Black Ice Technique

There is a wonderful tutorial at Splitcoaststampers for the Black Ice Technique, which creates a striated and shimmery effect using metallic cardstock, swipes of black ink, and clear embossing powder. I was intrigued and had a go with some leftover cardstock for my first effort. I mounted it to medium brown cardstock.

Once I saw how cool it looks, I decided to try it with blue metallic cardstock for a beach theme. I mounted the squares onto plain metallic cardstock, then onto black cardstock and I added washi tape.

Here are some close ups, but it is hard to capture the frosty effect:

Thanks for visiting today!

Freshly Made Sketches #339 X 21!

The Freshly Made Sketch was truly a challenge for me, geometrically speaking. My brain had difficulty getting these triangles just right, as you will soon see:

But I persevered and I made more cards in one day than I have ever made in my life; 21, to be exact! Of course, my favourite ended up being the very last one I made. Go figure.

They are all thank you cards (I currently need a lot), 4.25 X 5.5 inches and mostly different - I was just trying to use up scraps of patterned paper. Some are heat embossed, others are not. Some are more clean and simple and others got fussy. Here they are:

Washi tape strips. Verve stamp. Kaiser Craft paper.

These next cards have a masculine feel so I am entering one of them in the almost-ended Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge.

Waltzingmouse stamps. Memory Box dots and really old Basic Grey designer paper
I have been hoarding saving.

I thought this Waltzingmouse stamp was perfect! 

Memory Box papers, Avery Elle die cut "thanks." 

Stickers my sister gave me and I finally used. 

Lawn Fawn die cut pierced edge.

Washi tape sentiment. Easy peasy! 

The flowers on this paper dictated this flipped layout.

Waltzingmouse stamp, left, and Verve stamp, right. 

Different card bases; this Prima designer paper had so many colours to choose from.

Some glitter washi tape and a Quietfire Design die cut inlaid in card front. I had a mishap
with some StazOn ink so had to add a bit of shading around the top.

SaveSave

Second Card for Massive Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

While I had all the supplies out from yesterday's card, I decided to make a second one - this time with a tea theme. I added a little checkerboard stencilling. This is a large format card - 5.5 X 8.5 inches. I needed to go big to fit all the stamps in!

Please go here to see over 1000 cards entered in this blog hop. Thanks for visiting today!

2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Hello, blog! Long time no see! Here is my card for the 2018:

Today I have a chalkboard card. I forgot how fun these are! I used my MISTI stamp positioner to enable me to stamp and colour, then stamp again and emboss. I chose not to emboss the hearts so they would recede a bit.

I used chalk pencil crayons to add some subtle colour to the flowers and a slight drop-shadow to the "thanks" calligraphy. I drew the border by hand. I used striped washi tape as a temporary guide to help me space my dots in the border like this:

I used a sponge to smudge a bit of chalk ink in the corners and mounted with a few black and white layers to the front of a 5X7 inch card.

Thanks for stopping by. You can see LOTS more caffeinated cards at the official link up blog here. My card is number 860!

February Challenge - Heart

Here it is February 1 and I know you think this is a Valentine's card, but wait!

Sylvia's Christmas Card Challenge this month is a red heart and foil paper. I totally missed the foil paper part, so come back later to see if I managed to make another card incorporating that. Today I was feeling pretty proud of myself that I managed the red heart part! This is an old (2001) Stampington & Company stamp called Forget Me Not, which is what it said before I covered it up with a "from the heart" banner using a Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamp and some white embossing powder. 

The red ink for the heart and banner is Versafine Satin Red which I clear embossed, and I used the same ink to stamp Waltzingmouse's "Christmas Wishes" along the left side. A stamp positioner makes that a breeze. I used a MISTI and slid the paper up by one inch increments to stamp evenly spaced wishes. I popped the heart and sentiment up with foam tape. It's a simple card, but I think it looks more involved thanks to the beautiful collage stamp.

I am entering this in the fun Jingle Belles challenge called "Text Me." Still time to enter until Feb. 7. I am also entering it in the Splitcoaststampers Fan Club February Christmas Card Challenge for the letter H.

Winter Birthday

Here's a sweet woodland scene for a winter birthday card. These stamps are by Waltzingmouse Stamps. I really miss that little Irish stamp company!

I added a little snow (Rock Candy glitter) to the branches which you might make out here:

I am entering this in the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes challenge here. Thanks for stopping by.

January Christmas Card Challenge

It a new year of monthly Christmas Card Challenges over at SMD Paper Arts. I have printed them off and the first one calls for a yellow star and an embossed die cut. I managed a pretty clean and simple card design using a Tim Holtz star embossing folder.

I was ruminating on the utter humility required for the Creator of the universe to humble Himself and be born in a manger. I thought the contrast with the big, bright star would reinforce that.

This naive sort of artwork is normally not my thing, but I have very few nativity stamps and for some reason this Bible journalling set by Illustrated Faith attracted me.

So that's my first Christmas Card for 2018 and so far my favourite! As this rubber stamp set is new to me, I am also entering this card in the Jingle Belles Challenge for their first challenge of 2018.