What:

I love this faux leather paper technique and it was perfect for this particular friend’s birthday. It’s really simple and very effective: spray both sides of the cardstock with Ranger ink refresher, work in, crumple, dust with Perfect Pearls, and leave to dry. Finding the video of someone demonstrating this technique led me to locate myself a copy of the unfortunately out-of-print book it came from — Paper Transformed by Julia Andrus — which is full of interesting paper effects that I really must have a go at. Too many new things to try!

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Get Stamping magazine – cosy Christmas
• dies:
  Clearly Besotted – happy word die
  Clearly Besotted – birthday word die
• colour:
  Caran d’Ache – supra colour soft
  Perfect Pearls – perfect pearl
• embellishments:
  Papermania – Sparkling Stars – Assorted Brights
• paper and card:
  Derwent – black drawing paper

What:

I wish I’d given myself a little more time to work on this; I would have done the sentiment differently, or at the very least made sure it was properly centred on the card. I am, however, happy with the way the colouring turned out. The Dove blender pen smooths the pencil nicely without losing all the texture.

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Clearly Besotted – book worm stamp set
• dies:
  Clearly Besotted – book worm die collection
  Clearly Besotted – happy word die
  Clearly Besotted – birthday word die
• colour:
  Distress Ink pad – peeled paint
  Caran d’Ache – supra colour soft
  Dove blender pen

What:

Another card created in the process of learning techniques and trying out different styles.

Inspired by:

Petal Parade at Made with Sparkle

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Clearly Besotted – sweet little sentiments
  Clearly Besotted – leafy accents
  Hero Arts – floral
• colour:
  Distress ink pads
  Memento – tuxedo black
• embellishments:
  The Homemakery – lovely baker’s twine – hello cupid

What:

Created to see how easy it would be to stamp on a sheet of labels and rebuild the image on cardstock. It was a bit fiddly to get started repositioning the individual labels, but I was happy with the final result.

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Paula Pascual – all year round
  Penny Black – round and round
• colour:
  Distress ink pad – peeled paint, wild honey, tumbled glass
• embellishments:
  sequin

What:

A birthday card for a partially sighted friend, so a bit of texture was called for.

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Papermania – chronology (cogs) stamp
  Andy Skinner Stamps – steampunk accessories
  Bo Bunny – sentiments stamp
• dies:
  Sizzix – Alterations framework honeycomb die
• colour:
  Distress ink pad – old paper
  DoCrafts – copper metallic ink pad