Leafy 'Bump and Smudge'

Hi Again,
One of the newer techniques that I have been playing with recently is 'Bump and Smudge'.
I love the Distress Oxide Inks, and this is the perfect technique to showcase them since it takes advantage of both the dye based and pigment properties of the inkpad, and it is sooooo easy to do.
Basically you 'bump' your stamp against your inkpad to ink it up, and then having stamped it on to plain cardstock you 'smudge' it with a foam tipped blending tool or smoochie.
We had such fun with the technique and have repeated the class several times due to its popularity, so I have several batches of cards that I will share with you over the next few weeks.
This first batch are all very masculine, which is good because I am always short of cards for men.

They all use a fabulous old Penny Black leafy stamp 40-111 Breezy and green/brown Distress Oxides. I created a panel for this card using the leaves and a script background stamp. I finished it off with some twine, tiny black metal dots and a birthday greeting.

The 'Bump and Smudge' technique relies on the dye ink in the oxide to give you the image and the slower drying pigment ink for the smudge, so you need to work on the images one at a time or they will dry out before you can smudge them.
I cut up the panel I created for this card to make two very different cards. Once again I used a favourite Woodware sentiment stamp set and brown Nuvo drops for this square card.

The remaining portion of the panel was used on this card along with a die cut sentiment, some gems and some more stamped leaves.

My final card uses the same leaf stamp and a large text background stamp (I think it is Stampendous) to create my panel. I also splattered this panel with some water to add interest and some lovely oxidised splatters.
This technique would be perfect for a Masterboard (class suggestion Janice :O)?) and I can see me using it a lot more in the future.
Have a great evening.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Driving with the wind in your hair.

Hi All
Well I have to say that the weather today is much more to my liking. Yesterday afternoon was definitely not the time to be trapped on the roof of a multistory car park waiting for the RAC!!!!!
Especially when having waited for 4 hours the problem was fixed in 5 minutes flat.
And no it wasn't one of those 'stupid women' moments, I don't drive anyway, and my friend is far from stupid and has been driving for a long time. Everyone has agreed that it is a design flaw in the construction of the car lol.

While we are on the subject of cars here is a lovely LOTV Simply Print digi image on this card.

An open topped car and a bit of speed would definitely have been preferable to hanging around in the scorching sunshine.

The background to both these cards has been made using a fabulous 3D Embossing folder, silver card stock and a bit of black paint.

 I also used some die cut wheels and cogs.

While we are on the subject of embossing folder backgrounds, here are another couple of cards.

This last one uses a couple of Penny Black Stickeroo images.
Edited to include a couple of other cards

I found another couple of cute cards while I was doing some photo housekeeping this afternoon, so I thought that I would add them to this post.
Another embossed background and a dinosaur from one of my new favorite stamp companies Alpaca Pals, so adorably cute but also some fabulous sentiments and floral/background stamps.

And finally a bit more paper piecing.
Sylvie and I decided to go to the gym on the bus this afternoon, despite the car getting fixed yesterday, we didn't want to tempt fate.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Christmas Ornaments

Afternoon Everyone, me again!
Another Bank Holiday Monday, unfortunately it's been just like any other Monday for me as I've been working, but I hope that those of you that aren't are enjoying it.
It's incredibly hot given what Bank Holiday weather is usually like, so I thought that as the next one will actually be at Christmas then I would bring the temperature down a bit by sharing a few more Christmas cards with you :O)

They are all made using a very old, but much loved Magenta stamp set.

The backgrounds have been created with a brayer and a Fruitcake Kaleidacolor ink pad. Once again, a very old technique.

In fact, to be perfectly honest I cant for the life of me remember when I actually created the panels. Probably during a demo many years ago, but as you know I'm on a mission to use up some of the millions of bits in my stash.

That's not easy when I teach a class each week, which inevitably creates more bits to use up. Still I'm not complaining. I love my hobby. It keeps me sane, and I hope that The Girls enjoy it. Given that they keep coming back I guess that must be a yes lol.

Some of the brayered panels were just stamped and embossed, while some were spritzed with water or even bleach.

This one had cling film placed over it after the water to create a fabulous frosted effect.

I have always loved the 'Wet Watercolour' look for painting. So easy to achieve, and every piece is different.

This final card uses a different colour inkpad for the background which has then been spritzed with bleach.

I really think that I should revisit this technique with The Girls. Sometimes we are so eager to try new things that we forget some of the old favourites.

I added glossy accents to some of the stamped images for a little added interest. It also intensifies the colour underneath.

I thought that it was about time that I entered a challenge so I would like to join everyone at Winter Wonderland - Christmas Ornaments.

Have a great evening.

Happy Crafting and hugs 

Kimx

Love and Hugs

Evening All
What beautiful weather we have had today. Far too hot for me, so a perfect excuse for some crafting.

I have had need of a few New Baby cards just recently, so I finished off several in a couple of classes.

As I have said many times before, LOTV Simply Print images are always my go to for quick and very cute cards.

One of these cards was made for my Cousin's Daughter who made her a very proud first time Grandma in July.

Of course you cant forget the new Grandparents so I made a card for them too.

Another was needed for one of my work colleagues who also became a first time Dad.

I had several panels in my stash from a previous Paper Piecing class so I managed to get them all finished off as well.

 

After all you never know when you might need another card.

Time for bed I think. I have to be at work as usual tomorrow, no Bank Holiday for me I'm afraid.

Happy Crafting and Hugs

Kimx

A snowflake Masterboard

 Afternoon  Everyone,
Three posts in four days, not bad going for me. That's loads of butterflies, so it must be about time for some Christmas cards.

I have literally hundreds of them made and photographed, so I really do need to start sharing them with you since just lately I seem to be adding a few more to the pile each month.

One way of making several cards at one sitting is by preparing a Masterboard, a favourite technique of my lovely friend Angela aka Felix the Crafty Cat.

This basically involves sponging and stamping over an entire sheet of card, which you then cut up to create several individual cards. 

Any technique is a go, preprepared backgrounds, gelli plate, sponging, stamping, stencils, combined together to create wonderful one off masterpieces.

I have used an old Inkadinkadoo snowflake stamp set along with a Blue Breeze Kaleidacolor ink pad to create my Masterboard, along with some silver heat embossed snowflakes and stamped sentiments. 

You can cut the panel up in any way you see fit.

It also means that you can use all of the panel, 

including all of the little leftover bits.

Off to do a little more commenting before I get back to craft, I have a class to prep for.

Have a great crafty afternoon.

Hugs Kimx

Butterflies and Poppies

Evening Everyone,
Just recently several of my classes have been inspired by things that I have found on YouTube, my go to place when travelling on the train to my daughter.

One such such find is 'Bump and Smudge', such an easy technique, but so effective. It involves the use of Distress Oxide inks, and has proved a particular favourite with 'The Girls'.

Basically you 'bump' your inked stamp onto your cardstock, and then 'smudge' the image with a blending tool.
You do need to 'smudge' pretty quickly since the technique makes use of both the dye base properties of the Distress Oxides to give you the image, and then the pigment part for the 'smudge'. If you wait too long then the slower drying pigment part will have dried too.

I used a fabulous butterfly panel from Chocolate Baroque for these cards which would have been perfect for the new challenge at CCM where we are looking for Bugs.

I also used this stamp with the Oxide inks

and a damp paintbrush to pull the colour into the image.

This last card also uses the 'Bump and Smudge' technique with my favourite Penny Black Poppies.
The wood panel background paper is from a 12x12 pad that I bought at The Works for £3, amazing value don't you think.
Wow, two blogposts in a row, I might have to go and lie down :O)
Have a great crafty evening.
Hugs Kimx

It's a Bugs Life at CCM

Afternoon Everyone.
Oh dear, it looks like summer has deserted us again. I haven't quite resorted to turning on the heating like some of the customers at work have been doing, but I have reached for a blouse with longer sleeves and closed my window up a little, if only to stop the torrential rain that we seem to have been having lately. I have dodged the downpours this very afternoon as I have finally made it back to the gym!!

Given the rather inclement weather at the moment, I thought that I ought to share a few summery style cards, we can but dream of sunshine and butterflies I guess.

The cards also fit rather nicely into the latest challenge which starts today over at CCM  where the theme is 'It's a Bugs Life'.

Unfortunately I didn't get my arse in gear early enough to pop my card on the challenge blog, but please do stop by and see what the rest of the DT have been up to, and maybe join in yourself.

I recently taught a class using some fabulous 3D Embossing folders, and while there were quite a few of them that we played with,

this has to be one of my favourites, as you can see by the number of samples that I managed to finish. 

Obviously one of the easiest ways of using the folders is plain cardstock with gilding wax lightly applied to accentuate the embossing.

But I think a bit of the letter press technique and added ink makes this particular panel my favourite card of them all.

I added stamped sentiments to the finished cards

as well as die cut ones.

Some I heat embossed with clear embossing powder,

and some I just painted with a sparkle pen.

And as you can see you don't have to use the whole panel on a card, you can always chop it up a little. 

Don't forget to pop across to the CraftyCardmakers blog, there are some lovely samples from the DT. I'm off to visit it myself. I've been very bad at commenting over the last few months, and so I am determined to start off the new challenge with some much needed visiting.

Have a great evening.

Happy Crafting and hugs

Kimx