Friday 28 October 2016

Deer Little Fallow


This poor little fellow's coat of glossy accents is still wet which is why he looks a little milky.  Given a few hours it should be clear with just a hint of twinkle as I sprinkled a little glitter on his spotty coat to give him extra sparkle.

The kraft and gold piece of mulberry paper came from a set of Japanese papers I had been hoarding (and admiring)  for ages.  It was a present from my one of my very thoughtful sisters-in-law who know exactly what I like.  Trouble was I liked it so much I had trouble breaking it open.  Every time I thought about using one I would gaze lovingly at all the beautiful Japanese papers inside for a good good long time and then put the pack away again - couldn't bring myself to cut into one.

The deer was cut from a piece of white card that had been stamped with a polka dot pattern from WMS Gingham and Co. and embossed in gold.  The banner was stamped with a sentiment from WMS Compliments of the Season and embossed in gold.  I wet embossed the edges of a WMS Snowflake 2 with gold and laid some gold pieces into the centre.  The bottom right corner was finished off with a few stars from Frantic Stamper's Village Sky die set.

I used Mojo Monday Sketch 471 as inspiration, and had intended following Julee's brilliant sketch faithfully, but I thought the sentiment would read better left to right rather than down the card, so I rotated the sketch 90 degrees counterclockwise.

I am also entering this card in the 52 Christmas Card October Technique Challenge - to use embossing 


And as they have my favourite kind of challenge (Anything Goes) this week, I'll be entering my card at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge



Thanks for stopping by - especially if you take the time to leave some positive feedback,
Kate

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Beautiful Rose


My lovely friends took me out last Saturday for a belated birthday celebration and I thought it would be nice to send them a card to thank them (rather than just thinking about it).  


This 2nd October sketch for Viva la Verve from the fabulous Lesley Croghan inspired me, although this scarcely resembles what I originally had  in mind, which was more in line with this gorgeous card from Lesley.



I was so excited because I thought that I could finally use something that's been in my stash for ages - Spellbinders Label 21.  I just had to have it at the time but have not been able to use it successfully in the 3 or 4 years I have owned it (familiar story anyone?).  I thought that if I embossed it as Lesley has done here, I could get it to work for me.  However my attempts at using the label 21 here were no better and I ended up ditching the idea after two or so hours!!!  The proportions just don't work for me.

At about midnight, I settled upon using this NBUS Sizzix Albany Rose, which I embossed and enamelled with WOW! Pastel Pink embossing powder and UTEE.  I did the same for the leaves from the set Stamp'n Stuff Emerald Green Embossing powder (quite dark for emerald green but I wanted a dark green anyway).

I made this sentiment panel using a die from the Verve Beautiful Flowers die.  I have been wanting to try this for ages. It has previously been just a plain rectangular piece of card, which was a little too plain, so I used a circle punch to invert the corners.

Because the rose was so thick and I wanted this lovely sentiment to sit above the rose (the stem could have been longer),  I ended up mounting the sentiment on a double layer of foam tape.  This didn't look too good from the side view so I wrapped a little peach organza ribbon around the mounting tape and tied a fancy knot at the top - much neater.


I hope you enjoyed your visit and I didn't bore you with too much detail, I love to read posts which explain how things are managed and short cuts/workarounds, as well as what lovely stash items are out there - so if I have the time I'll do that on my own posts.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please feel free to leave some positive feedback - I love to hear from you,
Kate

Tuesday 18 October 2016

Cozy Pink Christmas Wishes


Another of the Christmas cards from the set I made for Think Pink last week.  The WMS Sewing Box Christmas and its sister set Sewing Box Hugs are made for paper piecing, so even though time was tight last week I couldn't resist a little paper piecing.  I decked out the tree with die cut buttons (the smallest of the PTI Bitty Button Stacks). I would have used real buttons but my supply was severely depleted from the Buttoned Bauble card I had made previously. A generous coating of Glossy Accents made them a little more realistic though.

I'm entering this card in the (Gah!) Pink Christmas Challenge at Jingle Belles.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave some feedback,
Kate

Sunday 16 October 2016

Folkart Dove


This was another of the cards I made for Think Pink last week.  I called on the wonderful talents of Julee Tilman to create some layered loveliness and used her sketch from Viva la Verve October Sketch 1.


I'll also be entering this card in the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown October Theme Challenge to use Christmas Critters.  


Edited to also enter this in the (Gah!)Think Pink Challenge at Jingle Belles


Stamps used : WMS Folkart Christmas;
Dies used : Verve Stitched Pennants; Crealies Stitched Circles; WMS Stitched Rectangles;

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave some feedback,
Kate

Pink Buttoned Bauble


I have had this idea in mind for several years and finally got around to trying it out.  This was the first of 10 cards made last week for Think Pink and was a more ambitious design than I had reckoned on and I almost ran out of pink buttons ; ).  Still I was happy with the final product and this on is definitely
one of my faves.

I used Glossy Accent to attach the buttons, lots of it and I piled it on top to give them a pebble like appearance and to make sure they won't come off easily - especially in the post.

I'm entering this card in Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge #82, to use Ornaments.

I'll also be linking this one up to The Jingle Belles Pink Christmas challenge.

Thanks for stopping by - especially if you take the time to leave some feed back,
Kate

Pink Christmas 2016 - Pink Baubles


Last week I made up a pack of 10 pink Christmas cards for the raffle at our local Think Pink Ladies' Night.   I only had four (jet lagged) days to make them up so the designs had to simple.  

This was my last one - a very simple design.  The pink baubles were made with a Marabu Glitter Liner.  The tree stamp is an oldie but a goodie from PSX.  It's wood mounted and very large and it was difficult to get a complete image without a hollow centre, until I learnt the trick of stamping with a funky foam underlay.  The sentiment is from WMS Around Christmas Time and is mounted on a small Verve Stitched Banner.  I placed a strip of mounting tape in the middle and curled the banner to give the impression of it flapping in the wind.


This was its precursor - a more complicated design with just a partial tree, a window and a silhouette of St Nick flying by outside.  St Nick and the sentiment are from WMS 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  When I took this photo the pink glitter liner hadn't dried and you can see it's much lighter and thicker.

I'm entering these cards in Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge #82, to use Ornaments (though I'm not entirely sure this is what they had in mind by Christmas ornaments).

The Jingle Belles have a special Pink Christmas challenge this month for breast cancer awareness and provided much needed mojo for my Christmas card set, so I'll be linking up there as well.

Thanks for stopping by, please call back later when I've had time to show you the other 8 designs,
Kate




Tuesday 11 October 2016

Thinking Pink


I love making pink cards but there's something about making them during October that's extra satisfying.  Our annual Ladies' Night is next Friday and I hope to make some pink cards for sale during the evening.  

This card features Waltzing Mouse Old Country Roses.  I've actually had these roses stamped up and ready to go with the intention of using them for Think Pink.

I used Mojo Monday Sketch 469 to help me arrange the elements.  

I will also be entering this card in the following challenges

Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies 

Theme : Breast Cancer Awareness and/or Friendship, optional twist embossing and/or use pink
Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take some time to leave some feedback,
Kate