Thoughtful Expressions - Fun Fold Friday

 Hello for this fun fold Friday card. This is the last one from me for this week and I have been inspired by a Christmas card I had from a lady in my team. Her name is Lynn Beatty and she makes the most beautiful cards as well as gorgeous wreaths, table decorations, gift packaging, bags, boxes, the list goes on. A very clever and lovely lady. Using the Thoughtful Expressions, I stamped several of the large flowers and the small flower too. I started by cutting 2, A6 card bases and then trimmed one of them, in this case a white one down by 0.5cm on the top and the side. The Real Red card is the C6 card and the smaller white one, was adhered to the inside of the card base on the right hand side of the base card. I have just received a pack of the Most Adored DSP which is another SABand has just been added in to the free items. We have another lot of Saleabration items bought in including current stamp sets, Stampin' Write Marker pens, the colour core collection too. Remember for every £45 order from the catalogues you get to chose a free item from the Saleabration catalogue too! What a great deal it is!

 

 

Above is the card from Lynn I had at Christmas and below is a picture of the gorgeous coordination dies that go with the matching stamp set of the same name as the stamp set.

 

 

Below is the Most Adored DSP that I used. 

I used 2 different mats of the DSP which is pink, red or white patterned on one side and gold patterned on the other side.I folded the right hand side of the White card base in half straight down and it was there that I adhered the red die cut mat to.

I used the dies to cut the centre panel out once I had stuck the 2 pieces of DSP on.  I didn't add Tombow to the centre of the DSP's. As you can see, I used the red mat of the card base for the inner fold.

 

 

Once the central mat was on, I started to decorate the rest of the card. I added a few fussy cut flowers from another piece of the DSP to the inside too. I love it!

 

That is it from me again this week, I will return the week after next as Cary will be sharing some of her fabulous creations with you next week. 

As always take care, stay safe and keep well but as always,

😍😍xxx KEEP ON CRAFTING xxx  😍😍

 Gill xx

This or That Thursday - Thoughtful Expressions

Well hello again for this lovely Thursday. I say lovely as we have been forecasted to get some very cold weather and snow in the coming weeks so today is lovely! Today's 2 cards using the beautiful Thoughtful Expressions are very similar, obviously but with the slight differences of papers and embellishments. The papers are from the Perennial Lavender suite, another set that is equally beautiful as the stamp set. 

The 2 cards were cut as A6 cards and half of the front of the card base was removed from both. I cut 2 pieces of DSP from the lavender papers and cut an A6 piece of paper 10cm by 14.4cm then cut it in half at 5cm. One of each halves was placed on the left and the other half obviously on the right. I was intending to leave it white but thought better of it.

 

 THIS

For this one, I used the beautiful hummingbird. My colouring isn't the best but I think it's my interpretation of it. Whether it is or not, I have no idea but that's one of mine! I die cut the circular patterned shape from the Thoughtful Espressions dies, added the sentiment, flowers and bird.

 

THAT

My that card I have obviously made in the different paper but no bird of this one. Just flowers and leaves.

 

 

 Now it's your turn to say which is your preferred card, if there is one. 

Watercolour Wednesday - Thoughtful Expressions

 Hello on a very wet Wednesday! Today's watercolour card was great fun to make. I started by cutting a strip of watercolour paper 14.85cm long by approximately 7cm wide. I thoroughly soaked it with water from the spritzer and then using my re-inker bottles, lightly I scribbled the ink across the card. I repeated it a few times with different colours and once I was happy with the them, I put it aside to dry. Prior to me stamping using the Thoughtful Expressions stamp set, I cut a tent fold card base which is 29.7cm long, scored at 14.85cm and 10.5cm wide. I then cut a white mat with the dies from the Around The Bend. It gave a really lovely curve across the card which was what I wanted. 

I cut the coloured mat to 14.4cm as I left it slightly longer than I wanted and just trimmed the ends down. Once I had positioned it onto the front of the card, I could mark the mat where I needed to trim it. I positioned the now 2 pieces onto the card base and adhered more or less centrally to the card. I adhered the die cuts to the top and bottom of the card base and then played with the scraps of inked watercolour card. I stamped some of the flowers and die cut using some of flowers and swirls from the Thoughtful Expressions dies.

The rest as you can see is easy. I just placed them onto the mat and then adhered them into place.

Here you can see the finished mats before they were die cut and stamped on. I really had fun today. Not a messy one like like Cary had on her LIVE on Monday but fun nonetheless. :)) 

Technique Tuesday - Thoughtful Expressions

 Hello and I hope that you are all busy creating in one way or another. It doesn't matter what and how you create but everyone ... and I believe this, everyone creates something every day! Whether it's just putting on coordinated clothing, decorating your home, creating a meal, we all create something every day! Today I am working with the gorgeous Thoughtful Expressions stamp set. I have added some of the beautiful double sided papers called Countryside Inn. I used 2 pieces for this one by trimming it down on the front by a small amount and added paper to the right-hand side of the card where the back of the card is showing. Another bird, once again drinking from the flowers.  

I used a die from the matching set of dies for the 2 white die-cuts and added some Misty Moonlight card behind the DSP and on the inside of the card.

 

Make It Simple Monday - #simplestamping - Thoughtful Expressions

 Hello, well as you can see Cary had a really great time with the cuties last week didn't she? As we have possibly mentioned once or twice, we are gearing up for our annual retreat in just over 2 weeks' time so we are both running on high gear at the moment! Today though I have gone with a really pretty bird from the Thoughtful Expressions stamp set. I started by stamping the bird onto a scrap of paper. Using a yellow colouring pencil, I coloured in lots of circular motions around the front of the card base. It's quite a pale soft yellow so it took a few go's at it. Then I stamped in a very soft grey, the little flowers that are at the top of the stamp set.  I was going to just go around the outside but got carried away. It reminds me of a birds nest. I coloured the bird in yellows, blues and greens, all in light and dark colours until I was happy with the result. Yes, I fussy cut around the bird as I wanted it to be flying up to the nest. I put the bird on foam shapes and stamped a simple sentiment at the bottom and another on the inside. 

 

Fun fold Friday Jungle Pals

 Wow it's Fun Fold Friday already! this week of Jungle Pals inspiration has just flown by!! Called an easel card this version is just a little bit extra. 

It all starts with a card base that measures 10.5cm x 29.7cm scored at 7.4cm and 14.85cm plus a panel of the same cardstock measuring 10.5cm x 14.85cm.  This is all you need for a basic top/ tent fold easel card.

The something extra comes when you create an appature. Start by die cutting or cutting a shape from the panel of cardstock.  Positioning the appature in the middle of the panel. Once cut out place the panel over the card base piece that has the scoreline at 7.4cm. Now mark where the appature is and die cut out again just through this layer of the card base. 

Reinforce your scorelines on the card base so they are both mountain folds. Attatch the panel just to the first half of the card front. Make sure that the appature lines up nicely. This allows the panel to stand up when the card is open and lie flat when folded.

With the card base complete now let your imagination run riot and decorate to your hearts delight.  The easel fun fold is a great style to have in your arsenal as it allows for so many ways to decorate. You can show off pattern paper, you can create a clean and simple version , or you can do as you see here add lots of images and die cuts 😅

The Jungle Pals dies make this card so easy to create with all its lush floral features as well as making cutting the animals out so easy! 

Placement of your decorative pieces around and over the appature is what gives this version of the fun fold that something special. The recipient gets to look through the card.

The stopper for the card when open was created using the tree die cut split in to 2 pieces. You might find it useful to take a sponge dauber or other blending tool and apply ink around and on top of your die cut pieces to give them shades and tones.

The sentiment is from a fun new emboss and die set called Thoughtful Moments.  This is a hybrid embossing folder that not only embosses but also allows for the die to be placed inside it at the same time so that you emboss and cut in one!

For this card I used a brayer to add ink over the embossing folder then added the die . This gives you a whole set of sentiments to choose from in one action !

As the card has no clear place to write a message to the recurring I decided to make the back of the card that place. But you can't just leave it unadorned can you? I used another of the die cut sentiments and added a stamped image and a spare die cut leaf.

Don't you just love the cute critters in the Jungle Pals stamps? Which is your favourite? Or are you like me and love them all?

Well that's all from me this week but please pop back next week as Gill will be sharing her creations with us all here.

Have a great weekend and above all...

Have fun 😁 

Cary xx

This or That Thursday Jungle Pals

Do you always add a sentiment to the front of your cards? Sometimes do you make a card the go to add a sentiment and think hmmm 🤔 ? Well today it happened on both my samples! The cards are of course made using the Jungle pals stamps and the coordinating dies (both of which are exclusive Free product from Stampin' Up! available until the end of the month with qualifying purchases 😉)

The cards both feature the cute critters from the stamps and the gorgeous leaves and tree trunk from the dies. But I wanted to show how with the magic of blending and tone on tone stamping you can create amazing depth to your projects.

Start by blending your chosen colours all over a mat of white cardstock making sure to leave the lightest area towards the middle of the piece. Next take some outline leaf/foliage stamps and stamp around the edges of the panel. Layer the stamped images till pleasing to the eye remembering that the lightest area will be where your focal point will be.

Next die cut the leaves and foliage along with a tree trunk. Then the hard part deciding on which critters to use and which orientation your final card will take. Once decided play around till you're happy and adhere it all together not forgetting to add dimension with 3d foam 😉 

So which orientation would you choose landscape? 

Or portrait? 

I've  still not added any sentiment on the front either! Would you?