Honey Bee Stamps

It’s getting near that time of the year where my crafting goes in full blown PINK and RED mode! Yes, valentine’s day is fast approaching! I decided to make a card with one of my favourite Honey Bee Stamp greetings – the ‘You Are Loved’ stamp from the Beautiful Life set!

Before I could decide where I wanted my greeting, I chose to work on my background first, and decided to reach for the sweet floral stamps and dies from the Country Wreath set. First I die cut two rectangles of white card using a large rectangle die, and then used two poppy dies from the Country Wreath set to cut floral holes all over the card. I turned the die each time to create more variety and have a more whimsical feel to the card.

Once all the holes were cut, I reached for the other white rectangular piece of card, and used brushed to blend ink all over it. I used some basic brushes that are actually blusher brushes from the pound shop, so nothing fancy in the slightest, but they seemed to do the job! I started with a yellow dye ink at the top, and then made my way down the card into orange and pink tones. I think this gives the card a real sweet, sherbet feel – perfect for V day!

I laid the die cut panel on top of the inked panel and held them in place with some washi tape whilst I stamped the coordinating images onto the inked background, using a grey ink. I used the die cut as a guide to ensure the images fit perfectly inside each hole. Then I mounted the top layer with some foam tape to give some fun dimension.

I then added a grey scalloped frame and embossed the You Are Loved greeting onto some vellum using grey ink and clear embossing powder and when it had cooled I die cut it into a circle using a Simon Says Stamp circle die. Its hard to see, but underneath I added a white die cut heart from cardstock, just so that the message could be more easily read! To finish, a few Honey Bee Stamps diamonds – I simply can’t get enough of those cute little gems!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day! Happy Crafting!

Hello my sweet friends!

For Christmas, hubby ordered me a Marvy Uchida Snow Marker – but unfortunately it didn’t arrive on time! Lucky for me, this means that I got a surprise crafty gift! YAY! But of course, the holiday season is over now, and I am not much in the mood for snow on my projects… at least not at the moment. So I had a think about how else I could use this funky product, and I decided it could also be used to look a little like frosting!

So I grabbed my apron and started making sugar cookies! Well… paper versions at least! LOL

I used the large heart stamp from the Beautiful Life stamp set, and I stamped a few hearts with tan coloured ink –  I used distress inks in Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Frayed Burlap. Next I used the Snow Marker to add some frosting – on most I simply added some dots, but on one I added a whole layer of frosting. When you heat this with your heat gun, the magic truly happens, as the ink expands and turns into a foamy texture, just like liquid appliqué or puffy paint.

Once my cookies had cooled, I stamped them with some sprinkles using some of the confetti stamps in the same Beautiful Life stamp set -this time I used two tones of pink dye ink from Simon Says Stamp. After a few minutes, I dabbed on some multi medium matte with my fingertip, and sprinkled my cookies with some of the Honey Bee Stamps Ice Chip glitter! OHHHHH ….it looks so gooooood! It really is a fabulous substitute for sugar! Teehee! I left these to dry whilst I worked on the rest of my card.

Although the ice chips glitter is really beautiful, I have found out the hard way that they can be rather sharp! They almost look like tiny shards of plastic – so I didn’t want any curious kittens reaching out and touching the cookies incase of potential ouchies! So I decided to add a fun transparent panel to my card so my cookies were vacuum sealed for optimal freshness! <3 I used a scalloped rectangle die, and using the partial die cutting technique, I manipulated exactly where I wanted the die to cut. This way I was able to cut a sweet narrow panel in two pieces of cardstock, which would form the front panel of my card.

First I stuck a piece of acute on the inside of the front of my card, then I assembled the cookies back to back using glue dots. Before sticking another layer of acetate on top, I sprinkled some pink and clear sequins inside from the poinsettia sequin mix.

I then only had to add a few strips of pattered paper to the front of my card, some washi tape over the fold, and then stamped the word Hello from the Hello Gorgeous set onto the front using Simon Says Stamp Hollyhock pink ink. Once this was dry, I white heat embossed the words ‘My Sweet’ from the same stamp set, and used a pink pen to drawn in a slight shadow.

Thank you for joining me today, my sweet friends! And if you are anything like me, you are seriously craving a sugar cookie right now! 😀

Have fun crafting!

Lesley