Inspired by a photo to go "Botanical"

I am really late to enter the latest Lawn Fawnatics challenge which closes today but these challenges are great as they make me use stuff I buy and there is a small possibility I might win the $50 USD gift card to spend in the Lawn Fawn shop and as there is a new release next week and I think I want the lot but can't afford the lot it's silly not to enter.

OMG my card turned out so much better than I could have ever dreamed. I have used Lawn Fawn's Pearlescent vellum which I love, love, love to die-cut out a Spring Flowers backdrop which I have loosely coloured up with my Copics to match the bright pinks and yellows in the inspirational photo. I have die cut outa Giant Happy Birthday from Guava card stock which I adhered to my Neenah White #110 base card first then laid my coloured vellum overlay on top. I love this vellum as well as being shiny it also doesn't seem to show the glue underneath. I then added a few daisy die-cuts from the Secret Garden Window die to the HB die-cut. I have added a shimmer pen to the paper daisies to match the pearlescent backdrop.

Copics used:

Yellow: Y13/15

Green: YG05/09
Pink-red: RV14, R46

I have mentioned before about the trick of using an old mail bag with bubble wrap in it to run underneath your card stock with detailed dies. I wish I remembered my tricks when cutting,  see the difference below but at least the wasted piece (sniff) could be my practice piece to see what the colours looked like on it before committing to colour the good frame.

And the photo-board that inspired my card:

Time to use dies only

Hi everyone the latest challenge on the Lawn Fawnatics challenge blog is to make a card with dies only (obviously Lawn Fawn dies). I try to definitely enter these challenges as the winner is chosen by random number generator and you receive a $50 gift card to spend in the Lawn Fawn shop; so everyone has a chance of winning and the odds are pretty good too. You can read about it and see all the other cool entries HERE.

As it's a long time till Valentine's day I thought I would use another colour other than pink or red and I think that Fake Tan is the perfect orange that was missing in my craft life until I discovered it. I just love it so you're sure to see it again and OMG the name just makes me laugh out loud for real too.

All supplies used are Lawn Fawn other than the Kraft and black glitter paper which are in my stash and the Neenah Solar White 110# base.

• Fake Tan cardstock
• Hearts and Stars Skinny Tag
• All My Heart stampset
• Giant XOXO die
• Quilted Heart Backdrop: Portrait coverplate die
  

Well fingers crossed no. 117 is the number selected.

✿ Karen ✿

Inspired by Grace

The latest Lawn Fawnatics Challenge is to create a card inspired by one of the design team OR anyone's card. What a fab challenge as if I'm honest the whole of the  Lawn Fawn DT are inspirational and it was  hard to pick one card by a DT member but I seem to be needing "happy retirement" cards lately and I thought this lovely card by Grace Camou would make a fab retirement card. Her card was also featured on the Lawn Fawn blog for the spring release freebie stamp set "Furever Friends" which was FREE with purchases over $60. You can see that post HERE.

I used the cats from the set to sit on the log from Wood You Be Mine as that was a no-brainer for this cat lover but the wee mice are also adorable but not as adorable as cats. 

I have made a standard A2 sized card and created my sunset using Watercolor Wishes 6 x 6" DSP. I stamped my cats onto some Xpress IT blending card stock with Memento Tuxedo black ink and then masked them up. I created a mask using Gina K masking paper which I had stamped on and fussy cut out.  I then stamped the log so the cats were sitting on top of the log. 

I wasn't that happy with my first log placement (the left cat's bum was in the air!), so that became my practice piece and can now go into my Copic blend notebook .

After colouring up the cats and the log I then fussy cut then out. For my background I sponged my "hill" of Kraft card stock with Tea Dye distress ink and splattered a bit on too plus a tad of watered down white acrylic paint to make my sandy beach. Everything else I think is pretty obvious looking at the card.

Lawn Fawn Supplies used:

Stamps: Furever Friends, Wood You Be Mine (log), On the Beach (shells and sentiment)

Dies: On the Beach, Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables, Stitched Hillside, Stitched Simply Wavy Borders, Everyday Sentiment banner

Paper: Watercolor Wishes 6 x 6" DSP

And here is Grace's fabulous shadow box card using Furever Friends I hope I have done an all right job casing her. Relooking at her card now I love the shadow she has on the log from the mice and must try that next time.

 The other fab thing about the Lawn Fawnatic challenges is one lucky entrant wins a $50 shopping spree in the Lawn Fawn shop which would be awesome to win, so wish me luck.
✿ Karen ✿

Show Us Where You Live

This is the latest challenge at the Lawn Fawnatics Challenge blog is to "show us where you live" and they generously are offering a random winner $50 credit to spend in the Lawn Fawn shop too. I have loved working out where everyone is based looking at their cards and so far I have been pretty spot on with guessing right. It also means they have enough clues on their card.

I was a bit stumped if I'm honest for quite awhile as don't have anything that looks like a kiwi bird or a fern in my Lawn Fawn collection and shock horror I don't own a sheep stamp either. I can see Lawn Fawn has a really cute stamp set called Hay There which is now on my wish list but if I'm honest I like the other animals on the farm better than the sheep in the set.

I was thinking I am not sure that I can enter. Then had a brain wave and thought about the alternative name for NZ; Aotearoa: Land of the Long White Cloud, so that is what I hope I have conveyed in my card. Aotearoa is the name that the Maori/Polynesians called New Zealand as the long white clouds were used for navigation. It is becoming more widely used and we are almost known as Aotearoa New Zealand in the 21st Century. Kia ora is the Maori greeting for hello etc. with an almost have a nice day connotation too.

I have ink blended my background sky with Shaded Lilac and Tumbled Glass distress oxides. My puffy cloud border die I have used Lawn Fawn's chunky glitter on the edge (it's quite holographic). I have added a hint of Twisted Citron to the grassy border which has been die cut out of Spiffy Speckles 6x6" DSP.

Lawn Fawn Products used:
Stamps and matching dies: Over the Mountain Borders, All the Clouds
Dies: Puffy Cloud border, Grassy border, Henry's ABCs, Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Other: Spiffy Speckles DSP, chunky glitter

Other Supplies:
Paper: Lavinia smooth white, Black glitter (CTMH)
Copics used: BV02/31, BG000, G20

Distress Oxides: Shaded Lilac, Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron

Other: Quickie glue pen

Well that is cute and when I buy the Hay There stamp I'll add some sheep to my grass. There's still approximately 6 days to enter as long as you don't have a mental block like me on how to do it.

Rules for the Challenge: Your project should feature Lawn Fawn stamps, dies, stencils and papers. The challenge closes on Sunday, March 5 at 11:59PM ET.

✿ Karen ✿

First play with Lawn Fawn's pop-up platform die

My stamping buddy Sarah let me use her platform die to play along with Lawn Fawn's Create with Us Rainy Day class. These are FREE classes they host via their website which also includes PDF instructions to download showing the completed project, your prep before class and the Copic colouring guide. They host these classes regularly on Facebook or YouTube. This class was from April 2022.

When I created the first card in the class it was 30 December 2022 and we had gone into a heatwave and summer overnight but it's raining now complete with tropical cyclones and flooding in New Zealand. It was a cute card using liquid stardust through a stencil and you can see it HERE.

The second card for this class uses their pop-up platform die which wasn't on my radar. Sarah says try mine I love it, she was right I now love it, so much so I went and ordered one. It's so easy and they show you how in the class which is always at a very slow pace so you "create with them" plus there are instructional videos on the Lawn Fawn site. The platform folds down into a flat card for posting until you push up the bottom and you have a display piece.

A few tricks which I will share. The first one was to apply your glossy accents/Crystal Glaze etc rather than apply when the item is on the card, attach it to some low tack tape (mine from SSS was so low tack I had to tape it down). It only takes approximately 30 minutes to dry but I left it for a few hours. I saw this trick on the Essentials by Ellen Instagram feed after I had just coloured everything up, so thought that was a sign to try it!

The second one which is so obvious I should have worked this out was when cutting acetate put it between 2 bits of copy paper to protect it from getting scratched from your plates. I was looking at mine thinking these will scruff it up and chose the least cut up side, amazingly they didn't. I used Lawn Fawn's acetate which is very clear and very thick and I had to use my metal shim plus 2 pieces of card stock to cut out my circle that we use in the middle of the platform instead of another T/hill die-cut. It's a really cool effect to have things floating.

Trick one in action:

The platform construction is nearly complete:

Normally when you stick the 2 halves together you add another "T" for your third layer but we used an acetate circle which looks fab but OMG it makes taking photos hard, added to the fact there was depth so my normal f stop of 5 meant the back layer was out of focus. 

I followed along with the Create with Us but coloured up my bears, umbrellas and clouds differently and I think when it was time to stick it all down after the first panel was attached I just stuck them directly or with little acetate strips where I thought there were gaps. The papers were from my stash and as I cut my platform out about 6 weeks ago using Sarah's dies I have no idea what I used at the time.

The card actually fits in a standard envelope, it's very sturdy and you just push the bottom up to make the platform, which the lucky recipient can display if they want. The message goes on the back panel, the die actually comes with 2 stitched rectangles. All the raindrops and puddles have Nuvo Crystal Glaze on them. They stuck to the acetate with just my Bearly Art Glue and a pair of tweezers to place. I do have to remember not to use up every scrap of my blending card stock as one of my bears had a badly stamped cake on his back but I just cut out a plain white one with the die and covered it up.

Unfortunately it does look like we maybe jumping in puddles come tomorrow as Cyclone Gabrielle is heading our way, so hoping it will not be as devastating as the last one that struck 2 weeks ago.

The Lawn Fawnatics current challenge is to create an interactive card using Lawn Fawn products. OMG you do need to check them all out, so much fabulousness and cute cards on display. 

✿ Karen ✿