SWG Design by Linda Levoir

Hello!

Today I have a really quick and easy idea for a Christmas card, using one of the dies from the new Evergreen Trees die set from Whimsy Stamps.

This is a perfect idea for batch making Christmas cards, and you can ring the changes to make your cards individual also by using different colour glitter paper for them and even mixing colours!

This is the card I made and below you can find a short how to and then pics and links for the stamps and dies used. 

Hello!

Life is BUSY atm, getting ready to fly out to Rome on Tuesday and I'm working tomorrow so got to get everything ready today, but before I get back to it I'd like to share another card with products from the September release.

It's never too early to start on Christmas cards right? I'm probably a bit late starting mine, but I thought I'd make something a little different.

I used the new Peekaboo Window 1 Die and combined it with an older Background Stamp Snow Flurry, embossing it with white embossing powder on watercolour paper and then doing a subtle ombre blending with blue inks to complement the beautiful blue butterflies I used from Kay's Kreative Korner.

I used some silver glitter cardstock to mount the butterflies so they stood out against the background, and finished the card with some clear gems.

I didn't want to cover my card with a sentiment, so I put that on the inside.

   

That's all folks, I'm off to finish sorting my packing ready for tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!

Hello!

I'm sharing a couple of bright and simple Christmas cards today made with the Snow Flurry Stamp Set and matching dies. 

To make this card I first cut a panel of Bristol Smooth paper and did a little ink blending with Distress Oxide ink in Picked Raspberry, sprinkling some drops of water and blotting. 

The snowflake was made by stamping with versamark ink on some Limelight Card Stock and heat embossing with white embossing powder and then cutting out with the matching die. 

I stamped a sentiment from the Abstract Christmas stamp set on Limelight Card Stock and heat embossed that also, then cut out with a banner die.

I made an A2 card base from Razzle Berry Card stock, and adhered my panel, then popped up my snowflake and sentiment on the top with some foam tape. I finished with a few jewels from Little Things by Lucy's Cards 

For my second card I did exactly the same as for the first card, just changing the colour of ink and cardstock and making a horizontal card rather than a vertical one.

Hello!

A while back I made a card using some dies from MFT and whilst I shared it on Facebook I totally forgot to share this creation on my Blog and on Instagram. So I'm rectifying that today.

Hello!

I have a couple of simple Christmas cards to share with you that look impressive but actually take very little time to make. 

My first card used the Snow Flurry Background Stamp and the Snow Flurry Clear Stamp Set.

I then did some ombre ink blending using Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral distress ink. After cutting out my panel I sprinkled a few drops of water and lifted a little colour for interest. I didn't have any gold cardstock so I embossed the edge of my card and then mounted my panel right on top so there was just a thin gold outline.
I finished the card with some Pale Gold Nuvo Drops.

Below you can find links to the items I used.

I'll be back later with a special Halloween post and a chance to win a prize!

Hello!

I'm back from the Whimsy Craft Retreat 2017, held in Orlando, Florida and super excited to show you the cards we made in the classes I taught there this year.

All 3 classes were taught using new products from the October release, and I've listed those at the end of my post for you with links to the items in the shop.

My first class covered a 2 for 1 project where we made a shaker card and then made a card using the waste from this card with just a few additional pieces.

 For the card above I heat embossed the Snow Flurry BG stamp in white, on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and then used Distress Oxide Inks in Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio to blend over. I gave a light spray and sprinkled some drops of water before drying thoroughly.

I then cut out my panel with a rectangle die and cut out the SNOW die from the middle, being careful to save all the waste (except the middle of the O which is used on this card) to use on my second card.

I adhered a panel of acetate behind the aperture and glued the middle of the O back on the front.

I carefully attached foam tape to the back being careful to surround my word aperture with no gaps and rubbed the inside lightly with a dryer sheet (this is to prevent the sequins sticking to the static) and filled with a sequin selection that went with the colours of ink I used.

I glued a piece of white card to the back to prevent the sequins falling out and then glued the whole panel to my card base.

I stamped a sentiment from the Snow Flurry stamp set in the same Distress Oxide inks I used to blend my background and fussy cut them out, adhering them to the front of my card over the shaker portion with some Multi Medium Matte. I finished with a few sequins to match the those inside the shaker.

For my second card, I trimmed the waste 'frame' from cutting the panel for my first card to fit my card base and stuck it in place. I then cut a panel of white card stock to fit the inside of the frame and cut the SNOW word die out, towards the bottom of the panel, making sure it was centred and level. This is to use as a guide when adding back the stacked letters as it's easier to get the die straight than all the individual letters.

I stamped a sentiment from the Snow Flurry stamp set onto my panel in black ink and stuck the whole panel to my base card.

I cut the SNOW die cut 3 times from white cardstock and glued each of the letters in a stack, finishing with the patterned letters that were left from our shaker card and glued those in place on my card, using the negative die cut as a guide. 

I stamped 3 of the snowflakes from the Snow Flurry stamp set with Versamark ink and heat embossed in white and then blended over some Distress Oxide inks to match my background. I then cut them with the matching dies and mounted them on my card with a little foam tape.

I finished off with a few gems.

For my second class we got messy with a little ink smooshing and used the Snow Flurry stamp set and matching dies.

I used some distress Oxide Inks again (you could do the smooshing with normal distress or dye inks, but the stamping of the snowflakes would not be as crsip with normal distress inks), along with some Tim Holtz water colour paper,  and smooshed each colour separately, drying fully before moving onto the next.

Once fully dry I flicked with a little white acrylic paint and then stamped my sentiment from the set in black ink.

I stamped 3 of the snowflakes onto white cardstock, from the set using ink to match and cut them out with the matching dies.

I trim my panel to be a little smaller than my card base and add it to the base on top of a layer of cradt foam. I add the snowflakes with foam tape for a little extra dimension and finish with a few clear gems.

My 3rd and final class of the day (I did also do another optional evening workshop covering colouring images with Zig markers and distress inks/markers), covered loose water colouring and the camouflage die-cutting technique.

As with my first card I used the Snow Flurry BG stamp and white embossing powder to stamp and heat emboss a panel of Strathmore Bristol Smooth.

I then took 2 colours of Zig markers, (in this case Pink and Turquoise Green), and a waterbrush and loosely coloured the snowflakes, (by loosely I mean that the effect was quite watery and I didn't worry about colouring outside the lines, in fact it's pretty much encouraged), in pink and some of the loops and swirls in green. I's best to let one colour dry fully before moving onto the second so they are less likely to bleed into each other.

Once fully dry I cut it out with a large rectangle die and used the SNOW large word die to cut out my word from the centre of the card.

I made a card base with some bright pink card stock and adhered my panel directly to my base and then cut the SNOW die another 4 times from the same pink card stock.

I glued the letters in stacks, finishing with the patterned ones and glued them back into the aperture .

I heat embossed a sentiment in white, from the Abstract Christmas stamp set onto a scrap of pink card stock and cut out the sentiment with a banner die which I mounted across the bottom of my word using foam tape.

I finished the card with a few clear sequins.

Whimsy Products Used

Please click on the picture to go to the item in store

I did take a few photos at the retreat and I'll be doing a bit of a write up later about what we did, but for now I hope you enjoy the makes from my classes.

Thanks for visiting!

Well I can't ignore it. Christmas is truly on it's way and it's time I started getting serious about making my Christmas cards.

I don't know about you, but though there are cards I will spend a couple of hours on for special people, if I need to make a lot of cards, I need to simplify so that I can make lots in less time. 

Sometimes though when batch making cards you don't want to make them all the same right? 

So when I received the Abstract Christmas stamp set I was overjoyed, because this was a stamp set that was very versatile, (not to mention that it comes with so many mix and match seasonal sentiments that work great with other stamp sets).

So below I've shown a few examples of different ways I've used this stamp set and each card took only around 15  minutes to make on average.

Time to get started on those Christmas cards!

Hello!

When it comes to making Christmas cards it can be quite difficult creating batches of them that don't take you ages to make, but still are distinctly unique. Each of the 4 cards I'm showing today took 15 minutes or less to make and yet are completely individual.

To make my cards I used some simple rectangle dies, a Celebrate word die from MFT Stamps, some super cheap Christmas decorations I bought in a supermarket last year, some white and Kraft card for bases and the following items from The Ribbon Girl.

Time to Sparkle mini pack 6 x 6 papers

(This mini pack means you don't get tons more paper than you need, but more than enough to make a lot of cards, the designs are all gorgeous and at a bargain price!)

Cream/Brown Rustic Gingham 15 mm Ribbon,

 5 mm Mixed Pearls Chocolate Brown, 

White Pearl S/A Assorted Sizes, 

6 mm White Pearl and Diam Self Adhesives 

Thanks for visiting!

Last week when the weather was so miserable, I took the opportunity to make a few cards after work, since going outdoors wasn't pleasant.

Anyway, since there was no sign of Mr Sun, I thought I'd take the opportunity to make another Christmas card. Yup, that's right, you heard me.....another Christmas card, before July is even in!

I can't even blame sunstroke owing to ....well ...the complete absence of sun!

Anyway, the stamp set I used is called Winter Sparrows from Lawn Fawn and it's perfect if you want to make lots of Christmas cards in a hurry. So easy to colour, cut them out with the matching die, pop them on to a little die cut frame, add that frame and some patterned paper to your card base, add the stamped sentiment on a die cut banner, sprinkle a few sequins and hey presto, you're done. So quick and simple, I will make a few at a time like this using different design papers.

I'll be back tomorrow with the first of my cards for Whimsy Stamps July release, which is FAB I have to say, and not a Christmas image among them, so I can put this Christmas malarkey behind me and pretend it's all a dream...... move along....nothing more to see here.......

Thanks so much for finding the time to drop by and visit, I know I'm a bad blogger and don't always get round to comment on yours, but I do truly appreciate you all.

Hello!

I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday, I'm a little sad because I will be going back to work tomorrow and on top of that I'm not feeling very well today, with a horrible cough and swollen glands. Hopefully I will feel better by tomorrow as I have a presentation to give!

Anyhoooo.....I'm here with......drum roll......my first Christmas card made this year!

Yup that's right, I've caved. Although I have shared at least one Christmas card on my blog, early in the year, they were actually made in 2016, so this is officially my first.

I'm blaming Lorraine as she keeps showing so many Christmas cards on her blog that it made me think it was probably time to get my finger out and crack on with them.

I mean even Faye has made a Christmas card or two and she's Christmas phobic this early in the year lol!

Hello everyone!

I'm a bit late in with my Technique Tuesday post today, because I decided to combine it with my post for 

Deep Ocean Challenge's 

new challenge 

Winter Wonderland.

Now, to be honest with you, the last thing I wanted to make this early in the year was another blooming Christmas/Winter card. But that's what the theme called for, so I decided to make something a little different. I've seen quite a few emboss resist technique cards around recently so I decided to try my hand at it. It's really not too difficult, the hardest part for me was getting all the stamping done trying to see where I'd stamped before lol.

Anyway, I found some very old snowflake stamps in my stash, (no idea who they are by as I've had them for a few years now and they were not in the original packet), and stamped around a piece of watercolour card with Versamark ink. Then I added white embossing powder and heated. I kept doing this, adding snowflakes, until I was happy with the result.

Once it was fully dry, I chose a few colours of distress inks, and blended them around the edges, overlapping and fading out towards the centre.

Once I had the effect I wanted I gave the whole thing a light rub over with a kitchen towel to clean up the embossing and make it pop more, then I flicked some gold watercolour paint off of the end of a paint brush to make the gold speckles. 

I stamped the Christmas sentiment from the 

Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings Set, 

in Versamark ink on some vellum and then heat embossed with some gold embossing powder. I cut my strip to size and wrapped it around my piece of card, securing it at the back with some glue.

I then cut the love word 4 times from some white card with the 

Whimsy Stamps Scripted Love Word Die

I then coated one die cut with Versamark ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder, before gluing all the layers together to create what looks like a chipboard word and secured that onto my card, slightly overlapping the vellum strip. I glued the whole piece onto my card base with slightly smaller piece of craft foam for dimension and then added a few sequins to finish.

I really think it turned out very pretty and I do hope you like it.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the teams wonderful makes and I hope you can join in with us, as always there is a lovely prize to be won.

Thanks for visiting!

Well this is it, honest to goodness my last Christmas card of 2016. What's that? It's 2017 you say? Shhhhhh now, move along....nothing to see here......

But, this will be my last Christmas card for a little while. I love them, but really, I'm ready for something else now lol!

Today's card features an older Whimsy Stamp and die set, Penguins Winter Adventure's Clear Stamp Set and Penguins Winter Adventure die set I do love a penguin so I had to have these. I got them a little late in the year, so I only managed this card, but I will make some more with this set later in the year for sure.

I stamped the little penguin with Versafine Onyx Black, and then coloured with my distress ink markers.

The background was made by painting with distress inks on some cold pressed watercolour paper in Wilted Violet, Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry and then once dry stamping some of the little snowflakes from the set in Versamark and heat embossing with white embossing powder.

Then I trimmed into a square and cut into 3 strips.

I stamped one of the sentiments from the set onto my card base and then mounted my strips on some foam tape. I glued a little die cut circle on the top after die cutting my penguin with the matching die I popped that up on the circle with some more foam tape.

Finally I added some tiny gems to the centres of my snowflakes and the dot on the i.

You can find both the stamp and die set over at Dies to Die for in the UK.

That's it, Christmas is officially over in the Levoir household, onto Valentines and Spring creations!

That's all for today, but I'll be back on Sunday with something different

Thanks for visiting!