Guest Designer Sarah Gray Part 2

Hello, Sarah from Funky Fossil Designs here again.  I am so pleased to have the chance to share a couple more of my cards inspired by the fabulous Create A Smile stamps.  This time I have used Eggstraordinary Egghunt as we are just a few days away from Easter.  However, I am sure that I will be using these cute characters all year round 

First up is the cute chick:

    

 

I wanted to use spring pastels to give my card a fresh look.

The background was created by putting a Simon Says stencil through my die cutting machine to give it some texture.  With the stencil still in place I inked over with Tumbled Glass to highlight the circle design.  I stamped the chick in light grey and watercoloured with distress inks, creating a light blue shadow around it.  I layered the die cut circles up and combined with the sentiment.  The sentiments in this set are great for adding a bit of colour and ‘eggstraordinary’ is combined with a die cut from Simon Says.

There is quite a lot on this card but using a repeating element like the circle ties the design together.

Next I have a bright, fun easter card:

 

I wanted to try out paper piecing with this fun bunny.

The rabbit was stamped several times on patterned paper and I cut out the ears and belly from the pink paper.  I also die cut a polaroid frame (Lawn Fawn) and used a sunburst patterned paper inside the frame.  I partially inked the frame to give it a bit of definition.  I die cut and adhered a happy sentiment (Hero Arts) at the top.

I love patterned paper but often find it hard to incorporate in to my card designs.  Using it in a contained way through paper piecing means you can combine patterns without losing that lovely white space!

Christine’s great stamp designs provide so many options for fun and happy cards – I love working with them!  That’s it from me – I hope that you have a great Easter 

Sarah x

Guest Designer Sarah Gray Part 1

Hi everyone, it's Christine!

First of all - I have to say a HUGE sorry! I've been missing post and messing up a little.

I had two theatre shows with kids and teenagers last week (I was responsible for that whole project and we had rehearsals for 5 months, so it was pretty exciting - and so so time consuming at the end!) However, this was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it - I just couldn't make up the time to post because I went to work as soon as I woke up and came back late, falling asleep kind of instantly ;)

After that project was finished I got sick. Dam-dam..... Life happens.

So that's why I also have to say a super big sorry to Sarah Gray who was meant to be our MARCH Guest Designer. (Uhm... where has march gone?) 

So please welcome her with an enormous applause - she deserves it!

.....

Hello, Sarah here from Funky Fossil Designs. 

 I am so excited to be a Guest Designer over at Create A Smile.  I have been a huge fan of Christine's fun designs since the beginning and I have built up quite a collection!  I am looking forward to the arrival of my March release stamps and in the meantime I have made a few cards featuring a little cutie from the Monster Party set. 

 

I made 'before' and 'after' cards.  Here is the before version:

 

 

I just love this sweet furball and decided to stamp and mask him lots of times to create a pyramid in a cheerleader style! 

 I coloured the little monsters in with my Chameleon Pens.  I stamped the flag that comes with the set at the top and cut out the pennant part for a bit of extra dimension.  The central panel is popped up and there are two strips of washi tape at each side.

 

Now, are you ready for the after card?

As I was stamping up my cheerleader formation I started thinking about the little furballs collapsing in to a heap and made a second version where they are all topsy turvey.  

The same technique applied – cutting out lots of furballs with sticky notes (several at a time) and masking them to build up the picture.  This time I twisted them around so they were at all sorts of angles depending on how they have fallen.  I finished this simple card with a lovely sentiment from the Botanical Love set.  Have you seen the beautiful flowers on that set?  Another of my favourites.

 

My tip would be not to forget the little guys – just one small stamp from a set can become the focal point of your card through repeat stamping and masking.

 

I hope you like my colourful and cute monster cards – they made me smile 

 

Sarah x