I've previously shared some of my cards using Tim Holtz's Crazy Cats, Crazy Dogs stamps and several Crazy Birds (1, 2). These were great fun to make and really inspired my creativity to make different scenes for a whole range of different occasions. Several of the people in my team at work and friends are also mad-keen on animals (especially dogs) and one regularly did pet sitting so was always sharing stories of the various animals under her care. Of course this meant that cards for … [Read more...]

I made these cards using a Distress Crayon Blending technique a while ago but hadn't got around to sharing the results until now. This technique uses Tim Holtz' Distress Crayons: they are lovely and soft and spread really well but I always struggled to work out how to use them best. My friend Steph showed me this technique that basically involves scribbling the crayon over watercolour paper and then using a baby wipe over your finger to blend the crayon and move the colour around. You … [Read more...]

Archival Inks are fade resistant, water resistant, acid free, non-toxic and permanent, which means that they stay put when you use them with other inks, dyes, pigments etc. I've always used black archival ink to stamp on top of inky backgrounds or to stamp an image that I then want to colour in and not have the outline react. Ranger Inks brought out a whole set of archival inks in a range of different distress colours and I was inspired by Juliana Michaels to try a layered stamping technique on … [Read more...]

These gorgeous beach scene cards are made using Tim Holtz Bubbles stamp and inspired by Tami Bastiaans' 'make' for its release last year. When I saw the amazing way she had used the stamp to mimic waves on the beach, I was hooked. I made a whole set of different cards using the various sea-related stamps that I had and had such fun making them. The first step is to ink up the stamp with clear embossing ink and stamp it down onto the corner of your card front. Experiment with different … [Read more...]

My friend Chloe just loves toadstools and is always taking photos of them when she goes hiking, so these cute toadstool stamps were just calling out to me to make a set of cards for her. I had also rediscovered a set of frog stamps that my friend Steph had given me for a present years ago; as they are quite small they made the perfect combination to go with the toadstools to create some charming little scenes. I started with one set of toadstools and used different colours that I had seen in … [Read more...]

After being delighted with my NZ hiking scene card series, I decided to continue on the theme of celebrating our beautiful NZ outdoors and our native birds. In line with my previous challenges of using the same stamps as a starting point and then creating a completely different scene around them, I stamped 2 images of each of 6 different native birds (fantail, kingfisher, tui, heron, kea and wood pigeon). Then I stamped and/or drew different environments for them to be in that were appropriate … [Read more...]

I'm not really a fan of Halloween and I don't like 'spooky' cards but sometimes there are aspects that can be adapted to make some fun cards that can be used more broadly for other occasions: specifically black cats and cute witches. I had great fun making these and used a lot of different approaches that I describe in more detail below. The cats are from a Tim Holtz Sizzix die set called 'Mischievious' and the Best Witches stamp set from StampinUp. I also used Sizzix Bold Text and Bold Text … [Read more...]

You will have seen from earlier posts of mine that I love creating scenes from rubber stamps and increasingly using freehand drawing as well. I also love the challenge of starting with one basic image and then trying to create as many totally different scenes using it. I found a rubber stamp of a 'Tramping Hut' (tramping = hiking in NZ) and thought that this would be a perfect starting point for a series of different scenes of our beautiful New Zealand outdoor environment. I could change the … [Read more...]

Creativity is always fun but it is even better if it makes you laugh out loud as well from time to time. Don't be afraid to let out your inner child, those bad puns, and just allow yourself to be silly. Have fun with your card making. I did this with a stamp & die set that I got recently from Stampin' Up as a reward with my other purchases - called Counting Sheep. I had a few ideas when I started but it wasn't until I got going and just let my imagination run that I realised how versatile … [Read more...]

I was looking to get my crafting mojo back after a period of not doing any card-making, and on the way found a new favourite card style using distress inks and die cuts. I started by just making a whole heap of coloured backgrounds. I used Distress Inks because they have so many interesting properties but you could use whatever you happen to have. I tried a range of different cardstocks including Distress Watercolour paper as they all interact differently with the inks and give different … [Read more...]