Merry Monday challenge- Masculine Christmas

There's a great challenge over at Merry Monday Chrstmas Challenge this week, it's create a masculine Christmas card.  I think we all find masculine cards the hardest to do, so it's good to get pushed out of our comfort zone occasionally.

My card gave me 2 challenges one was the technique (stamped embossing folder) and the second was the masculine card.
I've seen lots of cards using the stampin up woodland embossing folder which look amazing and in the instructions always seemed so easy.  Not for me, I could never quite get a good impression of the image, so after a few throw away's I decided to reverse the technique.  Instead of stamping the folder I placed the folder on the stamp, that way I could see the image transfer and make sure all the surface of the folder came in contact with the stamp.
I used this stampscapes stamp at Lolls which has a lot of detail.  I was amazed at how well it worked.  I kept the background pretty plain, perhaps next time I'll try brayering.  There are lots of tutorials out there but this is the one I liked by Ann Craig embossing folder stamping

I hope you like the card

Card Recipe
Stamps: stampscapes
Paper: 110lb white, michaels black
Ink:ranger archival
Accessories: SU embossing folder
Techniques: Embossing folder stamping

Alcohol Inks on acetate.

A few months back Loll, Susan and I played around with alcohol inks on acetate,  This one is my favorite.  I love the bright colours even thought there aren't very many red and green trees I think this one looks great.

I am entering this for -
Splitcoast stampers CAS 405 Christmas Foliage
and CAS on Sunday Christmas challenge

Card Recipe
Stamps: Simon Says Stamp sentiment
Paper: 110lb white
Ink: Delicata gold,
Accessories: IO tree die, alcohol inks
Techniques:Alcohol inks

Twelve tags of Christmas

Loll Thompson of Stamping with Loll is running a Twelve Tags of Christmas and Loll asked me to be a guest designer.  This was so exciting for me to be part of the Tag event.

Here is my Tag

A few weeks back I played around with nail polish marbling, fun to do but the smell of the nail polish is a little strong.  I the blue and silver colours were perfect for a Christmas theme.  I outlined the tag in black and popped up the Joy sentiment on.black foam which just adds a slight frame to the edge of the letters.
Please join in with Loll's Christmas Tag event even if you don't use tags they look great mounted on cards.

Card Recipe
Stamps:None
Paper:Mixed media, Black,
Ink:None
Accessories:Nail polish, Dies (Memory box, Savvy, Penny black), Ribbon, Black foam
Techniques: Marbling with Nail polish

Twelve Tags of Christmas

Lolls Twelve tags of Christmas went live today, wow there are already some amazing tags and today is day one.  If you have time drop by and take a look Stamping with Loll.

The tag top is done using a stencil and texture paste then water colouring with the stencil in place.  The elf is fussy cut coloured with Ink tense pencils and edged with a black pen, I find this gives a much cleaner look to the edges.  I added some white Wink of Stella on the rim of the hat and the cuffs of the jacket.  I did a bit of a boo boo on his hat so had to hide it with some holly.

Card Recipe
Stamps: MFT Elves
Paper: Water colour, silver glitter
Ink: Ranger archival black
Accessories: Stencil, texture paste, Inktense pencils, peerless watercolours, ribbon, Sizzix Die cut tree, zig watercolour pens, Die namics stitched tags (MFT), white wink of stella.
Techniques: stencil painting, watercolouring

November CAS Mix up Stamping masking and your choice

CAS Mix Up this month is Stamping Masking and your Choice, my choice is glass beads.

I used a Stamplorations stencil as a mask, sponged ranger inks over the stencil and then used glass beads by Liquitex over the stencil.  One thing to remember is to clean your stencil between sponging and using any mixed media gel, if you don't the gel will become contaminated with the colours you used.  I love the sparkle the glass beads give, they are one of my favorite mediums.

Card Recipe
Stamps:Rubbernecker
Paper 110lb white, black
Ink: Ranger archival, Ranger distress
Accessories:Glass beads
Techniques:masking with a stencil

Alcohol inks and Blending solution

Loll from stamping with Loll just finished a new video on alcohol inks and blending solution.  While there at the weekend Susan of Cardmaker's Garret and I got a pre go live tutorial on using the technique..  Loll has now posted her tutorial so I can show you some of my backgrounds.  It was so much fun to squirt and spritz with alcohol inks and blender solution.  When I came home I made more Yupo and alcohol backgrounds.  Loll use a mix of browns and golds which looked spectacular, so i couldn't resist CASEing them.  I hope you like my take on Loll's technique :) working with the blender solution is so easy, fine spray and big droplets give an amazing artistic image.
In the first image in addition the bird image I used a squiggle edge with a fine pen to make the separation of colours more distinct.
Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Card Recipe
Stamps:image 1 and 2 have stamps from Katzenkraft in Holland, image 4 has a sentiment from Rubbernecker
Paper:110lb white, black, Yupo
Ink:Ranger Archival, Delicata Gold
Accessories:copper foil,Ranger, Stampendous leaf die, Ranger alcohol inks, Ranger blender solution.
Techniques:copper foil, alcohol inks, die cutting,  spellbinders wood grain embossing folder.

Merry Monday Christmas card challenge

I suddenly thought about mailing my cards to the UK and realized I should probably get a few more done before the end of the month.  Challenges are the perfect way to find inspiration and Merry Monday (Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge)  has a great challenge this week giving me the opportunity to use some old and new card "stuff".  We all have that "stuff", it's either been pushed to the back of your die or embossing folder box or you just got it and can't wait to use it.

My brick wall embossing folder and door die have not seen my cuttlebug in a very long time, so it was fun to pull them out, perhaps they will meet again in the near future.  MFT elf set is so cute, I must admit it is nice to have the die cut that matches.  I made the wreath out of some gelli print paper I created a few months ago, the green/blues were perfect colour, I used the Sizzix winter foliage dies set to cut out the shapes and some twine to hang it from the door.  I used Tea Dye to pick up the edges of the brick wall.

Card Recipe
Stamps: MFT elf set, echo park paper co sentiment
Paper: 110lb white. red, black, scraps of gelli print paper
Ink: Ranger archival black, distress, distress tea die, Memento Lux white.
Accessories: Twine, red pearl pen, MFT  elf die, Sizzix winter foliage die, blending foam,clear wink of Stella, Inktense watercolour pencils, finetec gold watercolour paint, spellbinders brick wall embossing folder, Savvy door die.
Techniques: Watercolour

Welcome to my Blog

I'm so excited to have my blog up and running, although I don't think it would have happened without the expert help of my friend Loll Thompson of Stamping with Loll.  Loll has become a whiz with blogs and has an amazing eye for detail   So thank you Loll for your encouragement and help.

Here goes for my first card post on It's a card days night

Sunday Loll, Susan and got together for our monthly craft days.  We usually spend the day checking out new (to us) techniques, and by the end of the day we all have a number of backgrounds that can be used for future cards or as technique pages.  This weekend we worked with alcohol inks on Yupo, the inks blends to create such pretty patterns.

I used a few blue alcohol inks and a touch of silver., and then added a little blending solution.  I loved the effect and thought it would look great as the centre piece for the Sizzix tree set.  I had enough Yupo  to make two cards. the second one has an inlaid die with Sookwang tape on the back, I used  ultra-fine glitter over the Sookwang.  It is hard to see but I layered 2 of the die cuts and placed them on the white.

Card Recipe

Stamps- Old Island Stamp company

Ink- Delicata silver

Paper- 110lb white, black, Yupo

Accessories- Sizzix Die, Sookwang tape, Ultrafine glitter, Ranger Alcohol inks

Technique- Alcohol inks on Yupo, Inlaid die cutting