January 29, 2018

Spotlight on Spotlighting

Have you ever tried spotlighting? It’s a stamping and colouring technique where you set aside a section of your stamping to be coloured leaving the rest uncoloured. In the case of solid stamping, the areas that would usually be left blank are stamped in a neutral colour.

c4c 18 floral shadow miss you tag_thumb[1]

For my card, I cut a tag just using my paper trimmer so it would be the perfect size for my card front. Starting at the top left, I placed my Altenew Floral Shadow stamps on the base white cardstock. I arranged them all so each stamp was on both the base and the tag leaving a bit in the center for the sentiment. I stamped each stamp first in grey on the base in my MISTI then I aligned the tag on the grid paper using some repositionable adhesive and stamped on it using Altenew coloured ink.

Using the MISTI makes a card like this so much easier. I have made one like it using a T-shaped stamp positioning tool but it was so much harder! Gotta love my MISTI. I also have the Tim Holtz stamp positioner but I mostly use it with rubber cling stamps. When the stamping was all done, I popped the tag up on some fun foam after adding an eyelet and some fibres.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Do Opposites Attract?

It’s time for another challenge from Crazy 4 Challenges. This week was to use opposites. There were so many options it actually made it a bit harder than some other weeks. Too many options can be overwhelming right? LOL!!

c4c 18 hello opposites

I finally settled on opposite colours and patterns. While not exactly true opposites, I thought that bright colours vs neutrals and a random, organic pattern vs a very linear, graphic pattern worked pretty well for this challenge. The floral paper is from a Simon Says Stamp kit from last year and the striped pattern is actually cut from a sheet of washi paper.

The sentiment was cut from both pink and black cardstock which I had attached to some cheap white cardstock as a base. That way I didn’t have to piece the two colours afterwards. I added some Wink of Stella glitter pen to the Hello. A few sequins, including a spliced one which helped emphasize the opposite theme, finished this card. There are a few clear gems you can’t see too. That part looks much better IRL.

We at C4C all hope that you can play along! It’s a really fun challenge right? Big and small, high and low, black and white, opposites on the colour wheel, light and dark, north and south, land and sea, earth and space, old and young, there are so many possibilities!

Enjoy, Rebecca

January 20, 2018

You Put the Fun in Funfetti!

Ok, to start off, I thought I’d explain funfetti to anyone not familiar with the term. It’s a cake (or icing or donuts etc) filled with bright, multi-coloured sprinkles. Not on the top, right inside the batter. Mostly used for birthdays of course, the term is now practically synonymous with PARTY TIME!!

c4c funfetti lady

So it was the perfect sentiment for this stamp set by Ellen Hutson.The lady was stamped on XPress it and I coloured her skin and hair with Copics. Then I paper pieced her dress using My Mind’s Eye paper. I also Copic shaded the dress which makes it look way more realistic. For the balloons, I used dies by MFT and the giant partial balloon from the Ellen Hutson Yay die set. The strings are by PTI. To get the balloon string to look like it was in her hand, I carefully trimmed along her fingers and tucked in the string. A touch of glitter pen and some crystals on the balloons and I was done!

Enjoy, Rebecca

January 15, 2018

Sweet Baby Shaker Card

Our challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges this week is to be inspired by Rubber Ducky day! Who knew there was even such a thing? I’ve heard of some weird ‘holidays’ but really?? LOL!! Anyway, if you don’t have a ducky to use for your project, feel free to use another kind of fowl or bird.

c4c 18 sweet baby shaker

I had planned to make a baby card using a ducky stamp but when I pulled out a paper pad to use, I saw these lovely geese by Carta Bella! How perfect! I bought these Square Shaker dies from PTI a while a go but hadn’t used them yet. The scalloped frame is perfectly sweet! The goose paper was so cute I didn’t want to hide it so the shaker sits right on the patterned paper. It’s a little harder to build a shaker this way but I was careful to keep the shaker bits in the middle while I added the top.

c4c 18 sweet baby shaker2

I added sequins and beads from several packets by Lucy’s Little Things. I do like to mix and match! I layered on some die cut words from Echo Park. After this, I looked back and decided I didn’t need anything else. Normally I’d add ribbon, Nuvo drops or some other small embellies. But with the busy design on the patterned paper, it looked fine as is.

If you are looking for a challenge to join, pull out your bird stamps and get colouring! If you love to colour, be sure to also link up to Kathy Rascoosin’s 30 Day Colouring Challenge!

Enjoy, Rebecca