Babushka Gifts

Hello everyone, it's my final post of this month using the Babushka stamp set, and I have so much fun using these cute stamps. I have a couple of gift ideas to share with you today.

My first project is based on a tag card that I made a while back, but I wanted to create a card and gift in one. I cut a couple of tag shapes from kraft card, making one of them a bit longer, and created a gusset to join to the other tag. I scored  along the middle of the area, and also allowed a small area at the end to join to the back tag.

I coloured a smaller piece of watercolour paper, using Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink, and stamped a small flower from the Spring Bird Daffodil stamp set randomly over the background. I coloured the flowers with Polychromos pencils. I cut the watercolour paper into a tag shape, slightly smaller than the tag card, and cut a circular hole out of the background. I then cut a slightly smaller hole from the kraft tag, to create a border inside the circle on the watercolour paper.

I stamped two of the Babushka dolls onto a spare piece of watercolour paper, and coloured these with pencils, before cutting them out and attaching them to the flowery background. I added a sentiment, and then stuck the back and front tags together at the top with strong double-sided tape. As I did so, I sandwiched the top of the bag of chocolate eggs between the tape.

Here is a side view:

My second gift is a bit of fun; I make these little bracelets all of the time, using coloured shell and jump rings. I stamped some of the medium sized Babushka dolls onto shrink plastic using Stazon Jet Black Ink, and then coloured the reverse of the images using Copic markers. I cut them out and punched holes in the top of each one, before shrinking them with a heat gun. I flattened them while they were still hot with an acrylic stamp block, and then I simply attached them to the bracelet with a jump ring.

I hope that you have enjoyed my projects this month using these lovely little stamps, and that they have provided you with a bit of inspiration. Thanks for stopping by,  xx

From Russia with Love

Hello everyone, I have more projects to share using the lovely Babushka stamp set. I love to mix and match new stamps with older stamp sets, and I have tried to do that with these projects.

I wanted to create the feel of brightly painted wooden dolls on these cards, so on my first card, I used kraft card throughout, and used a simple colour palette of bright colours. I used a Big Bold background Belle Flowers, to create the background, stamping the image using gold embossing powder. The big stamps are great for creating a background quickly. I coloured the images using Graph'it markers.

I cut an oval shape, and stamped a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments stamp set, using black ink. Finally, I used some black card to mat the layers.

My second project shows that these stamps can be used all year round, as I have chosen to make a Christmas card using the stamps, and combined them with some trees and snowflakes from the Sparkling Trees stamp set.

I started the card by stamping the three dolls, masking them as I went along, and then stamped the two building fragments. I masked these before masking the trees. I cut a single mask of the trees, but you could mask them all if you wanted too, I just moved the mask along as I needed to.

I stamped and embossed some small snowflakes using white embossing powder, and then coloured the sky area using Distress ink and a blending tool. I added a small amount of lilac to the foreground to add a bit of shading to the snow. I removed the masks, and coloured in the images using Copic markers. I added a bit of grass poking up through the snow. I added a sentiment using red ink, and chose a co-ordinating red layer of card to mat the background onto.

I have added lots of glitter to the trees, snow and rooftops for a bit of Christmas sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Colourful Babushkas

Hello everyone, I have a couple more cards to share using this month's Babushka stamp set. I absoloutely love the versatility of this quirky stamp set, and the many possibilities that the stamps offer.

For my first card, I created a wrinkle free Distress background, using Salty Ocean Distress Ink on smooth watercolour paper.  I stamped the three dolls onto some white card using white embossing powder and I also stamped the face areas again onto some spare card using black ink. I coloured the images using Distress Markers and a water brush. I cut the dolls out, and decoupaged the faces onto the white embossed dolls.

I die cut some hexagons, and stamped the flower head from the Breath of Spring stamp set on to the hexagons, again using white embossing powder. I coloured the hexagons using various tones of blue Distress Ink, to match the Babushka dolls.  I ironed off the white embossing from the hexagons using copy paper. I drew faux stitching to the edges of the shapes using a fine-tipped marker. I also added faux stitching around the edge of the background. Finally, I added a sentiment from the Amazing Birthday clear stamp set.

My second card became a Mother's Day card for my Mum. She loves Russian dolls, and always wanted to collect them. When we were growing up, I always remember her hankering after them, but never being able to afford them. So, I thought that it would be lovely to incorporate some of the images into a card for her.

I stamped a window fragment from the Texture Fragments stamp set onto my background, and added gold embossing powder. Before using the heat gun, I stamped the large fragment from the Dusky Damask stamp set using Elderberry Memento Ink into two of the corners of the background, and added clear embossing powder. I then heat set the images.

I covered the background with a blend of pink and purple Distress Inks, before adding a stencil, and repeated the process, to deepen the colours. I stamped the Babushka images onto a spare piece of card, using gold embossing powder, and coloured them using the corresponding colours in Distress Markers, picking the colours up using a water brush. Finally, I added a sentiment from the For Mum clear stamp set.

I will be back later in the month with some more ideas using these lovely stamps,  Thanks for stopping by, xx