Embossed embossing #2

 Catching up after the family visit, here's a last minute second entry to Let's Squash It, with a different form of embossed embossing. 

This time I used watercolour paper which I had dampened, then swiped the embossing folder (an old magazine freebie) with distress inks before embossing. This left the paper clean(ish!) on the raised area and with a blended watercolour background. Once it was dry, I smooshed a clear ink pad over the raised area and embossed with clear powder. However being a nice juicy pad and a fairly open design, I have actually embossed the whole of the lower area of the card as the ink went onto the flat areas too. Oh well, it gives it a nice sheen and a contrast in texture to the unembossed space at the top, which I finished with a die cut butterfly. 

Christmas Kitty

 A very quick post to share the second card I made for the Cat Lovers Hop - getting in just before it closes for the year! 

This is made using a very old Dutch decoupage booklet - it must be over 20 years since I bought it and I've still only done about half a dozen of the 24 designs. I get easily bored with all that fiddly cutting out and the lack of creativity - but on the other hand it's a handy thing to be able to do on my lap while all my craft supplies are packed away for the family visit. 

I am sharing this with 

The 2021 Cat Lovers Hop at Her Peaceful Garden 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes  

Jingle Belles - Not a creature was stirring 

Show us your Pussycats - furrything goes  

Rudolph Day at Scrappymo's 

Black and white cat

 .. and if you are not now singing Postman Pat I'm not sure we can be friends. 

It's the 2021 Cat Lovers Hop over at Her Peaceful Garden and I'm very late to the party. But I have a very good excuse, miss! When I signed up to play along, I didn't notice that it clashed with the dates my daughter and her family were coming over from France to visit, the first time we've been able to get together since Christmas 2019, and I've been AWOL all week as I didn't want to miss a precious moment with them all. 

Anyway, I'm here now and  have managed to make a couple of quick cards for the hop, so here is the first. The kitty stamp is a very old unmounted stamp, I think it's either PSX or All Night Media, and the sentiment is a Tim Holtz snarky sticker. I've kept it masculine looking by keeping the whole card to black and white, just adding interest by covering the milk bottle with Glossy Accents to give it a glass like effect. 

I am sharing this with 

Cat Lovers Hop 2021

Stamping Sensations - Animals, birds and bugs 

Cardz 4 Guyz - any animal 

The Male Room - black and white

Embossed Embossing

 This month's Let's Squash It challenge is a technique I love - heat embossed dry embossing. 

For this card I used an NBUS embossing folder, which was a magazine freebie some years ago. I've got quite a few NBUS embossing folders, especially ones that are Things rather than patterns, because I'm never quite sure how I'll use them. 

Anyway, I embossed this one on green pearl card, first swiping the flat surface of the folder with embossing ink. Then I heat embossed with baby blue pearls embossing powder. With one dragonfly already in the scene, I absolutely HAD to fill that space with a couple of die cut ones! 

I am sharing this with 

River of Creativity - Wildlife 

NBUS - NBUS  

Let's Squash It - Double Emboss 

Further Festive Fungi

 A few days ago, I shared some Christmas cards that Mark had asked me to make for his foraging friends. Today I have another for you - actually it is one of a pair of identical ones. I was printing a background big enough for two cards and it's as easy to print two copies of a digi as one, so it made sense to make two. 

I wanted a digi of morel mushrooms, and found this lovely one at Power Poppy. The only snag is, they are sprouting from a bed of very un-Christmassy violets. However by colouring the violets red to blend into the background and covering them with die cut poinsettias, I think I managed to conceal them! 

The background is from Joanna Sheen's "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" CD and for a bit of variety I printed it onto thin printable acetate (I got mine from Create and Craft about 750 years ago - to ease its journey through the printer, the printing side is matte and there is a narrow paper strip along the leading edge for the printer to grab hold of). 

Finally the sentiment, which makes me giggle every time I see it and is the reason the mushrooms had to be morels. I generated this with my Dymo electronic label maker, my new favourite toy. 

I am sharing this with 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes  

CD Sunday Plus - anything goes

Everything Pink at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers

 I was delighted to be invited to be the guest designer at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, thanks to being chosen as Queen of Snark recently. The theme Edna has chosen is "Everything Pink" .

Not being a great fan of pink, there isn't a lot of it in my stash but I  had a rummage and came up with: 

Pink patterned paper

Pink ink

Pink foil - used to cold-foil the edge of the patterned paper

Pink glitter gel - stencilled over part of the background

Pink twine

Pink liquid pearls - dotted around the perimeter

And with such a variety of pink stuff, the sentiment, from a Tim Holtz snarky sentiments pad, was obvious! Then I had to find a stamp of somebody who looked as if they might be saying that - this rather puzzled looking lady from a very old Viva Las Vegas pound o'rubber was just the job. 

 

It's great to be back on board with the Sistahs, I hope you will join me there. Dress code: Pink. Snark: Optional but preferred. 

Festive Fungi

 The other day, Mark came up with quite a challenge for me - as a keen mycologist, he wanted me to make some fungi themed cards for his foraging friends. Fungi themed CHRISTMAS cards. 

Well, mushrooms and Christmas aren't usually a crafting combination that springs to mind, but I had a rummage through my stash and found some lovely fungi themed stamps and combined them with some festive stamps and dies. 

The first card is an absolute snippet-fest! I used snippets of card in greens and brown, plus lots of my white snippets. I cut the pine boughs using a very old Spellbinders die set and the ivy using a die I bought from Joanna Sheen, although I can't recall whether it is her own brand or a Marianne Creatables one. The fungi are stamped with a very old Graphicus set of botanical stamps (now reimagined and sold by Chocolate Baroque under the name Nature Table) and a Hunkydory set that was a magazine freebie 4 or 5 years ago. I coloured all the images with Promarkers and fussy cut them. 

I christmasified it with a holly stamp and sentiment, and added clear liquid pearls for the holly berries, then used Stickles to give a frosty ground for the fungi to grow from and Wink of Stella to add a touch of frost to the cones. 

I am sharing this card with 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - challenge #413

Watercooler Wednesday - All about occasions  

My next card is a cute version. To the same basic elements, I've added a gnome - coloured as a Santa version - peeking over a toadstool. Apparently I'm not supposed to call it a toadstool, I'm supposed to call it Ammanita Muscari. But it looks like a toadstool to me.  

I'm sharing this with 

Passion for Markers - Make it Cute  

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

On to my third and final card (for now - I am working on more fungi themed cards in a different style) and this is my favourite of the three, even if it isn't quite as festive. I just love the way those Oyster Mushrooms turned out! I tore the top of the tree stump rather than cutting it, to make it look as if the tree had fallen down naturally rather than being hacked with a chainsaw (and anyway I haven't  got a chainsaw). 

I am sharing this with 

Craft Rocket - Autumn and/or Mushrooms 

Retro Rubber - Anything goes  (those mushroom stamps are at least 20 years old, possibly nearer to 25!)