My guest blog on the Craftwork Cards website ❤

November 20, 2016April 16, 2017 | Elisabeth Hogarth Designs

Last week my favourite crafting company launched a new collection which included the Stamp It 2 polymer stamps, distress inked printed papers and reveal it papers and toppers.

This set makes you arty! I played with distress inks, spectrum noir sparkle pens and gilding inks. The best of these were the Tim Holtz distress inks. Due to the coating of these reveal it cards you can ink them with your favourite colours and a glorious pattern or design appears.

On this card I inked the topper with yellows and orange before buffing it up with kitchen roll paper. The distress inked background was also edged with yellow. I then added another patterned strip of reveal it card which was inked in yellow and green. The ribbon was wrapped around the paper before I attached it to the card. The bow was then attached afterwards and finished with a glitzy gem.

I will be honest. I worked out a better and simpler way of creating this card as I made it so that’s the way I will share !

Using a reveal patterned sheet blend in shades of blue, yellow and green. Then with a permanent black ink pad and the beautiful stamp it 1 floral stamps ink up your design. Then cut the picture into 4 squares. ( I actually printed this card up one by one. I told myself that I was developing my design) You can do it the better way though. Layer up each mini square and then add to another distress background.

I was beginning to get the hang of using the blending tool to add shades of colour so repeated this technique to colour the middle topper. To colour the bolder band I put the ink stamp into the card. When you buff the card the ink will smudge but keep going and the white design will show through. To keep the floral design going I used two of the flower stamps from Stamp It 2 stamps with two matching inks to create the card background before layering up the papers and topper. The flowers come with the kit. I just used the stamps to ink them up

This one is my favourite because I became bolder with the use of colour. The red is vibrant and really makes the card pop. This time I inked the topper with yellow, orange and red. Another band of bright yellow was inked onto a matching strip along with a yellow ribbon which was laid flat with tape before attaching the bow.

Now I know how to use these reveal it’s I will need to buy more colours otherwise all my cards will be orange and purple. This card has another topper inked up in shades of yellow. The backing paper was then inked up in shades of orange. I had some scraps of reveal it left over and so I punched flowers into them before inking up with orange again. I then dotted them around the main part of the card.

I hope I have inspired you to play with this beautiful card kit from Craftwork Cards and enjoy

Much love

x Elisabeth x

Tags, stamps, bits and bobs

November 15, 2016April 17, 2017 | Elisabeth Hogarth Designs

Hello All

I have decided that I am a far better crafter than a computer boffin as it has taken me far too long to transfer my blog to here but hey I’ve done it and here I am again!

I wanted to use the Craftwork Cards tags from their Chinoiserie and Antiqued collections. They are really rather lovely and lend themselves to botanical vintage style designs. For this particular tag you will need the items (as shown in the photo above. Any bits and bobs will do though. I particularly like the stamps from CWC new range Birds and Blooms kit as you can use them in layers or on their own.

Here are the tags and I have selected one that has a blank centre part. Each design though allows you to think of other ways of designing with them.

If like me, you have a collection of washi tapes you can incorporate them into your tag design. If you need to cut off the surplus tape, turn the tag over and cut from the back as it is far easier and gives a neater finish.

There are so many toppers in the Birds and Blooms kit that you can afford to try cutting into them. For this tag I used a rectangular fluted die just to cut down the size of the picture. I then added some ink to my mat before blending it around the sides of the newly cut topper. This was to tie in the colour to the tag.

If you want to add a ribbon or a piece of lace then I would suggest you use the red tape (extra sticky double sided tape). Again cut from the back as you can see what you are doing and it gives you a neater finish. On another tag I even inked up the lace with momento ink which worked perfectly.

Although the flower on the original topper was very pretty, I decided to tone it down a little so I stamped the matching flower stamp in a brown tone. Once cut out I simply added it to the tag on top of the original design.

Using the same ink as I used for the flower stamp I printed and cut out two sentimenents which read special friend. To keep the vintage tones I stamped onto a pale printed pink bit of paper (thats why its always work keeping a box of offcuts ).

To finish the card off I used a flower hand punch with another scrap of script paper. I curved the petals up with a ball tool and finished them off with a tiny pearl drop.

To give the tag a touch of luxury I used two tones of ribbon. I measured them to the same length and looped them together. The ends were poked through the hole of the tag and pulled over the top of the tag before pushing back through the loops. Pull them gently and you have a neat knot. I then cut the ends into a fish tail but thats up to you.