Fun with stencils

Just a quick post before the Culinary Consultant drags me off to the movies. I have been totally and utterly consumed by my job for the last... well... three months or so. Basically ever since I changed jobs. Anyhow, that has meant that the poor Culinary Consultant has been the sole cook, house-keeper and general life manager in the Invisible Pink House for quite a while. So when he wanted to see a movie I had no interest in, I was inclined to decline, but then I realised I really need to be a good girlfriend and actually do something he wants to do for a change, he is more than deserving. Not once has he complained about my newfound work-o-holicism. So off to the movies we go, but before that a quick card.

Today's card is inspired by the sketch over at The Challenge as well as the colours over at Color Throwdown. I was also inspired by the image over at Daring Cardmakers, more specifically about the deep pink/purplish flowers and the gold tray, and the watercolour splatters on my card were inspired by that fantastically awesome spotted chair. I didn't have very much time in the craft room, so today's card really is a super-simple one. I started by die cutting using a stitched rectangle die. I then inked using foam pads through the STAMPlorations Old Rose Prints stencil. I made a mask for the rose, and then moved the stencil to make the roses look like they were overlapping to match the sketch. I started by inking a bit in the middle in Seedless Preserves, then working around that in Picked Raspberry and last doing the outer petals in Spun Sugar. I splattered some ink in the same colours on the other half of the card and die cut the sentiment from gold mirri card. Cards cannot get any simpler than this, I tell you! Too bad it will still be several weeks, if not months before it's light enough for me to manage a photo of my after-work crafting in daylight, so a horribly bad flash photo will have to do, sadly. I love the colours on the card, and they are much prettier in real life, I promise you.

Card: 300 gsm white textured card, gold mirri card

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Spun Sugar

Stencil: STAMPlorations Old Rose Prints stencil 

Other: Lawn Fawn Scripty Hello and Stitched Rectangle dies

The swallowtail is back

If you read my post yesterday you know I went through a bit of a creative dry spell which I resolved by making loads of Distress Paint backgrounds. This is the second card resulting from those panels I created. This card was inspired by the colours over at ColourQ and I love how the pink and blue blend to make the most gorgeous lilac colour. I didn't want to cover the beautiful background too much so I thought I would just stamp the gorgeous Swallowtail from Stampin' Up and heat emboss it in white. Then I die cut the Happy from the Stampin' Up Hello You die set in kraft card, and last I stamped and embossed the Birthday from a Lawn Fawn set. Very clean and simple and another card that looks and feels like me. It's been a while since I used my Stampin' Up stash, but it was a nice change!

To create the background I daubed Distress Paints onto my craft mat, sprayed with water and swooshed my watercolour paper in the paint. Well, when I say craft mat, I actually use a reusable Teflon cooking mat. It seems to do the job just fine. Also, the best way to clean off dried paint from the mat I use alcoholic hand cleaner which I keep in my craft room to clean off my acrylic blocks. It seems to work really well. Just thought I would share these tips if anyone finds them useful.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
ColourQ - colours (see below)
Fantasy Stampers - Happy Birthday
Happy Little Stampers - Smooshing
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers Challenge - Anything Goes
PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes
Winter Wonderland - Spring Is In the Air

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card, kraft card
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Paints Broken China,Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stampin' Up Hello You dies, Papermania Seafoam White Embossing powder

One more snowflake card

I know, I know... Yet another snowflake card. Snowflakes and watercolours have most certainly been the theme for this year's Christmas cards. But I can't resist the gorgeous vibrant colours of Tim's amazingly beautiful inks and I certainly can't resist the Lawn Fawn snowflake dies. I particularly love to die cut them in vellum, as they come out absolutely stunning against the watercoloured background. So here is one more for this year. In fact, the current Daring Cardmakers challenge (use another language) reminded me that I haven't made a Christmas card for my grandmother (who doesn't speak a word of English, so I can't use any of the cards I have made so far as they all have english sentiments). So off I went into the craft room to create. 

Have you put up your Christmas decorations yet? We most certainly haven't and to be perfectly honest, let's see if we get around to doing it at all. Maybe next weekend. A confession that may shock many of you.... I'm not very much of a Christmas person. I love to get the time off work, don't get me wrong, and I love crafting Christmas cards. To be honest, all I want to do is lay down on the sofa with a book and a box of chocolates and not move for the duration of the holidays, not spend my free days like a maniac cleaning the house, cooking enough to feed a small country, and putting up lights and decorations which then stay up until next March as I won't have time to take them down. We have already decided to minimise Christmas presents this year, only something very small and only one present per person. Luckily everyone was being very co-operative, sending some ideas of what they would like to receive, as I rather buy something the recipient wants as opposed to some random stuff. 

Today's card is inspired by the gorgeous sketch over at Retro Sketches, as well as the colours over at Color Throwdown. As I mentioned earlier, I was also inspired by the "Use another language" theme over at Daring Cardmakers. Further, I'm linking up with Make My Monday where the theme is White Christmas, The Glory of Christmas where Anything Christmas Goes, The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where X is for Xmas (sorry no Snark this time...) and Just us Girls where the theme is Sequins. 

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, kraft card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Versamark

Stamps: Fiskars Easy Stamp Press Christmas

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes, Mini Snowflakes, Stitched Rectangle dies

Other: Perfect Pearls, Papermania Tinsel Silver embossing powder, silver sequins from my stash

Pink Christmas

Do you know that feeling when you just finished chopping chillies, washed your hands and then administered eye drops to yourself, naively thinking washing those hands has removed all of that fiery burning stuff? If you don't, consider yourself lucky! It did take my mind off the itching in my eyes, that's fore sure. 

After recovering from my brush with chilli-induced blindness, I wanted to play along with the current ColourQ challenge, having planned to do so all week, but just not quite getting around to do it. I decided to CASE my earlier small and cute Christmas cards to make a larger version. I really love how the card turned out! So quick and easy, and one layer is the cheapest option for posting as well. I'm also linking up over at Crimbo Crackers where the theme is Pink and ABC Christmas Challenge where the theme is U for Unusual Christmas Colours. I'm also linking up with The Unicorn Challenge where the theme is Think Pink. Last but not least I'm linking up with Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Throwback, you can pick any of their previous challenges. I picked "In the clouds" from January 2015, as I love the snow clouds and those small, unique snowflakes just drifting down, like the clouds breaking up into minuscule pieces. 

I started by creating a mask by die cutting a Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle die, and used the mask to ink using distress inks. Then I used a watercolour brush to flick some water drops onto the inked background to create the splashes. I used a silver Sharpie to draw the border. The next step is really crucial, I used my embossing buddy liberally to make sure the embossing powder would only stick to the ink. I stamped the snowflakes in Versamark and embossed in silver powder. Last, I stamped the sentiment in black and added a few adhesive gems of that final touch. 

Card: 300 gsm white card
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick
Stamps: Stampin' Up Endless Wishes
Other: Silver Sharpie, Papermania Silver embossing powder, adhesive gems from my stash

Reindeer tags

Are you guys using your virtual assistants on your phones? I got a new phone very recently, as my age old assistant-less phone was giving up the ghost totally. And I just love the fact that my new phone has an assistant that I can just call out to whenever. It's so convenient in the kitchen to just set a timer without having to clean all the dough off your hands. And I love it that when something pops into my head in the evening right before I fall asleep I can just ask my assistant to make a note for the next day, or add something to my shopping list without even having to turn on the light. I'm a bit slow to catch on, but I'm catching up real quick!

I was completely fed up with the traffic around here, it has been such a nightmare lately. I have been going through audiobooks like no-ones business. At least it gave me the opportunity to plan these tags in my head while sitting still in traffic, going nowhere fast. There was a slight adjustment to the plan when I saw the new sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm assuming I'm allowed to use it on a non-card item too? I was also inspired by the great colours over at Color Throwdown (and who can resist those glittery shoes, I had a pair similar to those back in the days...) and the Wrap It theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. I'm also linking up over at the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge, Crimbo Crackers where the theme is Pink and Christmas Stampin' All Year Long where the theme is Pair of Tags.

I started by die cutting the tag from watercolour paper. Then painted the whole tag with lots of water, and dropped two drops of Picked Raspberry ink directly onto the card, adding more water and just swooshing it around (yes that's a technical term). Then I used a tissue to just dab around and soak up some of the colour. Next, I added some Festive Berries ink using a watercolour brush around the edges, and smudged with paper some more. After drying with a heat tool I sponged a bit more Festive Berries around the edges. I used the gorgeous Christmas Reindeer stencil from STAMPlorations to ink the reindeers in Black Soot, and flicked some water drops to create some splotches. For one card, I dies cut the sentiment from sparkly pink card, and for the other I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in red. Last, I die cut a few Mini Snowflakes from white sparkly paper and added an adhesive gem as a finishing touch along with some twine and ribbon from my stash. Unfortunately we are now into the depressing time of the year when the only option is flash photography, and the cards look a bit more dynamic in real life, the colours came out a bit muted in the picture.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, sparkly pink card, white sparkly card
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress inks Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries, Black Soot, Versamark
Stamps: Stampin' Up Endless Wishes
Dies: Lawn Fawn Tag You're It, Merry Christmas Border and Mini Snowflakes dies
Other: STAMPlorations Christmas Reindeer stencil, adhesive gems, twine and ribbon from my stash, red embossing powder

Sympathy at sunset

I have absolutely no idea what is going on with me lately. I am usually up no later than seven in the morning, often I even wake up at six and can't go back to sleep. This weekend I slept to 8:30 yesterday and nine today! It's really weird, I feel like I have slept away half the day. But I guess my body needs it for some reason or other, I'm suspecting I'm fighting off a bug or something as my colleagues have all had a nasty autumn cold, so I'm thinking I will take it as easy as my body wants and hopefully stay healthy. On another revelation, I think I have worked out the comings and goings of Mr Mojo. Last week I didn't go to the gym at all (I know, bad bad me) and I've had a very creative Saturday. The week before, I went to the gym, and was hardly able to create at all. I see a pattern forming here. Clearly the gym is detrimental to my crafting Mojo!

On to more interesting things, like today's card. When I saw this week's colours over at Color Throwdown, I just knew I had to play along. I also liked the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch, and I thought it would be a great idea to combine them into one. I was also inspired by the beautiful multi-colour sponging in the inspiration card from Time Out Challenges. I'm also linking up over at House of Cards where the theme is Stitch It Up, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Die Crazy, The Artistic Stamper where the theme is Things With Wings and Craft and Smash where the theme is clouds.

I started creating the sunset image, and although I wasn't planning specifically to make a sympathy card, that's what it turned out to be. I don't have a very good selection of sympathy sentiments, but luckily I had just received an order from STAMPlorations containing the Lotus Love set which had a sentiment that fit the card perfectly. I created the sky using masks I die cut using the Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Borders and Tim Holtz distress inks. For the grass, I used the Lawn Fawn Grassy border die. The flowers are stencilled in black distress ink through the STAMPlorations Some Birds stencils. I die cut the panel using Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle dies and heat embossed the sentiment in white. Last, I added a few sequins inspired by the sketch. The panel is adhered using foam tape onto hammered white cardstock.

Card: Hammered white 300 gsm card, white 250 gsm card, black paper
Ink: Tim Holtz distress inks Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot
Stamps: STAMPlorations Dee's Artsy Impressions Lotus Love
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Puffy Cloud border dies, Grassy Border die, STAMPlorations Some Birds stencil, Papermania Seafoam white embossing powder, sequins from my stash

Birthday card for Mum

Yes I'm still here, I'm still alive despite not having blogged for ages. I had a rotten, rotten day today. Just work related, nothing really serious, but it did get me really down in the dumps for a while. As in crying when driving home, and then hiding under the duvet and crying some more. But some cuddles from the Culinary Consultant made me feel better, and then I came across this link, and felt like an idiot. But I guess your own problems always seem huge until you get a bit of perspective. 

Anyhow, I haven't had any time in the craft room all week, apart from quickly decorating two jam jars the other night. I do love to give little jars of jam as a little "no reason at all" present. I gave a jar to a colleague who has given me lots of runner beans this summer, as well as my colleagues neighbours who gave me a huge bag of apples the other week. Today I'm showing a card I made a while ago for my Mum for her birthday, and since I know she received it it's now safe to show here on the blog.

For this card I used the gorgeous STAMPlorations dogwood stamp from the Floral Bliss set. I used Tim Holtz markers in Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves to colour the beautiful flowers with a watercolour brush. I stamped the gorgeous grunge-y frame from the same set onto vellum, and added a Finnish sentiment saying "Congratulations" and added a few pearls just because.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes
STAMPlorations - Anything Goes
Daring Cardmakers - Wonderful Watercolours
Make My Monday - Something beginning with F (flowers, frame)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp and blog hop

Card: Coloured 240 gsm card purple, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Floral Bliss, sentiment stamp from my stash
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Twisted Citron, Gathered Twigs, Weathered Wood
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Basic Pearls 

Pink and grey patterns

I should be cleaning. Instead I have been crafting and blogging, and catching up on my blogs. I did do something useful though, I did an inventory of our freezer. I can't believe how much blackberries and plums we still have from last year. I'm clearly not very good with using plums. Any ideas? 

This morning was a bit more successful in the craft room after yesterday's creative block. First thing in the morning I headed into the craft room with my cup of coffee and blackberry muffin. And I was inspired by the great picture over at The Card Concept. I was inspired by the beautiful grey and pink colour combo and the pink chevron pattern on the curtain as well as the striped grey pattern on the wall. I have to say I wasn't too into shaker cards, but they have somehow grown on me. There was a really good series of posts on shaker cards on My Favourite Things which inspired me to give them another chance. The layout is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up at Chocolate, Coffee & Cards where the theme is Die cuts and In the Pink where the them is "Make it Sparkle (in Pink of course)" and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Clean and Simple. 

I used washi tape to create a mask for the grey inking. I then die cut the hello and crated a shaker that I filled with sequins and tiny little beads. The background is stamped using a chevron stamp. I really like the stamp, as I can create any custom coloured backgrounds. I think I will look for a few more stamps like that, maybe a stripy background and a polkadot background stamp too. With a few select background stamps I would basically never need to buy any more patterned paper, and I would always have backgrounds in the right colours. 

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, acetate

Stamps: Stampin' Up Positively Chevron

Inks: Stampin' Up Smokey Slate, Picked Raspberry

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Hello die, sequins and beads from my stash

More pastel Easter

Looks like my theme for this year's Easter cards are pastel colours and Distress ink backgrounds. For Grandma's card, I used an adorable Easter digi from Bugaboo stamps, which I coloured with Copics. I created the background by embossing resist, I stamped the ornate Easter egg and heat embossed with clear powder before inking with just three colours, yellow, turquoise and pink. Where the colours overlap they create such wonderful, vibrant greens, purples and oranges as well, so it looks like there was much more colours used. This is such a great tip especially if you are new to crafting and haven't built up a big stash yet, by choosing smartly you can get so much more out of your stash. I die cut the image and background vellum using Lawn Fawn dies, and printed the sentiment as I have a very limited supply of Finnish sentiments (my Grandma doesn't speak a word of any other language than Finnish). 

The card was inspired by the sketch over at STAMPlorations. I was also inspired by the wonderful inspiration board over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. I'm also playing along with the Catch the Bug March Bingo Challenge (my Bingo is Spring/Easter Image, Player's Choice = vellum and Die Cut), Addicted to Stamps where Anything Goes, Just Add Ink "Eggs or Ovals", Shopping Our Stash "Make your own background" and Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers "E is for Easter".

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Inspiration Board

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Personal Impressions Easter Set 1, Bugaboo Scene It Easter
Colouring: Copics of many colours (I might have forgotten to make a note of which ones I used, but it was pretty much all Copics I own)
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz disterss ink Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade
Other: Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder, Lawn Fawn Stitched Journal card die, Stitched Rectangle dies

Pink and Purple with some lace

I didn't get far from the colours of my previous post. This card was just a little doodle I did while watching the new series on Channel 4 called Indian Summers. I wasn't convinced by the first episode, but will give it another chance. The image for this card is actually from my stash of unused coloured images, and I feel very good that I finally managed to use it. I can even remember the specific time when I coloured it. Last September the Culinary Consultant finally used a gift card I had given him for a day of learning to wheelie at a motorcycle driving school. So while he drove a bike around and around in circles for a whole day, I was camped out in the car with stamped images, Blendabilities, cookies, coffee, sweeties and the Bakeoff masterclass on the iPad. It was actually quite a fun day, and I think it's good to take your crafting out of the craft room from time to time. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate your craft room even more, and particularly appreciate having a desk to craft on. After the Culinary Consultant was finished with his wheelie-ing, we headed off to Ikea and ate meat balls. And bought a pack of bag sealing clips for £0.90. A day well spent I say!

Anyhow, back to the card at hand. I used distress inks and a stencil to create the background, fussy cut my pre-coloured image and stamped and inked the banner for the sentiment. I added some lace washi tape I have had for a while, and added a few adhesive gems for a finishing touch. Quick, easy and summery bright. 

This card was inspired by the sketch over at STAMPloratons. I'm also linking up at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and The Pink Elephant where Anything Goes this week.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card Raspberry, Hobbycraft 160 gsm card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Good Greetings, I Like You
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress inks Spun Sugar, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves and Picked Raspberry
Colouring: Stampin' Up Blendabilities Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive
Other: Simon Says Stamp stencil, Papermania adhesive gems, lace adhesive tape

Valentine's Flowers

It seems like I haven't been crafting in ages. I made the cards I posted this week last weekend, so I really haven't crafted much at all this week. I think I'm suffering from a bit of the winter blues, I just don't have the energy for anything right now. I just want to bury myself under the duvet with a ton of chocolate and not surface until April.

But admittedly I'm not having as hard a time as my poor Grandma. She turned 90 years last week! But she had to move out of the flat she has lived in for probably the last 50 years or so, and into a small rental studio while there is some major work being done in her own place. She is so unhappy about it, so I thought I would make her a bright and colourful Valentine's day card to cheer her up.

This card is inspired by my latest new toy, the Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer. It's really fun to play with and creates cool air brushed effects. I used it on the Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours DSP to create the cool background. I stamped the flowers from I Like You and coloured with Blendabilities and cut out using dies. I printed the sentiment (that says Happy Valentine's day in Finnish, although the literal translation is "Happy Friends Day" as Valentine's is called Friend's Day back home, which I like much more) and used the spritzer tool a bit over the sentiment banner. 

The layout for the card was inspired by My Favourite Things sketch challenge and the colours are from this week's Color Throwdown. I'm also linking up at Shopping Our Stash where the theme is "Not your normal paper" (I used the cool paper from Stampin' Up which comes with resist patterns and you can colour it yourself to match your project), at A Creative Need where the theme is "Something New" (my "new" is of course my new Spritzer tool and getting to use it on this card) and at STAMPlorations where the January challenge is stamps and inks.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card teal and baby pink, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up I Love You

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress markers Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Old Olive, Melon Mambo and Coastal Cabana

Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours

Other: Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritz tool, heart border punch, Stampin' Up Labels Collection Framelits

Friday is CAS day

 

Here we are again, the best time of the week. Friday evening, as far away from the doom and gloom of Monday morning. The entire glorious weekend ahead. Time to relax, craft, clean, maybe do some sports, take a long hot bath, pretty much whatever you like. 

I had a lovely end to my work week this time. Our whole team went for afternoon tea to Peacocks Tea Room in Ely. If you are ever in Ely, I cannot recommend the place enough. It's just unique. Such an beautiful place with friendly service, delicious food and an enormous selection of teas served from china cups and beautiful tea pots. I had a Chocolate Dream Cream Tea with a Chocolate Scone with whipped cream, a chocolate brownie and a very interesting tea called Chocolate Imperial. It was so delicious. 

After driving home from Ely and miraculously not getting stuck in any bad traffic, I had time to put together today's very CAS card. It was inspired by the great sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and ColourQ. I used a stencil and distress ink to create the border and used my new die for the "happy". I also got myself some sequins. Originally I wasn't very keen on sequins, but I have to say they are starting to grow on me. I'm also linking up at Creative Knockouts where the theme is Birthdays, Fab n' Funky challenges where the theme is Something New (new sequins), The Sisterhood of Crafters where the theme is Anything Goes with a twist - use a new crafting stash (again, the sequins) and Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is to use ink to create a background.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 200 gsm white card, coloured 240 gsm card Pink Sorbet

Ink: Tim Holtz distress ink Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, Picked Raspberry

Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Other: Ranger Dylusions by Dyan Reaveley Shattered stencil, Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits, sequins from my stash

Leftover stash card

I have a stash where I put all sorts of leftover bits and pieces of carstock, designer paper, any backgrounds I have made but don't quite know what to do with. I keep them in a little box which I have covered in silver paper and decorated with punched flowers. And sometimes I just go through everything that has accumulated in the leftover box to see if I can get inspired. And sometimes random things just come together, like for this card. Everything except for the gems and white cardstock came right out of the leftover stash. I always feel very proud when I manage to create a beautiful card from random bits and pieces.

I made the card main motif using the Floral Wood Cut stamp from Inkadinkado. I stamped it onto white cardstock using embossing ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I then used Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves distress paints for the colour, which was resisted by the embossing powder. I matted the motif onto white cardstock. Also the background panel was created using Distress Paints (Picked Raspberry, Victorian Velvet and Picket Fence onto watercolour paper. The banners are created using scrap papers and cardstock from the stash, I added a few adhesive gems and attached onto Kraft card.

The technique I used for both the stamped image and background panel involve Distress Paints and water spritzer. I dotted Distress Paints onto my craft mat in random swirls, and spritzed with water from a mini mister until there was small droplets of water on the craft mat. I then swirled the cardstock around in the colour and water mix until the whole paper was covered. I let the paper air dry, but you can speed up the process using a heat gun. You can see the amazingly talented Tim demonstrating this technique in this video here. I really enjoy playing with the distress paints, it's so much fun, although I tend to end up with dozens and dozens of backgrounds which I don't quite know what to do with in the end. But it's all about the creative process and about playing with the colours and that's what counts.

Distress paints: Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Chipped Sapphire, Victorian Velvet, Picket Fence
Stamp: Inkadinkado Floral Wood Cut
Cardstock: Daler & Rowney 190gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, Kraft card (and leftover scraps from Papermania Sizzling Red Hot set, Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry and the DSP Sycamore Street)
Other: Papermania adhesive gems, Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink, Ranger super fine detail embossing powder

Andy Warhowl

Today's card is inspired by the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. This week's theme is Let's have a laugh. The Simon Says Stamp Design Team presented such cute cards using Paper Smooches stamps. I don't have any Paper Smooches stamps although I would love to get some. But right now, as I recently invested in a Big Shot I won't be buying more stamps anytime soon. Well, I guess I will, but not quickly enough for this challenge. I do have some stamp sets with cute animals so I thought I might be able to make something funny with those. I decided to make a Andy Warhol inspired card using the cute owl from the Stampin' Up Animal Stories stamp set. The card is quite simple, but I think it turned out all right.

I started by dividing a 12x12 cm piece of white cardstock into a 3x3 grid. I stamped the owls in Distress Embossing ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder, using a Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the stamps. The using scrap paper to mask every square, I used ink blending foam to colour the background using Tim's Squeezed Lemonade, Salty ocean and Picked raspberry distress inks. I used a grey Sharpie to draw lines between the different colours. I left the middle square empty, and printed the sentiment onto yellow Hobbycraft cardstock. The font is a free one called Always in My Heart which I downloaded from a free font repository here. I die cut (of course!) the sentiment using the Chalk Talk dies, inked around the edges with Squeezed Lemonade and very lightly with Picked Raspberry and attached two adhesive gems. Last, I matted the owls onto yellow, pink and blue cardstock and attached to Kraft card.

Inks: Tim Holtz distress embossing ink, Squeezed Lemonade, Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks
Stamps: Stampin' Up Animal Stories owl
Cardstock: Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, blue and yellow cardstock from the Hobbycraft 3 Shades of Yellow and 3 Shades of Blue 160 gsm cardstock, pink cardstock from the Papermania Sizzling Red Hot collection
Other: Ranger super fine detail embossing powder, Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies, Sizzix big shot, Papermania Capsule Sunshine adhesive gems