Make it simple Monday Honeybee Home

 Well Christmas is certainly getting here fast!!! 5 day's to go how did that happen!!!! Well all that being said I have a great set that I'll  be sharing projects I've made with you for the next 5 days. Called Honeybee Home it's from the upcoming January to June mini catalogue from Stampin' Up! . 

I think this set is rather lovely. It has florals and honey bee's as well as great sentiments. The bee's make it a little different and I like different 😊

For today's #makeitsimplemonday inspiration I have used stamps, ink and paper. I have also used the acrylic block that my stamps cling to. You will also need a way to mist water. I used a spritzer but any spray bottle that gives a fine mist will work.

The first thing you need to do is ink up your acrylic block... yes put your block onto the ink pad!! Now with your card ready to one side gently mist the ink on the block with water from your spritzer. Next place the block ink side down onto the card. 

The water and ink are absorbed by the card. You can see it happening through the clear acrylic . If you have chosen a darker colour ink you may want to stamp off onto scrap paper before spritzing with water . This is just personal preference. I would highly recommend playing with this technique on scrap card first so that you see how it works. 

Once the panel is dry, and it dries really quickly, it's time to decorate. As this is a #simplestamping project I decided to stamp on to the panel with the stamps from the Honeybee Home set in black ink.

The first card I made uses a yellow ink called appropriately enough bumblebee!! I stamped 3 of the Honeybee images ontop of the coloured panel and a seeet sentiment below.

The second card uses a pretty pink called polished pink paired with one of the floral images from the stamp set.

For the third and final card I went with a light purple called fresh freesia ink and the second floral image.

I had great fun creating these cards. It is an easy and quick way to create cards that are both elegant and artistic. 

If you'd like to see how I created these fun cards why not pop over to our Facebook page 2 Big Girls Crafting at 4pm , GMT,  this afternoon for a Facebook live where Cary will be demoing the technique 😀 or you can watch the video 

Fun Fold Friday - Bright Baubles - Special Cards

 Hello again on this cool and chilly morning! Ooo! It really is nippy out there today! I'm glad I don't have to go out! For my last class using the Bright Baubles stamp set, today I am showing the 1st card that I made for the all-day class. It is a little fiddly, so it's not for the faint-hearted but it's really well worth it. This is an easel card so a fairly simple one until you see that I have cut out the centres of two panels.

The best way to start this is by folding a piece of A4 in half and burnish the folds really well. The add it to the trimmer and gut the centre at 3 cm all around the 4 edges. This now gives me a folded frame in Pool Party card. Then adding a piece of card 15.85cm by 21cm. I scored 1cm down the full length and using tape, I fixed the 1cm strip under one side of the gutted frame of the card. This is now 3 panels wide so quite a large card base.  Obviously, as I've removed a large part from the centre of the card, I needed to stabilise it a little to give it a bit more strength.  To do this I used some of the Green foiled card.

I cut some pieces of green foiled card 14.4cm by 20.5cm and gutted them both 2.5cm from each edge. I now have 4 separate frames. 2 in Pool Party of the card and 2 in the green foil. I decided to emboss the foiled frames using the Wintry embossing folders. I used the pine tree one from the twin pack. I love the texture it's added to the card.   

 

Onto the decorating now. I stamped a bauble twice using a Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad and coloured the images in identically using my Stampin' Blends before glueing them together using Tombow multipurpose glue, adding a piece of Baker's Twine into the centres first. I die cut a 'JOY' bauble from both sides of the foil. This ensures that you will get a mirror image of the dies. I added some Baker's Twine to the inner parts and glued them together using Tombow again. Once they were both dry and able to be moved, I added them to the centre, top fold and secured them using some tape where the foiled panels are going to go.

 

Now onto the solid panel of card. I added one of my most favourites in the pack of DSP Peaceful Place papers. This simple white and silver design is, in my mind, simply stunning. I stamped a sentiment onto Basic White card in the Shaded Spruce Ink and mounted it onto a piece of green foiled card then placed it about 4 - 5 cm from the front edge of the card using foam shapes (Dimensionals) to enable the front mat to stand up. I had lots of die cut white snowflakes and added them around the card to highlight it.

I haven't done it yet but I will be adding a white panel to the base to write my message on. There's not really much space to add it unless I write all over my favourite paper!

That's it from me for another week. Once again, I am so sorry that I missed Monday's post. 

I hope that you are now nearly ready for the Christmas holidays and ready to spend some quality time with your friends and loved ones. If you can, please remember those of your neighbours who are on their own. Try to pop in and see them and give them some cheer.

Cary will be back next Monday, (I don't think she has any dental appointments)! Until I return on 27th December, I hope that you all have the most wonderful Christmas time and manage to get to spend some time with family and friends. 

Whatever you are going to do please 

xxxxx    STAY SAFE, BE WELL and KEEP ON CRAFTING.    xxxxx

Happy Christmas and have a wonderful New Year 

Gill xxx 😍😍😍

Throwback Thursday - Bright Bauble - Special Cards

Hello again on this chilly Thursday. Today the card is fairly straightforward but there's lots of card and paper involved. Using the Detailed Bauble dies, I die cut several of the baubles out in Red Foiled card. I also die cut some large panels in Basic White card from Scalloped Contour Dies and stamped them with the sentiments and stars from the Bright Bauble stamp set. 

I have used the lovely, proper red for Christmas called Real Red. One of my fave colours. I started with an A4 piece of card then scored and folded it in half. I added a further piece of card this time 21cm by 15.85cm. This was scored at 1cm down the 21cm edge, so the panel was now 14.85cm by 21cm. Adding tape to the 1cm folded strip and fixing it to the end of the card, this then gave me another panel the same size as the front and now the centre panel.

 

 

  I fussy cut around the sentiment on the front of the card and added it to some of the Real Red card and fussy cut again. I adhered the ribbon behind this sentiment to stabilise the bauble.

                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

Once the back panel was added, I scored down the now centre panel at 7.4cm, once it was folded to point into the card, it gave me the v shape in the centre. 

 

 

Using several panels of Peaceful Place paper (DSP) I added them to the red card after I had added the Real Red Sheer Ribbon to the baubles and the back of the DSP panels.

You may be able to see that the baubles inside are only fixed by the top of the ribbon and left to dangle into the card.

 

 

I found that I had an abundance of die cut snowflakes so decided to splatter them liberally over the card.

 

If you look at the card from above now, you will see that it gives the shape of the letter M

Watercolour Wednesday - Special Cards - Bright Baubles

Today's card is not really a watercolour card. So... I cheated! oops! This time I used a dark blue A5 card base (A4 folded in half), Designer Series Paper (double sided paper) and a shape from the set of dies called Stitched So Sweetly. Bright Baubles stamp set today was used for the stamping and the sentiments the rest is all the beautiful DSP of Peaceful Place. These black, grey and white papers have silver embellishments all over one side of each sheet.

This time, I measured half way down the length of the centre fold which is 21cm and marked it at 10.5cm and then cut down to the 10.5cm mark. I turned it around and cut straight through to take the top of the front panel off. Then it was just a case of choosing and using the papers for the card. The panel that I removed from the top of the card is in use with a piece of DSP. One of the papers has been split into 4 of the same images and this is one of them. Once again, if you were lucky enough to buy some of the papers before now, then you've been lucky. They are now sold out! I had great fun adding all of the paper to this card and I know that I've probably gone overboard but I honestly don't care. I know exactly who this card is for this Christmas too!

 The small decorative panel at the bottom on the front is the rest from the square of dsp

 

Tips, Tricks, Techniques Tuesday - Special cards

 Hello and thank you for joining me again. I'm so sorry for not being able to show you any cards yesterday but as Cary explained, the dentist treatment I went through was rather bad! I will be ok as it was only the dentist  but when you are left with bruises... It makes you wonder why we go to them! 😬 Anyway, this week I will be cheating a little as these were cards that I made for our recent C5 all day class. I used the stamp set called Bright Baubles along with the matching dies which are called Delicate Baubles. A really lovely set of baubles they are too. 

Now as I said all of the cards are twice the size of the normal sizes that we do and these will be going to my special friends and family members. My first card is very straightforward. I folded a piece of A4 card in half to give my C5 cards base. I then cut a piece of the dark grey paper from the Peaceful Place, Designer Series Papers. The one side of all the papers have a silver effect on them. They are stunning. No colours, just black, white, grey and silver. Perfect. 

I cut a mat of green foiled card and embossed a piece of white card with the Merry Melody embossing folder. I matted the foil and white card together and die cut some of the baubles out too. I threaded some of the Pool Party Sheer ribbon through the holes at the top and then added a few small pieces of double sided foam (Dimensionals) behind the baubles Before the ribbons were fixed behind the white and green mats.

 

Make it simple Monday

 There is no project to share with you today from Gill sadly.  Gill had to have dental surgery on Friday. She is at home recovering well but hasn't been able to get to her desk to create a project for today. She hopes to get to her desk today and fingers crossed will have one of her creations to share here tomorrow. 

Please join Cary for her weekly Facebook live over on the 2 Big Girls Crafting page at 4pm GMT as usual. 

Fun fold Friday In the Moment

 This week has not only been about the gorgeous In the Moment stamp set it has also I've  noticed been all about the backgrounds!! So as not to spoil the run this last project foe the week had to have have both of course 😉

Friday's  of course mean a fun fold so after lots of thought I went with one called a center stepper card. There are many tutorials and templates for these style cards on the internet. For those who want my version below is a hand drawn template. 

I started with a piece of cardstock measuring 10.5cm x 29.7cm. I then drew lightly in pencil at 2.5cm, 5cm,  14.85cm and 16.35cm along the long side. I then drew at 2.5cm and 8cm upto the 16.35cm line. 

Next I scored all the dotted lines in the photo. I  then cut the solid lines in the photo. To fold the card start at the 2.5cm score lines. They are a mountain fold. The 5cm lines are valley folds and the final 2 score lines are both mountain  folds.

To decorate  my card I cut a piece of white cardstock measuring 10.5cm x 16.35cm. I then used my inks and blending brushes to create a sunset blended background. 

I then cut the panel to fit the card base. Next I stamped the image from the In the Moment stamp set in black ink onto white cardstock.  I then used my black alcohol marker to colour it all in. Next somee fussy cutting to create the silhouette.  I then went  over the image with my black marker again.  I also coloured all the cut edges. 

I stamped the sentiment from the In the Moment set in versamark and heat embossed it in white on black cardstock.  Remembering to use my antistatic bag to ensure that the powder only stayed on the ink!. 

To attatch both the silhouette image and the sentiment I used the fantastic  black 3d foam from Stampin' Up! . This ensures that when turned to the side there is no white area staring out  from the dark background. 

The only white you can see is the panel I placed inside the card to write a message on!

Well that's it from me this week. I do hope I've inspired you to get creative and have fun playing with stamps, ink and paper.

Next week Gill will be sharing her inspiration with us here on our blog as well as over on our Facebook page here. 

If you're interested in any of the products I've used this week they can be found in our on line shop here

If you'd like to join our wonderful community of Stampin' Up! demo's called Larger Than Life Stampers you can do so here.

Have a crafty weekend and remember..

Have fun!!

Cary xx