Stay Magical with Designer Boutique

Evening,

Have you had a good Wednesday? I spent my usual morning in the company of new friends at 'Stitch and Bitch' or 'Sewing Bee' as they prefer the get togethers to be known.

We had been talking last week about card making, so I took a few cards with me so that they could see what I do, along with a copy of my books.

So here are a couple of cards that I made recently for Creative Expressions for the Designer Boutique range.

I used ink sprays and then took some of the colour out of the flowers with bleach.

This card was also made with the same inks and stamps.

I do love an inky background as you know.

I also added a little faux stitching 

and raised the panel on some 3D foam tape.

I really must get some walking done tomorrow, I have been very remiss in my training over the last week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx
 

Inspired by Larainne

Afternoon All,

I spent a lovely day yesterday in the company of crafty friends. As always we talk up a storm about anything and everything. 

One of the topics under discussion was where our inspiration comes from, and as I often remind them, we get our inspiration from all around us, including each other. I have rarely taught a class where I haven't learnt something from someone there, be it a colour combo, or in the case of todays card a slightly different layout to a card.

We were playing some years ago with a Punched Window card technique, that I learnt from another crafty friend Mynette,

I made several examples for them to recreate, but this card was definitely inspired by something that Larainne made during the day. I just loved the design and asked if she would mind me pinching the idea. Thankfully she said yes.

This is another card I made using a page torn from an old book for the background.

I dry embossed the frame before adding it to the card using 3D foam tape.

This is another card that I made for the class using a shaped die to cut the central panel.

Hope you are having a great Sunday, I'm off to do a bit more crafting I think.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Mr Tomte

Evening All,

I'm looking forward to a weekend with the littlest Grandkids which always lifts my spirits, even if Jack is being a little challenging at the moment. He has certainly hit the 'Terrible Twos' with a vengeance.

Of course I won't be able to get any crafting done, but I guess that's like the "firebreaks" that we are getting with our deliveries at work - a day off from orders, to give the deliveries a chance to catch up a little. I'm rather hoping that the same strategy will work with my crafting. A couple of days off to allow my brain time to relax, so that I can catch up a little. A chance to recharge my creative batteries.

I start the day off with grand intentions for what I will get done. I even sort out in my head all that I plan to do when I get back from work, and then by the time it actually happens I'm too cream crackered to do anything about any of it lol.

Thankfully I was feeling a lot more creative in April when I was making the samples for Jane's new Christmas stamps that launch today.

They are called 'Festive Fuzzies' and this one is called Mr Tomte JGS786.

I coloured him using Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour inks in various colours and then fussy cut him out.

The background was made with the leftover ink and I stamped and embossed the sentiment from the stamp set down the right hand side and then added a faux stitched border.

I added some glossy accents to the tree and a few gems to the background.

I do wish that writing about Christmas cards would cool the weather down a little, but unfortunately that is only in my dreams.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Umbrella Grass by Jane

 Evening All,

Well, I may not have made many cards recently, but it would appear that I have blogged rather a lot! They don't go in to the drawer to be used until they have been blogged and completely finished off with envelopes and inserts. I know I'm really sad lol.

So here are a few more to add back into the finishing off box, now that I've emptied it.

This one was made with a piece of mop up background and a Meadow Frame Paper Panda die.

I used the same Umbrella Grass stamp designed by Jane Gill on this left over piece of background created using Pixie Powders.

I added some extra little dots and a faux stitched border to the panel.

This final card uses another piece of Pixie Powder background and the negative space from a favourite die cut sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

A Little Bit of Normal

Evening,

What a lovely day it has been. I don't care about the weather, it has been so wonderful to sit and craft with friends for the first time in over a year. We last got together on 14th Match 2020!!!!

We have spent the day colouring using the Black Magic Technique.

The technique involves stamping with white ink onto dark, or kraft card and then coloring over the top of the image with colouring pencils.

I trimmed this panel down and added twine and faux stitching before layering it onto a piece of embossed card.

I used the same image here stamped onto a panel of three colours of card stock.

I used plain old watercolour pencils here, but we also had Spectrum Noir pencils to play with.

It is amazing how everyone concentrates while they are colouring. There were several periods of quiet amongst all the talking. 

It's a shame that not everyone could come to class today, but it was lovely to get back to a little bit of normal, and there is always another class in a fortnight...........................everything crossed.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hugs Kimx 

Sparkly Greetings

Evening,

Another miserable day, so here is a card to brighten you up, I hope.

It was made by stamping and embossing the image onto a piece of mop up background.

Having painted the image with a sparkly watercolour palette I cut it out using a shaped die,

and added some faux stitching.

I layered the image onto a piece of black cardstock that had been run through an embossing folder. I also added a sentiment and a single 3D flower.

Let's hope that we get some better weather tomorrow, this rain is getting very boring.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

 

Dragonfly Dreaming

Happy Friday........thank goodness.

I hope that you are going to manage a nice crafty weekend. I'm going to try since I have so much to get done.

Traci at Creative Expressions recently asked me to make a card using the Designer Boutique stamp Dragonfly Delight and write Step by Step instructions to go with it.

I was going to share them here, but if you sign up to the Creative Expressions newsletter by following the link Blooming Lovely! - Creative Expressions (creative-expressions.uk.com) you will be able to see all the beautiful products that are available as well as getting access to several inspirational projects with more to follow.

It's almost impossible to make a card with all these fabulous inky products, without ending up with several bits of mop up background. So of course I just had to use them up.

I stamped and embossed the dragonfly image onto a piece of mop up background and then made inks out of several colours of shimmer shaker by adding a little water to the powder to create a paint.

I created a double  faux stitched border around the image using a ruler and black micron pen.

Once again I stamped and embossed the image onto a piece of mop up background and coloured it with the same colours of Shimmer Shakers used in the first card. I also used a die to emboss the oval at the center of the panel which I then highlighted with a black micron pen.

This last card uses up a scrap of the stamped image that I found on my desk along with a fussy cut dragonfly and another piece of mop up background. I told you I could never throw anything away lol.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you have a wonderful weekend.

Stay safe and hugs 

Kimx

Papercuts Jasmine and Mop Up

Evening,

A couple of cards tonight created using the Jasmine Papercuts Edger die.

I die cut Jasmine in both black and white card and then layered them on top of one another to create a slight drop shadow.

The inky background that the die cut is layered onto is a piece of mop up background from my stash.

I spritzed the main blue card with the Rose Pearl Airless Mister to add some shimmer.

This card was created using many of the same elements as the first card only this time I die cut the Jasmine from the mop up background card and then layered it on to black.

I added some faux stitching, some tiny gems and a sentiment.

I do hope that the weather starts to warm up if we are going to have to continue to meet up outside. I went for a walk this afternoon and then dropped in on Davina for a coffee, sat outside in the garden of course. It was lovely to catch up, but we were shivering by the time we had finished lol.

Thanks for stopping by, it's nearly the weekend thank goodness.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx

Jane's Camellia Spray

Evening Everyone,

I see that Jane has been working on samples for her TV shows on Monday, so here are a couple of the samples that I have just popped in the post to help her out.

Jane certainly does design some fabulous floral stamp sets,

and this particular launch has been full of some real beauties.

It's amazing how different a stamp can look just by trimming the stamped panel 

or stamping on to a piece of mop up background.

And this is the card that I made for Creative Expressions for the launch of the stamps a couple of weeks ago.

Better make sure to set my box to record the shows, I wouldn't want to miss Jane's fabulous demos.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

 

A Foxy Celebration

Afternoon All,
I can't believe how hot it still is, so here is a little foxy Christmas card to try and cool you down.

This was made using one of Francoise new Christmas stamps that were released recently FRS082 Foxy Christmas.

The strips in the background are cut from a piece of 'Mop up Background' with a little faux stitching added.

I coloured Mr Fox using Cosmic Shimmer Inktense Pigment Stains and then fussy cut him out.

I stamped one of the sentiments from the stamp set on to another of the strips of background.

I hate to waste ink on my mat and plastic spray booth, so I have been using some sheets of rice paper (as suggested by Leoni) to mop up anything that is left on the mat.
Once it is dry I scrunch it up and add it to a piece of DS Self Adhesive sheets and then highlight with a little gilding wax.
Of course this is a Christmas card with the addition of a little Fluffy Stuff, but I think it could be used for a winter birthday just as easily.
I hope that you are all OK in this heat. Thank you so much for stopping by, I really do appreciate it.
Hugs Kimx