Tips, Tricks and Techniques Tuesday - Inspirational Sketches

Today's card is made by making a frame once again but this time in a different orientation. Using the Inspirational Sketches stamp set, I stamped the bird diagonally on a piece of White card. I coloured it using my blends pens and then embossed it using the Fern Embossing Folder. It was cut down to as small as it could go and set to the side. I stamped and coloured 2 more birds which were then fussy cut out, each one a little more than the last one. The one with most of the image cut away was layered on top with Dimensionals, (foam 3D shapes). 

I added a piece of DSP from the Countryside Inn papers on top of a Night of Navy card mat which was a very small amount larger. They were adhered together and fixed to the Balmy Blue card base. I added the image on the white diagonal mat to the card base then cut some strips of both Night of Navy and Basic White card 0.5cm wide. One by one, these I added to the edge of the white mat and made the off-set frame. The sentiments were from the Happy Labels sentiments stamp set.

 

Make It Simple Monday - Inspirational Sketches

 Welcome back from me for the first time this year. I hope you all had a good Christmas and a wonderful New Year. May it be truly wonderful for you all. My first project this week is using the lovely, Inspirational Sketches stamp set. It is one of the new sets in the new catalogue which we will be happy to send you if you would like to message us. We will also be sending you a Saleabration catalogue. That means for every £45 order received, you get to choose one of the amazing FREE products in this booklet.

A very simple card for today, using the mushrooms. Now, I am weird according to my family as I don't like mushrooms as I think they are slimy and rubbery! However, I do love them raw and sliced into a salad, nice! Logic? No idea, not me anyway! 

I swiped the ink pad in the Gray Granite ink along a scrap of paper and coloured it and then put it to the side to dry. I stamped the mushrooms in the same colour and cut the square diagonally, coloured the edges in the ink too. That was it. So very straightforward and simple. I cut the strip in half, added it to the card and placed the mushrooms diagonally on foam shapes to add dimension. 

Fun fold Friday Bee my Valentine

 Happy Friday 🎊 we made it through the week 😃 I do hope you've enjoyed a week of Bee my Valentine inspiration. It's  been great fun playing with this uber cute stamps and coordinating punch. For the final card of the week I have a new to me fun fold called the wave or Mexican wave card. 

Now if you've been here before you'll know that I love rainbows and bright colours and because the weather has been grim, grots and grimy here I felt the need to brighten the world a little with a whole rainbow of cute bee's. So here they are....

Aren't they just sooo cute with their cheery expressions and  bright colours?

The wave mechanism looks complex but isn't once you understand how it works. Below is a diagram to show the measurements in metric to fit a standard A6 card base. 

And here is a short video of how it is put together.  Much easier to see it rather than trying to understand written instructions don't you agree 😉

So once the mechanism is made make your card base and add your mats on the inside if desired . Then add the mechanism lining it up to the mat edges. Then decorate!

The sentiment is made using the Mini Alphabet dies and the hearts are from the Bee builder punch. 

Well that's all folks from me for this week. Please join me here next week when Gill will be sharing her inspiration with us all. 

Have fun

Cary xx 

This or That Thursday Bee my Valentine

 The big question for today is... to Punch or not too punch? 🤔 Below are 2 cards identical in design and creation apart from 1 difference. Now it might not be that obvious at first glance there is a difference I promise! I have created the samples using the uber cute Bee my Valentine stamp and punch bundle. I have also used the fun double-sided pattern paper that coordinates with it called Bee Mine.

To create the card I used 2 pieces of the pretty paper. Don't you just love how the cute honey jar paper coordinates so well with the cute sentiment from the stamp set?

For my first card I have stamped the bee parts and the punched them out.

For the second version I stamped directly onto the white mat. On both cards I have used the ribbon and enamel flowers that are a part of the Bee Mine suite collection.  

Of course there is space to add a little extra on the inside of the cards 😉

So which are a puncher or a stamper? 

Watercolour Wednesday Bee my Valentine

Do you like getting the most from your stash? I certainly do! And punches are great additions because they work sooo hard for us. The great thing about the Bee my Valentine bundle is that it comes with this fun punch.

Now of course it punches out the parts to make a bee. You can stamp and the punch or punch and then stamp as the stamp set is photopolymer 😉.

But you can certainly see that the 2 hearts will work for many other things. But I wanted to show you how the bee's body shap can be used in another way too.

So it all starts with making a colourful piece of paper to punch out from. In this case I used a piece of watercolour paper and watercolour pencils. Firstly use the pencils to create bands of colour onto the paper.

Then take your spritzer filled with water and mist all over the piece. You can use a waterpainter to encourage the colours to blend if needed 😉

Then make sure the piece is properly dry. You can leave it to dry naturally or for those in a hurry to create a heat tool works well too!

Once completely dry cut the panel into 4cm (15/8") strips and punch out 5 of the bee body's.  Punch or die cut a small circle from the background piece and a small heart. You will then need a scrap of cardstock onto which to you will adhere the "petals" to thereby creating flower. 

You then add the small circl to the front and top with the small heart.

Once your flower is complete use the stamps to create a bee punching him out. 

Use the dotted line stamp to create the stem for your flower onto a mat of white cardstock.  The sentiment is stamped on to a scrap of white cardstock. 

I also used a piece of pattern paper as a layer behind the front panel.

I also used some of the pattern paper to decorate the envelope as a little something extra .

Tips tricks and techniques Tuesday Bee my Valentine

 Welcome to the start of another year of creative inspiration from my self, Cary, and Gill. We are both independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrators here in West Sussex in the United Kingdom.  We offer classes both online and in person. Host a variety of all day events, an annual weekend retreat ( 24th/25th of March this year!) as well as charity events throughout the year. All this as well as sharing inspiration here every Monday through Friday ! (We can also be found on Facebook and YouTube 😉) 

So let's get to the important part... the crafting ! I'm starting this week, a day late I know but hey ho 😉, by sharing a stepped up clean and simple card. I'll be using the Bee my Valentine stamp set all week . This is a fun set that is in the mini catalogue that goes live on Thursday,  the 4th of January. 

Don't you just love the cute expression stamps ?😍 ! But for the first card using the set I decided to not use a bee on the front at all 😱 but fear not it's happened for a reason. I want to show that although the set is aimed at valentines it has so much more too it!

As mentioned above this card is a stepped up version of a clean and simple card.  All that's happened to step it up is the addition of a black mat and the inclusion of some cute enamel hearts. 

The sentiment was created from those in the set. All that needs to be done is to mask the parts of the stamp that you don't want to use whilst inking then stamp as usual.  Top tip make sure the stamp is absolutely clean before you mask it up.. you don't want any shadows 😉. 

Hands up I couldn't resist sneeking one of the cute bee's inside the card though...

 

The sentiment on this card is one that I truly believe is one we should all live be... Bee you no matter what! And a great one to start 2024 off with!

Happy new year 2024

 Happy New Year 2024

May we wish you all a happy 2024 filled with good health,  happiness and of course lots of crafting goodness.

Let's make 2024 a good one 

Love Cary and Gill 

Xxx