Waffleflower Valentines Release

Hello, I have the pleasure of Guest Designing this month with the new Valentines release from Waffleflower. Before I show you what I've been making I need to let you know that there's an inspirational blog hop taking place over on the Waffleflower blog along with a giveaway.... more details at the bottom of this post :)
                           

I've had fun playing with some of the new stamps and dies which are available to buy now in the Waffleflower store....

For this card I've used the amazing new Make a Fish die which as you can see, makes the most beautifully detailed fish and looks amazing in shimmery card stock. For a simple backdrop I used two of the sentiment strip dies cut in foam and used to stamp with pigment ink and added a sentiment from the coordinating Make a Fish sentiment stamp set.

I used the cute Forever stamp set and Mini 3D bow die to make a wreath, the striped background is made using the shelf from the Morning Love stamp set...

The Morning Love stamp set is just fab... I love the style of these images and I had to make a simple shelf scene using the coordinating dies....

These final two cards use the Stitched Love stamp set and matching dies, I couldn't choose between the pears or strawberries so I had to use them both!!

Here are the details you need to know, happy blog hopping and thank you for joining me today :)

 GIVEAWAY INFO

To celebrate the blog hop, Waffle Flower is giving away $25 gift certificates to FIVE lucky winners. Leave comments on Waffle Flower blog and along the hop by 11:59pm ET on 12/10/17 for your chances to win. Winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the posts on this blog hop and will be announced on the Waffle Flower blog on 12/12/17.

RELEASE SPECIAL

To celebrate the new release, all orders over $25 placed at waffleflower.com by 11:59pm ET on 12/10/17 with code VDAY2018 will receive a free Forever Stamp Set (image as attached, link here: http://waffleflower.com/products/forever-stamp-set). The stamp set needs to be in your cart for the promo code to work. Limited 1 per customer; While Supplies last.

                                      

Jenny x

Big Birthday's

There have been a couple of significant birthdays I needed to make cards for recently and one of them was for my lovely Dad. I was totally inspired and in awe of the fabulous colouring of the wine bottle and glass on this card by the talented Francine so I had to have a go myself...

I'm pretty chuffed with how they turned out :)

The rest of the wording is made up using various stamps and alphabets sets to make a block of typography around the images...... trust me, it took a lot of planning on scrap paper!!!

This second card was for one of my hubbies work colleagues and I wasn't sure how they 

would feel about the birthday number so I played it relatively safe with subtle humour....

I spotted this sentiment on Pinterest and thought it would work with negative die-cutting 

and some pastel floral over-stamping for a feminine feel....

The Neat and Tangled Journaling Alpha dies are just so cool to use for negative die-cutting

and easy to line up too.... luckily I had no repeat letters in this phrase so I could cut them with 

two passes through the ol' Big Shot 😉

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Wine Service Dienamics (MFT)

Cheers,Count on it Dies (Avery Elle)

Violets ABC's, Smitty's ABC's (Lawn Fawn)

Cutaway Alphabet (Waffleflower)

Journaling Alphas Dies (Neat & Tangled)

Blooms n Buds (Reverse Confetti)

Double the Warmth

It's always nice to send warm wishes but at this time of year in the northern hemisphere, its even more appropriate!! It's also a lovely alternative to a 'Happy' sentiment on a Birthday or Christmas card.

These little feathered friends are cuddled up for warmth on a cold snowy night..Brrrr. I did some simple masking to arrange them along the branch and coloured them with Copics. I even had a go at colouring the sky which was scary stuff as it started off looking a mess but gradually came round :)

I cut them out with a tag die and added black twine..... my top tip is to rub Multi Matte Medium onto the twine so it holds a nice shape bow ;) I then just added a couple of strips of card along with a sentiment under the tag :)

This next card was fun to make using the hats and mittens from a Wplus9 stamp set to create a border edge down the card front...

Simple masking again and I used the outline and solid images from the set which i think look so good when slightly off set :) I trimmed around the hats and gloves to give a fancy shaped edge which is more obvious with the contrasting black card strip behind.

I used a small star stamp to decorate some of the hats and gloves and added a sentiment made up from a couple of sets.

Well it's certainly hat and glove weather out there today, I'll have to dig mine out for the dog walk later..... sadly they're not as colourful as these.

Both cards have featured on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here and here

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Stash Used:
Winter Owl, Winter Sparrows  (LawnFawn)
Sentimental Winter (Winnie & Walter)
Tag Stitched (Paper Smooches)

Holiday Cheer (Wplus9)
Argyle Backdrops (Lawn Fawn)
Birthday Wishes and Balloons (MFT)

Special Delivery

Colourful presents in a hessian sack.... that's an image that makes you think of Christmas!!

That's why I love this stamp from Waffleflower and it was just asking for a real twine drawstring to be added for a pop of colour and dimension..

The linen texture is added using a MFT background stamp and I shaded the folds with markers for a 3D effect. To add presents I cut simple shapes from various papers and added bows and ribbons.

The sack has a space for a sentiment which is all that this card needed I reckon...... sometimes you don't need to add any more words!!
More details can be found on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here with links to the products used.

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Stash used:
Special Delivery (Waffleflower)
Linen Background (MFT)
Shadows (Paper Smooches)

Christmas Colour Challenge

Well we're now into November... how did that happen!!???  

Christmas is just around the corner and we have the last challenge of 2017 

over at Seven Hills Crafts.

Time for a colour challenge and naturally we'd like you to make a Christmas themed card or project using at least three colours from one of the palettes below :)

Now some of the more eagle-eyed readers will wonder where the blue is in the third set of colours!!

It seems my printer did not give me a true colour likeness and this is the result... well we can imagine it's a very blue grey ;)

I've used trees from Flora & Fauna's Holidays Watercolour set and decorated some with white gel pen doodles. You can just about make out the pale icy blue snow hill and the sprinkling of snow falling. It just felt right to use that sentiment from Scandinavian Prints Christmas by Neat & Tangled :)

All the challenge rules and prize details can be found here along with the link up gallery... we'd love you to play along with us in our last challenge of 2017!

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Poinsettia Pattern

It's time to start thinking about Christmas cards and playing around with 'easy to replicate' designs!! Well this one is one to easily replicate but not the quickest.... a fabulous end result that has a retro feel though :)

This layered Poinsettia stamp set from Waffleflower definitely has a screen print feel to it so I had to try a retro colour combo which is actually my favourite of the two. I used my MISTI to make four identical cards.... It's fun setting up a production line! I paired them up with a sentiment from Avery Elle .... a perfect match for the vintage feel!!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stamps used:

Poinsettia - Waffleflower

Kitsch Christmas - Avery Elle

Ruh-Roh....

I was inspired by the CASology challenge to dig this very old stamp set out from There She Goes.... 

I'm sure I've heard our dog mutter this phrase a few times in his life ;)

Well this was a good test for colouring smaller images with Copics... not easy especially as the card I used bled quite easily too!! It's a 'one layer' apart from the cake which is stamped and trimmed out separately..... I wasn't sure whether it would be on the inside or front but as you can see it made the cover. This is the sentiment on the inside...

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

October Sketch challenge

Hello, hello.... we're into October which means a new challenge over at Seven Hills Crafts. This month we have an easy sketch for you to play with.... flip it, turn it or change up those shapes... which is just what I did :)

Everyone say ahhhhh..... isn't he the cutest yeti ever? I turned the sketch through 180° so he could stand on his own snowscape complete with icy mountains and that sentiment was a good find from  another MFT stamp set :)

Come over to the Seven Hills blog here to find out all the challenge and prize details... we'd love to see you in the linkee gallery :)

Supplies used:
Beast Friends, Piece of Cake, Hog Heaven ( MFT Stamps)
Iceberg dienamics ( MFT dies)

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Seasonal Flora

It's a Monday morning and I have lots of jobs including an ironing pile that's ready to topple so it's only natural I'm on blogger instead!!! I had to pop by with a couple of cards to share that are quite autumnal....

This is my card on the Seven Hills Crafts blog today and those rich colours just make me happy :)

I had intended to try the emboss resist layering technique with these lovely quilled leaves from Newtons Nook but I grabbed the white embossing powder instead of clear so had to change it up!!

It's a sort of happy accident I think because I loved adding those intense seasonal shades to the leaves instead and the heat embossing kept the watercolour contained :)

You can find more details and links to supplies for this card on the Seven Hills blog here.

This next card is not so richly coloured but seasonal nevertheless...

Water-colouring die cuts is always something I forget to try but the effect is just lovely and these dies from Flora and Fauna are some of my favourite.... I feel a Christmas design coming from this card 😉

Details for this card can be found on the Seven Hills blog here

Thanks for stopping by.... I'm off to tackle the Matterhorn of ironing!!!
Jenny x

A Summer Grad

I thought I'd share this card commission I made for a friend back in the summer.... seems like an age away now!! Her daughters graduation was in July and I was so happy to find this lovely image on Mo's Digital Pencil, not only because I could get the image ASAP without waiting for the postie but I could also make an A5 card by re-sizing the image too :)

I printed the image once on the card base and a few more for layering the image after colouring with Polychrome Pencils and cutting out the relevant parts. 

The sentiment was requested so I generated it on the computer, it took some working out but I love it... perfect for a Graduation card :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Plants and Caterpillars!

Hello again, I'm trying hard to keep up to date with sharing my DT projects for Seven Hills Crafts so I have a couple more for you today....

Yep, I have a plant/greenery theme again today starting with this Indoor Garden stamp set from Altenew which I just love...

The hand-drawn style and areas of solid colour are what sucked me in, I thought I'd add some blocks of colour as a background for a modern 'arty' look!!

I stamped each image, trimmed part way around the shape and made the rest into a rectangle with a knife and ruler..... I then added colour with an alcohol marker. It would have been easier to make the background blocks with coloured card and then add the stamped and trimmed images on top but that's what happens when a card design evolves!! :)

Now it's fair to say that Flora & Fauna are definitely becoming a favourite brand of mine too and I made this card using the Thanks a Munch set which has the cutest caterpillar amongst the images..

I made a circular frame with the leaves and then masked a circular area on the card to add the background leaves and the caterpillar..... he looks like he's enjoying his leafy snack!!

This gives me a good excuse to show you this beautiful Privet Hawk Moth caterpillar we found last weekend whilst gardening, I used to take these in to school in a jam jar for the nature table when I was a child but haven't seen one in ages so it was nice to find him :)

Thanks a Munch for stopping by :)
Jenny x

A Spotlight Challenge

We have a fun technique challenge this month over at Seven Hills Crafts...

We're asking you to spotlight an element of your design which can be done in a few ways so it'll be fun to see everyone's entries in the gallery :)

I've used colour to spotlight this little lady in the herd.... seriously that face just cracks me up :)

I added some subtle inking to indicate the sky and grass so the design wouldn't be too 'white'

So how would you use the Spotlight technique?? Come and show us and be in with 

a chance of winning a giftcard to spend in store. All the details can be found

 on the blog here.... see you in the gallery :)

Stamps used:

The Whole Herd - MFT

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Two for the Gardener

Hello hello :)

I have another couple of cards to share, this first is based on a notebook cover I made for a craft sale a few months ago.... I love the water-coloured square backgrounds for each image and it seemed natural to arrange them on a square card base...

These Altenew stamps are just lovely for a spot of loose watercolour and staying on the plant theme I have been playing with some new Flora & Fauna succulent stamps, another new favourite company me thinks and they can be found at Seven Hills Crafts here in the UK now 😉

I have used a mixture of paper-piecing, Copic colouring and plain ol' stamping to make this little collection and used the Octagon greenhouse for a Terrarium 😊

That's all from me... time for bed!!

Thanks for stopping by 😊

Jenny x

Stash used:

Beautiful You - Altenew

Sentimental Birthday - Winnie & Walter

Succulents, Octagon Greenhouse die - Flora & Fauna

Distressed patterns - MFT

Playing with Plaid and Vegtables

Hi there, sticking my head up above the summer holidays again (said whilst waving hand!)

Yep, I have a couple of cards to share again today and funnily enough both would be suitable for guys again.... I seem to subconsciously gravitate towards this genre!!

I have at least three plaid builder stamp sets but it took until Waffleflowers latest release to have a go a stamping out my own pattern... I say my own but its actually heavily influenced by this photo on Pinterest.  To give that white fleck in the solid stripes, I first stamped the Scattered Surface background from MFT in Versamark on the card panel .... I did it twice with a 90° turn in between.

The versamark ink sort of resists the dye ink and gives the impression of a material texture, I also used the diagonal striped stamp in the set to add more pattern detail. I didn't use the Misti for this stamping... I found it easier to use acrylic blocks...

 Now for the veggie card... in honour of National Allotment week (14 - 20th August)

I had fun stamping out this pattern, its a cute Lawn Fawn set which takes on a different feel if you don't use the little faces on the veggies...

I did use the Misti for this one... it makes re-stamping the solid images easier so you can add extra shading with darker ink colours. I just love all those bright colours :)

Who wouldn't love a card full of veggies... it's almost one of your 5-a-day :)

Stash used:

Plaid Play - Wafflerflower

Scattered Surface Background - MFT

Across the Card -Neat & Tangled

Rooting for You - Lawn Fawn

Quote Tag Dies - Paper Smooches

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x