Crafty As L

Whilst I usually do my Christmas card challenge for the last post of the month, it’s Mothering Sunday in the UK today so I’m sharing the cards I made for my Mum and M-i-L.   It’s been bittersweet making the card for my dementia-ridden Mum.   She no longer knows my sister or me and claims that she doesn’t have any children.   It’s truly heartbreaking. After digging through my Visible Image stash, I started by using the Heart Ink and Entwined Butterfly stencils together and stencilled a heart using Squeezed Lemonade, Saltwater Taffy and Twisted Citron Distress Oxides. After drying the panel well, I gold heat-embossed the daffodils and sentiment from Golden Daffodils. I then gold heat-embossed the small butterfly from Antisocial Butterfly onto the heart and also onto some scrap card. For the accent flower, I blended a little Squeezed Lemonade onto a scrap of card and then gold-heat embossed the daffodil over. Next up – fussy cutting!   The reason I stamped...

Visible Image’s new musical themed release is perfect for any music lovers out there and ideal for those tricky masculine makes.   There are 4 stamps and 3 stencils which you can mix and match and they also team well with the older designs, as I’ve done here. To begin, I taped the Bauhaus and  Sax It Up stencils together and blended Lumberjack Plaid and Villainous Potion Distress Oxides through to create the background. Next, I stamped and clear heat-embossed the saxophonist, music and sentiments from All That Jazz using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. Using Versafine Clair Morning Mist, I stamped the circles and stars onto the background using 2 nd generation stamping as I didn’t want them too dark, just a bit of interest. I then used alcohol markers to colour in the musician, giving him a very jazzy red jacket! For a proper gold saxophone, I used gold metallic watercolour paint to colour the saxophone and also added a few splatters over the panel too. To finish...

I glanced down at my desk recently and it was awash with bits of card leftover from previous projects.   To kill two birds with one stone, I thought I’d use a couple which would also tidy up a bit – not something that happens often in my craft room! These backgrounds were from my Greetings Earthling card and were made by using Distress Spritz sprays on black card. Using Visible Image’s Grunge Birthday Words, I white heat embossed the stamp onto the backgrounds.   I love this stamp for quick cards! To mat the panel, I used up a failed bokeh background that just didn’t look right for a background but was perfect for just a peek of colour. I tore a strip of vellum and gold heat-embossed “celebrate” from Best Birthdays Ever on it.   To attach it, I folded around the edge of the mat and secured on the back. The sentiment was gold heat-embossed on an offcut of the mat, backed with black card and attached using foam tape.