Jaguar in the Jungle

Hi everybody.  I have a masculine card today featuring an 3D embossing folder from Made to Surprise called Leafy Background and a stamp from a Creative Stamping Magazine which I think is a Cheetah but as you would not find one in the jungle then I'm calling it a Jaguar..just a bit of artistic licence..lol.  This is the first time I've used this stamp.

I actually made this background quite a while ago and had done nothing with it except to cut the circular aperture, and I thought it would work well for this masculine make.  I embossed the leaves onto a piece of blue card and decided to use some green acrylic paint over all the leaves as this would cover the blue background better being more opaque than inks.  It did take a while and not something I would do often but I thought it worked well.  I then stamped the big cat onto a piece of white card using Versafine Majestic blue ink and then found a small 'Happy Birthday' to add beneath which would allow it to fit within the aperture, doing them together in my stamp positioner, and then heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I finished by adding this behind the aperture and then glued the leafy background onto a 6" square white card...a quick and easy make in the end.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

We Love Stamping Challenge - Nov. '25 Anything Christmas/Anything Goes.

Stamping Sensations Challenge - Nov. '25 Christmas/Anything Goes.

Girlz Makes Guyz Cards Challenge - No. 33 Birthday for a Man.

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Masculine.

Crafty Animals Challenge - No. 100 Anything Goes with an Animal.

NBUS Challenge - No. 80 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.

Anniversary Card using New Technique

Hi everyone.  I have a CAS anniversary card to show today using a technique which isn't totally new but involves using a paper napkin which I have seen others doing but have never tried myself.  Whilst away on holiday in September I saw this set of napkins and had been thinking about giving this a try so I bought them.  I was hoping that it would be an all over floral but it was more on each of the corners but it has worked OK for this heart shaped aperture.  I have also used a Leonie Pujol Embossing Folder called Dotty Heart and a Sweet Dixie set of Heart Dies.

I'm not sure why the photo looks so dark as the uncropped original was much brighter.  I started with the piece of white card just a little smaller than the 6" square card and die cut the heart from it just a bit above the centre, and I then used the embossing folder on it...I had to extend it a bit but it worked OK.  I cut just one quarter section of the napkin and took off the backing using just the patterned layer and I placed it behind the aperture to work out how to see the best of the pattern.  I wanted to stick it to the base card and as the pattern was all along the edge I didn't have a lot of leeway when glueing it down so I decided to cut the napkin using the next size larger heart close to the edge to get as much of the pattern as possible.  I laid it behind the aperture and made sure that I had equal edges and I pencilled a line on the base card around the napkin heart before moving it to add the glue to the card using Mod Podge with a brush.  I then placed it down getting it as flat as possible and added some more of the glue to the surface of the napkin which gives it more strength.  It did have one or two smallish wrinkles but luckily when dry they had smoothed out.  I finished the card by sticking the embossed top layer down and I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of white card using Versafine Majestic Blue ink and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder and cut it into a banner.  I was going to add some colour onto the embossing but decided to leave it white as I think sometimes less is more.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.  

I am entering the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - No. 835 Autumn Colours/Anything Goes.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Triple B Challenge - Nov. '25 Birds, Butterflies and Blooms using 1, 2 or all 3 on your card.

Can You Handle The Pressure Challenge - Anything Goes/Pumpkins or the colour Orange.

Group of Cardmakers - Textured Tissue Paper with Dry Embossing

Hi everybody.  This month's technique that we are trying over at the Group of Cardmakers is using watercoloured tissue paper added to card and dry embossed before adding colour to the raised areas of the embossing.  For my card I used a Crafter's Companion embossing folder called Touch of Winter.  I don't have very many 3D embossing folders and those I do have have varied heights of embossing which means when you ink them it only inks bits and not all of the image which I felt didn't look quite right so I used an ordinary one.  I also used a Sue Wilson die called Noel Star..one which I have had for a long time, and a set of little stars cutting three of the smallest size.. I bought these from The Range a good few years ago but they make an appearance on cards most years.

I started by cutting a piece of white tissue paper about 6" square and smooshed it with Salty Ocean and Dusty Concord Distress Inks laying the ink down and spritzing and then laying the tissue paper over it.  I then very carefully lifted it and dried using my heat tool on the cooler setting.  I repeated this again to darken the colours and then I glued it to a piece of white card using Mod Podge glue.  I then embossed using the embossing folder and I finished by rubbing some Pebeo silver wax over it.  Inevitably there was some which went onto the background and I rubbed it quickly with a piece of tissue in those areas but you can still see it so I just added a bit more sponged on ink in the two colours which did push it into the background a bit.  I did try some metallic paint with a brayer but the paint I have seemed rather thick and difficult to spread and ended up looking overly blobby which is why I decided to use the wax instead.

I die cut the Noel die from a textured less shiny silver card and I cut off the star for this card as the sentiment fitted better without it, and I cut a second from a piece of white card to add behind it to make it stand out more.  I also cut three of the stars and after mounting the embossed background onto a rectangular card I added the sentiment towards the centre surrounded by the three stars.  I'm afraid the silver wax on the background embossing looks a bit dull but it is prettier in real life.

I found that the tissue paper I had was a bit thin and much harder to handle when wet, and I would suggest that if you want to try techniques with tissue you buy some which is termed wet strength which is available on Amazon and I also found a site called Carnival Papers over here in the UK which sells this stronger grade of tissue paper and I'm sure there will be others too.

I do hope you will visit us over at the Group of Cardmakers and see all the beautiful cards made by the rest of the team, and there is a Linky so if you make any cards you can display them there so we can all enjoy seeing what you've done.  There is also a video which Loll has made to demonstrate the technique.

Thank you for visiting me here today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Peace on Earth Challenge - No. 98 Anything Goes.

The 12 Months of Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes Christmas.

Can You Handle The Pressure Challenge - Anything Goes/Pumpkins or the Colour Orange.

Die Cut Divas Challenge - Oct '25 Anything Goes.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Clean and Simple.

Guest Designing for Rudolph Days

Hi everyone.  I was so pleased to be one of the Top Picks over at Rudolph Days and was really happy to be given the opportunity to be a Guest Designer for one of the challenges.  I used three recently acquired sets of dies from Spellbinders.  The first is a Candy Stripes die set by Simon Hurley, and the second is a set of Poinsettia dies by Susan Tierney-Cockburn, and finally a set called Snowcapped Holidays which is a birdhouse to hang from a branch with a couple of birds and it also has some pieces of foliage including a pine branch, leafy branch, couple of holly leaves and a berry branch all of which I am using for the first time.

I started with the background and cut the stripes die into a piece of white card and cut around it to leave a small border.  I then placed a piece of gold card behind it.  I found some pretty pink paper with a gold thread running through it...not easy to see in the photo, which I thought would work but it was very thin, and I found a piece of white vellum and glued the pink paper onto it using some Mod Podge glue which I brushed over the vellum and then gradually smoothed out the paper over the top.  I then cut out the layers of the flower and also cut the three white pieces which layer up to form the centre of the flower, and then five of the smaller leaves to go around the outside which I coloured with a couple of greens and added a bit of yellow to the tips of the centre piece over which I added some Glossy Accents.  I also coloured the other pieces mentioned above to add around the flower, all using my alcohol markers.  I also made the berries purple as I thought they went better with the pink poinsettia.

I finished by layering it up onto a 5" x 7" card and I added a stamped sentiment heat embossed using WOW Rich Gold Metallic Embossing Powder.  I think the paper over the vellum gives the flower more substance but has more flexibility than using card as it is easier to bend to curl the petals and it tends to stay better.  I may well use this again I think.  I do have another pink flower which I cut and I have a piece of red which also has the gold thread, so watch this space.     

The Rudolph Days Challenge runs from the 25th to the end of each month, so still time to add to your stash of cards for this year.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am also entering the following challenges:

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge - No. 98 Anything Goes.

Allsorts Challenge - No. 835 Autumn Colours/Anything Goes.

Die Cut Divas Challenge - Oct. '25 Anything Goes.

Crafter's Cafe Challenge - No. 93 Anything Goes/Christmas.

The Creative Crafters Challenge - No. 93 Anything Goes.

NBUS Challenge - No 79 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.

Embossed Heart Anniversary

Hi everybody.  I have an anniversary card today made using an embossing folder by Lisa Horton called Floral Flourish and also a couple of hearts from a set by Sweet Dixie.

I started by doing the background colouring a piece of card with several colours of Brusho powders..Brilliant Red, Scarlet Red, Alizarin Crimson and Orange.  I just randomly added them to the card and then spritzed with quite a lot of water to cover it.  I then embossed with the 3D folder and I decided to add some Pebeo silver gilding wax very lightly to the raised areas keeping the wax away from the edges as I knew I would be layering it with white over the top and and I wanted the edge to be without the wax.  I cut the white using a snippet of card a bit smaller and decided where to cut the heart aperture and did this, and then I cut a second smaller heart from a snippet of silver mirri card and I also ran it through the embossing folder too.  I finished by layering it up onto a 6" square card and added the little heart to the centre of the aperture and finished it with a little sheer ribbon bow in a similar tone and added the sentiment stamped and heat embossed with WOW Silver Metallic Embossing Powder.

Thank you for dropping by today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Can You Handle The Pressure Challenge - Anything Goes/Fall Harvest.

Snippets Playground Challenge - No. 517 Where we use our snippets of paper and card etc.

Simply Clean & Simple Challenge - Oct. '25 Anything Goes/Pumpkins.

Allsorts Challenge - No. 834 Traditional Christmas Colours/Anything Goes.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Bright and Colorful. 

Clean and Simple Leaves

Hi All.  I have a masculine birthday card today made using one of a set of leaf dies from Crafter's Companion from the Nature's Garden Collection, a mini script stamp from Indigoblu, and also a Crealies set of rectangle dies called Stitch Dots. 

I started with a square card and I cut a mat using a snippet of white card to fit this using the rectangle die which I cut and then re-added the die over it to cut off part of it to make it square.  I then got out my Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo.  I started ink blending the background with the Scattered Straw making it heavier and to the left and paler as a I went across just a little bit less than half way.  I darkened it with Fossilized Amber to the left and blended it in to leave just a very light layer of the Scattered Straw to the right.  I then stamped the script using the Fossilized Amber down just the lefthand edge. 

I carried on by cutting three of the maple leaves from the set using more snippets of white card and I coloured them first with the Scattered Straw and then went over them to darken near the base of the leaf with the Spiced Marmalade and then over the top of that with the Vintage Photo to achieve a rustier shade of orange.  I finished by adding the background to the card and adhered the leaves down the lefthand side and added a sentiment stamped with Vintage Sepia.  

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Color Hues Challenge - No. 119 Rust and Yellow.

Snippets Playground Challenge - No. 516 Where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.

Allsorts Challenge - No. 833 Woodland Critters/Anything Goes.

Simply Clean & Simple Challenge - Oct. 25 Anything CAS Goes/Pumpkins.

Cut It Up Challenge - No. 340 Use More Than One Die.

Die Cut Divas Challenge - Anything Goes using Dies.

Cardz 4 Guys Challenge - No. 378 Autumn/Fall.

Group of Cardmakers - Inlaid Die-Cutting

Hi everyone.  This month over at the Group of Cardmakers we are highlighting Inlaid Die Cutting.  I made my card using a piece of paper from a pad I bought at The Works quite a time ago with marbling type papers.  I don't use papers very often but these appealed to me and I have used a few from it.  I also used a Presscut die called Background Collection - Art Squares, and a Crafter's Companion set of Inverted Scallop dies, and also a pretty lantern stamp from a set by Hunkydory which came with a magazine called Eastern Moments.  The dies and the stamp are being used for the first time here. 

I started by cutting the Presscut die from a textured gold card and also from the piece of paper chosen from the pad.  I then adhered the gold frame to the 5" x 7" card and started to add the squares.  At first I laid them out so that I had the pattern right but then before glueing them down I decided to add in a few of the gold pieces to break it up a bit.  I then cut a circle from the Crafter's Companion set of Inverted Scallops...I was going to use the outer scalloped edge but I decided that it had to be big enough to get the stamped image on but with the edge it was rather too big and covered up too much of the pretty background, so I used just the inner left over piece.  I stamped the image using a couple of different Brilliance inks and as the Galaxy Gold was a bit too bright and didn't go with the background gold card, I used my stamp positioner and stamped over the top of the gold with an Olive ink, and it darkened it down enough to make it go.  I finished the edges of the white mat by rubbing the gold ink around it.  As a finishing touch I added the sentiment cut from more gold card.

I am entering the following challenges with this card:

We Love Stamping Challenge - Sept. 25 Make it Cute/Anything Goes.

Stamping Sensations Challenge - Sept. '25 CAS/Anything Goes.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Try it on Tuesday Challenge - Pretty Paper.
NBUS Challenge - No. 78 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.

I have a second card using as a background a piece of copy paper over which I ink blended the leaves for my last card here, and I decided the colours and the coverage of the paper worked well.  I also used a set of leaves from Crafter's Companion part of the Nature's Garden collection.

I start by cutting down the background piece, and being thin paper I used some Modge Podge to glue it to white card and I cut it down to leave a small margin of white around the edge.  I then decided on where to place the leaves and die cut them out of the background and then added some double sided tape over the back of the apertures leaving the backing on and I added it to the 6" square card.  I then cut the leaves from kraft card and added a little Spiced Marmalade and Walnut Stain Distress Ink onto them before adding them into the apertures on the card and the tape proved good at holding them firmly.  I finished it with a sentiment stamped from Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink...quite a simple card.

I am entering this second card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - No. 833 Woodland Critters/Anything Goes.

Die Cut Divas Challenge - Anything Goes.

Ellibelles Garden Party Challenge - No. 7 Anything In or From a Garden Goes.

A Cut Above Challenge - Sept. '25 Anything Goes with a Die.

This technique is fun to do and there are lots of different ways to use it and I hope you will visit us at the Group of Cardmakers to take a look at all the fabulous cards made by the rest of the team, and there are also links to several videos demonstrating different aspects of it, and also a Linky at the bottom for you to share your cards with us which would be great.

Thank you for visiting me here today and I'll see you again soon.