Crafty As L

This week’s card was one I needed for a very dear gentleman’s 101 st birthday.   Since he is a retired Naval officer, I decided on a sea theme and dug through my stash to find some appropriate gear for the card. To make the background, I used Weathered Wood and Salty Ocean for the sky and Salty Ocean, Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire Distress Spray Stains for the sea.   I blended a little ink over the edge of a piece of paper to make the horizon and stamped some wave tops from Inkylicious By The Sea.   After planning to make a square card, I changed tack and decided on a DL card so had to make some beach from the overspray area by blending some Mustard Seed Distress Oxide over the area.   I also added a little Peacock Feathers at the edge of the water. Once the blended ink was dry, I used Versamark and white embossing powder to stamp the waves at the bottom of the panel.   After stamping, I used markers to add some shading to the waves. For the top of the ...

The cards this week use TEXT{ures} Magnolia Half Tone stamp set, dies and washi paper by Lou Collins.   For my first card, I die-cut the outline from dark purple card and also from silver mirror card. After gluing the outline onto a white panel, I inlaid the silver pieces into the design and trimmed off the overhang.  To finish the card, the panel was simply mounted onto a purple card base and topped with a sentiment. Next, I tried out the washi papers, which come in a range of colours. I applied the transfer to a square panel and trimmed off the overhang before adding the silver frame from the first card on top.   You can see the edges of the washi paper as it is a slightly different shade to my card but it looks OK. These washi paper transfers make for really quick but impactful cards.   The image is large so it’s easy to cut in half and create two cards to stretch your supplies.    

Cards for men.   I used to struggle making men’s cards but I’m finding it a little easier of late.   It’s handy if there’s a particular theme you can employ, which was the case with this card.   It was a birthday card for one of the Project 71 veterans who was in the Royal Navy so a sea-themed card seemed appropriate. The main stamp I used was from Papercraft Society’s  January 2023 Box by Sheena Douglass. For the sky, I used Lou Collins TEXT{ures}  Clouds Layering Stencils.   These are really neat and colour the sky with the first stencil and the shadows on the clouds with the second. After doing the sky, I flipped the stencil upside down and blended the same colours onto the sea. I then masked the sky and blended blue inks onto the sea.    The rocks and highlights on the lighthouse were shaded using alcohol markers.   The scene looked a bit bare so I added a ship,  some birds and the sentiment.   To finish, I added a...

At the end of January, I travelled up to Stockport to visit Practical Publishing HQ for an experience day, part of the prize from Cardmaker of The Year 2022.   I got to meet 2 of my fellow winners, Tracey and Monika (sadly, Ann-Marie couldn’t make it) and we were hosted by Nicky Gilburt, editor of Creative Stamping, and Lou Collins, of Text{ures} and craft TV fame.   We met the editors of the various magazines, saw how the magazines come together and had a visit to the photography department and the studio.  Lou kindly gave us her Wildflowers Bundle and we got to do some quick crafting together.   It was such a fabulous day and we all had a great time.   You can read all about it here . This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission if you purchase via the links, at no additional cost to you.  Thank you :-) This is the first card that I made with the stamps – a ‘Thank You’ card for Nicky.   It seemed appropriate!   As ther...