TIME OUT #125 - Inspired By Words

We're back at Time Out with a new challenge just in time for the holidays; we are asking you to be inspired by the following words:

Aren't these the perfect words for inspiration at this time of year? I was inspired by the celebrate and decided to create a birthday card using MFT Birthday Speech Bubbles. I simply stamped them in some bright colours and added a strip of foiled design paper to the panel. A few clear droplets to finish it off.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stamplorations - they are offering the winner a $15 gift voucher and gifting a random winner with a gift bag of goodies :)

We are also incredibly lucky to have Michele from I Card Everyone as our wonderful guest designer for this challenge. She is a constant inspiration so make sure to check out her designs!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

Winnie & Walter - November Release and a Winner!

It is wonderful to be on the Winnie & Walter Blog today sharing a few project ideas using new products from the amazing November release.


First up is a thank you card featuring In A Word: Thanks (the stamp set). I was so happy when this set came out - along with some coordinating cutaways as well :)  The In A Word: Thanks is definitely my all-time most used word die I'm surprised I haven't worn it out yet ;)  so having the stamps and additional cutaways to play with is so much fun.

For this card, I started by cutting the "thanks" from freezer paper to create iron on masks, and then I applied the masks to a piece of water colour paper by running them through my Minc machine. I used freezer paper because I wanted to play with my pearlescent watercolours for the background but this  could also be done with regular masking paper and regular ink blending. I painted the water colour wash over the background and let the paint dry. I then layered the new Pennsylvania Polka Creative Screening over the panel and lightly removed the paint from the exposed areas using a baby wipe. I love the subtle effect this leaves.

Once all this was done, I removed the masks with the help of my heat gun and then lined up the outline "thanks" stamp on the masked areas and stamped it in grey ink. I inked a piece of cardstock using the same ink and then heat embossed a white sentiment from the set onto it. The sentiment was popped up with foam tape and I added a few sequins to finish off the card. 

I tried to catch the shimmer in a photo but I couldn't quite get it - so here is a close up photo of the card: 

My next card features two of the new products - the Peppermint Zone Cutaway and Snowy Holiday with Evelin T stamps and cutaways.

I was so excited when I saw the Peppermint Zone Cutaways - there are so many possibilities with this wonderful die, and I know that it is going to become one of my favourites very quickly. For this card, I used it to create a swirly glittery background. To create the background, I adhered a piece of Be Creative adhesive sheet on top of a heavy weight card stock, and I left the protective sheet in place on the top side of the piece. I then ran it through my Big Shot with the protective sheet against the cutting face of the die - this cut the protective sheet but not the card stock. I carefully removed the pieces of protective sheet covering the "blue" areas and then poured on the blue glitter. After this was all cleaned up, I repeated the process with the remaining area and the white glitter. I love this effect! I added the glittery panel to the front of a pearlescent blue card base. I stamped, Copic coloured and die cut the adorable snowman from Snowy Holidays, and then stamped a greeting from the same set along the side of the panel.

Here is a close up of the glitter:

My last couple of cards are very similar. I started out by watercolouring two panels with Distress Oxide inks (Evergreen Bough, Iced Spruce) and some pearlescent gold paint - I was trying to create the effect of lights on a Christmas tree. I then added some pine needles using a stamp from In Bloom: Elsa's Flora; on one panel, I stamped the needles differently on each of the panels (as shown below). I also added some gold splatters to each of the panels.

The first card is actually where my inspiration came from - when I first saw the You Are a Blessing stamp set (right now is free with $25 purchase!!!!), I saw an ornament instead of a leaf and I thought it would make a great seasonal card. I stamped the image onto vellum with Versamark (masking the stem) and then heat embossed it with gold powder. I fussy cut it out and added it to the panel with some foam tape. I also added some red ribbon to make it look like it was "hanging" from the tree. I added the panel to a light grey card base with some more foam tape.

The second card is very similar but I used the Grand Merry stamp set (another new fave!) and cutaways to create the greeting. I stamped the curvy "merry" in Versamark on vellum heat embossed with some glittery red powder. I die cut the vellum word with the coordinating cutaway and mounted it with foam tape onto the panel. I heat embossed the second part of the greeting with gold powder to complete the panel before mounting it on a grey card base. 

Here is a close up of the second card to show the gold watercolour highlights:

This release is amazing - so many fun products to play with - I am sure that you will find something new to add to your crafty stash :)

And now onto the winner.....

It was so much fun being the November Leading Lady - a huge thank you to Shay for inviting me and enormous thank yous to everyone who left such wonderful comments. I randomly chose one of them to receive a $30 gift voucher to the Winnie & Walter shop........

Congrats SHartl - I will reach out to you with your prize info!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

Winnie & Walter November Release - Day 4

We are back with the last day of the premieres for the November Winnie & Walter release - and the great news is that all the release products will be available for purchase in the Winnie & Walter shop this evening.

I only have one card to share today featuring the new Yetitide Greetings with Evelin T Designs. I am so in love with this stamp set - the yetis are the most adorable and so much fun. I think this set is going to be very popular and sell out quickly.

I Copic coloured and fussy cut three of the yeti images for my card (there are coordinating dies available). I then die cut three circle apertures in the card panel for the yetis to sit in. I then used the largest sketchy circle from the new Scenery: Dotty set to stamp pale blue backgrounds on the card base. I did mask off the bottom of each circle to create the illusion of snow. The panel was foam mounted onto the card base and the yetis were also mounted with foam tape. The card was finished with a white embossed greeting from the stamp set and some snowflake sequins.

The other stamp set being premiered today is Nutcracker Kisses with Evelin T Designs - I will be sharing some projects with that set next week - it is also fantastic so make sure you check it out.

Thanks so much for stopping by and happy shopping tonight!

Jill

Winnie & Walter November Release - Premiere Day 3

I am over the moon to be participating in the Winnie & Walter release - the products in this release are so amazing and I am loving playing with them.

There are a few stamp sets premiering today: Scenery: Dotty, Snowy Holiday with Evelin T Designs (stamps and cutaways), and Essentials: Tilda Cutaways. Make sure you check out the Winnie & Walter Blog here to see the images.

My cards today feature the Evelin T Snowy Holiday set - this set is just as wonderful as all the past Evelin T sets - the images are so versatile and so much fun to colour.

For my first cards, I also used the Grand Merry stamp set to create the background. I lined all the block sentiments up in my Misti to almost cover the front of my dark grey A2 card (a little bit of extra space left at the bottom). I stamped the sentiments in Versamark and then brushed on some Perfect Pearls to give them a metallic finish. I really love  this look and don't do it often enough. I added the candy cane paper strip (stamped in red ink with Scenery: Holiday Trimmings) and the little strip of green glitter paper to the open space at the bottom.

I Copic coloured two images from the Snowy Holiday with Evelin T - the Santa Claus and the little dog carrying presents. I then fussy cut them (there are coordinating dies available) and popped them up on some foam tape on the candy cane strip. I coloured the presents and Santa's fur trim with some Stickes to add a little bit of sparkle.

The Snowy Holiday stamp set also features a snow globe stamp - so I had to make a shaker card :) I stamped the snow globe onto the card panel made from pearlescent blue cardstock. I then used my craft knife to cut out the glass portion of the globe. Before constructing the shaker, I embossed the panel using the (premiered on Tuesday) Pennsylvania Polka Creative Screenings. For the image behind the shaker, I stamped the car and tree onto some white cardstock and Copic coloured it - I did add some Stickles to the presents and the head lights and added "joy" to the licence plate. I filled the shaker with Stampendous Shaved Ice - this is, by far, my favourite "snow" shaker material. I sparkles and because it is so light, little pieces will stick to the image instead of all settling at the bottom. I mounted the completed shaker panel onto a card made from the same cardstock. I stamped the globe base onto some white cardstock and Copic coloured it as well before white heat embossing a sentiment from the same set.

So that is all for today - make sure you stop by tomorrow for another creation featuring new Winnie & Walter products!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

Winnie & Walter - Leading Lady Finale

I can't believe how quickly November has flown by and that it is already time for my last act! I want to thank Shay for her generosity and her invitation to join this wonderful Winnie & Walter blog for the month. I also want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments - both here and on my blog - they have brought me such joy and I am truly grateful that you took the time to leave them.

So now - onto my finale :)

Last week, I focused on building backgrounds using die cuts - so this week, I am focusing on stretching my stamps to create fun backgrounds.

For my first cards, I used the Scenery: Holiday Trimmings stamp set - this is one of my favourite sets for decorating holiday card envelopes - but the border images are perfect for building backgrounds as well. I stamped the tree image repeatedly across the card fronts in Versamark ink- I did shift the border to the left and the right to change the styles of trees on each row. On one card front, I embossed with detail clear embossing powder, and on the other, I embossed with clear sparkle embossing powder. I then sponged ink across the panels- on the clear embossed panel, I used Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, and Salty Ocean to create a rainbow effect. I used Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, and Blueprint Sketch on the sparkly one. I added a simple white embossed greeting from In A Word: Merry to each of the panels, and a few silver star sequins to a few of the trees before adhering the foam-mounted panels to some cards bases dressed up with silver glitter washi.

For my next cards, I wanted to create a "knit sweater" style background - there a quite a few background stamps that do this but I was pretty sure that I could make my own. I used two more borders from the Scenery: Holiday Trimmings set, a border from the Julie's Roses set (a 2016 Black Friday W&W Special set), and a row of hearts from Scenery: Seeing Hearts. I stamped two panels - both using light grey ink - one onto a white panel and one onto a light grey panel for a tone-on-tone look. This process is really straightforward using the MISTI - the hardest part is deciding what the pattern should look like but once the stamps are lined up, it is just a matter of shifting the panel up and down to create the pattern.

To complete the grey tone-on-tone card, I used some stamped images from Debra's Poinsettia with Lydia Evans and Victoria's Very Merry Flowers with Lydia Evans as well as an embossed greeting from Sentimental Winter and a scattering of crystal gems. To complete the white panel card, I added a pink ombre stamped mug from Warm Wishes To You, a greeting from Sentimental Birthday and a few pink gems.

For my last card, I used the swirl stamps from the Dotty About You with Lydia Evans set to create a Van Gogh inspired wintery background. I stamped the panel using a light blue ink - I did do some masking as well to avoid the overlaps but it was pretty easy to cut the masks. I added the panel to a light blue card base. To complete the wintery scene, I added the skiing bear from Winter Wishes with Evelin T (seriously - how cute is he?), Copic coloured in soft colours. To finish the card, I silver embossed sentiment from the same set (after doing some minor stamp surgery to position it linearly) and a few iridescent silver-blue snowflake sequins.

I love creating backgrounds like this, and I could have easily done many more with all the wonderful Winnie & Products but unfortunately, I ran out of time....  I do hope that this post has given you some ideas on how to stretch your stamps to create backgrounds, and that you enjoy it as much as I do.

Shay has kindly offered up a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card for me to give to one lucky commenter on my blog, My Life in Paper For your chance to win, leave a comment on this post and/or any of my leading lady posts and I will randomly pick a winner from all the comments left by November 30th.

Thanks again for all your lovely comments and your support for my Leading Lady act - it was so much fun! 

Jill

TIME OUT #123 - Black & White & 1 Colour

It' time for another fun TIME OUT challenge - this fortnight, we are challenging you to create a project using only black, white, and one other colour. There is also an optional twist of making it a one-layer creation.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Happy Little Stampers - they have very generously offered a $20 gift voucher to a randomly selected entry that opted to twist. 

Here is my card:

I kept it fairly simple with one of my favourite techniques - adhering die cuts to the background. I coloured the die cuts with a little bit of Aged Mahogany Distress Ink (my one colour!) and added a white embossed greeting from MFT on black card stock. I also added an MFT greeting from the same set to the inside of the card:

Our guest designer for this challenge is Joanna from JoJo's Spot - make you stop by and check out her wonderful CAS creations.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

Winnie & Walter - Leading Lady Act Three

So happy to be back for another week on the Winnie & Walter blog - I am having so much fun creating all these projects. 

This week I chose to focus on one of my favourite techniques - creating backgrounds using die cuts. Winnie & Water dies are some of my absolute favourites and I am highlighting a few of them today.

First up is using tone-on-tone die cuts to create a background - this is a time consuming technique but it is one of my favourites since I just love the effect on the finished card. For these cards, I used the Typecast: Cary Numbers Cutaways to create my background. I die cut all the numbers five times and then adhered them randomly onto the same colour card base. I wanted the background  of the card to be the focus so I kept the rest of it very simple with some Copic coloured images from Happy Dance and a greeting from Sentimental Birthday.

I made two versions of the card - one in white and one in blue. I am not very good with using non-neutral coloured card bases so this technique is a great way to force myself to do it :) 

My next two projects focused on using border dies to create the background using the Georgette Border Cutaways. For the first card, I die cut the flower-shaped border repeatedly across the card panel. I then backed the panel with Be Creative tape and added some glitter to it through the die cuts (I was going for a sparkly snowflake look - that unfortunately does not show up well in the picture). I, once again, kept the rest of the card simple with a cute Copic coloured image from Sweet Holiday with Evelin T and a greeting from Sentimental Winter. 

For the second card, I die cut the flower shaped border only three times on the panel, and I finished the edge with the scallop die. I again backed the die cut part of the panel with Be Creative tape but, this time, I added red glitter to the die cut openings. I mounted the panel on a light grey card base and added a red glitter In A Word: Merry Cutaway die cut combined with a light grey stamped sentiment from In A Word Merry. The finishing touch was some sparkly gems added to the centres of the red 

flowers.

My final projects are all about adding Copic colouring to the die cuts to create interesting backgrounds - for these projects, I used one of the hexagon frame dies from the Essentials Josephine Cutaways.  

For the first card, I cut the smallest hexagon frame multiple times from 6 different colours of cardstock. I then added to some shading using corresponding Copic colours to the outside edge of each hexagon frame. I adhered the frames to the card base in rainbow order (these die cuts piece together - almost like inlaid die cutting). I then die cut the small hexagons (many times!) from white glitter cardstock to inlay in the centre of each of the hexagons. I trimmed the panel, adhered it to a card base and added a simple white embossed greeting from The Big, the bold and the party with foam tape.

For the second card, I repeated the process but instead of adding the white glitter paper, I also added shading to the centres of the hexagons and popped them up with foam squares. I finished off the card with a glittery In A Word Thanks die cut.

Finally, I wanted to quickly share a card front that I made to show another idea on how to colour the hexagons. For this one, I used a light grey panel and cut the hexagons from the same paper. I coloured some of them with different shades of grey Copics - and adhered them to make an ombre pattern. I ran out of time on the rest of the card but wanteed to share what I had done.

Shay has kindly offered up a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card for me to give to one lucky commenter on my blog, My Life in Paper For your chance to win, leave a comment on this post and/or any of my leading lady posts and I will randomly pick a winner from all the comments left by November 30th.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Jill

Winnie & Walter - Leading Lady Act Two

I am so happy to be joining Winnie & Walter for another week as their November Leading Lady. This week's cards are all about the magic number three, and a few ways it can be used in card design.

My first card is all about the visual triangle which is created when you place three elements (forming a triangle) around the focal point. On my card, I placed three critters around the sentiment:

I started out by Copic colouring and fussy cutting the three critters from the Happy Dance with Evelin T stamp set. I then die cut three circles in the card panel and stamped the three different circular sentiments from Ring in the Celebration around the openings. I sponged three different colours of Distress Inks behind the openings (Twisted Citron, Abandoned Coral, and Mustard Seed - bright, happy colours!) before popping the card front on with foam tape. The critters were also added with foam tape as well as the sentiment from Sentimental Birthday which was white embossed on black. A few sparkling sequins and a little strip of glitter to finish of the card.

My second card focuses on the rule of thirds - this is a key design principle in composition that you can read more about here. 

I kept the focus of the design by keeping all the elements in the lower third of the card. I added 3 (yes 3!) thin strips of silver glitter card stock across the bottom of the card. I Copic coloured a poinsettia from the In Bloom: Elsa's Flora set and popped it up with some foam tape onto the panels at the bottom left corner according to the rule of thirds.I added the sentiment from Sentimental Winter to the panel and a few drops of gold Stickles to the centre of the flower to complete the CAS design.

My last project was very much inspired by a recent Jennifer McGuire video where she created ornaments on cards; I CASEd that idea but I created a card with three tags instead. The idea is that I can send someone this card and then they can remove the tags to use them. To continue the "three" theme, I decided to add three tags.  According to some design principles, including three similar or repeated elements is more pleasing to the eye then using two or four - I will let you be the judge of whether it works on this card :)

I created the card base by stamping the greeting from Scenery:Holiday Trimmings in Versamark and embossing it with sparkly red powder. I then applied glitter paste through a stencil very similar to the Big Bang Circle Creative Screening for even more sparkle.

Now for the tags: I started out by die cutting 6 (3 fronts and 3 backs)  tags from the Essentials: Audrery Cutaways, and then stamping some critters from Winter Wishes with Evelin T onto three of them. I coloured the images and the background with Copics - I also added some glitter paste through the same stencil that I had used on the card base. On the other three tags, I stamped the greeting and "to" and "from" from the Sentimental Gift set; I then adhered these to the coloured tags. I threaded some baker's twine through the tags and knotted the loop at the end and secured the twine on the inside of the card with some washi tape. 

Here is the backside of the tags:

Here is how the tags are secured to the inside of the card - with removable silver sparkle washi tape so the recipient can remove the tags and use them on gifts.

Shay has kindly offered up a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card for me to give to one lucky commenter on my blog, My Life in Paper For your chance to win, leave a comment on this post and/or any of my leading lady posts and I will randomly pick a winner from all the comments left by November 30th.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Jill

Winnie & Walter Leading Lady - Debut

I am absolutely thrilled to be joining Winnie & Walter as their November Leading Lady - I am still in complete disbelief that Shay asked me to do this. I have been a huge fan of Winnie & Walter products ever since the beginning but I am an ever bigger fan of Shay and her generosity. Winnie & Walter has sponsored so many different challenges in blogland, along with all the all the challenges on the Winnie & Walter blog - her kindness is inspirational to us all. I am truly honoured to be part of her blog this month.

We just turned the page on the calendar - November already! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by and it is now time to get ready for the end of year holidays. Of course, this includes making lots of holiday cards :) One of my favourite things about holiday cards is that I can apply copious amount of glitter to my projects - all in the spirit of the season :) My Leading Lady debut is going to be about some different ways to apply glitter to holiday cards.

My first project features glitter applied with Stickles. This seems to be the only time of year that my Stickles make it out from my craft drawer but I don't know why since they are so much fun. They are absolutely perfect for adding little touches of colourful glitter - like I did on this walrus card: 

Isn't this walrus the cutest? I stamped him from the Winter Wishes with Evelin T stamp set and then masked him and stamped the iceberg as well. More masking before inking the background with a few different colours of Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans, and, of course, Salty Ocean). I coloured the image with Copics, added some white gel pen detail - and then I added four different colours of Stickles to the lights and some Crystal Stickles to the white parts of the Santa hat. I created a card front by first cutting the panel with the largest rectangle from the Essentials: Katharine Cutaways, and then cutting the aperture with another die. This card front was added to the card with foam tape, along with a white embossed greeting from the In Bloom: Debra's Poinsettia with Lydia Evans stamp set. Here is a close up of some of the Stickles:

My next projects are all about adding glitter to the background. I die cut the card front panel using the largest rectangle from the Essentials: Katharine Cutaways, and I also die cut an aperture using a basic circle die. I then added some transparent embossing paste to the card front through the Scenery: Triangled Creative Screening. After removing the stencil, while the paste was still wet, I sprinkled some Distress Glitter over it and set it aside to dry. While the paste was drying, I stamped and cut out a lot of different floral images from the In Bloom: Debra's Poinsettia with Lydia Evans and the In Bloom: Victoria's Very Merry Flowers with Lydia Evans stamp sets. I also stamped the greeting from the same stamp set directly onto the card base. Once the paste was dry, I assembled all the components with a lot of foam tape :)

I actually made two (almost) identical cards - one with the transparent embossing paste and Distress Glitter, and the second one with Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste in Platinum. Here they are side by side:

My last cards feature inlaid die cut glitter card stock. I started off by creating my own ombre glitter cardstock: I coloured a piece of plain white card stock with several different red Copics - blending between the different shades. I then covered the coloured card stock with a large piece of Be Creative tape (this tape is relatively transparent), removed the protective sheet from the adhesive and applied micro fine glitter over the card stock. I pressed the glitter in really well, and burnished it with my teflon bone folder. The key to this is using a transparent glitter - I used Glitter Ritz Warm Highlight glitter. 

I die cut the ombre glitter card using the In A Word: Joy cutaway - and die cut the card panel using the same die so I could inlay the ombre die cut into the card front. I stamped and Copic coloued a couple of images on the card front as well - the bird from Sweet Holiday with Evelin T and the bird house from Happiest of Holidays with Evelin T. I also added a white heat embossed "Season's Tweetings" (from Season's Tweetings with Evelin T)onto a foam mounted piece of brown card stock. 

I decided that I wanted to include a glittery candy cane stripe in my design so I stamped the stripe from Scenery: Holiday Trimmings with dark red ink onto the card base. I then covered it with a piece of Be Creative tape and a layer of glitter - just like I did with the ombre card stock. I love how this looks on the finished card.

While I had my supplies out, I created an (almost) identical card - but using store bought red glitter card stock instead of custom ombre glitter card:

Finally, I used the cutout from the ombre glitter card stock and inlaid a die cut from gold glitter card stock. I kept the rest of the card very simple.

Shay has kindly offered up a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card for me to give to one lucky commenter on my blog, My Life in Paper For your chance to win, leave a comment on this post and/or any of my leading lady posts and I will randomly pick a winner from all the comments left by November 30th.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Jill