Patterned Paper Background With Debby

Hi, it's Debby here today. I have a plentiful stash of patterned paper, but often don't think to reach for it as often as perhaps I should. You see although I love all the beautiful patterns, sometimes I get in a rut of making backgrounds in a set way. However, today I brought out the patterned papers to create a pretty backdrop for the images from the Paint Night set.

I stamped the little girl and easel from the Paint Night set in InkOn3 Blackout Ink on Neenah Solar White card. I also added the country scene to the easel too. I used Copic markers to colour and then die cut with the matching dies. 

For the sentiment, I coloured a piece of card with a Copic Marker so that it matched the little girls skirt and then I stamped the fun phrase from the Paint Night set in Clear Embossing Ink and sprinkled with White Embossing Powder and heat set. 

To create the patterned paper backdrop, I chose three patterns one with a small design, one with a medium design and one with a busier design. I combined the three patterns in differing quantities. I know there's a phrase for how to do this, but it eludes me as I write this post. Something to do with pints, quarts and such. The idea is that you have a larger piece of one design, a medium sized piece of a second design and a small piece of the third design. This is supposed to be pleasing to the eye as the patterns aren't competing for equal measure. 

I added the pieces of paper I had chosen with foam adhesive to a Neenah Solar White card base and then added the images and greeting with more foam adhesive on top. I let some of the images overhand the pink paper to give a movement within the design and prevent it all looking too contained and rigid.

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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Ginkgo Repeat Pattern With Debby

Hi, it's Debby here today. It is sad to say but having a few sympathy cards in stock is a good idea. These are the cards that you need quickly, and you are perhaps not in the best frame of mind to get creative. They are tough cards to make, but I find soothing florals or leaves is a good place to start. I used the beautiful Have Courage set from Neat & Tangled and stamped a small ginkgo leaf to create a repeat pattern.

I used a Misti stamp positioner to help me keep this pattern as neat and tidy as possible and stamped the leaf in Antique Linen Distress Ink on Arches Cold Pressed watercolour card before watercolouring with Daniel Smith Green Gold, Sap Green and Undersea Green. When dry I also added a few pencil details with a Faber Castell Permanent Green Olive pencil.

I stamped a sentiment from the No Words set in clear embossing ink on Slate card, sprinkled with white embossing powder and heat set. I trimmed the sentiment and foam mounted it over the watercolour panel. In turn, I mounted the panel on a Fog card base.

To embellish, I added a simple trio of Peacock Feathers and Snowfall sequins.

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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Choosing A Colour Palette With Debby

Hello, Debby here today and I thought I'd share my recent experiences of thinking more about the colour palette I use on a card. I must admit that as often as not I reach for a favourite colour and just start and then halfway through I get stuck as to what other colours to use. I find this, often when colouring a multi flower arrangement, where I start with a favourite pinky peach colour and then get a bit stumped further along. So for this card using the beautiful Friendly Florals set I purposely set out at the beginning to choose my colours carefully before I actually started. In the end, I created a colour swatch with the colours I planned to use to help me stay on plan. I suggest keeping a Pinterest board of colour combinations you find inspiring and then you've always got a wealth of possibilities when you sit down to create. Here's my Pinterest Colour board. 

So with a colour scheme in mind, I sat down to make this card. I stamped a range of images from the Friendly Florals set in Antique Linen Distress Ink on Arches Cold Pressed watercolour card and then used Daniel Smith watercolours to paint. I used dilute mixes of colours to give the muted colour scheme I was after and to ensure the colours went well together I used a few of the same colours in the mixes. So for the blue flowers, I used Ultramarine Blue mixed with Sepia, but I also used Sepia when mixing with Undersea Green for the leaves. I used Undersea Green again with Quinacridone Violet to dull down the purple mixture a little. For the large pinky peach flowers I used Quinacridone Rose with a touch of Quinacridone Gold but equally for the rich yellow flowers I used the same two paints but this time more Quinacridone Gold than Quinacridone Rose. After I finished painting, I used a Faber Castell pencil and a white gel pen to add details to the flower centres.

For the sentiment, I stamped a greeting from the No Words set in Clear Embossing Ink, sprinkled with Antique Gold embossing powder and heat set. I also stamped a coordinating sentiment from the No Words set on Slate card and white heat embossed before trimming to a banner and adding with foam adhesive below the gold embossed sentiment. I mounted the finished panel on a Desert Storm card base and accented with Pretty In Pink sequins. 

I'm certainly going to keep creating swatches, be it watercolour or any other media, before starting a card, and I'm planning on keeping the swatches too for future reference. 

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time.

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Watercoloured Succulent Tag With Debby

Hello, Debby here and I'm going back to my clean and simple roots with today's card. I still love clean and simple design, and when I go in a shop and see cards on the shelf, it is those that I would reach for even now. If I still bought cards that is. Sometimes I've found it hard to share a card with just the barest of designs. It's always a temptation to add more, but as they say, less can be more and so that's where today's card came from. That desire to keep things clean and simple. 

I stamped the Succulent Journalling Card with clear embossing ink on Arches Cold Pressed watercolour card, sprinkled with white embossing powder and heat set. I watercoloured the succulents with Daniel Smith watercolours using lots of layers to build up the colour. 

I found that the wide banner on this image was the perfect size for the two line sentiment from So Many Sentiments. I stamped the sentiment in clear embossing ink, sprinkled with Antique Gold embossing powder and heat set. I then trimmed the piece to a tag shape, punched a hole in the top and threaded with twine. 

I mounted the tag on to a panel of Fog card and in turn on to an Ivory card base. Finally, I accented with clear sequins. 

I resisted thoughts to dress this card up more with an interesting background, and instead let the subtle watercolours of the succulent tag stand proud as the focal point. 

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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Neat & Tangled / Tonic Collaboration - Day 1

Happy Monday!  You are all in for a treat this week.  We are collaborating with Tonic USA and not only will there be some pretty fantastic inspiration for you each day on both the Neat & Tangled and Tonic USA blogs, there are also two big prizes to be won.

Here at Neat & Tangled we'll be selecting one lucky comment from our collaboration blog posts to receive a $75 credit to spend at Tonic. AND, Tonic will select a commenter from their blog to win a $75 credit to the Neat & Tangled store.

Now for some inspiration, today Debby and Miriam are here to share.  First up is Debby:

Hello, it's Debby here today, and I'm delighted to be joining in with this week's Tonic collaboration! I already have a fair few Tonic products in my stash as I love the quality of their tools and original embellishment products to name just a few. However, I've not yet had the chance to play with the Nuvo Glimmer Pastes or try out the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform. 

I knew immediately I wanted to use the Moonstone Glimmer Paste to bring sparkle and texture to an ink blended stencil design. I pulled out the Interlocking Geo stencil from the new February release and blended a sherbet rainbow diagonally across the card using Hot Lips, Melon, Duckling, Mint and Spring Rain inks. Keeping the stencil in place, I then used a Ranger palette knife to spread the Glimmer Paste over the ink blended background. It's a bit like spreading butter I think! It never gets old to lift the stencil to reveal the design and I was delighted at how adding the Moonstone Glimmer Paste really brought this sherbet toned background to life with a million sparkles catching the light. 

I put the background to one side to dry while I worked on the sentiment and embellishments. Using the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform, I stamped the love from Love Notes in Hot Lips inks. For me, stamp positioning tools have been a game changer for my stamping, and Tim Holtz's one lives up to all that I hope from a stamp positioner - strong, sturdy, well designed and makes stamping a breeze. I used the included magnets to keep my paper in place while I stamped the image a second time to ensure I had a good intense colour and even stamping. I used the matching https://ldli.co/e/3rx79x to die cut the sentiment and then paired it with a partially stamped sentiment from the So Many Sentiments set. I carefully cut the 'we're friends' part of the sentiment away from the rest, stamped it with clear embossing ink on Black card and white heat embossed before trimming to a skinny strip. 

I added the background to a white card base and the two sentiment pieces to the background with foam adhesive and then accented with hearts cut with a die from the Love Notes set. I covered the hearts with Spring Rain and Melon inks, followed up with Glitter Gloss and then finally Crystal Glaze for a beautiful sparkly and glossy finish. I also added Crystal Glaze, Duck Egg Blue and Sugared Almond droplets as final accents. 

Next up is Miriam:

Hi everyone!  This week Neat & Tangled is collaborating with Tonic USA.  I was so excited to be able to work with their products, and created two cards to share.

For this first card, I die cut our Punchinella die from cream cardstock.  Then I used some liquid adhesive to essentially pain across the bottom of the die on a diagonal.  Once the glue was dry, I used the Radiant Gold Gilding Flakes to embellish the bottom of the die cut.  I then tacked the die cut piece down in a couple places over a piece of patterned paper.

Those dimensional hearts are from the Scored Shapes Dies set.  I cut the hearts from both patterned paper and vellum.  I rubbed the vellum hearts with Powder Blue embellishment mousse to give it a little shine and subtle color. 

Those were then stitched to the punchinella/pattered paper as well as a sentiment strip with a sentiment from the So Many Sentiments set.

I also added a vellum mat.  Just as with the vellum hearts, I rubbed the top and right edges of the mat with some embellishment moussse, this time using Pure Platinum mousse.

Everything was adhered to the card base and then I added a few sequins as well as a few dots of White Blizzard Glitter Drops to finish it off.

For my next card, I used the Embellishment Mousses in a different way.  I was a little surprised by the texture of the mousse when I first used it.  I expected it to be more like a paste that you used for stencils, but it had more of a clay consistency.  You can still use it in that for for stencils, but you have to kind of work it into the openings.  Or, you can soften it into more of a paste form by adding some water.

You can also add water to create a type of paint, which is what I did.  I just used my palatte knife to put a bit onto a craft mat, added water to create a paint consistency, and than painted onto a watercolor panel using the Powder Blue and Pure Platinum embellishment mousses.

I then added some stamping using the Landscape Textures stamp set and the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform.  I placed the stamp in the middle of the platform so that I could move the panel around underneath to create the random stamping.

Then I added some gilding by 'coloring' some dots on the panel using my glue pen.  And then adding the Radiant Gold Gilding Flakes.

Note - make sure your ink is totally dry before you do this.  I managed to smudge a bit of black ink when I was brushing away the excess gold flakes.

I die cut the You Can Do Anything sentiment and gilded it as well.  To give it a little more strength, I did add a second layer and then adhered the entire piece to my panel.

Now it's time to head over to the Tonic USA blog to see what their team created.  Be sure to leave comments here and there to be entered to win the giveaways.  See you back here tomorrow for Day 2!

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Dam I Love You With Debby

Hello, it's Debby here today. Oh my word, how cute are these guys from the Beavers Eh set?! The set has a variety of fun images and a few tremendous punny sentiments too. 

I picked out two of the images from the Beavers Eh set to pair together for a Valentine's card. I stamped them in Intense Black ink and coloured with a combination of Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers and Copic markers. I added white gel pen and sparkle pen details and then die cut with the matching dies. 

For the background, I lightly blended Lake Shores ink through the Nesting Hexagons stencil on a panel of white card. I stamped the sentiment in a combination of Teeny Bikini and Versafine Onyx Black ink, added the panel to a Fog card base and then added the cute beavers with foam adhesive. Finally, I accented with a few Pretty In Pink sequins. 

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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Joy, Warmth & Love Of The Season With Debby Hughes

Hi, it's Debby here today with a last dash on the Christmas card making! This watercoloured background was quick to paint and showcases the large sentiment from the Wishing You Love set beautifully.

There are two ways you can create a background such as this. You can stamp the sentiment in clear embossing ink on watercolour card and white heat emboss before painting and letting the heat embossing resist the paint. This allows the paint to puddle around the heat embossing and gives nice variation. However, you can get paint dots drying on the heat embossing which need wiping off afterwards. Alternatively, and this is the method I chose for this card, you can watercolour a loose background and then when dry stamp and emboss the sentiment.

I painted a layer of Daniel Smith Quinacridone Coral and Rose of Ultramarine on Arches Hot Pressed watercolour card and then dried that layer before painting an Indigo layer over the top. I dried the panel again and then splattered with the paint colours I'd used and in addition a silvery Finetec paint and Winsor & Newton White Gouache. Then I stamped the sentiment from the Wishing You Love set in clear embossing ink and white heat embossed.

I trimmed the watercoloured panel down slightly and mounted on an A2 side folding white card base. I then die cut a Stitched Slope and a house and couple of trees using the Warm Winter Scene die from white card. I foam mounted these over the bottom of the panel and then accented with Sweetheart and Snowfall sequins.

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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Soft Winter Colours With Debby Hughes

Hi, it's Debby here today with a soft, muted winter palette using the new Christmas Pageant set.

To start this card I stamped the little tree girl and little boy snowman in Intense Black ink and coloured with Copic markers before die cutting with their matching dies. Rather than the traditional bright green and aqua colours I might normally have reached for I decided to go with a more muted palette of olive green and a soft blue. 

I dressed the colouring in white gel pen dots for the cheeks, Wink Of Stella clear glitter pen for the scarf and Glossy Accents for the baubles. 

For the sentiment, I stamped the large Merry Christmas from the Christmas Pageant set in clear embossing ink on Lipstick Red card and white heat embossed before trimming to a banner. 

For the background, I blended Blush ink through the Radiating Star stencil on to a white panel of card which I adhered to a Desert Storm card base. I then added a couple of Stitched Slopes which I'd gently rubbed Sand Dunes ink along the edges. I added the two cute characters and sentiment with foam adhesive. 

I stamped and die cut a trio of snowflakes from the Christmas Pageant set which I again rubbed a touch of Sand Dunes ink around the edges. As a final touch, I added a few Snowfall sequins. 

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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Watercoloured Striped Llama with Debby Hughes

Hi, it's Debby here today. This card came together while looking at the 'soft socks' sentiment in the Hello Winter set and the scarf of the Fa La Llama. I began thinking of soft woollen scarves and socks, and I do love a lovely striped woollen!

I stamped the sentiment block from the Hello Winter set three times in clear embossing ink down a panel of Hot Pressed watercolour card and white heat embossed. 

I then roughly watercoloured stripes across and let the heat embossing resist the paint. When dry I splattered with a solution of Perfect Pearls. 

I also stamped the llama from Fa La Llama in Versafine Onyx Black ink and watercoloured the scarf and blanket in the same colours as the striped background before die cutting with the matching dies. 

The sentiment is from Merry Kisses, and I thought it went really well with the warm woolly feeling I was going for with this card. I stamped the sentiment in clear embossing ink on black card and white heat embossed before trimming into two banners. 

I also die cut a circle from ivory card and then it was time to put this card together. 

I added all the elements with foam adhesive to a card base cut from ivory card and then accented with sequins. 

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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Holiday Baking With Debby Hughes

The new Holiday Baking set brings a warm glow to my heart with all the cute baking going on!

 I started this card by stamping a bunch of the images from the Holiday Baking set in a Copic friendly black ink, colouring with Copics and then die cutting with their matching dies.

I accented the colouring with Wink Of Stella, white gel pen and glitter pens and then played around with the arrangement of the characters. 

Once I'd decided on a setting, I also realised I wanted a few trees, so I stamped, coloured and die cut several trees from the Lumberjack Love set.

To compile the scene I blended Blue Jay, Spring Rain and Twirling Tutu inks over a panel of white card, splattered with paint and Perfect Pearls and then when completely dry I die cut with a rectangle die. I stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black on the ink-blended panel and added a freehand cut snowy slope from white card.

I layered the characters for my scene over this base and then added the finished panel to a Fog card base.

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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You're an A+ Kind Of Teacher With Debby Hughes

Oh I do love some cute critters to colour! Today I have a bunch of them too from the new Schoolhouse set. You can never tell a teacher that they are appreciated often enough in my opinion.

When I get a stamp set such as this Schoolhouse one which is filled with cute options I usually start a card by stamping, Copic colouring and die cutting a bunch of the images from the set. It's fun then to play around with how you want them placed and a lot easier than stamping and masking the same scene.

I managed to pack a lot of images on to this card and so I kept the rest of the card design simple. On a white card base I lightly blended Lake Shores ink through the new Modern Triangles stencil to add a touch of colour to the backdrop. I then added all the critters with foam adhesive and grounded the scene by stamping the sentiment on a black banner and white heat embossing. Simple but oh so cute with these Schoolhouse critters!

Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time!

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