What an excellent discovery!!!

Did you know that you can emboss with your cricut simply by turning the blade round the other way? No, nor did I till earlier this evening when I came across Joy's blog with her video tutorial - you can read about it and see the video here.

So I used the lion on the animal kingdom cart to try this out. I used metal sheet at first (silver) and coloured it with alcohol ink - was pleased with the outcome (very difficult to get a photo with flash) - on here it looks as if the lines have been cut, but irl it is genuinely an embossed look.

I thought I would use the lion on a child's card and then thought it wouldn't be wise to use this metal one, so I then cut another using gold mirror card. The papers are BG max & whiskers and I stamped the lettering (PM stamps) and coloured with ordinary colouring pencils, which seemed appropriate for a child's card - not a copic in sight!

The first picture is a scan, so the gold of the lion doesn't show up at all.

This is a photo taken at an angle to try and avoid flash reflection - still doesn't do it justice, but does show the gold a bit better.

I'm linking this for these challenges:

Paper cutz 40: 'child's birthday, using digi, stamped or cricut image of a zoo animal'
Sunday stamper 102: 'we are golden'
Critter 13: 'critter birthday project'
Double Dutch 43: 'easy as 1, 2, 3 - card with a number on it'
Lexi's creations 13: 'animals'
Squigglefly 48: 'embossing'
Crazy amigo: 'numbers'
Scrap-creations Going grey 10: 'animal theme' (I used BG max & whiskers papers)
Tuesday taggers: 'step out of your comfort zone' - have never used the cricut for embossing before
Fab n funky 23: 'metal mania' - the first lion I cut (and the gold mirror one looks like metal)
Gingersnap GC54 spicy supply: 'pencils'
Your next stamp 16: 'cut it out and pop it up!'
Pixie dust studio 22: 'cut it out'
Treehouse 49: 'masculine theme'
Stamp something: 'birthday somethings'
Crazy 4 challenges 36: 'what are little boys made of?'
Stampin' for the weekend: 'a card for a male'
Hand full of stamps 28: 'get your shine on'

If you've got a cricut, I would recommend you have a go at turning the blade and embossing - could open up all sorts of avenues - especially with the Make the cut as well as cartridges. I think it's something I'll be doing more of.

Using the rest of the background

There was some background left over from the previous card, so it would have been silly to waste it - it wasn't quite big enough to cover a normal square card, so I matted it on to a bright pink card. You can read how I created the background here. The double sided green and pink ribbon was just right and I found this little cute girlie image that I'd been given in a swap and coloured with copics. What do you do when you haven't got any buttons to match? Cut some with the Ellison buttons die (this is always so useful).

This is for these challenges:

Stamp insanity 9: 'create your own background'
Totally gorjuss 29: 'pink and green'
Hope stamps eternal Cupcake inspiration 58
Crafty angels 34: 'one for the girls''
Fiskarettes Monday challenge: 'create your own background'
Squigglefly 48: 'embossing' - the Ellison button die cuts are embossed
City crafter 4: ' pink and green'
My time to craft 91: 'toooo cute'
Cuttlebug be inspired: 'for kids at heart' - I used the cuttlebug to cut and emboss the buttons
Stampavie 94: 'pink'
Tanda teaser 146: 'toddler times'
Your next stamp 16: 'cut it out and pop it up!'
Pixie dust studio 22: 'cut it out'
CCEE: 'inspiration - nursery rhyme' and Design Dollies elements challenge: 'nursery rhyme inspired':

What are little girls made of ?
Sugar and spice,
And everything nice,
That's what little girls
are made of.

Messy therapy

I've been playing with inks and things this morning. I used a mix of perfect pearls, water and Adirondack lettuce colour wash to spray to create a background - it shimmers irl more than you can see here - and then used an Anna Griffin background stamp repeatedly with Marvy heritage pond green ink.

I then used a set of Whispers ivy stamps (these are some of my favourites) stamped on to a piece of BG porcelain paper, coloured with copics and then distressed the edges with pond green ink. I then added a few buttons - love using these on cards.


I'm linking for these challenges:

Daring cardmakers: 'the emerald isle?' - although my green is more leafy green than emerald
Fiskarettes: 'create your own background'
Stamp insanity 9: 'create your own background'
Gingersnap GC51 random redhead: 'botanical'
Cards for men 10: 'outdoors'
Tuesday taggers: 'step out of your comfort zone' - it's been a while since I messed around with inks like this and particularly using the background stamp over and over
Scr@p-cards 9: 'ton sur ton' - monochrome green
Cupcake 90: 'buttons'
For fun: 'favourite stamp'
Glue scissors paper 20: 'celebrate our mothers' - one of mother's favourite things - the colour green (she says it must be God's favourite colour because he made so many shades of green in nature)
Papertake weekly: 'shiny, sparkly & special'

Salt: putting him first

It was Tanis' turn to choose the topic for today's Salt challenge and you can read what she wrote here.

As John and I have both been poorly, I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to do anything for this, but decided yesterday afternoon that a little crafting might take my mind off how I felt (quite a few scary times with breathing difficulties).

Anyway, I'm so thankful that I had this Bo Bunny Persuasion forever die cut because it really did all the work for me - with such a beautiful die cut paper there wasn't the need to do much with it - I just mounted it on to a 12 x 12 DCWV textured card and added a few bits. The wording is computer generated on to BG ambrosia paper and the 'kingdom' letters are AC thickers. The layered flowers are blooms from BF, with craftime flowers, finished off with roses that were given to me by Kaz.


I thought I'd also share this LO for these challenges (there seem to be a lot around atm with a floral theme):

Meljen's designs 7: 'flowers & blooms'
Alota 34: 'flowers'
Clearlyistamp 13: 'April showers bring May flowers'
Catch the bug: 'flower power'
Gingersnap GC51 random redhead: 'botanical'
ECP 12: 'spring'
Inky impressions 34: 'summer creation'
Quixotic 25: 'let your garden grow'
Polka doodles week 18: 'summer blossoms'