Not so quick...but beautiful and satisfying.

Post 136

Doubled up for today!!, this card is for a 70th birthday.....being for a lady the only mention of age is inside the card!!!

I have , once again, being embossing in white the simply stunning Peony scrolls by Altenew.

Once my peonys had been stamped and embossed, a little masking was required for the desired arrangement. But these images are fairly easy to cut out. I used my Inktense pencils, to colour. These pencils are SSOOOOO satisfying to use, a simple bit of gentle colouring in then add a little water and...Zap the colour is stunning!! The painting was completed with a splatter of blue paint across the image.The sentiment is embossed in black, this is from 'Surprise Sentiments' by Mama Elephant.

A scattering of sequins and gems add sparkle.

Down one side of the base card I stamped and embossed the 'Pinstripe' background stamp by My Favorite Things.

Hope you like todays card.

Please leave a comment...especially if you like this card.

Happy crafting

Clair xxxx

Quick and easy.

Post 135

Another simple card. A stencilled pattern in the background, green fading to blue. Then one image stamped in black with a simple sentiment, and a few sequins to add sparkle.

Told you it was a quick one!!!

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxxx

Fluttering by ...again.

Post 134

A quick card virtually identical to Post 133, except for the colours and the use of kraft card for the background.

A dab of wink of stella for the flower and butterfly.

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Flutter by....

Post 133

Good afternoon crafty friend, todays card is a simple birthday card. I was inspired to get out my stencils and distress inks after watching Kristina Werner in this video. 

For the background I used the MFT dot stencil , I used a  variety of distress inks, fading from pink to yellow. I off set the stencil and sponged some white pigment ink through, this doesn't show up too well on the picture but it adds a blurriness to the coloured dots. I then off set the stencil the other way and traced the black circles using a fine liner pen.

The flowers and butterfly are from the Lawn fawn stamp set 'Flutter by', these were stamped, embossed and die cut out using the matching dies. I coloured the images using the same distress inks I'd used in the background.

Once dry I added a coat of Wink of stella clear....got to have some sparkle!!

Before I used the card it was finished off with a banner extending out from behind the flowers saying 'Happy Birthday'.

The panel was mounted on black glossy card before being adhered to the based card.

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Peony Scrolls.... blue shaker

Post 132

Good morning blogland. I'm on a roll with these beautiful stamps from Altenew, Todays card is another shaker. I'm on a roll with these too!

I drew a light pencil line marking where the aperture was going to be. I then stamped my flowers around that line, using masks where the images overlapped. I then fussy cut the flowers where they went over the line into the proposed aperture. Then using my die I made sure the cut part of the flower was above the die away from the cutting edge of the die, so the circle would be cut but the flowers would not.

The aperture was backed with acetate, and some fun foam cut slightly smaller than my card front and the same die used to cut a circle in it. I use the fun foam instead of foam tape to give the height needed for the shaker to work. And it sits perfectly behind the circle with no sticky edges for my shaker bits to stick to.

With a black marker I carefully went around the cut edge of the flowers to eliminate the white card exposed when fussy cutting. A tip I saw on you tube to make the image look finished off after it had been cut out. 

I painted the flowers with my watercolours the Kuretake Gansai Tambi paints...love them!, and once dry gave them a covering with my Wink Of Stella clear brush, to add a little sparkle.

For the backing of the aperture, I used the same water colours as in the flowers and washed an ombre effect. I then stamped my sentiment and embossed it using white embossing powder.

I stuck some of the gems and sequins around the sentiment ,so when the card was stood some of the sparkle would still be seen and not all fall to the bottom of the card.

The card was finished off with some gems in each corner of the card.

I hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Peony scrolls... pink

Post 131

Good morning crafty friends. Today is a card I love, simple card where the stamp is centre stage....lovely.

I've used the beautiful stamps from Altenew called 'Peony Scrolls'. And the sentiment from Mama Elephant called 'Surprise Sentiments'

The flowers and falling petals are stamped with versamark ink and embossed in white. For the leaves I had to mask the flowers first so the leaves would sit behind the peony. I then stamped and embossed the sentiment in black.

I used my watercolours on the flowers.

To finish the card I painted a strip down the side of the base card to co ordinate with the flowers and then went over it with the clear wink of stella pen.

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Flutter by shaker

Post 130

Todays card is a shaker using the Lawn Fawn 'Flutter by' stamps. I cut an aperture out of some card using a blossom label die and covered the space with acetate, I also cut some fun foam with the same die , I've started using this for my shaker cards since seeing it on you tube, Jennifer McGuire Ink uses the fun foam instead of cutting copious amounts of foam tape to fit around the aperture....so much easier!

I stamped and white embossed my flowers and butterfly and painted them with my watercolours, then fussy cut then out. I arranged them around the aperture and adhered them with glue dots.

I scoured my stash to find a co-ordinating backing paper but I came up empty handed . So I got my watercolours out again and painted a rainbow of colour, then stamped and embossed my greeting. This is from the Mama Elephant 'Surprise Sentiments' set...I love the little sentiment added on the bottom 'you can shake me!'

I stuck a few sequins and gems around the sentiment so when the card is standing there is still a scattering of gems.

Hope you like todays card.

Clair xxx

Fantachetic day, plus one!

Post 129

Todays card is another venture in to 'messy crafting' (not me at all!) The base card is a plain 6x6 card, stamped with a My Favorite Striped things background stamp, in a gentle blue.

For the horizontal panel I inked some card with various distress inks in green and blues, then placed  a chevron stencil over it and spritzed some water onto it, left it for 30 seconds, removed the stencil and dabbed up the water with some kitchen roll. I then used my  Paper smooches Stitched dies to add detail to the corners of the card.

For the main panel, I used a free stamp I received in 'Craft Stamper' a while ago. I stamped moustache in a gradient of blue and green. I added the die cut stitch detail, and mounted that and the back panel onto some black card.

I used lawn fawn's 'Claires ABCs', for the sentiment, and finished the card off with a scattering of sequins.

I thought I'd show you this card too. This one is a total copy of quite a few cards I've seen on Pinterest.

I used Clarity Stamps 'Letterbox Alphabet, for the scrabble tiles. I used Google to find out the correct value of each letter, it was a fabulous fluke that the letters added up to 21.....perfect! 

I printed off the sentiment, and stuck the tiles on using foam squares. Then the panel was matted on to kraft card and black card, love this simple colour combo!

Hope you like todays cards.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Beer birthday shaker

Post 128

Good morning crafty friends. Todays card is very similar to a card I posted a few days ago, but this one is a shaker card. I used Lawn Fawns 'Finleys ABC's dies to cut out 'BIRTHDAY', but this time I stuck some vellum on the reverse, and used some gold sequins for my shaker bits

The beer glass is from an old Creative Expressions stamp plate called 'Cheers', coloured with alcohol markers, some clear wink of stella, then finished off with some Glossy accents.

 For the stitch detail I used Paper Smooches 'Stitched Dies'

The shaker panel was mounted onto some decorative paper, then on to an A6 card.

Hope you like todays card.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx