Sunday 29 April 2018

Yet More Stencils

Hi Friends, I've a couple more stencil-themed cards to share today that I've completely forgotten about! Once again I'm showcasing some brand new ones by Funky Fossil Designs and you can find them in Sarah's Folksy Shop HERE

I tend to forget about stencils when crafting but they really are so versatile - just wish I could get a little more adventurous with them but perhaps when I've a spell off work I'll play with some new techniques.

Here goes



First up I'm thrilled with how this one turned out using the Beautiful Mandala Stencil and inked in Distress Oxides: Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted and die-cut with the coordinating die although it may be a retired one - I've lots of their older sets in my stash!

It's 'Anything Goes' at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday so I'd like to pop this one in there.


Next up a smeared inky background of Distress Oxide in Mermaid Lagoon, spritzed with a shimmery mix of water and perfect pearls. Once dry I inked through the Indian Flower stencil with Versafine Onyx Black ink (made quite a mess of the stencil) then quickly covered with Clear Embossing powder to add some shine and texture to the image. The sentiment is by Happy Little Stampers.


Last but not least an elegant Peacock, this time inked with Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers (of course) and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxides. Once the ink was dry I used a Versafine pen to 'paint over' the gold sections then sprinkled gold embossing powder on the top. The same powder was used for the sentiment by Clearly Besotted. 

I'd like to add this card to the 'Clean and Simple' themed challenge at Addicted to Stamps & More.


That's all for me for today but hope you are enjoying some crafty fun today.


Sarah

Saturday 28 April 2018

Less is More #370

Hello my crafty friends, it's Sketch Time over at Less is More for the next fortnight and we can't wait to see what you do with this one! All the details are on the main challenge blog HERE but here's the cue card followed by the Sketch and my examples. 




If you've followed my blog recently you'll notice I've become a little 'hooked' on stencils, especially in this colour combo of Distress Oxides: Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet and Cracked Pistachio. I've used the Concentric Circles Stencil from MFT with a little masking around the circles and to finish a popped up sentiment from our sponsor; Happy Little Stampers. 


It's a clean and simple week over at Addicted to Stamps and More so I'd like to head across there with this one AND as I'm 'WILD' about stencils right now and that's the theme of the current challenge at Timeout Challenges I'd like to add this card there too. 






... and another MFT stencil below! This time the Rose Builder, again inked with Distress Oxides in Worn Lipstick and Candied Apple plus Cracked Pistachio and Lucky Clover. I must apologise I can't remember where the sentiment is from! It's from my bits box from one of those days when I'd heat embossed too many sentiments! 


Over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge it's their Anything Goes week so I'll pop this card in there.

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies  over on the Less is More blog HERE and our sponsor for this challenge is Happy Little Stampers so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. 

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I hope you'll feel inspired to play along with us and have some crafty fun along the way.

Thanks for calling by today!

Sarah

Saturday 21 April 2018

Guest Designer Post - Inkspirational

Hi Friends,

I'm thrilled to be joining the ladies over at Inkspirational Challenges as Guest Designer for the latest challenge, Cue Card below!

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I have to admit I racked my brains for ages trying to come up with something unique to use from my stash. I couldn't find any play-related stamp sets although, following some online research / window shopping, there's now plenty on my wish list! 

In the end I decided to go with a musical theme and some rather inky and not in my usual 'Clean and Simple' style backgrounds. Uniko recently released some music related stamps and I'd also purchased a few Visible Image sets at Christmas, which I was keen to ink up again so here goes:


Both cards use the 'Music Speaks' set by Visible Image with a 'You Rock' sentiment and musical notes from Uniko. The background on the first card is created by 'smooshing' Distress Inks, whereas the second one is a Brusho based creation! 



I hope you like what I've created for the challenge and you'll feel inspired to play along too. I don't doubt that there'll be some spectacular ideas from the regular design team HERE and I'd like to thank them for inviting me to join them today! 

Happy Crafting and thanks for your visit today!

Sarah

Tuesday 17 April 2018

Mad about Distress Oxides

Hello Friends,

It's amazing what a little time away from work can do for my mojo! Although back at work this week I've thoroughly enjoyed playing with inky blending and Distress Oxides and only just getting round to posting my cards here. In fact I'm only just experimenting with these inks having bought 4 of them about 18 months ago. Unfortunately the colours I picked didn't really blend nicely together so I simply had to buy a few more!!!

I only have 13 colours in total ... my favourites, which I know I'll use and blend nicely. I love bright colours and particularly rainbow tones so you can no doubt guess which inks I've gone for!

So a bundle of 'same but different' resist technique cards using the Marvellous Mendhi set by Uniko and various stamp company sentiments.


I think this has to be my favourite colour combo ... using Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio. I've a feeling this has an Altenew sentiment.


The sentiment on this one is Clearly Besotted and I've used Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade and Worn Lipstick for my colour combo. 


I think this is another Altenew sentiment (apologies I just grabbed a load of stamp sets and pulled off sentiments I liked to heat emboss en masse! I've used the same colour combo as the previous card with a little Picked Raspberry too and inked more randomly than the previous one. 


This sentiment is by Mama Elephant and the distress ink colours are Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade.

I'm still experimenting with different blends but hope you like these ones so far. Thanks for calling by.


Sarah

Monday 16 April 2018

Crazy for MORE Stencils

Hi Friends, I'm zipping in with another 'just for the fun of it post' featuring a bunch of stencil inspired cards. If you visited my blog a few days ago HERE you'll see I was showcasing stencils by fellow blogger and friend Sarah G of Funky Fossil Designs and I've still got more of those to share once they are made up into cards BUT I was loving the colour combo I used on the previous post and decided to root out some older stencils in my stash and bring them back to life ... here goes:


This one uses a 'handmade' stencil - I die-cut several circles in some acetate then randomly inked through the shapes in my favoured colour combo using Distress Oxides (Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron and Blueprint Sketch). The die-cut 'happy' is by CUT-plorations and it's mounted on a stitched circle die by Simon Says Stamp with a 'birthday' sentiment from Uniko.


Next up using a trio of Bokeh stencils by Simon Says Stamp and using the same colour combo, I rotated each stencil 4 times to achieve the clusters in each corner. The Sentiment is heat embossed with clear embossing powder and is by Mama Elephant, mounted on a stitched square by MFT Die-namics


I think this has to be my all-time favourite stencil and one I frequently go back to. It's the Concentric Circles by My Favorite Things, with a sentiment strip featuring 'Fabulous' by Uniko: Explosion Additions and 'Friend' die-cut by Paper Smooches


If you follow the Uniko blog HERE you'll have seen a balloon stencil released with the last bundle of new goodies. I didn't buy it because I new I had this similar one from Neat & Tangled but I was inspired by the stencilled balloon creations from the DT and decided to give it a whirl with this one. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is by Impression Obsessions.

Thanks for calling by today and I hope you're having some crafty fun!

Sarah

Saturday 14 April 2018

Less is More #369

Hello my crafty friends, it's time to announce our latest challenge at Less is More and we're stepping back in time with what's required for this one! All the details are on the main challenge blog HERE and here's our cue card.



You might decide to use a technique or stamp set that's not seen the light of day in a while or an additional element/embellishment that's perhaps no longer deemed 'fashionable' in crafting circles at the moment. 

Unbelievably I've 3 cards to share with you today ... having had a 2 week Easter break I had a little extra time to craft. These first 2 use handmade paper / mulberry paper I think it was called although this one is a thicker variety than others. 

For the first card I used a Columbus scalloped circle die from Mama Elephant to create a frame for the handmade paper. I stamped the sentiment from WPlus9 around the circle and mounted the 'wonderful' die-cut sentiment on foam to hide the balloon string. The balloon is from the Happy Little Stampers set 'Simply Said' and it's coloured using Promarkers.


This one uses a glittery embossed handmade / mulberry paper which I've adhered to some teal cardstock then used a die-cut 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from Impression Obsessions


Last but not least I have to admit that I own hundreds of these papery flowers in my stash; all different shapes, sizes and colours and I simply couldn't resist using them along with 2 mini sparkly brads in the centre (another of those no-longer-fashionable craft items).

I used some of the foliage stamps from Altenew Vintage Flowers to create a backdrop for the paper blooms but I'm not sure it's working for me! The sentiment is by Happy Little Stampers, our sponsor this month at Less is More.



As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies  over on the Less is More blog HERE and as I mentioned earlier, our sponsor for this challenge is Happy Little Stampers so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. 

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I hope you'll feel inspired to play along with and have some crafty fun along the way.

Thanks for calling by today!

Sarah

Friday 13 April 2018

Uniko - Wishfully Thinking of Summer

Hello there, I've another 'just for fun post' here which I'm coinciding with a DT Inspiration post for Uniko, which you can find HERE and there's a sneaky peek at my card at the end of this post!

Having spent a few days away in London last week I discovered lots of colour and pattern inspiration from various shops and displays so I couldn't wait to re-create my take on some with my cards once I got back.

So here's a card I've made using the latest sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches and inspired by some clothing fabric that caught my eye!


Here's my inspiration ...

Image result for whistles red white and blue fabric

The fabric definitely has a summery feel so, wishfully thinking the season would arrive soon, I pulled out the Paradise and Paradise Foliage sets from Uniko and set about creating a background on red cardstock. Firstly, the images were stamped in Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink then moving the red card slightly re-stamped  some of them Sapphire Blue ink by Altenew. The sentiment is from the Simply Said collection and here's the sketch I've used:




While I had the stamps on my desk I thought I'd create a card for some DT inspiration over on the Uniko blog and as promised here's a little sneaky peek! 



As always thanks for stopping by today and I'll be back with the latest challenge for Less is More tomorrow so hope you'll join me again then.




Sarah

Wednesday 11 April 2018

In Love with Stencils


Hi Friends, I can't remember the last time I got round to posting on my blog just for the fun of it BUT today I have some cards to share featuring STENCILS! 

These little beauties seem to have slipped into the back of my stash for far too long but with the stunning inspiration from my super duper blog buddy Sarah of Funky Fossils Designs and her new stencil creation venture (sold HERE) I just can't get enough of them! I just wish there were more hours in the day to play! 

So teamed with a bundle of Distress Oxide inks here's my creations and if you follow my blog regularly you'll notice I get fixated with colour combos and just can't stop myself when I find a combo I love! 


This one uses the Totally Triangular Stencil and I've been fascinated with the 'turn-around' stamps and stencils by other companies so decided to give it a go with this stencil although it's not necessarily designed to work that way. The die-cut sentiment is from Neat and Tangled with a 'birthday' greeting from Clearly Besotted

 

Using the same colour combo and Triangular stencil but this time with a cropped section of the stencilled panel a 'Smile' die-cut by Lil'inker Designs with a 'You Passed' sentiment by Clearly Besotted. 

The die-cut sentiments and strips of coloured card on all of these cards are coloured using coordinating promarkers. 

 

Ok a tad early for Father's Day but there's nothing like getting organised and I just love geometric designs for the guys so this one worked a treat. Remarkably the stencil is called 'geometric' too! The die-cut Happy is from CUT-plorations with the 'Father's Day' from Happy Little Stampers.


Next up a male / female 2-Fer of sorts! I masked off part of the stencil (called Triangle Grid) and inked through it with blues and teal colours and the other half adding some purple tones too. Can you tell I just love the 'Hooray' die-cut by Neat and Tangled? Coloured again with Promarkers to coordinate with the stencilling and a Clearly Besotted mini 'so to speak' sentiment on the first one and 'It's your day' on the second card is by Neat and Tangled.



I'm heading over to Addicted to Stamps and More for their Make your Mark week. I hope stencils are accepted along with Promarker painted sentiments!


As always thanks for calling by and if you feel inspired by these stencil designs and fancy purchasing a few, very reasonably priced ones then pop across to Sarah's Folksy shop HERE. Super efficient service and beautifully packaged too.


Sarah