Old Favourites, New Ideas!

 

Recently I completely re-organized my stamps, dies, stencils and embossing folders, both physically and electronically, and while I was doing that, I came across some old items that I've been holding onto but not using. I decided to challenge myself to use a few  of them, in a new way to decide whether it was time for them to go to a new home.

If you want to know more about my reorganization as well as why (and how!) I changed from Evernote to Air Table, join us at the FREE Paper Crafters Get Organized Summit next weekend!

CASE Me a Christmas Card (Surprise!)

Normally at this time of year, I would be really excited to be helping Michelle Lupton kick off her annual Case me a Christmas Card feature. This year, Michelle's decided to take a break, and when she gave me that news I was so disappointed. Michelle is such an inspiring and lovely person and crafter and I look forward to this every year, and it turns out I'm not the only one!  So A bunch of us got together and decided to throw Michelle a surprise party, filled with lots of friends casing Michelle's cards. And the best part? You can join in too, if you want! Details in my video below:

Hello, Blue!

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (shades of blue, white), Techniques (stamping, die cutting), Elements (pattern of shapes, vertical ribbon, pinked circle focal point with sentiment strip)

INCLUDE: blue and white, stamping, die cutting, pattern of shapes

MODIFY: stenciled instead of stamped/die cut, plain circle focal point with pattern on it rather than on the shapes, 

EXCLUDE: ribbon, vertical element

SPIN: added lots of gems

This pretty monochrome inspiration really stretched my multi-colour comfort zone! lol! 

I masked off a Hero Arts ornaments stencil and blended 2 colours of blue ink through 12 of the ornaments, to create dimension.

I stamped my sentiment with blue ink onto a white circle, and then used a small stamp from a snowflake set to add the pattern there instead of inside the geometric shapes.

I finished with lots of gems for some sparkle! 

Mad For Plaid!

 
Today I'm trying out 10 different ways to get the look in your cardmaking from some DIY options to the latest tools. and here's a spoiler alert - some are more successful than others.....

Hello, Spring!

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (red, white, yellow, green, gold), Techniques (die cuts), Elements (3D flowers and leaves, vertical arrangement, lady bug, kraft frame, slimline card, no sentiment)

INCLUDE: vertical, overlapping arrangement of main image

MODIFY: theme to spring, flowers to butterflies, slimline to A2, die cuts to stamping and colouring, 

EXCLUDE: 3D elements, kraft frame

SPIN: added a sentiment

This gallery is amazing - absolutely full of gorgeous 3-dimensional flowers! Although these are clematis and it was likely a summer card, they remind me of poinsettias and Christmas, and I started by changing my theme to spring, by using stamped butterflies. 

I used a couple of old-school tools for this card - an old favourite woodblock stamp and a stamp-a-ma-jig to help with positioning.  I masked to get an overlapping look, and then I coloured very simply with pastel shades of copic markers. Then I masked them again and blended the background for some contrast. 

9 Clever (and EASY!) ideas for using Backgrounds or Patterned Paper

Today I'm sharing 9 quick and easy ideas for using up those backgrounds you have on hand. And if you're a person who doesn't make backgrounds, these ideas work with patterned paper, too!

One Stencil, Two Looks!

 I had some fun just playing with a stencil this weekend, trying different mediums to get different looks. 

For this one, I used targeted ink blending through the stencil and then added more ink blending after I removed the stencil. I also splattered some white ink over it. I love the art-deco feel of this one, and I finished it with the Thanks Shadow die cut from SugarPea Designs.

For this one, I used my gel plate, and some shimmer spray. This technique was similar to my video from a couple of weeks ago but I added a stencil into it to get the watercolour look along with a pattern.  I finished this one with a Waffle Flower sentiment heat embossed onto a vellum circle.  I backed the vellum with a white cardstock circle that was smaller and popped it up. 

Get MORE from Background Stamps

 

Background stamps are more versatile than I thought! This week's video explores this hardworking craftroom hero. Check it out here (and more cards below!):

Congratulations in Blue

It's graduation season and this is a card I made for my friend's daughter. She didn't want her 'ugly' school colours, just her favourite blues. 

I created this background with my gel plate, some Catherine Pooler inks and a Hero Arts stencil. I can't remember exactly how I did it, so this one is truly unique! Check out the 3D 'texture' on this flat background! 

I finished it with a square negative frame and a heat embossed Altenew sentiment.

10K Hop Celebration

Today, I'm excited to be part of a video hop to celebrate my friend Jessica Frost-Ballas reaching 10K subscribers on her YouTube channel!

Jessica is such an inspiration to me and I figured the best way to celebrate was to choose one of her cards and LIMES it!

I chose this card as my inspiration:

Head over to YouTube to see how I was inpsired, and be sure to leave a comment on the videos in the hop before 23:59 on April 8 to be eligible to win a prize from these sponsors:

The more you comment, the more chance you have to win! Winners will be announced on Jessica's blog and YouTube channel on April 9.

Here's the link to my video:

Faux Watercolour (Ellen Hutson / Hero Arts Blog Hop)

Good morning! Today I'm excited to be part of a blog hop featuring Hero Arts and Essentials by Ellen products! Details are below.

I created a fun faux-watercolour background with the Color Me Flower cling stamp from Hero Arts and some Zig Art & Graphic Twin Tip markers. These water-based markers are great for colouring stamps and faux-watercolour techniques. The colours stay vibrant, as you can see.

My sentiment is an EBE die cut embossed with Wow embossing powder and stacked up.

Here's a video showing how I created this card:

BLOG HOP DETAILS:

You can win one of three $25 gift certificates to the Ellen Hutson shop! Winners will be drawn from commenters along the blog hop so make sure to comment at each stop before Friday, June 28th at 11:59pm PST. Winners will be notified by email.

Adelina Starace
Caly Person
Ardyth Percy-Robb <<You are here
Janette Kausen
Carly Tee Minner
Ilina Crouse
Emily Midgett
Libby Hickson
Kelly Griglione
Julee Tilman
Lisa Spangler
Debi Adams
Michele Ferguson
Laurie Willison
Sandy Allnock
Amy Kolling
Therese Calvird
Lydia Fiedler
Julie Ebersole

Tall Card with Extended Die Cut (Scrap 'n Stamp Stamp out Cancer Blog Hop)

I'm excited to be part of the Scrap 'n Stap Stamp Out Cancer blog hop today! My friend, Nancy, is a member of the DT and invited me to participate. Please visit her blog to read about her experience. And stay to check out her cards - she has a beautiful clean and simple style!

I decided to go to my Pinterest board for some inspiration. Are you like me? I pin and pin and then forget to go back when I need inspiration! LOL!

When I got there, I found this:

I was inspired by the pretty florals in bright colours, the subtle sentiment on a white panel, and I thought a tall card would be a perfect way to try something new.

I started by watercolouring the Hero Arts Flower Garden coverplate die cut from watercolour cardstock, using Catherine Pooler re-inkers. Re-inkers give a more vibrant result than the ink pads.

I spritzed the panel with the new Avery Elle Clear Shimmer Spray and then I cut it with my trimmer.

My Oyster cardbase was 4.25 x 8.5, and I cut a white panel that was 4 x 8.25 for the flowers and sentiment,

I created a panel for my sentiment that would hide the gap between the two pieces of the die cut and then added a stamped and die cut sentiment using Essentials by Ellen products.

For a finishing touch, I added some Nuvo Dream Drops in the flower centres and as embellishments on the sentiment panel. I used the same colour on all areas, but I love how they took on the colours of the flowers underneath!

Blog roll:

Tara

Nancy E

Jessica

Susan

Kim

Meghan

Deborah

Kia

Ardyth <<You are here

Dawn

Sandi

Chala

Amy

Laurie

Here's a video:

   

Maiike's 3k YT Subs Video Hop

Good morning! I'm excited to be part of Maaike's Video Hop to celebrate reaching 3K YouTube Subscribers recently! That is quite a milestone - congratulations to Maaike!

I made a card using selective foiling and heat embossing. Be sure to check it out and hop along and comment for a chance to win!

I used:

SSSCAS, OLCCC8 - We Wish You A Merry Christmas

So for some reason, yesterday I felt like making a Christmas card. I'm thinking it might have had something to do with the launch of Muse: ChristmasVisions (if you didn't see the news, check it out!). Thank you so much for such a warm reception  - lots of comments and new followers and I can tell you that the team just can't wait to start inspiring you on May 6! But we'll do some introductions before then  - we're bursting with our Christmas 'secret'! Our first DT Member will be announced next Wednesday, April 29 at 9 am.

As I visited various sites yesterday, Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday CAS challenge caught my eye. CAS and use Hero Arts - right up my alley. And One Layer Christmas Card Challenge had a new one up as well - anything goes with the option of a tree.

I used a Hero Arts tree (SU! Mossy Meadow ink) and Hero Arts sentiment (HA Red Royal). And then I did something I haven't done in a long, long time. I used my Zig Painty pen. Do you remember those? Silver on one end and gold on the other? The perfect tool for adding tiny shimmery gold 'ornaments' to my tree.

Muse114 - Thanks ever so much!

This is my card for this week's Muse challenge, where Michele provided us with this inspiration:

I focused on colour scheme, the row of blue elements and the sentiment on the right. This card is made using a mishmash of manufacturers' products and I love that we have the freedom to mix and match! The 'thanks' dots are made with a Neat&Tangled stamp, an MFT die and Hero Arts new ombre inkpad (Pool to Navy). The 'ever so much' is from Paper Smooches.

The deadline for this challenge is Monday at 8 am. At that time you can vote (even if you don't link up a card) for your top 3 until Tuesday at 8. The voting results will be posted Tuesday at noon. I hope to see you there!

CASE Study 208/ABNH51 - Thanks so much!

Here's a card I managed to make for two challenges, CASE Study, where our inspiration is this fun card from Debby

 and A Blog Named Hero, where the challenge is to use letter stamps (I used Hero Arts Typewriter Alphabet (CL492)).



I used PTI Super Stripes stamped in Soft Stone ink to represent the boards, a red PTI thanks die cut for the apples, and the HA Typewriter alpha for the rest of the sentiment.  Three tiny kraft hearts (Impression Obsession) for the colour and texture of the burlap.