Wednesday 20 February 2013

My kinda baking!

Happy Birthday

Hey!

So I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not the world's best baker. I'm an avid fan the Great British Bakeoff, but I struggle to bake. Why am I telling you this? Well because today's card is an example of my baking style. No, not baking cakes, but stamping them! :)

Today's card is for our new font-astic challenge on A Passion for Papertrey. We want to see peeps mix 'n' match fonts on their creations. All of the various fonts stamped on this card came from a single stamp set: Birthday Bash Sentiments. 
tips and tricks
  • Be sure to have a practise at stamping your cake. See what size fonts work best together and get an idea for how big your cake is going to be before trimming a piece of cardstock to stamp on.
  •  I found it easier to stamp from the bottom layer up. Find the central point of the card, lightly mark and start stamping. Be careful if using pigment inks, as rubbing out the light mark will cause the ink to smudge - a dye ink wont smudge. 
This card will be heading to my brother for his birthday. I see it as my way of baking a birthday cake for him. I'd never bake for him, as he's a very good cook/baker himself. I guess he got my share of the cooking/baking genes in the family....

Yup, I'll stick to 'baking' cards for now....!

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Sunday 17 February 2013

HOT in February...?

HOT for you
Hey!

Happy sunny (well, it's sunny here today anyways), Sunday!

I'm popping in today super quick, with a card that was super quick to make, that you can find in the super Jan/Feb issue of Papercrafts.

This card was originally intended for my guy for Valentine's day (if you're interested, he got this card instead). I'm telling, ya, this card was so easy, it's almost criminal! The longest/toughest part was waiting for the ink to dry on those sparkly Thickers :)
tips and tricks
  • Customise your own chipboard letters (Thickers) with an alcohol marker. They do take a while to dry depending on the finish so be prepared to do some waiting!
  • Card size. This design looked lost on your average 4.25 x 5.5 card so I simply trimmed my card to a smaller size. Experiment with different sizes to compliment your design. 
Right, I've got a lot of boring stuff to do today. When that's done though, I have the rest of the week to ink it up! Hooray for half-term! :D

Thanks so much for popping by today!

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Monday 11 February 2013

Happy Accidents...


wishing you brighter days
Hey!

Welcome to release day and a blog hop Uniko Studio stylee! You don't wanna miss a thing; you should have come here from the Uniko Studio blog. Be sure to comment as you hop too for a chance to win the entire February release!

Up for your viewing and purchasing pleasure today are two super sets: Bright Butterflies, & Label Love: Birthday.

Now as you can see, I took the name of the set 'Bright Butterflies' quite literally. Cue trendy neons to coincide with one of the sentiments from this set for a card that may give you a headache!

 tips and tricks
  • Stamping with dye inks will result in a different colour where they overlap. Neon pink and yellow resulted in a shade of neon orange. Experiment and have fun!
  • Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, but I smudged the sentiment when I first stamped the sentiment on the card front. Does this sound like you too? Don't throw that card away, an easy fix is to stamp the sentiment on a strip of cardstock and place it over the misstamped sentiment; Noone is any the wiser - tee hee!
Next up is a card featuring the set Label Love: Birthday. This set landed on my desk just in time to whip up a card for a birthday in the family.

Birthday Balloons

Bring your eyes close to the screen and you might be able to tell that I impressed a circle and scored two lines across the card. This was a happy accident as I was originally trying to emboss on a card front with the blade side of my die, but my shim was too thick: I actually ended up cutting a circle through my card front! However the shim (a sheet of card) I used had a lovely impressed pattern of the reverse side of the die, so I trimmed this down and used it instead!

Birthday Balloons Close

And of course, this card was one happy accident after another: I then realised that I couldn't stamp the sweet balloon strings evenly over the score lines, so I opted for twine instead. Now one thing that wasn't an accident was smothering those balloons in Glossy Accents. :)

 tips and tricks
  • If you're going to score and impress patterns on cardstock, it's wise to do the stamping first! (I wish I listened to myself sometimes!)
  • The three balloons work together to make a visual triangle. They frame the sentiment and guide your eyes to the focal point.
  • Take a look at your dies and try impressing them into cardstock to create patterns. To do this, I simply use an embossing sandwich in my die-cutting machine. If at first the impression isn't deep enough, then try adding a shim (a sheet of cardstock) or lightly spritzing your card with water.
Also included in the February release from Uniko Studio are four new digital paper packs! My printer and I are not seeeing eye to eye at the moment so for now, feast your eyes on them over at the Uniko Studio store. 

That's all from me today, so it's time to hippety hop over to Amber. Remember to comment along the way too if you want to be in with a chance of winning the entire February release...!

Thanks so much for hopping by today and I hope that if you have any accidents whilst crafting, that you too manage to turn them into happy ones! :) 

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Wednesday 6 February 2013

Love is using a hoarded paperclip...

 for you
Hey!

Happy February! Hard to believe we're a month into 2013 already, but we are and that lovey dovey date is creeping upon us. I love to create things for my guy all year round - including St Valentine's Day. 

So cue today's project. A very simple, easy peasy envie in which I'll put a treat in later and sneak it into his packed lunch (not necessarily on Feb 14th!). I'm thinking of buying one of those gift cards for the cinema: whenever we go on a date night, my guy will always insist on paying and for once, I'd like to treat him to it!

for you

I picked up a box of cool, cute, heart-shaped paperclips on my travels in London. I very rarely indulge in using them, even though I have a whole box of 'em! Just goes to show how special my guy is to me if I'm prepared to smother one in Glossy Accents and attach it to a mini-enive :)

tips and tricks

  • Glossy Accents makes a great adhesive for tricky embellishments like this paperclip.
  • When cutting a strip of card, start with a longer strip, place on your protect and then trim it to the desired size once it's in place.

This project is also featured on A Passion for Papertrey for our new challenge. Feeling the love? Then ink up and get lovey dovey for the chance to win a $5 PTI gift certificate!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

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Copyright/Disclosure

I am on various design teams and receive free product to use and promote. I geniunely love the products of the companies and all opinons are honest and my own.

I'm flattered if I've inspired you and you want to CASE anything of mine, but please don't enter it for commercial publications or competitions.
Thank You!
All designs, text, and photographs on Crafting Confessions are ©2009-2016 to Amy Gray unless stated otherwise.