Saturday Stamping...Not!

Happy Saturday!

Well today is not Saturday stamping because I have a big Announcement next week and that involves 7 days of stamping so I thought you all might forgive me not stamping this Saturday!

Today's card is especially designed for Valentine day although all of you will have made your valentines cards by now it would make a lovely wedding, engagement or anniversary card.

This is a simple recessed card which uses one, yes one, die only the Love from the expressions die range for Sue Wilson from Creative Expressions.  I started by die cutting the love form blush card using the word die and the outer heart (this set has 2 dies which allows you to cut the love as an insert or with the outer die as a piece or tag)  I mounted this onto coconut white card using double sided adhesive to which I added diamond snow, from the glitter jewels collection, ion the spaces.

Next I cut just the heart outer from coconut white card as well as from the sand colour so that I could foam mount the white over the blush heart leaving a shadow of the sand.

To make the card I cut the sand and white at larger sizes on each layer and added the front onto a long card blank , with a Sue Wilson pierced edge, made with layers of the sand and blush card.

Finally I added a white seam binding messy bow, a pearl embellishment and a pearl swirl.

Simple looking but I feel it has real drama to it!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft Dies for Sue Wilson
Love expression
Diamond Snow
Double Sided adhesive sheet
Sand, Blush & Cocoinut white foundation card
Pearl embelishments.

Enjoy...

Blue Friday...

Happy Friday,

Back to the samples today that I made for sues shows so its the New York collection which is coming up on C&C in a couple of weeks.  I wanted to show with this card how a rectangular background can be made easily into a square background!

I started by die cutting 2 of the New York background in pale blue card and then cut them through the middle on the long edge.  The pattern on this die is a mirror image on each corner meaning that if you rotate the half pieces at 90 degrees of the background die they fit over the other edge perfectly.  What I have done is to rotate each of the 4 cut pieces and fitted them so that the design turns into the square shown at the background of this card.  I usually show this technique on demo's so its hard to explain without showing you!!

Next I cut the largest pierced square die from the Herald Square set, wrapped a piece of blue seam binding over the square and foam mounted it over the background which Hides the joins in the centre!  Next I cut the filigree section of the Herald square die set in blue and foam mounted this on top.  I added a centre square die cut stamped with the sentiment from the Friend amount stamp set and shaded the die cut in the die with stormy sky distress ink.

Finally I added a simple double bow however I used white ruffled edge ribbon and blue seam binding together to give a bow with a difference.  To highlight the background I added some pearl PVA dots on the junctions on the detailed now square background.

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft Dies for Sue Wilson
New York background
Herald Square die set
Friends sentiments stamp set
Stormy Sky distress Ink
Pearl PVA

Enjoy...

A silver thank you...

Happy Thursday,

A real mixture of dies today from sues latest release Ive used a striplet a noble and an expressions die. I really like the combination of the coconut white and the silver shimalux card.

I stared by cutting a frame from the silver using the largest die in the Classic adorned squares set.  I then made a frame around the aperture using a ruler and craft knife.

The panel insert background is made by cutting the Regal triplet three times in a row carefully ranging the pattern to match (far easier than it sounds!lol)





I foam mounted the background over a sheet of the silver and added the silver frame on top of that.

The tags are cut from Sue's new pierced tags set using the largest die, in white and silver and foam counted above each other.  Finally I hung the tags on a piece of white seam binding and the beautiful Best wishes die form the expressions set.

A simple card that looks more complex than it is to put together

Ingredients:
Craft dies by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions
Adorned Squares Noble dies
Pierced tags die
Regal striplet
Best Wishes expressions
Silver & White shimmerlux card
White seam binding


The winner of Mondays Card,chosen this week randomly as comment number16 by Tracey at Creative Expressions, was KarenLotty, Karen if you send me your address Ill have it posted out to you!


Enjoy...

Creative Wednesday...

Happy Wednesday,

Its back to the design team for Creative expressions which means its time for another Creative Wednesday this month we are featuring the wonderful Sassy Lady stamps.  I have to admit that this card was made in a bit of a hurry as due to the fact that the U.K. trade show is this weekend I was down at CE Towers helping out with some of the new products (more of that in the coming weeks) and so mad this card in the craft workshop there!  This means that the photos are not up to my usual standard as I had to take them on my Phone!

I wanted to create a card that shows the stamps as if they were walking across the page so I came up with this card its a type of concertina card where the inside folds out in a three form the aperture ninth base standard fold card.  I hope you can understand what I mean the pictures should help!

I stared by cutting the largest of the square dies in the ornate pierced square noble die using a piece of A4 taupe foundation card folded in half to make a hinged card.  I then die cut the filigree and next sized square die form the front panel.  I then die cut a piece of chestnut card to match however I missed out the filigree die this time so that the darker card could be seen through the filigree section.

To create the folded centre piece I folded another sheet of A4 card in three at 10.5cm and used the second largest square die in the set to make a trip fold hinged section by adding a further die cut square so that there are 3 panels (I know this is had to understand! lol)  I stamped the three different sassy lady stamps, one on each panel using a brown archival ink pad, and added this inside the aperture.

Finally I added one of the new dazzler settings and some brown seam binding to finish off the card.

It would be great if you could click HERE to see the DT Blog and if you have time leave a comment!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft die for Sue Wilson
Ornate Pierced Noble die set
Sassy Ladies singles stamps
Taupe & Chestnut foundation card

Enjoy...

Technique Tuesday...

Happy Tuesday,

After an email from Rose yesterday I decided that today's technique should surround making backgrounds using Mica.  Today card is a simpler version of the background on the card I had on the giveaway yesterday.  This time I have used just the new Regal triplet from the latest range of craft dies from Creative Expressions for Sue Wilson.

On this card I have cut three strips of the double sided adhesive to mount the die cut and mica on.

The question form rose was is there a different way to add the Mica to the background and would perfect medium or similar work in the same way.  Firstly after a few trials I have found that the double sided sheets work the best using the following.

Cut the die cut image to be mounted then add a piece of the DS adhesive sheet to a piece of card the same size as the die cut.  I then add the die cut to the adhesive side and brush either one colour or a mix of colours into the gaps between the die cut where the sticky shows through.  The benefit of this is that the die cut is secured down and secondly that you use far less Mica than if you make a plain background.

The second way to do this, as mentioned by Rose is to use a brayer to cover the piece at the back with perfect medium and then brush the mica over that.  Whilst this does work it is a little more patchy than the adhesive and the issue is then how to attach the die cut.  If you glue the die cut over it will remove the mica and may not stick down correctly.  If you choose to try this method I would foam mount the die cut, with a larger bored, over the background to a part of the card that does not have Mica on it.

I would say on the adhesive sheets I am very careful and sparing with the ones I use and ensure that I use only the amount needed and use all the scraps.  Any smaller leftover pieces can be used for smaller cards and tags.

Enjoy...

Monday Giveaway!

Happy Monday,

I hope some of you managed to catch Sue's shows over the weekend, I had a big catch up on all of them whilst I was prepping for my next show!  Theres no better way to pick up tips than watch sue!  Also the show contained some samples that I had made and I have chosen one of those as todays giveaway.  Now the recipient may have to wait a couple of weeks as I need to get them back from Sue and Creative Expressions however I thought you might like the chance to win a card that had been featured.

This card is made using the blue and white foundation card that was featured on the shows in the card pack as well as the dies from the first bundle the Scandinavian collection as well as a couple of finishing touches.

The background is cut with the background die which I have then stuck onto a sheet of double sided adhesive sheet.  I then  brushed several shades of Mica, from the Garden Flora set that I have on at the end of the month.

Ingredients:
Craft Dies by Creative Expressions for Sue Wilson
Scandinavian collection Background
Oslo Die set
Camellia open petals
Camellia closed petals
CE Garden Flora Mica set
Double sided adhesive sheets

To win this card simply comment on this blog post and I will choose a winner at random, Enjoy...

Simple sunday.

Happy Sunday!

Don't for get Sue Wilson is back on Create and Craft today with her weekender some fantastic bundles and some new embossing folders I haven't even seen as yet!  I had a wonderful day in Carlisle yesterday and met some really lovely ladies I hope those of you who attended enjoyed yourselves as much as I did and like me you learnt a few things! lol

Back to today and sorry for the late posting I kind of miscalculated the time it would take me to get home yesterday, with the fog rolling in up north it took over 5 hours and so I went straight to bed when I got home!  Today's card is another example of how you can effectively use your waste from die cutting and make two cards at the same time!

The main piece is simply the waste from where I cut the Camilla die in coconut white card.  when I cut these flowers for another card (that will be shown on Friday) I placed the dies along the edge of the card and cut and embossed them as normal.  I was careful in the placement and cut the three different sizes as if they were tumbling along the edge.  Next I added a piece of double sided adhesive film onto a piece of periwinkle card and added the white waste piece over the top.  I then added summer blue mica into the spaces to give a lovely shine which can't be seen in the pictures as well as in real life.  The centres were studded with large stick on pearls and I added a few layers of the blue and white.

To create the finished card I made an A5 card blank in white, added a layer of blue and a final layer of white onto which I scored a series of lines using my scorepal.  Finally I ran a strip of blue seem binding across the bottom, added a simple bow and a sentiment stamped on Blue before foam mounting the flower panel with foam tape onto the left hand edge.

A quick and simple card which I made at the same time as a more complex one using the bits left over.  I know I have said it before, many times, but I really believe its worth looking at the card you cut shapes from and thinking what could I do with that before it goes in the recycling bin!

Ingredients:
Creative Expressions Craft dies for Sue Wilson Camila open petals
Coconut white & Periwinkle foundation card
blue seam binding
stick on pearls

Enjoy...