Thank You

 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 (cream, mustard, brown), Techniques (stamping), Elements (wheat, ribbon, patterned paper)

INCLUDE: wheat, brosn, mustard

MODIFY: brown sentiment strip instead of ribbon, 'stained glass' instead of solid stamp

EXCLUDE: ribbon, patterned paper

I changed up the inspiration and used an outline stamp (with a Frank Lloyd Wright feel) and coloured it to make it look like stained glass. 

Sunflower Thanks

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 (yellow, red/orange, green), Techniques (ink blending, colouring), Elements (tall flower with bees on blended background. stamped cut out sentiment)

INCLUDE: yellow, red, orange, green, tall flower, 

MODIFY: stenciled instead of stamp, layout has blending on edges, sentiment stamped directly onto panel

EXCLUDE: bees

SPIN:

I don't want to get ahead of myself, spring is just arriving, and this inspiration (and my case) both have a distinctly fall feeling! lol! I used a stencil for my sunflower and then combined a leaf shape stencil with the flower stencil to create leaves that had a similar look.  I kept my blending on the edges of the card to allow for more white space.

Remembering Lindsey

Today, we are remembering our friend Lindsey with a blog hop (see details below for how you can help!)

To honour her memory, I chose this card from Lindsey's blog as my inspiration. 

LIST: Colours (red, orange, yellow, brown, black), Techniques (alcohol inks, die cutting, tearing, heat embossing), Elements (3 leaves on kraft background, black border, torn vellum sympathy sentiment strip)

INCLUDE: red orange yellow, brown, alcohol inks, die cutting 

MODIFY: proportions of colour - I used my alcohol ink panel as a background, thanks instead of sympathy, 3 gold outlined vellum leaves, black 'frame' is die cut 

EXCLUDE: tearing

BLOG HOP DETAILS:

Today, we are hopping in memory of our dear friend and fellow card maker, Lindsey Martin-Penny, who sadly passed away last year from a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer. 

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and Lindsey’s husband Burke thought it would be a great time to sell off her many craft supplies, with all of the proceeds going towards Lindsey’s Legacy Fund for Clear Cell Ovarian Cancer Research in cooperation with The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

The purpose of this hop will be to honour Lindsey, celebrate her life and all that she loved, as well as help spread the word to raise funds for clear cell ovarian cancer research.  You can help in one of several ways!

1. Purchase a Flat Rate Mailer stuffed with loads of fabulous craft supplies.  These can only be mailed within Canada and there will be no tax receipts provided with the purchase of these boxes.  A box of craft supplies would make a great gift for yourself, a crafty friend or a child/classroom!  For details about the boxes and how you can go about purchasing one, please email lindseyslegacyfund@rogers.com with the message "Craft Box" or visit Lindsey’s original blog, Bashful Blogging.  Every craft box purchased in September will be entered into a draw and one lucky winner will win a $100 gift certificate to Scrap ‘n Stamp.

2. During the month of September, shop at Scrap ‘n Stamp using the code LINDSEY10 at checkout.  You will get 10% off your purchase (sale items excluded) and Scrap ‘n’ Stamp will donate 10% of their proceeds to Lindsey’s Legacy Fund.

3. Any donations over $15 made directly to Lindsey’s Legacy Fund will receive a digital tax receipt.

4. Repost this hop on your social media and encourage others to share!

Lindsey’s Legacy Hop begins at Emily Leiphart’s blog.  If you get lost along the way, please return to Emily’s blog where she will have the entire hop list.

The next stop on the hop is Jess on Instagram. Please be sure to leave a comment at each of the stops where you can learn more about Lindsey’s life, loves and her legacy.

Thanks so much for hopping with us!

Feelin' Hexy!

You know I love to get more from my dies and today I made this autumn birthday card using just the stitched hexagons from a couple of quilt block dies from A Jillian Vance Design. 

I used Grandma's Garden to cut 6 sets of the larger hexes and I blended ink onto them and splattered gold watercolour as well before creating a full panel by gluing them down without the die cut frames.

Then I used the smaller version of Grandma's Garden from the Mini Quilt Block set to cut one set of 7 smaller hexes from Inca Gold cardstock (LOVE this stuff - it's iridescent!) and glued them on in select areas.

I cut my sentiment from the same Inca Gold cardstock, stacked it up and put it on two sentiment strips that I had blended ink onto.

LIMES: Autumn Thanks

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, Renata!

LIST: Colours (russet, gold, blue, red, white) Techniques (gel press), Elements (floral outlines on layered background, gold sentiment)

INCLUDE: Colours, gel press, gold sentiment

MODIFY: wheat instead of florals, die cut sentiment instead of sticker, wider white frame

EXCLUDE: nothing!

SPIN:

This layered up mixed-media look is a little out of my comfort zone, but I love the layered up look of Renata's gel-press background. And I love the colour. Russet. I love even saying it! lol!

I put down a layer of soft yellow paint, then I added some selective stencilling with red and blue paint. 

I laid some wheat die cuts onto the plate to act as masks. 

I don't have russet paint, so I created mine with some oranges and purple, right over the masks. I removed the masks before pulling the final print. 

5 Steps to Cardmaking EXPERT!

In today's video, I'm sharing 5 steps for improving your skills to become a cardmaking expert. Sadly, they are not easy, quick steps, because it is not easy or quick to become an expert at anything. But if you put in the effort, they will work!

Color Hues - Thanks

Today, I'm excited to be a guest at the newest Color Hues challenge! The colours for this challenge are Yellow & Brown.

I created this card with my newest favourite layering stencils from PinkFresh Studio, Dainty Plaid, and some of the newest brown inks from Catherine Pooler - Spice, Macchiato and S'Mores. 

I trimmed my brown panel with two Essential Rectangle dies to create a negative frame. 

I used an Impression Obsession Wheat die and a CZ Design thanks die to create my yellow elements.

Stencils 360 Sunflowers

 

Good morning! I was playing with my Stencils 360 Tool the other day to create this fabulous fall sunflower card! (Good news! Now also available at Scrapbook.com and Simon Says Stamp! Affiliate links below).

I started by creating the first sunflower (3:00 on the card) in the centre of an 8x8 piece of white cardstock and the smallest of the Sacred Lotus stencil set. 

I masked some of the petals, then moved my paper to create a second sunflower (at 7:00) and then moved it again (to 11:00). There's only one colour of yellow ink on those petals - all the dimension is created by blending darker at each end of the petals and letting it fade in the centres.

My dark brown sunflower centres were created freehand with Icing on the Cake ink and a sponge dauber. Love those 'fluffy' edges!

Also, if you didn't know already, this fun tool is now available at Scrapbook.com and Simon Says Stamp, so if shipping from Canada has made you hesitate in the past, now is a great time to give it a try!

Eat, Sleep, Crafty Retreat!

Die cut inlay is one of my favourite techniques!  I love the smooth look you get, and there are so many different ways to accomplish it, from very basic to advanced.

This card uses dies that make inlaid die cuts so simple because there are outline and solid dies, so you have a base that works perfectly to hold the outline and the inside pieces.

I cut 9 leaf bases, 9 outlines from gold satin cardstock and 9 outline pieces from white (for the leaf-insides). I inkblended the inside pieces with some colours from Catherine's Spa collection.

Then I put glue on top of each base, and laid the gold outline on it, and put the inside piece on each leaf.

If you want to craft LIVE (via Zoom) with me to learn more about inlaid die cuts and other techniques from other teachers, be sure to check out the information for the Eat, Sleep, Crafty Retreat here!

We have 5 fantastic teachers, 7 LIVE classes so you can craft along and ask questions as you need to PLUS open crops, Card Wars and giveaways!

Here's an overview of the schedule:

Hope to see you there!

 

Sunflower Thanks

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, Mom42Gran21.

I chose this card as my inspiration

LIST: Colours (autumn tones of orange, green, red, purple, blue, gold accents), Elements (3 flowers, leaves, stamped sentiment strip, torn edge), Techniques - blended? background

INCLUDE: colours, flowers, leaves, gold accents

MODIFY: one flower, fewer leaves, inlaid die cut, gel plate/ stencil technique on background and flower/leaves, die cut sentiment

EXCLUDE: torn edge

SPIN: Square card

This card is a a real mix of products from a number of my favourite companies. The sunflower is from A Jillian Vance Design, and I liked the outline design so much that I got out some Waffle Flower leaf dies that also have that outline.

To colour my cardstock background and inlaid pieces, I used my gel plate and some stencils. I love how the starburst stencil on the flower actually makes it look like there are more petals. And if you look closely, you can see the stencil pattern on the flower centre as well - I just blended dark brown ink over top of it so that I could retain the subtle pattern.

Hello, Gorgeous!

September has always felt like a new year to me, more than January. It's the beginning of new school years, my favourite season and always fills me with new energy and hope. 

To kick off this new season, I am sharing this floral card, using products from Crafty Meraki. I have combined the brand new FrameWorthy Mini-Slim die set with the Hello, Love stamp set, coloured in muted, autumn colours.

I stamped the image onto white cardstock and coloured it with Copic markers. Then I cut the white cardstock with all 3 nested frames. I also cut the frames from black cardstock, to give me the 'in between' bits for inlaying onto my 3.5 x 6.25" card base. (click here to see a video showing my inlaying method and other tips for mini-slim cards).

Once it was all inlaid, I trimmed down the stamped gorgeous (also from Hello, Love), adhered it to the card, and added Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the letters, flower centres and berries,

Changing Seasons

I'm on the Birch Press Design blog today with some ideas for getting more from the Christmas Ornament and Labels stamp set!

Autumn Wreath Card (and VIdeo!)

I'm on the Birch Press Design blog today with this fall wreath card that I made with a Christmas die set (and it's on sale right now for less than half price - link below!)

Getting Over Full Set Syndrome

Do you suffer from full-set syndrome? I know I do. Especially when it comes to inks!

I have the full set of Catherine Pooler's amazing inks. But I find myself reaching for the same 6 bright and happy colours a lot. Like ALL the time.

So like I've seen watercolour artists do, I created a colour chart and mixed the 6 colours to create new tones, and then used these blended colours to inkblend, stamp and watercolour these fall cards.

 Even if don't suffer from full set syndrome, there still might be times when this technique of mixing inks is useful, like if you are travelling or having a crafty day with friends and you can't take all your inks with you!

No-line Watercolouring with Embossing Folder

I'm on the Birch Press Design blog today with a different kind of no-line colouring!

Fall Thank You

This is a quick and easy fall thank you card using a stencil and stamps from Trinit Stamps.

The Layered Autumn Tree comes with 2 stencils so you can create this scene really quickly. One stencil has the trees and the ground and the other one has the leaves.

I added an extra branch and I went over the ground a few times, moving the stencil slightly to create some depth and 'layers' of leaves. Then to fill in my sky, I turned the leaf stencil 4 times and blended yellow, orange, red and green inks to create my falling leaves. I used sponge daubers since the areas were small.

I added some light blue blending between the leaves for my sky.

To add a bit of definition to my panel, I lightly rubbed my Icing on the Cake (dark brown) along the edges. This created a dark edge.

For the sentiment, I used a tiny thank you from Autumn Sentiments and I repeated it 3 times. I stamped it on Neenah Desert Storm cardstock and
trimmed them into strips. I popped them up with foam tape, and placed them to look like they are falling like the leaves.

Stamptember (Pretty Pink Posh)

Good morning! Today I have a couple of cards using the Simon Says Stamp-exclusive Stamptember set from Pretty Pink Posh!

For my first card, I used the smaller solid round tree/leaves and stamped a rows of them with Skylight ink. I blended the same ink around the edges of the panel, fading out toward the centre.

Then I chose two Copic markers and coloured each leaf to add dimension. As a finishing touch, I used the outline stamp and embossed each tree-top with brass embossing powder from WOW!

The sentiment and label outline was also embossed with the brass embossing powder. Then I blended Skylight ink over top and fussy cut it.

For my second card, I stamped the large solid round tree with Mandarin Spice and Rouge inks. I cut a mask and then stamped the smaller solid round tree with Sauna and Mandarin Spice. Then I stamped the pine tree with Green Tea and Eucalyptus.

I created negative masks for each one and blended ink over top to give each tree some more definition. Then I masked all 3 trees and blended Fiesta Blue ink over top to create a crisp autumn sky.

I coloured the trunks with Copic markers and stamped the sentiment with Gina K Obsidian Ink.

AJVD - Fall Thinking of You

I'm on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today with this pretty fall card.