Crafty As L

    I’m back this week with some more Christmas inspiration using this beautiful Pop Out Folk Christmas stamp designed by Inna Moreva for Pink Fresh Studios.  For some reason, my first thought when I saw this was gingerbread so I started with a brown background (Stampin’ Up! Sahara Sand) and applied white embossing powder and heat set.  Using a white pencil, I coloured in the open areas. For the sentiment, I used Lawn Fawn Merry Christmas border.  To make the sentiment stand out, I applied Stick-It adhesive sheet on the back of some white card and some bronze metallic card, and cut out 2 white and 1 bronze sentiment.  I peeled off the backing of the adhesive sheet and stacked the sentiments with the bronze on top. The pop-out in the name refers to the fact that several of the elements in the stamp pop out and can be used individually.  I used the deer, partially stamped, for the inside and the envelope. This completed my first gingerbread card. For the next

It’s Father’s Day here in the UK so my projects this week are the cards I made for my Dad and my Father-in-Law.  Continuing my efforts to use some older sets I’ve had for years, I pulled out The Man by Avery Elle.  I have previously only used one sentiment from this set so it was time to get creative! My plan was to emboss the front panel but I wanted a little decoration on it.  I stamped the empty bottles onto the sticky part of a sticky note and cut them out on the stamped outline to use as a mask.  I then stamped a series of bottles in a roughly vertical line.   After stamping the bottle outlines, I then used the infill stamp and Stampin’ Up! So Saffron, Sahara Sand and Soft Suede inks to fill the bottles with beer. I partially stamped the HERE’S TO YOU DAD in black ink. I’m really liking the stacked sentiment look at the moment so I die-cut 3 layers to place under each letter.  The top layer was some tartan style paper. The front panel was dry embossed usi

    When possible, I like to create cards that have a personal connection to the recipient, so this one was designed with my friend’s love of gardening in mind.  To begin, I cut a piece to make the bench and two pieces that I embossed with a wood plank embossing folder, one to decorate the bench and one for the card front.  I stamped the window from 3C New Day Windowsill and cut out the window panes. Next, I glued the bench in place and decorated it with pieces of the embossed pieces.  I lightly sponged some brown ink to highlight some of the wood texture.  For the decorative elements, I cut lots of pieces from the MFT Spring Garden dies set.  I added a little shading on the watering can and pots and curved them to add some dimension. To enable the plant pots pop-up, I added some open square blocks on the back. The gardening elements were glued in place and I added a sentiment from another 3C stamp set, fussy cut with the edges distressed with a little b

    My card this week is one I was planning to share with you anyway but I now have some exciting news to go with it.  This card, together with the slide and pop card and bunny gift box shown below, were my entries into the Cardmaker of The Year 2022 competition, hosted by Craftworld.com and I’m chuffed to announce that I was chosen as one of the 4 winners.  I only entered on a whim, never thinking that I stood a chance of winning, so it was a wonderful surprise.  As a result, I’ve been the lucky recipient of lots of crafty goodies and, even more exciting, the chance to be on the Design Team! The die I used for this card is made by Studio Light and has the snappy title Cutting & Embossing Die Cardshape Flip it Round Essentials nr.370!  It’s a great die set, cutting out the card base and all the layers. As I was planning to ink a scene, I drew around the inside of the die and temporarily adhered the pieces onto my grid paper in the correct spaces. Next, I use