Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge Blog Hop #4 – Let It Snow

5 December 201521 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 8 Comments

Thank you for joining us for another Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge! We’re so excited to be sharing this hop with you. The products used are all available in the current Annual, or seasonal, Stampin’ Up!® Catalogues*. Simply use the buttons at the bottom of the post to keep hopping!

Welcome to our 4th sketch challenge, and this week it was my turn (and pleasure) to design a sketch. Here it is:

I truly hope this sketch will ignite your creativity.

Do you know it’s less than three weeks till Christmas?! It’s crazy how time flies by. And although I had pretty few ideas with this sketch in mind, I decided to go with a winter theme. Well…little crazy & fun winter theme 😉

Finally had a chance to play with Snow Place photopolymer bundle. It was one of those products in Autumn/Winter catalogue that didn’t catch my attention at first. I couldn’t see me using it at all: my daughter will be 16 y.o soon and you know teenagers, she thinks she’s so grown up 😉 But hey, once she knew there’s a snowman to build…yep! She’s a little crazy chicken about Frozen haha.

The base of the card is Smoky Slate. A layer of Whisper White measures 4″ x 5-3/4″ and the top layer of designer paper measures 3-7/8″ x 5-5/8″. I picked big dots design from Merry Moments DSP but it’s also available in 6×6″ paper stack. I chose big dots design as I thought it will go well with this fun card. Banner is cut from a piece of Smoky Slate (5-1/2″ x 1-3/4″) with three “windows” created using the smallest square from Squares Collection Framelits Dies and run it through the big shot with Decorative Dots Embossing Folder. If you don’t have squares framelits you could use punches instead. And it does not have to be square either. You could use circles or stars. To add some interest to the banner I sponged some Whisper White Craft Ink over the embossed area.

And now let’s meet my friends: crazy snowmen 🙂 I stamped snowmen and their accessories in Basic Grey Archival Ink. I was planning to do a little water-colouring, and our new Archival Inks are perfect for this technique. To add some dimension to these guys I coloured them with an aqua painter and Soft Sky. Noses are water-coloured in Calypso Coral and Pumpkin Pie.

My first little fella wears Santa’s hat. Firstly I die-cut two hats: one in Basic Grey, and the other one in Real Red. Then I cut out just the top from a red hat and glued it on the top of grey one. I didn’t like the white border on my die cuts so I fussy cut it. To add some sparkle to the hat I used Dazzling Details, and once it was dry I add Crystal Effects on top.

My second little friend looooves ice-creams. He could eat them all day long 🙂 I love how Crystal Effects makes the scoop of ice-cream pops!

My third guy looks very elegant with this Real Red shiny bow-tie 😉

To finish off my card I die-cut a little star from silver glimmer paper. I used silver cording trim to create few fancy loops and glued them to the card with a glue dot, and added glimmer star on top. The sentiment “Let It Snow” comes from the same stamp set.

Now, be sure to hop along and see more inspiring projects. Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge Blog Hop #2 – Peaceful Pines

7 November 201521 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 14 Comments

If you have arrived here from Mandy’s blog thank you for stopping by. If you just start here please keep “hopping” to see the inspiration from our little group. I’m sure you will enjoy what everyone prepared for you this time.

I was really excited about this week’s sketch designed by Amy from blog Engineering Home. Not that it’s an easy one. Oh, and it was her BIRTHDAY yesterday!!! Happy Birthday, Amy! ??????

This time I decided to go with Christmas theme. And yes I know there’s still a time for Christmas cards, but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere 🙂 So here’s my interpretation of this week’s brilliant sketch:

I know that many cardmakers prefer ever-so-popular clean and simple style, but I’m a big fan of distressing. And in my card today I tried to incorporate both styles.

The base of my card is Whisper White card stock. A slightly smaller panel of Mint Macaron measures 5″ x 3-3/8″. I knew this panel will be mostly covered but I wanted to add some interest to it. First I thought about dry embossing but it would be too busy for an idea I had in my head. Instead, I stamped some splotches with Gorgeous Grunge in Mint Macaron for a subtle tone-on-tone look.

A distressed panel is a piece of white woodgrain patterned paper from Color Me Irresistible Specialty DSP. This paper is amazing, as each sheet is clear embossed, ready for inking, sponging, spritzing – getting messy in short 🙂

I squeezed Tip Top Taupe ink pad on the sleek surface (you can use acetate or craft sheet), spritz it with water and swooshed my paper into this puddle of colour. I added ink and water until achieved the look I wanted. I love how embossing resists the colour. When the paper was dry I stamped few splotches from Gorgeous Grunge and distressed and sponged the edges. Just a warning, this technique will warp your paper so you have to be careful, or use watercolour paper.

To create my tag I cut a piece of Whisper White card that measures 2″ x 4″ and punch it with Ornate Tag Topper punch. Then I dabbed the edges in Versamark and heat emboss it with gold embossing powder.

I stamped Christmas tree from Peaceful Pines stamp set in Versamark on a piece of Tip Top Taupe card stock. I heat embossed it with Heat & Stick powder and when it got sticky I sprinkled gold glitter over it (I must say that I’m in love with Gold Stampin’ Glitter). Then I die cut it using coordinating framelits. I also die cut half of the tree from Whisper White and Mint Macaron to layer them together. When the tree was ready I assemble my tag and finish it with a piece of ribbon and bakers twine. Finally, I could assemble my card. Now just sentiment left.

The sentiment comes from Flurry of Wishes stamp set. I embossed it in gold on a strip of vellum and attached to my card with edges of dimensionals (folded in half). To finish it off I coloured two White Perfect Accents using gold Sharpie and added them where the adhesive was. Taa-daah!

Now, be sure to hop along and see more inspiring projects. Your next stop is Suzanne at Hullahbaloo. Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day

Pootler’s Autumn-Winter Catalogue Blog Hop – Christmas Bauble Shaker Card!

19 September 201521 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 22 Comments

Thank you for joining us again on Pootler’s Blog Hop! This is our team Blog Hop to showcase products from new Stampin’ Up!® Autumn-Winter Catalogue. So prepare yourself for lots of beautiful projects and tonnes of inspiration. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

If you have arrived here from Lea’s blog thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoy seeing the inspiration from our team and continue to hop through to see what everyone has made.

My little project features pretty few of new products from our seasonal catalogue, but I just simply couldn’t decide which one to choose 🙂

Does it happen to you that when you see a new product, it “talk to you”? haha. No, I’m not crazy! Just the moment I saw Delicate Ornaments Thinlits Dies it screamed to me: shaker card!

I wanted to keep my card in soft, washed colours. The base of the card, as well as the top layer, is Whisper White. To break a little bit all the whiteness I added pattern to my base. I took one of the stencils (fancy dots) from Happy Patterns set and sponged over the stencil with Soft Sky. But I only sponged on the edges, leaving the centre white for stamping.

For the layer, I took a piece that measures 5-3/8 x 3-6/8″ so my sponged base could slightly peek around the edges. I run it through Big Shot with new Softly Falling 6×6″ Embossing Folder. I love how it adds gentle texture to the card. Next, I run it through the Big Shot with a bauble die from Delicate Ornament Thinlits Dies, to create a “window” for my shaker.

Winter scene comes from Happy Scenes stamp set. Snow on the ground is “swoosh” stamp from Work Of Art. For my shakers I used Metallics Sequin Assortment, Lost Lagoon stars punched with Confetti Stars Border punch and seed beads from my stash. To create shaker I used edges from dimensionals and a piece of acetate. If you don’t have dimensionals you could use foam tape.

To keep rest of the card simple the only “embellishment” on my card is Poinsettia flower. I was so excited to use Festive Flower Builder Punch together with Reason for the Season stamp set. I punched poinsettia leaves from Whisper White cardstock. I used five large leaves, five medium, five small ones (I cut them in half) and three centres to build my poinsettia. Each leaf was stamped in Sky Blue but I stamp it off first so the colour was even softer. I curl each leaf with a bone folder and assembled it using Tombow glue.

This gorgeous sentiment comes from Embellished Ornaments stamp set. I cut it into a banner and backed it with a piece of silver glimmer paper. As I had it out I also die-cut a little fixing for my bauble from glimmer paper too.

Now that you’ve seen my project please use the buttons below to keep “hopping”. Next in our hop is Sarah, and I know she has a lovely project to share with you. Once again thank you for stopping by.

Have a blessed day,

Stair Step Card With Festival of Trees

29 November 201421 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ Leave a comment

Good evening everyone. It’s Saturday – only week away from us moving a home! Yes, finally 🙂 There was so many things coming out in over a month that I thought it will never happen for us to moving hahaha. But finally everything gets into place. The whole new bathroom suite is waiting to be fixed, floor is bought, new soil pipe is on it’s place and the plumbing work will be finished on Tuesday. Plasterboards are nearly done as well – yay! I will tell you more in a coming week 🙂

Today’s project is not today’s for the true. It’s been waiting to be posted for few days now but always something get me distracted. But because I’ve got free hour or so I thought I will post it tonight 🙂

I don’t have to tell you I love Festival of Trees by Stampin’ Up! Do I?! 😀 I absolutely adore this stamp set, and I will tell you it’s not the last project I will make using it 🙂

This is simple Stair Step Card. For the base you need piece of card stock that measure 9 x 4 1/8 inches (22.8×10.5 cm). Then score it at 1, 2, 3 4/8, 5, 7 inches (2.5, 5, 8.9 , 12.8 and 17.8 cm) making “hills and valleys” same as on the picture:

For two first “stairs” I cut two pieces of card stock that measures as follows: smallest 4 x 1″ (10 x 2.5 cm) and medium piece 4 x 1.5″ (10 x 3.8 cm). I glued them to the base 1/16″ higher then each “stair” starts. In imperial it’s around 2 mm higher. For the last stair I’ve cut the piece of cardstock which measure 4 x 3 4/8″. One half of that piece I run through the Big Shot using the biggest Deco Label. Then I took a piece of Lost Lagoon cs slighty wider and run it through the Big Shot again using the same size Deco Label to make a frame for the sentiment.

I’ve stamped six different trees using Lost Lagoon, Smoky Slate and Pear Pizzazz. I used different tree designs from Festivals of Trees. Also, for the “chain” stamp, I’ve used Versamark pad making so called resistant stamping technique where you stamp the details with Versamark and then stamp solid image on the top. The image stamped as first will resist the ink from second stamping 🙂 Then I’ve cut all the trees with coordinating punch. At the end I used the trimmer ( you can use scissors too) to shorten all of the trees so each one have different lenght now. I’ve attached them to the card with Tombow glue: three on the smallest stair and three on the medium one.

I took the piece of Whisper White (which I’ve run through the Big Shot before) and using stamp-a-ma-jig and Smoky Slate I’ve stamped the sentiment from Bright & Beautiful stamp set.

Then I’ve glued the frame and a piece of Lost Lagoon Silky Taffeta Ribbon. To add more interest I’ve tied a little bow. Now I could glue it all to the card. It really looked good. But something seemed to be missing. So I took a strip of Whisper White and I’ve stamped “ho-ho-ho” and “merry christmas” from Good Greetings. For this sentiment I’ve used Lost Lagoon. I glued that strip to the first stair just below trees.

Et voila – the card is done 🙂 I really think this stamp set is awesome. And even though for this card you can use different colours, different designs of trees or even different sentiments, but it’s still pretty awesome card! Don’t you think?! 🙂 If you like it (or not 😉 ) please leave a comment below.

Thank you for stopping by,

Anna' Stampin' Cave

creative life by anna krol – stampin' up! uk independent demonstrator

Christmas

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge Blog Hop #4 – Let It Snow

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge Blog Hop #2 – Peaceful Pines

Pootler’s Autumn-Winter Catalogue Blog Hop – Christmas Bauble Shaker Card!

Stair Step Card With Festival of Trees