Saturday, April 29, 2017

Lots of Heat Embossing...

Hi! I am here with my second card for today, which is a great achievement for me since I am a very slow card maker.

I was inspired to create this card for the current challenge at the WOW! Embossing Powders blog which is favorite embossing technique and the C9 challenge which is One Layer.


I love heat embossing and use it on almost all my projects. And I love the WOW! Embossing powders since they are available in so many different colors and types. I decided to use all my opaque EPs and create a card with a black base. I mounted the large floral stamp from the You're My Person stamp set by Concord and 9th on my Stampaholic and stamped with Versamark. I then sprinkled the Pastel Blue EP, removed the EP from everywhere else except the large blooms and then heat embossed. I repeated this process with different colors of EP till the entire image was covered. I did end up with several flecks of EP on my card base. But It didn't bother me much. I rather like the look it gives the card. The sentiments are from the same set and I love their label style look. I covered rest of the base with the same stamp, using Versamark ink to get a tone on tone look. Here is a close up.


I am quite happy with the way this card turned out. It looks lovely, especially at night when the colors seem to pop up against the black background.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

C9 Challenge #8:


WOW! Embossing Powder April Challenge:
The challenge is to use a favorite technique.

CASology Week 246:


Mod Squad Challenge - Love Theme

Love,
Nandini

My Experiments With Masking...

Hi! I made a card for a challenge after a very long time. And it was so much fun! The challenge for April on the Mudra blog is Masking. Honestly speaking, I am always a bit lazy about doing masking and tend to avoid it.  So I decided to challenge myself. I remembered a beautiful card made by Yana Smakula and decided to CASE it. You can find the original card with an excellent video tutorial here.

I used the basic idea but changed up things quite a lot. Here is the card that I ended up with.


I started with a piece of plain white card stock.


I marked the center horizontally and put a pencil mark at the point from which I wanted my masked sections to radiate. After that I got busy with my paper tape. I masked each section with the tape and blended some distress ink to get an even coverage. I then distressed it with water. I used my rather large collection of Mudra stamps to stamp on each section. 

This was the final result.


You can see the various Mudra stamp sets that I used.

Once the panel was ready, I trimmed it to fit on a 5" x 7" black card base. I adhered it directly to the base. 

The sentiment is also from Mudra, a mini stamp set called Special Mini. I stamped with Versamark on a piece of black card stock and heat embossed with ranger's gold EP. The sentiment panel is mounted on the card with foam tape. 

Since the background was already busy, I avoided any other embellishments.

I hope you liked my card. I would love to hear more from you.

I am linking this card to the following challenges:

Mudra Challenge #8 - Masking:


CAS(E) This Sketch #219:


Butterfly Challenge #77 
I have used two different butterfly sets from Mudra - Grungy Butterfly and Butterfly Flutters. And the panel looks like a Faux Dresden Plate quilt.

Love,
Nandini

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Addicted To Stamps And More #239...

Hi! The new challenge is up at the Addicted To Stamps And More challenge. The theme this week is


Your entry MUST be Clean and Simple. This means that clean and crisp lines, minimal or no embellishments and lots of 'white' space should be used. White space does not need to be 'white'. It can be any colour. White space is a term used for the area of your card with no stamping, embellishments etc.

Keeping these factors in mind, here is my card


I used the Lotus stamp set by Craftyscrappers to stamp the bloom. This is one of the sets I have designed and I am very happy with the way it has turned out. I used three shades of pinks from the Red Cosmos set of minis by Altenew. I first stamped with Frosty Pink to stamp the whole flower. I inked the stamp again with Coral Berry and dabbed away some of the ink with a dry paper napkin to get a gradation in color. This is a trick I learnt from Jennifer McGuire. I repeated the process with Ruby Red ink. The end result is a lovely blending of inks. I did the same for the leaves with the Frayed Leaf and Forest Glades inks from the Green Fields mini ink cube set. Needless to say, this couldn't have been possible without my trusty Stampaholic!

I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with Ranger's Gold EP. I then covered the paper with Frosty Pink ink. I also stamped and heat embossed the outline images from the Lotus set with gold EP. I trimmed both the pieces, glued them together and then die cut them with a Nellie Snellen rectangular die.

To finish I mounted the panel with foam tape on a white card base.

I hope you like my card and are inspired to create something beautiful. Please do link your creations to the Addicted To Stamps And More challenge blog here. And don't forget to visit my other team mates. I assure you they have really awesome inspiration in store for you.

I am linking this card to the following challenges.

Stamplorations April CAS Challenge:



Craftsneed April Challenge - CAS

HLS April CAS Challenge:


Love,

Nandini

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Addicted To Stamps And More #237...

Hi! The new challenge is up at the Addicted to Stamps and More challenges. This week it is



I made a set of tags for this challenge using the very first stamp set designed by me. It is called Geometrical Patterns and is available through Craftyscrappers. I also used the sentiment from another set also designed by me called Doodly Blooms.

Here are my tags.


Here is another pic with the stamp set.



I used the Sizzix Tim Holtz Tag Collection Framelit dies to cut a bunch of tags. I stamped the medallions with Versamark ink and heat embossed with different metallic EPs. I then used my Faber Castell sketch pens to fill in the colors. I stamped the sentiments on black card stock and heat embossed with colored EPs.

Here are closer views of the tags. I have included the names of the embossing powders I have used for your reference.



Wow! Metallic Copper EP for the medallions and Metallic Pink EP for the sentiment.



Ranger Gold EP for the medallions and Wow! Earthtone Olive EP for the sentiment.



Rangers's Silver EP for both the medallion and the sentiment.



Wow! Metallic Platinum EP for the medallions and Wow! Opaque Pastel Blue EP for the sentiment.


Ranger Rose Quartz EP for the medallions and Wow! Fluorescent Tickled Pink EP for the sentiment.

I hope you liked my tags. Please do check out the awesome inspiration by my teamies. And do link your creations to our gallery here.

Love,
Nandini

Monday, April 3, 2017

Make My Monday Challenge #43...

Hi! There is a new challenge up at the Make My Monday Challenge blog and this time around the theme is April Showers.

I made a very simple card for as inspiration.


I started with a piece of watercolor paper. I stamped the image from the HOTP Rain or Shine stamp set with versamark and heat embossed with white EP. I used distress inks to do a bit of coloring. Once the panel was dry I stamped the sentiment from the same set with Jet Black ink by Altenew. I covered the image with some versamark with the help of my embossing pen and sprinkled Ranger's holographic EP for added shimmer.

I die cut the panel with DCAM's Double Stitched Rectangle dies and mounted it on a grey cardstock.

I hope you are inspired to make something beautiful. Please do link your cards to the Make My Monday Challenge blog. And don't forget to check out the amazing inspiration by my DT teamies.

Love,
Nandini

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Craftyscrappers Challenges...

Hi! We are back with our challenges on Craftyscrappers after a break. Our first challenge is an easy one - Anything Goes.

I used the stencils that came with my DT pack to create two cards. Stencils are part of the new release and let me tell you they are fabulous! They are sturdy and flexible which makes them very easy to use. Also they have a large hole at the top. So storage is very easy. And the designs are fabulous. So is the size at 6.5" x 6.5". I have always loved stencils, from my college days when we used to hand cut them out of plastic sheets. Here are my cards.



I started with two pieces of colored cardstock, one green and one blue. I used a beautiful ink layering  technique by Jennifer McGuire to create my panels. You can find the video tutorial here. I used the white pigment ink from the Colorbox Paintbox pigment ink pad set first and then used the Artistry distress inks Amazon Trails and Ocean Reef. Here is a closer look at the cards.



The cardstock was pale blue. I sponged the white ink first and then moved the stencil up slightly. Then sponged the blue ink. Here is a close up of the panel.



I used the Arrow stencil (CS-STNL-06) and the sentiment from the Lotus stamp set (ST-FLW-09) designed by me.

Here is the second card



I used a light green cardstock for this card. Here is a closer look at the panel.



I used the Victorian stencil (CS-STNL-07) and the sentiment from the Lotus stamp set (ST-FLW-09) again.

The sentiment panels were cut using the Gina Marie X stitched circle dies. I used Memento dewdrop inks to stamp the sentiments using my trusty Stampaholic.

Hope you like my cards. Please do check out the Craftyscrappers blog for more amazing inspiration.

Love,
Nandini