Hi everyone, regular visitors to my blog may recall that three weeks ago I went to a craft club where I made a couple of cards using Tracy Evans’ stamps (here). One of the stamps I didn’t have so I borrowed it from Jacqui who was leading the class, and I loved it so much I just had to have it!
Unfortunately it is one of Tracy’s retired designs for AALL & Create and I could only find it in stock on 2 UK websites, so I ordered it from Hixxysoft (who I had never used before) - and what a performance that turned out to be! Their order confirmation email estimated delivery within 1-2 days, but a week later nothing had arrived … that’s when I discovered their website contact form doesn’t work, and emails, phone calls and FB Messenger messages go unanswered … and a whole host of disgruntled users on Trustpilot report similar issues! Then I got a dispatch email with another delivery date 1-2 ahead (no explanation or apology!) … but another week went by and still no delivery. After more unanswered emails/phone calls/FB messages, I eventually gave up hope and raised a dispute with my credit card provider … and the next day it dropped through the letterbox!! Nearly 3 weeks late … but all’s well that ends well! Needless to say I will NOT be ordering from them again - I believe they are closing down, but that’s still no excuse for such appalling customer service!
Anyway, having finally got my hands on the goods I couldn’t wait to get busy, and I made a card for Tracy’s current FB challenge which is to show support for a member whose sister is going through testing medical treatment:
Black & White with a pop of Purple
Here it is …
I cut a piece of white card 6” x 4”, and stamped and heat embossed the focal image. I then masked the stopwatches, and created a smooshed background by applying Graphite Elements ink to a piece of acetate, spritzing with water then dabbing onto the card. I stamped the image again onto a separate snippet of card, coloured the largest butterfly with Zig pens topped with Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, fussy cut and set aside. I coloured the small butterflies on the base image with different shades of purple Zig pens + sparkle pen, added some background barcode stamping, added some white Posca accents to the image, then matted the panel onto a black and purple border and a 7” x 5” card blank. I stamped my sentiment words onto a snippet of card smooshed with purple inks (left over from a previous card), cut out, edged with black and attached. I applied Glossy Accents to the stopwatches, and when dry attached the coloured butterfly and bent its wings for dimension. I finished off with some faux white Posca spatter, a couple of little stamped birdies and some torn washi tape.
One thing I have noticed is that my Glossy Accents seems to have developed a yellow brown tinge, even though it’s a fairly new bottle. Can anyone advise me if this is normal?? It goes on with this tinge and then mostly clears as it dries, but on this particular card there is still a hint of colour on the top right clock. As this is a vintage style card it doesn’t really matter, but I wonder if anyone else has experienced the same thing?
Stamps: AALL & Create #733 Temporal, #533 Bring On the Sentiments; Tracy Evans Boutique Designs TE30 Garden Elements;
Media: Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Lavinia Elements inks (Graphite, Violet Chalk, Della Blue); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear); Posca pen (white); clear embossing powder; Glossy Accents;
Other: AALL & Create washi tape #33 Be a Rebel.
Challenges I would like to enter:
(Everything on this card is a snippet apart from the base card)
Take care, and thanks for visiting.
Hugs,
