Flamingo love

Hello everyone! It's Ria here today.

I'm sharing a card project today using Sarah Hurley's A Few of my Favourite Things July - Tropical Favourites kit.

I fell in-love with the pink Flamingo the first time I saw that in the set, what a better way than to do highlight her in today's project.

So here are a quick look of the supplies I used

One thing I love above Sarah's kit is the that it includes a Snip 'n' Stick sheet with great print images ready to use in just any project. I love combining different collection to make as embellishment. See how I can just select the element I wanted to use?

I used one of the journaling card with life is beautiful already printed on it. I just added a white embossed sentiment from the July's Add-on Exclusive stamp. Love the chalk board look of that journal card.

I then took a pink paper and emboss the piece with hearts from the Be Mine collection. 

Adding a clear embossing powder add some texture to a plain paper piece. 

Love how the clear embossed piece add life to a plain paper.

I also cut the paper strips I'll be using for my card background. I also used a paper from the Neopolitan set. Love that Love print background :) Just perfect for my pink flamingo love.

I assembled my card pieces: my paper strips, embossed journal card, and my cut embellishments.

I just arranged the rest of the cut pieces in the main card, popping them with some dimensional. Fussy cutting may be a challenge to some but I find it therapeutic? Cutting those small sections of the flamingo just makes me concentrate on what I do, keeping my mind off to stress. Love fussy cutting, or is it just me?

So here's a detail of the arranged pieces. Makes me smile :)

and the finish card..

That's it for now. I'll catch up with you again soon!

     

Life Through A Lens

Hi It's Clare here today and I'd thought I'd show a little insight into how I  created a PL page for my week 3. Once again I have used paper from Sarah's AFOMFT kit. I know I'm a little behind but it's never too late to start!

My first layout always includes my week number but this time I also added a January callendar highlighting the exact week.

For those that know me I like to run...a lot! However on my training days I don't normally take pictures but it's a huge part and important part of my life and I was struggling how exactly I would record my runs. After much thought I came up with the idea of using a motivational quotes and this one is my favourite.

I'm not from a scrap booking background so I don't have lots of stickers or printed sentiments at hand. So instead I decided to cut up a journalling card.....shhh don't tell Becky Higgins lol The arrow stamped at the bottom is from Sarah's Today stamp set

Using sentiment stamps are another fab way and this little star one is just perfect

Pinterest is a great way of sharing layouts and I fell in love with the idea of just using single words to sum up a day or event. So simple but very effective don't you think?

It's not always the big things that need to be recorded the little things count too! I find using small dies are perfect for adding a little journalling

So after all my individual layouts were created I popped them in my wallet and it looks like this. I've photographed my week in full and a couple of close ups.

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully you have picked up a few tips.

Clare

Special Day Today...

Hi All,

Nicole here today with a fun project for you using some journaling cards. I love all the cards in the kits but I don't actually do any journaling or documenting. So I love to use the cards on other craft projects instead. For this card I used two of the journaling cards to create a birthday card. You can see the cards I used here in the Sarah Hurley kits. I used a large 4" x 6" card for by card background and then a 3" x 4" card for the panel on the front.

The small card had the word today on it. So I took some stamps from the Sentiments Stamp Set and placed them above and below the word Today.

I stamped these in embossing ink and embossed with white powder.

I then used the Triangle stencil from Sarah Hurley to add a bit more interest. I used peacock feathers ink for this.

 I love this random triangle stencil and the fun pattern it gives the card.

I used the tiny star in the sentiment set to stamp into the middle of all the circles on the background journaling card.

I then added a thin grey strip of paper to either side of the small card to ground it in place.

Here is the finished card, fun and bright and cheery!

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you get inspired to get using those unused journaling cards up!

Countdown to Christmas

Morning all. I know we’re in the middle of a really hot spell here in the UK but already my thoughts are turning to Christmas cards! Well what can I say… I like to be organized,

I make special cards for the important family and friends in my life but I also like to have a stack of simple (what I call production line) cards on hand for distant relatives and my Hubbies work colleagues.

This card is a simple patchwork of patterned paper squares, mounted onto Kraft card, with a sentiment and one embellishment.

It’s a great design when pushed for time as you can create a lot of cards just from printing a few sheets of patterned papers.

Supplies:

• Most Wonderful Time Digi Kit
• Kraft Card
• Pearlescent White Card
• Sentiment Stamp
• Archival ‘Jet Black’ Inkpad
• Wooden snowflake embellishment
• Silver Gem

 

Thanks for stopping by

Lisa

Pencils, stamps.......and Peace

Hi there, Claire back with you today, with a little insight as to how I created my cards to welcome in the challenge this month.

Grabbing time during the school holidays to craft is tricky, but these little 4x4 inch cards take no time at all, and I was fortunate to have an hour to myself today when all the boys decided to go out and run errands.

I admire those who can draw, and I love that sketchy look that some can create on their cards by either drawing their own focal point, or  being able to colour with pencils in a sophisticated non-child like way.

I however am no artist, but I think I can sort of manage with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush.

So I hope that I can encourage those of you out there who think the same way.....have a go, at this technique and see what you can come up with.

I will talk you through how I created this second set of cards.

1) The backgrounds are created by using watercolour pencils and a waterbrush onto small pieces (3x3") of watercolour paper.
I chose 4 colours, to use across the set, and used 3 colours on each card. 'Scribble' the colours across the watercolour paper. This first layer I laid down lightly because I wanted a subtle colour, and I know my pencils really intensify when I add water.

2) Take the water brush and go over the pencil lines and you will see the colour pop. Continue adding water and moving the colours about until you are happy with how it looks.

3) I'm a little bit obsessed with Sarah's new Zentangle stamps at the minute, and reach for them each time I sit at my desk. I stamped them also onto watercolour card with momento ink (London fog).
To colour them I applied the lighter shades directly to the image iteslf. But because the blues and teals are so intense, and I lack the confidence in controlling the colour, I took an off cut of paper and used it as a palette. By adding water you can pick up the colour from one place and take it to another ie. the image you want to colour. This then meant that the blue on the images was able to blend better with the paler colours.

4) When all layers and images on the watercolour paper are dry you can layer them onto the base card, and finish off with a sentiment and embellishments of your choice.

I didn't want to go traditional, and thought these little cards were perfect to showcase some of the thoughts and words that Sarah has running through her stamp sets.
Here is a list of the stamp sets I have used, and the links to each of them in the shop.
Zendoodle Nature Stamp Set
Butterflies Stamp Set
Dream a Little Dream Girl Stamp Set


To create my challenge cards, right at the top of the page, all I done was draw the patterns and apply the initial pencil lines onto the watercolour card, before going in with the water brush.
Hopefully you will have been inspired to have a go.

CHALLENGE 95 - FAVOURITE THINGS

JAINE

Wow when I was asked to host the challenge 'Favourite things' I had no idea what a dilemma that would pose. I have so many favourite things it was so hard to choose just one to showcase so the only way to show you just a few of them is to make a project which includes one or two.

I adore making mini albums, especially from recycled or unusual things, so here's a mini made with paper bags. I've stamped and embossed the front panel with the Fancy Deco Lattice stamp one of my favourite backgrounds. I had to get inky with some spray ink and I love love washi tape so what better than to make my own. Later in in the month I'll be showing you how I made that.

Anyway, here the team show you their favourite things.  Link up below to show us your favourites and don't forget if you use a Sarah Hurley product in your entry you can win an extra special prize.


Elaine

I made a necklace using printable shrink plastic and the Curio set with my jewellery stash

Nicole

One of my favourite things is to use up paper scraps. I love nothing more than being able to get rid of all those left over bits and pieces. I often leave them in a corner of my desk for a while to be able to grab them and use them up as inspiration strikes! On my card below everything was a scrap on my desk. I used a sentiment stamp set from Sarah Hurley and the paper in behind the die cut hearts is from her paper range also.

Ria

I love card making and it makes me happy whenever I can incorporate my other craft favorite which is sewing. For this month's challenge, I added a favorite craft material I used in sewing which is felt. Sarah's felt flower is just pretty and I have to add it as my embellishment. The pinks and blues are my favorite colors + die cuts which I all incorporate in this month's challenge. I used a combination of different paper kits: April kit-Happy, July kit-All at Sea, and Be Mine kit. The felt is from St Marks add on kit.    

Claire S

For this challenge I decided I wanted to use my favourite colour - hot pink, a photo of my favourite Summer shoes and the title of one of my favourite Summer songs...

I used papers from a selection of Sarah's A Few Of My Favourite Things Kits, the photo is an Instagram print from Printed.com and added a selection of yellow brads from my own stash.

Sharon

Like Nicole, I love making the most of paper scraps. I also love my filofax which has become very dated and looks nothing like the fancy ones I see on Instagram every day. So I found the perfect solution! While waiting for my new academic diary refills to arrive I made new divider pages from paper scraps from my kits with washi tape and my label maker.Wow what a difference it's made! Excuse the photo quality- my camera's still not working and my phone isn't the best for bright colours.

Claire

I have used my favourite colours, shades of blue and teal to create a set of 4x4" mini notelets. The Backgrounds are watercolour pencils overstamped with a little sequin detail stamp from one of Sarah's previous AFOMFT kits (which is where I have collected the embellishments from too over the months). 

The sentiment stamps are also available from Sarah's shop.

Clare

For this challenge I wanted to make a card using my most used stamp range....Doodle Dolls. Here I have used stamps from the Princess set. I am also a huge fan of Sarah's AFOMFT monthly kits.

Lisa

Like Jaine I was in a real dilemma as I have so many favourite things. But then I settled on idea....one of my favourite things is to make 'To-do' lists so I thought I would combine that with one of my favourite colour combos of lemon and grey and alter a little clipboard to use as a list holder. The papers are from one of of the AFOMFT kits.

Carol

I made my PL page for February using AFOMFT Kits, Sarah's files from the Silhouette Store and Sarah's Stamps those three are among my favourite things, as are the items I have put on my page.

An InLinkz Link-up

A simple water colour card.

Today I'm sharing with you this water colour effect card which is created pretty simply using only spray inks.

I chose to use this huge butterfly as it has a large surface area. Stamps with a larger surface are better for this to work properly.  

Spray the stamp while it's on the block with your chosen colour of ink. Don't hold the spray too close otherwise it'll result in too much ink puddling. It might stain your stamp afterwards but that won't do any harm.

Stamp down onto some water colour paper. The result won't be perfect but you're not aiming for perfection anyway.

Let it dry or dry it with a heat tool, then spray some ink into a mixing tray. Use a paintbrush dipped in water to paint the colour into the background. I watered the ink down a bit to make the colour a bit less bright.

Flick on a few ink spots and you're done.

Have fun with your inks, you can do so much more than just spray with them.

Jaine x