Challenge #107 for Simply Create Too

I'm back with another card today. The new challenge at Simply Create Too Challenge Blog is to use stitching (real or faux).

I wanted to make another birthday card for my mum, as I wasn't happy with the one I made closer to her birthday; and since I kept forgetting to give it to her (I'm not telling when her birthday was), I thought I could do a better one and give it to her when we have her party (don't know when that will be either as we're waiting to find out when she's going to have her hernia operation). Once we've got dates, we'll have a party for both Mum and Dad (who have both had their 80th birthdays this year). You can check out Dad's card here.

My card used stitching around the inner circle. I used some multicoloured DMC metallic embroidery thread, that is a lovely combination of every colour in the rainbow. I used my brand-new ScanNCut machine to cut the background using an intricate SVG file from Bird's SVGs which is found in Bundle Background 5. I also cut the scalloped circle from some foiled cardstock using the SNC. The sentiment was die cut from some foiled cardstock using Tim Holtz Celebration die set. The numbers are just some American Thickers alpha stickers.

I'm much happier with this card than the other one I made. (I'll show it another day.)

Join us at Simply Create Too, make a card using stitching and we'll see you soon.

Bye for now.

Love,
Janelle

Twinkling H2O's

A while ago I did a commission for Australian Simply Cards (Issue 91) using Twinkling H2O's. I made some cards out of my experimentation pieces, not wanting to throw anything out that could be useful. (That's the hoarder's creed, isn't it?) (Hand up) I thought you'd like to see them.

The first card used the H2Os as a background smoosh/dribble/splat. I love the really hard edges and the layering of colours. To get it just right, I let it dry between adding more layers of the H2Os. I then painted the stamped image and fussy cut her out so that she really stood out against the background. The thin strip down the middle was from another commission where I glittered over some patterned paper, using double sided adhesive sheet to hold the glitter in place. I used the  Penny Black Ooh La La stamp set and  My Favorite Things Whimsical Wishes stamp set.

                                    

The second card was much more simple. The image was stamped using the Penny Black Fashion Tweet stamp set. She was then just painted, as you would do with normal watercolours, varying the intensity of colour by adjusting the levels of water used. The image was cut into a strip with a little fussy cutting where the image lay outside the edge lines. This strip technique is really useful if you stuff-up the background, but you can still use the best section. (BTW, I didn't mess up the background - just wanted it to fit with the layout.)  :)

Anyway, bye for now.

Love,

Janelle

Get Creative Challenge # 36

It's time for another challenge for Get Creative Challenges. The theme this time is Easter and we used cute digistamps from Angie's Cards and Digis (owned by our lovely leader, Angie). 

I wanted to do something a little different (for me) and stick to a more simple style, so I concentrated my card around a fussy cut image and then added a few further embellishments to enhance the theme. A stamp set called "Eggscellent Stamp" from Bo Bunny helped me achieve this. The eggs, grass and sentiment were from this set, and went so well with Angie's bear digistamp. I coloured using my Copic markers and added some highlights with a gold Wink of Stella pen.

The background paper is from the American Craft Heidi Swapp Minc Signature Paper Pad and foiled using rose gold and my new mini Minc machine.  (big grin here and happy dance) It is so much fun to use.

Looking back, I need a gold "Happy" die cut to add above the "Easter". I'll have to check out what I've got.

Check out the challenge, play along with us and have fun at Get Creative Challenges.

Anyway, bye for now.

Love.

Janelle

Happy Easter

First of all I'd like to wish everyone a happy and safe Easter. Hope the Easter bunny comes to you all.

Yesterday (Good Friday) was my father's 80th birthday. I'm posting the card I made for him using my new Mini Minc machine. 

I foiled the background using the Signature 12x12" paper pack with some Teal foil. The Charming Themed card was also foiled with the teal foil. The sentiment was foiled in gold onto a sheet of toner paper and then die cut using MFT Brushstroke Birthday Greetings die set. The 80 came from the Ephemera pack and was also foiled in gold. These were  layered onto a 14x14cm white card blank and decorated with some teal sequins. 

(OMG! It's so hot as I'm typing this - sweat is running down the sides of my face.)

The photo is terrible as I quickly took it before we drove to Dad's place for a birthday lunch. The glue has also shown up in the photo, but IRL you can't see it at all where I smudged it gluing the sentiment in place. You also can't see the colour properly. It really looked so stunning IRL.

Dad's not the sort of person who really cares about cards, but it was an excuse to play with my Minc. I'm loving it and learning a lot about it, as I've just finished a commission for Practical Publishing about the Minc machine (doing a review and cards).

One thing I've found out, though, is that, while it may be more economical to print a sheet of toner paper using a laser printer, you don't get the quality of finish as you do with the Minc Toner paper. If it's just for a background mat, the laser toner paper would suffice, but if you can see most of it, then you really need to go with the Minc toner paper. I also tried out the Minc toner pen and, while it's great for adding strokes and swirls to your paper for an artistic effect, it is NO good for colouring in sentiments etc to cover with foil (uneven and smudgy result). Also if you're die cutting a sheet of cardstock you've already foiled, leave the plastic cover sheet in place and die cut through it. You'll get less scratching of the foil.

My favourite technique to do is double foiling. I'll post a couple of cards using this technique in a couple of days. You'll love it too.

Anyway, bye for now.

Love,
Janelle

Simply Create Too Challenge # 105

Hi again. I'm back today for a challenge from Simply Create Too.

Something funny was the name of the game, so I created this card using an Art Impressions stamp called "Golden Oldies". (I hope you find the humour in it...?)

(front)

                                                                           (inside)

I coloured it using my Spectrum Noir colored pencils, some blending solution and a blending stump. Because I didn't have a sentiment stamp to match, I had to hand write the sentiment using a fineline black marker. Not the neatest, I'm afraid. I tried printing it on my printer but the cardstock was too thick and wouldn't feed through. Maybe I could have printed it out on paper and then, having matted it with ... say...light blue, then attached it back onto the card. What do you think?

I also used some Glossy Accents on the bubbles and her emeralds. The bubble foam was painted over with some Twinkling H2O's (Pearl Blue). The card IRL has much more colour in it than shows up in these photos. The cardstock used for the background is also white. Don't know but I'm having trouble with my camera/computer.

Anyway, bye for now.

Love,
Janelle

Watercoloured Backgrounds

Here are a selection of cards I created for Practical Publishing a while ago that demonstrated techniques that could be used to watercolour backgrounds for cards. I used salt, over white heat embossing, wet-on-wet technique, using embossing folders, with stencils (lifting colour) and over the top of texture paste.

 The green one that was done using an embossing folder is actually ombre in effect (very subtle) but accomplished by laying progressively darker shades of green down the embossing folder before closing it to run through the diecutting machine.

I think my fave is the one at the top where I added salt to the multicoloured panel while the paint was still wet. Lovely effect.

Hope you enjoy these.

Bye for now.

Love,
Janelle

Get Creative Challenges #34

Hi there! I'm posting a card that is part of this fortnight's Get Creative Challenge.

Ch. #34 - St. Patrick's - Use Green

This challenge is sponsored by:

I was trying for a funny St Patrick's card, so chose the flamingos and gold pot digistamps, coloured them with Copic markers, then completed the card with some computer generated sentiments (both inside and on the front of the card). The rainbow was hand drawn onto the background, coloured with Copics and highlighted with some clear Wink of Stella. I used a green card base to further match the theme.

                            The front:

                             The inside of the card:

Pop on over to the blog and see what the other design team members have created. If you feel like it, create a card of your own and add it to the InLinx link at the end of the challenge details.

Can't wait to see what's next!

Bye for now,

Love,

Janelle