Friday, March 24, 2017

I HAVE MOVED!


Hello everyone,

Thanks for visiting my blog. I have moved from here to another place. My new blog is called Handmadebyg3.com 

It is still in the set up stage. I am new to self hosting stuff and learning my way into it. Any help from anyone is gold to me right now. My new blog is basic and changing at the moment. So please bear with me. Hoping all will be good soon.

Thanks for your patience. Make sure you follow my new blog.

My blog signature

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Adding colour and texture to your cards. Photo Heavy!

Oh Hi everyone,

Hope you are looking forward to your weekend or already enjoying your Saturday. I shared with you on my social media the panels I created using the new distress oxide inks. They are so pretty I will tell you. The oxide chalky look and feel is amazing. I played with the inks an entire afternoon.

One of the techniques I tried was the traditional Tim's technique of applying inks to the mat, spritzing with water and smooshing the watercolour panel on it. Then I sprayed more water and heat set. I repeated this process to add layers. I love this technique. But I felt I did not get the intense colours on this technique and also I kind didn't have control over the spatters, colours and the oxidation of the inks. I like bright colours, love spatters and also like to have a bit of control on what I am doing. So instead, I sponged the inks on the watercolour panel randomly first. This gives me control of how intense the colour I like and where on the paper. Hope this makes sense. Then I spattered clean water in small drops first, heat set them and then added more water in puddles, heat set.... repeated this process until I was happy. I had control over where I wanted the oxidation and keeping intense colours in some places to give a nice variation to the background.


The panel on the far left is using the traditional technique and the middle and right panels are using sponging and spatter technique. You can see the difference. I have used the texture side of the Tim Holtz distress watercolor paper. This is one way to add texture and of course you have the spatters and layers to add texture.  You can use them as is for a background as they are beautiful. I die cut these using Simon Says Stamp Tropical Leaves die set to die cut the panel out. I made a set of four cards. Two using white as the base and two using kraft as the base. Here they are.

You are the sweetest card1

I actually made another colourful panel similar to the centre panel and die cut lots of these tropical leaves. For this card, I die cut a white panel using one of the rectangle dies from Infinity rectangle die set from HA. I adhered the die cut randomly on the panel, trimmed off the excess, adhered the panel to the white card base using foam adhesives. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Sweet Cakes stamp set. I added some sequins to finish the card. Here is a closeup.

You are the sweetest closeup

Second card the panel is larger than the first card. The process is the same. The sentiment is from Friendly Flowers stamp set. The Distress Oxide ink colours I have used are Broken China, Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick

Thinking of you card

Here is the closeup of the card.

Thinking of you closeup

I used the other two panels I created using distress oxide inks on kraft base as the colours were muted.

keep Smiling card1

This Distress Oxide panel was created using the traditional technique I mentioned above. You can see in the closeup the layers of colours, some colours blended over the other especially the areas of green since I used Broken China and Fossilized Amber distress oxide inks only. This technique will be great for backgrounds. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Thinking of You stamp set.

Keep Smiling closeup

On this panel below, I have used Distress Oxides Peeled Paint, Fired Brick and Fossilized Amber. I sponged them randomly on Tim Holtz distress watercolor paper, spatter water and heat set. Repeated the process many times till I was happy with the result. The die cut the panel using Tropical leaves dies from Simon Says Stamp. Same process as the previous cards.

You matter very much card1

The sentiment is from Friendly Flowers stamp set also from Simon Says Stamp.

You matter very much closeup

Here are supplies I used to make these cards.



Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Have a lovely weekend.

My blog signature

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Simon Says A Bit O' Green!

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Feminine Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.
We will be back soon with the name of the lucky winner of the $50 Voucher
This week the challenge is to use a

Bit O’ Green 

In honour of St Patricks day on 17th March
This week we are showcasing Taylored Expressions Products this week. You don’t have to use them for the challenge but if you have them we would love to see them used.
As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store.


There are all the colours of the rainbow on my card along with a bit of green. I followed the challenge title to the T!  Taylored Expressions dies are one of my favourite. They are unique and you can combine their dies to create a scene as they all coordinate well with each other. That is what I have done with my card.
SSS A bit of Green!
I have used On the Line Beach die set along with Little Bits Adirondack Chair, Little Bits: Sun and Clouds and Skinny Mini Borders Spring dies to create my scene. And to add colours to my elements, I have used the new Distress Oxide inks.

For my background, I sponged Fossilzed Amber, Broken China and Faded Jeans distress oxide inks,  added water spatter and heat set to get that chalky look to the oxide. On an another bristol paper, I sponged Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo distress oxide inks, spattered with water, heat set before using the On the line Beach die to die cut the palm trees. I also die cut four of the stitched detail leaves of the palm tree which I layered one behind and one on top of the base trees. I adhered this on the background using foam adhesives.

I similarly repeated the process of distress inks to die cut all the other elements for the card. Only the clouds don't have any colour on them. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Pool Play stamp set stamped using black ink and MISTI. Finally the card is embellished with Snow Flurries sequins.

Here are couple of closeups photos of the card.

SSS A bit of Green closeup


SSS A Bit of Green closeup3

So now it’s YOUR turn.  Happy Crafting
Do you use Instagram ?  If so please add  #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there too !
There are fabulous Give Aways and inspiration from fabulous designers on a daily basis over on the Simon Says Stamp Blog , if you haven’t subscribed by email you may want to so you don’t miss out

Simon Says Stamp
You have until Wed  8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in
New creations only, please don’t link projects published before the start of the challenge, Only 5 new creations will be eligible in the prize draw
Card Supplies:




Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

My blog signature

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Hip Hip Meh.....


Hey everyone,

A  quick post sharing a Grouchy Grumpling card using the new Grouchy Grumplings 2 stamp set from Taylored Expressions.



GAYATRIGrouchygrumplings2TUE1

I coloured the hippo from Grouchy Grumplings 2 stamp set using copic markers and die cut the image using the coordinating die. For the background I sponged the background stitched rectangle panel with distress inks Ripe Persimmon, Fossilized Amber and Candied Apple. I stamped the star background from Matchy Backgrounds stamp set using Candied Apple distress ink. The image is adhered using foam adhesive on the left side of the panel. One sentiment is heat embossed on Poppy Seed strip of cardstock and the second sentiment is black heat embossed below the focal panel. The card is embellished with Oreo enamel shapes from Taylored Expressions. Here is  a closeup of the card.

GAYATRIgrouchygrumplingscloseupTUE

All the supplies used to make this card are listed below for you. All the new release products are available for purchase from Taylored Expressions store.

Card Supplies:




Thanks for stopping by my blog today.
My blog signature