Back to the Basics

Welcome to our Technique Blog Hop!  This month there are 14 of us showcasing different basics within papercrafts.

This blog hop is a great big circle so you can start wherever you want and continue through to see all the fabulous artwork incorporating this technique.

If you are coming from Maz you are on the right track!

Embossing folders add an interesting texture to plain cardstock, and so I decided to showcase a couple of different techniques to elevate basic embossing.

Here is my original sample card with the background simply embossed with the Stitched Circles Embossing Folder.

I layered a pennant of Hawthorn paper, one of the thin cut leaves and a sentiment using the matching Stitched Circles to create the original card.




To take the embossing up a notch, you can always sand back the raised areas of the embossing to reveal the white core of our cardstock and give the card a more rustic feel.




If you want to inject more colour, you can run an ink pad along the raised area of the embossing folder before running it through your embossing machine to colour in the pattern. Here I used Sapphire ink over the Sage cardstock. To clean your inked up folder, all you need to do is put it under running water to wash it!




Here are all three cards, with the original in the middle and the technique ones on either side.




Which card stands out most to ou? I personally like all three versions depending on the occiasion and recipient.

Now HOP on over to see what Wendy has created!

Australasian Hawthorn Blog Hop

Hello and welcome aboard our Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from Nell's Blog then you are in the right place.

If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you a creation which features Close To My Heart’s October Featured collection, Hawthorn.

This is a great autumnal and masculine range, and I love the wooden woodsy feel to the collection.

I used this paper collection as well as coordinating elements to create a layout that will feature photos of a woodland fairy door walk I went on with my two boys and my niece a few weeks ago.



The hexagon die cut from the Workshop your Way matches so well with the cute pattern of the paper, and I also did some tone on tone stamping of the leaves from the matching stamp set. The sentiment was also stamped using the Hawthorn Scrapbooking stamp set and cut out with the matching die cut.



I used some of the Picture My Life cards to use as backgrounds, and I stamped the leaves by using the scrapbooking stamp set and inking up the leaves first in Toffee, then Saffron then edging with Paprika using the rock and roll technique. The sentiment is from the Hawthorn Complements.


photo


The journal box was also a Picture My Life Card, and the pretty leaf die cut was from the full kit. It was a bit fiddly to push out all of the intricate holes but I love the finished look with all of the different papers and colours behind the leaves.

This  collection can be yours until the end of October.  Individual components can be ordered from your CTMH consultant.

If you do not have a consultant please contact me or place an order here.

I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Scrappychicks.

Sparkly Sunflower

I love making my cards sparkle, and CTMH embellishments make it easy with shimmer brushes, sequins, sparkles and shimmer trim.

I had to have the new Sunflower Sympathy stamp set, and I created this card for a friend going through a rough time.



Do you see the shimmer in the centre of the sunflower? I used the clear shimmer brush for that after I had stamped each layer of the sunflower. I then added some sequins around the sunflower and stamped a sentiment from the stamp set as well.

We'd love to see your sparkly projects over at Heart 2 Heart challenges!