Floral CAS Cards

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have some clean and simple cards to share with you today for my final post this month. I demonstrated these designs on Create and Craft last month, and I hope that you managed to catch the TV shows.

My first two cards are similar in design; I used a round gelli plate to create a background, inking up the plate with Distress Ink, and for the first design, I stamped the Open Weave stamp onto the gelli plate before I stamped the gelli plate straight onto my card blank. I then stamped one of the large flowers and a leaf three times from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set onto the card using Veesafine ink. I used a fineliner pen to draw some little stems for the leaves. I could have used Masking Tissue to mask the flower, then stamp the leaves, but these cards are all about making life simple. I coloured the image with Polycolour pencils and added a sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set.

For the second card, I again inked up the gelli plate with Distress Oxide Ink this time, and then stamped the Floral Weave stamp onto the gelli plate before stamping the gelli plate straight onto the card blank. I stamped a couple of sunflowers onto the background and coloured them with pencils. I added some black dots with a fineliner pen and some glitter glue in the centre of each flower for a bit of sparkle.

For my final card, I stamped Studded Lattice onto an 8" x 8" card blank using Distress Oxide ink. I added a couple of sunflowers and some leaves in opposite corners. Using a fineliner pen, I drew some lines and curls to link the flowers and leaves together. Do not be aftraid to draw things freehand yourself to add to the stamps. I could see elements within the stamps that I could use to embellish the images and extend the design, you can try this youself. Practise on a piece of paper until you feel confident, and then just go for it! Be brave and do not hesitate, that would be my best advice.

I hope that you will try some of my suggestions, thanks for stopping by, xx

Happy Christmas

Hello everyone, I have a post over on the Design Team blog today, giving me another opportunity to work with the fabulous background stamps aired on the recent TV shows on the Craft Channel.

I have chosen to create a Christmas card for my final offering of the year, and hope that you will accept it as a card from me to you. I would like to thank you all for the lovely comments that you have left over the year on my posts, here and on the DT blog.

I have used the Studded Lattice cling mounted stamp to create the background, and added some poinsettias from the Joyful Christmas stamp set. The background card was a piece left over from another project, and I used Distress Paints to create the wrinkle free background. I stamped and embossed the poinsettias using a sparkly red embossing powder, and coloured them with Faber Castell aquarelle pencils.

I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas, and offer my good wishes for 2016. I hope that Santa brings you lots of crafting goodies, and that you have time to relax and enjoy the festive season, whatever you are doing. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Beautiful Background stamps

Hello everyone, I hope that you have been able to catch the TV shows featuring the Beautiful Backgrounds cling mounted stamps on the Craft Channel recently. The samples created by my Team Mates, and demos by Lesley were just amazing. I have a couple of projects to show you myself that were featured on the shows, and I hope that they will give you a little bit of inspiration in using these fabulous stamps.

My first project features the Floral Weave cling mounted stamp, and I have created an underwater scene, using stamps from the Seashore and Seadragon stamp sets.

I created a watery background on a piece of watercolour paper, by painting some Ecoline ink onto the background, and dropping sea salt onto the paper while it was still wet. I left the background to dry before removing the salt. This technique creates patterns that are reminiscent of bubbles in water, and it is such a fun technique, as the results are different every time. I stamped and embossed the background image using a lovely teal embossing powder, it works really well as a seaweed image on this card. I stamped and coloured the seahorse on a separate piece of card, using Faber Castell Aquarelle pencils, before cutting it out and adhering it to the background. I stamped the sentiment, and matted the background onto teal card. I added some little pearls to the flower centres to complete the card.

My second project is a canvas, combining a couple of the background stamps, Baroque Orchids, and Studded Lattice. I have added some flowers created using stamps from the Elegant Iris stamp set, and some die cut leaves.

I started my project by painting the canvas with acrylic paint, blending the colours with a baby wipe, using a mix of purple, orange and yellow. I dried the layers each time, and just kept going until I was happy with the overall look. I then stamped the Studded Lattice image randomly over the canvas using white paint. I did not use an acrylic block for this, as I just wanted to stamp part of the image each time, and I wanted a more random finish.

I covered the Baroque Orchid stamp with Gold Soft Form Relief Paste, and left it to dry overnight. Once the paste was dry, and had become a film, I painted it with a thin layer of white paint. I gently removed some of the excess paint, revealing some of the gold underneath, which gives a kind of faded elegance to the piece. I allowed the paint to dry and then gently peeled the stamp away from the film. For durability, I added a piece of thin card behind the film before attaching it to the canvas.


I stamped the flower image from the Elegant Iris stamp set three times onto a piece of spare card, and coloured the images with pens. I found that the flowers were a bit bright, and so I gave them a wash of thinned down white acrylic paint to soften them a bit. I added some die cut leaves, which I edged with Soft Form Relief Paste, and I also edged the canvas with some of the Relief Paste as well. Finally, I added a sentiment from the Artistic Expressions stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by, xx