One Layer Card...

Hi! I was very happy to receive my parcel from Altenew recently. It took more than a month to reach. But I am happy to finally have it because it brought me my very first Build-A-Flower set and the gorgeous Beautiful Day set. These have been on my wishlist for ages. I couldn't resist playing with them immediately.

One layer cards are always very challenging. I decided to try my hand at making one, using a technique that Yana Smakula recently demonstrated. You can find the original card and the video here. And here is my card.

I started with a cream card base. I love this paper as it has tiny flecks of dark colors. I masked off the edges with washi tape and then stamped my flowers with the inks from the Altenew Coffee Break mini ink pad set. Since I used the stamp positioner, I was able to get two identical flowers by simply rotating the card base. I used the largest bloom from the Beautiful Day stamp set by Altenew and used all the layers except the base layer. The sentiment is also from the same set and I stamped it with Versafine Onyx Black ink. Here is a closer look at the flower.

I stamped some of the smaller images around the flowers as well. After the stamping was done, I used the Sand Dunes ink and blended it around the edges with a makeup brush. I allowed the ink to dry a bit and then carefully peeled the washi tape away.

Here is another look at the completed card.

I really love this look. Entering this card in the following challenges:

ModSquad Challenge - Layer Me Not:
This was the challenge that inspired me to try this technique.

The Flower Challenge #35:

Designer’s Choice Challenges A719 - Try A New Technique:

Dare2BArtzy August Challenge - Anything Goes:

Love,

Nandini

Addicted To Stamps And More Challenge #277...

Hi! The new challenge is up at the Addicted To Stamps And More blog. This week the theme is 

My inspiration today is a set of cards that I made for a friend recently.

I started with a piece of plain white card stock that I die cut with the X stitch Rectangle die set by Gina Marie Designs. The stamps are from the Sweet Cakes set by Simon Says Stamp. I used a bunch of Memento dew drops ink pads for stamping.

Here is a look at the entire set.

To finish I popped up the stamped panel on some foam tape. The teeny tiny flowers were die cut with the Floral Wreath die set by Sizzix from scraps of colored paper. I added a drop of white 3D to each flower as the final touch.

I hope you are inspired by my cards to create something beautiful. Please check out the Addicted To Stamps And More blog for more inspiration and to link your creations. Looking forward to seeing your entries in our gallery.

Love,
Nandini 

Addicted To Stamps And More #261...

Hi! This week at Addicted To Stamps And More we have the easiest of challenges.

You can create anything for this challenge and link it to our gallery!

I decided to create a masculine card inspired by autumn colors.

I started with the Painted Alphas stamp set by Mudra Craft Stamps. I love the bold alphas in this set. I lined up the letters to spell the word HAPPY and stamped it a few times with Memento Tuxedo Black ink to get a good, dark impression. Lining up the Mudra alpha stamps is super easy as they are cut to align at the top and bottom.

I took out a few Memento dewdrop ink pads and stamped the circle from the Grunge Effects stamp set by Mudra around the edge. I then used the Ferns and Leaves set and stamped the images in black. I used the Simple Alphas set again by Mudra to stamp the word 'birthday'. Initially I stamped it in dark red. But changed my mind and used black. Luckily I was left with a halo of dark red around the word which I really liked. 

To finish I simple trimmed the panel to size and mounted it on a black card base.

Here is a closer look at the card.

I hope you like my card and are inspired to create something beautiful. Please do check out the ATSM blog for more amazing inspiration by my talented team mates! I am looking forward to seeing your beautiful entries in our gallery.

Entering my card in the following challenges.

Happy Little Stamper September CAS Challenge:

CSW Challenge #18 - Leaves:

Uniko Challenge #43 - Autumn/Fall with optional twist of Halloween:

Love,
Nandini

Addicted To Stamps And More #257...

Hi! Wednesdays mean a new challenge at the Addicted To Stamps And More blog. This week's challenge #257 is all about

Here is my take on this challenge.

I decided to try a wet-on-wet stamping technique as shown by Sandy Allnock that I have been meaning to try for a very long time. You can check out the original blog post with the video tutorial here. 

I started with a piece of Textured White card stock by Itsy Bitsy. I love this paper since it is a lovely bright white and thick. You can check out my review of this paper here. I can add to that review and vouch that this paper is good for watercoloring as well! For coloring I used the new Camlin Brush Pens. They have recently come out with a set of 24 pens and I am totally in love with them! At Rs. 350/- they are a steal! The colors are vibrant and mix very well.

I mounted the Hydrangea Silhouette stamp by Joy! Crafts on my stamp positioner  and used a mix of pinks, yellow, green and orange pens to stamp. After the panel was dry, I die cut it with the Double Stitched Rectangle dies by DCAM. Here is a closer look at the panel.

The sentiment is from the Many Thanks stamp and cut set by Momenta. I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I trimmed a piece of black card stock and die cut the center. After laying in my watercolor panel, I mounted the whole thing on a black card base with foam tape.

I hope you liked my card and are inspired to create something beautiful. Don't forget to check out the fabulous creations by my super talented team mates at the Addicted To Stamps And More challenge blog. You can also link your creations there.

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

#TGIFC122 Technique Challenge - Watercolor:

Happy Little Stampers August Watercolor Challenge:

Happy Little Stampers August CAS Challenge:

House of Cards August Challenge - Floral Images and/or Colors:

Love,
Nandini

Addicted To Stamps And More #255...

Hi! The Addicted To Stamps And More challenge #255 is up and this week's theme is the Photo Inspiration.

I just love this image with the gorgeous colors and shapes! I decided to try a technique that I had seen on Karen D.'s blog Snippets. I also used her instructions for using a credit card and inks to create my background. Here is my card.

I started with a piece of white card stock. I mixed some Camlin photo inks and white acrylic paint and then swiped the mixture with an old card onto the paper. I added some more swipes with the inks to darken some parts.

Once my paint was dry, I cut the paper randomly into strips and adhered theme on a piece of regular paper taking care to overlap each. I trimmed the ready panel to fit behind a frame which I cut with the Stitched Rectangle dies by Die Cuts and More. I also cut out a branch from the same white paper. This die is a recent buy from Aliexpress. Here is a closer look at the panel.

To finish I used the sentiment from the Magical Birthday stamp set by Craftyscrappers and stamped it with some purple Radiant Neon ink by Tsukineko.

I hope you like my card and are inspired to create something beautiful. You can link your creations to the Addicted To Stamps And More #255. For more inspiration do visit the Addicted To Stamps And More blog and check out the amazing creations by my fellow DT. I can promise you are in for a treat!

Entering this card in the following challenges:

CAS On Sunday Challenge #114:

Cardz 4 Galz Challenge #53 - Pretty Pastels:

Love,
Nandini

Addicted To Stamps And More #253...

Hi! The new challenge is up at the Addicted To Stamps And More blog. This week's theme is interesting.

There are two ways to interpret this theme. You can make something celebrating your favorite holiday like Diwali, Christmas, Rakshabandhan etc. Or like me you can make a vacation themed creation.

I used the Grunge Effects stamp set by Mudra Craft Stamps and Radiant Neons pigment inks by Tsukineko to stamp the backgrounds. I stamped the images and sentiment from the Bon Voyage stamp set by Craftyscrappers with Tuxedo Black ink by Memento. 

I popped up the panels on a kraft base and added a stitching line with a white gel pen. The button at the center was die cut with the Button Quartet set by My Favorite Things.

I hope you like my card and are inspired to make something beautiful. Don't forget to check out the amazing DT inspiration at the Addicted To Stamps And More blog. And do link up your holiday themed creations at our gallery here.

Linking my card to the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS Challenge #116 - Wheels:

Less Is More Challenge #339 - Use piercing on your card
I used stitched rectangle dies to add piercing.

CWS Challenge #17 - Boys to men:

Paru's Card Making Challenges August 2017 - Anything Goes:

Love,
Nandini

Make My Monday Challenge #46...

Hi! I am here with the latest challenge #46 at the Make My Monday challenge blog. This week's theme is Sugar & Spice. There are many ways to interpret this theme and I am looking forward to lots of wonderful entries in our gallery.

I went with the sweet part of the theme and created a card as inspiration.

I started with a piece of the Floral Exotica paper which is a product of Dress My Craft, the in house brand of Crafters Corner. This is the first time I used this paper and I loved the smooth texture and the lovely color of the paper. Also the paper held up very well during heat embossing and water coloring.

I used the Strips N Stripes stamp set designed by me for Craftyscrappers.

I stamped the chevron stamp twice with Versamark ink and heat embossed with Vanilla EP by Wow. I then used the Clearly Kelly mini ink pads to do a bit of watercoloring. I allowed the panel to dry completely and then trimmed it with the Double Stitched Rectangle dies by Die Cuts & More. Here is a close up of the panel.

Since my panel was very colorful, I decided to keep rest of the card simple. I used a stamp from the Let's Party set by Mudra Craft Stamps and a sentiment from an old Some Odd Girl stamp set. I stamped both on some watercolor paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink with my Stampaholic. I die cut the paper with the Double Stitched Circle dies by Die Cuts & More.

To finish I popped up the panel with some foam tape on the card base. The circle panel was also popped up, I just added a larger circle of translucent paper under it. Here is another look at my card.

I hope you like my card and are inspired to create something beautiful. I look forward to seeing your creations in out gallery. And please don't forget to check out the Make My Monday blog for more fabulous inspiration by my fellow DT.

Entering the card in the following challenges:

TIME OUT Challenge #83:
The challenge is to CASE this beautiful card by Hannelie of Desert Diva. My attention was caught by the multicolored background with the white lines and the plain flowers stamped in black.

AAA CAS Game #90 - Embossing:
I used heat embossing.

Mod Squad Challenge - Let's color:
I did water coloring with dye inks.

STAMPlorations May CAS Challenge:

Craft Stamper Magazine Make It Take It - May:

Love,
Nandini

Make My Monday Challenge #45...

Hi! It is time for another challenge at the Make My Monday blog. This week the theme is May Flowers.

I recently bought the You're My Person stamp set by Concord & 9th and I am totally in love! I have already created one card with heat embossing. Here is my second card.

I started with a panel of white card stock that I cut with the Double Stitched Rectangles die by DCAM. I simply stamped the large bouquet of flowers with Memento Tuxedo Black ink in one corner. I stamped twice with my Stampaholic to get a nice dark image. I then used a bunch of Memento dew drop inks and second generation stamping to fill in the images with very light, pastel colors. Here is a close up of the stamping.

To finish I stamped the sentiment and mounted the panel with foam tape.

I hope you like my card. Please do not forget to check out the Make My Monday blog for some fabulous inspiration by my teamies.

Love,
Nandini

Lots of Heat Embossing...

Hi! I am here with my second card for today, which is a great achievement for me since I am a very slow card maker.

I was inspired to create this card for the current challenge at the WOW! Embossing Powders blog which is favorite embossing technique and the C9 challenge which is One Layer.

I love heat embossing and use it on almost all my projects. And I love the WOW! Embossing powders since they are available in so many different colors and types. I decided to use all my opaque EPs and create a card with a black base. I mounted the large floral stamp from the You're My Person stamp set by Concord and 9th on my Stampaholic and stamped with Versamark. I then sprinkled the Pastel Blue EP, removed the EP from everywhere else except the large blooms and then heat embossed. I repeated this process with different colors of EP till the entire image was covered. I did end up with several flecks of EP on my card base. But It didn't bother me much. I rather like the look it gives the card. The sentiments are from the same set and I love their label style look. I covered rest of the base with the same stamp, using Versamark ink to get a tone on tone look. Here is a close up.

I am quite happy with the way this card turned out. It looks lovely, especially at night when the colors seem to pop up against the black background.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

C9 Challenge #8:

WOW! Embossing Powder April Challenge:
The challenge is to use a favorite technique.

CASology Week 246:

Mod Squad Challenge - Love Theme

Love,
Nandini

Addicted To Stamps And More #239...

Hi! The new challenge is up at the Addicted To Stamps And More challenge. The theme this week is

Your entry MUST be Clean and Simple. This means that clean and crisp lines, minimal or no embellishments and lots of 'white' space should be used. White space does not need to be 'white'. It can be any colour. White space is a term used for the area of your card with no stamping, embellishments etc.

Keeping these factors in mind, here is my card

I used the Lotus stamp set by Craftyscrappers to stamp the bloom. This is one of the sets I have designed and I am very happy with the way it has turned out. I used three shades of pinks from the Red Cosmos set of minis by Altenew. I first stamped with Frosty Pink to stamp the whole flower. I inked the stamp again with Coral Berry and dabbed away some of the ink with a dry paper napkin to get a gradation in color. This is a trick I learnt from Jennifer McGuire. I repeated the process with Ruby Red ink. The end result is a lovely blending of inks. I did the same for the leaves with the Frayed Leaf and Forest Glades inks from the Green Fields mini ink cube set. Needless to say, this couldn't have been possible without my trusty Stampaholic!

I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with Ranger's Gold EP. I then covered the paper with Frosty Pink ink. I also stamped and heat embossed the outline images from the Lotus set with gold EP. I trimmed both the pieces, glued them together and then die cut them with a Nellie Snellen rectangular die.

To finish I mounted the panel with foam tape on a white card base.

I hope you like my card and are inspired to create something beautiful. Please do link your creations to the Addicted To Stamps And More challenge blog here. And don't forget to visit my other team mates. I assure you they have really awesome inspiration in store for you.

I am linking this card to the following challenges.

Stamplorations April CAS Challenge:

Craftsneed April Challenge - CAS

HLS April CAS Challenge:

Love,

Nandini

Addicted to Stamps And More #235...

Hi! We have a gorgeous picture as inspiration for this week's photo challenge at Addicted To Stamps And More Challenge blog.

Isn't it beautiful? Here is my card inspired by the lovely butterfly and the shades of blue.

I started with a panel of watercolor paper. The stamp I used is from the Mindscapes set by Inkadinkado. I smooshed various shades of blue distress inks on the stamp, lightly spritzed it with water and then stamped on my panel. I quickly covered the stamped area with Ranger's Holographic EP and heat set to get a lovely shimmer effect.

The sentiment is from the Geometrical Patterns stamp set by Craftscrappers which has been designed by me. This is the very first set I designed and I am very proud to see it action! Here is a closer look at the panel.

I hope you are inspired by my card to create something beautiful. Please also check out the amazing inspiration on the Addicted To Stamps And More Challenge blog by my fellow DT. I can promise you will be dazzled!

Love,
Nandini

Addicted to Stamps and More #231...

Hi! The new challenge #231 is up at the Addicted to Stamps and More and this is the week for

Which means you can go wild and create anything that your heart desires!

I decided to go way out of the box and create something that has been on my mind for a long, long time. 

My brand new visiting cards, with a special artistic touch! A huge thanks to my husband who designed and printed the cards for me. And an equally large thanks to my Stampaholic which enabled me to stamp 100 cards in well under two hours. I used the Altenew Painted Flowers stamp set and a mix of Altenew and Memento dew drop ink pads for the stamping.

Here is a closer look at one of the cards.

I hope you are inspired to create something beautiful. Please do visit the challenge blog to link up your creations and also check out the fabulous inspiration by my fellow DT.

Love,
Nandini