Floral Stamping

Hello everyone, it's not often that I get the chance to work with stamps other than those by Chocolate Baroque, but a few weeks ago I made a few samples for the folks at Craft Creations Ltd for a show on Hochanda TV. I fell in love with these pretty stamps and actually asked if I could have a play with them! The beautiful bold designs were so eye catching, and I could see lots of uses for them. I intend to use the images for my cards going forward as I think that they are really useful.

For my first card I created a Distress Oxide background, and stamped some of the words from the Flowers All Around stamp set using black ink. I stamped the large 'You' from the Flowers For You stamp set onto a die cut circle, adding some shading around the edges, and then matted both pieces onto black card. I loved the positive words, and thought this would make a really uplifting card for a friend who needed a boost, or even just to tell someone how beautiful, amazing, special, fabulous etc. they are!

I created two kraft cards next using white embossing. For my first card, I stamped the lovely border from the Flowers For You stamp set across the top and bottom of the card and added the Happy Birthday in the middle. I coloured the flowers with Koh-I-Noor paints as these stand out so well on kraft card. This card was so quick to make, but really effective.

For the next card I stamped, embossed and coloured the main image from the Flowers All Around stamp set as before. I stamped and embossed the leaves onto a larger piece of kraft card and then added Brushos in shades of red, orange and green, spritzing them with water to add that dramatic colour burst effect. The leaves and the sentiment come from the Say It In Flowers stamp set.

Another super quick card next, created with a Distress Oxide background. I stamped the main sentiment using words from Flowers All Around and a vibrant purple ink. I used swirls from Flowers For You to create a streamer effect around the edge, using two different colours of Versafine Clair Ink.

Another fun card to make, I chose linen textured card this time for a different finish. Again I created a Distress Ink background, adding a dotty border using a stamp from Say It In Flowers. I stamped the main image and sentiment on a smaller piece of textured card, and coloured the flowers with Koh-I-Noor paints.

For my final card, I used another image from Say It In Flowers and stamped the image randomly over a piece of smooth white card. I coloured the image with Koh-I-Noor paints, and added a sentiment strip. I edged both pieces with black ink for definition.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Too Hot for Christmas?

Hello everyone, I have a few projects to show you today, and thought that I would start with some of the cards that I made featuring the delightful A Tomte Christmas stamp set. I stamped the large gnome and masked him before adding a background using a torn paper mask and Distress Ink in blue and grey tones. I added first and second generation stamped trees from the Trees a Crowd stamp set.

I removed the mask and coloured the image with Koh-I-Noor pencils and added some soft pencil shading around the base of the trees to ground them.

For my second card, I used the trio of gnomes, and started by colouring a die cut oval using Distress Ink. I stamped the image onto a spare piece of card using brown ink and I coloured the image with Distress Ink and a water brush, adding pencil shading over the top. I fussy cut the image and attached it to the oval.

I created a little tag and stamped the sentiment, adding some baker's twine. To assemble the card, I used a piece of music paper as a background, added brown card as a matting layer and some pretty red ribbon to finish.

I liked the vintage colours on this card, and made a matching tag using one of the circular acrylic baubles that we had on the show. I used Archival Ink to stamp the image, acrylic paint to colour the image, and again used music paper for the background.

My final project for today also features the acrylic tags. I coloured them with alcohol inks, and stamped on top of them using white acrylic paint. I used images from the Shaded Baubles stamp set and The Christmas Garden. As long as you clean your stamps straight away, you can use paint to stamp with, no problem.

I chose a mixture of bright colours for the tags. These would look great on the tree at Christmas, or as beautiful sun catchers hung in a window.

I added matching twine and a bit of Stickles for a bit more bling.

It has been almost too hot to create Christmas cards at this time of year, but lots of you will be thinking about making your Christmas cards now to get ahead. These stamp designs are brilliant for lots of projects and I will be back later in the month with some quick batch card ideas for you.

Thanks for stopping by,
xx