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.

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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.

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 #4 – Distressed Balloon

My card is clean and simple today with a distressed vintage look courtesy of Tim Holtz and some old patterned paper I found in my collection.

I used masking tape around the edges and blended Distress Ink in “Antique Linen”, keeping it darkest at the top and bottom and leaving the middle space mostly free of colour so that I could stamp my sentiment there.

This “happy birthday” is from a wooden stamp with a car image, so I just selectively stamped the sentiment. After peeling off the masking tape, I was left with this vintage background.

I grabbed the classic balloon shape from the dies showcased in my last post and die-cut from this stripy patterned paper that I thought worked really well against the parchment-like background.

To adhere the string, I first drew where I wanted it to fall in pencil and ran glue along it, carefully using tweezers to adhere the string down along the pencil line.

Before sticking the balloon down with double-sided foam, I also cut out some white card and stuck that behind the shine-mark for added effect.

Products Used:

Tim Holtz Distress Ink “Antique Linen” –
http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-ink-antique-linen/573401-1000

X Cut balloons die –
https://www.docrafts.com/Products/xcut/large-dies-10pcs-balloons/92377

Lawn Fawn string –
http://www.lawnfawn.com/collections/lawn-trimmings/products/retro-triple-pack-cord