Champagne Birthday

Let’s get this out of the way – this DEFO should’ve been a congratulations card. Everyone who looks at it thinks it’s a congratulations card. But I decided to be awkward and stick a birthday sentiment on it, so it’s a birthday card.

First, I die-cut this champagne glass die (free gift from Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine) 4 times – twice from vellum and twice from gold glitter paper. I trimmed off the top part with bubbles of the gold and stuck that to the vellum glasses, which were kept intact.

I then cut black cardstock to just under 6″x4″ and stamped this birthday quote in Versamark ink. It’s a clear ink so you can add whatever colour embossing powder you like over it. I embossed with Ranger ‘Enchanted Gold’ powder and then laid it all over more gold glitter paper, which I trimmed down to leave a small border.

Then I stuck the champagne flutes down with double-sided foam (you can see a bit of it here, but I did fix it when I noticed!) and stuck the whole thing on to a 6×4 blank card with double-sided tape.

Gorjuss ‘With Love’ Card

 

Hi! I recently made this ‘with love’ card for a friend’s birthday, but you could use it for any occasion. Read on for how I made it!

I started by stamping this Gorjuss (and she is gorgeous) little girl in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and watercolouring her with Distress Inks (I used the colours Peeled Paint, Victorian Velvet, Gathered Twigs and Antique Linen, and I just kept on layering them to get the shading effect). I then cut her out, leaving a white border around her.

Next, I took a piece of regular cheap white card and cut it down so that it was a centimetre or so smaller than my base card. I then embossed the bottom half of this with a Sizzix embossing folder (this is the one that came free with the Big Shot starter kit) and covered the halfway point with this vintage-style paper from a Hobbycraft paper pad (not sure on the brand I’m afraid, might be Docrafts).

I set the little girl against the white card and decided I didn’t like how that looked, so I die cut a circle from some more patterned paper from the same 6×6 pad. I then took some Lawn Fawn brown twine and wrapped that around a few times. I then tied a little bit more twine around the front of that in a knot. (I’m rubbish at bows so this is what I do instead!)

Originally I wanted this card to be a get well card, as I was going to put ‘Feeling under the weather?’ as the sentiment since she’s got her umbrella. However, once I’d put that circle behind the little girl, there wasn’t much room left for a long sentiment, and I didn’t like how it looked with the words all stacked on top of each other. (I wanted the little girl to remain the tallest thing on the card.) I fished through my stash and found this ‘with love’ sentiment from Lawn Fawn and stamped that instead. Then I decided it could be a birthday card for my friend Jess, who loves anything retro so Tim Holtz and Gorjuss are both perfect for her!

Finally, I adhered the little girl with double-sided foam for a bit of dimension, rounded off the corners with a corner punch and stuck the white card on to a piece of kraft cardstock which was the same height as my base card but left a tiny border around each vertical side.

Follow me on Instagram for more regular cardmaking updates!

Treat Your Gorjuss Mums

So I recently discovered the full amazingness of the Gorjuss collection from Santoro London. I’d walked past these paper pads and other stationery items before but for some reason I’d never looked properly at them. Today, however, I went shopping and made a beeline for this section after the brand came to my attention on YouTube.

I also bought the Memento Tuxedo Black ink, which I’d heard great things about, and was really impressed with the crisp image I got (above). I decided to stamp the girl with the bunny as I loved my pink bunny toy as a child and immediately thought of an idea for a Mother’s Day card when I saw the stamp set.

I watercoloured the little girl with Distress Inks (Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge & Gathered Twigs), then fussy-cut her out leaving a white border.

I used some vintage-style paper from a 6×6 paper pad (sorry, not sure on the brand) and cut this to the same size as my blank card. Then I trimmed down a strip of normal white card and stamped these sentiments. The ‘to my special Mother’ is from Clearly Besotted’s ‘Fresh Flowers’ stamp set, and the longer sentiment below is from Mama Elephant’s ‘Bear Hugs’ stamp set.

I also blended around the edges of the white strip with Antique Linen to add to the aged look of the card. Then I popped the Gorjuss girl up on some double-sided foam tape and attached.

I got a few other Gorjuss stamps today plus some other bits, and have a couple of deliveries due soon so will hopefully be putting up a ‘haul’ post in the next few days.

If you’d like to keep up with me between posts, you can follow my Instagram account here.

Mosaic Card

I recently got some Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese watercolour paints and wanted to give them a go with these lovely Clearly Besotted flower stamps.

First, I masked off the edges of my Ranger watercolour card and I stamped the flower images using Versamark onyx black ink (in retrospect I should probably have used a dye ink since this did bleed in some places). I then used a normal black ballpoint pen to add longer stems and an extra leaf to the flowers, as otherwise it would’ve looked like they were floating in mid-air.

I did some very basic watercolouring as I’m only a beginner – as you can see, I’ve tried to do some shading, but I think I need more practice! Then I did a grey-black background and peeled off the masking tape.

Next, to create the mosaic effect, I used my paper trimer to cut the final image into 6 pieces that I then arranged on the page until I was happy with the layout. I used double-sided tape to stick them all down on my blank card.

The ‘fabulous friend’ sentiment is from a Clearly Besotted stamp set but I can’t find it on their site so it might be discontinued. I stamped this on white card and then coloured in some Anita’s vellum paper with a purple Copic marker and mounted the sentiment on top. Then I cut around the edge with some craft scissors to get the wavy edge.

Finally, I covered all of the flower petals in clear Wink of Stella and then went over this with some Glossy Accents and left that to dry.

My 2015 Christmas Card

Hi, all! I may have disappeared off of the face of the internet for the past few months but rest assured I’ve still been creating. This past November, I’ve been doing #nanowrimo (Google it if you don’t know – maybe you’ll want to join in next year!) and have been really wanting to make cards but didn’t want to sacrifice my 1667 words a day to do so.

With Christmas coming up, this was obviously a problem! So I  designed one particular card and put a different spin on each one I made to try to get them all done quickly (I had about 30 people to make for).

My plan for these cards was this fab rhyme I came up with:

“Emboss some vellum

Mount on glitter

Add a critter!”

It’s not Shakespeare, I realise. But I like it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To make things easier, I did each stage of the cards together. I cut a load of white cardstock down to around 14.5cm x 10cm (a little bit smaller than my blank cards) and set those aside. Then I embossed these Mama Elephant sentiments on strips of vellum, some in gold, some in silver.

Some of these pieces of vellum I mounted directly on to glitter, like you see with the cow-in-the-Santa-hat card. Mostly, though, I attached the vellum to my white cards and then mounted that on glitter paper for a nice border.

With others, instead of mounting on glitter, I created my own, slightly more rustic, borders. As you can see with the hedgehog and the horse cards, I smeared the edges of my white cardstock in clear Versamark ink and then heat-embossed this with my gold embossing powder. I just love the horse in the hat! The non-traditional Christmas images are my favourites.

I did make a few more Christmas cards outside of this simple design, which I’ll document for you. Until then, Merry Christmas!

I’ve started an Etsy store!

Just to let everyone know, I’ve created an Etsy store where I’ll be selling some of my handmade cards!

You may have noticed I’ve been quiet on here recently, but I’m hoping to get back in the game soon. Christmas is coming and I’ve been crafting all over the place.

If you want to visit my Etsy shop, please go to:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/IncyWincyCards?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Manly Card Monday #16

My two favourite dog breeds are dachshunds, which are everywhere in the stamping world, and staffies, which are much harder to get hold of – ironic since it’s the other way around in the dog  world! Staffies are everywhere on the streets, and have a bad reputation which is completely undeserved. They are loving and loyal and remember – there are no bad dogs, only bad owners.

Our family dog has the same name as me – Emma – as she was a rescue dog so we didn’t get to name her ourselves. So we call her Emmadog to differentiate! I wanted to colour this stamp so that it looked like Emmadog, who is a kind of mottled black and brown, except now she is around 19 years old so is mostly grey in the face.

I used Spectrum Noir markers and Gamsol to colour the image, which I then fussy-cut out and put to one side.

This paw-print paper came from my local craft store and was my starting point for this card. I love the masculine colours and thought they would be great for a father’s day card. First I cut down the red and gold to the size I wanted and then stuck it to the black card and trimmed around it so I had the border how I wanted (I did mess up a little bit on the left side!), then die-cut the stitched white rectangle and stuck that to the same black card.

I used the scraps left over to make the banner and the btw in the middle that her paw is hanging over. Finally, I stamped ‘happy dad’s day’ next to the dog.

Products:

‘Happy Dad’s Day’ sentiment stamp & Large Stitched Rectangles dies – lawnfawn.com

Staffordshire bull terrier unmounted stamp – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Staffordshire-Terrier-Unmounted-Stamp-SP000824/dp/B00MNPO934

Spectrum Noir coloured pencils – http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/spectrum-noir-pencil-nature-24-pack/599631-1003?gclid=Cj0KEQjwkIurBRDwoZfi1bGCxocBEiQAmcs-erpZv5hDazxLXIytHeYSRzO4j6sDx9iJ7EwYI_Zb22caAt_98P8HAQ

Manly Card Monday #15

This is probably my favourite stamp for masculine birthday cards. I’m a writer and a book-lover so I’ll buy anything with a good quote. People always smile when they see this one.

To begin with, I cut my little rectangle of white and masked off the sides. Then I blended Antique Linen Distress Ink with my round blending tool, coming in from the edges so that it grew darker at the sides and corners and lightest where I wanted to stamp my sentiment.

I stamped the quote in the middle and put that to one side, next stamping ‘Happy Birthday’ at the top of the card. Then I tied dark twine around this plaid patterned paper and stuck everything down.

Products:

‘Happy Birthday’ stamp – http://www.clearlybesottedstamps.com/

Mark Twain stamp – http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/

Lawn Fawn twine – http://www.makethedayspecial.co.uk/shop.php

Antique Linen Distress Ink – http://www.inkylicious.co.uk/distress-ink-pads/cat_43.html

Ranger blending tool – http://rangerink.com/

Patterned paper – http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/111655164468?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&rlsatarget=&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

Manly Card Monday #14

Sometimes I think I might use puns a bit too much…

This little bear, just look at him. He’s such a cutie. That little sad face. I wanted him to look kind of tatty so I coloured him all in greys, keeping the texture a little less smooth than I would normally try to go for. Then I centred him on a piece of white card and stamped my sentiment around him in Jessie’s ABCs stamps from Lawn Fawn.

Once I’d done this, I stuck the white card on some patterned paper and trimmed it down so that it left a border. Putting that aside, I ruled some lines in ballpoint pen across a blank card.

This is the first time I’ve used my own handwriting on a card! I don’t mind the effect but definitely need more practice.

Products Used:

Single teddy bear clear stamp & Spectrum Noir coloured pencils – www.hobbycraft.co.uk

Jessie’s ABCs stamps – www.lawnfawn.com

Tiny Tatty Teddy patterned paper – therange.co.uk

Whoots

It was my best friend’s birthday the other week and this is the card I sent her. She likes owls, I like  puns…

I LOVE Art Impressions stamps but this is only the second one I’ve bought so far. I started by stamping and colouring him with Copics, then fussy-cutting him and adding clear Wink of Stella to the green bits on his party hat.

I set him to one side and started working on the background. This is the Distress Ink ‘smooshing’ technique that I’ve fallen in love with.

You stamp your ink on to an acrylic block and spray with a water mister (I use the Ranger mini one). Then get some acetate and dab it over the ink. You can squash it down so that a lot of ink goes on or just dab it for splatters here and there.

Then you ‘smoosh’ it over the card! This  particular background was done with Peacock Feathers and Broken China colours of Distress Ink.

I die-cut a circle out of this background to make a window for the owl to peek through. I then stuck a bit of white card behind him as I didn’t want the patterned paper to show through. I then layered this on top of my patterned paper that you can see peeking out at the sides.

Finally I stamped and heat-embossed my sentiment.

Whoots! I’m off to Rhodes today so will be quiet for a week. Everyone (in the UK, that is) enjoy your bank holiday!

Products Used:

White card and patterned card – hobbycraft.co.uk

Copic markers, Wink of Stella & Distress Inks – amazon.co.uk

Whoots owl stamp – http://www.artimpressions.com/

Circle die cuts – https://www.docrafts.com/Features/xcut-dies-bursting-with-possibilities/30