Tuesday Trio of more Thoughts from Friends... and Online Extravaganza...

More beautiful creations from friends to me... friends that are class customers or fellow demonstrators... or even both! Thank you all for your thoughts at that time...

But before I start... I have a spare pack of each of Brightly Gleaming and Feels Like Frost papers... and with those words... I also have to tell you that Brightly Gleaming is no longer available... all sold out in Europe...

And hot off the press!! 

An Online Extravaganza Sale will start 11pm UK time tonight... 15% off selected cardstock, ink pads and bundles... and an extra 5% off selected already-bundled-with 10%-discount bundles too

Catch it asap (whilst everything is in stock) if you can! 

Sale runs 20-22 November. 

Group shot of the 8 "stamp set etc" bundles for you below... 

And I am placing a combined order 9pm Thursday 21 November... 

And now back to today's cards... 

A beautiful Dandelion Wishes card by Jill....

A stunning Sheltering Tree and Bitty Butterflies card in Night of Navy by Heidi...

And this fabulous Heartfelt Blooms, High Tide & Stitched Shapes card by Nicola... great to see my class raffle prizes being put to great use...

Heartfelt Hopeful Thoughts... and a Heartfelt Blooms parade...

When I made and posted these Hopeful Thoughts cards for the Meningitis Research Foundation... I  made the comment that I had had to change my plans midtrack... and quickly reduce the amount of gold heat embossing... as otherwise I would only have made a handful...

So I thought I would share the fully gold embossed versions today... as they also show off the lovely greetings in the promotional Sale A Bration Heartfelt Blooms stamp set... yours for free with a £45 order... but only available now for a couple more days...

Talking of Heartfelt Blooms... don't think I shared this video before either... and I didn't add it to the parade yesterday... so just click on the picture below to view more on this lovely greeting set with photo-realistic flower... available in clear mount and wood mount...

And a set I am going to really miss using come the weekend...

All the rest of the details on the cards in the previous post here... just with more gold embossing instead of the Sahara Sand tree!

And a (hopefully) useful tip for you.. these cards didn't buckle under the heat gun heat too badly.... as I could remove the stitched square from the card blank... so that was heat embossed separately... so then there was just a small amount on the card blank to heat emboss direct...

And to finish... a quick round up parade on previously shared Heartfelt Blooms cards... just click on the photo to go straight to the post... and maybe check out the sizing!! as funnily enough they might all look the same size on here!

Simple Embossed Waterfront #1

Another Waterfront card from the clean and simple stable... but one of the favourites of the majority of my ladies... quick, simple with a bit of personal artistry and a bit of shine!

Silver embossed trees & land... on Watercolor Paper... with Dapper Denim ink for sky and sea applied with an Aquapainter. Aqua Painter.. set on a Whisper White mat...and then onto a Dapper Denim small square card base...  sizes as per this card here...

And oops... so sorry... not only for my short post today.... but also that I got my days the wrong way round this week!!! As this should have been a Waterfront on Wednesday post yesterday really!! Thanks for the reminder Jill!!

Amazing You & Beautiful Peacock Thank You

A merger of 3 Sale A Bration freebies... Amazing You meets Beautiful Peacock meets Heartfelt Blooms... each of which can be yours for free with a £45 order until the end of March... so not long to go now...

Inspired by this beautiful card by Karolina Michna but simplified.... and set on a small square card blank... (10.5cm/ US Letter 4 1/4") 

Gold heat embossed flower & leaves main image and greeting... set on the largest of the Stitched Shapes die cut squares... which is mounted on a 7cm square Gold Foil Mat...

And the leaves from the Amazing You flower image and the flourish from Beautiful Peacock used to decorate around the frame...

All Gold heat embossed ...  

OR inked in Sahara Sand to simplify/speed up the job... 

Wednesday Waterfront Time! An Eastern flavour duo...

Only a few more weeks of these Wednesday posts to come... as it is a bit of an understatement to say that I enjoyed creating with my Waterfront stamp set!!

A complete staple of a stamp set in my humble opinion... and rather addictive once you start!! Good job it is only £15...

Todays takes on a more Eastern flavour... with soft Smoky Slate mountains topped with Powder Pink or Basic Grey...

But... the eagle eyed of you will have noticed that I first shared one of my crafty friends cards... rather than my own... simply because I prefer it! 

So thank you Andrea for creating this beauty... which was created based upon this one that I made... which was duly inspired by a lovely card created by Vicki Hodgman... that I saw on Pinterest... 

Note that you need to remove some of your Smoky Slate ink with a Blender Pen before adding the Powder Pink using a marker pen... whereas you can go straight over with your Basic Grey marker for the darker topped mountains. If not you will end up with a dirty Powder Pink Marker!!

And subtle blossoms draping around the scene... care of the longstanding and beautiful Hopeful Thoughts stamp set... so you can now see why that set was out as I started to produce other cards shared over the last fortnight...

I coloured in the blossoms using the standard Markers... Pear Pizzazz for the leaves... and then the flowers with Powder Pink...with just a dab of Melon Mambo in the centre of the flowers... which made a huge difference...

Greeting from Sale A Bration Heartfelt Blooms... and birds from High Tide... though I will admit that I regretted stamping the birds this time... a step not required in my opinion! Immediate regret!

And a little tip for you with the Waterfront stamps... there is a single line and a double line squiggle!! I found it easier and more controllable to use the single line for "filling in" as on this card... but maybe that is just me...

And so I will leave you with another shot of Andrea's gorgeous card...

Something Simple for the Weekend...Thank You...

So I had to make some different cards for my Thank Yous for February class customer/orders ... as they had already made this Waterfront/Charming Cafe card in classes ... (which I had then made for my online ordering customers)

And seeing as I know their favourite colours... it just had to be a re-run of this Sweet & Sassy die-cut & Sale A Bration Heartfelt Blooms card... which also meant I could try out a few tweaks as I went along...

First up was to white emboss the greeting... looks so much better but of course sadly the card was going to warp from the heat... so great idea with a panel under a heart die-cut mat on a card blank... but too many heavy books required to straighten out the straightforward embossing on the card blank for me!!! Wouldn't crafty life be simple if all these products/techniques didn't have their individual querks!!

So Berry Burst for Andrea...

And Perfect Plum for Jane...

Second up was to stamp with White Craft ink... which is still the best white ink I have ever tried!!!... and I tried about 10 prior to this one.... Great when viewed on its own.. but when you compare it side by side to the white embossed image... well!

So Elegant Eggplant for Nicky...

And Island Indigo for Zoe... and do not adjust your screen with this one...I had to turn the image after I added the watermark! Oops!!!

Third up was to revert back to Archival Black ink... 

So Wisteria Wonder for Jill...

And Sahara Sand for Sarah... who has only just realised that this maybe one of her actual favourite colours!!

So... apart from those mentioned above...  and thank you again ladies... 

Which would you choose?

Oh... and an added extra for you... as I suddenly needed to make another Sympathy card mid-making-stream... Smoky Slate with black greeting...

So glad I bought the Sweet & Sassy dies after all... should have done it years ago!

Waterfront Wednesday... on Watercolor Paper...

By using Watercolor Paper you add a natural texture...and can build a bit more of a scene with your Waterfront stamps as you can add more ink or blend with water in an Aqua Painter to soften or merge aspects together....

Though I was amused in classes ... as this was either the favourite or least favourite card to make... 

So what's different I hear you ask!!

(1) Clear Block stamping of sky with Soft Sky and Spritzer... though less ink and more water seemed to be the more successful combination for us on the Watercolor Paper... and I think most would have preferred just using the stamps! 

My sky on my original sample was beautiful... my next as demoed in class not so good!! But I quickly used my AquaPainter to move out and soften the ink... dabbing with a tissue as I went to soften even further... Panic over!

(2) Heightened front mountains to the right hand side... stamping one in Wisteria Wonder... then reinking and stamping another above and to the right to extend the height... and then doing a spot of blending with the Aquapainter to blend the 2 into one mass...

(3) Sea stamped in Soft Sky... in from the left and then in from the right to overlap slightly... leaving a white gap down the centre... just adds a bit of extra definition and clarity of the final trees...

(4) Tranquil Tide trees stamped from the bottom... ink up... stamp... then re-stamp behind and to the right to create more shadowy trees... then re-ink and repeat...  Starting with the shorter trees to the left and going across to the taller trees to the right... 

Greetings from Sale A Bration Heartfelt Blooms... birds from High Tide...both stamped in Memento Black

Rest of inky and stamping details as per this card here... 

Again on a 10.5cm (US Letter 4 1/4") small square card blank... 3" (7.5cm) Square Watercolor Paper panel with a 3 1/4" (7.5cm) Tranquil Tide mat...

Super Simple Misty Waterfront Trees...

So back to the wonderful Waterfront stamp set...

This card was the ice breaker in classes... a few simple inks and "strokes" of the stamps... and a simple little square card was born! In less than a minute...

So just Memento Black and Soft Sky ink pads...

And a very quick step by step!

(1) Ink up "single line" stamp with Memento Black... stamp just below half way down at the right hand side...and just over half way across from the right hand side...

(2) Clean your stamp!!!! Re-ink in Soft Sky...

(3) Stamp in from left hand side.. so that you fill in the horizon...

(4) Re-ink and stamp 2-3 more single lines under your land mass... to the right hand side... decreasing the amount stamped in from the right hand side each time...

(5) Ink up your "sea squiggle" stamp in Soft Sky... stamp off onto scrap paper... and stamp your sky up from the horizon... straight edge to the bottom...

(6) Ink up your "sea squiggle" stamp again... stamp off.. and stamp over your tree trio... and so raise the sky line...

Finished off with a Memento Black greeting from the Sale A Bration free and exclusive Heartfelt Blooms set... though in class everyone could add whatever greeting they wished to use...

10.5cm Square card blank... 7.5 cm square Whisper White stamping panel... 8cm square Basic Black mat... OR US Letter 4 1/4" card blank... with 3" square White panel... and 3 1/4" Black mat...

Love this one... even with my inky mistake!!
Spot the somewhat more greyish Soft Sky sea line to the left of the land mass... oops! Had to quickly clean my Memento Black off my Soft Sky pad with a baby wipe quickly after this!