Use Your Scraps - Make cards Using Paper Strips (Post 1 of ) Bella Boulevard, 'You Are My Sunshine'.

Dear Bloggers,

If you are anything like me, you have LOTS and LOTS of scraps.  Cutting paper strips to make cards is a great way of using up your precious off cuts.  There are many strip dies on the market or you can cut your own.  The advantage, however, of using dies is the subtly rounded edge on the cutting line. Up to you of course.

Bella Boulevard has a bright, cheerful and totally sweet range called, 'You Are My Sunshine'.  I went to town cutting strips of this.  Have a look at the cards I made.

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Echo Park - 'Birthday Boy Collection'. Birthday cards for little boys.

Dear Bloggers,

I just love so many Echo Park Collections and 'Birthday Boy' is fabulous. The animals are adorable and the colours fresh and bright.

I purchased the 6 x 6inch pad and some ephemera, pulled out my old buttons and string and viola.......this set of cards came together so easily. 

.

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Hello Bloggers,

'Seasonal Bloom's by Altenew, is a wonderful stamp, layering stencils and embossing folder set.

The cards below use the embossing folder and stencils, without the stamps.

Please see my previous post, for cards using the stencils and stamps.

My work was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's wonderful tutorial, 'One Great Kit, 5 Techniques and 5 Sizes'.

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Seasonal Blooms by Altenew

Hello Bloggers,

'Seasonal Bloom's by Altenew, was my first foray into the wonderful stamp, layering stencils and embossing folder sets, that are becoming popular now.

All my previous experiences with stencils were creative messes with spray inks and texture pastes.  Careful detailed stencilling was new  and it showed!  Although I taped the stencil in place, I had white spaces where ink should have been. My stencils weren't cleaned properly and I was making a  muddy mix of  'poo brown' as the colours mixed and my grubby hands were  leaving marks all over the place.  I pulled out every ink I owned to try through the stencil.  Towers of ink perched precariously on my table, just waiting to be knocked off.  Yep, you guessed it, I knocked them off!!!   At this stage, there was ink all over the floor, I was elbow deep in paper, inks, mess, dirty stencils, piles of various blending tools and feeling very over wrought.

Then I found my groove. I purchased some detailed blending brushes from Altenew for those small tricky bits that I had found so hard to navigate with the large brushes.  I subtly adjusted my stencils as I went so no white spaces were left,  my hands and stencils were washed and dried prior to starting and I now knew my favourite inks and colours.  Although my results are not perfect, I really like how they came out.  I am looking forward to using more stamping, embossing and layered stencil combos. I have two more sets, so watch this space. (just don't hold your breath).

My work was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's wonderful tutorial, 'One Great Kit, 5 Techniques and 5 Sizes'.

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'My Favorite Things,' Unicorn Cards (Post 10 of 10)

Dear Bloggers,

I love the stampsets: 'CS-534 Friendly Unicorns' and 'CS-366 Rainbows and Unicorns,' by 'My Favorite Things'.

This is my final post in the 10 part series on Unicorn Cards  and these cards did not fall into any of the previous categories.  So heck!!! Here is  a miscellaneous collection of playful unicorns.

For the first card, I used an offset heart at a jaunty angle and I was pleased with the results.

The second card was stamped with Melania Deasy's card in mind. (Please see previous post).  Rather than using paper strips, I used the paint stroke images from the 'Stampin Up Set', 'Work of Art'.

I like this card by Laura Dovalo, from the 'My Favorite Things', design team.

Here is my take on Laura's work.  Thanks Laura for being so inspiring.!!!

Please make sure you check out my other 9 posts featuring Unicorns.

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