Split Colour Technique.

 My local swap group for December had a fun challenge set by my friend, Suna.  It was a split colour technique - she gave us a variety of ideas via youtube videos.   I chose to use one from Jennifer McGuire - from 8 years ago.

This technique ends up with two cards - from two lots of stamping and colouring. 

This is the one I sent off to Suze.  The stamp is a Gina K one called Happy Bouquet.  Stamped once of white card and in the same spot on some Scrapbook.com watercoloured patterned paper. The white card was stamped with black ink and clear embossed and the PP was stamped with Versamark and clear embossed.  I coloured the white card stamping with some alcohol markers and then trimmed the same amount off the end of each panel and mixed and matched.   I added some ribbon across the join and topped with a stamped and die cut sentiment from Couture Creations.  

And here is the second card. 

Added a softer purple ribbon across the join and a different sentiment from the same set of Couture Creations stamp and die set.  

Had a lovely weekend - my niece, her husband and their 15 year old daughter stayed with us.  They are from Townsville in North Queensland, Australia and are doing a 3 week trip to NZ.  Vicky was born in NZ in the South Island and had never been to Auckland and her hubby as never been to NZ.  Poor Chelsea though, her suitcase didn't make it with her!  Three days later and it still is in Australia!  Anyhoo,,, they had a great time with us.  Yesterday they did the bungy jump of the Skytower and a walk up One Tree Hill for an awesome view of the city.   All that after Peter had taken them on an hour long walk around our area.   

Inspired by Jennifer McGuire... Use up your patterned paper

 This afternoon I watched Jennifer McGuire's latest video. (see it here) It was all about using up your patterned papers.  Boy is that girl talented!   Over the last few weeks I've been trying to use up some of my ginormous pile of paper!  I had a pack from Uniti (a brand that is local to my Warehouse store) on my desk so decided to try some of Jennifer's ideas.  

Here is what I came up with.  

I die cut the Birch Press - Prime Peony Duo die set from one of the papers from the Sunshine Floral pack.  I added a little bit of ink around the edges and over the pink paper I used green inks.  I then chose a pink marbled background from another paper pack.  To ground my flowers I die cut an oval from Gina K Master Layout 1.  I then used Altenew Classic Greetings stamp and die set to make the sentiment.   I used Altenew Rose Gold embossing powder.  I added some layers behind it for dimension.   A few gold metallic pearls from Pinkfresh Studios finished off the card.  

Been a busy day as I had to go out to buy a new vacuum cleaner and a new mat for in the kitchen.  The old vacuum packed a sad yesterday.  Spent a bit more than I wanted to but it's a great little machine with great suction and very quiet!    

Hello - have a great day

 I have a card today inspired by two amazing crafters  - Ardyth Percy-Robb and Jennifer McGuire 

My background was one I made following Ardyth's presentation at the Stress Free Cardmaking Summit and I paired it with a partial die cutting technique I watch on Jennifer's blog.   I die cut the hello from the corner of the background panel where I knew the white panel would cover it.   I used the shadow die to do the partial die cutting technique.  Added a stamped sub sentiment and added some matching gems.  

Inked embossing folder technique - inspired by Jennifer McGuire.

Last week Jennifer McGuire did a video - a new MUST-SEE embossing folder technique .  It's a  stunning technique where you ink on the raised side of an 3D embossing folder  - you have to watch the video to see how stunning it is.  And it's very addictive. 

I made three cards...all using Altenew's Beautiful Bergenia 3D folder

First up is one using purple card and white pigment ink.

After running the folder through your machine, you take a slightly darker dye ink and either brayer or lightly rub the ink over the raised part of the embossed panel.    With this one the sentiment and the die are both from Altenew as well. 

For the next two I used kraft card and did one with gold pigment ink and one with the white. 

 This one is using the gold.  I used a darker brown ink - Almond Butter ink 

The second one used the white ink and used Hazelnut ink over the raised area.   I used a Spellbinder/Simon Hurley hot foiled sentiments on both cards. 

I could have kept on going... it's just such a fun and easy technique.  

Faux metallic texture card with a New Zealand flavour.

 Recently Jennifer McGuire did a blog post and video using a technique she called "Faux Metallic Texture"  It uses an embossing folder and some speciality card stock.  I found some coloured metallic card in my stock and used some pink and green to emboss it.

This is one of the 4 cards I made over the long weekend.  The kids were off shopping and hubby was at the local rugby game so I had a bit of time to myself. 

I used an Altenew 3D embossing folder Beautiful Bergenia and did some sanding on it.  This piece was left over from the 6"x6" piece of card that I had embossed.  I have a pack of New Zealand Ephemera and I pulled out this Wood Pigeon and NZ flowers.  I kept the sentiment simple - from Altenew's Birthday Builder stamp set.  

I'll share the other cards over the next little while. 

The family has left now... Dad and Ngaire on Saturday afternoon and Emma, Andrew and Archie this morning.  I've heard from them - they arrived safely after their 7 hour flight.  A long time for an energiser bunny of a 5 year old, to sit still.  I had printed him out some line art Pokemon images to colour in which kept him happy for a bit.   

We had visited the newly weds on Sunday and the little ones got to have a last play and bath together.   I will miss having the little man come running into our room and jumping up between us in the mornings.    - Only 6 months and we will be heading over to visit them. 

Twofer cards - Inspired by Jennifer McGuire.

 I am a great fan of all things Jennifer McGuire and love watching her videos.  Recently she did one where she mangaed to get two card from one blending, stamping and embossing - so after a few false starts - such as my clear embossing powder being contaminated with white powder and one card getting stuck together - I ended up with one set of two cards.  I was inspired by my blog friend Sally with her choice of background stamp - a Hero Arts background stamp called Leaf and Floral background. 

I chose some Distress Oxides in Broken China, Weathered Wood and Cracked Pistashio to blend as my background.  Then I clear embossed the Leaf and Floral background.  I liberally spritzed the panel, added another on top and ran through my Cuttlebug.  

Here are my two cards

This is the first pane..  You can still see the beautiful glossy background.  I took a Gina K oval and scalloped oval to make the focal point.  I added a sentiment from a Gina K sentiment.  I stamped a flower from Altenew Line Art stamps using the same colours in Distress inks.  I die cut it and a couple of other layers to make the flower stand up a bit better.  Added a few clear gems. 

And here is the second panel I got.

This panel is a much softer looking.  I stamped the flowers and used Distress inks in the blues and greens to watercolour them before fussy cutting them.  The little Thanks is from the same stamp set.  I die cut it with the matching die and stamped the sub-sentiment straight onto the card base. 

I was pleased with the results of these two.