Technique Tuesday - Dainty Delight

 Hello and thank you for stopping by. I have changed tack on what I was using for this week as I had forgotten that Cary used the Beautifully Happy stamp set a few weeks ago. I really paid attention didn't I Anyway I am now for the rest of this week, going to use the gorgeous Dainty Delight stamp set.

 Today's card is lovely and bright then cut into 4 pieces. I stamped several of the flowers from the stamp set using Versamark and added them to a white mat. I used White embossing powder and heat set them before I started to blend several different colours across the sheet. I cut it into 2 strips then each one into 2 more pieces. That was it. From there I added the pieces to another mat in a different order to before and then adhered them onto a Granny Apple Green card base. 

Make It Simple Monday - Beautifully Happy

 Hello and welcome back. Cary as usual did an excellent job showing her projects last week! How do I follow that? Well, I will try. I chose to use the lovely Beautifully Happy stamp set this week along with the odd sentiments. Today's project I have made 4 cards! I used a 6" by 6" piece of DSP from the In Colour range of papers from 2022 -2024 and I picked the Orchid Oasis coloured paper. 

I marked each left hand side with a small pencil mark and then joined up the opposite lines on my trimmer then cut them into 4 pieces. It was just a case of adding each one to a card base, stamping a sentiment onto a strip of matching card and a few flowers here and there. All 4 cards were made in half an hour. 4 different occasions and I have spares ready to sign and post.

What do you think?

Place the pieces how you want them and then adhere them to the card bases.

Overlap the strip of card on both sides and then trim off from behind the card. You get a better sight there. Don't forget that the DSP has 2 sides and 2 different paatterns.

 

Fun fold Friday Two-tone Flora

 Do you love pattern paper?  I  sure do so much so that I have quite the stash 😅 but I still couldn't resist the ones the are part of the Fancy Flora suite. Called Fancy Flora the paper is 15.1cm x15.1cm , ( 6" x 6").  There are 48 sheets of patterned paper: 4 each of 12 double-sided designs. The designs in this pack feature pastel hues painted on canvas.

The colours are gorgeous ! If you saw my Facebook live on Monday over on our Facebook page here you'll see me sharing them. They are so full of texture and colour.

So I wanted to create a card the would show off these beautiful papers. I decided to create one called a popping flap card that I found via YouTube .

It starts life as a piece of A4 cardstock.  That you cut as shown below.  

This gives you 3 pieces one which is 12.5cm x 27cm scored at 12.5cm. Then 1 cm in from each side score to the 12.5cm line and cut to the 27cm. The second is 26cm x 8.5cm sxored at 12.5cm. And the final piece is 3.85cm x 7.5cm scored at 1cm then every 0.5cm till you get to 6.5cm.

You then need to cut your pattern paper.  You'll  need pieces measuring 12cm x 10cm, 3.5cm x 10cm and 13.5cm x 8cm. You'll also need 2 pieces measuring 11.5cm x 8cm.

Here is a video to see how it all goes together. 

I love  these Fancy flora pattern papers. The whole Suite is just lovely.

Well that's  all from me this week please join me next week when Gill will be sharing her creations with us all. 

Have fun 

Cary xx

This of That Thursday Two-tone Flora

 After all the bright colours of the last 2 days I decided to calm it down again.  The colour choice was due to one of the  beautiful Fine Shimmer papers from the Fancy Flora suite . The colours are a soft green, a pretty lilac and a gold. They are all absolutely gorgeous with their shimmer and the way they catch the light in real life is just beautiful.

So I chose the soft green, called soft succulent,  as it's not one I chose very often. Sometimes you have to step outside the box don't you think?

So the colour palette was decided and I knew I wanted to use the large background die that is in the coordinating Two-tone Flora bundle die set. This die is a large intricate one that has so many uses.  

I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to use it as a mask. I started by die cutting it from basic white cardstock.  I then cut myself a mat of basic white cardstock and layed the due cut over top. I secured it so that it wouldn't move around. I then took a blending tool and the soft succulent ink and added colour through the die cut mask.

This technique is great in that it is a twofer. You not only get the inked image when you remove the mask. But the mask itself has been coloured beautifully!! So with that in mind I made 2 samples . 

The first uses the inked background.  I matted it onto a piece of the oh so shimmery soft succulent fine shimmer paper. I then stamped and die cut the sprig image in the green too. I then used my wink of stella shimmer pen to pick up the green ink and colour the sprigs. This gave a soft shimmer to them. A simple sentiment  from the Something Fancy bundle stamped in a darker shade of green called evening evergreen. I die cut the sentiment and added ribbon in the same shade of green behind it.

I then turned my attention to the die cut panel. I carefully cut it to size and adhered it to a piece of the green fine shimmer.  I love the tone on tone effect. The soft shimmer shines through almost highlighting the die cut piece. I finished the card in the same way as the first one. 

Now I was in a dilemma! Which did I like the most? The simple elegance of the first card? Or the shimmery finesse of the second?

What do you think? Oh and if you like the products they can now be found in my online shop by clicking here.

Watercolour Wednesday Two-tone Flora

 I'm calling today's inspiration a watercolour background tequnique ... not sure if it really is but that's  what I'm  calling it!! 🤣 I am of course using the fantastic Two-tone Flora stamps but in a slightly different way.

It all starts with a piece of watercolour paper,  a spritzer filled with water, kitchen roll, stamps and ink. I started by liberally spritzing the watercolour paper with water. I also spritzed the reverse a little as it helps to stop the buckleing. 

I then ink up the infill stamp, these are a solid image, and stamp them onto the wet paper. The ink will disperse and spread but don't panic it'll all work out right in the end promise! 

I used 3 different sizes of stamps and 3 different colours of ink.  If the colours don't disperse then spritz with more water . This is how mine looked at this stage.

Top tip here is to let it dry, if you're inpatient like me a heat tool is very helpful 😉, and then spritz again any parts that you  feel need more ink movement/ coverage . Also in the picture you can see that I work on kitchen roll/ paper this helps mop up the excess mess really easily 😅 

The next step is to take the corresponding highlight stamps and stamp with the same ink over where the infill stamps were stamped. Because the paper is now dry the stamps and ink act as normal.

This technique could work with so many stamps and is a great way to extend your stash!

Here's the finished card...

I used a fabulous sentiment from the Something Fancy stamp set and heat embossed it using white embossing powder. The sentiment just make me giggle 😅

A scattering of iridescent pearls to finish it off and my card was complete. I love the way this turned out. It definitely has a tie-dye feel to it with the colour palette I used don't  you think? But it would work with a gentler colour palette I'm sure.

Tip tricks and techniques Tuesday Two-tone Flora

 Today I'm  sharing a huge tip, Huge I say! But first a little back story.... you sit down to create a project to showcase a gorgeous stamp set, it's  called Two-tone Flora 😉, you're mind is filled with great ideas. You know the colour palette,  the layout, everything so you set to work.

I don't know about you but when my mind has the picture it doesn't always translate to what my hands can create. But sometimes,  on that rare occasion it all goes to plan!! Amazing 😁

I had the stamps, the dies,  the ink and made it happen woo hoo!!! I was so happy with the way it turned out. When I'm  creating for my posts I create the project then take photos... simple just tidy up ...then .... it happened!!!

The ink pad wasn't closed 😱... omg it slipped and fell... straight onto my finished sample 🥺😱😖 

I was so cross! And to make matters worse it was my own fault! So what do you do when that happens? Well firstly I finished tidying up and made sure that the ink pads where all closed of course! 

I then carefully took the card apart and salvaged what I could. I  restamped what I needed then adhered it back together again and voila sample mark 2!

It turned out exactly as I wanted. I love the way the shades of blue all work so well together. The pops of bright green really set the blues off well.

I love how the 2 step stamped images work so well. All the floral images in this set are so pretty that I had to use them on the inside too.

Sooo my top tip for this Tuesday is.... Close your ink pads as soon as you have inked your stamp!!! 😅

Make it simple Monday Two-Tone Flora

 Hello and welcome to my first post of 2023. This week I'll be sharing inspiration using a suite from the Stampin' Up! January to April mini catalogue . The catalogue goes live on Thursday the 5th of January.  (If you'd like to see one and live in the UK we'd love to be your demonstrators) The suite I've chosen on page 15 and the suite is called Fancy Flora. 

For my first card I've just used the stamps. There are 2 stamp sets in the suite. The first set is a 2 step photopolymer image only set called Two-tone Flora. 

The second set is a cling mount sentiment only set called Something Fancy. 

My inspiration for today is a SIP card.  It uses just Stamps, Ink and Paper. I used a basic white card base. I chose a colour palette of a soft pink called flirty flamingo,  a pretty orange colour called pale papaya and a pretty green called pear pizzazz. 

2 step stamping is  where you have an infill stamp and a highlight stamp. They work together to create a single image.  For my card today I stamped the infill stamps with a second impression of the colour. To do this all you need to do is ink your stamp and stamp it first onto a piece of scrap paper.  Then stamp the image onto your work without reinking it. 

The effect that generational stamping has is to give a lighter shade of the colour. This combined with stamping the highlight stamp full strength on top give a beautiful effect.

I used a colour called basic grey for the sentiment as I thought that black would be too harsh for this soft and delicate card.

The stamps in the Two-tone Flora set are soo pretty and I am so inspired by them. There are lots of ideas buzzing around in my head! But for now this is my first project.