WOW! meets Viva Las Vegas...!

Hello there!

I hope you are all well and enjoying the summer weather, wherever you are :)

All this week over on the WOW! Embossing Powder blog the Design Team have been showcasing their fabulous creativity by teaming up with Viva Las Vegas stamps!

Get yourself over there to check out all of the talent!!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Hooray for Summer!...

Hello there!

I missed you all last month!  Please accept my apologies for my absence.

This month's theme at WOW! Embossing Powder Challenge is 'Summer' and I don't know about you, but I'm sure glad it's finally arrived!  I love the sunshine and the happiness it seems to invoke in everyone.

My project for this month is, unsurprisingly, a card!  It's also that time of year when Father's Day is fast approaching so I took this opportunity to get one of the cards I need to have made.

When I think Summer, I think beach, I think blue skies and crystal blue sea so I decided to go with it. Out came the Distress Inks and I set about creating a background, which hopefully is reminiscent of a beach scene with light clouds in the sky just above the horizon of a clear blue sea...yes, I do need a holiday!!

I then stamped the wide 'dotty' border from Funky Border Strips in VersaMark ink and lightly sprinkled Primary Lagoon embossing powder over it, ensuring not to cover the pattern completely.  To get the excess powder off without coating all of the wet ink, I've found a very scientific technique...spin the card round as quickly as possible so that it is upside down and hopefully the powder will fall off without catching the rest of the ink!!  I then covered the remaining exposed ink with Pastel Glacier Mint powder to give this two-tone type effect.

Above this the sentiment from Everyday Sentiments is embossed in Metalline Dark Blue, which gives a lovely finish that's not quite matt, not quite metallic and not quite pearlescent but a kind of mix of all three...that is the best way I can describe it!  I really like the finish :)

I hope you are all enjoying the Summer, wherever you are, and that you have a go at joining in with us here this month!

Thanks,

WOW! Supplies

Funky Border Strips

Everyday Sentiments

Primary Lagoon

Pastel Glacier Mint

Metalline Dark Blue

WOW!...Rainbows!...

Hello, hello!

I hope this finds you all well and that you all enjoyed Easter!  I have yet to eat any of my Easter eggs and for that I am proud of myself :)

So I'm here with my little bit of inspiration (hopefully!) for this months' WOW! Embossing Powder challenge - Rainbows!

For a change, I decided to keep it simple...imagine, right!?

I took the Sexi-Hexi background stamp and inked it up with embossing ink.  Then I took a rainbow of wonderful WOW! powders and sprinkled them over the wet ink.  

The best way, I've found, to stop the powders mixing as you start adding more and more colours is to ensure that you tap the excess off to the side of the page.  This prevents the colours mixing together, which is not so much of an issue on the card, but when you go to pour the excess back into the pot, it can cause a nasty surprise the next time you go to use your lovely Sunny Yellow and find large amounts of Apple Red in it!  Disaster!

Just to cause myself a bit of a headache, I opted for a white stripe.  After stamping, I masked this area off with printer paper before adding the rainbow of colours.  Once these had been applied, I then removed the mask and liberally covered the remaining area in Bright White Opaque embossing powder.  These powders are so well behaved that not a single speck of colour got underneath the mask and sullied the white area...I am always so impressed!

To finish, I embossed the sentiment in Metallic Silver on black cardstock and adhered it all tot he card front with some foam adhesive.

I love rainbow colours, the possibilities really are endless...I imagine I will create another rainbow inspired card before the challenge is up!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you find time to join in :)

WOW! Supplies
Primary Apple Red Powder
Opaque Primary Mandarin Powder
Opaque Primary Sunny Yellow Powder
Fluorescent Green Powder
Opaque Pastel Blue Powder
Primary Indigo Powder
Opaque Pastel Purple Powder
Metallic Silver Super Fine Powder
Opaque Bright White Super Fine Powder
Sexi-Hexi background stamp

Spring has sprung!...

Hello there!

I don't know about where you all are...but Spring is definitely starting to Spring here in the UK and not a moment too soon!

As you may know, the theme of the challenge over at WOW! Embossing Powder this month ties in nicely with the changing of the seasons...create something Spring related!  I'm sure there will be plenty of feel-good projects finding their way to the linky this month...

My card is based on colours that remind me of Spring...

The background is ink stamped directly onto an acrylic block and then spritzed with some water and pressed onto the card from.  I added some ink directly from the ink pad too.

The sentiment is embossed using WOW! Clear Matt Dull powder which juxtaposes the glitter on the butterflies.

After I die cut the butterflies, I heat embossed each one with two powders.

This one uses Vintage Peacock and Calypso glitter powders.

The lower butterfly uses Green Shimmer powder and Primary Lagoon. The Green Shimmer does exactly what it says on the tin!! The body just uses Primary Lagoon Powder.  

The butterfly to the left uses a combination of Green Shimmer and Calypso glitter powders and the body is embossed in Primary Luscious Lime - it is luscious!!

I hope you can find the time to join us this month and have fun with it!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Supplies
Card:       Paper Mill Direct - White Super Smooth, Ocean Blue
Stamps:   STAMPlorations - Celebrate
Ink:          Distress Ink - Broekn China, Crushed Olive, Mowed Lawn; VersaMark
Other:      WOW! Embossing Powders - Green Shimmer Embossing Glitter, Primary Luscious Lime, 
                    Primary Lagoon, Vintage Peacock, Calypso Embossing Glitter, Clear Matt Dull; pearls

WOW! DT Inspired...

Hello there!

I hope this finds you all week and that you're enjoying our month CASE-ing over at the WOW! Embossing Powder blog!  I love being inspired by all of the fabulous talent in the blogosphere - and the WOW! Design Team is absolutely teeming with it, so what better place to get inspiration!?!

I have chosen a card by the wonderful Nicole Picadura.  I love Nicole's style it's fun and fresh, CAS but with a hint of freestyle collage magic - what's not to love?!!

After trawling her amazing blog, I chose this card to CASE...

Isn't it stunning?!!!

You will notice that I loved this card so much that my CASE is very literal!!!

I created my own version of Nicole's gorgeous watercolour background by dabbing Distress Inks directly onto the front of the card and then spritzing it with water.  This created nice, but unexpected, splashes over the rest of the card front.

I then stamped the words 'Live, Love and Laugh' from the Collage stamp set and heat embossed them in Opaque Bright White, Primary Ebony Super Fine and Metallic Silver respectively.  

To complete Nicole's look, I added some metallic sequins onto the card and I was done!  

I like the way that this card turned out, and I have Nicole to thank - thank you!!

I hope you guys will join in with us this month...there's loads of inspiration which makes it difficult to choose, I know, but maybe try out a few different styles!!

Thanks for stopping by!

WOW! Supplies
Collage Stamp Set
Opaque Bright White Regular
Primary Ebony Super Fine
Metallic Silver Regular

Supplies

Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White Super Smooth

Stamps: As above

Ink:       Versamark; Distress Inks - Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry

Other:    WOW! Embossing Powders as above; sequins

DIY Decor - WOW! style...

Happy New Year to you all!  

I don't think it's too far into January to say that still  :)  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break and that you're ready for the new year.

So here we are, an exciting new year full of WOW! challenges and products - I for one am looking forward to all the inspiration the year will bring :)

I am here with my project for this months' WOW! challenge.  Yes, I said project - NOT card! 

Aren't those jars just gorgeous!!?  As the theme suggests, this one is not about cards so I have stretched myself a little and created a non-card project for you all.

Here it is...

 This is for a dear friend of mine who needs reminding at the moment that things aren't always bad and that you need to grab life by the horns!

I stamped the De-Vine background stamp in the centre of each panel and embossed using Super Fine Metallic Silver embossing powder.  This picks up every detail - I love it!  I then blended some inks over the top of the embossing, buffing the panels once I'd finished blending to wipe any excess ink from the embossing powder to allow it to shine through.  I flicked some water onto each piece, gently dabbing it off with some tissue to lift some of the ink from the backgrounds to create the watery-speckled effect that you can (hopefully!) see.

I then stamped the sentiment from the Collage stamp set and then cut them out to arrange them on each of the panels.  Once I had them laid out where I wanted them, I cut smaller coloured pieces of card to act as mats for each sentiment and to add interest to the panels.

Each panel was then mounted onto a black piece of card and then onto the concertina'd cardstock 'stand'.  The stand has been stamped with a large flower design in ink colours to match each panel.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by, I hope you are able to join us for the challenge this month - this is a super interesting one with loads of potential!

PS - Apologies for the images - I am currently in the midst of changing over from a PC to a Mac and the transition is a little slower than I would have liked!  I am working on getting my beloved Photoshop on my Mac - thank you for your understanding :)

Supplies

Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White Super Smooth, Dark Grey Smooth, Black, Teal, Dark Violet, Citrus

Stamps:  WOW! - De-Vine Background Stamp, Collage Stamp Set; Hero Arts - Large Open Flower

Ink:         Distress Inks - Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Barn Door, Wild Honey, Squeezed Lemonade, Salty

                     Ocean, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed,

                     Victorian Velvet; Versamark; Versafine - Onyx Black

Other:     WOW! - Metallic Silver - Super Fine powder