Clearly Besotted | Simply Cards & Papercraft 133

Now I know I'm probably very late to the party, but with my final set of my Masters exams spanning the past couple of months I haven't had any time for crafting and I have missed it dearly. However, I still picked up the issue of Simply Cards & Papercraft that had the free Clearly Besotted stamp set. As soon as I saw it, I simply knew I had to have it. 

So I made quite a few cards using this set (which you will also see in some upcoming posts) because I just found it so inspiring. It's got a nice mix of elements that all work so perfectly together.

I started off using the fuschia stamps. I stamped them onto white cardstock using Memento tuxedo black ink and then coloured them using distress markers. In would ordinarily use my spectrum noir pens but unfortunately I left them at home.

I then cut out some white panels using my new Mama Elephant Femme Frames and a panel of patterned paper with the same dies. I stamped the leafy vine using Avery Elle Lemon Grass pigment ink onto each white panel and then added the fushia flowers and buds using 3D foam pads. 

The sentiments were all from the same stamp set and stamped using Memento Tuxedo black ink once again. The panels were then all adhered together and then adhered onto an A6 Papermania kraft card blank, which I trimmed with my paper trimmer to make the panel fit nicely. 

The full stamp set:

I have noticed these stamps are included in some sets that you can currently purchase from the Clearly Besotted website. They are called Elegant Butterflies, Sweet Rose and Fabulous Fuchsias. 

Clearly Besotted | Flowers & Flourishes

Hello there! I know it doesn't feel like I've been away for that long, but that's because I scheduled a load of posts for over my (last ever!) exam period at university. I hope you've enjoyed them, but now I'm back and can start posting about my new purchases and makes now that I have more time available to craft!

To kick off, I finally got around to using my Clearly Besotted - Flowers & Flourishes stamp set. I absolutely love it! I made a bunch of new cards with the same design in relatively no time at all!

Products I used:

• Clearly Besotted - Flowers & Flourishes stamp set
• A selection of Hero Arts shadow inks (Soft Lilac, Soft Purple, Soft Apricot, Soft Green)
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
• Lawn Fawn - Stitched Square Stackable dies
• 3D foam pads
• Papermania white square card blanks & envelopes
• A selection of patterned papers from my collection

Thanks for stopping by!

Top Tip Tuesday #9

 Keep a needle or a pin with your kit to unblock those applicator bottles that have a fine nozzle, such as, Glossy accents, Multi medium matte, liquid glues, etc.

Docrafts | Gorjuss Collection Cards

Today I have for you a few cards I made using some stamps from the Gorjuss range from Docrafts. I love the little girls in this collection as they are always so sweet looking and also a well known brand in their own right. 

The images of the girls have been water coloured using Distress Markers and a water brush set that I picked up from The Range (UK). 

The sentiments were stamped in black ink from the Avery Elle stamp set called Handwritten Notes.

Here are the Gorjuss sets in full, they come with some other cute little elements and frames. The only downside I have noticed with the Gorjuss range of products, it that they dont tend to come with sentiments. This isn't a bad thing for me as I have sentiments in other sets that I can use, but just something I thought I would mention for those of you that may not know.

Products that I used:

• Docrafts - Gorjuss - The Fox
• Docrafts - Gorjuss - Little Red
• Docrafts - Gorjuss - Ladybird
• Avery Elle - Handwritten Notes
• Distress Markers
• Assorted patterned papers
• Black Ink

Thanks for stopping by!

Top Tip Tuesday #8

Hold down dies with masking tape or washi tape when running them through your die cutting machine. This is especially useful if you’re cutting out an image you’ve coloured with the coordinating dies.

If the stick on the tape feels quite strong and that it would rip the paper, just touch the tape a bit with your fingers to reduce the sticky or rub it on your jeans.

Happy Birthday Pandas

Hello there, today I have a card I made using:

• Mama Elephant - Pandamonium stamp set,
• Avery Elle - You're Invited Dies
• Clearly Besotted - Happy word die 
• Clearly Besotted - Birthday word die 

 I simply stamped two pandas from the stamp set in black ink and fussy cut them out. I then die cut the label shape from Avery Elle and the words "happy" & "birthday" from clearly besotted from purple cardstock and mounted onto some polka dot paper. 

I also die cut the label shape from the polka dot paper, but used the negative space. If you can see from the picture, the die cuts stitched lines on the positive and negative space, which is a feature I like. 

Top Tip Tuesday #7

Have at least one good alphabet stamp set. This way if you don’t have a stamp for the sentiment that you want, you can create your own! You can even start personalising, so writing peoples names on cards, dates, significant words, nicknames, the possibilities are endless! Some examples of good ones are:

• Lawn Fawn – Milo’s ABC’s – It took me a while to actually get hold of this one, but I love it! I like the tall skinny font, and the fact you get matching numbers and punctuation too. I think my favourite feature is that you get more than one of each letter. This is so useful so that you can make your sentiments and stamp in one go!

• Avery Elle – Elle’s Alphas – I also love the font of this set, and the size of the letters makes it easy to place a sentiment anywhere on a card.

• Trimcraft Wooden Alphabet stamps - These little sets are so handy! If you live in the UK, they sell these sets for 99p at The Range. I have about 4 or 5 of the designs because I just love them and they are very inexpensive.

Lawn Fawn: Sending Hedgehugs

I couldn't resist making a couple more cards using this stamp set, they are just so adorable! I started these cards out by stamping out the little hedgehogs in tuxedo black and colouring them in with Spectrum Noir markers. 

The card panels are cut out using a selection of Pretty Pink Posh dies (more info below) onto which I stamped the greetings, again using tuxedo black ink. I also stamped the little heart from the set between the two hedgehogs and coloured that in with a red marker.

I chose some matching twines to add little bows to the cards using multi medium matte as it is a really strong adhesive. 

Products I used:

• Lawn Fawn - Hedgehugs stamp set
• Pretty Pink Posh - Stitched Duo 1 die
• Pretty Pink Posh - Stitched Duo 3 die
• American Crafts Twine
• Spectrum Noir Marker Pens
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
• Foam Tape
• Lawn Fawn - Small Stitched Rectangles Dies
• Assorted patterned papers
• Papermania Kraft A6 cards and envelopes

Milestone card: Happy 40th

Hello there, today I have a milestone card to celebrate a 40th birthday. 

Products I used:

• Docrafts Typography number stamps (includes the "th")
• Avery Elle Simply Said Happy Die
• Assorted Patterned Papers
• Foam Tape
• Liquid adhesive (I used multi medium matte to adhere the intricate die cut)
• Green card stock

Top Tip Tuesday #6

For a coordinating look use papers from the same paper pad and layer together. If you aren't very good at coming up with colour combinations, which is definitely something I struggle with sometimes, or maybe you just need some inspiration for the card you want to make, paper pads are a great place to start. 

You could die cut out shapes using nesting dies for a matted look e.g. squares, circles, rectangles, hearts, etc. 

You could pick out colours schemes from an individual sheet of paper, then you know they will work, or from papers from the same collection. 

Have an Otterly Great Birthday

I've got a couple more cards for you today that I made following the same theme as the monster mash card collection in my previous post. 

I coloured the little otters from the Lawn Fawn Year Five stamp set with my Spectrum Noir pens, and stamped the greeting in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. 

The tag shapes were cut from white card stock using some Pretty Pink Posh dies. 

I found some blue papers from my stash and cut them out using the Lawn Fawn small stitched rectangles and the chopped the card base down to match. The little bows were made from American Crafts twine and adhered with multi medium matte from Ranger. 

Thankyou so much for spending some time in my little corner of the Internet. I appreciate every single page view and comment that is left here, it really brings a smile to my face :)