Celebration Cake

Hello there!

I'm back with another card to share with you. This one is a fun cake card done in lovely summer sorbet shades.

I found that I didn't have any colours of card stock in the shades I had in mind. I solved this by creating my own with Promarkers. I haven't used my Promarkers for a while, so I thought I would dust them off and get them used.

Even though I have the full range of Copic markers, I find that sometimes they don't have the exact colour I'm looking for. This is where Promarkers come in, they have some beautiful colours, especially the pastel and sorbet shades. So why not mix the two brands?

This is a simple stamped image on a large white banner. I made the coloured background by die cutting strips of white card, shading them in and then arranging them onto some copy paper and sticking down. This was then cut in a panel.

What you need...

Stamps:

Birthday Bash - Paper Smooches

Dies:

Horizontal Stripes - Waffle Flower

A2 Layers

Scalloped Banner Set - Avery Elle

Ink pads:

Tuxedo Black - Memento

Alcohol markers:

Pink Carnation - Promarkers

Peach

Lime Green

Pastel Green

Embellishments:

Crystal Collection-Glass - Little Thing's from Lucy's Cards

Card stock:

White

Extras:

Adhesives

Crystal Clear Shimmer Pen

Tools:

Big Shot - Sizzix

What you do...

1 Die cut the horizontal stripes in white card. Use Promarkers to colour the stripes in the four colours that you want to arrange them.

2 Add double sided adhesive to a piece of white copy/scrap paper and stick down the stripes. Die cut into a panel using the 3¾" x 5" die from the A2 Layers set. 

3 Stamp the cake onto white card with the sentiment lined up underneath. Colour in using Promarkers.

4 Use the pinpoint border banner to cut out the cake image. 

5 Create a 4¼" x 5½" white blank. Mat the striped panel onto it. Add the banner with foam tape. Embellish with some of the Glass gems and highlight the icing on the cake with shimmer pen.

I used one of my old Paper Smooches stamp sets here, but there are so many cute cake stamps on the market along with some adorable sentiments. Use what ever you have in your stash.

This card layout would look good for a lot of occasions. Done in masculine colours with a male oriented image/motif/sentiment would be great. I think I might do a Christmas version.

Sadly I didn't get round to starting my Christmas cards in July. Magazine work always gets hectic at this time of year as deadlines are tighter to get in the extra issue. Hopefully I should be able to get going with the Christmas cards soon. Watch this space as they say.

Just before I go, I just want to mention that as Feedburner no longer supports email subscriptions, I have changed over to follow.it. This means your notification email will look slightly different, but it still does the same job of notifying you when I upload a new post.

If you have a blog that used Feedburner and haven't changed over to a new email subscription service I can highly recommend follow.it. They had reached out to me, but I had already considered using them anyway. It was so easy to set up and the support is great. Click here to find out more.

Thank you for stopping by, I do appreciate it. See you soon!

Balloon Celebration

Good afternoon!

I hope you are all well. Sorry I haven't posted sooner, but I have quite a few magazine projects to get in before the deadlines. Can you believe I am designing for Halloween and Christmas? Yipes!

Moving away from halloween and Christmas, I have a lovely, bright card to share with you today perfect for a celebration or birthday and it features balloons!

I've used a lovely rainbow palette and the techniques used are ink blending, stamping, die cutting and layering.

Here it is...

What you need...

Stamps:

Birthday Bash - Paper Smooches

You Said It - Doodlebug Designs

Dies:

A2 Layers - Waffle Flower

Say Cheese, Again - Lawn Fawn

Ink pads:

It's a Girl - Catherine Pooler

Garden Party

Pixie Dust

Cantaloupe - Memento

Buttercup Make Art - Wendy Vecchi

Garden Patina

Onyx Black - Versafine

Embellishments:

Pearls Glossy Porcelain Mix - Little Things from Lucy's Cards

Card stock:

White

Extras:

Sparkle Crystal Clear Shimmer Pen

Adhesives

Tools:

Big Shot - Sizzix

Blending tools

What you do...

1 Die cut the large photo frame from white card. Cut a panel of white card slightly smaller than the frame.

2 Blend Garden Patina ink at the bottom of the card panel fading to white.

3 Use the aperture of the frame as a guide and stamp the trio of  balloons twice. Use the solid balloon stamp to fill in the colours. Stamp dots above each balloon in the same colours.

4 Die cut the 3¾" x 5" layer in white card and blend the six colours in rainbow order.

5 Mat the rainbow panel onto a card blank 4¼" x 5½". Attach the balloon panel centrally at the top.

6 Stamp the 'Celebration' in black ink across the base of the photo frame and attach to the blank with foam tape, making sure it lines up over the balloon panel. 

7 Add some shimmer to each of the balloons and add some pearls to the blank.

Even though I do use some new products, I am trying to use some of my older stash too, hence the Paper Smooches and Doodlebug stamp sets. Of course you can use any balloon themed stamps in your stash to re-create this card. 

Top tip: If you don't have any balloon stamps, but you have solid balloon dies, cut balloons from foam sheets. Attach to an acrylic block/stamp platform with glue stick or double sided tape, apply ink and stamp!

I have used the A2 Layers die set which is measured in inches. The metric equivalent of the rainbow panel is approximately 9.5cm x 12.5cm and the blank is 11cm x 14cm.

I hope you like this pretty, cheerful card. You can of course change the colours for a card suited to a male recipient.

Thank you for popping by and I'll be back soon.

miss YOU

Hi there!

As promised I'm back with another make. I decided not to share the remaining cactus card with you today, I will share it at a later date. I wanted to show you another card instead.

I purchased the You Confetti Cuts die set by Reverse Confetti some time ago and thought it was about time I used it.

As it is a large word die with a shadow background, I wanted it to be the main focus of the card and team it up with some other lettering/wording. The good thing about this die is that it can be used with many other words for different themes/occasions.

What you need...

Dies:

You Confetti Cuts - Reverse Confetti

Bee Bold Lowercase Honey Cuts - Honey Bee Stamps

A2 Layers Die Rectangles - Waffle Flower

Stencil:

Splash (TESN28) - Taylored Expressions

Stamps:

Chit Chat - Paper Smooches

Ink Pads:

Turquoise Gem  - VersaMagic

Onyx Black - VersaFine

Card stock:

Black - Concord & 9th

Grapefruit

White

Extras:

Adhesives

Tools:

Big Shot - Sizzix

Blending brushes

What you do...

1 Lightly blend the Turquoise Gem ink over white card. Secure the stencil over the inked card and blend the Turquoise Gem over the stencil creating a heavier tone. Remove the stencil and allow the inked card to dry.

2 Die cut the 'you' in black card along with letters form the Bee Bold set to spell 'miss'. Die cut the 'you' shadow in white and the little heart in Grapefruit. Assemble the 'you' dies and add the heart with foam pads.

3 Use the second largest die from the A2 Layers set to cut a rectangle from the inked/stencilled card.

4 Line up the letters/wording onto the stencilled panel and using these as a guide, stamp the 'so much' in Onyx Black.

5 Create a 4¼"x 5½" white blank and mat the stencilled panel onto it. Attach the 'you' with foam pads and stick the 'miss' directly onto the panel above the 'you'.

There we have it. The photo of the card doesn't really show the true colour of the ink, it is certainly more of a greener turquoise hue in real life.

I am so pleased with the way this turned out. I am planning to keep on using older items (such as the stamp set) along with newer items in future projects. I have recently discovered some really old stamp sets/dies in my stash that I would like to use again. Watch this space!

As usual, thank you so much for popping by, I really appreciate it. Take care and I'll be back soon.

Floral Heart

Good afternoon!

I hope you are enjoying the lovely spring weather. I popped out this morning to get my annual tomato plants ready to put in the greenhouse. I also picked up a sweet yellow pepper plant and a hot chilli pepper plant. 

I think everyone else had the same idea, as the garden centre was packed. The garden centre had a really good system in place and luckily everyone practiced social distancing and wore their masks. 

Talking of garden centres and plants, I have an adorable little card to share with you that has a floral theme. This is created by using a stunning stamp set by Concord & 9th. I did do a card back in October (click here to take you to the post) that used this stamp set, but I did it as a new home card and with a different colour scheme.

I do believe that this stamp set is still available at Seven Hills Crafts and Bumbleberry Papercrafts (click on the shop name to link you to the product).

What you need...

Stamps: 

Floral Print Silhouette Stamp Set - Concord & 9th

Dies: 

Halftone Hearts - Altenew

Additional Circles - Waffle Flower

Ink pads:

Onyx Black - Versafine

Grapefruit - Concord & 9th

Sprout

Embellishments:

Droplets Crystal Clear Hearts - Little Things from Lucy's Cards

Card stock: 

White

Tools:

Big Shot  - Sizzix

Stamping Platform - MISTI

Extras:

Foam sheets

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Use a stamp positioning tool to stamp the first layer of the floral image with black ink. Next, line up the flower section and stamp in Grapefruit. Line up the foliage layer and stamp in Sprout ink.

2 Die cut the stamped panel with a circle die (approx. 3⅜" or 8.5cm diameter). Die cut the fourth largest heart from the centre of the circle. 

3 Die cut the the fifth largest heart from within the larger heart.

4 From a piece of foam sheet, die cut a slightly smaller circle than the stamped section; then cut the larger heart from the centre of it, making sure it lines up. Glue the printed circle onto the foam.

5 Die cut the smaller heart from a foam sheet and glue the printed heart to it.

6 Create a 4¼" x 5½" (11cm x 14cm) white blank and adhere the stamped circle panel at the top. Add the smaller heart to the centre of the larger one.

7 Stamp the sentiment underneath and finish with some heart droplets.

I love this stamp set, I think it's so elegant. I think a colour scheme where the flowers are stamped in red with bright green foliage would make a wonderful and different Christmas card.

I have been having an obsession with making cacti themed cards lately, so I'm looking forward to sharing those with you soon.

Thank you for popping by, take care and keep safe!

Leafy Heart

Good morning all!

Wow! It is a very, very cold and frosty day here in Norfolk. Yesterday afternoon I had taken a friend shopping and the temperature had dropped from around 6°C to 1°C in about 10 minutes. It went from being a bright blue sky to a low lying, freezing cloud.

I've just been out to give the girls some warm porridge. I also now have a pheasant (whom I have named Wilf) residing in the garden. As I live in a rural area and the shooting season is well and truly upon us, he is more than welcome to live in my garden. 

Tomorrow I have to put up some temporary covered housing for the girls as the dreaded Avian Flu has struck again. Everything has to be disinfected and foot baths organised to help keep the risk of infection down. I don't think a lot of people who go out and get chickens on a whim realise some of the things you have to do, especially if your girls free range like mine do. Oh well :(

I want to share with you today a card I made for a dear friend a couple of weeks ago. As the card was for a male friend, I wanted to keep the colours quite masculine without being boring.

What you need...

Dies:

Fall Leaves - Waffle Flower

Stamps:

Painted Shapes - Concord & 9th

Happy Happy Happy - Lawn Fawn

Patterned paper:

Into the Woods Remix 6x6 Petite Paper Pack - Lawn Fawn

Ink pad:

Dark Chocolate - Gina K Designs

Card stock:

White

Embellishments:

Droplets Crystal Clear Hearts - Little Things From Lucy's Cards

Natural twine

Extras:

Foam sheet

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Die cut the leaf outline in white card and the background of the leaf once in foam sheet and once in striped paper. Assemble the leaf then back with the foam.

2 Create an 11cm x 14cm white top fold blank and stamp the heart from the Painted Shapes set centrally at the top in Dark Chocolate ink.

3 Fix the leaf to the heart.

4 Stamp the sentiment underneath the heart.

5 Add a bow made from natural twine to the base of the leaf and add some Crystal Clear Hearts to decorate.

I am a big follower of Cathy Zielske on YouTube and she did a wonderful card using this die set and paper pad. So I used her make as inspiration for my card. You can find her tutorial here.

The colour scheme of the paper pad is perfect for those masculine cards and the plus side is that the patterns aren't overly cutesy or girly.

Well, I think that is me for now. I will be hopefully back soon with some Christmas cards (life just keeps getting in the way).

Thanks for popping by. Keep safe and warm!

A Little Birdie

Hello Blog friends!

Before I start I would like to say a big hello and thank you to my new followers. I really appreciate you stopping by and reading my blog :o)

It was my mum's birthday last weekend and I made her a cute little card using Waffle Flower stamps and Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

What you need...

Stamps: Little Birdie Enveloper (271094); Birthday Enveloper (271092)

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Salty Ocean; Tumbled Glass; Picked Raspberry - Ranger; Onyx Black - Versafine

Masking paper: Stamping Mask Paper - Inkadinkado

Card stock: white smooth digital

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Mask off the bottom of white digital card 14cm square.

2 Stamp the birdie image and two butterflies above the masked area.

3 Stamp the two birds and butterflies onto masking paper, cut out and stick over the original stamped image.

4 Blend the inks over the image.

5 Remove the masks and the masked area from the bottom. Stamp the sentiment on the left under the blended ink.

6 Mat onto a 14.5cm white square blank.

I also stamp some images on the inside of the blank along the bottom.

I've been participating in Inktober this year. So for my next post I will show you the first week of sketches. I didn't follow the official prompts as I wanted to do a full spooky Halloween theme.

Thank you for popping by and I'll see you soon with some spookiness!