WLS May#2 - All creatures great and small

 Good Morning everyone

Time for some midway inspiration for We Love Stamping where the theme is 

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

I went with one of the smallest creatures (mouse) last time so this time its one of the largest creatures and this fabulous whale stamp from aall&create, this is another one thats been neglected for a while too so good to get it out.  I have teamed it up with one of my brusho/pixie powder backgrounds - I have a draw full of backgrounds as I often have sessions making them when i don't feel like properly crafting... plus I make such a mess using brushos that its good to get lots made at once and then one lot of clean up!

Card Size approx 5x7" die cut from navy blue cardstock, I felt the rounded corners on this die set picked up on the curve of the whale nicely. I die cut my brusho & pixie powder background to fit the card front, then stamped the whale stamp with blue versaclair ink and then used a circle embossing folder - this to pick up on bubbles in the water. I then lightly inked over the top with chipped sapphire distress ink to just help the embossing stand out a little bit more - not too heavy as i still wanted it to be in the background.  I used posca paint pens on the background stamping to add a little bit extra colour, using yellow and white on some of the hexagons.

I then stamped the whale onto a pinky patterned paper which is not a very realistic colour I know but a nice contrast to the background!  I added some white pen highlights, curved her body and adhered into place with glue gel.

I then die cut some seaweed bits from green holographic card off cuts that were on my desk.  Sentiments stamped onto white with the same blue ink and adhered into place - these sentiments come from a ZinskiArt mermaid set but fit well i feel.

You can make out the mica of the pixie powders in the background better here and the holographic seaweed, both shimmer & dance when the light hits them like the sparkle of sunshine on the water.

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and version 2 which is more muted

Made almost the same way as the first one but this time i started with a background made using oxide inks so very muted.  I die cut an old tim holtz holey die into the background and matted onto silver holographic cardstock.  The whale was stamped onto card that had been sprayed with blue & purple ink and bright pink mica spray.

Hard to really show off the holographic but you can make it out more on the bottom of the photo, with the matt finish of the oxide background it really shimmers and dances - i went with this to give the effect of bubbles in the water

Items Used:

aall&create stamp #390 'sea life'

Funky Fossil 'ZinskiArt' stamp set 'Making waves'

Funky Fossil stamp set 'weird fish'

Sizzix circle embossing folder (very old!)

? Nesting dies

Dawn Bibby die set DBC0371 'Into the deep' embellishment set

Brusho Powders

Cosmic shimmer pixie powder

Chipped Sapphire distress ink

Distress Oxide - shaded lilac, cracked pistachio, tumbled glass & iced spruce

Versafine Clair ink 'Medieval blue'

Silver & green holographic card from Aldi

Navy cardstock

We have these lovely stamps from aall&create as the prize this month so hop over to We love stamping to join in, as well as the all creatures great and small theme we always have the anything goes option as long as you include stamping.

Id love to enter card one into the following:

https://craftrocketchallenges.blogspot.com/2026/05/challenge-136-not-square.html

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https://2craftycrittercrazies.blogspot.com/2026/05/critter-crazy-challenges-110-anything.html

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https://craftyanimals.blogspot.com/2026/05/challenge-105.html

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https://creativefriday.blogspot.com/2026/05/creative-friday-411-jedes-tier-ist.html - all animals permitted

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Mums birthday

Good Morning everyone

Today Im sharing the card I made for my mums birthday.  Ive gone full on flower power this year with these lovely hydrangeas I built up.  By using brushos & pixie powders to colour the cardstock I was able to get a quite realistic colour for some of the bushes my mum has in one of her gardens.  Growing up I always remember my gran wanting Blue ones, every blue one she planted turned Pink and my other gran (nan) always wanted a pink one but they all turned Blue, even when adding various additives to the soil they would eventually change colour😁

7x7" scalloped card base.

I first coloured 3 sheets of A4 card with brushos and pixie powders and let dry.  Once dry I die cut alot of the petals, I then shaped the petals with an embossing tool to give them more concave curve.  I die cut a circle from the same background so that I could build up my flower - by using the same colour as the flowers any gaps aren't noticeable.  I then got building, starting from the outside working in, adhered the outside ones flat and using more glue gel on the inside ones to get more dimension and a more realistic shape.  Each die cut petal had a hole in the centre so i added a drop of lime green stickles glitter glue to hide that.  I made the flower heads in 3 slightly different sizes.

I die cut lots of leaves from green coloured brusho card.  I used a brick embossing folder onto a piece of white card slightly smaller than the card front, lightly inked over it with peeled paint & dried marigold distress ink and added it to the front.  I then arranged the flowers and leaves until I was happy with the look. 

To finish I die cut 'mum' from the same card as the flowers and added.

This shows the colour better, with the pixie powder there is a shimmer when the light hits it 

With the brick embossing folder technically i used the debossed side as the bricks should be the embossed and the cement debossed but that side of this embossing folder never looks good to me for some reason so i always use it this way round.

Here you can see the dimension better

Items Used:

Hydrangea die - brand unknown as I bought secondhand 

Crafters companion 8x8 brick embossing folder

Crafters companion alpha dies

CraftUK ltd 7" scalloped card blank

Ranger Stickles 'lime'

Distress Inks 'peeled paint, dried marigold'

Brusho Powders 'Ost blue, purple, rose, lime & leaf green'

Cosmic shimmer pixie powders 'plum'

 Thank you for stopping by once again and taking the time to visit and comment.  I appreciate both.  Happy Crafting. Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-anything-goes.html

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https://cyhtp.blogspot.com/2025/02/anything-goes-with-twist-of-something.html - F is for flowers

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https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-2025-challenge.html

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https://daisychainchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/challenge-93-layer-it-up.html - 2nd entry

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Snowdrops

Good Morning everyone

Today Im honoured to say that I have been invited to join the very talented design team at Creative Artiste mixed media so for one project a month I will be playing with alot more mixed media which is always fun.  

So I thought to kick start I would make something very seasonal.  After Christmas when most of the garden is slumbering in sleep and lots of earth and brown on show these dainty little snowdrops pop up to brighten our day with their lovely white and green flowers.  For those of you who are new to my blog you will find that usefully my projects are full of colour so this is very muted for me but I wanted to go with a more realistic look and let the snowdrops be the star.

Approx size:  5x7" (13x18cm)    I started with a piece of stiff card cut from a cat food box.  See the last photo for how i did the background. 

Onto the base layer i added a layer of handmade paper which i tore into a rough oval shape - this i felt gave the effect of a soft frost.  I then tore a piece of brown packing paper - this i used so that the white of my snowdrops would stand out - all the torn edges giving a rustic natural feel.  I then added a piece of hessian ribbon. 

I die cut lots of snowdrops from white card and used green alcohol markers to colour the stems and add a hint of green to the flower head.  I added a little bit of 'crystal' stickles glitter glue to the little piece on the flower heads to add just a little frosty shimmer

Computer printed word 'beautiful', matted onto kraft card, glossy accents added to finish.

To hang i added white eyelets to the top and threaded with green cotton cord with 2 green glass beads.

I added the snowdrops with pinflair glue gel to give dimension.  To make them more realistic I cut the heads off some and glued back on the opposite way so that they aren't all facing the same way.  These snowdrop dies - the little bits in the middle fall out so that they have little gaps in them which i didn't want for this project so after die cutting them i added a little tape to the back to hold those pieces in place. 

The background/ base layer

I tore off some of the top layer to reveal the corrugations, added texture paste through a stencil.  Once paste was dry i added brusho powders in Olive and light brown which have tones of green, brown and purple in them so give a lovely dirt like colour.  I sprinkled on a little copper pixie powder, the mica giving a light shimmer. I used this criss cross effect stencil as i felt it had the effect of lots of dead stems and twigs in the garden like you get over winter. 

I then dry brushed on a thin layer of white chalk paint to soften it and give a frost like effect and edged the panel in white.

Items Used:

Snowdrop die by Alexandra Renke

Brusho Powders 'olive & light brown'

Cosmic shimmer pixie powder 'copper'

Green alcohol markers

Texture paste

Plaid 'folkart' matte paint 'antique white'

Stencil

Handmade paper, packaging paper & Hessian ribbon

Ranger stickles glitter glue 'crystal'

Ranger glossy accents

White eyelets, 2 green beads & cotton cord.

Do hop over to creative artiste mixed media to see what the rest of the DT have created and to join in.  You don't need to make a big mixed media project, it can just be a card or atc as long as you mix your medias.

Thank you for stopping by and i hope you all have a good weekend. Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

 

https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/winter-season-february-2025.html

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https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-2025-challenge.html

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https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-anything-goes.html - the snowdrops are dies

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free_02003369360.html

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https://daisychainchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/challenge-93-layer-it-up.html

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Meowy Christmas

Good Morning everyone

Today is time for a fun Christmas card using these fun cat stamps from aall&create, i decided to use an old wreath die set from Tonic studios with them.

7x7" card base.  I first made my background by stamping onto white card with soft tone distress inks and Christmas and winter themed word stamps, using multiple generations of stamping until no ink left on the stamp.  I then embossed this panel with a 'knitted' effect embossing folder - picking up on the idea that the cats are wearing jumpers - hard to make out the embossing in the photo but it is there!

I cut matt gold card slightly smaller than the card front and then from the middle of it die cut the wreath die - this I could then use for the card front and make the gold card go further as i knew it would be hidden behind my background.  I cut the wreath die again from card i had previously inked with green brushos and pixie powders - i off set the gold and green wreaths and adhered to the card front with glue gel. 

I stamped the cats, simply coloured with alcohol markers and cut out. I added glossy accents to their noses, frosted lace glitter onto the hot chocolate cream and diamond stickles onto the fairy lights.  To finish i added stickles to the berries on the wreath - on this version I used 'cosmic' which is a purple base with pink tones in the glitter which matched the colours id used to colour their jumpers.

Version 2 - different colours and i used red stickles on the berries and this one has 2 of the hot cocoa cats rather than the 2 fairy light cats on the first card and on this one i added 2 die cut bows to the top of the wreath.

I really don't fancy putting a jumper on any of my cats - I think serious injury would occur.....to me😀 

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Version 3 -  A5 size -  I used copper satin cardstock for my base card, the wreath base layer and to mat behind the sentiment alpha's.  I die cut individual alphas to spell 'meowy christmas' for a fun pun

You can see the copper satin better here, when the light hits it, it really does shine

and version 4 - more mossy green tones here

Items Used:

aall&create stamps #740 'light it up' & 'Seaons'

Clearly besotted stamps 'seasonal sentiments'

Tonic studios die - the four seasons loving winter

Alpha tile dies

crafters companion 8x8 embossing folder 'purl'

Brushos

Cosmic shimmer Pixie powders

alcohol markers

Ranger Stickles - frosted lace, diamond, cosmic & Christmas red

Gold & Copper satin cardstock

CraftUk ltd smooth white card

Thank you for stopping by once again and all your previous comments which i always appreciate.  I hope you are keeping warm in this cold snap - although down here its just been torrential rain so no snow......until this morning, opened the curtains to white out😁  Big hugs Emmaxxx

Id love to enter the first card in the following:

https://craftyanimals.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-89.html

https://2craftycrittercrazies.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-92-anything-goes-with.html

https://merrylittlechristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/2024/11/mlccb-59-anything-christmas-goes-mlccb.html

https://12monthsofchristmaslinkup.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-116-midway-anything-goes.html

https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2024/11/november-lets-warm-it-up.html

https://craftygalscornerchallenges.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-261-anything-goes-woptional.html

 

Oh Christmas tree

Good Morning everyone

Its the first sunday in Novemeber so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping

The theme this month is CHRISTMAS so the ideal time to crack on with creating some Christmas cards, or if thats not for you we always have the anything goes option as long as you include stamping so do hop over to join in.

I got this fab woodware tree stamp in a sale which ive teamed up with some brusho and mica powder backgrounds

approx card size 5x7"  I first made backgrounds using green brushos and pixie powders for some mica shimmer, once dry i stamped the trees onto them and cut them out - these trees are a nice easy shape to fussy cut.

I die cut my card base from a dark green card and die cut a smaller one from white,  I then die cut in the middle of this white one with a smaller die again and then i dry embossed both white pieces in a 3d tree embossing folder - by essentially 'gutting' the middle of the larger white panel which i knew would be hidden it makes the cardstock go further and less weight for posting!  I also stamped the tree stamp onto the small panel before embossing so that the stems were on it and then paper pieced the green stamped trees into place.

I added the bigger white panel to the cardbase.  I added small offcuts of the green background and then added my topper panel over the top.  I edged the 2 white panels with diamond stickles glitter glue to add more Christmas sparkle. Stamped sentiment and gems added to finish.

Hopefully you can make out the embossing better in this one and the light hitting the pixie powders  which really do shimmer in real life.

I made 12 of this design, all the same but slightly different, the greens were much darker in this one.

Items Used:

Woodware stamp JG5534 'leggy trees'

LOTV sentiment stamps (very old & discontinued)

Nested dies

Sizzix 3d embossing folder by Kathrin Breen '665254'

Brusho powders - lime, sea green & emerald

Cosmic shimmer pixie powders - peacock, mango & red

Dark green cardstock

CraftUK ltd smooth white card

These lovely die by sweet dixi are the prize this month so do hop over to We Love Stamping  to join in 

I hope you all have a great week.  Hugs Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://thehollyandivychallenge.blogspot.com/2024/10/challenge-171-anything-christmas-goes.html

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https://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.com/2024/11/november-2024-crafts-galore-encore.html

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https://12monthsofchristmaslinkup.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-116-anything-goes-christmas.html

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https://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-172-sparkle.html - used glitter, mica powders & gems for lots of sparkle

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https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/11/miucb-74-anything-goes-optional-paper.html

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https://inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-328-designers-choice-layer-it.html - Ive layered stamped image onto embossed background which is mat & layered twice.

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