The Alphabet Challenge: W is for anything you Wish

Good morning all.  It's time for a new Alphabet Challenge, and today it's basically a free week, because W is for anything you Wish.  I made my card using some Papermania Bare Basics wooden jigsaw pieces, which I embossed with Wow embossing powders in various glittery pastel shades.

I added a die cut Happy Birthday sentiment and some paper flowers with buttons for the centres.

I hope you can join us this week at The Alphabet Challenge.

Sian. xxx

The Alphabet Challenge: Snow

Good morning.  It's my turn to pick the challenge this week at The Alphabet Challenge, and I've chosen the theme of snow.  Let's see your snowy creations.

I decided to use triple embossing for the centrepiece of my car, a technique I haven't used for a while.  I used a combination of Wow embossing powder and UTEE.  (My original plan was to use just the Wow embossing powder, but it soon became clear that I wasn't going to be able to stamp into it because of the high glitter content.  If you're not familiar with triple embossing, you layer up at at least 3 layers of embossing powder and then stamp into it.  It's a good idea to use pigment ink or Versamark  or something similar on your stamp so it doesn't stick.  I'm a big fan of Versamark for things like this, and you can also use it to make your embossing powder stick to the card.  (I used two layers of Wow embossing powder and 2 layers of UTEE).I stamped the snowflake stamp into the hot UTEE, left it to cool and then pulled the stamp off.  Once it was cool, I cracked it a bit because I wanted it to look like ice. 

I created the background and layers of my card using an embossing folder, and added some die cut snowflakes and gems to finish off.  My sentiment is embossed using the same Wow embossing powder that I used for the bottom two layers of my triple embossing.

I hope you can join in the fun this week at The Alphabet Challenge.

Sian.  xxx

Make My Monday: Embossing - Wet or Dry

Good morning.  It's time for another challenge at Make My Monday, and this week's theme is embossing.  You have a choice of either wet or dry embossing.

I've chosen dry embossing for my card.  I started off by creating embossed panels with white and lilac card using embossing folders, then layered them onto a slightly darker purple.  Then I added some coordinating ribbon.  (The ribbon looks a bit grey in the photo, but is much more purple in real life!)

I die cut and embossed some flowers and coloured with Promarkers in matching shades of purple/lilac.  I shaped them using an embossing tool and a foam mat, and finished them off with pearl centres.  Finally I added a printed sentiment.

I hope you can join us this week at Make My Monday.

Sian. xxx

Cardz 4 Guyz: No Patterned Paper

Good morning!  It's time for a new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz, and this week's challenge is to create a card without using any patterned paper.  I am a big lover of patterned papers, so it's unusual for me to create cards without using them (well, usually anyway - I seem to have been doing a few lately).

I started with some white card that I inked using distress inks in various brown shades and then splashed soem water over it.  I dried it with a heat gun and then stamped a brick background and then the cogs in a darker brown over the top.  I matted this onto brown card and stuck it onto my card blank.

Next I created the centre rectangle by dry embossing it using an embossing folder and then rubbing distress inks over it. 

I then coloured the two digi images using Polychromos pencils.  (These are from the Steampunk Men set by The Octopode Factory - I like a bit of weird!)  I cut them out and stuck them onto the embossed background.  The cogs at the corners are die cut.  I wanted to cut them from copper card, but I didn't have any, so I used some brown shades of alcohol ink on gold card, which I think I prefer anyway as it give a grungy look which is more in fitting with the rest of the card.

The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz Idea-ology pad and says "life was meant for a great adventure".

I hope you can join us for this week's Cardz 4 Guyz challenge.

Sian.  xx