Darling I Love You More Than Coffee Shaped Card

Hi everyone, Taheerah here wishing you a happy Saturday!

I can't say I'm much of a coffee afficionado. I love the smell of it, but my sweet tooth just doesn't handle the taste. I have recently tasted a couple of cups that I could tolerate, but that's about as far as it goes.

My partner, however, loves the stuff.

So when it came to creating a little love note for him, I just had to reach for the Lil' Inker Designs To Go Coffee Cup Gift Card Holder die. It's just perfect with its clever design which can house a gift card (or a little love note) and uses the cardboard cup holder design to keep the card closed. Genius!

I couldn't wait to put it to use:

Isn't the finished look awesome?!

I die cut the card, lids and cardboard holder and prepared it for assembly. I adhered the lids on both sides of the 'cup' using dimensional glue gel.

The cardboard cup holder uses a sentiment from the perfectly themed Altenew Coffee Love stamp set. It's even just the right size to fit on it! The additional handwritten sentiment on the cup mimics the cups in coffee shops when you're ordering your coffee to go!

I'd love to hear what you think of this card. Is there someone you know who'd love to receive it? Thanks for stopping by!

Double Die Cutting

It's Tara today popping in for Jill who will be back for her final ever post next Friday so don't miss it!

I've got a quick and easy technique to share today which helps make the most of background dies.  I think sometimes we are forced into thinking they "just" do a big background panel, but by using a double-die-cutting technique you can stretch your stash and do other stuff with them!

For this card, I've taken the Geo Floral Coverplate Die from Sugar Pea Designs and die cut it from white card stock before inking using lemon, yellow and orange inks getting darker from the centre out.   I've then taken a hexagon die, but you could use a circle, a square, a star - any shape you like really, and placed the die over the pattern centrally and run it back through my die cutter.  I've used the same die plus a smaller one to create a frame to cover the tatty ends you are left with, popped it up on foam (you could die cut a few frames to stack them or put it direct onto the card for a flatter look).  To finish I've added a sentiment on a small strip of card so as not to cover too much pattern and stamped it in the darkest ink to match the frame.  The sentiment is from Newton's Nooks Birthday Essentials but it's ambiguous enough to work for lots of ocasions - weddings, spa day gift card etc.

So, I hope that's inspired you to look at the cover plate dies in your stash, and the wide range we have in store, in a whole new way.

Catch you on Sunday.

Tara

Thanks For Being Super Sweet

Hey stampers, Anni here!

From time to time you need a card to thank someone for being super sweet. And what set could be more fitting for this occassion then Mama Elephant's Donut Treats.

I started by stamping, colouring with alcohol markers and fussy cutting all of the images in the set, the single mouse I even stamped multiple times. The friend I made this card for likes all shades of pinks so that's what my colour palette inspired.

For the background I used Distress Oxides in the colours Worn Lipstick and Tattered Rose. I didn't try to accomplish an ombre effect but blended the ink in spots onto the paper. Then I splattered some water onto the panel to achieve the bleached effect.

Lawn Fawn's Peekaboo Backdrop Die is the perfect way to bring all these images together. I die cut it from cream cardstock and adhered to my cardbase with dimensional adhesive. I also handcut little hills from kraft cardstock for the mice to sit on. On one of them I stamped the sentiment.

Then I assembled the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

   

Dragon Thanks

Hello, Tallie here. I hope those of you in the UK are enjoying our heatwave. The temperature inspired my card today with a bright, hot background for my dragon. Like many card makers, I absolutely love this stamp set and just had to colour these characters up like Toothless and Hiccup!

I started out by stamping the dragon and the boy rider from the Mama Elephant Me and My Dragon stamp set onto some blending cardstock using some MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink. I had to mask off the top of the dragon's head with a post-it note to make it look as though the boy is sitting on the dragon's back. I coloured the dragon in with my alcohol markers using some cool greys, using at least 5 markers to ensure the depth of colour. For the boy, I chose some greens and browns. I then fussy cut the characters out, though there are coordinating dies available.

Since it's been hot here, I used some Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade and Fossilized Amber to blend on some Distress Oxide ink over the MFT Mini Cloud Edges stencil. Working from the top down, I kept the darker colours to the bottom to add dimension so it looks as though there are layers of clouds. I then adhered this directly to a top-folding A6 card base.

I blended on some Black Soot Distress Oxide Ink onto another white panel and cut two pieces out using two of the Mama Elephant Kingdom Trio Dies. I layered these up at the bottom using some foam tape, white heat embossing the 'THANK YOU SO MUCH' sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Simply Sentiments set. A few sequins and a little dusting of Wink of Stella finish off the card nicely!

Enjoy the heat whilst it lasts!

Tallie

 

Rose Gold with Pink and Navy

Rose gold, pink and navy... what a beautiful combination!

This colour combination was my starting point for this card. I decided to make my own background using the Flora and Fauna Texture and Texture Two stamp sets. I used a combination of ink and embossing for the stripy background.

Using a rounded rectangle die, I cut down the panel and added it to a card base.

I die cut a balloon and string from the Concord & 9th Happy Balloons die set, from some glitter paper. To soften the background behind, I added a vellum layer underneath.

The greeting is from the coordinating stamp set, stamped in navy blue ink to match the colour scheme.

I finished the card by adding a few glitter hearts, using a die from the same set.

Have a lovely day,
Gemma

C&9th Happy Balloons

C&9th Happy Balloons

F&F Texture

F&F Texture Too

Hedgehog Love

Yep I'm sending "hedgehugs" today with this simple Anniversary card....

I'm not normally one for too much 'lovey-dovey' on a card but I couldn't resist these two Lawn Fawn hedgehogs for my my Brother and Sister-in-laws anniversary card. They have more than there fair share of prickly visitors to the garden much to my brothers despair as their little dog really isn't so keen!!

The subtle pink confetti hearts in the background are made using Wplus9's Borders and Backgrounds 3 and Frosty Pink ink.... I really like the random fluttering confetti look of those hearts. I stamped out the hedgehogs in two different browns so I could try some no-line colouring with my copics... I'm quite pleased with their spiky hair-do's!! I trimmed them out as I don't have the dies for these cuties, and added a strip of grass with markers.... a clean and simple design.

                   

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Serene Stripes

I've been playing with a stencil for this week's cards.  If you saw my video run throughs of the new releases on facebook live this week then you'll have seen that I loved the serene stripes stencil from Newton's Nook in particular and had already done a really quick background with it to show on the video.  Well for my first card I've turned that background piece into a card.

Other than the inked background all I added was a sentiment using AlteNew's Happy Birthday die which I love as it's a big statement and the die is all in one piece so it's super easy to cut and use and makes a bold statement.  As I find I often miss a birthday by a day, when I don't turn the calendar over quickly enough, I find it useful to have belated cards ready to go, so I added a sentiment from Newton's Birthday Essentials and with a black matt to draw it all together we're good to go.

Now, when I cleaned the stencil, I did it on my desk on a sheet of scrap and just sprayed water over it and dabbed it dry with a paper towel.  When I lifted it up, I noticed that there was a beautiful watercolour effect background on my mucky scrap paper.   Soooo, I had another go to make a really soft background for a card.

I just used one colour of ink this time and really like the soft look you get (the trick is to cover it with water and dab it dry quickly so it doesn't bleed completely under the stencil)   I added a few splatters of bolder colour and finished with one of the super fun Llama's and punny sentiments from Sugar Pea Designs Llama Just Say set which I love the humour of.

Finally, one of the reasons I love this stencil is that the stripes can be used individually as borders rather than a whole background so I made another card using less of the stencil and leaving more white space.

I added a die cut frenzy of cacti using the back in stock die from Lil' Inker Designs (So Prickly Cactus set) which is super easy to piece together to make a brilliant scene.  The sentiment is actually from Concord and 9th's Stuck on You set and is a block sentiment but I just snipped it into 3 lines so I could make it one long sentiment instead on the thin black shelf.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

It will be a quieter week for arrivals this week  although we will have a couple of new things:

•  Stamping Bella, will hopefully be here mid-to end of the week - it should have shipped on Friday but sadly the courier failed to show up so it will ship tomorrow.

• I have emailed AlteNew twice this week to chase our shipment which we have been waiting for them to process for nearly 10 days now.  Hopefully they will finally get it packed and shipped early this week so there is a chance it will arrive before the end of the week.

The quieter week will let us get some restock orders placed for Lawn Fawn and other brands so they will be coming soon.

Dragon Wishes

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Today is the birthday of a crafty friend of mine. And of course I wanted to make a card for her. As I know she really likes Mama Elephant's dragons I used the sets Me And My Dragon and Dragon Wishes.
I left the outside quite simple because I know I wanted to make a pop-up part on the inside.

I started by stamping all the images I wanted to use, coloured them with alcohol marker and fussy cut them. I also added some highlights with a white gel pen.
For the outside of the card I created a background on the middle of my panel by blending some light aqua ink. I also stamped fourties with the same ink (that's the age my friend is turning) to create a subtle effect. The numbers came from Lawn Fawn's Plan On It: Birthday .
Then I stamped the sentiment in black ink (from Mama Elephant's Dragon Wishes) and adhered a small dragon and a birthday cake from the same set.
And that's the inside of the card.

The pop-up part was easy to create because I used dies by Lawn Fawn. The mechanism is from the die set Stitched Hillside Pop-Up. You can't see this part on the photo because I covered it up with a die cut I cut with the Cloudy Hillside Pop-Up Add-On.
I added some coloured images from Mama Elephant's Me And My Dragon.

I really had fun playing with these stamps and dies and the dies madeit so easy to create a sky on the inside of the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

      

Trying Turnabouts!

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I’m trying those wonderful Turnabout Stamps from Concord and 9th for the first time...

I’ve loved the look of these Turnabout sets since they were first released, but I have been trying with all my heart to be a good girl and use more of the stash I have, however, I simply could not resist this star pattern.

The stamp itself is in two parts so you can use the inner, the outer, or both.  There’s a load of Youtube videos to help you out on how to use them so definitely check them out before you get started.  

There are so many options with these stamps the possibilities are endless.  I decided to go with a night sky with white embossed stars which is possibly a wee waste of the thought process behind these stamps I guess haha, but hey-ho, I had fun!

I started by inking a piece of card up in an ombre burst of purples, I then covered my panel in stars using both pieces of my Stars Turnabout stamp.  I decided to only do two opposite turns to leave plenty of space for die-cutting stars also.  I then white heat embossed my stars.  Had I had more time to play I would’ve liked to have done a different embossing powder with each turn.  I think that would look incredible, and I’m already so excited to have a really good experiment with this set! 

I then took the Star Turnabout die and cut that on the two opposing sides to my stamping.  I then cut a bigger star from the centre of my panel using Lawn Fawn’s Puffy Stars.

My sentiment is from Mama Elephant’s Space Bears set and is stamped onto vellum then adhered behind my star aperture.

          

I then added my whole panel over top of some sparkly silver cardstock to allow the stars to twinkle through.  I added a ton of pink & blue paint splashes across my card and embellished with a scattering of sequins.

I thoroughly enjoyed having a quick play with this set, and really can’t wait to get to grips with it and start testing its potential.

As always, everything I used is down below.

See you next week.

Jillx