Xmas kit with ivy

Yes, there's still a little of my free kit left, so a little ripping and tearing and inking was done! I water-coloured the ivy that was foiled already on the card blank. Added the Invertage layers and used Tim Holtz glossy accents all over the door and outside lamp, unfortunately you can't see the shine but it looks beautiful.

I also added some gems and a ribbon, and bells threaded on to it, and a hunkydory sentiment. Yummy. x

Pretty brown card today

Hi bloggers, how you doing today?

Wow, I saw some sun this a.m and its still shining...

Today's card is very pretty, even if I say so myself. I just love the tones I managed to acheive here  along with the backing tone on tone to the pretty gold embossing on the right.

Lots of inking of course here too, and I made the flowers from the flat vintage pack of papers again from craftwork. Very versatile they are.

Well I hope you love it and if you have any questions why don't you ask me something and be the first commenter... I will be sending out a card to the first person to leave a comment so fingers crossed it may be you.
Kim x

Red Christmas card

Today's Christmas card is still from my free kit from Hunkydory with extra card stock and bling...

Had some nice news today, will be using some Stamp Addicts stamps and designing some cards for them this week, will add to blog when I can but they are very nice stamps and I'm very pleased to help Sarah.

Shades of pink.

Afternoon to all visiting! I had a burst of inspiration last night and this pink number was the 

result. 

I started Inking with Tattered Rose and Victorian velvet then a little Black soot Distress inks on some beautiful Craftwork cards, vintage paper. I have a pad of theses papers and they are almost card they are such good quality! Not sure what the gsm is, but they are very thick. 

I then stamped some swirls with tattered rose just for a little tone on tone dimension.

After that I stamped more swirls but in versamark, but any embossing ink will work. 

Then get your embossing power out, I used gold Debbie Moore powder but you can use any that you have and distribute randomly; they look better when they aren't uniform.

I did exactly the same on some flowers That came in the vintage pack with the paper.  I cut them out and curled them along with faux buttons.

Kanban do this fabulous thing, which they call spiders web. It comes in several colours but you can see it poking out from under the right hand flower along with some gold webby stuff (lack of words for this)! 

I did a fair amount of matting and layering with this card, remembering to ink along the way to match and pull everything together. I added lots of small black gems in the swirls on the right and few other places, A bow in the centre with a faux button and I used a punch to punch out some matching lattice shapes, inked them and layered it under the sentiment and under the flowers.

The only other thing to say is, I used a Kraft card for the base which is 8x8. It's recycled card and just the right colour and weight at 300gsm to stand up with all that it has sitting on it, you don't want it to buckle on the shelf and fall over. Alway use good quality base card; there are so many with high gsm now. If you got all way through that.... Well done! Haha!

Blue Christmas card

As promised, 2nd post today is a Christmas card with lots of bling...

Beautiful cardstock and topper from my free kit obtained from the Donington park event put on by Hunkydory.

The cardstock is lovely and the foiled snow flakes are very special! You don't often see blue for Christmas, do you? But I thought I'd play up to it and do some tone on tone work, as I like that look.

It's speeding toward us again, isn't it! December is just round the corner so get making!

Vintage Grasses and verses

Morning all!

Today, I thought I'd add one of my cards featured in the Create and Craft magazine, which doesn't seem to be online yet, but I have received my paper copy in the post already so hopefully it will be online soon.

It was a lovely feature and the photography was really nicely done, Thanks to Laura Atri, the lovely lady who asked me the questions and gave me lots of nice compliments and answered all my emails as needed.

I managed to make the embellishment on the card look like wood but it is actually just a piece of card that I inked to within an inch of its life with trusty Tim Holtz inks, and the stamps were Grasses and Verses by woodware with frantage embossing powers. The backing paper is a vintage craftwork cards paper which is gorgeous.

I used a glue stick and got a really gloopy (technical term) mess onto the page. I also sprinkled on lots of different colours and mixed some clear ultra thick into it too... Inked up my stamp ready then I got the heat gun out.... Oooo stand back.

After melting all the utee, I dropped the stamp into it and pressed hard. Left to set just for a few seconds. Don't leave it to go cool though, in case it sets yours stamp into it, especially for the polymer ones. Then get inking again or adding some glossy accents; I used some rock candy from Tim again because it has a really nice sparkle.

Hope you like it... Let me know.

Christmas card time.

I know, I know... It's too early for Christmas cards you say!

But not for when you have to start making them! In fact, I'm far behind most crafters but I have the week off work so it's time to add them to the blog.

I will be adding one every day and another card or craft item every day, so be sure to come back and see...

This one I added some acetate that is so pretty with white and gold glitter all over it that I haven't been able to use it til now... It has definitely been one of the items you keep and don't use... all crafters know that you have to have one to use and one to stroke, hehe...

Birthday Blues

Hi bloggers!

I thought I'd have a little play with a kit I got while I was at Donnington Park. It's Dawn Bibby's Collection of perfume bottles with handbags and shoes, this is just a little blending and tone on tone stamping, using Tim holtz inks as always... Got to love them.

Simple but effective!

Autumn theme.

And even more of those handmade flowers in an Autumn theme.

Botanical card..

Not a great image, but you can see how this simple little card utilises the paper flowers and not a die cutting machine in sight...

However, I cannot wait for the new machine from Crafter's companion, which I saw demonstrated at Donnington Park last week... All I can say is Wow, and I want it.

My point is, there are always ways around things so if you don't have a die cutter and you want to make flowers rather than pay a fortune for packs of 4 then make your own... You can!

Botanical Paper Flower

This started as me walking down to the local shop to buy tea bags. Hmm... You now think: how did the flower come from a tea bag? Well, it didn't. However, I bought a magazine too and it had free botanical papers, which I thought were rather nice but a little plain.

So, I got out a simple flower stamp, (part of Dawn Bibby range) and stamped it several times. Next, I got out my trusty Tim Holtz distress inks, which I can't be without, and  blended some colour that matched the papers I thought. I even added some Sakura pen and water brushed it out, a little mica and there were the flowers! I then set about cutting them all out and creasing them, spritzing a little too, layering them up and sticking with the best clue on the planet (well I think so at this time, til anyone changes my mind... what is your favourite?).

The glue is cosmic shimmer glue; it grips almost immediately, dries clear, and is strong. I just wish the pots were bigger, as mine seem to have a hole in the bottom... Or I use them up too quick haha... Anyway I made a few of these little guys today and added them to today's very simple card, but I think it at least looks very pretty! Again, all thanks to the teabag trip... Pic below...

Andrew's technicolour blanket..

Number one son's blanket finally finished and on the bed... Took a long, time but worth it. He loves it. Yay!

Engagement Card

Using my lovely new chloe stamps from Donnington Park show last week.

I had a great time staying in a local B&B and spending all day at the show on Saturday!

Heart Card for friends.

This is one of the cards featured in next months addition of the Create and Craft members magazine so I'm really happy with that. I was really happy with the inky stamped background.