Gina K monthlty Challenge - Jan 2023 Pencil resist.

 Over at Gina K Facebook page the Jan monthly challenge is underway.  Each month a Gina video is showcased.   This month the video is one of her 5 minute card ones... Pencil resist ( see it HERE)

I CASE'd Gina's card - using an older set called Warm Spring Wishes - using the butterfly. 

I stamped the butterflies and then added white Prisma pencil to the butterflies and then did a faux torn edge technique using some Altenew inks.  I added a little more white pencil over the wings.  I got a tad excessive with my Pinkfresh Iridescent gems but who doesn't love some bling!  The sentiment is from the same stamp set.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy crafting.  

Watercoloured Dies.

 Recently I watched a Gina K Facebook Live (here) where Gina made watercolour backgrounds with her Zig Markers and then die cut them to use on cards.   Over the weekend, I tried it out.  My Zigs are getting a bit dry so didn't get the same bright colour ways.   I still managed to get some fun backgrounds that I used for a couple of cards.  I recently bought some Mixed Media paper - and it's perfect for watercolouring on.  

First up - using some of the pink and orange watercolour papers.    I was inspired by the cards Gina made but using Altenew Itty Bitty Branches die cuts.  

I used Gina K Master Layouts #2 to cut my centre panel.  I cut a circle die and stamped my sentiment and then added the die cuts.   I had an issue with my glue going everywhere.  I still like how it turned out - not as noticeable in real life.  

My next card I die cut some more of the pinky watercolour and some of the green one I did,

 For this card I cut the layers of the Wild Rose 3D die  and added extra ink blending over the other layers.  I made my background panel with some Marble patterned paper.  The sentiment is from a Pinkfresh studios hotfoil and die set.   You get a lot of sentiments at once... 

I'm going to make a few more backgrounds to have on hand.  

Tomorrow is my birthday - officially an Old Aged Pensioner.... 65 years old.  NZ'ers get the pension at 65 so my holiday fund will get an extra boost every two weeks!   

Floral Heart - using stencils and dies.

Second post today  - to see my designer card for Sweet Stampin' Challenge - go HERE.

 Hi there.  I'm here to share my entry for the latest challenge at The Flower Challenge. - Add a Heart

My card was inspired by two artist - Gina K and Natasha Foote.   Gina made a card using a heart made with scraps - I was inspired by her design and Natasha's inspiration was to use die cuts to add to a shape. Natasha's was  more of a floating die cuts - but I used a white card to add my die cuts to. 

I used three flowers I made using Altenew's Bitterroot flower stencil and die set.   It is a toughy to do, but once I got the idea of what parts of the stencil worked together, I used different combinations of the pink Altenew inks,  I drew around the heart die and worked out where to put the flowers and the leaves and glued them down.  I then ran the piece through my new Spellbinders Platinum 6 with the die.  It is from Gina K Master Layout 4.  Layered it onto the black heart.   The background was inspired from Gina's card.  I used my Scor-Pal to add the lines and then a grey Altenew ink to blend over.   I used a Honey Bee die cut sentiment.  To make it shiny I added some clear packing tape to black card and then cut the die.  Used white for the shadow layer.  The little sub-sentiment from the same Honey Bee set and was cut with Altenew's Featured Sentiments die set.   Love the little rounded corners.  

Had my Rapid Antigen Test this afternoon - Negative - so all good to go tomorrow afternoon.   I made a couple more cards yesterday and today which I've scheduled for Monday - so do come back for a look.

Take care.... see you all in two weeks!

Cards inspired by - Gina and Betty

 I have two cards I made over the weekend.  Both inspired by wonderful crafters.  

First up is a card inspired by Gina K's 5 minute video about Thumping - using a cube rather then a marker. 

I don't have any Gina K inks so just used what I had - in this case, Altenew inks.  I used Silver Lake fpr the grey and Magenta for the thumping.   The stamps are by Gina K as is the dies I used to cut the panel and layer.   Finished with some Altenew Enamel Dots from the Red Cosmos set. 

My second card was inspired by my blog friend Betty Keefe.... Betty made a gorgeous Easter card as her sample for Tic Tac Toe Challenge... that she set.  You can see her card here   It's simply gorgeous.  

Here is my take on her card 

I took Betty's idea to use die cut letters for her Easter sentiment.   For my card I used a very old Cuttlebug alpha die called Olivia.  I cut the letters from blue card and then from fun foam and glued the two together.   For my background I used some Tumbled Glass and Broken China distress inks and did some ink smooshing onto some watercolor paper.  I then ran my panel through the Cuttlebug with a Spellbinder Impresabilities - these are thin steel embossing/debossing panels that I got over 10 years ago.

This gave my background a very subtle impression.  I added the letters and some white flower ephemera from a Uniti pack called Kiwi Collective.   I added a little pre-printed sentiment and some silver sequins.    Thanks Betty for your delightful inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'm feeling a bit shattered after spending all day on a Team meeting with the new team.   Lots of getting to know each other, talking about what our work will involve, running through the presentation that we will be doing  as online seminars... all in all lots to take in.  

Holiday Tapestry Christmas cards

I managed to find a bit of time to watch Gina K's Facebook Live the other day (see it Here on You Tube)- where she used some double sided tape to add some embossing powder to her mini slimline card.  I was inspired by this technique to try it with Gina K's Holiday Tapestry stamp set.   I made two cards... one A2 sized and one slimline (didn't use my mini slimline dies from Master Layout 7 as it didn't arrive to today) 

First up was my A2 card 

I used two blues to make this one.  I stamped the Holiday Tapestry and embossed with some silver powder.  It is a very old powder and not a fine detail one, not as smooth as I'd like.  Time for some new powder methinks.  I added some Express It tape in 1/8" and 1/4" and added it to card.  Embossed it and love the texture it produced.  I stamped the Merry Christmas onto some slightly darker blue and cut it with some of the Master Layout dies.  I went with the opposites... plain inner and stitched outer. The other layers are some silver card stock.  The darker blue made the base.   A few silver baubles finished this card. 

Card 2 - Mini Slimline

For this one, I started by stamping the border stamp from the Holiday Tapestry set and added the tape above and below.  Next I used the bigger stamp above the border and the sentiment below.  Messed up the sentiment embossing a bit... but hey... it's hand made!  I used some gold baubles on this one.   I then added the red panel directly onto my white card base.  

This stamp set makes such elegant cards when embossed in the gold and silver.  I can see more of these in this year's cards. 

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend.  Today was lovely in the afternoon, so managed a lovely walk along the pipeline between my two local beaches.  

Blended Ink Backgrounds.

 Recently I watched a Gina K Live where she did some masking and ink blending.   I don't have any Gina K inks so pulled out my Altenew inks and did some masking and blending.  

I used soft colours in pink, blue and green.  Once I had removed the masking, I took my new Altenew Dovetail Butterflies and used Obsidian ink to stamp the butterflies and sentiment.  I layered with some dark blue card and then onto a white card base.  

I really like this card design so can see myself doing some more blending in the future.  

Inspired by Gina K....

 I have been watching Gina K's lives on Facebook for a while now.  She is very inspiring.  I don't own many Gina K stamps but do have her Master Layouts 1, 2 and 3 - with #4 on it's way.   On Friday (NZ time) her live was a technique using rubber bands on a block to make plaid.  I loved the idea so used my own supplies to CASE her cards. 

For my first card I did a diagonal plaid using Altenew Ocean Waves and Lime inks and three rubberbands of different widths.  I used Altenew's Beautiful Day set to stamp my rose and leaves.  I attempted to colour with Prismacolor pencils and Mineral spirits - but it wasn't too successful - so added a few strokes of the pencils for dimension.  The oval's were cut from Cottage Cutz stitched ovals and the sentiment is from Altenew's Sweetest Peas set.  The panels were cut with Gina's Master Layouts 2.  I finished card with some holographic gems.

Card two - I made a plaid but the messed up the stripes so cut the panel down with the Master Layout 2 dies.  I found some pretty Patterned paper that went well with the plaid and the kraft card I used for the base.  This time I used the larger circle dies from Master Layouts 3.  The sentiment is from a Catherine Pooler set called Bloomin' Bouquet.  

I have a third card that I made after being inspired by a live from last week.  It's a sort of resist card,  

I am still waiting for the stamp set that Gina used, so again improvised.   I used a Hero Arts background stamp Flourish Background and white embossed it. I then cut it down to size with the Master Layouts.  I then used Altenew Sapphire ink to stamp the Altenew A Study in Watercolour stamp.  I white embossed a scrap and added the Sapphire ink directly to it before trimming to size .  I die cut the circles and added the sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays set Casual Elegance.  

Thanks for persevering through this long post.  I had fun trying out these different techniques.