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There's gnome place like home!

7/6/2017

I love Gnomes - and when I found this stamp and Die set from 'Lawn Fawn' - I fell in love! Over the past few months there have been a lot of family and friends moving into new homes - so this was perfect!

Here are some of the tools and products I used -

Lawn Fawn stamps and Dies - 'gnome sweet gnome'
Lawn Fawn Dies - 'meadow borders'
Cuttlebug
Mini Dragonfly punch
Memento Black ink (doesn't bleed with Copic Markers)
Copic Markers
Wink of Stella
Distress Ink & Blending tool

I started by stamping out lots of Gnomes, Mushrooms and Flamingos - I knew I wanted to make quite a few cards and also needed to experiment with my colour blending.
And then I started to colour.....

After coloring all my elements with 'COPIC markers' I used tumbled glass 'Distress ink' to create a background that looked like sky, it didn't have to cover the whole background because there was layered grass for the bottom.
I used my Cuttlebug to die cut the Gnomes, Mushrooms and Flamingos, the smaller mushrooms and birds did not have dies so I had to fussy cut these with scissors. I also die cut some grassy hills using 'Lawn Fawn' meadow borders dies and then punched some mini dragonflys.
I stamped the sentiment and coloured the dragonfly's with 'Wink of Stella' - it all looks so cute!

I then layered them all together creating a scene - some areas I popped up with double sided tape for added dimension. I love all the different coloured hats - the cards turned out perfect!

I have sent all of these out now so I am looking forward to making a few more.
Thanks for visiting NICS :)

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Purple and Lace

4/4/2015

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The idea started for a wedding card with the soft pretty tones and lace and this paper pack caught my eye. I don't often use printed paper - but I really love the purple and the patterns in the 'Retro Purple' paperpack by "Sugar & Spice Studio".

Here are the products that I used -

'Cricut' to cut the lettering using the 'Cricut sampler' cartridge
'Wink of Stella' to add shimmer to the lettering
'Glossy Accents' to make the lettering really stand out
'Green Tara' lace and white ribbon for the embellishments.

I cut the paper down from 2 patterns and layered with purple and white matting onto a white card base. The lace blended the 2 patterns and the ribbon covered the seam. I used the Wink of Stella on the lettering which added some pretty shimmer and then covered with 'Glossy Accents' to give more dimension and shine.You cant really see the shimmer and gloss in the photo - but it looks amazing and adds to the prettiness of the card.

I kept playing and created a Birthday card using the same process - also using the 'Cricut Sampler' to create the lettering.

I am inspired to look through more of my paper collection for cards instead of just Scrapbook. I am also interested to play and see what other sentiments I can get from my 'Cricut Cartridges'.

Thanks for visiting NICS :)

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Watercolour Backgrounds and Die cuts

4/3/2015

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Hi There!
I haven't posted for a while and my craft room/studio is all mixed up and crazy since moving rooms around. It will still be a few months untill it all gets sorted - but starting to get serious crafting withdrawals!
I found this card and photos and wanted to share some happy creativity :)

This card background is made using watercolour pencils (as you can see I used in an earlier post) and I sprayed it with Perfect pearls for a great shimmer.
The die cut is from "Simon Says Stamp" and is a full card front. I mounted this with foam tape to add dimension. I then die cut the "Happy Birthday" sentiment and added to the front.
The twine was a simple black and white - but it needed colour - this is where Distress Stain can be your friend!

I know this Blog post was short and simple - but I really love this card and the happy colours. If you want any more detail please comment or send me a message.
Thanks for visiting NICS :)

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Thankyou Tags

20/12/2014

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I have recently changed jobs and wanted to say 'Thank you' to all of my amazing team that I worked with. Of course I had to add the personal touch and create something unique. I used the tips from Paula's class earlier this year creating tags using Ranger Distress products. I loved how these tags turned out - each one being a little bit different - just like my managers :)

So to start... I created the tag backgrounds - I didn't have any tags left so I made my own from Ranger Manilla Cardstock - I used Tim Holtz Distress Stain but also made my own sprays using the Distress Ink Refills and Mini Mister bottles, really wanted to make sure I could get the right coverage. It got really messy - so much fun! Love playing :)

I used my new addiction - stencils - with 'Dusty Concord' Distress ink to create some great dimension and pattern on the tags. I then distressed the edges using 'Iced Spruce' Distress ink. I added white splatter with Dylusions ink and then added Damask pattern from Stampers Anonymous and Archival Black ink.

Next was to create the elements - Butterflies and Thank you Die Cuts - I heat embossed both of these giving a great shine and dimension - then added some extra colour to the butterflies with Tim Holtz Alcohol inks.

Time to put it all together.......

The tags all came together beautifully :) each one with its own little bit of 'unique'.

Thanks for visiting NICS - I hope I have been able to share some inspiration with you.

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It's been busy!

13/12/2014

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It's been a busy few months - wrapping things up at where I was working and preparing to start a new job - but I also have had a week off as a break which has been awesome. I haven't been too creative ( I do have a few things to share....) but still being busy. Most of you know that I helped out a Gentleman a little while ago - his Wife had had a stroke and ended up in a Nursing home. He knew the value of her craft room but didn't know what to do with everything and really - how heartbreaking to sort and sell so I bought the boxes that he had in storage - I was blind and hoping the boxes weren't just full of folders!
It was a lot of work to sort through everything, it took a long time and a lot of space - I tested the stamps, cutters, punches and set up samples. I have been able to share a lot of the stamps and tools with friends - but also this week able to sell some items on EBay. I wasn't asking much money - so I know there are now some very happy crafters out there!

Took a bunch to the post office today and this is ready for tomorrow. Feels good to clear up some space at home and also nice to know I helped someone out.
Looking forward to sharing some more inspiration with you xx

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Alcohol Ink Background and Die Cuts

15/9/2014

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Here are a few cards that I have been playing with this week using my favourite tools and mediums - Ink and Die cuts! Yay - love getting messy and creating something from plain paper.

So my favourite thing is to start with plain paper and build up from there - this time I wanted to use alcohol inks so I used a glossy paper and then using a combination of Alcohol ink colours on the blending tool created the Pink/Purple and the Green/Blue/Yellow backgrounds.

I bought this set of Balloons and I am in love! I have used them for so many things - just love the happiness you get from Balloons :) So after cutting a bunch of these "Gorgeous Little Puffs of Happiness" using my Cuttlebug I also Die Cut sentiments from 'Simon Says Stamp'. I used white and the same colour as I used to "matt" the background, this helped to tie all of the components together.

I stuck the sentiment die cuts together using my 'ZIG' glue pen and offset the white - I wanted it to create a bit of a border/highlight and it turned out great! I also wanted to add some dimension and sheen to the Balloons - Perfect Pearls to the rescue - so shimmery!

So now I don't remember where I got the idea from - either Jennifer McGuire or Kristina Werner - but they made a card where they used the same Balloon die cut and tied the strings to all of the balloons - I loved it! It was very fiddly and it took a lot of patience - but it was worth the effect.

I had one piece of inked background left and I couldn't resist the simplicity of contrasting colour. I die cut a large sentiment and embellished with some gems - love this one too :)

I hope I have shared some tips and inspiration :) I cant wait to share some other cute cards I have made with the happy little Balloons.
Thanks for visiting NICS

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Water Colouring - Backgrounds

25/7/2014

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Hiya, Welcome back to NICS :)
Watercolour has been very popular on all the crafting videos I am seeing - so of course I had to play! I have made a rainbow style background and have used it in a few different ways - hope you like it :)
I started with Watercolour paper and I am using 'woodless watercolour pencils' from my local art store. To add the water effect I am using my waterbrush - there are different brands on the market and also different brush sizes - I am using the wide water brush from Tim Holtz.

It is really easy - I just started to scribble the colour sticks - overlapping between colours and can create additional colours - just wait until you add water!

Then with the water brush (you could also use a paintbrush with water) I blended the colours - follow the direction of the 'scribble' and start with the light colour otherwise the dark colour will overlap and you will mess up the 'blending'. I love the bright rainbow colours and the way the pencil just melts :)

Before I could do anything else I needed to let this dry - you could use a heat tool to make it faster - but I wanted to take advantage of everything already being out on my desk and I made a few more backgrounds ....... after the paper was dry I die cut out hearts - using SSS heart shape die and the Cuttlebug machine.

Ok - so now what to make with the backgrounds? I decided to make a 'shaker card' the colours were so pretty it ended up being the perfect card for Mothers day - I added a sentiment that I cut with my Cricut machine and the card looks so pretty. It matched with the flowers that we gave her and also the "White Paper Layered Frames" (I showed these on my Facebook page and will post the details soon)

So then what do I do with the heart? Well my niece was having a 'bike party' for her birthday - so I used my Cuttlebug to die cut the 'Retro Bike' from 'Fancy-that' I used the sentiment that came with the 'Australian Simply Cards' Magazine on the same day - perfect timing! I added some sparkle to the heart, bike and sentiment using 'liquid perfect pearl' spray from Ranger.

I have been dying to try out my new stencils and texture paste - and with an engagement coming up - this makes the perfect happy 'love' card. This also meant I could use my new 'love' die from SSS. I ended up with a few spare pieces - so here is another card :)

There is so much that you can do with the same background to create different cards, shapes and images. And never let anything go to waste - I love to challenge myself with 'left-overs' to create something - or always save them for another project.
I hope you have some inspiration - I also found the watercolour pencils are great for crafting with the kids - I bought some cheap water colour paper pads from the local craft store and my nieces had so much fun when they stayed over - and the best part - it is relatively "un-messy" :)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for visiting NICS :)

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Tags and Techniques with Paula Cheney

20/6/2014

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A few weeks ago I posted on Facebook that I had an awesome weekend - I was so lucky to meet Paula Cheney (creative co-ordinator for Tim Holtz) and be part of her class at "Highlands Scrapbooking" in Moss Vale. https://www.facebook.com/HighlandsScrapbooking
During the class we played with Distress ink, Distress stain, and Tim Holtz stencils with Paula showing us many techniques. We also created a Folio - I haven't completely finished mine yet, I have so many ideas but not sure what photos I want to use. Here are some photos ....

This is the 'Moments in Time' folio and I love this photo with Paula :)

My project is not finished yet - here are all of the elements to make up the folio.

Next it was about inking tags and stencilling - gets a bit messy here (so much fun!) and awesome results!

Here are the tags that I created with the techniques using Stencils, Distress inks and Stamps

One of the tags that I hadn't stamped I was lucky to have Paula sign it for me - I just love this tag!

I now have all of the Tags in a frame - I absolutely love them!

Paula put up a picture of my tags on her Instagram - I feel very special :) here is the link to luckyday http://instagram.com/p/njqJzFl_uj/

I had fun playing, learning and meeting new friends - It was an amazing day! Thankyou Highlands Scrapbooking and thankyou Paula!

Thanks for visiting NICS :)

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Seeing Spots.....

29/3/2014

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Hi ! Welcome Back :)
I had fun with these cards and I think they are just "spotingly" adorable! There is no stamping or ink - but I did manage to get out my cuttlebug :)
A few weeks ago I ordered in some buttons and that is where the idea started. I love using paper straws, there are so many different colours and prints my collection is starting to grow! As you can see in the photos there were a few in my collection that matched the buttons and I also 'made my own' for the black and white. I sorted through my paper stash and found some spotty paper to match - here is how they came together......

I tied off the buttons with some ribbon - I just can't leave the holes empty - it always looks unfinished to me. I could also have used a stripy twine which I thought of after finishing the ribbon.
Here is where the cuttlebug comes into play - I cut the straws to size and then ran them through the plates to flatten them - and then I die cut some little hearts.

That's it for the fancy stuff - time to put it all together!

Can you see what I did with the hearts - matching leaves! I told you they were adorable :)

Thanks for visiting NICS :)

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Invitation Tag

15/3/2014

2 Comments

Hi and Welcome Back!
Here is an invitation that I made using lots of techniques - stamping, embossing, blending, die cutting and even using 'Shrinky -dinks"!
I was inspired to use the tag shape from watching Tim Holtz tutorial's and really wanted to use some of the techniques. I have a love of butterflies - so had lots of fun making my butterfly army :)

I started with the butterflys - cutting them from acetate with the 'cuttlebug' die. I used the 'Ranger' alcohol inks from 'Tim Holtz' collection to colour the acetate and then used 'kaisercraft' stamps which had a nice swirl pattern, the butterflies were a similar size which helped with stamping. I used the 'Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink' to stamp the pattern so that it would dry on the acetate. 'Ranger liquid pearls' added the final touch - I used 2 colours - 'onyx pearl' on the ones I used for table decorations and 'platinum' for the butterflies on the invitation - I also used the 'platinum liquid pearls' on the swirls on the tag.

The small tag attached to the bottom of the invitation details had the date for the occasion - I don't have a close up photo of this - this brought back many childhood memories of shrinking chip packets in the oven - I had stamped 'shrink-dinks' shrink film acetate with a swirl pattern, coloured with alcohol inks and using a printed template on plain paper behind the film used a marker to write the details. I used my heat tool to 'shrink' them and they made the cutest little tags! Attaching it to the bottom balanced the dimension on the tag with the butterfly.

Making the tag itself - first was to clear emboss the swirl pattern - I used a stamp from my stash from 'Stampin' up' - this was used for the first step in the resist technique. I then layered stamps from the 'Stamp it' collection creating the background and used lots of ink to blend.
What ink do you ask? Well of course I used my favourite inks! 'Tim Holtz Distress Inks' - which blend beautifully! The tag base was white - so the colours all came from blending the inks.
The final step now for the resist technique on the swirl - I didn't want the raised edge from the embossing so I removed the clear embossing by layering with scrap paper - and ironing it. Yep - ironed it! The embossing melted and absorbed into the paper and left the beautiful swirl.
The final step was to put it all together and add the 'liquid pearls'.