Another Landscape Christmas card

Back to my favourite stamp, SU Lovely as a Tree! 

I stamped the trees and did some shmooshing with Distress Oxides for the background, masking off a circle for the moon.  Then I stamped the sleigh (Inkylicious).
A slight problem then was to work out where to put the sentiment!  So I incorporated it into the black mat :-)
I made three altogether, made easy by the stamp positioner, after all if you can stamp one, you can stamp three!!

Distress Oxides over white embossing

My PC hasn't flaked out for a while now ..... fingers crossed!
The weekend before last, I went to the ATDML retreat, had a fab time as always and got a reasonable amount done.
I made these cards:

The image is a Woodware stamp, heat embossed in white and Distress Oxides shmooshed over the top.  They look very delicate :-)

Silhouettes over pink ink

I was having a play with inks at the last crop.  The first card has an inked-through-aperture background, whilst the second has a stamped background splotchy splat.  Both were then overstamped with a silhouette image.

The mini stars and tree are from Lavinia, the flowers from Nellie Snellen, the splat and mini bubbles from SU, the sentiments from Stamping all Day and SU.  I matted with silver mirri rather than trying to match the pink, it looks quite elegant :-)

Beat the Christmas rush - July

For the last couple of months, I had half-done several cards for this challenge, but not finished them.  So in July I have had an almighty catch up, resulting in four sets of five cards!!  The photo shows one from each set, with two white hexagons as they had different sentiments.

To make the hexagons, I used a 6" square blank and a Sizzix hexagon die, with the folded edge of the original blank just inside the cutting edge.  I also went a bit mirri-tastic!!  As always, it doesn't photograph well.....
The white hexagons have a holly wreath die from Tonic, cut in silver mirri, a hexagon frame (Card Making Magic) which is a two piece swirly bit and stitched outline.  The sentiment on the left is from an old set, I have no idea which brand and the right hand one is from Stamping all Day.  Both were stamped/heat embossed with Wow apple red powder.  Just a few 5mm red pearls for the wreath to finish it off.
The ivory hexagons have die-cut gold mirri - the same hex frame, a gift die from Tonic and the sentiment a tiny peel off.
The Scandi hexagons have a huge die-cut snowflake (Kaisercraft) and the same round sentiment as the white, but this time I punched out the centre to make a sentiment polo LOL.  I really like it and plan to make some more little polos in different colours :-)
Finally, the A6 card has a background done by inking through an aperture, over stamping with the tree and sentiment from SU.

Geometric shapes - card challenge

Over at Kool Kitty, Nat has set the February prompt for the challenge.  This month it's geometric shapes - yay!
Here is my circle based card:

I used distress oxide inks through a Clarity stencil, in pink/purple/green combination, directly onto a card blank for a CAS card.  Then I stamped the SU sentiment and the Dali Art butterflies.  All went well until I removed the masking tape - it tore the card - eek!!
What to do?  I cut around the stencilled image to form a sash, laid it onto a new card blank, but then decided that it just looked too plain.  So I cut a trellis circle with a Tonic die and put it under the sash.  The corners of the card were rounded to echo the circular theme.
I actually like the way it has turned out much better than my original plan :-)

Distress Oxide birthday cards

I have finally caught up with photographing everything I have made over the last few weeks :-)  These cards are done with Distress Oxide backgrounds.

I used foam blending pads to apply the inks through a stencil, definitely gives a better effect than using a stencil brush.  Then I ran into my normal problem with creating backgrounds - I didn't want to cover it up!!  So I went with a simple die-cut sentiment, but that didn't really stand out from the background.  In the end I matted onto the same colour cardstock as the die-cut and cut a stitched circle as a base for it.  I am really pleased with the effect :-)

The second card is a blended background, over-stamped with a Woodware seedhead stamp in black.  Then I cut into three panels, matted onto black and punched out a sentiment strip.  I am not entirely happy with this one - I think the black mat is a bit harsh and maybe I should have used the same blue as the other card!!!  But it's OK :-)
More experimentation to come!

Out of the Drawer: lattice stencil flower birthday card

Still haven't managed to photograph any retreat stuff....  we had visitors over Easter so no crafting!  Good time had by all :-)
I did manage to finish another Distress oxide stencilled image into a card though.

The OotD item is the lattice die, from Tonic. It's not a complete lattice, the centre is a blank circle, which actually, I didn't like when I originally tried it and so haven't used it since.  Then it occurred to me that I could cover it up ...... duh.  So I die cut the stencilled flower (Clarity stencil) into the outer square shape, then trimmed it into a diagonal sash to cover the centre.  I'm not quite happy with the finish on the stencilling, I used a proper stencil brush, but blending foam pads would have worked better - for the next background I made (not completed into a card yet), I tried those and the colours are much more dense and chalky.
Some aqua/silver paper for the background, also cut with the outer square, then everything was layered up.  All it needed then was the sentiment, I used an SU punch and a peel-off.
I do like the die used in this way and will definitely try it again :-)

Buy it - Try it: Distress Oxides and stencil birthday card

I have just come back from another amazing retreat at ATDML, but haven't managed to photograph anything I made yet!  The previous weekend was my monthly craft weekend, although the crop itself was cancelled, myself and Sy had a great couple of days crafting at the dining table :-)
I tried out some of the new Distress Oxide inks, made some backgrounds and played about with stencils I have just bought from Clarity Stamps.  One of the resulting images has made it onto a card, the rest will eventually, I'm sure....

The DiOx have a dense chalky finish when blended, lovely to stamp over, I used Cracked Pistachio, Broken China and Faded Jeans.  Then I over-stamped with another new purchase, a seedhead stamp from Woodware and some obligatory hide-the-ink-smudge butterflies :-)  The sentiment is from Visible Image.