Black and white butterflies

I love Sketches and challenges, it stops the whirling of deciding what colours to use. My fabulous up-line set us a challenge just to use Black and White only. My first idea was a butterfly, I am not sure whether it works with no colour, I was so tempted to get the Watercolour pencils or Blends out and add colour, but it didn't fit with the challenge. I think that the butterflies should be bright and colourful, but it so pretty even without colour. The butterfly looks amazing with heat embossing and Brushos®, (in my opinion it was made for using different techniques for Brushos®),  but today I just went for simple black archival ink.

The sentiment is from my favourite host stamp set 'Dare to Dream.' I thought it went perfectly with the gorgeous butterfly. It reminded me of a quote I love.

I have a few more black and white cards which I will show or add to the gallery.

Mermaid Candle Gift

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Like lots of people I love to watch YouTube, one of the amazing demonstrators is Sam Hammond Donald aka Pootles, her creations are amazing! A few ago she created and shared an amazing Unicorn Candle Gift, I love it. when I saw some Sea Shell candles in Primark, I knew that I had to create a Mermaid version.

The box is for Displaying or gifting only. Please do not light a candle whilst near or in a cardboard/ paper box or package. If you plan to give it away or sell it, please put a label on the bottom to say that the candle must be removed from the box.

I followed Pootles instructions and used the Mermaid from the Magical Day stamp set with Blends and Wink of Stellar. I also added a sentiment on a panel on the reverse.

Instructions

Cardstock – 22.5 x 9.5cm (9 x 3-3/4″)

Score on the LONG side at 2, 7.5, 9.5, 15cm (.75, 3, 3.75, 6″)

Score on the SHORT side at 2, 7.5cm  (.75, 3″)

Glimmer Paper Panel – 5 x 5cm  (2 x 2″)

Back Panel  Layer 1 - smidge smaller than 5.5 x 7.5cm ( 2 x 3")

Back Panel Layer 2 -  5 x 7cm ( 2 x 2.75")

Hope you like it as much as I do.

Having 3 hobbies

Sometimes when you go into your craft room, it feels like you have 3 hobbies, buying supplies, tidying supplies and making cards. Sometimes the first 2 overtake the actual card making. Or if you are not feeling so hot, buying supplies is the main hobby. Then when you finally go in to the craft room, you feel a bit overwhelmed. I tend to pick some colours and a stamp set and try to make a card.

I love this card I created, I decided that I wanted to use Marina Mist,  using the Silver Embossing Paste, Sweet Soiree Decorative Masks, the  Sweet Cake Framelits and the Beautiful Day stamps. I did also sneek in the Berry Burst, I love the flower, I decided to leave the die cut pieces inside the flower rather than popping them out. I think that it makes the flower prettier. I popped the sentiment up with dimensions.

All in all I think that it was a productive hour in the craft room. Hope you like it, I have card of a similar design to show you in the next few days.

Love is all you need, using Brushos

 I am soooo pleased that Stampin' Up! have released Brushos in their new Spring/Summer Catalogue. I have been using them for a few years after I saw a demonstration of them in person and on lots of You Tube channels. I love them, they give such gorgeous backgrounds and add texture and depth to cards. Brushos are unique, transparent, highly pigmented water colour ink. They are amazing!

I have to admit, I have about 18 colours, however, you really don't need that many, the colours Stampin' Up! are gorgeous. Although depending on your location, it may be good researching different costs. They can be used in lots of different ways, the video by Stampin' Up! shows just some of them.  If you have never seen them the video is below. I would also recommend watching the amazing other videos that there are.

To make my card today I used thick Whisper White, I squeezed water out of my waterbrush pen, then added Brushos, to limit the runs I dried the card with my heat tool. I think it looks quite Bokeh like. I made the heart, by colour washing Brushos on watercolour card and I used the smallest Heart from the Sweet and Sassy dies. I added a sentiment using Stazon ink, from the Watercolour words stamp set. Hope you like it.

Gorgeous Birthdays

I have a number of family and friends whose birthday it is this month, this is my latest creation. I was trying to avoid the Berry Burst, but it sneaked its way in. I was attempting to use a Marina Mist, silver and Basic Grey colour combination, but it looked a bit dull.

For inspiration I went through the new catalogue and found the pictures of the Sweet Soiree suite. I loved the flowers from the new Sweet Cake Framelits, originally I left the cuttings in the flower, but they didn't look right. I did keep the paper in the tag though. I used a flower and the Happy Birthdays stamps from Cake Soiree. When I put the card together I thought something was missing. it took a bit of placing the card on different coloured pieces.

I added the dots from the Petal Palette to add some more interest. I love these stamps and love how the card turned out. I hope you like it!