Crafty As L

For my sister’s birthday card this year, I wanted to use a new die that I’d bought by AALL & Create, I just had to decide what to fill the sections with.   Since sis is a cat lover, I turned to one of my favourite stamp sets, the Snarky Cats by Stampers Anonymous and the Halloween version too. For the background panels, I created a rainbow background using Distress Spray Stains and Spritzes.   The frame comes with all the internal dies too so I arranged them on the panel and die-cut them all together. I stamped the various cats using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.   I would have clear heat embossed them too but we had a power cut at the time so simple stamping had to suffice. The eyes were coloured with a yellow Posca pen to make them standout and I added highlights with a white Posca too.   I then applied Glossy Accents to the eyes and noses and set them aside to dry. The large frame was die-cut from black card.   It die-cut really easily and most of...

This week’s card is a sympathy card I made for some friends whose dog had passed away.   I like the idea of the rainbow bridge where pets wait for their humans so that was my theme. To make the rainbow, I used Newton’s Nook Pawprints stencil and blended though Distress Inks in Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Faded Jeans and Seedless Preserves. For the sentiment, I used Waffle Flower’s Rainbow Bridge and stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink, added clear embossing powder and heat set. The panel was mounted on a square of black card and adhered to a 5¾” square card blank.   The card was finished with a tiny purple enamel heart after the sentiment.

The Waffle Flower Cattitude stamp set was still out on my desk from one of my previous posts so when I needed a card for a cat-lover, that was the 'purr-fect' set to use.   To start with, I made my background using Distress Stains in Lumberjack Plaid, Mustard Seed and Broken China plus plenty of water.   I was lucky enough to win a set of 12 Ranger Distress Spritz   sprays in a Facebook competition organised by Country View Crafts and so I tried the Weathered Wood out on my background.   Wow! The amount of shimmer and sparkle is amazing!   Unfortunately, the camera doesn’t pick it up but in real life, it’s gorgeous. I stamped the sentiment from Newton’s Nook Cat-itude in the bottom corner first.   Whilst I usually work in inches, when I’m making DL cards, I use cm instead.   The main panel is 9cm x 20cm and the black backing is 0.5cm bigger.   This made the next step quite simple as I cut a 3cm strip of white card and positioned it in the c...

I’m not usually one for batch making cards.   I’m not against it, I just find it a bit dull.   What I do like is partial batch making.   That is creating the base card but then finishing them off to create different cards.   The stamps I’m using this week are the dragonflies from Fluttering Friends by My Favorite Things. A stamping platform is really useful when batch making cards.   I positioned the 3 dragonflies and the sentiment in my Misti and stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne and added clear embossing powder and heat set.   The heat embossing isn’t necessary but I like the shiny look. Next, I repositioned 2 of the dragonflies and repeated the stamping and heat embossing. Now, for my favourite part – ink blending!   I used Distress Oxides in Seedless Preserves and Peacock Feathers and blended over the dragonflies.   The lavender colour in the middle is the overlap of the two colours.   I then spattered a little water to distress...