Geo Happy Birthday

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (teal, yellow, gray, brown), Techniques (die cutting, heat embossing, stamping), Elements (horizontal petal shapes, heat embossed flowers, sentiment strip with dark mat, 2 pearls)

INCLUDE: teal, yellow, gray

MODIFY: petals run vertically, have extra die cut inlays to mix colours, sentiment is circle with dark mat, 3 gems instead of pearls, dark gray background

EXCLUDE: heat embossing, flowers, brown

SPIN: square card

I love when geometric shapes fit together like this to create a pattern. I created strips of coloured paper with 3 colours of ink, and then die cut all my petals. I mixed up my colours a bit more than Giovana did because of the way my petal die cuts nesting shapes all at once.  If you don't have these little nesting dies, you could get a similar look with larger nesting dies in simple shapes.

I finished with a very simple sentiment in a matted circle.

CASE Me a Christmas Card (Surprise!)

Normally at this time of year, I would be really excited to be helping Michelle Lupton kick off her annual Case me a Christmas Card feature. This year, Michelle's decided to take a break, and when she gave me that news I was so disappointed. Michelle is such an inspiring and lovely person and crafter and I look forward to this every year, and it turns out I'm not the only one!  So A bunch of us got together and decided to throw Michelle a surprise party, filled with lots of friends casing Michelle's cards. And the best part? You can join in too, if you want! Details in my video below:

Super Smooth Gel Blending

I found a faster way to ink blend perfectly smooth panels - only one of these panels was ink blended - the other two were 'gel-blended' - can you tell which is which? 

Fab Floral Thanks

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this layout as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (pink, yellow, aqua, white, green) Techniques (digital scrapbooking that looks like die cutting, Elements (stars, hexagons in horizontal line, love, flowers, stripes, plaid, heart, banner)

INCLUDE: pink, yellow, aqua, white, green, horizontal focal image

MODIFY: gold splatter instead of stars, 6 petal flowers instead of hexes, white die cut thanks

EXCLUDE: stripes, plaid, heart, banner

I love looking through the galleries of our SCS Scrapbookers - I'm always fascinated to see how different people preserve their memories and photos. 

I created my magenta background by mixing together two Catherine Pooler inks, then used those two inks plus 4 others to create the flowers made with the offcuts from a Simon Says Stamp cover plate die.

There's a lot of intense colour here, so my brain was screaming for some white elements - I added a white Spellbinders sentiment and flower centres.

Beachy Happy Birthday

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (blue, yellow, white), Techniques (colouring, dry embossing), Elements (large blue flower, birthday, dotted ribbon, stamped sentiment, embossed background, lots of layers)

INCLUDE: Colours (more greeny blue), dry embossing, large blue flower, birthday, stamped sentiment, embossed background, birthay

MODIFY: stencil360 instead of coloured flower, circle focal panel, sentiment instead of flower centre, dew drops instead of dots on ribbon, fewer layers

EXCLUDE: ribbon

SPIN: square card 

The inspiration is vibrant and classic, and I wanted to change up the techniques. I created my two-toned blue flower with my Stencils 360 tool and the circular dahlia stencil. I created a beautifully blended background (if I do say so myself! lol!) by using the sticky mat that came with the Altenew Stampwheel as a gel press, with two aqua inks and a brayer (I may never ink blend a panel again - so easy and so fast!). I embossed that panel with a new geometric embossing folder.

I stamped my sentiment in orangey-yellow and put it across the centre of the flower to combine the inspiration's sentiment strip and flower centre. And I finished with some Apricot dew drops for a little shine.

Celebrate the Season

It's time to Celebrate the Season! Spellbinders has some new holiday goodies and I had fun using them to make these two very different Christmas Cards.

This one uses a new sentiment set which is quickly becoming a favourite - that fun font for the large Merry Christmas, along with all the little add-ons is a real one-stop-shop for holiday sentiments! I used a monochrome colour scheme in various shades of red.

The white panel was embossed with a new embossing folder, and then splattered with gold to tie it in with the embossed sentiment.

This one uses a die set with little lights, bells and bows and I took a minimalist approach by using only 3 of the lights and part of the string. I coloured the lights with Copic markers, and then coated them with Nuvo Crystal Glaze and some chunky iridescent glitter. My background was ink blended with deep blue inks on white cardstock and for the 'glow' around each light, I blended a little white pigment ink.

Merry Christmas Ornaments

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, Bonnie (raduse).

I chose this card as my inspiration:

LIST: Colours (red, yellow, blue, white), Techniques (stamping, fussy cutting), Elements (stamped sunflowers with interesting centres and two of them popped up, red frame, black stamped sentiment on an angle, splatter).

INCLUDE: Colours (red, yellow, blue, white), shapes with interesting centres, black stamped sentiment on an angle.

MODIFY: added green, sunflowers to ornaments, landscape to portrait, sentiment on popped up die cut instead of two of the shapes, white frame instead of red

EXCLUDE: splatter

I had fun with this card, but it took some work! lol! I die cut all the ornaments, then blended 3 colours of ink on each to create some dimension. I added little silver 'toppers' and a stacked up Merry Christmas sentiment which was stamped in black and heat embossed with glittery embossing powder. Finished with some iridescent dewdrops. Doesn't sound like much work after all, does it?! lol!

Happy Father's Day

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, mschoener.

I chose this card as my inspiration:

LIST: Colours (Red, white, green, blue, yellow), Techniques (colouring, stamping), Elements (red car, balloons, presents, patterned paper background, horizontal element, red frames, red ribbon, 'fireworks' sequins)

INCLUDE: red car, horizontal element on background, 

MODIFY: die cut instead of stamped/coloured, embossed background instead of patterned paper,

EXCLUDE: ribbon

SPIN: Square card

I started by creating my background by piecing together 2 strips of Sizzix metallic gray cardstock with 1 strip of white, then embossing it with a new folder.

I cut the car from red mirror cardstock, and holographic cardstock and assembled it.

I stamped an old sentiment with WOW! Embossing ink onto a strip of the metallic gray cardstock and embossed it with silver powder for a tone on tone look.

Get More from Cover Plate Dies!

 Cover plate dies are one of the big investments in our crafty stash. Today, I'm sharing 4 strategies for getting more from them! 

Just Wanted to Say

 Today I'm sharing some cards I made with a couple of new dies from the new "Just Wanted to Say" release from Spellbinders. Sweet Birdie is very aptly named, and he comes with lots of little pieces that you can use in different ways to get different looks.

Leafy Sprig has a sprig, of course, but also includes 7 individual leaves that make cutting multiples quick and easy!

For the first one, I actually paired up the bird with one of the Color Block Balloon dies from yesterday's Birthday release. I cut the striped balloon from four pieces of cardstock coloured with my ink pads, then assembled them, mixing the colours. I cut the bird from the centre of the balloons, and then grounded them on black balloons cut with the same die.

For this bird, I used all the die cut bits in pretty, fresh colours. I like to cut all the pieces from white cardstock then colour them either with markers or ink pads. This means I don't have to try and store lots of coloured cardstock and scraps. I grounded this bird with a black scallop cut from Colorblock Slimline edges and a hello die cut from Paper Rose.

By changing the colours, I made the Sweet Birdie into a cardinal, perfect for a classic feeling Christmas card. I blended a circle as my background, and added the Leafy Sprig die cut and my cardinal, along with a Waffle Flower sentiment.

This time, I went for a more mid-century modern look, and left a lot of the details off the birds. I used some 'backwards' so that they could face each other, and I added a wing to the back of each bird to make them look like they are flying. 

Finally, I used the 7 individual leaves to cut a lot of leaves before colouring and arranging them onto my background. I splattered gold watercolour over top and added a white thanks die cut to brighten it up a bit.

Happy Birthday Spellbinders!

 Today we're celebrating Spellbinders' birthday! I used this new Colorblock Balloons die set:

You get 3 different colour block designs in 3 different sizes, but I wanted the same design on the 3 sizes. No problem! 

I assembled 3 of the largest balloon, using some watercolour paper I had sprinkled Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powders onto.

Then I used the two smaller solid circle dies to create my smaller balloons! I used some gold twine as my string and embossed a sentiment in gold. 

The background was embossed with the new Hand Drawn Scallops embossing folder. It's 6x9, so I was able to tilt my cardstock on it to get angled scallops rather than horizontal!

Then I used only the top 3 layers from Topsy Turvy Cake, another new set, to create a birthday cake card. 

To create my dotty background, I used one of the layer-decorating dies to create a stencil, then blended ink through.

The sparkly frosting was created with Nuvo Crystal Glaze and some chunky iridescent glitter. The plate was created by cutting the oval 'top' from one of the larger layers. 

Diamond Happy Birthday

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, FayeMakesCards!

I chose this card as my inspiration:

LIST: Colours (bold rainbow, white), Techniques (not 100% sure, looks like she coloured an embossed panel?), stamping, die cutting, Elements (diamond geometric background, rectangle stamped sentiment with scalloped frame on the right side of the card)

INCLUDE: diamond background, rectangle stamped sentiment on the right of the card

MODIFY: die cut background, fewer colours, turned from landscape to portrait

EXCLUDE: embossing, frame, 

SPIN: added gems

I coloured some white cardstock with my CP inks, then settled in for some die cutting! I used a Spellbinders Colorblock die which comes with a solid diamond die as well as a die that cuts all the pieces. I mixed-and-matched the colours and put the diamonds on their sides for a different look.

The sentiment is heat embossed with white on white cardstock, then blended with Black Jack ink and matted on some silver sparkle cardstock. I finished it off with Crafty Meraki Fairy Garden gems.

Geo Color Block

 Have you ever found a product you love so much, you think you could use just it for the rest of your cardmaking life? 

This one may be it for me. These little geometric colour block dies from Spellbinders are versatile. You can make so many patterns, and you can create a card for any occasion just by changing the colours and textures, colouring techniques and sentiments (or by not using all the pieces every time). 

They come in lots of shapes, and they are a BARGAIN! (and if you like cutting a lot of them to create patterns, I suggest buying more than one to make it go faster! lol!)

I think by inkblending these petals with two shades on each 'ring', they almost look like embroidery and these ones are definitely going into my 'black label' pile. That's the pile of my favourites, that I keep for me to send myself, rather than selling or donating to others.

Using Dies All Year Long

Congratulations to this week's Featured Stamper, Mary (MaryEB).

I chose this card as my inspiration:



I focused on:
-Christmas theme
-offset layered die cut

I changed:
-star to snowflake
-colours
-background technique

This snowflake is actually made from two triangle Christmas tree dies from Spellbinders. I cut two from white cardstock, and used Distress Spray in Pewter to splatter some shine on them.

I created a blue watercolour wash background and then spritzed it with Tonic Sparkle Spray.

I offset the two tree dies to create this loopy snowflake, and then added some Pearl White jewels from Pretty Pink Posh.

This card is one of 6 I made for my latest video, which is a collaboration with Jenny Colacicco, showing how to use any of your dies at any time of year!

Spellbinders - Toast & Jam

I had some fun this week playing with a new (to me) stamp and die set from Spellbinders called Toast with Jam'n Bread. I kept them both pretty clean and simple and coloured with Copics and Stickles.

For my first card, I curved the sentiment on my MISTI and stamped it. I stamped and die cut the jam, butter and toaster (it has a slot for the toast!) and a die-cut 4 slices of bread. I popped them up all over the card to create some movement.

Next, I played on the 'JAM' in the sentiment by creating a traffic jam of jam! I kept the colour scheme simple since the pattern was so busy. 

I used: