National Coffee Day Blog Hop!

Hello,

I am delighted that Funky Fossil is one of the sponsors supporting the fabulous Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog hop!  

This is the first time that I have been a sponsor as I have only been selling my stencils for 6 months and I will be giving away 3 stencils of your choice from my Folksy store - there are over 60 to choose from!  Just leave a comment on this post before 6pm UK time on Saturday, 6 October to be in with a chance to be picked at random for my giveaway.

I will make this post short as there is so much inspiration for you to enjoy along the hop that I don't want to hold you up :)  Here is my coffee inspired card:

I have used a new stencil that has been added to my store and simply pasted through it with a copper texture paste before cutting a heart aperture from the panel. 

Here is the coffee bean background stencil that I used:

As a special treat I shall add this stencil for free to all orders placed for three or more stencils between now and midnight next Saturday.  There is no need to put it in to your basket - I shall add the free stencil when packaging your order :)

Before I go, I thought that I would leave you with a fun card featuring the coffee bean stencil in blues and yellows combined with fab coffee themed stamps from Altenew :)

The next blog on your hop is SumMore Fun.  If you get lost along the way or have just arrived here you can find the full list below - there are loads of great sponsors and prizes to enjoy.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thank you so much for stopping by - have fun xx

Sarah

Birds at Sunset

Hello,

I hope you have had a good week!  I am glad that we have finally reached the weekend :)  I wanted to share a card that I have made with one of my alcohol ink backgrounds.....I can't seem to stop making them!

I went with sunset/autumn colours and then used black texture paste over my birds in flight stencil.  This is a new stencil and I really like how delicate it is.  You can use it just once as I have here, isolate individual birds or use it repeatedly to create a flock of birds.  You can find it in my Folksy store.

I shall link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes and at Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies September challenge.

I hope you like it and will pop by again soon,

Sarah x

Elegant Gown

Hello,

I hope you have had a good weekend!  When I saw that the cue card at CASology was DRESS, it was the perfect excuse to ink up my Butterfly Gown stencil and make a simple, CAS design:

I simply inked through the stencil in shades of pink from Picked Raspberry, to Worn Lipstick and to Tattered Rose.  The colour fades out towards the bottom to give a dreamy, soft look.  The sentiment is silver embossed and is from Stamplorations.  A few rhinestones and matt silver mat complete the design.

I shall also link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where we are adding bling to our designs.

This stencil is available to buy in my Folksy store.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Retro Cubes Celebration

Hello,

I wanted to pop in a second entry for the current challenge over at The Male Room where the theme is geometric.  For those of you who visit her regularly, you will know that I love geometric patterns and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to ink up my retro cubes stencil:

I inked the stencil up with Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet Distress Oxides and then turned it around the other way so that the pattern looks like it is zooming out from the top and bottom of the card.  I simply popped a sentiment from Neat and Tangled over the top.

I hope you like this retro design which you can find for sale in my Folksy store :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Point the Way

Hello!

I love geometric patterns and stencils are the perfect way of using them on your cards!  Here is a card that I have made for the Male Room Challenge using my Arrowhead Stencil:

I inked through the stencil in some muted colours of distress oxide - Stormy Sky, Peeled Paint and Hickory Smoke to create a faded look.  I die cut a circle from the centre to create an aperture and popped it over a piece of dark grey cardstock on which I had white embossed the gamer control from Papertrey Ink.  The sentiment is from Altenew.  I also die cut a narrow circle as a frame for the focal point.

I shall link up at The Male Room and at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where we are popping elements of our design up.

I hope you like this stencil - it is really fun to use!  You can find it in my Folksy store.....

See you again soon,

Sarah x

Birthday Fishes

Hello!

I am just popping in to share a bright and breezy card using a new stencil - Spin Cycle.  It made me think of bubbles so this is what I made:

I simply inked through the stencil with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide ink - it comes out so crisply.  I combined the background with some cute fish dies from Sizzix and a lovely sentiment from Sticker Kitten's current Mermaid Treasures collection.

I shall link up at Seize the Birthday where we the topping is to use die cuts or punches.

A nice thing about this stencil is that it has no straight edge so works really well when spraying or using inks as there is no obvious edge.  You can get it in my Folksy store:

See you again soon,

Sarah x

Scandi Christmas

Hello,

I am really enjoying using my Nordic Star stencil to make Christmas cards at the moment.  You can't beat kraft and red for a rustic scandi feel!

I inked through the Nordic stencil with versamark on kraft card and white embossed it before die cutting a reindeer from the card panel.  I popped it up over some red card and added a sentiment from Avery Elle.  I shall link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where we are popping things up.

I then used the die cut reindeer on a second card with the Nordic star background used with red ink on the bottom half.

I hope you like these festive designs.  The Nordic Star background is available in my Folksy store.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Vibrant Skull

Hello,

It will come as no surprise that I have been playing with my stencils again!  I had a piece of cardstock which I had brayered some excess paint on to from another project.  I sprayed through my new Spin Cycle stencil for added interest.

I stencilled through my sugar skull stencil with grey crackle paste and mounted the card panel on to a card base where I had inked through my spiderweb stencil in Picked Raspberry distress oxide.

I shall link up at Simon's Monday Challenge where the theme is to use more than one stencil.

I hope you like it :)

Sarah x

Going Batty

Hello!

With Halloween fast approaching I have another new stencil to share with you today - Bats in Flight which is now available in my Folksy shop.  I have used it to play along with the current challenge at Less is More where we are using black and white and one colour:

I simply cut a circle aperture and used it as a stencil to create my moon, inking it in Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide before laying the bat stencil over the top and inking through in Black Soot.  The sentiment is from Stamplorations.

I shall also link up at Simon's Monday Challenge where we are using more than one stencil.

I hope you like my card and the batty stencil that I used :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Festive Woodland

Hello,

A super quick post from me today to share a card that I made at the weekend with my new christmas tree stencil and some pattern stencils - nordic star and simply stripes.  I was playing with my tree and wanted to add some patterns to it with other stencils from my collection.  This is what I ended up with:

This is the effect that I achieved with my distress oxides.  The sentiment is from Avery Elle.  I simply finished by adding some corrugated card and twine at the bottom.

I would like to share this at Simon's Monday Challenge where we are using more than one stencil and at Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge where the optional twist is tree.  I shall also link up at Muse Christmas Visions in response to Kimberly's trio of cool christmas trees.

The christmas tree and background stencils are available in my Folksy store.

I hope you like today's card :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

More cardmaking

Hello!

It has been a rainy day here so I have been able to indulge myself with plenty of crafting and also playing with some new stencils that I am looking forward to sharing with you :)  

First though I want to share a card that I have made with one of my favourite designs - Elegant Lady.  I was inspired to ink it up by the card that the fabulous Anita made for this week's Muse Challenge.....

I simply inked up a background using distress inks - Crushed Olive, Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Stormy Sky and splattered that with some water.  I then inked through the stencil with Ground Espresso Distress Ink and added some words from Altenew.  I shall link up with Muse as the sentiment and image are directly inspired by Anita's lovely card despite the fact that I used a very different colour combination!  I will also link up at Simon's Monday Challenge where they want to see stamping on your project.

Next up is a card that I have made with a new christmas tree stencil.  I decided to go for a non-traditional christmas colour combo:

I simply inked through the tree in Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide and added one of my mdf stars which has been painted in Starlight paints.  When I was sure that the ink was dry, I white embossed the sentiment (from MFT, I think) and added some snowflakes from Card-io and some inking and glitter at the bottom of the card to ground my tree.  I shall link up at Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge where the optional twist is tree and at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where stamping is also the theme.

This tree stencil is really easy to work with and includes two different tree designs:

You can find it, along with the Elegant Lady and other stencils in my Foksy shop :)

Sarah x

Take It Make It Challenge

Hello!

Well we have made it to the first Friday in September which means that it is time for another challenge over at the Craft Stamper Magazine blog.  It is a really easy challenge to take part as anything goes along as your project features stamping of some kind :)

I was playing with my alcohol inks at the weekend and came up with this mini scene:

I simply dropped a range of alcohol inks in blues and greens on to yupo paper and moved them around until I was happy with how they looked.  I like spritzing with blending solution to create a speckled look, using an air can (for cleaning keyboards) to blow the inks in to each other and simply letting them merge and blend.  Once they were dry I used my new Alcohol Lift Ink from Ranger to stamp some details in to the scene using a combination of stamps from Studio Light and Visible Image.  I also stamped some elements in flitterglue and used gilding flakes to add some gold highlights to the scene before adding a few sweet mdf turtles from Sticker Kitten which I had painted with Imagine Crafts Starlights paint.  I matted the scene on to dark blue card and framed it in a white frame to create a piece of home decor.

I hope you like it!  I was really pleased with how it turned out.  The alcohol lift ink is really fab for adding texture and depth in to your alcohol ink backgrounds.

You have the whole month to play along with us at Craft Stamper so do share your projects with us.  We have a fab prize for you this month too:

See you there :)

Sarah x

Stencilling through apertures

Hello,

I wanted to share a few cards that I have made by using my stencils through an aperture.  I like the effect that this creates in terms of producing a focal point with a background stencil pattern.

Here I inked my Knitted Background stencil in Stormy Sky distress ink through a heart stencil shape.  I combined it with a sweet image from Mama Makes which has been watercoloured.  I shall link up at Simon's Monday Challenge where the theme is stamping as part of the fab Stamptember celebrations.

On this card I inked through a circle aperture using my Geometric Flower stencil and used that with Uniko's bold hello stamp.

Simple inking and an aperture can give a different look to the stencils.  You can find them in my Folksy store:

   

Thank you, as always, for stopping by :)

Sarah x

Birthday Rainbows

Hello!

While I was on holiday I coloured up these cute unicorns from Clearly Besotted and paired them with my Messy Rainbows stencil:

I partially inked through the stencil on a piece of leftover card that I had used to mop up some watercolours. I thought that they looked like clouds and added a few of the unicorns to the design.  The birthday sentiment is from Clearly Besotted too.  I shall link up at Seize the Birthday where the current topping is rainbow and at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes.

On this card I coloured some texture paste light pink and pasted through the Messy Rainbows stencil and a circle aperture.  Do you think it looks a bit like candyfloss?!  The unicorn is leaping towards the rainbow :)  I shall link up at AAA Cards where we have a sketch challenge:

The stencil is available in my Folksy store:

I hope you like my rainbow unicorns :)

Thank you for stopping by,

Sarah x

Autumnal Thanks

Hello!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.  I can't believe that we have arrived in September already....However it has got me in the mood for making fall and christmas cards.  Here is an autumnal card that I have made using my Forest Foliage stencil:

I pounced through the stencil with flitterglu on dark brown cardstock and used gilding flakes to bring out the design.  I distressed the edges and added some corrugated card, twine and a lovely leaf die cut from Neat and Tangled.  The sentiment is from MFT.

I shall link up at Simon's Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes and at Simon's Monday Challenge where the theme is Autumn.

This is a beautifully detailed stencil which can be used with inks, paints and pastes.  I love the effect that the gilding flakes give!  You can find it in my Folksy store.

Thank you for stopping by :)

Sarah x