Sending you...

I really like to stamp the two parts of the double sayings with different inks and that way makes even more sense to have them in separate stamps. The card is made using a Crescent tag.

Creating a dotty background

This card was really fun to make. You know using some distressing inks, die cutting and my own stamps. The technique is the same as the card I put in a couple of days ago, in this case I stamped using Versamark several times the Dotty Border, lining it up over the solid lines of dots and then colored in with the distressing inks.

This dotty border was designed as a guide to place self adhesive crystals and pearls.

The large scallop circle die and the flower are dies from Sizzix. The stamp is part of the Essentials Circle set.

Today, die cutting

So today and tomorrow I will be demonstrating die cutting at The Glitter Pot. One of my favorite shapes are circles, something that can be verified by my stamp designs! So when ever possible I am drawn to dies and punched with circles, like this large scalloped die from Sizzix. The flower is a from a Shapeablities, Spellbinders die.

Marvy Blending boxes + Acrylic Dabbers

This background was done using the Marvy Blending boxes which feature several shades of the same color in one inkpad. They are ideal for direct to paper and direct to craft sheet techniques.

The main image was stamp and emboss using clear embossing powder. Then I applied acrylic paint using Ranger acrylic dabbers, in several colors including a silver one.

Edited: By the way, tomorrow I will be demonstrating at the Glitter Pot using die cutting products and some of my stamps. Among those products I will be using the Tim Holtz dies and embossing folders. So come along to say hi!

More distressing

I told you that I love distressing. Well, the reason behind so many cards lately featuring distressing inks and stamping is because I demonstrated them last Saturday. I really got carried away making more samples than i really needed and therefore have loads to share.

It is so much fun, and you still can preserve your own style, you don't need to imitate Tim Holtz vintage, rusty look. You can just keep your pretty, simple, elegant style. Me? I keep it simple.

Love Distress Inks

Really, I do. I know my usual cards don't often are very inky, but give some distress inks and stamps and I am happy. Of course, die cutting machines pop here and there, like to emboss the swiss dots!

Regarding Rukhshana question about yesterday card, the ink was Versafine Vintage Sepia, as explained in this post, Versafine is one of my recommended inks for solid stamps specially if they are clear stamps.

Simplicity again

As someone pointed out last Saturday, this card is all about the sentiment and sometimes that is all you want in a card.

I love stamping

Stamping and punching were my first two loves when I started cardmaking in this country back in 2002. And even though many consider me as a die cutting specialist, I love stamping and punching just as much.

That is why I am really excited when I am asked to do demos or classes that involve stamping, like the demo at Stamp Addicts on Saturday in which I demoed Ranger products, distress inks and crackle paint among them featured in this card.

I enjoyed the demo so much, not only because of the products I was using, but more importantly because of the people I got to meet in real life. From Sarah and Vicky to Janey Pye, Dawn Inskip, Julie and Jo and everyone else whose name I have -I am afraid- already forgotten. I do have the worst memory for names, big apologies!

In other news, wasnt this the most glorious weekend weather? I mean, it was perfectly hot and sunny and... perfect, not too hot. We had a barbeque yesterday in our garden which was great until we tried to play twister and let me tell you late thirties bodies are not meant for twister!

Excited!

I have been demonstrating for quite a while now and I still get very
excited when I demonstrated at a new place for me. You see, I get to
meet new people and that is always welcome.
Today I will be demonstrating at Stampaddicts (Bredford) and I will be
using some of my fav stamping products distress inks alongside with
acrylic paints and my own stamps! Excited!
Will try and post some photos tomorrow.

Flutter + Die Cutting

I dont think I have ever shared this little card, hanging project that i taught a couple of months ago at the Glitter Pot.

Using a Nestabilities set, I cut the larger pieces and then using the an smaller die from same set of dies, I cut the patterned paper. I was pretty happy with the result.

Still not that well

So Omar will have to cheer me up. Taken this week while we were having desserts at S o S.

Being sick

I hate it so much! Specially since it means that I wont be able to teach tomorrows class at Craftability. Big apologies to all who were coming to the workshop. Vanessa and i will try to reschedule the workshops.

Yesterday I didn't feel well, but I thought it was a mild cold. This morning I woke up with a massive headache, very sore throat and wisdom teeth playing games. I thought it was going to be better but seems that is not the case. Hopefully, will be better for Saturday's demo.

A quick one

Using Origins Cardmaking kit from Basic Grey.

In this Months Cardmaking & Papercraft

This is one of the 12 cards I made for an article using the latest Basic Grey collections, Capella, Green at Heart and Kioshi. I must say that I really enjoy making articles for Cardmaking, they are a fab magazine to work with.

And thanks for the lovely comments yesterday. I had a lovely day, not doing anything remarkable but doing something useful. By the way, I was delighted with Nadal's victory. I did not expected it, but reminded me how great Rafa is even after a troubled year. Very inspiring!

No photo today

Sorry, but no picture. Why? well, there are some days that for no reason in particular I like to take a breather, specially where work is concerned. And, paper crafting is my job so a bit of not having to think about it always goes well.

I used to not think like that, but a couple of weeks ago I attended a photography seminar. It was absolutely brilliant and one of the things I learnt was to take complete breaks in order to be better then at your creative job. To be honest, now seems like such a reasonable idea that I can't believe I never fully did that. You see, my brain is always thinking of a million little things, maybe not a million but a lot of ideas go through my head ALL the time. Everything I see, listen or read my brain has to process it and analyze all the consequences that my brain can think of from the new information. When I am creating, it is the same, I am always thinking of what could I do different to make it better, even though most times the first time was a good as I could possibly make it. It is exhausting.

So, a little bit of a breather between here and there of cardmaking should be ok. After all, we all need our creative juices to be recharged at some point. But don't worry, hopefully I will be back tomorrow with more photos!

Using Leftovers of leftovers

When it comes to leftovers of leftovers, you would think that they have a destination called Rubbish Bin. Well, usually it is the case, but when I have leftovers of leftovers from papers or backgrounds that I really like I can not throw them away. So I keep them in the same bag as before, you know, a small poly bag with all the bits from one project so that they all coordinate.

The piece on the left is a leftover from a larger project. I used the leftover for yesterday's card and this was what it was left, so I used it in combination with some other bits.

can you see that the patterned paper has a punched out circle? Well, that was like that because I punched out the circle for another card, therefore I incorporated it into my new design.

I finished off the card with one of my Big Sentiments.

More Amore Butterflies

I did say yesterday that i love, LOVE, the new Amore butterflies by Dawn Bibby. Well, I could not resist and make another one using for the background some leftovers that I sprayed with Angel Mists. By the way, the Kraft option does not appear on the website, but they do have it in the shop so if you would like to buy some give them a call.

I also want to thank everyone for leaving such a lovely comments. They all mean a lot to me, specially since not that long ago I didn't use to get any. Please, keep them coming as they push me to make more cards and more posts in this blog.

Simplicity

You know me, I like simplicity. This one was made using Dawn Bibby's Amore Butterflies, part of her new collection. Aren't they gorgeous? I saw them for the first time last Sunday when I went to the shop and I can honestly say that it was love at first sight.

I love Kraft card and the combination of gold foiling on it looks amazing. For those who dont like kraft as much as I do, well, do not worry there are other options like a lovely blue background with a gorgeous light blue foiling.

I wanted to do a quick card yesterday to feature them as soon as possible in the blog. so I use some kraft card, embossed with swiss dots, run across an ink pad and dusted perfect pearls over it to give a gold touch to the card.

Of course, they are available from Dawn Bibby's shop.

Dawn's Residential

This time i took the time to take some photos and make a slide show. I hope you like it!

A layout, for a change

I dont think I posted this layout before, but if I have, then forgive me. I am still exhausted after teaching at Dawn Bibby's Residential. It was a lot of fun, but little sleep involved and I need my mornings to sleep!

The layout features Kioshi papers, which are a lovely double sided collection by Basic Grey.

Words

Sometimes words in stickers are cheesy, sometimes they truly are what I just need to hear.

Similar card but with a square background!

More Patchwork, more Inking

This ones are as well from Craftwork Cards Sugar & Spice die cuts. The papers are from My Minds Eye, Quite contrary as well. All available from Craftwork Cards.

Small Cards

You know my weakness for small cards, this one is done by folding in half one of the elegant rectangles. The papers are from My Minds Eye, Quite contrary as well. All available from Craftwork Cards.

As work is a bit crazy at the moment, with Dawn's residential and other projects I may not be able to write too much in the next few days.

Using Edges

The other I was using some of Craftwork Cards Elegant Rectangles and I messed up the front of one of them. Instead of trowing it away I decided to use just small amounts of the edge. The rest of the card was an afterthought. The main thing was to use this little leftovers. The top one is attached to the back the card and it will fit a C6 envelope as is not more than 1cm higher than a regular A6.

Another version

Very similar to yesterday's card, but I used this time a Glitz And Glamour Die cuts, including the message.

Inking Die cuts

I loved using these Sugar and Spice die cuts from Craftwork Cards. To add the message, I used one of the Mix Match sentiments.

I used Distress inks to change the color of the card of the die cuts and then I highlighted the flowers using Promarkers. I use them as well as Copics. Since reading very interesting info about the Promarkers on Kirsty super blog, I felt more compelled to use more the UK made ones, yes the Promarkers. I may be Spanish, but I am all for local/national products. That is not to say I wont be using the Copics, because I have a lot of them.

Another masculine card

I just wanted to share this little card I made a few weeks ago. It is a simple card but since I had in mind to make a card for a man, simplicity is always welcome.

So here I used the main focus of the card the message one of my Double Sayings stamped over a monogram (Shadow Monograms).

I like black!

Men's card today. How many times I hear men are the most difficult to make cards for? And how many times have I talked about it in this blog? Many a time. Yet I still feel that it is difficult for most cardmakers because the go to embellishments and colors are very feminine looking.

But that is not what I wanted to talk about today, oh no, it is about the backdrop that I use in the photos. As much as I like photography, taking pictures of my own work is boring for me. I have read and follow most tutorials on how to make this photos better. Honestly, little does work for me as I am pretty set in my ways.

So, now and then I try something different like a white backdrop. And then, I realize how much I like the black one. So back to black it is!

By the way the sentiments inside are two stamps from the Double Sayings set.

And this is a close up of the window from the front of the card. I made the aperture by using a 1 3/4" Whale of a punch -eksuccess-, the scallop is a 1 1/2" scallop circle from Woodware.

More Patchwork

I still have got plenty of Vintage My Minds Eye papers, and more recent as well. So I am working slowly through them. And by plenty of papers I mean little scraps, when I am working with papers that I really, really, really like I keep in a poly bag any decent leftovers, and that could be as small as a 1cm wide by 5cm. I will only keep those papers that really inspire me. In that poly bag will only be papers of one collection, that way I can mix and match any of them. Which is great when you are doing this technique as little pieces are required.

You can see in this close up, how the pattern of the embossing folder continues seamlessly. I love this technique, you will have a chance to have a go if you are coming to Dawn's Residential or coming to one of my forthcoming workshops, which reminds me I need to update.