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

2015...here we come!

Hello people!

I hope you have all enjoyed the festivities of Christmas and that you're ready for the New Year and all the promise that brings!

See you all on the other side! ;)

Siân

Merry Christmas...!

Hello!

I just wanted to pop in this morning to wish you all a very merry Christmas!

I hope you all have too much food, drink and family and enjoy every moment of it ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Siân

Image from www.deviantart.com

My memories...

Hello there!

I'm here again with another month of WOW! Embossing Powder challenge goodness and our new theme for the month is Memories.

I'm not a Scrapbooker or someone who really records events - although I probably should!  When presented with this theme I thought about what it meant to me.  

Myself and my enduring Other Half have been together 6 years this month and I don't know about you, but anniversaries always make me think of when it all began...we have many memories of when we met and all the things we have done together since and so my card for this month pays homage to my DOH :)  I don't normally share particularly personal things on here, so make the most of it now!

OK, boring bit over!  Here's my card...

This is the card that I am going to give to my DOH on our anniversary - it's about as masculine as I could muster for a soppy card!  He'll understand!!  :)

I started by stamping the Vintage Wallpaper stamp in Versamark and then added Black Glint embossing glitter to the majority of the image.  Once I'd shaken off the excess, I added Calypso embossing glitter to 'catch' on any areas that weren't already covered by the black powder.  I wanted it to be mostly black with random areas of turquoise.  The Black Glint and Calypso powders compliment each other very nicely as the Black Glint has a subtle sparkle, one might even say 'glint'! and the Calypso powder has a much brighter sparkle.  These guys are fast becoming my favourite powders - and let me tell you, they have some tough competition within the WOW! family! 

I stamped the words 'I love you' from the Express Yourself stamp set and embossed them in Metallic Silver. A little bit of mounting and embellishing later and voila!

I just hope he likes it and that it's not too girly for him!  ;)  

There are some lovely entries in the gallery already - I'm looking forward to seeing plenty more - I hope you can join us.  I can't wait to see how everyone interprets this theme as it has such scope :)

Thanks again for stopping by ;)

Supplies
Card:       Paper Mill Direct - White Super Smooth, Teal. Pale Turquoise
Stamps:  Vintage Wallpaper Background Stamp, Express Yourself Stamp Set
Ink:         Versamark
Other:     WOW! Embossing Powders - Black Glint Embossing Glitter, Calypso Embossing Glitter;
                    Metallic Silver; pearls

Blog Hop Fun!!...

Hello, hello!

Today is a special day because it is the day that the WOW! Embossing Design Team join up with the Ruby Rock-It guys for a fabulous blog hop!

For anyone who is participating on the hop, you should have arrived here from Beckie's blog.  If not, then I certainly urge you to jump back to the beginning so you don't miss anyone out along the way!  There are beauties and prizes galore, so you won't want to miss out on any of the blogs!

All you need to do to be eligible for our prizes is to leave a comment on each designer's blog and then go back to our blog letting us know you have done so!  Comments will be closing on Friday 21st November at 23:59 PST.  N.B. - You may want to leave a note on both the WOW! and the Ruby Rock-It blogs to say you've been round to see us all as I believe that the prizes below are two separate prizes to be given away - I wouldn't want you guys missing out on the chance to win both!!  ;)

The prizes are...

WOW! Embossing Powder;

and Ruby Rock-It are giving this away...

Pretty cool wouldn't you agree?!!!

We had the pleasure of creating a project using our wonderful WOW! products alongside the beautiful Ruby Rock-It products.  Is anyone surprised that I made a card!?...

For this card I used the papers and twine from the Ruby Rock-It Country Cookin collection.  There are a brilliant mix of rustic style papers of all different kinds from chalkboard tags to these great patterns, which are the papers that particularly caught my eye.  Again...anyone who 'knows' me will not be surprised that these are the papers I was immediately drawn to!

To make this card I die cut the circle from a piece of kraft card and then heat embossed WOW's Sexi-Hexi background stamp using the amazing Clear Matt Dull powder.  I love this powder as when you heat it, it just seems like your average clear embossing powder, but as it cools you can actually watch the finish change from glossy to matte - maybe I'm too easily pleased, but I think it's great!

I placed the striped pattern paper directly onto the card front and adhered the kraft mat on top using foam adhesive to give a little dimension.  The sentiment panel was mounted on a gorgeous piece of the red plaid paper from the collection. The colours of all the papers tie together so well.  I wrapped a small amount of the Ruby Rock-It twine around the kraft card and my card was complete!

I'm not someone who uses patterned papers very often, but I have to admit that this collection was very inspiring and complemented the WOW! stamps and powders perfectly!

Now, you need to get yourselves over to Kaka's blog to find some more treasures there!

Thank you so much for stopping by, and good luck to you all for the prize draw!

Supplies
WOW! - Sexi Hexi background stamp; Clear Matt Dull embossing powder
Ruby Rock-It - Country Cookin collection - papers and twine

Anything goes...

Hello my lovelies!

I don't know if it's the same for you, but all of my friends seem to have birthdays in September/October/November - myself included - which means I should be ready for it each year, but invariably I'm not!  So I've been busy making birthday cards galore!!  This, at a time when I should be making a large dent in the Christmas card making list - oh well!

Here is one of the cards I've made recently;

It's a super simple card, but I quite like it!  A bit of emboss resist and a rainbow, loads of white space and a slightly sparkly sentiment - job done!

I have a leftover strip of the honeycomb rainbow - I'll have to put that to good use on something else soon :)

I did make this card for two challenges - one being STAMPlorations - Anything Goes, and the other was CAS(E)This Sketch #98, but as per usual, I missed the deadline!  The card was made, I just did not get the time for the photographs, posting etc...!  I enjoyed making it though, which is the whole reason we do this, right?!

This is just a short post today, maybe I'll get a chance to play along AND post some cards for challenges that are still live!!

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend guys, thanks as always for taking the time to stop by ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct- White Super Smooth
Stamps:  WOW! - Sexi-Hexi; STAMPlorations - Celebrate
Ink:         VersaMark; Papermania - Red, Yellow; Distress Ink - Wild Honey, Broken China, Dusty
                     Concord; VersaColor - Green, Old Rose
Other:     WOW! - Black Glint Embossing Glitter, Bright White Opaque Super Fine Embossing Powder 

WOW! Mixed media - CAS Style...

Hello there!

How is everyone?  It's the weekend - yay!  I hope you all have wonderful plans and find a little time for crafting too :)

It is Mixed Media month over at WOW! Embossing Powder.  

Now, I'm not going to lie, the thought of mixed media fills me with fear so this was a true challenge!  The other girls on the team are mixed media queens and we all know I'm here for the CAS contribution!

I was surprised however, at how easily it all came together once I got going - so anyone else out there who thinks they can't 'do' the whole mixed media thing, give it a go, you may well surprise yourself :)

On to my card...

I know what you're thinking...not as 'mixed' as the other projects from the other Design Team members...I did warn you I was the CAS element of the team  :)

I started by blending the inks onto white cardstock and then attacked it with splashes of water which lifted the ink nicely.  Then I stamped the floral stamp from WOW!'s Collage stamp set along the bottom, trying not to be too precise about it as I wanted there to be some 'misses'.

Then I applied a strip of scrim.  I live in a builders household - myself and my other half have always worked in the construction industry, so there are always random building materials lying around my house!  I found this roll of plastering scrim a few months ago and until now I've only used it as a stencil and a stamp, I hadn't thought to actually apply it to my cards - there's a first time for everything!  I love to re-purpose and I'm pleased with how this looks.

I then applied embossing ink to the die cut words and very lightly sprinkled some Platinum Super Fine embossing powder over them so that the powder only stuck to a small, random portion of the wording.  I covered the rest with Black Glint embossing glitter which has created a nice mix of the two colours and finishes.

The die cut butterfly was heat embossed using Calypso embossing glitter and the body was again embossed using Black Glint embossing glitter.

So, there you have it - mixed media a la CAS style!

I hope you all find time to join us for our challenge and you enjoy the rest of the teams' projects!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Ta ta for now ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White Super Smooth
Stamps: Collage Stamp Set
Ink:        Versamark, Versafine - Onyx; Distrees Inks - Broken China, Crushed Olive
Other:    WOW! - Black Glint Embossing Glitter, Calypso Embossing Glitter, Platinum Super Fine Embossing
                  Powder; Scrim tape; Britannia Dies - Happy Word Set, Birthday Word Set

Alternative Christmas colours...

Hello boys and girls!

The bonus of having some time off is that I'm not rushing around quite as much as usual - still plenty to do though!  But, it means I have had time to blog the cards that I have made.  Do you find that you manage to scrape together enough time to make a card, but the time to take the photographs, edit them, upload them and attempt to write something witty in a post is just a feat to far?!  That's where I'm at!

Enough yabbering - the card!

I made this card for the STAMPlorations bi-weekly sketch #21 - they're now on sketch #22...maybe I'll catch up at some point?!!  The card does, however, still qualify for the STAMPlorations monthly challenge - I had an inkling that I would miss the sketch deadline so I made sure it was OK for both challenges!!  ;)  The monthly challenge is Stamps & Embossing' - it was like it was made for me!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE embossing!  ;)

Here's the card...

I wish I had noticed before...but I seem to have taken this photograph at a funny angle which makes the grey panel look awfully askew - I promise you it isn't!  I wouldn't be able to sleep if it was even slightly out, trust me on that one - I am Queen OCD when it comes to stuff like that!

Anyway, glossing over that - here's my card.  I am loving the combination of pink, silver, sparkle and grey for a Christmas card...I never thought I'd say that.  I think this may be a theme for this year...?  Don't quote me on it though!  The snowflakes are stamped in a combination of WOW! Metallic Silver Super Fine and WOW! Sparkling Snow which is a white embossing powder with a really fine and beautiful glitter in - it's subtle and gorgeous!  I was proud that I was able to use my STAMPlorations 'Celebrate' stamp for something other than a birthday card...let's face it, Christmas is a time for celebration!

There is a smidgen of dry embossing too - I don't know how well you can see it in the photograph but I used my scoreboard to emboss some lines along the bottom of the grey panel.  I only very recently acquired my scoreboard, I will have to take some time to explore the line embossing possibilities!  Wow, I sound really exciting don't I!!?  Ha ha!  :)

Thanks for stopping by, I'm hoping to get a few more posts underway over the next week ;)

I have also just remembered that this card would also qualify for STAMPloration's 'Anything Goes' challenge - whoop whoop!  In it goes :)

Supplies

Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White Super Smooth, Dark Grey, Raspberry Pink

Stamps: STAMPlorations - Celebrate; DoCrafts - Bellissima Christmas

Ink:        Versamark

Other:    WOW! - Metallic Silver Super Fine, Sparkling Snow, Fluorescent Tickled Pink e/p