White Embossing and Bleach

Evening,

Painting with bleach, is the nearest I like to get to housework. I love the effect that you get when you paint a stamped and embossed image with thin undiluted bleach.

Here are several cards made using fabulous floral stamps designed by my friend Jane Gill for Woodware.

I have stamped and embossed in white for all of the cards

but I did try a variety of cardstock, as not all will allow the colour to be bleached out.

It is amazing the variations you can get just with black cardstock.

And then of course there is always dark blue.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

A Crafty Task

Evening,

One of my crafty tasks before Christmas was to finish a card for the daughter of my old Boss. I promised him that I would still make cards for them as I have done in the past.

I found a piece of handmade background in my stash full of nice bright colours.

The floral stamp is one of Jane Gill's designs for Woodware at Creative Expressions.

I stamped and embossed the image and then used diluted bleach to paint with to remove some of the colour. I also stamped and embossed the card blank in gold for a nice contrast.

Of course her card would not be complete without her name on it.

My Christmas with the Grandchildren finishes in the morning when I get a lift home with Daddy on his way to work. No doubt there will be tears from Chloe who always gets upset when I leave, but I will be back with them very soon to babysit Jack when the Girls return to school before his nursery reopens.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Jane's Florals

Evening,

One of the major benefits of being retired, is being able to stay with the Grandchildren for an extra day after the weekend, because you don't have to get back for work.

It was lovely taking them all to school this morning, and then picking them up at the end of the day. Chloe asked if we could go for our treat at Costa. So we had a hot chocolate before coming home to read books and do homework.

This is a card that I made with one of Jane's fabulous floral stamps.

I rarely know exactly what I am going to create when I start making samples,

so I often end up with extra bits and pieces to make another card.

I did quite a bit of fussy cutting

and die cut some panels,

and made one card for Creative Expressions, and another for my box.

They are very slightly different,

because I hate to make the same card twice.

I've managed to make my laptop battery last for my stay. I do hope that I have left the charger on my desk at home.

Back to looking after Mum tomorrow. I wonder if she has missed me?

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Christmas Stockings to get me in the mood for samples

Afternoon All,

Time for a few Christmas cards.

As you know I babysit the littlest Grandchildren every other weekend so that Mum can go to work. I love spending time with them, but manage very little in the way of crafting, so this time I decided that I would take some watercolouring with me. I had a few more of these Christmas stockings to colour.

The Girls love to join in, as does Jack to be fair, so I let them colour a couple of the images each.

They loved using the Irridescent paint palettes that I had taken with me, and then they chose a couple of embossing folders for their backgrounds.

I am turning them in to cards, which I would have done already had I not stupidly left them behind when I came home on Sunday. Never mind, now they will be able to finish them off with me when I go there next weekend.

Here are my efforts,

complete with embossed background panels.

I added kraft foam behind the stamped panels to give added dimension.

As always a bit of gilding wax helps to highlight the embossing on the black panel.

I'm hoping that Jane will be pleased with what the Girls and I have done with her Stockings in a Row stamp set. It is definitely lovely to colour.

While we are on the subject of Christmas stockings here are another couple of cards that I made from bits and pieces I found in my Christmas box.

This one combines another of Jane's stamps, foliage this time, with a Magenta Christmas stocking.

I have to get into Christmas mode this weekend since I have Christmas samples to make so this is to get me in the mood.

Have a great weekend.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx

They call it Black Magic

 Afternoon,

One of the advantages to travelling on the train at the weekend, apart from my Costa Coffee treat that is, is that I get to catch up on some crafty Youtube clips.

This time I was reminded of the Black Magic Technique by another crafty favourite of mine Gina K Designs. It is something that I first did many years ago at the Craft Barn with the lovely ladies from Magenta stamps and of course, you guessed it, I still have some pieces in my bits box that need finishing off lol.

You need a nice solid image for this technique,

and Magenta have some real beauties.

You need to stamp the image on to dark cardstock using a white ink pad. Any dark colour will do, but black is certainly very striking.

The idea is then to colour over the stamped image using colouring pencils.

A waxy type of pencil seems to work best, but give it a try with whatever you have. What have you got to lose?

These little square stamps are perfect for this technique

as they are not very big so they don't take too long to achieve a beautifully coloured panel.

Any solid stamped image will work as with this lovely Woodware image designed by Jane Gill.

As you can see it is possible to get some quite nice shading to your colouring, and of course the black card shows the images off beautifully.

This is a lovely big background stamp that I found in my stash. I think that I might add a die cut 

sentiment to this before I send it to anyone.

I wonder what technique I will be reminded of next time I delve in to Youtube. There are so many fabulous clips available, and the best bit is that the little ones love to watch them with me, in fact they often ask to watch Jennifer when I am there for my babysitting weekend.

It rather made her Mum and I laugh as Emma uttered WOW when she saw some heat embossing being done on the screen. That is exactly what we both said the first time we saw it done, and it is still WOW after 25 years of playing.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx

Let it Snow.....no thanks

 Evening All,

What a cold and miserable day it has been today. Thankfully we haven't had any of the snow that my Sin-in-Law said that we were expecting. It's too wet for it to settle at least even if it did arrive.

I have decided that the easiest way for me to decide what cards to share with you, is to be guided by some of the challenges that I follow both through Facebook and individual blogs. So here we are with the first challenge of 2021 over at Christmas Card and Papercraft Challenges on Facebook

....................................Snowflakes - Multiple Colours......................................

As I only managed to write about a dozen cards before the virus got hold of me, I still have plenty more cards still to share with you, before they go in the drawer for next year.

This one was made using a lovely stamp set designed by Jane Gill JGS681 Let it Snow. I created a masterboard/one sheet wonder using the snowflake stamps from the set and various colours of Distress Inks.

Once I cut the panel up it gave me enough for two cards.

This card is made with some second generation stamping around the edges of the main card along with the lovely large sentiment from the set and a few sequins.

Same idea here,

just different snowflake stamps along with a script background stamp.

And finally a torn paper mask across the centre of this card.

Better get to bed, it's my last chance for a lie in tomorrow before I'm back to work at 'stupid o'clock'.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx

Potter numbers 1,2,and 3

Evening Everyone,
My family are convinced that I am the only person left on the planet who hasn't watched a Harry Potter film.
My littlest Grandchildren changed all of that over the weekend, when we managed to watch the first couple of 'Potters' as Chloe calls them.
I loved all the postal owls in the first film, so I thought that it made the perfect opportunity to share a card that I made a while ago using an owl stamp designed by Jane Gill for Woodware.

I stamped and embossed the owl onto a piece of watercolour cardstock and dropped colour onto it having made the card stock very wet.

Once it was dry I added more colour to specific parts of the image.

The background is a piece of 'Bleedin Art Tissue' stuck onto DSST and then highlighted with gold gilding wax.

I added some black die cut branches and a few fussy cut stamped leaves.
Emma and I stayed at home while Mum did the shopping with the little ones this afternoon so I managed a third Potter. I am now cool according to Saskia, one of my older Grandchildren, although she did feel that I should have watched Mulan which has always been our go to babysitting movie.
Isn't it funny how little traditions stick in kids minds even when they grow up. It's lovely that they have fond memories of our time spent watching the film eating ice cream and chocolate.
Thanks for stopping by
Hugs Kimx

Pearlex Posies

Evening All,
Just a quick post tonight, I don't know where the time has disappeared to.

Another couple of cards using stamps designed by Jane for Woodware.

I coloured them in using one of my Pearlex Palettes which I love. This particular one looks especially good on dark card.

I used white embossing powder for this card which definitely gives a different look. Think I prefer the first one.
Thanks for stopping by.
Stay safe and hugs
Kimx