Hello Summer!

Hi Crafty friends!

Temperatures are heating up and have been in the 100s here every day this week, so this month's kit from Hero Arts with it's cute summer theme was perfect timing and I have been totally inspired!   The pool effect stencils are so clever, and just by layering up all three stencils with slightly different shades of blue, it gives this really cool water effect.  It also lends itself beautifully to be a shaker card so I couldn't wait to create one using some blue sequins that have been in my stash for ages and which turned out to be the perfect addition here.  All the other dies which cut the umbrella, flip flops, beach ball, diving board, sunbather and the float are also incuded in the kit so I cut those from scraps of colored cardstock and added them in and around the pool.  I stamped and cut a sentiment and popped it up on a bit of foam tape to add a little more dimension.  So cute!  

Here's another card I made using the same set and I just dry embossed some lines on the pink layer to look like tiles around the pool.  

I could have spent the rest of the afternoon just coming up with card ideas for these cute pool themed dies, however, the kit also comes with another large die so I had to try that out as well.  

I used a piece of card stenciled with the pool pattern for the background on an A2 sized card base and then assembled all the die pieces and just added her to the front.  This is a large die so it fills a card front beautifully with not much else needed.  I cut the hat and the girl's head and body out of kraft cardstock and did a little ink blending with some brown distress ink to add a little dimension and then did the same with some pumpkin colored ink on her hair which I cut from a golden yellow cardstock.   I cut her dress and the ribbon around her hat in two shades of blue and then the sentiment from white, layering onto the shadow cut once again from kraft.  I popped them up on some foam tape and added them to the rim of her hat.  Finally, I added her eyelashes, cut in black, just below the brim of her hat and made her lips look shiny by adding a bit of packing tape to a scrap of pink card before cutting out.  The elements for her fruity drink are also included in the kit so you can make it whatever you want.  Today she is drinking a refreshing mango smoothie!

I can't decide which one I like best.  I love them all!  What do you think?  Which one is your favorite?

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope to see you next time!

TTFN
Bev x

Legen-DAIRY!

Hello again!  These blog posts are becoming like buses aren't they? ... you wait for ever for one and then two come along at once 😜 

Another set of stamps and dies that have been languishing on my desk since March is the Milk It! kit from Hero Arts.  Such a CUTE set and I love the cow/milk theme obviously.  I have been dying to make a card with it ever since it landed in the mail box but just didn't get round to it before our trip in April and then since we've been back I completely forgot all about it.   It was only when I was looking for inspiration on the Hero Arts website that I came across this blog post featuring a card by Channin Pelletier and remembered that I had this kit and knew that this was just what I wanted to create.

Channin has created an excellent tutorial on YouTube which I followed to make this adorable milk carton card which uses acetate for the carton so you can see the 'milk' pouring out. 

The black ink stenciling does take quite a bit of time to fully dry so as Channin mentions in her video, you need to be really careful to avoid transfer on to your cutting plates and then subsequently onto your paper (which I definitely did not do ... **ahem) so in order to be really safe I would recommend maybe doing your stenciling a little while before and leaving it to fully dry before cutting your panels.   Clearly though I am far too impatient for that, so if you are the same you might want to have that cloth handy and make sure you wipe your plates thoroughly between cuts! 

using a sticky mat definitely makes stenciling easier, especially
 when using black ink which seems to get everywhere!

This card has quite a few steps and is a little more time consuming than a clean and simple style card but the end result was definitely worth it and I figured if I was cutting one, I may as well cut two so made one in pink at the same time.  Really pleased with how they turned out!

Coincidentally, a new milk shake place recently opened up near us so I have arranged to meet Youngest there this afternoon to check it out (purely in the interest of research you understand 😉).  How appropriate!  

Thanks for dropping by and hope to see you next time!

TTFN

Bev x

SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE!

Summer has finally arrived here in Arizona!  This will be our 11th summer here and they certainly do not get any easier with each one seemingly hotter and longer than the last!   I long to be in one of those places where summer means long balmy days spent outside in the garden with a good book or leisurely walks in the warm sunshine or perhaps even a picnic in the park.  Bliss!  Let's be realistic though - does such a place exist?  I am from England, where if you were lucky, you might get 3 days in a row of that before it got unbearably humid and oppressive for another few days before it reverted back to grey skies, rain and the inevitable period of "is anyone else chilly?  Shall we put the heating back on?"!

Here in Phoenix however, summer generally means hibernating indoors with the AC blasting and outdoor activities are limited to a couple of short hours first thing in the morning (and by first thing, I mean dog walks at 5.30am!  Ugh).  This year, however, instead of dreading the very real possibility of 110+ temperatures for weeks on end and wishing away the whole of June through September, I decided I needed to have a word with myself and come up with activities which both evade the heat and also bring me joy so that I can look forward to each day and actually enjoy the summer instead of just wishing it away as quickly as possible!  Time is precious and life is for living!

Of course one of the benefits of being up and about so early, is longer days and more hours to spend on my most favorite activity of all - crafting!  YAY!  I love all things paper obviously, but also on my list is to catch up with my digital scrapbook journals, delve further into hybrid scrapbooking, finish knitting that blanket that I started 3 years ago (I've gone off it already and not loving the 'battleship grey' wool I chose at the time **eye roll**) and learn to crochet! Plenty to last right through summer and beyond!

As well as creating, I also love to write and I suddenly remembered the crafty blog that I started several years ago but have seriously neglected of late - does anybody still read blogs even? Let me know. 

Oh.  Just noticed that the last post was almost five years ago ... sorry what? FIVE YEARS?!? Holy Macaroni Batman!  How did that happen?!   

Anyway, as I have a craft room which is bursting at the seams with 'stuff', a lot of which I have yet to play with, why not start there?  Today's project utilizes last month's subscription kit from Hero Arts which was languishing on my desk unopened, and as my stash of birthday cards is running low I decided to start with the large Happy Birthday die, which is the perfect size for using as the main card focus, and make a shaker card ... or 3 as it turned out!  Well, who doesn't love a shaker card?  I didn't quite have the right color sequins to coordinate with the card from the kit but trying hard to use what I have and they kind of work I think?  There are lots more great birthday themed items in the kit that I can't wait to work with, including a large present die which I think might be next!

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with it and hope to see you again next time!

TTFN

Bev x