Hello crafty friends. I’m still at home here in Tokyo, although I have ventured out to do a weekly food shop. This is not as simple as is sounds – we normally shop daily here. The baskets are small, and I get everything home on my bicycle, so it’s quite an expedition, especially if I need something big like toilet paper!

In cardmaking news, I’ve been inkblending! I’ve made two cards from the one piece of blended paper. You can blend colour onto cardstock either before or after you add the heat embossed images. If you blend first, you will get a very neat crisp white image, but you will have to wait for the ink to be VERY dry before you can do the next step. If you emboss first, you can move straight onto the ink blending, but the blending can leave the white a little less crisp, even after you wipe everything with a dry cloth.

For this card, I blended first with Paper Rose inks, then finished off the next day. I’ve always got a few cards on the go at once, or a limited time in the craft room so this often suits me, but not always. The stamp I used is called Knit Happens, and has lovely wool and knitting images. Seeing as my mum is a fabulous knitter, and my MIL farms Merino sheep, I think this is a great set!

For this first card, I made a shaker. I first cut the panel with a Stitched Rectangle die, then cut out the letters of the word MUM, which is how we spell it in Australia, and put those aside for the next card. I lined up the U in the centre first, and then cut the Ms on either side of it so that the word would be central.

I glued a piece of acetate ( old stamp packaging actually) behind the cutout and then layered two thicknesses of foam tape in a rectangle around the word, making sure I didn’t leave any small holes for the sequins to sneak out of. If I’d had some royal blue sequins I’d have added them, but I just had the paler colours so I went with that. I’m not shopping for anything at the moment, but using what I have.

The sentiments for both cards come from the Mother’s Day sentiments stamp set, and I heat embossed these in white onto black card.

This second card uses the cut out pieces from the first card. Once again, my favourite stitched rectangle makes an appearance! in fact, you have to go looking to find a card in which I don’t use them!

I love the clean and simple look of this card even more than the first one, I think! Now my only problem – Japan is not sending mail to Australia at the moment. So these are probably destined to be written, addressed, and held until I can send them!

If you are interested in seeing more of my cards, I post them all on Instagram here. Only a small number make their way to my blog. Until next time, may your days be full of colour.

Donna

Blessings,