Ferns and Leaves Botanical Print

Hi there.  I have made a card for the CAS Mix Up October Card Challenge which finishes on the 24th, so just about in time.  The challenge this time is to use real leaves, ferns or flowers to make a Botanical Print.  I used inks, stamping, heat embossing and gelli printing.

I got out my gelli plate and put Fossilized Amber one side, Abandoned Coral the other with some Candied Apple Distress Ink down the middle and used my brayer to blend them together, I did roller them rather too much as it ended up looking more or less one colour.   I then laid down the two fern leaves with the back of the leaves touching the plate and used a piece of stencil card anchored with some washi at the top placed over  the leaves and rubbed well to get the ink as closely around them as possible. I then pulled up the card and took the leaves away and lowered the card over it again, rubbed well and pulled the print.  I didn't get a very distinct image so I decided to press the ink over the ferns using red on one and the yellow on the other and carefully laid the leaves down again rubbing them to transfer the inks on to the print.  This did give a more interesting look, but I still wasn't happy.  I then took the leaf spray and put some Brushed Corduroy DI on to the back of it and laid it down over the ferns, and did this several times.  I did spray the leaves before pressing down on one occasion too and the look was fairly good.  I then added some Ground Espresso and repeated with that, and this really showed up much better, no added water this time.

I cut the print down and flicked a little water and also some watered down Candied Apple DI for a bit more background interest, and I blended Abandoned Coral and Ground Espresso ink around the edges to darken them, and finished with a sentiment stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then added it to my 6" square white card.  

I was hoping to get a card done for CAS Christmas but hubby and I have had dreadful colds so I haven't been very proactive on the cardmaking front, but was glad to at least get this one done.  Hopefully in a few more days it will be much better.  Hubby had it first and did a test which was fine and I developed mine a couple of days after he started his so obviously he passed it on...very kind of him..lol. 

Thank you for your visit to my blog today and I hope to see you again soon.    

I am also entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers October Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (some water used with the leaves and some splattering with diluted ink).
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - October 2021 No. 11 Anything Goes.

Pretty Birdcage

Hi everybody.  A birthday card today for a lovely friend featuring this Chocolate Baroque set called Pretty Birdcage, using the main image, and one of the smaller floral images in the background.  This is its first inking too.

I started with the background piece of white card cut to fit a 6" square card and the small floral image heat embossed on two opposite corners using WOW Bright Opaque White EP, and then I covered it with Adirondack Sunshine Yellow Ink applying it with a brush making the colour stronger in the two corners.  I then used some Fossilised Amber, Dried Marigold and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks gradually darkening the corners even more.  

I then stamped the Pretty Birdcage stamp onto a piece of white card using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and heat embossed using WOW Clear Gloss EP before getting out my Inktense Pencils to colour taking the colour from them with a waterbrush which I find for me is the easiest and most controllable way to use them.  I then fussy cut out the image and used some Tea Dye DI watercoloured round the edges and dragging the colour in a little way to make it stand out against the background I created.  Finally I decided to add the Tea Dye DI to the corners too and rubbed the ink pad around all the edges of the background to make it really stand out against the white card, and finished by adding a sentiment using Versafine Toffee Ink.

Thank you for visiting me here today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Uniko Challenge - No. 67 Anything Goes (Optional Twist: Autumn Colours).
Stamping Sensations October Challenge - Animals, Birds and Bugs.
NBUS Challenge - No. 31 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Make My Monday Challenge - No. 158 Embossing - Either.
Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge - October - Anything Goes.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - WWC326 Helen's Challenge: All About Occasions.

Woodland Creatures Coloured Sketches

Hi everyone.  Whilst we were on holiday I went into an art shop for a look round and I found an inexpensive book on how to draw woodland animals in simple steps, so I bought it and these are my first two attempts, totally drawn using the examples in the book, but I was pleased with how they turned out.  

The squirrel I did whilst I was away and I only had some inexpensive watercolour pencils, but the mouse I did just the other day with my Intense Pencils and both were using a waterbrush to take the colour from the pencil.  I did them in my sketch book and I always intend to just colour sparingly but get carried away and the paper, especially on the mouse, did warp badly otherwise I might have turned them into cards.  Anyway here they are.

 

As someone has already asked the book I bought is called How to Draw Woodland Animals in Simple Steps by Susie Hodge and is published by Search Press.  There is a whole series of them..in fact I nearly bought one on trees, but thought I would try this first.  Thanks for visiting today and I'll see you again soon.

Winter Wonderland Window

Hi everybody.  This is my card for the Rudolph Days Challenge.  I was too late for July so intended it for last month but Mo was unwell so it was cancelled.  I won the die there several months ago, and wanted the challenge to be the place I first used it.  The die is from Tutti and called Winter Wonderland Window.

I started by die cutting it twice from white and red card backing it with Stick It adhesive and cut a square of kraft card to put it on.  I then took out all the white die cut pieces and put them aside whilst I stuck the main white piece down onto the kraft card.  I then picked out all the red inner pieces..I did try to keep the whole red piece together so I could see where all the pieces went and apart from a few the adhesive backing kept it together quite well.  I have to say that the big pieces were fine to fit in but the smaller pieces were difficult to place without them dropping and disappearing on my table.  I managed pretty well with a pokey tool, but the bear's nose jumped somewhere and after a minute search I found it and stuck it down.

I mounted the kraft on to a red mat before adding it to my white card.  When I had finished I noticed that the bear's nose had disappeared and this time I could not find it..it obviously lost some stickiness when it did the disappearing act..lol.  I had to use what looked like the same piece from the white set and coloured it with a red Inktense Pencil and stuck it with glue this time so hopefully it will stay put.  

I did make this second card using the leftover red pieces but cut off the frame holding it all together leaving just the five window pieces separate and mounted on to a snippet of green card leaving spaces between.  I then mounted this onto a snippet of gold card which has an embossed pattern before attaching to my base card..a much simpler look. 

The first with the infilling does look nicer I think but I'm not sure that it is nice enough to spend so much time and effort on using this technique, so I think this will be a one-off.  I have left them both without the sentiment for now and will decide what's appropriate nearer the time.

Thanks for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers September Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (no optional twist).
The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - No. 101 Anything Christmas Goes.
Merry Little Christmas Challenge - No. 38 September Anything Christmas Goes.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop Challenge - No. 412 Where we use up snippets of paper and card etc.  (the red die cut pieces were leftover snippets from a previous card and the green and gold were also snippets)
NBUS Challenge - No. 30 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.

Summer Dream Birthday

Hi everybody.  I know it's a long time since I posted but hubby and I have been away for two weeks in a cottage in Wales and I have been sorting things out since our return.  We are having a new boiler fitted which was supposed to be happening whilst we were away and preparations had to be made before we went which took extra time.  Unfortunately we saw as soon as we returned that the boiler and parts were here but no work had been done as our plumber was unwell, and so it's being done this week.   You can imagine it is complete chaos here.   I have done some commenting but I apologise to anyone that I've missed and will visit as soon as I can.  We enjoyed the time away which was much needed and the weather was mostly good.  Although it wasn't quite like a holiday in normal times we made the best of it.

I'm showing another birthday card today using Penny Black's Summer Dream stamp quite old so not sure that you will find it now, and also using a Marianne frame die called Petra's Square, Bird and Nest which I won a long time ago and am ashamed to say have never used, mind you the trouble I had cutting it may mean that it won't come out to play again very soon...lol.
 

I started by cutting the frame and as I've said it was a difficult one.  I had to throw the first away because after a tussle with getting the pieces out it broke around one of the intricate corners and I ended up using something a little thinner and the only thing I had was Bristol Smooth watercolour card and consequently although this is one of the whitest watercolour papers it still looks a little yellow against the base card and I think I should have run it through again with the rubber mat to emphasise the pretty detail more, but perhaps I will next time, but I had lost a little patience with it by this time..lol.  I then stamped the silhouette flowers with Wilted Violet and Blueprint Sketch Distress Inks and a very litte spritzing with water to soften it a little.  I used my stamp positioner so I could go over it several times to get the right effect and I only inked part of the stamp so that it would sit well within the frame.  I finished with a sentiment heat embossed using WOW Metallic Silver Embossing Powder and matted it on to a piece of lilac card as a backing to the cut out shapes, and added it to my 6" square white card.

Before I go I would like to say thank you to two new followers - Michonne Remmers whose blog I couldn't find but if you let me know I will gladly give you a shout out, and Lesley Gillett whose blog you will find here and definitely worth a visit if you haven't seen it before.

Thank you for looking at my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 30 where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff. 
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 414 Any Occasion.
Stamping Sensations Challenge - September - Stamp of the Moment.  I have had this PB stamp for a long time but I love the beautiful stylish look of the magnolia.

Twofer Pugs

Hi everybody.  These cards are for the Twofer Card Challenge run by the lovely Darnell and the theme is Dog/Cat.  I have not been a good player of late and several times have made one card but run out of time to make the second, so this time it being the final challenge I was determined to get my cards in, albeit still rather late.  The idea of the challenge is to make two different cards for different occasions using the same stamps, stencils and/or dies.   Here are the two cards:

This first was made using this sweet pug couple and a Dotty Heart Embossing Folder by Leonie Pujol, and a set of heart dies by Sweet Dixie.  I decided to make a landscape slimline card and started by die cutting the hearts out of a snippet of white card just a little smaller than the base card saving the heart shapes.  I then embossed this aperture piece using the Dotty Heart EF running it through twice side by side to cover the long thin shape.  I then found another snippet of white card and stamped the pugs using Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink and coloured them using Fossilized Amber, Brushed Corduroy and Ground Espresso Distress Inks applied with a waterbrush and fussy cut them out.  I then blended some Dusty Concord Distress Ink round the edge of the embossed background and the two hearts.

Finally after mounting the background on to the card I inset the two hearts into the apertures and added the pugs over the hearts.  I finished by adding the sentiment onto a snippet of white card cut into a fishtail banner and stamped it using Versafine Imperial Purple Ink and added this to finish the card. 

 

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop Challenge - Where we use up our snippets of card, paper etc (I used lots of snippets of white card for the background and hearts, pugs and fishtail sentiment banner).
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add A Sentiment.

My second card is a masculine birthday card using a hexagon die set from XCut and two pugs from the above set one of which was used on the card above, also a stencil from That Special Touch called Paws for Thought.  I stamped the pugs with Versafine Vintage Sepia and coloured with Tea Dye and Pumice Stone Distress Inks and fussy cut them out.   After die cutting the seven hexagons I ink blended the four of them with Tea Dye and added the stencilling with Ground Espresso DI.  Finally I inked the other two with more of the Tea Dye but more sparingly just on the edges and added the two pugs.  Finally I added the sentiment to the remaining hexagon using the Vintage Sepia Ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder and assembled the card with the six in a circle and the sentiment in the middle.

 I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations Challenge  - August - Any Celebration.
Country View Challenges - August - Monochromatic.
Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge - No. 278 Things with Tails.
The Male Room Challenge - No. 153 Our 8th Birthday.  

 

 

 

 

 

I would just like to say a big thank you to Darnell and the team for all the hard work they have put into the Twofer Challenge, and such a clever concept thought up by the lovely Darnell, and although we understand all good things must come to an end, it will be missed!  Thank you for your visit today and I hope to see you again soon. 

Elephant and Leaves Stencilled Birthday

Hi there.  I needed a masculine birthday card and I was looking through some of my older stash and came across this Clarity Stencil of an Elephant which I got when I belonged to the Stencil Club a few years ago, and which I have never used.  It is a large stencil and Barbara gave us a couple of tutorials showing ways of using it, but I think at that time I didn't feel I was skilled enough to do anything good enough and so I put it away and forgot about it.  Now a few years later I am more adventurous so thought I would see what I could do with it.  I also used an all over leaves stencil which was part of a set from The Range.  I decided to use my Adirondack Inks for a change and chose Sunshine Yellow, Cranberry and Stonewashed.

I started with a 6" square piece of card, the same size as the stencil and using my blending tool and Sunshine Yellow ink I lightly stencilled leaves over the whole thing.  I then place the elephant stencil over the leaves stencil, deciding I would just use part of it and then stencilled Cranberry ink through it, heavier towards the outside and lighter in the centre, and with the under layer of yellow it has more of an orange hue.  I then pencilled round the outer edge of it to make it stand out and went over the line with black micron pen.  I thought it still didn't stand out enough so I pencilled all the internal lines and used the pen over those, I wouldn't say this was very accurate but worked pretty well.  I then filled in the lines with a dark brown Inktense pencil and used a waterbrush to blend it all and went round all the outside lines in the same way.  

I finished by cutting it down a bit and laid the leaves stencil back down and added some blue ink over parts of the background which turned it green, and then put the elephant stencil back and added more yellow there.  I then removed the stencils and darkened the edges using yellow with blue over it which makes it stand out on my 6" square white card and added a sentiment using Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.

Thank you for visiting me here today and I hope I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 29 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Happy Little Stampers August Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add A Sentiment.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - No. 322 All About Occasions.
The Male Room Challenge - No. 153 Our 8th Birthday (best wishes and lots more great challenges to come!)