More Eid cards

Good morning, on this cool and rainy morning. ;)

Today I thought I would share the rest of the Eid cards I made to give to Family this past weekend.  I have never given Eid cards before and loved that I managed to make some to give my Family. I wish I had been able to make more so that I could have given everyone, but I guess I will just have to plan ahead in future.
I have three cards to share with you. I thought I would share them all in one post. So here goes:
Card #1

For this card I stamped and heat embossed a 4.25X5.5 inch piece of white card stock with the border stamp from Altenews 'Henna Elements' set with Wow EP in pearl gold.  I sponged on distress inks in Ripe persimmon and Spiced Marmalade. I then used a die from the Lil inkers 'Anytime tags' die set. Next I stamped and colored the flower and leaves form the same Altenew set with copic markers. I fussy fut them out and mounted it onto the arch panel. I adhered this to an A2 card made form some SSS wood grain paper.  The sentiment was stamped onto a wood veneer paper with stazon and attached to the front of the card.


Card #2

For this card I used a PTI background stamp for the base of the card. I heat embossed it with the gold pearl Wow EP.  I used the same EP for the image and sentiment.  I used the Lil inkers stitched rectangle mat dies to cut the front panel and mounted that onto some matt gold card stock. I then popped this onto the front of the card base with foam tape. Lastly, I added some gold sequence to finish it all off.


Card #3

 And lastly, for this card I used the same EP to create the background. I then used Distress inks in ripe persimmon, festive berries, barn door and fired brick over the EP to create the red piece.  I mounted this panel on an angle over a gold panel of card stock that I heat embossed the sentiment on with some black EP. 

TThat's it form me, for today.
I hope you enjoyed my cards.
Thanks for stopping by.
Natasha :)

Blue Eid card

Hi there.
I am back today (yes! I know! two cards in two days! Awesome, right? ;)) with another Eid card.
I am having so much fun with my Altenew products, they are so perfect for Eid cards. I have a ton of ideas swarming round in my head that I can't wait to make up.
Anyway, lets get on to todays card, shall we?

This card was inspired by Indian fashion. I think I have mentioned my love for colour a few times, and well hey, you just need to look at the name of my blog to know that I'm serious ;)  So for this card I got inky!  I started by cutting and scoring my Gina K 120LB card stock so it would open in the front. Next I masked off the back and stamped and heat embossed the two front panels with images from the "Henna Elements" stamps set from Altenew. I used wow embossing powder in pearl gold, I absolutely LOVE this EP, I have been looking for a bright gold EP for ages!  And now I finally have it.  When that was done I pulled out my distress inks and got inky with tumbled glass, peacock feathers, salty ocean and chipped sapphire. Next I heat embossed the Eid greeting, from the "Eid greetings" set, on the inside and inked that up too.
Here is a look at the inside of the card.

Well that's it from me for today.  I hope you had a fun visit.

Tasha :)

Watercolor Eid card

Hello again.
I am very excited to share with you my very first Eid card.  A few months back Altenew released two stamps sets geared towards Muslim celebrations. Of course,I HAD to have them. With summer and my kids going back to school however, I did not get much time to make anything with them. So since Eid is coming up in a couple of weeks I wanted to make a few cards to share with Family and friends.
Here's my first Eid card ever ;):

I am absolutely in love with the whole watercolor trend thats so popular right now. Anything that promotes or showcases a gradient effect is super cool in my world ;) 
So, I started by die cutting the arch (from Lil inkers) from Strathmore 140LB watercolor paper. I then stamped the image onto the panel with some distress ink in antique linen, just as a guide. I then went to work coloring it all in with some Peerless watercolor paper sheets. When that was dry I stamped my sentiment.
For the base I used some PTI soft stone card stock and I die cut the Wplus 9 lattice frame from Neenah solar white. I glued that to the front of the card base and then popped up the focal image with foam tape.  Lastly, to finish it all off I added some rain drops and a star.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed my card for today :)
Tasha

Rainbow Thanks

A  couple of months ago I had the pleasure of meeting a few crafty gals that I have met online but not in person. (Ardyth, Tracey and Emily) I am sure these superstars need no intro from me! They are super talented and oh so delightful!
Well.....I am sure you can imagine, not a lot of crafting happened. BUT that was just fine, we did all borrow stuff and die cut items from each others stash, so we all left with stuff we did not have before.
Ardyth was kind enough to let me keep a couple of her stamp sets to play with, and I just had to make her a thank you card for when I returned it.  Now, I did not use any of the stamps she loaned me :b , but I did use some die cuts I got from Tracey.  

I started with some glossy cardstock and alcohol inks to create the rainbow background. Next I die cut the triangle panel, from Hero Arts, and adhered it over the rainbow BG.  The thanks die is from PTI and is one of the die cuts I used from Tracey's stash.  I had only cut white so I colored it in with a copic marker.  I adhered it to the Lil inkers diagonal strip (also from Tracey)  and popped it up onto the panel with foam tape. I finished it all off with some enamel dots.
And that was pretty much it.

Thanks for stopping by.
Natasha :)

Wedding wishes

EDITED: I am not sure why the photo would  not upload the first time I posted this, so here it is again :) 

Hello people :) I hope you are all enjoying the summer. We definitely are. I am beginning to get a bit depressed about the boys having to start school soon.  I love the summer and getting to spend every day with my guys. Right now we are in our annual family vacation that is even sweeter this year since my parents and Niece are visiting from South Africa. We have been having a great time.  

Anyway.... Last weekend my cousin got married and I am here to share one  of the cards I made for the occasion. ( I forgot to photograph the other one;( ) 

Here it is:

So here I have a PTI soft stone card base that I heat embossed with the stitches and swirls stamp set using some silver pearl embossing powder from wow embossing powders. The stitched tag is die cut from white card stock and is from lil inkers. I die cut the couple from a shimmery black card stock. The clothing pieces were cut from a champagne gold shimmer card stock and some yellow (the colors  if the wedding party). The sentiment is also from PTI. 

Well, that's all from me  folks ;) take care and  hope you have a great weekend. 

Tasha :) 

Super teacher card

Why, hello there. It has been a long time since my last post. I have not been very good with card making or blogging the few items I have made before they were sent off.
I did however manage to snap a few (poor quality) pics of the card I made for my Sons grade one teacher before I sent it off with him this morning.

 When I saw this stamp set from MFT, I immediately knew I had to have it for this very occasion. I thought this little girl reminded me a lot of my sons teacher.  So I made sure to order it.  This was one of those cards where, I kind of knew the direction I wanted to go, but was a little fuzzy on the details. But I must say, once I colored her in and made the background, it all came together so easily.  And it was so much fun to make.  The little girl is mounted onto a wobbler so she jiggles.

I started by making the sun-ray stencil with my cameo. I sponged on distress inks in to create the sun rays and then used some wink of Stella to add some shimmer.  Next I colored the little girl in with copics and added more wink of Stella to make her shimmer and shine.  I attached her to the card front using a wobbler.  I used some Lil inkers cloud dies and colored them in with copics The lightning bolts were also colored with copics and covered in glossy accents.  I heat embossed the city scape with black EP, and popped it on to the front with dimensional foam tape.

 I am a little disappointed that I did not have time to take a nicer photograph, but you get the idea.  Here is a pic to show some of the shimmer.

 Here is a little video showing the wobble action:

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great weekend.
Tasha :)

Clean and simple day 3 take 2

Good morning.
I managed to make another card yesterday for day 3 of the clean and simple online card class, but I was not able to photograph it before the sun went down, so I did it this morning.

The topic of the day was 'optical illusion' and Jennifer showed a few masking techniques that inspired this card.

Firstly, can I jut say how much I LOVE this stamp set.  I fell in love with it the second Nichole Heady sneak peaked it.  Unfortunately for me, I was not able to place a full order on release night so I resigned myself to admiring it from afar. Until a very sweet lady on the PTI forum offered to add it to her order and mail it to me.  The dies were sold out, so I still have to get that, but I am one happy camper for the time being.  Now onto the card  ;)

The moment I saw this set, I just knew it had to be colored.  I digressed from the examples Jennifer showed us in that she had a a lot more white space. So at first I thought I would mask off a border along the outside edge of the card.  But these flowers are quite big and I really wanted to show them in all of their glory.   I opted to go all the way. 

I started off by embossing the smallest rectangle in the Lil inkers stitched mats die set to create a frame for my sentiment.  I just adore these stitched mats, they add such a fun extra kick to a card.  Next I masked that section off with some post it tape and went to town stamping all those pretty flowers in Momento tuxedo black ink.  I then spent an insane amount of time coloring in the flowers with copic markers.  I took great care to use lots of shades and highlights to add the optical illusion of depth and height. I used a white gel pen for the dots. I wanted these flowers to sing! When I was done with all the coloring I took a very light grey marker and outlined the flowers for even more dimension. So, it all looked great! (IMHO) ;) but I decided to add some distress ink in scattered straw to the outside of the panel. Lastly I embossed the stitched lines on the outside edges to tie it to the sentiment panel and finish it off.

I cannot tell you how much FUN I had making this card.  I know for a lot of people spending this much time on a card seems like too much of an effort for one card, but for me, it is like therapy. To just sit and get lost in my thoughts for that time is like taking a mental vacation. One that is often desperately needed around these parts ;)) 

Lastly, I know this does not fit the whole 'clean and simple' category... but it is one layer and it does have the 'optical illusion' thing, no? ;) 

So I hope my card does not digress too much from the path, and I hope you enjoyed your visit today.

I'm off to attend to some tedious housework, and hopefully I will earn some time to play with today's lessons  later.
Have a great day friends.
Tasha

Clean and simple 3 day 3

Hi there.
Today I have a card I made for day 2 of the clean and simple, online card class. My card is based on Laura Bassens card. 

 

I know it's hard to see in the picture, but I used an Impression obsession background stamp with soft stone ink. It is very light so it's hard to see in the photograph.  I loved the idea of a bold focal sentiment, and I am in love with polka dots ;)  So to change it up a bit I used the shadow stamping technique. I stamped the dots in the various colors then went back and stamped over them with white ink to create a shadow.  I also added some wink of Stella over the circles to make them pop even more. 

Now this card seems pretty simple, but let me just say it took me three attempts to get to this.   There is a real gift in knowing when to stop!  And clearly, I do not posses that gift.  So the first two times I kept filling in the white space until It was practically covered in colored polka dots.  So what has this experience taught me you might ask?  That I am more of a more is more, complicated  soul than a clean and simple one... and you know what... it is a reflection of my personality, so I'm good! ;)))   

Thanks for stopping by :)  I have another card to share for day two, if I can photograph it before the light fades, I'll post it tonight.  Otherwise... As they say in South Africa, "More is nog 'n dag",  (tomorrow is another day). 

Peace and love

Tasha :)

Clean and simple day 1

Hi again.
So I have signed up for the clean and simple 3 one layer card class.I love these classes, they are packed full of ideas. I have taken quite a few, but I never seem to get the time to play along. For this class the timing is perfect (March Break, and bad weather ;) ), but they have also changed the scheduling a bit, so videos are every other day... I  am loving that, because it gives me time to think about my design and still have time to make it, without feeling like I have already fallen behind.

So now for my card:

For this card I knew I wanted to do the rainbow strips, but I did not have the balloon dies. So I was kind of playing with a few ideas, when I came across the MFT sketch challenge and everything clicked into place.  I ended up combining Debby's and Shari's classes to make this, based on this MFT sketch.

I was planning to enter that challenge but my kids were hogging the computer yesterday and I did not get to upload it in time.  :/
Oh, well... I still like the card. Colorful! Just the way I like it :)

Thanks for stopping by, and I will be back tomorrow with another card for the clean and simple class.
Tasha :)

Virginia's View #1

Good morning.
I have a card to share with you that I made for the new challenge blog, Virginia's View, started by the lovely and every inspiring Virginia Lu (a fellow Canadian, yay! ) ;)
The first, HERE, Challenge is all about Watercolor. I love watercolor! So I knew I just had to play along.

Here's my card :

And here's the inside:

 

Now even though I do have a cheapo set of water color I used re-inkers for this because I wanted  this color combo and I like how vibrant the re-inkers are.  I colored a panel of card stock, starting with the pink at the top and the orange at the bottom and worked my way to the middle. I then die cut the butterflies from this panel.  Next I took a plain piece of white card stock and die cut the butterflies again before running through with a woodgrain impression plate to add texture.  I popped this onto the card base with foam tape. Instead of adding a sentiment to the card I decided to add it to the butterflies that I then inserted them into the negative space, leaving the wings free to fly ;) I finished it off with some enamel dots.  Now... I am desperately trying to become more 'clean and simple" in my card making, so I made sure to leave lots of white space, where I would typically try to fill the space.  I think it works but I'd love to hear other ideas/opinions. 

I've recently started finishing the insides of my cards too, even if it is just a sentiment.  I feels more complete.  For this one I LOVE the way it looks. I chose the sentiment because I thought it worked well with the butterflies and "transformation" ;)  I stamped the sentiment and watercolored over it to echo the colors on the butterflies. 

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope I have inspired you to play along too.

Peace and Love.

Tasha :)

Thank you feathers

Well, I am back with another card for the Wplus 9 stretching it challenge. 

Please excuse the bad photo. It is night time here, and my condo has the WORST lighting. I will try and take another one tomorrow with daylight and edit this post.

I have been in love with this set, from the moment I saw the sneak peek.  I have tons of feather ideas pinned on Pintrest that I think would make cool cards.  Both these blue and gold feathers as well as the black feathered background are products of my 'research' ;-P
Now, let me tell you that I am not one of those speedy crafters, who slip out and whip something up. Noooo, I am one of those who take ages to get everything..... j u s t  right. 
BUT having said that, I am one of those people who work well under pressure. Since my school days, I have created some of  (what I humbly consider) my best work under pressure. 
So I decided to stretch myself by forcing myself to not think about this card.... I have a STACK of feathers on my desk already made up with different treatments.  But I am pondering the perfect way to add them to a card. So my challenge tonight was to not think... and just do!  I put a few of the ideas I had together and committed to cutting and sticking within a time limit.   I don't know that I love it... But I do kind of like it. It does not feel like 'me',  but I would check this off in the 'mission accomplished' column. ;)

And with that, I am off to bed.
Till next time. Peace and love.
Tasha :)

Wplus 9 Stretch it challenge

Hello.
Today I have a card to share that I made for the Wplus 9 Stretch it challenge. 
Here's my card :

I always dream of being able to create more clean and simple cards. I tend to make more technique involved cards, and they are usually quite busy. For this card, I tried to keep it simple. I stamped the stripes in Versa magic, sea breeze and Delicata gold ink.  I die cut the feathers and stamped them with the same blue I used for the stripes and Momento Luxe, Morocco orange (for a pop of color) I also inked up one of the feathers with the Delicata gold ink. I used a spica pen in brown to accent the spots on the feathers.
I was tempted to add layers of velum for the sentiment and more dots or sequins, but I restrained myself and simply stamped the sentiment onto the card with chocolate ink and attached the feathers with foam tape.  I adhered the panel to a plain with card base, and walked away. 

Thanks for stopping by.
Tasha :)

RIC#54

Hello pretty people.
Today I have a runway inspired challenge card to share with you. This weeks photo caught my eye. It is totally my style and when I saw the amazing creations from the design team.... my head was buzzing with ideas. Now this is one of those cards, where I had a few ideas and nothing just fell together, I had to abandon some ideas and work with some to get to this ;)

Now my "process" (if you want to call it that) whenever I see the inspiration photo is to first do a search to see if I can get close up photos of the fabrics/prints etc...  Cause a lot of times something will catch my eye, or I'll have a brainstorm.  So with this one, I did just that and I found this close up.

Image source

According to the Blogger, the inspiration for this collection came from Murano glass and night lit city sky scrapers. I found that wayyy cool!
So II knew I wanted the wavy checkered look, and I remembered seeing a cut file in the silhouette store that would work.  I sized and cut the black background piece on my cameo and adhered it to a white card base covered in score tape. I then added glitter so that the cut outs resembled the windows of the buildings. I thought the shimmer from the glitter would add a bit of a 'lit' effect.  For the next step, I wanted to create the colorful wavy lives but in a structured sort of way. I knew I wouldn't be-able to do it free hand so I found another cut file that was in the form of a journaling card that had a zebraish (yes, that's a made up word ;)  pattern. So I cut that out. Reassembled the pieces together onto anther piece of card stock with score tape. and used the cut lines as guides. I colored the pieces with copics, and added some clear wink of stella for some shimmer. Next I cut them into the triangular shapes and then added a thick layer of glossy accents (which incidentally sealed the cut lines that were visible before) to resemble the Murano glass. The sentiment was heat embossed on to a black piece of cardstock with Wow embossing powder in vanilla white and popped on with foam tape.

Thanks so much for looking in :)

I hope you have a great weekend.
Peace and love.
Tasha :)

Rainbow Birthday

Hello again.
I finally managed to make something to participate in all the PTI Anniversary festivities. :)

Todays challenge is all about words!  I actually used one of the sketches from the anniversary wish list challenge.  But I didn't use any of the color combos, so I can't eter this into that challenge too. ;(
I do hope to make something else though ;)

For this card, I simply added strips of score tape to the card and added glitter in rainbow colors (al la Laura Bassen ;) ). I die cut the word 'HAPPY' from a white piece that I die cut using the accompanying tip top dies. I then die cut the word 'HAPPY' and the star from gold foil card stock and put it into the recessed negative. Next, I stamped the sentiment. Lastly, I popped the panel onto the base and added some enamel dots.

Thanks for stopping by.
Natasha :)

More glitter

So, last week, I said I would share some other cards I made with Jen Rzasa's  gradient glitter  technique. And as promised here they are.
Attempt 1)

 Attempt 2)

For the first one, I followed the same process as in the video, and I quite like it. The cover plate is from MFT, and the sentiment is from Lil inkers.

For the second one I had another idea. To glitter the cover plate die cut too. So I applied double sided tape to the piece of card stock before cutting it and added Warm light glitter ritz to the die cut, before attaching it to the base card . Sup fun, and LOTS of glittery goodness. My DH likes the first one, and I'm not sure. I think they are both nice in their own way.
I'd love to hear what you think :)
Anyway, that's it from me, for today.
Love, and peace.
Tasha :)

Stenciled class shares

Hello, there.
I wanted to quickly share some cards I made for the recent online class, stenciled.
It was such a great class, and I found myself inspired to try so many different ideas and techniques. I did play around a lot, but only managed to finish two cards, so far.  I will try and finish more with some really cool techniques and results. But I thought I would share what I have since the Gallery closes tomorrow and I wanted to share these there too.

First up I have a card inspired by Jennifer McGuires card on day 1.

I did not have a chevron stencil, but I did have a PTI, cover plate, so I die cut that out of acetate and made a stencil. I used 3 colors (Limeade ice, Hawaiian shores and Classic Kraft) then rotated the stencil and repeated the coloring. I simply stamped an MFT greeting using versafine onyx black and popped this onto a plain white base with foam tape. Simple and easy.
Next up i have a stencil I created using my Cameo.

I cut this flower image by hero arts out on acetate and stenciled it onto a plain white piece of card stock, using (pure poppy, orange zest, summer sunrise, simply chartreuse and ripe avocado)  I stamped the sentiment with dark chocolate. I added a small scalloped border and popped this up onto the base card that I embossed with a distressed folder. Lastly I added a touch of wink of stella clear glitter to the flower to give it a bit of shimmer.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Tasha ;)

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

Hello :)

I am so excited to have found time to make something for the 

PAPERTREY INK JANUARY BLOG HOP

This Months hop is all about pink! And boy was this a fun card to make.  

I have here a very pink glitter card ;) I was watching This  video by the uber talented Jennifer Rzasa, on her gradient glitter technique. Now, I LOVE glitter and I LOVE ombre, so I just HAD to try it out.  This was not my first attempt (I'll post that later ;) ). But it was a winner for me. So the background was made using this technique. The card however was based on a sketch by the lovey Lucy Abrahms, who is hosting a sketch challenge on her blog.  I saw this sketch and everything just came together.  I used some birch wood to die cut the tag and my PTI star dies to cut the star out of the tag. The sentiment is from the "super stars" set and was stamped with brown stazon (the other inks bled). The heart and arrow are studio calico wood veneer that I used this weeks MIM technique to add glitter to. I added some glossy accents to them as well to give them more dimension.

I quite like this one.  I hope you do to. Thanks for stopping by and hope you have fun hopping .
Till next time,
Tasha :)

It's an i-pod kinda birthday ;)

Hello, there.
I wanted to stop by today to share a birthday card I made for my son, who turned 7 years old today. He asked for an i-pod, so I thought I would oblige ;)

There's no stamping (gasp!)  But he LOVED it and it was really easy to make.  I love it too. What do you think?

Anyway, I'm outta here. I have to run some errands before the birthday, pizza, movie night celebrations tonight.
Thanks for stopping by.
Tasha :)