It has been the busiest week ever this week!! I've had gardening jobs every single day which have all been hardcore and left me exhausted. And of course I still needed to take care of everything at home as well, so lots of early nights and not a lot of card making going on.
Thank goodness last weekend I spent the whole weekend at my Mum's house, doing lots of chatting, eating, laughing and card making. One of the first things I did was try out a completely new product AND technique to me. So the AAA Cards challenge theme was right up my alley!!
I've watched people using embossing paste with stencils for years but have never had access to the paste or thought it would fit in with my card style. Well, I had a tub of Nuvo Embellishment Mousse in a soft gold colour and some new stencils so I thought its now or never:
You could say that I'm now a convert!!! This was so much fun to do and the result totally blew me away! I think its mainly because the stencil pattern is so gorgeous and the shine and shimmer of the mousse is so beautiful. Even my Mum was stunned!
I basically grabbed an A4 piece of white CS, taped the stencil (from Stamplorations 'Stained Glass') down with some washi tape and spread the mousse over with a palette knife. The mousse is quite thick but spreads just like butter. I tried to get it as smooth as possible but can imagine the more I do it, the better it will get.
Once finished I gently removed the stencil and used my heat gun to dry it. I really thought it would take all day to dry but it took like 30 seconds!! I trimmed it down to fit my card front and adhered with double-sided tape. I didn't want to cover up all my hard work so thought a simple die-cut sentiment would work best. I die-cut the 'hello' (from Winnie and Walter) 3x from white CS. I glued two of them together and then decided to try something else that was new.
It seemed too simple to have the white sentiment on its own, so grabbed the 3rd 'hello' die-cut and the Nuvo Mousse. I used a paintbrush and a tiny bit of water to mix with the Mousse on a plate and painted the 'hello'. It worked so well and had exactly the same shimmer, so will be doing this again. Once dry I adhered behind the white 'hello' but down a little so it showed underneath. This was then glued to the card front. And that was it!!! I love it so much and must buy some different colours of the Mousse to try them out as well!!
My friend Taheerah must have been sending me esp messages because when I got home on Sunday night and saw her latest Winnie and Walter: Gossip Column was on 'Precious Metals' I knew I had to enter this card. She is always looking for designs where you try something different, so really hope she likes this experiment!!
I'm also going to link this to the Taylored Expressions 'Share the Joy' Challenge # 52 where their theme is:
Quick update: In my haste to write this post I completely forgot about the Stamplorations Never-ending Challenge where you can link projects using their products, so would love to link this card there too!!
Right, even though its Saturday here in New Zealand and should be a relaxing weekend I have two more blog posts to get ready (one before 7pm tonight) and one card that should have been done by today, so better get my skates on. Max is at a friends house and Phoebe and I have just been out shopping for the last couple of hours. Its now freezing cold so nice to be inside and typing!!
Take care
Shona
Hi everybody, its finally Friday (yippee!!) which also means its time for a new challenge theme at Just Add Ink!
For this weeks challenge we are wanting you to:
JUST ADD 'P'
This means you can add ANYTHING to do with the letter 'p' on your project. You could add paper, pins, pyjamas, pinstripes.....basically anything you can link to the letter 'p'. The possibilities are endless!!
I decided to use a new stamp set that was just too cute to resist:
Told you they were cute!!! These stamps are from My Favourite Things 'Cool Cat' and have quickly become one of my new favourites!!
To start off I stamped the three 'pussy cats' on a piece of white CS, coloured them with pencils and fussy cut out. I then used the My Favourite Things 'Peek a Boo Squared' die on some white CS, die-cut it twice and glued them together for a bit of stability. I put the square over the card front and marked lightly in pencil where the circles would sit and the outside of the square. This way I could blend my Distress Inks behind the windows and not have them showing anywhere else. I also stamped the sentiment too so it would be in the right place.
The frame was then popped up on foam tape along with the pussy cats in each window. I added some clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh for a little bit of bling!!
I have four challenges I would like to enter:
Tic Tac Toe Challenge # 17 (my second entry)
Simon Says Stamp - Work It Wednesday - August (stamping)
Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge (Stamp It)
My Favourite Things - 2016 Card Design Superstar Contest
You have until next Wednesday 14th September to link your projects to the Just Add Ink challenge and if you need any help thinking of a 'p' design, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have come up with for you. Can't wait to see your projects in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
Hi everybody!! I'm just popping with a quick reminder about our current TIME OUT challenge! We have a phrase to inspire you this time:
“Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.”
You could be inspired by the whole phrase or just one word, its totally up to you. And the Gallery is full of gorgeous projects already!!
And to give you a little more encouragement we also have a Sponsor for this challenge CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. They are generously giving a $25 gift voucher to the winner of this challenge, that would be wonderful to win!!
For my card this time I still went for a 'fall leaves' theme but decided some fussy cutting was called for:
I used two Altenew stamp sets and different Altenew inks to create this design. The red leaves are just the solid leaf stamps with the black outline stamped on top, whereas the golden and green leaves have been stamped using all the leaf layers. I fussy cut them all out and attached them to the card front. I used a stitched-detail circle die on some grey CS and stamped the sentiment in black. This was popped up over the leaves on foam tape and some gold sequins added for shine.
The two Altenew stamp sets are 'Beautiful Day' and 'Remember This'. The sentiment is from the 'Remember This' stamp set. The sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh and the circle die from Waffle Flower 'Flower Circles Die Set'.
I have three challenges I would like to enter:
Addicted to CAS Challenge # 96
Simply Create Too Challenge # 117 (Fall Colours)
Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge (Stamp It)
You have one more week to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge and if you need any help with ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer Rema have created for you. Looking forward to seeing your projects in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
