Blue bokeh and tag

Post 127

Good morning crafty friends. This morning I'm sharing a card which combines my new love of the Bokeh background technique, with texture paste, and my  refreshed love of water colours.

For the blue background I used some water colour card, Tim Holtz card...marvellous!, I gave it a thorough soaking then grabbed my water colours and aloud them to move around the paper, letting the water take them where it may. Having left it to dry, I got out my home made stencil, with a variety of different sized circles cut out, and sponged through it with Hero arts unicorn white pigment ink. I stencilled and heat set, and repeated several times until the circles were layered up to my satisfaction. Then to finish off the background I layered some texture paste through a dotty stencil, making sure it was a little rough and unfinished around the edges. 

Like a previous card I stamped a flower, again on water colour card and cut it out using the tag you're it die from Lawn  Fawn, having fussy cut the overhanging part of the flower first.

I finished the flower off using Wink of Stella clear glitter pen. I stamped and embossed in white my greeting, and stuck it to the card around the back of the blue panel and under the tag so I didn't have to worry about adhesive showing through the vellum.

The card has been finished off with a scattering of silver sequins and some tiny gems.

I hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Cheers

Post 126

More pints of beer!!!!
For this card I used Lawn Fawns 'Sweater weather' paper pad for the brown backing paper. 

For the centre panel I positioned my letters, Lawn fawn again, 'Finley's ABC's', and stamped my images .The beer stein stamp is from an old Creative expressions set and , for the 'on your birthday' I used a mash up of different sentiment sets. Before adding colour I run the panel through my Big Shot to cut out the Cheeers.

The beer is coloured with my alcohol markers. 

A piece of red glitter card was stuck behind the cheers, then the whole panel stuck to the backing paper. I had to add the sequins to finish it off.

I hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

New toys and techniques!!!!

Post 125

Good morning blogland, something different for me today. I've seen texture paste all over, and at first thought it wasn't for me, I'm not a messy crafter and tend to avoid or fail when it comes to creating backgrounds. But I took the plunge and invested in a pot of white texture paste, I have a pile of stencils, which aren't getting used used.....until now!!!

To start I inked some watercolour card with a variety of distress inks, gave it a blast with my heat tool, then positioned the stencil, 'Swoosh' from That special touch, applied the texture paste and set it to one side to dry.

I decided to add a tag to the card so I stamped a spray of flowers from an old creative expressions set, embossed it with white embossing powder and water coloured the image with similar colours to the background. I positioned the tag die , Lawn Fawns 'Tag your it', over the flowers, marked with a pencil where the tag sat then fussy cut around the flower and leaf which sat outside the cutting edge of the die. I then put the die back into position ensuring the fussycut area sat on top of the die so it wouldn't be cut. I think this is called 'out of the box' technique!

Once dry I decided I didn't want such a large panel for the background so I cut it with the Creative cuts die from 'Sew Fancy Creative cuts' set from Mama Elephant, love the detail across the top and bottom of the die. I cut the tag a hole reinforcer from the off cuts of background, and threaded some bakers twine through.

The card base is stamped with the My Favorite things 'Sheet diamonds and Dots borders' stamp in a very pale linen coloured ink. The panel adhered across the centre, the tag at an angle on one side of the card and to finish a greeting stamped and embossed on some vellum and a scattering of sequins.

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

More festive bits...

Post 124

Today I'm sharing the treat boxes I made for our Christmas table, a pretty alternative to the usual naff crackers!

When I saw the 'Curvy Keepsake box' in Stampin Up, it was a MUST buy. It's just SSOOOOO cute. The box combined with the 'Endless Wishes' stamp set (only available now as a digital download), was always going to be a winner!

                           

I stamped the snow flakes in  Hero arts Unicorn white pigment ink onto some kraft card, I left it to dry for quite a while but still had to heat set it before I could trust running it through my big shot without smearing.

I cut out the keep sake boxes (2 for each box), and filled them with a chocolate, a party hat (it's the law in my house to wear the hat until the washing up is finished!!!!), a lottery scratch card (nobody won anything ,so this will not be repeated!), and a little fact relating to the person who was opening the box.

The box has a secure closure built in, but to decorate it I added some holographic gift ribbon, and a tag, I die cut the small tag from the Lawn Fawn 'Tag,you're it' die set, I stamped a greeting from the 'Endless Wishes' set, and then the name of each recipient in the Lawn fawn 'Claires ABC's' stamps,and finished off with a little holly from  'Winter Gifts' .

Hope you like todays project.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Can't beat a Pint, for a man card!

Post 123

Went a little crazy with the masking for this card. Obviously I started with the main coloured glass and sentiment, then masked and stamped until the card was covered.

The colouring is done with alcohol markers, then once all the stamping was done I finished the glass off with glossy accents.

Layered the card onto gold then a kraft base card

Hope you like todays card,

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Anniversary....celebration of Love!!!!

Post 120.....so I'm I little out of order but hey ho Christmas on valentines day isn't very topical....so I thought it was a good time to throw in a post that I missed out a few days ago, to celebrate ,LOVE, a nice anniversary card.

The card is a cute Anniversary card, using Lawn Fawn 

'Love you a Latte' stamps, and the 'Stitched party banners' dies, also from Lawn fawn.

Don't you just love the faces on the cups!

 Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxxx

Christmas catch up....

Post 122

Thought I'd throw in my festive efforts today. 

A taster of the cards I made using the 'Alpine Carolers' from Mama Elephant, to save my festive bacon when the mojo was very thin on the ground!!!!!

Each image is stamped with memento ink and coloured with my pro markers. The baubles and fairy lights are embellished with wink of stella clear glitter, glossy accents and stickles glittler glue on the ornaments string.

 And there's more...this time with the fairy lights.
On each card the backing layer is strips of paper coloured with one of the main colours from the image, clear wink of stella applied and placed behind topper to look like a mat.

A few examples of the insides of the card, all co ordinated with the front, with colour, and baubles or fairy lights.

Hope you like my festive offerings, these designs made up the bulk of my Christmas cards for 2014.

Hope you like.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Boys birthday wishes

Post 121

A fairly simple boys card today. This was inspired by a card done by Kristina Werner. 

I've used the Paper Smooches stamps from 'Teen Routine'.

A simple grey and white back drop, using one of the accessory stamps for the detail along the bottom edge in grey ink. The game controllers were stamped, coloured and fussy cut. The wires drawn free hand. And the greeting embossed in white. And there's always time to doodle some faux stitching around the edge of the layers.

A drop of glossy accents on each button just adds to the card.

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx 

Thinking of you...

Post 119

A 'Thinking of you' card.  Always a difficult one to do are sympathy cards.

This one, I feel, is enough for the occasion.

I used the Stampin Up stamp set 'Hopeful thoughts', for both the tree and the sentiment image.

I found some grey card for the mat,and  at the base of the tree is some scrap decorative paper, which I cut with the Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside borders' dies, which cut in that fabulous stitched detail.

A scattering of silver sequins and gems finished the card.

I thought I'd also share the same card made for a birthday, using a beautiful purple base colour.

Hope you like todays cards.

Nice comments are always welcome!

Happy crafting.

Clair xxxx

Back to it.....

Post 118

 Good grief is it really 4 months since my last post....., well the evidence is all here!!!! WoW!

My hours at works increased and my mojo took a real nose dive just before Christmas, ...I managed to rally a little , thanks to the Alpine Carolers from Mama Elephant which I'll share at some point in the future (probably when the crafty inspirations have abandoned me again Ha!)

Today I thought I'd share a card I made using the Bokeh technique, Lovin' this technique at the moment, it's seems everywhere you look there's a bokeh back drop....check out you tube for techniques and Pinterest for the fabulous inspiration. This is where I first saw the technique.

For my background I used my watercolours....new best friends the Gansai Kuretake watercolours...blooming marvellous!!!! I used Tim Holtz watercolour card, as I was using lots of water , and this card really holds it's own. Once the colours were dry I die cut a piece of acetate with various circle dies and punches (5 circles in all), and used Hero arts Unicorn white pigment ink, to sponge on to the card to create the effect, after heat drying several layers of the pigment ink....making sure to over lap the circle for a better effect, I stamped and embossed my sentiment, and finished it off with some random sequins.

I'm kind of addicted to this technique at the moment and if I maintain my blog!!!!!, this will be seen quite alot!

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

It's good to be back in blogland.

Clair xxxx