ILWS Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my turn in the In Love With Stamping Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop!
There are four rounds altogether; I am part of number two so you may have arrived from the lovely Krafty Biker page. Links to the next blog in this loop and the start of each round are at the end of my post so do take time to look at the many wonderful creations using this year's Sale-A-Bration stamp sets from Stampin' Up!

Don't forget, these sets can only be earned until the end of February and then they are gone! You get them FREE by spending £45 or hosting a workshop with product sales of £300 or more. Just get in touch to place your order or arrange your home party.

I have two cards to share, both using the beautiful Bliss set in different ways.

On the first I have gone for the faux tile look, which I posted about a few days ago.



It is quite sraightforward but involves a bit of time and patience!



First, I created the whole tile image by stamping the beautiful motif in Crumb Cake and Basic Gray on to Very Vanilla cardstock. I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line them up correctly.



Then I cut this up into squares, distressed the edges a bit with the Cutter Kit and covered each one with Crysal Effects. This dries to a clear laquer, making them look like ceramic tiles. I left them overnight to be absolutely sure I wouldn't smudge them!



Then I stuck on to Crumb Cake cardstock to act as the grout and finished off with some Twill Tape, stamped with the bird image from the set, and a Neutrals Button tied on with Linen Thread.



And now for the second card. This was inspired by my SU grandma Monica and I used my favourite colour - purple!



I adore this card so expect to see some variations in future!

I started by attaching a piece of Rich Razzleberry Striped Grosgrain Ribbon and a piece of the stunning Lap of Luxury DSP to the card blank.

Then I cut four squares of Crumb Cake cardstock and randomly stamped the motif in Crumb Cake and Basic Gray. The squares were then sanded at the edges, crumpled and inked up using the amazing Distressing Kit, which I am loving as vintage is soooo my thing at the moment! On one square I also stamped the Bliss and bird images in Rich Razzleberry.



The flowers and butterfly from the set were stamped in Rich Razzleberry on Very Vanilla cardstock and cut out, which was nowhere near as fiddly as it sounds! I stuck them on with Dimensionals for added effect.



As you can see I used lots of pearls all over as they are just soooooo pretty!



So there you go, two very different cards using the same FREE stamp set.

The next stop on round two of the blog hop is at Rachel's page, so go see what she has come up with!

And here are the starting points of each:
Round one: Sara
Round two: Theresa
Round three: Keren
Round four: Kirsteen

Read more...

Faux tiling using Crystal Effects

Apologies for not blogging for a few days - been busy!

On Saturday we hosted a WI Mixer Winter Warmer Tea Party for the new groups around Yorkshire. It was a huge success and lots of fun, but quite tiring! I ate lots of cake and drank lots of tea!

Yesterday was spent recovering and doing very litle and now I am pleased to say I have lots of work to look forward to this week.

So a quick blog update first!



This card I created with one of my new-found loves - Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects. Remember how I covered a little heart with it and threw loads of glitter on? Well this time I have just used it to create a smooth, clear gloss finish.

I got the idea from the blog of the amazingly talented Michele Kovack. You can see her design, complete with tutorial, here.

I started by stamping the beautiful Bella Toile image and colouring it in using Stampin' Write Markers. The colours are So Saffron, Wild Wasabi and Pretty In Pink. I then chopped the image up into 1" squares and covered each one in an even layer of Crystal Effects.

I left them to dry overnight and by morning they looked like little tiles!
They were then mounted on to card, to give the effect of grout, and the card was finished off with some Paper Daisies coloured in with the markers and beautiful Pearls.



It was quite a time and labour-intensive card, but well worth the effort!

Read more...

All that glistens ...

I love glitter, and have no problem being covered in it when I open up a card with sparkly bits, but sometimes I do wish it wouldn't always fall off as it takes away the effect.
So, to overcome this problem I put an idea to the test. I covered a little heart-shaped piece of card in the yummy Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. I just covered the card in Tombow glue and shook on loads of glitter. Then, not quite waiting for it to dry because I'm too impatient, I applied Crystal Effects over the top and added an extra sprinkling of glitter. Crystal Effects creates a clear laquer so it sealsthe glitter in, leaving the sparkle but avoiding rub-off!
It's hard to get a good picture, but it looks really cute. The glitter still looks fab but you can touch the heart because it's all sealed like it has a layer of resin over it. Needless to say this tecnhique will feature on my cards more in future!

Read more...

Last Christmas cards

Well I have made my final Christmas cards of the year! These are two commissions I had from my friends.
Fay wanted something classy and elegant for her parents, so I used the lovely Contempo Christmas and added some glamour with the amazing Jewels and Pearls. The colour combo is Marina Mist and Crumb Cake, which is a bit of a different Christmas look - cool and snowy I think!
The tree card is for the niece of my friend Jo from WI. She wanted something very tactile, so I cut a felt tree and stuck on loads of bits! The star at the top is covered in glitter and the baubles are Designer Buttons and DSP stacks, punched out and given a coating of Crystal Effects. This gives a clear laquer tomake them shiny, just like baubles! And the trunk is a piece of card wrapped in Linen Thread and the tinsel is some random fluffy ribbon from my sewing stash.
Phew! I have just two presents to finish making and then I'm all done!

Read more...