Spiin embroidery flossfromDRK crafts. I got the pack of 144 so there are so many options and I also got the needles and the needle threader with the threads that I didn't even realise came in the pack.
This little guy is from the brand new clear stamp release by Sweet November Stamps and this set is called Kitty Cuddles : Sully. You can grab it from my Crafty Purple Frog store HERE for you UK people or direct from Sweet November Stamps HERE and they are based in the US.
Here is a YouTube video showing my colouring and how I added the stitching to this little guy
I used the following copic colours to colour in this little boy and his cat:
Skin: E33, E11, E00
Top:YR07, YR04, Y08
Jeans: B99, B97, B95
Shoes: E25, E23, E21
Cat: W8,W6,W4, E04
When I do this again I will use a thicker card stock or add more tape to the area I am putting the thread in just to strengthen the card a bit more. I would also probably give the area I am adding the thread to a base coat of a colour just to hide some of the gaps and add a bit more depth but I am still so happy with how this turned out :D
I am entering this card for the following challenges:
I LOVE making the most of the things I have so when there was the chance to join a hop where we need to use an item 3 ways based on a theme I wanted to join in :)
This month is the first one and the theme was fathers day / creations for the males in our lives. I gave myself a double challenge as used the same Stamping Bella stamp (Daddy's little girl) for all 3 cards and used the same First Edition paper padGrand Plans for all 3 makes. As a bonus at the moment you can get this 6x6 paper pad for just £1.50 in the DRK crafts sale!!!
I LOVE this First editions Paper pad as it is so perfect for this theme and the bright colours along with the texture that the speciality papers give your make with the glitter and glossy elements really make your project look expensive.
This first card I cut one of the pieces of 6x6 paper diagonally across it and then took the page that is all sentiments cutting the sentiments out separately using this one on this card. Around the edges of the card I have doodled a border.
This second card I used this fun green paper as an extra layer of colour for this card and again I doodled around all the edges.
These fun white glitter foam letters are from Simply creatives alphabet sticker set. and add a great bit of dimension to the card.
For this last card of the three I have fussy cut around one of the design papers cutting around the records and album covers making some of them overlap the frame I have created for the image.
The sentiment for this card is from a set of Dovecraft stamps called essential general and has 15 general sentiments in the pack that you can find HERE.
I am entering these cards for the following challenges:
As you like it - Girl or Boy : I have gone for boy as I like the challenge
I have been looking at zentangle from afar for ages so this Zentangle for card makers class seemed like the perfect chance to learn about it.
I have had so much fun. I never knew there are set designs to use when zentangling known as tangles. I always thought that you just completely made them up. It was so nice to have some designs to learn and use which I could then make some of my own to go with once I felt more confident. These are some of my practice tangles based on the tangles that I learned during the course.
Some felt easier than others to me and I am sure I will get better at them all the more I do. It is fun learning 😀
I wanted to keep the colours limited so that the tangles were the main focus. I used Altenew artist alcohol markers Frayed Leaf (G702), Forest Glade (G715),Ocean Waves (B201), Dusk (B313) and a pencil to add some shading and depth. You can get all of these Artist markers and more in the Artist Alcohol Markers set A.
For my tangling I used Fine liner pen set from Altenew in size 01 and for the thicker line on the main triangle I outlined the border and then used the Brush marker in the fine liner set to fill it in.
I originally traced the triangles in a formation flat on a panel and tangled on them intending to just add the whole panel to the front of the card base but changed my mind and cut them out so I could pop them up on foam pads to give extra dimension.
I am entering this card for the following challenges:
I had so much fun making this card I also made a second card for this class that I wanted to show you.
For this card I again used the Altenew fine liner 01 size for my tangling but this time I left my tangles black and white. I added my shading with pencil and blended out with a blending stump.
I started by creating the swirl on my card panel using the Illusion Twist stencil and then ink blending with Frosty Pink, Coral Berry and Ruby Red crisp dye inks. Again this card was inspired by another card created during the class and it made me look at all my stencils in a different way.
To finish the card off I cut down the stencilled panel to just be a strip on the edge of my card and layered that on some black card. I cut a further piece of black card to heat emboss, with Wow white embossing powder, the "Thank You" sentiment from the Wonder Clusters stamp set.
I am so happy to be able to say that I have been given the final challenge for the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) and it is a challenge of 2 parts so this is my first of two posts about it. You can find my second post HERE
**** Warning this is a long post but I think you will like it 😊 ****
The first part of the challenge tackles something that I know a lot of crafters struggle with.....making masculine cards!
The challenge is to create 4 masculine cards with the following themes:
- Birthday
- Love/ Thinking of you
- Anniversary
- Encouragement
For the second part of the challenge I have to create an Altered item or upcycle project so if you would like to see that then please be sure to check my next post 😁
I could select any 3 components from the classes I have done for either level 1 or 2 of the AECP as my inspiration.
I need to submit my projects to Altenew by the 16th of June 2022.
I had a lot of fun making this set of cards so I hope you like them and are inspired.
One of my top tips for getting your creativity flowing is to limit yourself with the stock that you are working with. So for these cards I decided that I wanted to limit my self to 3 colours and use the geometric theme so I made the decision to focus all my cards around the Trigonometry stamp and die set.
Once I knew what I wanted my focus to be I stamped and die cut a whole load of the great fun triangles out so that I could then play with them and work out what layouts I might want to use.
For these cards I have used things from various classes but my main inspiration is from the following classes:
For the Guys - Using Geometric patterns/shapes and bright colours
Polychromatic - Use white space to let the colours pop
I love the way that when you are making cards you can play around laying all of the elements out to work out how you want it to look before you stamp it out. This video shows the steps I took to put this card together.
Here is the finished birthday card. I like that it is clean and simple with lots of white space to make those colours really pop.
2. Love/ Thinking of you card
I decided to focus on love for this card as that was more of a challenge for me personally. The Trigonometry stamp set does not really have any love sentiments in it. I wanted a font that was not too curly to fit for the masculine look and looking through my stamp sets I found there were two stamps in the Handmade tags stamp set that I could use to get the look and love themed sentiment I wanted.
In a similar way to the video for the first card I played around with my stamped and cut triangles on my card blank seeing what way I liked them laid out before I stuck this card together.
I used 5 triangles to go across this C6 size card about a third of the way up the card.
I lined them all up using my ruler and the grid on my glass mat to make sure they are straight.
For the sentiment I cut a 5cm x 5cm square in white card to stamp the sentiment on then cut a 5.5cm x 5.5cm square of the same white card and used the Jet Black crisp dye ink to ink the paper and colour it black. I fixed the sentiment square onto the black square with foam pads so it was popped up a bit.
Before sticking anything down I drew a border around my card base with the Altenew fine liner 02 and then filled it around the edge with the Altenew brush marker to give a thick black line around the edge of the card. You can get both of these pens plus 2 more in the fine liner pen set.
Next I stuck the triangles I had chosen down in the line across my card and trimming the edges where they over hung the card, before taking some of the smaller triangles and placing the un-inked stamps around the top part of the card as I felt it looked just a bit too empty. I wanted to see what they might look like to add interest to the white space. I liked the way they were looking so added some in black and a few in yellow because I realised I had covered most of the yellow larger triangles so wanted to balance the card out a bit more.
Finally after doing all my stamping I fixed the sentiment onto the card using liquid glue so that I had a bit of wiggle time to make sure I was happy with the placement of it. I am so happy with the way this card turned out.
3. Anniversary Card
I mixed and matched supplies a bit again for this card. The "happy" sentiment die is from Heffy Doodle and so is the stamped anniversary sentiment. Again I wanted the text to be in a font that was not to curly to really fit with the masculine feel I was going for and these seemed the perfect choice from my supplies. The stamped anniversary is from the classic sentiments stamp set and I masked part of the stamp as it actually says "happy anniversary" however I wanted to make the Happy with the die cut to add some more interests and dimension to my card. In fact I cut the happy out 3 times in white card and once in the same white card but I inked the white card first withJet Black crisp dye ink. Then I layered them all on top of each other so it became nice and chunky.
TOP tips:
You can do so much more with your sentiment stamps than just ink and stamp them. Look at all the individual words and you can use them all separately to create your own sentiments that say exactly what you want. For this card I used a bit of tape over the word I did not want when I applied the ink and then removed the tape before stamping the stamp. This meant there was only ink on the word I needed. However if you are really brave you could also carefully cut your sentiment stamp to be individual words.
For my layout again I played around working out a new way to arrange all of those triangles until I found a way that I really liked the look of. For all of these cards I am trying to keep the patterns looking quite random which can be a challenge for me. By that I mean I didn't want to have all of just one colour way on a card or all of the spotty ones. Does anyone else struggle with making things look random rather than planned? 😂
Once I had the triangles all lined as I wanted I stuck them to the card with liquid glue and trimmed off any triangles that over hung the edges of the card. I cut a strip of white card which I stamped the anniversary sentiment onto and then cut an angle across the end of the strip.
Taking the Altenew fine liner 02 again and my ruler I drew a frame around the outside edge of my card going across all those triangles as well and then also edged the white anniversary sentiment strip the same way.
Here is a very quick video with my step by step process for this card
4. Encouragement card
This card used the most of those fun triangles of all of the cards I made for this set. I have put together a little video of my process putting this card together. In this card the sentiment is also from the Trigonometry stamp set so you can recreate this card in any colour way you like with 1 stamp and die set.
I am happy with this card and I think putting the triangles on an angle across the card leads your eye along the sentiment. With life the way it is at the moment I think I will be making a few of these in different colours to send out to my friends.
I think the whole set looks really nice together and it shows just how far you can stretch one stamp set. I feel like although it is masculine this set would be nice for anyone. Plus by just changing up the colours it would have a completely different look. This was a challenge for me but I am so happy with how this set looks and it has made me thing about doing the same thing with more of my stamp sets. By limiting myself in the supplies I used I really got inventive with how I was using this stamp set and I loved playing with it. I also have lots of other ideas for it now and I love getting the most from my stash. I hope this has inspired you and given you some ideas for making masculine projects and to get some ink on your stamps 😀
That is my 4 cards for the first part of my challenge and I am so excited to show you what I have done for the second part. I decided to use the same sort of colour way but change it up to be less masculine. If you would like to see what I did keep following my blog and I will have the post up for it soon.
I am going to enter these cards for the following challenges:
A great group of crafters have come together to spread love, joy and encouragement to our younger generation. Do you have a teenager in your household or maybe a younger child who struggle with Self Esteem, please share with them the lovely projects put together in this hop and maybe they can take some encouragement away from it!
I made this card for the instagram hop which has ended up being quite large, larger than originally expected which goes to show how many people out there want to show their support and spread some joy amongst the community, don’t worry you have 7 days to hop along so you don't need to do the whole hop in one go :D
You have until 22nd May 2021 to hop along; winners will be announced Monday 24th May 2021 over on @jasmincraftymakes Instagram.
Sponsor Prizes:
- craftypurplefrog 10% discount throughout the hop (ues code CPF10), £10 prize voucher to the store and FREE Designer digital paper for all participants during the time of the hop!
- thepapergardengals - $15 voucher to the Etsy Store
- kitandclowder – 3 x $15 (AUD) vouchers
- Janesdoodles - $25 voucher
- timeforteadesigns - £20 voucher
- artful.angel - $20 (USD) gift certificate
- makeitbymarko – 2 x $20 vouchers to the Etsy Store
- pinkandmain - $25 surprise pack (Free US shipping, international winners will need to pay postage)
For my card I used the papers that you can get for free during the hop from Crafty Purple Frog (you can find them on the Crafty Purple Frog blog HERE) and the first Crafty Purple Frog digi stamps which are a collection of cute sloths. I coloured him up with spectrum noir triblends and stuck him on the card with foam pads so he has a bit more dimension. The sentiment also comes as part of the Sloth digi set.
I hope you love this hop there are a lot of amazing creations in it.
I am also entering this card for the following challenges:
Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back. And don't forget to join the actual Insta hop for the chance to win all these amazing prizes.
I don't know about you but I always struggle a bit to work out cards for the men in my life. This is my next creation for the Altenew Educator Certification Program and it's based on the For the guys class. This class has some great tips for making cards and creations that work well for men. For this I took inspiration from the pop art lesson. Using bright bold colours taking inspiration from the pop art movement. I used a couple of the sentiments from Painted Poppy stamp set. This is a floral stamp set so I just used the big "Happy" stamp and the smaller sentiment "you make me"
I cut a 4" x 4" square of black card and four 1 and 3/4" x 1 and 3/4" white squares. I lined the happy stamp up in my stamping platform and then stamped it in the following Altenew Crisp dye inks:
Yellow: Maple Yellow
Green: Grass Field
Blue: Aqualicious
Red: Crimson
I stamped a different colour on each white square. By using the stamp platform I was able to make sure they were all in the same place on the squares. I used another new tip from the Clean and Simple Boutique cards class and hand drew some lines around each of the "Happy" words to act as a bit of a shadow and make them stand out a bit more.
I moved the order of the coloured hello squares until I was happy that the colours balanced. I spaced them all out equally within the black square so that they have an even border around them.
Then to finish it off I added a mix of 3 different Nuvo drops in matching colours to the inks which give a bit of texture and interest to the card.
I hope you are all having a great week and staying safe.
I am entering this card for the following challenges:
I could send this card to so many people at the moment. I am really loving having the extra time to be able to craft but I am missing seeing people too. I hope you are all keeping safe.
The shaker itself I made using the tag along die. This die makes shakers so simple as you can just cut the front, back, acetate and I even used it to cut the foam frame so it all fitted together perfectly!
The adorable shark is from the oceans of love stamp set as is the sentiment. For the background in the shaker I again did some ink blending with the same colours but this time I used the rays the roof stencil before adding all my little shaker bits. I coloured the shark with Nuvo markers.
I cut one of the thinnest stitched strips of ease and embossed my sentiment on it with some opaque bright white Wow! embossing powder then finished the whole card off by adding a few gold coast nuvo drops.
I am entering this card for the following challenges:
I also added a lot of sparkle to the entire background by flicking wink of stella all over it and then putting some yellow bird glitter gem drops and for that extra special touch I also added some Banana split glow in the dark gem drops, so when the lights go out this card still stands out.
I have combined two of the new Heffy Doodle stamp sets for this card. The cute little spaceman and space ship are from the "Spaced out" stamp set. The sentiment and Moon are from the "You're weird" stamp set.
