Addicted to Stamps and More #200 - And 4th Birthday Celebrations!

Hi there

Well today there's a celebration at Addicted to Stamps are More!   Not only is this the 200th Challenge, ATSM is also 4 Years Old!  The lovely Kylie has been running this challenge since before I even discovered the wonderful world of crafty blogging and I think you'll agree that ATSM is a fabulous little challenge blog.

But I'm also a little sad today as this is my last post as a member of the Design Team at ATSM.  I've been part of Kylie's fantastic gang for the last two years (yes, really that long!) and have had an absolute ball but, after a lot of thought I feel it's the right time for me to step down.  Kylie, thank you for inviting me to be part of your lovely team and I can't wait to finally meet you in exactly a month's time! :D

Right, now to introduce this week's challenge, and we're back with this super fun Photo Inspiration Challenge...

To help us celebrate ATSM's 4th Birthday we have three fantastic sponsors all offering prizes this week...

Happy Little Stampers - $30 Gift Certificate

Paper Smooches - $25 Gift Certificate

QKR Stampede - 3 Digi Images

So I think you'll agree it's well worth playing along this week!

For my DT card I took inspiration from the polka dots and stripes, the quirky lettering style and the flower and butterfly...

I started by die cutting the happy birthday from the pink polka dot paper (making sure to keep the little bits from inside the letters!) and then affixed it to a scrap of cardstock entirely covered with adhesive.  I then cut the same lettering from the teal striped paper and inlaid these inside the pink panel, along with the little tiddly bits!  Once all stuck down I die cut with a stitched oval die and adhered this to a panel of white cardstock.  I covered the card base with the same striped paper and adhered the white panel over it. I finished off by popping up a flower and butterfly which were stamped, coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers and die cut with their co-ordinating dies.

Materials used:

• Patterned Paper: Lawn Fawn - Let's Polka, Let's Polka Mon Amie
• Dies: Paper Smooches - Birthday Words; Lil' Inker - Stitched Ovals
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Woodland Kisses (and matching dies)
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers

Challenge entries:

I've used a few different dies on this card so I'm going to link up over at the Happy Little Stampers June Anything Goes with Dies challenge.

My teamies and I would love for you to join us this week and be in for a chance of winning one of those great prizes!  Thanks so much for popping by :)

Ghosting at Happy Little Stampers - There's Still Time!

Hi lovelies

Just popping by to share another card and remind you that there are still a few days left to participate in the June CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers where our technique this month is Ghosting.

And you could be the lucky winner of the $15 discount prize at the HLS Shop.  So, if you're having a lazy Sunday why not have a go?!

Here's my card which uses the leaf image from the Doodled Flowers stamp set...

On a spare piece of white cardstock I blended a background in green and blue Distress Inks.  I then spritzed the leaf image with water before stamping onto my blended piece, held for a few seconds and then blotted away the water to remove the colour.  I continued doing this to create a random background pattern.  I then used a double stitched circle die to cut out a section.  I used a stitched die to create the pattern on my cardbase, adhered the circular piece over this and then added a die cut thanks in black to finish.

Materials used:

• Stamp: Happy Little Stampers - Doodled Flowers
• Ink: Distress Ink - Cracked Pistachio, Evergreen Bough, Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon
• Dies: MFT - Double Stitched Circle Stax, Stitched Strip; Paper Smooches - Thanks Word

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - June Challenge - Anything Goes with Dies

Stamplorations - June CAS Challenge - Anything Goes (option: Blue)

Thanks so much for visiting today.

Less is More Week 282

Hi there

We have some wonderful news along with the new challenge at Less is More this week.  First the challenge details, and for our Recipe challenge and we would like you to...

Use a Stencil

Now for the news...

We have a fabulous new LIMette joining the Design Team.  And who better than Esther?!  Esther plays along every week and the support she gives to her fellow participants is amazing.  I think you'll agree that she will fit in just perfectly with our great little team. Welcome, Esther! x


Now onto my cards for this week...

I recently purchased a stencil featuring different sizes of stars so decided to do a little layered blending with Distress Inks to create this one layer card.  A bit of masking off areas of the stencil and shifting it around was all that was required before stamping the sentiment in black and adding some starry bling.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Efco - Stars
• Ink: Distress Ink - Milled Lavender, Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Twinkle Toes
• Accents: Papermania - Sparkling Stars Assorted Pastels

Just a little stencilling to accent the background on this one...

On some teal green cardstock I used an oval aperture cut from a scrap of cardstock as a mask and stencilled some translucent embossing paste through a striped stencil.  Next I stamped the flowers onto some clear vellum and heat embossed in white before adding some accents with a white pencil on the reverse.  The sentiment was also heat embossed in white and the flowers adhered over the oval detail before adhering the panel to the card base on 3D foam.  I'm a little disappointed that I've lost some of the pencil detail on the bloom, I couldn't find my thick vellum so this was very thin and the glue was much more visible.  Oh well, you get the idea!

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
• Stencil: MFT - Diagonal Stripes
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver - Translucent
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - To Have & To Hold, Pretty Petals
• Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Ovals; Clearly Besotted - To Have & To Hold
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Vellum from stash

Challenge entries:

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

Penny Black and More - June Challenge - Flower Power

My teamies have worked wonders with their stencils this week, we have a really diverse selection so why not take a look, and on their personal blogs too.  We would love for you to join us this week.

Thanks so much for visiting today.

Less is More Week 281

Good morning, crafters!

Less is More has a great challenge for you this week.  We're back with a Theme challenge and this time the technique we would like to see on your submissions is...

Faux Bleach

I find this technique works best with Distress Inks.  These inks react so well with water and the colour lifting results can be really great.  If you don't have any Distress Inks just try what you have, you never know until you experiment!


My first card uses more stamps supplied by STAMPlorations, one of our lovely June sponsors.  Thanks again, Shery! x

On the card base I started by blending two tones of Distress Ink.  I then spritzed the butterfly stamp with water before stamping over the ink.  I held it there for a few seconds for the water to take effect and then blotted with a paper towel to remove the colour.  I then added a few splatters in coral and black to add some interest.  I die cut a white cardstock panel with a stitched landscape die to add a fun edge, stamped the sentiment in black and adhered the panel flat over the card base.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Dried Marigold and Abandoned Coral; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: STAMPlorations - Blossom Like a Butterfly
• Die: Poppy Stamps - Stitched Landscapes

Challenge entries:

Cute Card Thursday - Challenge #430 - Little Bugs/Butterflies

CAS on Sunday - Challenge #85 - Butterflies

For my second card I used a tiny amount of selected faux bleaching...

On a panel of white cardstock I masked off the corner section with some post-it notes, hand cut with wavy edges.  The water droplets were then stamped with a waterproof black ink.  I then took a paint brush and some plain water to paint inside each water droplet and blot away the colour.  Some accents were then added with a white pen.  The sentiment was stamped in black before the panel was adhered on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Inkylicious - Water Drops; BoBunny - Sentiments
• Ink: Distress Ink - Shaded Lilac, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire; Archival - Jet Black; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Accents: Signo Uni-ball pen - white

Challenge entries:

STAMPlorations - June CAS Card Challenge - Anything Goes (Blue)

CASE this Sketch - Challenge #177 (I flipped the sketch)
Inkspirational - Challenge #111 - Masking

I used a stencil for the faux bleaching on my final card...

I blended three Distress Inks to create quite a bold inked area which I faded out across the cardstock panel.  Instead of placing the stencil down onto my project and then spritzing with water, I spritzed the stencil itself and then placed this over the inked area.  I wanted the positive design to be bleached instead of the negative design, you can get some great effects by using stencils either way. I carefully lifted the stencil and blotted away the watery ink with a paper towel to reveal the bleached design.  I trimmed the panel down slightly to trim away the dark inked edges (and a splodge I'd created from an inky finger! grrrr) and then stamped the sentiment in black before adhering the panel to the card base on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stencil: MFT - Funky Florals
• Stamp: Altenew - Label Love

Challenge entries:

Virginia's View - Challenge #22 - All About Colours
613 Avenue Create - Challenge #180 - Anything Goes (create your own challenge - A2/Birthday/Stencils)
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes
Penny Black and More - June Challenge - Flower Power




And, just for fun I'm also going to link these up over at Happy Little Stampers, June CAS Challenge which is ghosting - no entry as I'm on the DT!


My LIM teamies will no doubt also have more inspiration on their personal blogs so if you have the time, please swing by and see what they've been creating.

Can't wait to see what you create this week :)

Addicted to Stamps and More #198

Hi there

This midnight post from me signifies a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  We've rotated around our challenge sequence which means this week it's time for...

Addicted to Holidays

(your project must relate to a holiday such as Christmas or Easter,

or you can perhaps share a vacation related creation)

Our Sponsor this week is STAMPlorations who are offering a prize of two digi images.

For my DT card this week I've gone super CAS with a Christmas card.  I love how this turned out so I may have to make a little batch of these later in the year :)

Super simple, I embossed the two part sentiment in gold and then stamped the little images to create the evergreen bough.  The panel was adhered on 3D foam strips and that was it...finished!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Simply Said Christmas, Background Builders Vines Winter Additions
• Ink: VersaMark; Versa Color - Evergreen, Pinecone and Camelia
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich

That's all from me today, why not visit my ATSM teamies if you want some more inspiration.  It's never too early to start your Christmas cards so this holiday challenge is the perfect opportunity to add one to your collection!

Muse #170 - Let Your Dreams Take Flight

Hi there

I'm delighted to be your designer over at Muse this week and hope that my card will inspire you to play along.

I chose some Distress Ink colours I've not used before and decided to make a background using the layered emboss resist technique. There are a few steps involved with this technique but you can get some great results.  So I hope the colours, design, technique or perhaps layout will give you some inspiration to create and link up this week.

I started with a panel of white cardstock, stamped some butterflies in VersaMark and heat embossed in clear powder.  I then blended over the entire panel with Distress Ink in Tattered Rose, resisting the original butterflies which popped out in white.  I then made sure the ink was completely dry with a little help from my heat gun, and free of static by using an EK Success powder tool before stamping more butterflies, again embossed with clear powder.  I then blended over the entire panel once more, this time with Distress Ink in Victorian Velvet, making the pink/peach butterflies pop up from the background.  Finally, after making sure the ink was dry and free of static I stamped the final layer of butterflies and heat embossed in clear.  These give a tone on tone effect over the final background colour.  The panel was then cut down slightly and matted onto some peachy cardstock and a sentiment strip was made from the same cardstock, with the sentiment embossed in white.

I liked the glossy butterflies here but I've also seen tutorials of this technique where, at the end you can remove the gloss of the embossing by using the 'ironing off' technique.  I've not yet tried this but as I understand it you place your embossed panel face up on a cloth or towel, cover with some paper and then iron over it, and the embossing powder transfers to the paper leaving your project with a matt finish.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo Crafts - Beautiful Butterflies; Clearly Besotted - Flutterby Dreams
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet
• Embossing Powder: Rubber Stampede - Clear; Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Coloured Cardstock: Papermania Solid Cardstock

Thanks so much for visiting today, I hope I've inspired you to play along at Muse this week.

Vintage Rose Wedding

Hi guys

Back in November last year I shared some Save the Date cards I made for a friend's forthcoming wedding.  You can find the post here.

I've been meaning to share the invitations with you which I made a couple of months ago so here they are.  I'm a bit disappointed with the photos but these are the best results I could get before delivering them to the happy couple.

Although only 20 invitations were required, they actually took a fair amount of time to create due to the rose and leaves being three step stamping.  So each of the horizontal panels required 12 individual stamped images...the rose, and three separate leaves.

The wording was printed using the same fonts as the Save the Date cards, EcuyerDAX and Elegant Typewriter.  For the ampersand I used another font but can't recall the name.  I then continued with the tag theme and also the jute twine to echo the Save the Date cards.

The wedding is taking place over an entire weekend so inside, as well as the venue details I also included an itinerary for the day.  I also then included a menu for pre-selection and RSVP cards together with return envelopes.

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Paper Mill Direct - Smooth Ivory, Neenah - Desert Storm
• Stamps: Altenew - Vintage Roses
• Ink: Versa Color - Vanilla, Sand Beige, Umber
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Tags
• 2 ply jute twine

Challenge entries:

613 Avenue Create - Challenge #179 - Anything goes (Wedding Stationery)

Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #165 - Monochrome

I will also be making some Order of Service stationery for the bride and groom which will be very slightly different.  I'll share these with you once created.

Thanks so much for visiting today, your visits and comments are so appreciated :)