Birthday Butterfly

Hello there, today I have a card to share that was very quick to put together. I tend to keep all the background pieces that I have made and never used. I never know when I might need one for a quick card. I especially do this a lot with alcohol ink backgrounds. When using alcohol ink, I tend to make a few backgrounds in one go, even if I have no idea what I will use them for at the time, to make the most of spending time cleaning up afterwards. For this card, I used one of those backgrounds.

 

The background was made by applying alcohol inks to Yupo paper and using the Distress Marker Spritzing Tool to move the ink around. I used Raspberry, Wild Plum and Purple Twilight on this piece, as well as a little Silver Mixative. I cut the piece down and added it to the front of an A2 white card base with tape runner.

 

 

I took Dove White Hero Hues Cardstock and added Stick It to the back. I then ran three pieces through my die cutting machine with the Hero Arts Monarch Butterfly Fancy Die. These were adhered one on top of each other and then in to the middle of the card. I took the sentiment from the Hero Arts Many Everyday Messages Stamp Set and stamped it on to Pitch Black Hero Hues Cardstock with Versamark Ink. I applied white embossing powder and heat set. It was then cut in to a strip and added to the card with tape runner.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

I really like how the white and black pop against the bright background. Do you keep your background scraps? Thanks so much for visiting me today. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Easter

Hello there, wishing you all a very happy Easter, if you celebrate, if not, happy weekend! I am here today to share a card that I made for my mum for Easter. I used the adorable Bella from Purple Onion Designs. I have used her before for general cards but I thought she would look cute on an Easter card too.

 

I started off by stamping Bella (Bunny Holding Long Flower) on to white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I coloured her with Copic Markers (the colours that I used are listed below the supplies section) and then fussy cut her out with scissors. I took an A2 white card base and blended clouds on to the top section. I used Broken China Distress Ink, along with the MFT Mini Cloud Edges Stencil.

 

 

I then took the MFT Grassy Edges Stencil and added a little grass section at the bottom of the clouds. I used Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks for this. I took the sentiment from the Purple Onion Designs Sweet Occasions Sentiment Set and stamped it on to the grass with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. Bella was then added on with foam tape. To finish off, I added a few dots of Spica Glitter Pen to the flower.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

COPIC MARKERS: Bunny - N5, N3, N2, N1, N0, R00, R000. Flower - Y17, Y15, Y13, Y11, Y00, G43.

 

A very simple card but I thought it was sweet! Thank you so much for stopping by today, I really do appreciate it. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, whatever you are up to!

May All Your Dreams Come True

Hello there, today I have a card to share using the beautiful Picture It Fairy Tale stamp set from Clearly Besotted. This image works perfectly to use with critters and such but I thought it would look really pretty on it's own too.

 

I started off by stamping the background image on to white cardstock, with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I then stamped the sentiment from the Picture It Fairy Tale stamp set in the top left hand corner. The image panel was then simply coloured with Copic Markers (the colours that I used are listed below the supplies area).

 

 

I added a strip of MFT Black & White Striped Paper to the left hand side of an A2 white card base and then added the image panel with foam tape. To finish off, I added Crystal Glaze to the castle.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

COPIC MARKERS: Sky - B02, B01, B00, B000, B0000. Grass and bushes - YG67, YG17, YG23, YG03, YG01. Path - E44, E43, E42, E41. Castle - N8, N7, N3, N2, N1, V17, V15, V12. Rainbow - R85, R83, R81, YR16, YR15, YR12, Y17, Y15, Y13, Y11.

 

It is a bit of an odd layout, but I'm going with it! :) Thank you so much for popping by to see me today, I really do appreciate it. I hope you are all well and have a great day!

VIDEO | Subtle Background with Dry Embossing

Hello there, today I am over on the Hero Arts blog taking a look at creating a subtle background with dry embossing.

 

 

I used the beautiful Color Layering Dragonfly for my focal point and the 3-Part Ornament Frame Cuts for the embossed background. I really like how the dry embossing brings your eye in to the dragonfly.

 

VIDEO:

 

Here is the video showing how I made the card:

 

If you are viewing this blog post via email subscription, you can watch the video here on YouTube.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

For more information, please visit the blog post on the Hero Arts Blog. Thanks so much for stopping by today, have a great day!

VIDEO | Ombré Alcohol Ink Backgrounds With One Ink

Hello there, today I have two cards to share with you that I made using alcohol inks. I wanted to create an ombré look but using only one colour of alcohol ink. I am combing the backgrounds with the new Simon Says Stamp Poppy Frame Die from the new Blossoms and Butterflies collection, which is out today.

 

 

I started off my cards by creating the background. I took Yupo Paper and first added the colour on to the bottom piece directly from the alcohol ink bottle. I used Watermelon for the red and Indigo for the blue. I wanted a fragmented/harsh line look on my backgrounds, so I spritzed it using the Distress Marker Spritzer Tool. This blows air on to the alcohol ink and moves it, as well as dries it.

 

 

I then added a small amount of the same ink in to a mixing cup and added Alcohol Ink Blending Solution to it. This lightens the colour so that I can create my middle shade of ink. I used a pipette to apply this to the Yupo paper. I added drops to the middle of the Yupo pieces, making sure to add some over the top of the edge of the dark area to help blend it. I then added more Alcohol ink Blending Solution to the cup and applied the ink in the same way, to the top of the piece. If the colour was not light enough, I added drops of the Alcohol ink Blending Solution directly to the top, to lighten it further.

 

 

Once I was happy with the ombré, I splattered on some of the Alcohol ink Blending Solution with a paint brush. This helped to create a blend between the colours and also gave more texture to the piece. These were then set aside to dry. Once dry, they were cut down to be the same size as my die cut.

 

 

I took the Simon Says Stamp Poppy Frame die and die cut this six times from white cardstock, that had Stick It on the back. I layered these up to create two stacked die cut pieces, each with three layers. These were added to the alcohol ink backgrounds and then added to white A2 card bases with tape runner.

 

 

I took the sentiments from the Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words stamp set and stamped these on to black cardstock with Versamark Ink. I applied white embossing powder and heat set. These were then cut in to strips using the Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Labels dies and added to the cards with a combination of mounting tape and tape runner.

 

VIDEO:

Here is a look at how I made the cards:

 

 

 If you are viewing this blog post via email subscription, you can watch the video here on YouTube.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

I really like how the ombré turned out. As I mentioned in the video, you can do this with three shades of alcohol ink and you may get more definition of the colours but I wanted to see if you could do it with just one ink too. Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope you have a great day!

Easter Egg Treat Boxes

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

Hello there, following on from my posts reviewing the Cricut Maker and the Cricut EasyPress 2, I am back to share my final post of the series with you. Since I made quite a few projects when reviewing the EasyPress 2 (you can see that post here), I thought I would focus today on the Maker. If you haven't already seen it, you can see my review of that here). I thought it would be fun to create some Easter treat boxes as I like to make some every year.

 

I first looked in Design Space to see if there were any ready-made projects that I could make. There was lots of different ideas on there but I decided to create something myself using the image files. First of all, I found the Chocolate Box (#M97AA7) from the Fancy Boxes collection.

 

 

The box cuts an opening in the front to add a contrasting colour of cardstock behind, but I thought it would be fun to replace that with acetate and add a greeting to the acetate with vinyl. I took a piece of purple cardstock and placed this in the Maker to cut and score the box. I used the Scoring Wheel for the scoring and it worked wonderfully! I love that Design Space tells you to add the Scoring Wheel in first, it does what it needs to do and then it prompts you to add in the Premium Fine Point Blade to do the cutting.

 

 

Once the boxes were cut I added a piece of acetate behind the opening. You can get the Maker to cut this for you but I decided to just adhere a piece behind the window. I then worked on the sentiment for the window. I found a sentiment in Design Space images called Hippity Hoppity Happy Easter (#M9FFC85C) from the Shake Your Bunny Tail collection.

 

I didn't want the whole phrase so I edited it to remove the hearts and the 'hippity hoppity' part. This was cut on to white vinyl. I weeded the sentiment and then using Transfer Tape, I added the vinyl wording to the acetate. I found that the scraper tool from the Essential Tools Set helped with this.

 

I then constructed the boxes (they assemble very easily) and added mini chocolate eggs inside. To finish off, I added ribbon through the top holes to tie them together.

 

 

I did make the boxes a little bigger than they originally are in Design Space to accommodate my eggs but that is the great thing with using the Maker to make things like this, you can make them any size you need to.

 

I have had a lot of fun working with the Cricut Maker and EasyPress 2 over the last couple of months. It has been really nice to do something different. I hope you have enjoyed the series and I hope to share other things that I make with the machines soon. Thank you so much for stopping by today, I really do appreciate it.

Birthday Balloons

Hello there, today I have a card to share that I made for my dad for his birthday. I was inspired by this card from Laurie and just changed it slightly to fit my design.

 

I started off by taking a panel of white cardstock and stamping the balloons from the MFT Bundle Of Balloons stamp set on to it. I stamped all five sizes/shapes randomly across the panel using various shades of MFT ink. I then die cut this panel using the MFT Happy Birthday Block die and made sure to keep all the pieces. I cut the die again three times from black cardstock.

 

 

I took the stamped panel and added a layer of printer paper on the back (this is so that I can pop it up on foam tape but still have something to adhere the letters to). I then placed the letters that I cut from black cardstock inside, one on top of another, with liquid glue. I made sure to add the inside pieces of the letters in and then added the top layer of the letters which were cut from the stamped panel. This gives a continuation of the design but because of the layers, it shows up the letters too.

 

 

I took an A2 white card base and added a strip of MFT Black & White Striped Paper to the bottom. I then added the panel on top with foam tape. To finish off, I added a small strip of black cardstock between the layers.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

I really like how this card turned out and I love those balloons! Thank you so much for visiting me today, I very much appreciate it. I hope you have a great day and a wonderful weekend!

VIDEO | Raskog Cart Organisation 2019

Hello there, if you have been following me for a little while, you will know that I love my Raskog cart. It holds so much stuff and when you have a small craft room like mine, you need all the storage space you can get! I recently picked up the Hogsma Cutting Board to put on the top of it to create a die cutting station for myself.

 

 

The Hogsma Cutting Board has indentations at the side so that it sits perfectly on the top of the Raskog. Up until now, I have been getting my die cutting machine out of my cupboard each time I want to use it and put it back in afterwards. To be honest with you, this has become hard work and so I wanted to see if I could keep it out all of the time. I was not keen to have it on my desk (I like to keep my desk fairly clutter free, where possible) but as soon as I saw the Hogsma Chopping Board, I knew it would be perfect to use for die cutting.

 

 

I do also use a Spellbinders Platinum 6 for die cutting but I can easily grab that and put it on my desk to use it, if needed, as it has a handle. The Gemini Junior doesn't, so that's why I opted to put the Gemini Junior on there as it is harder to move. There is enough space on the top to run my cutting plates through and I have a plug socket next to my Raskog so I can plug my Gemini Junior in when I am using it. I added a 3M hook to the back so that I can hang up the cord to keep it out of the way.

 

 

The great thing with the board is that the cups still fit underneath which is really helpful for me. I have the older Bygel cups but the newer Sunnersta fit as well. Underneath the board there is still room to put things. At the moment, I just have a Cricut Trimmer and pens in it but I will likely add more as time goes on. I am thinking that when I am using my Cricut Maker, I can move my die cutting machine and place the Maker on top, so it will have two uses :)

 

 

The next tier of my cart holds a lot of my pens and pencils. I have them in the Skurar cups from Ikea. The small ones are labelled as candle holders and these hold my multi-liners, water brushes, gel pens, sparkle pens etc. the bigger version are labelled as plant pots and in these I have my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens, Arteza Real Brush Pens, Prismacolor pencils and Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I have a basket at the front which holds paper towels. Sadly, this has been discontinued but the OMAR Clip On Basket looks very similar.

 

 

The bottom tier holds more cups. these ones hold mini misters and dropper bottles, Aletenew Artist Markers and Tonic Nuvo Aqua Flow pens. I have my Distress Markers in the Tim Holtz Tin and next to that my Copic Refills in a Really Useful Box, as well as my Copic Airbrush attachments and some gloves.

 

 

To the side of the cart are my heat tools (and an art brush), these are clipped on with 3M hooks.

 

VIDEO:

 

Here is the video showing my updated organisation:

 

If you are viewing this blog post via email subscription, you can watch the video here on YouTube.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I shared in the video. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

I really like how this is working for me. I am finding it so much easier to die cut now. Thank you so much for stopping by today, I really do appreciate it. I hope you have a great rest of the day!

Hero Arts April 2019 My Monthy Hero Kt Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hello there, today we are celebrating the release of the Hero Arts April 2019 My Monthly Hero Kit. What a wonderful kit this month! It is mainly die based but there is a stamp set too, to coordinate with the dies to create some fun scenes. The scenenery dies are based on Venice, but you as you will see with my Countdown card, you can use them for other places in the world too. If you are following along in the hop, you should have arrived here from the fantastic Nichol.

 

For my card today, I thought I would use the dies as intended for a Venice scene. I started off with a panel of watercolour paper and blended Distress Inks on to it for a night sky. I then spritzed it with Hero Arts White Iridescent Shimmer Spray and set aside to dry. Once the panel was dry, I stamped the sentiment from the kit stamp set on to it using Versamark Ink. I applied white embossing powder and heat set. This was added to a white top folding A2 card base with tape runner.

 

 

I then die cut the scenery dies from the kit (the two buildings, the water, bridge and man in gondola) from Pitch Black Hero Hues Cardstock. I added a layer of Antique Hero Hues Cardstock behind the buildings for the openings of the windows. The water, windows and bridge were adhered flat to the card base with Precision Glue. I then added the man and gondola with foam tape. To finish off, I used a white gel pen to add some stars in the sky.

 

 

In case you didn't see it, I wanted to share my countdown card here too. For this card, I went very clean and simple and used just one scenery die. I thought this would look like it could be anywhere in the world. I cut the die from white cardstock (it has an open end at the bottom so perfect for layering) and created a sunset on the top of a white card base with various shades of yellow, orange and red ink. The sentiment from the kit stamp set was stamped with black ink and the building panel added on top with foam tape.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

THE KIT:

 

 

The April 2019 My Monthly Hero Kit contains a 4" x 6" clear stamp set, 7 Scenery Fancy Dies, 14 5.5" x 8.5" Hero Hues Premium Cardstock (Sand, Mustard, Pumpkin, Cherry, Plum, Adriatic & Arctic), 2 5.5" x 8.5" Vellum Paper, 2 rolls of 1/2" foam tape (2.2 yard in 2 thicknesses) and a Tombow Mono Drawing Pen (Black). All of this is valued at $93.50 but you can get it for an amazing $34.99 (approximately £28 depending on exchange rate). The kits are limited edition and often sell out quickly, so remember that you can subscribe so that you never miss a kit. International subscribers get a discount off shipping too.

ADD-ONS:

 

There are some amazing add-on products this month too. These are not limited edition and can be purchased at you favourite Hero Arts stockist, or added to your order with your kit. Here is a look at them:

 

 

BLOG HOP:

 

Here is the full list of participants in the hop today:
 

The Hero Arts Blog

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Janette Kausen

Ilina Crouse

Nichol Spohr

Michelle Short

Caly Person

Emily Midgett

Julee Tilman

Laurie Willison

Amy Kolling

Debi Adams

Lydia Fiedler

 

GIVEAWAY:

 

Hero Arts are giving away one kit to one lucky blog hop reader. The winner will selected from all of the comments across all of the stops in the hop so the more the comment, you more the chance of winning. The giveaway closes Sunday April 7th at 11.59pm. The winner will be announced the following week on the Hero Arts Blog. Good luck!

 

Next on the hop is the amazing Caly. Thank you so much for visiting me today, I really do appreciate it. Have a great time on the rest of the hop!

VIDEO | Clearly Besotted April 2019 Release Preview

Hello there and welcome to Clearly Besotted release day! The April release will be available to purchase tonight at 8pm BST/3pm EDT. It is a great release consisting of cute animals, fun characters, scene building sets and great sentiments.

 

 

You can purchase the new sets from the Clearly Besotted Shop (UK based) and Simon Says Stamp (US based). Here is a look at the new release:

 

 If you are viewing this post via email subscription, you can watch the video HERE on YouTube.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

I would love to know that you think of the new release. Do you have your eye on any of the sets? For more inspiration, please do pop over to the Clearly Besotted Blog. Thank you so much for visiting me today, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Clearly Besotted Teasers | Fly With Me

Hello there and welcome to day four of the Clearly Besotted April 2019 Teasers. Not long to wait now, all the new products release tomorrow. Today, for my last teaser, I am using the new Fly With Me set. This is a wonderful, little set that consists of a plane, a boy and girl that you can have flying the plane, as well as a banner and sentiments. It is a great mix and match/building set.

 

I started my card off by stamping the plane on to white cardstock, I then stamped the girl so that she was sitting in the plane. I stamped the banner piece behind and stamped one of the sentiments inside. They were coloured with Copic Markers (the colours that I used are listed below the supplies section) and fussy cut out with scissors (but there are coordinating dies available).

 

 

I took an A2 white card base and placed the MFT Cloud stencil on top. I then blended Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink on to it using an ink blending tool, moving the stencil down as I went to cover the top half of the card base. I then simple added the image on top with foam tape. To finish off, I added some highlights on to the image with a white gel pen.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

COPIC MARKERS: Plane - B29, B28, B26, B24, C7, C5, C3, C1. Banner - BG72, BG11, BG10. Girl skin - E13, E11, E00, E50. Hair - E29, E27, E25, E23. Top - BG72, BG11, BG10.

 

That's it from me for my teasers this month. I hope you have enjoyed looking at them. I will back tomorrow to share my release video but until then, please do pop over to the Clearly Besotted Blog, as well as Keren and Lisa to see what they have been up to. Thanks so much for stopping by, see you tomorrow!

Clearly Besotted Teasers | Have A Great Day

Hello there and welcome to day three of the Clearly Besotted April 2019 Teasers. The new sets release on Monday 1st April. Today I am using two new sets - My Favourite Food (a wonderful set with animals and their favourite food) and Scene It More (a great scene building set with four different scenes).

 

For my card, I started off by creating the background. I die cut a heart from white cardstock using the Hero Arts Nesting Hearts Infinity Dies. I then stamped the trees background from the Scene It More set on to it with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and coloured with Copic Markers (the colours that I used are listed below the supplies area). The heart was then added to the front of an A2 white card base with tape runner and the left edge cut off with scissors.

 

 

I took the single dog image from the My Favourite Food set and stamped this on to white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black. He was coloured with Copic Markers and then fussy cut out with scissors (but there are coordinating dies available). I went around the edges with a Memento Tuxedo Marker to neaten up the edges. I took the sentiment from the Simple Script set and stamped this on to black cardstock with Versamark Ink. I applied white embossing powder and heat set. This was cut in to a strip using the SSS Sentiment Labels dies and added to the card with foam tape. The dog was then added with foam tape to sit on to of the banner. To finish off, I added black glaze pen to the dog's eyes.

 

SUPPLIES:

Here are the links to what I have used on the card. Affiliate links are used on some products. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on my link, I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support when using these links. Please click on the logo below the product to shop at your favourite store. All products were personally purchased except those from Clearly Besotted, Hero Arts or those marked with an asterisk (*) which were kindly sent to me to use. You can read my full disclosure here.
 

 

COPIC MARKERS: Dog - E37, E35, E33, E31. Bone - E53, E51, E50. Grass - YG17, YG23, YG03, YG01. Trees - YG67, YG17, YG23, E59, E57, E55. Sky - B02, B00, B000, B0000.

 

I am really looking forward to using the other backgrounds in the Scene It More set. They work so well with lots of different images. For more inspiration using the new release, please head over to the Clearly Besotted Blog as well as Keren and Lisa. Thanks so much for visiting me today, I hope you have a great day! See you tomorrow for day four!