Special Couple Anniversary

 Hello lovely crafters. Hope all is well with you.

I'm really enjoying inking at the moment, especially with layering stencils.  Having said that though, I didn't use the layering stencils for this Buttercup Bloom die and EF set from Lisa Horton. I die cut first, then embossed and then blended the inks on top. 

I used some old Papermania paper in the background. The area behind the lovely Sue Wilson sentiment ( which I layered up a few times) looked a bit bare, so I used a dotty stencil in the background.

I love the looped edge on the DL die, again from Sue Wilson.  I did end up snipping a few of the leaf stems and rearranging them so they fitted on to the card.

That's it for today.

Thanks for visiting and any comments you leave.

Happy crafting.

Fatima 

xxx 

Autumn leaves

 Hello lovely crafters. Hope all is well with you.

Well it has been a while! I just can't believe how quickly the months and seasons are flying by. I love the colours of this season and so I dug out this embossing folder and matching stencil from Crafters Companion and got busy with Distress Oxides and lots of blending. The sentiment stamp is an old one from my stash.

Thanks for popping by and any comments you leave.

Happy crafting.

Fatima 

xxx 

. 

You Are Berry Sweet

 Hello lovely crafters. Hope all is well with you.

Anyone for strawberries? I love strawberries- growing them and eating them - so I couldn't resist crafting with them aswell!! I checked in the garden this morning and all the strawberry plants are doing well. I've got more plants this year as I potted up the 'baby' plants along the runners last year and they seemed to have survived the winter. We shall see.

I started with the fruit crate die from Elizabeth Craft Designs which I layered up and then coloured in with my Promarkers to make it look like a wooden one. The strawberries and leaves  were die cut and shaped and I added some highlights with a white gel pen. The flowers are from SB Lemon Zest die set and have gem centres. The Time For Tea Designs sentiment was stamped onto a die cut banner and the card base and layers are from a Tonic die set.

Challenges

Little Patch of Crafty Friends #179 

Dream Valley #267

TTCRD 

Crafty Gal's Corner #229

I love Promarkers #507

Little Red Wagon #648

Mod Squad

C.R.A.F.T #633

A Bit More Time to Craft 

Creative Fingers #228

Crafty Calendar 

Crafty Catz #590

Thanks for visiting and any comments you leave.

Happy crafting and take care.

Fatima

xxx

Happy Mother's Day

 Hello lovely crafters. Hope all is well with you.

  Today's card features stamping, embossing, stencilling and die cutting!  I think using layering stencils is on a par with the magic of  heat embossing - just as you see a heat embossed image transform magically before your eyes, the tentative lifting of the final stencil to reveal the complete image is always a wow moment for me.

 I'm sure I saw some butterflies in the garden this week enjoying this glorious weather and this inspired me to use this image. I love this Botanicals and Butterflies stamp, stencil and die bundle from Pinkfresh Studios.  After heat embossing with Cosmic Shimmer sparkling silver,  I used Distress Oxides in one of my favourite colour combos (pink and turquoise) to colour through the stencils.  The die cut image was attached to a Memory Box cover plate. The beautiful lacey frame is from Spellbinders. I continued the heat embossing with some lovely sentiments.

I was lucky enough to recently win these sentiment stamp sets in a giveaway by the designer herself, the lovely Jessica from Paper Ink Stamp. They are her first product release after winning Card Maker of the Year last year.

Challenges 

C.R.A.F.T #631

Little Red Wagon #646

Fab n Funky #547

Krafty Chicks #604

Cardz 4 Galz #169

Creative Knockouts #445

Cut it Up #248

Crafty Catz #588

Allsorts  #669

Thanks for visiting and any comments you leave.

Happy crafting.

Fatima

xxx

Happy Birthday

Hello lovely crafters. Hope all is well with you.

Today's card features an EF and die set from Lisa Horton. I've used 'Poppy Cluster' and after die-cutting and then embossing the design, I coloured it with a selection of Distress Oxides, including the new colour Saltwater Taffy (love this colour!).

I added a bit of shading to the flowers with some other Distress Oxides and used some wax patina  in the centres.

I stamped a sentiment from another of Lisa's stamp and die sets.  The scalloped background  was created by colouring some white card with Saltwater Taffy before die cutting.

Thanks for visiting and any comments you leave.

Happy crafting and take care.

Fatima

xxx

Blooming Peony

 Hello lovely crafters. Hope all is well with you.

I took out one of my favourite embossing folders and a bunch of Distress Inks and created some backgrounds.

I inked one side of the EF and passed it through my machine...

These are the backgrounds I ended up with. The embossing is so crisp and detailed with all of Lisa's 3D embossing folders and I think they lend themselves very well to this technique.

Here are the finished cards.  I've used various dies from my stash to create different shaped cards with different sentiments.

I think I'll be making more of these - it'll be handy to have these ready for those last minute cards.

I'd like to enter the first, plum coloured card into the following challenges:

Crafting Happiness Ch. #121

My Time to Craft  #476

Crafty Catz #584

Krafty Chicks #600

Cupcake Inspirations #538

Thanks for visiting and any comments you leave.

Happy crafting and take care.

Fatima

xxx

With Love and Lemons

 Hello lovely crafters. Hope all is well with you.

Something a little zesty today. I fell in love with these cute lemon dies from Spellbinders as soon as I saw them.

I like the fact you can cut both parts of each leaf for a two tone effect. I couldn't find the right shade of yellow in my card stash so I used Distress Inks to deepen the colour of the lemons and add a bit of shading too.  For the background I used a SW EF and finished with a Spellbinders sentiment die.

Challenges:

Crafting Happiness #120

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #175

A Gem of a Challenge #4

Crafty Calendar 

My Time to Craft #475

Thanks for popping by and any comments you leave.

Happy crafting and take care.

Fatima 

xxx