropical and the dies are In The Tropics. Today's card was a very straight forward one in that I used a whole sheet of A4 card in Basic White. Using the large flower in the set and a leaf, I stamped through the centre in both directions to be able to make 4 simple cards. I had to make a few post-it note masks of the leaf and the flower to place across the ones that I had already stamped to prevent from over stamping the images. 

Sounds technical? No, it isn't. I literally stamped the image again onto the top of the note so that the image would stick over my stamped images when I needed it to. I then fussy cut around the leaf and the flower. Cary showed me a cheats way to do it and that is by cutting 3 or 4 post it notes at the same time. It works really well too as the post-it paper is quite thin.

 

 

The inside to each of 2 of the cards with a few flowers and leaves. As you can see, I was able to change the orientation of some of the panels.

 

 

 

This last one of the 4 cards that I made was turned into a side easel card. A little trickier than the simple cards before but one that is still easily achievable.

Make It Monday - Lovely You

 Hello. I'm sorry to have missed being here for a few weeks but paperwork was calling me desperately! Well here I am back and bursting with crafting frenzy, I've not made anything for what seems like ages...probably 2 weeks...but however. This week for the #simplestamping technique I am using a lovely stamp set called Lovely You. This is a brilliant stamp set with 12 messages or phrases and 7 images. Not a massive amount of images but let's see how I can make some inspiring cards for this week shall we? 

Another thing I sometimes do is only using Stampin' Write Marker pens. Yes, you can colour a stamp using the pens just as you can with an ink pad. I have made a simple patterned mat using the 3 colours shown then mounted it to the lovely strip of bright pink. The 3 colours are a gorgeous shade of lime green in Granny Apple Green, the beautiful bright pink of Magenta Madness and the rich, unctuous green of Shaded Spruce. In addition to the pens, the only other tool I used was a punch. This is the Lovely Labels Pick A Punch. This punch can punch up to 6 different widths of card in 2 amazing shapes. Love it!

Make It Monday - Art Gallery

Hello and welcome back. After another week looking after my grandson Theo, I am very glad to say that his dad is off this week and I don't have to look after him! I love him to bits and he certainly has had me on my toes for all of last week. He is mischievious, funny, into everything and loves all of my Stampin' Up! products. If I'm making something, he has to be part of it too! So today's card is what we call a #simplestamping one. I am using the gorgeous stamp set called Art Gallery this week and although it wasn't one that jumped out at me initially, I really do love the versatility of the set now. 

This card is for the novice or beginner crafter to show that they can make beautiful cards very simply using just a stamp set, an ink pad and some paper or just card stock in this case.

I used the beautiful pink in the Fresh Freesia Ink pad. This is one of the 5 new In Colours that Stampin' Up! have just introduced to the world. If you keep a look out this week, I will attempt to show you the other 4 Ink colours.

A simple decoration on the inside and a message to complete it. 

If you live in the U.K. and would like a catalogue, please drop us a line and we will be very happy to send one to you.

 

 

 

 

Throwback Thursday - Hydrangea Haven

 

Hello and I must first apologise for missing the water colour Wednesday blog post this week. I now have the pleasure of looking after my grandson Theo now mummy and daddy are both at work. He is now 15 months old and as a rule a bundle of fun. Which he has been all week until Wednesday! Nothing could be done to console him! He has new teeth coming through and only wanted cuddles and playtime with nana. So guess who got nothing done at all? 😞

Here is yesterday's picture just after he had woken up. Along with the Bed Hair!

He is sooooo cute!!!

Never mind, I love him to bits! However today, now he's asleep, I have managed to make this card. Again using the Hydrangea Haven stamp set. It's just truly gorgeous! It stamps so well and the images are so precise and clear they could be real hydrangeas. Not quite but very close! 😁😁 The card was cut at 14.85cm along the length of the A4 card, so 29.7cm. I scored it at 14.85 in the centre and then on one side, at 7.4cm. It is a simple half gatefold card. (I think that's what it's called anyway)!

Using the gorgeous matching papers, I added 2 different designs to inside and out then stamped and die-cut the whole Hydrangea and lots of the little flowers. The little flowers all come out in one row so it's so simple to get them all at the same time. I even went crazy and added the gorgeous Rhinestones.  It's brilliant what you can make with a little card, paper and ink!

 

 

Fully open. When folded it fits in a 6" square envelope beautifully.

Technique Tuesday - Hydrangea Hill

Hello and welcome back to my sort of technique card. I used Hydrangea Haven stamp set but the message was from a free set that I got during Saleabration this February. This card has a single piece of the Hydrangea Hill Acetate for the front of the card, a flower and simple message. The acetate replaces the main card front apart from a 2cm strip at the top and bottom of the card just to add strength. That's it! The inside has become the extra decorated piece this time and the back of the card is for the message. Basically, a back to front card! The acetate is so beautiful. It comes is 2 colours, the gorgeous lilac/purple colour and a dusky rose pink. To protect it, the acetate has a clear film on the inside to stop it being scratched. You remove it before you add it to the card base. Brilliant idea!