Make It Simple Monday - #simplestaqmping - Whale Done

 Today is Easter Monday so for those of you who celebrate this season may I wish you a very Happy Easter, For those who don't... Happy Monday. The bunnies and chicks last week were gorgeous. This week I am playing with another set that I have had for a while and once again, not played with! It's called Whale Done. I fell in love with this stamp set and punch the first day that I saw it, so why I've never done anything with it, I have no idea. When it came out, it had a set of designer series papers which were beautiful. This has given me a challenge to match papers with it but I managed nonetheless. 

Today is #simplestamping or Make It Simple Monday so this is a very quick and simple card that literally anyone can make. Only 2 stamps on the front and 1 more inside. That's it. Simple enough?

 

 

Fish do go all the way through the water too don't they?  😂

Fun fold Friday Easter Friends

 Happy Good Friday everyone and may you have a lovely weekend. For my final card of my Easter Friends stamp week I have a fun fold featuring the happy duckling again.  I have to say I think he's my favourite out of the set 😉 which is yours?

The card starts out as a piece of cardstock measuring 29.7cm x 10.5cm.  That you score at 5cm and 14.85cm.  You then mark the center of the short side nearest the 5cm score line. Now score between the center point and the 5cm score line diagonally on both sides as per the photo below.

Fold the score lines and burnish them all. The 14.85cm line is the center fold of the card. Then fold the top and bottom triangles to the 5cm scoreline to create a point. The triangles will lie on the front of the card.

Next you'll need a piece of cardstock measuring 7.5cm x 7.5cm in the same colour as your card base. Attached the square to the 2 triangle flaps lining the points up to the scoreline and the open edge of the card.

Then all that's left is to decorate!

I chose to use the same pattern paper on the inside as well as the front of my card so that when closed it looks like one piece.

The fun comes when it's open and the diamond panel can float.

To  decorate the inside I die cut a cute frame in 2 sizes. 1in the same colour as the card base and 1 in white. I stamped a sentiment on the white the die cut a few flowers and leaves and added them to the sentiment piece. Then I placed the white layer onto the colour layer and adhered it to the center of the inside of the card. 

I placed a simple white mat onto a coloured one as tha space to write your message on the opposite side.

For the front I embossed a panel of white and put it onto a slightly bigger white mat. Then adhered both to the colour diamond. Then I stamped and fussy cut out my cute duckling and used 3d foam to adhere him to the panels.

A simple sentiment for the front and I was done . I  love how this card turned out. The bright happy colours and the ohhh so cute duckling are just perfect together. 

Well that's all folks... and if you know where that phrase comes from you must be as old as me 🤣🤣🤣!! Well it's  all there is from me for this week that is.

Please join me next week in seeing what inspiration Gill will be sharing with us all here.

Have a lovely Easter weekend and I hope you get some time to craft.

Have fun

Cary xx 

Throwback Thursday Easter Friends

 New baby cards are as much fun to make as they are to give! I thought the adorable chick from the Easter Friends stamp set would be perfect for a new baby card.

I wanted to create a fun,  colourful card that would be easy to create but still have lots of visual impact.

I chose a colour palette of bright pink, lilac, green, yellow and blue and randomly stamped the chick over a white cardstock mat.

I then made a card base in lilac and added the stamped mat ontop. To decorate I die cut a lable in white and stamped a sentiment on it. Next I die cut a bow out of the lilac cardstock and cut 2 narrow strips of the card.

I added the bow to the front of the die cut and the strips behind. A small iridescent rhinestone in the center of the bow added a little twinkle. I then placed the die cut onto the card front using 3d foam. 

For the inside I stamped a trio of colourful chick on to a white insert added another simple sentiment and it was complete.

This adorable card came together quickly and is delightful.  I hope you like it as much as I do 🙂

Watercolour Wednesday Easter Friends

 Today's card is a super fun card using the super cute duckling in the Easter Friends stamp set.  This little cutie just jumped of the page at me as a splashing dancing duckie.

So with that in mind I wondered how I was going to create a pond for my ducklings to splash in. So I used the masking technique from Yesterday's post to start with.

So I stamped the duckling 3 times all at jaunty angles onto a mat of white cardstock. I used a bright yellow called daffodil delight that always makes me smile.

I then stamped and fussy cut out 3 of the ducks out of sticky notes. Next I placed them over top of my stamped images.

Next I took a cellophane bag, a water spritzer and a waterbased marker. The marker was in a great shade of blue called balmy blue.

I used the marker to scribble onto the cello bag. Next I spritzed it with water and flipped it over quickly onto the ducks feet area. I whipped the cello off and admired my pond.

I repeated the process to add a little more water and then quickly removed the masks. I then left the piece to dry whilst I made made my card base and decided what sentiment I was going to use.

I love how this card turned out. The bright spring like colours and the cute image just make me smile.

A quick and easy card that would work well for almost occasions. 

Tips tricks and techniques Tuesday Easter Friends

 This week I thought I'd share a card featuring the fun Easter Friends stamps and a technique that I think is a hreat one to have in your skill set. Called maskingbit can be used in sooooo many ways but for today's  project I have used it to create an image behind another.

To start I stamped the large floral image from a set called Blessings of Home to one side of my white mat. I  then stamped the same part onto a sticky note. Then I fussy cut the image on the sticky note.

 

Once I'd cut the sticky note mask out I covered the  stamped image.  Then stamped the other side of my mat. 

Because I'd masked the already stamped part I was able to go slightly over the first image to have a more soiled look.

Next I cut another mask as before to cover the image.

Now I took the bunny stamp and stamped her above and over the flowers. 

 

The sticky note masks protected the flowers and once removed the make the bunny appear to be sat behind the flowers.

I think this is a real wow effect. It opens up all sortes of possibilities once you have mastered it. One tip for this type of masking I'd like to share is to cut on the stamped line or slightly into the edge. This means that when you stamp over it there is less chance of there being any blank space.

Now the fun part the colouring in! I used a soft spring colour palette and used my alcohol markers. 

Once coloured I saw a piece of pattern paper on my work area. This pretty paper was just the right size!! It was ment to be!!

A simple sentiment and a twine bow and I was done.

I love the pretty card. I love how these cute stamps may be from an Easter stamp set but can be used for so many other occasions.

Make it Simple Monday Easter Friends

 Wow how fast is this year going by??? Seems like only yesterday we were welcoming in the new year!!! Now all of a sudden it's Easter holidays and spring appears to have finally sprung!! Like many people I don't send Easter cards sowhy would I but a stamp set called Easter Friends I hear you say? Well just have a look at this super cute set...

Don't they just make you smile? These sketched images are just a joy. So as this is the week leading up to Easter I thought it was time to give them some ink!

So to start the week #makeitsimplemonday I decided to do the same card but in 2 colour ways.  The reason for this is that I can't decide whether I like the bunny in browns or greys?

For the first card I stamped in a shade of brown called soft suede.  I then used my blender pen to add extra colour in a lighter shade called crumb cake.

For the second card I stamped the bunny in basic grey. Then used the blender pen and a lighter shade of grey called smoky slate.

So thw question is which do you prefer 🤔? Brown bunny? Or grey bunny?

If you'd like to see how I created today's sample I will be going live on Facebook this afternoon at 4pm BST.  If you can join me that would be lovely 😀

If you missed me live I'll pop a link below to the video later. 

Fun Fold Friday - Love of Leaves

Well here we are on Friday's post already! Normally, I make the cards and post them on a daily basis. This week I am so ahead of myself for a change. I made this card last Thursday! Strangely enough, last night Cary and I were teaching a class and I showed her what I was making. She said look at Friday's post. So I did. I have made this Friday's card very similar to the one she made and showed last week! What are the odds on that happening? I know that we have similar ideas and often know what the other is thinking but this was weird! Anyway, for my last card for this week, I have made a gatefold card with a twist. Using most of the leaves from the Love of Leaves stamp set, I cut half a piece of A4 card and stamped it onto the ink pad and then kissed another colour on the edges to give different tones to them. 

The colours I used are extremely unlike me. I don't mix colours in this way as a rule but for some reason on this one, I did. I used Shaded Spruce and Old Olive on their own and then used Granny Apple Green with Crushed Curry on the edges and then Pear Pizazz with Rich Razzleberry. I am really pleased with the way they have all turned out. 

I cut a piece of Rich Razzleberry 29.7cm by 14.85cm or half a sheet of A4 lengthwise. I scored this at 9.9 cm from each end before scoring them again this time at 4.95 cm from each end. On the 9.9cm score lines, using a pencil, I marked 5cm down from each long edge. Then across the centre panel on the top and bottom edges I marked the centre point of 4.95 cm. From there, using my trimmer, I scored between the 4.95 cm and the 5cm pencil mark on the scored lines on either sides of the 5cm marks. This was repeated on the top and bottom of the card. Now I have 2 large V's folded at the top and bottom edges.

From that point I cut mats out of the paper that I stamped the leaves onto and cut it into 4 pieces of 4.5 cm by 14.4 cm. I added 1 each to the right and left front panels. Using a pencil and laying the other 2 mats onto the card, I marked where the triangular cuts needed to be for each side then adhered them too. I cut a white mat 9.5 cm by 14.4 cm and laid that on top of the centre panel and I marked where the triangular cuts will be. I added a little detail of the long leaf along the edges of the white mat before adhering it to the card base. The triangles that I cut from the card mats were re-used on the opposing triangles. I added a number of the leaves to the front and added a sentiment which was punched out from the Label Me Lovely Punch. The white label was added back into the punch and punched again to make it smaller.  

Once the main card was completed, I added a square of Rich Razzleberry card 14.85 cm by 14.85 cm. I cut a white mat 14.4 cm by 14.4 cm and embossed that with the Parisian Flourish Embossing Folder before adhering the 2 mats together. I pencil marked the centre to and bottom then using Stampin' Up! Tear and Tape added it to the square. I made a belly-band in Rich Razzleberry and embossed white card. Then I added a few more plain white leaves to the centre front.

 Well, I hope that you have managed to follow the cards that I have made this week. Thank you for   stopping by and taking a look. I hope that one way or another, I have given you some ideas to make your own projects. 

Cary will return next week to share some of her projects which I'm sure you'll love. 

Until I return the following week, 

please STAY SAFE, KEEP WELL but most of all, 

KEEP ON CRAFTING!  

Thank you so much, 

xxx Gill xxx