Silhouette Tree with Oak Leaves

Hi everyone.  I have a masculine card to show today, another card I have had to make in a bit of a hurry!  I used my distress ink to make a watercolour background, an XCut die for the shape and a tree die which one of my lovely crafting friends sent me and which is seeing its first outing.  You know who you are and thank you as it is so sweet and pretty!  I  have in mind amongst others to enter the CAS Watercolour Challenge and this month's subject is Fall Leaves, and they are celebrating their 1st Birthday so many congratulations to Loll and Bonnie who have made this and the CAS Mix Up Challenge such fun, and there are two lovely prizes up for grabs too.

I found a snippet of white card and at first had in mind to use an ink splat stencil to make some background shapes very close together, applying it with blending foam and spritzing with some water to spread the ink to make an interesting shape, which I did.  Well, this was not very successful as the ink didn't move that much because I think the card was not really watercolour card, bad choice!... so I decided to add ink to my glass mat, spritz and add more of the colours.  I used Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Spiced Marmalade and Mowed Lawn.  There was a bit of wrinkling which the photo highlights rather, but in real life it isn't so noticable.

I had already cut the tree from a piece of thickish copy type paper, just to see what it looked like, and this had been sitting on my table for a while.  So instead of wasting it I decided to colour it with Black Soot Distress Ink and when dry coated it with Versamark Ink and used WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder, and I did this twice to build up the shine and make it stronger.  I then die cut the XCut Ornate Frame, the largest die in the set.  I decided to flip the topper for added interest and adhered the tree to it.  I then added the sentiment using Black Archival Ink.

I then found another snippet of white card and stamped two oak leaves again using Black Archival Ink and a Hobby Art set called Falling Leaves.  I then coloured with my Distress Inks in Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Walnut Stain, Fired Brick and Black Soot using a waterbrush.  I did make the colours softer by adding quite a bit of water to go with the more subdued colours in the topper.

I finished the card by adding the frame to a white 6" square base card and added the leaves to one side and adhered them with Pinflair Glue Gel. 

About half way through this card I really was wondering if I should just start again, but once I start something I hate to give up and admit defeat so am inclined to battle on...lol.  I think this was worth sticking with.

Before I go I have to say thank you to a new follower called Henry who doesn't seem to have a blog, but if I am wrong and you do, let me know and I will give you a shout out.  

Thank you for dropping by today and I'll be back soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

CAS Watercolour October Challenge and 1st Birthday Celebration - Fall Leaves.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 303/4 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.
Dies R Us Challenge - No. 83 Leaves.
Happy Litttle Stampers October Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (no twist).
Happy Little Stampers October Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.
Uniko Challenge - No. 43 Autumn/Fall (no twist).

Fallen Leaf

Hi all.  One of our good friends has a birthday and as Autumn is truly here now I decided to do a card with that topic in mind.  I used a template for the leaf and one of the stencils I have from The Range with this great all over leaf pattern.

I started with the leaf.  I found a freebie outline leaf on line and sized it to fit nicely on my 7" square white base card.  I printed it on to a piece of copy paper and cut it out and then added the inks through it on to a piece of white card.   I used the following colours of Distress Inks: Mowed Lawn, Walnut Stain, Black Soot, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Mustard Seed.  I used some blending foam to apply it and started with a  light layer of the yellow and then the green over the top I then put some orange and red but keeping the centre green, followed by the brown and black around the edges and added several dark patches to other areas, and also on the stem.  I then fussy cut the leaf and added a bit more of the darker colours to blend in the white cut edges, and also some Pebeo copper gilding wax.  I also added a few white veins to the leaf with a sand eraser which was gifted to me by a lovely crafty friend.  It is very new and has a nice thin edge to it, so I ran it up and down the leaf to erase a little of the ink, and it worked beautifully.

Then on to the background made using a 6" square piece of white card.  Using the leaf stencil I ran it through my embossing machine to dry emboss, which it did reasonably well considering the stencil is very thin.  I then added a bit of the Mustard Seed ink on to it but decided it needed something more interesting, so added some of the copper gilding wax to highlight the pattern of the leaves and a bit more around the edges too, and then buffed it to make it shine and to remove any of the excess.

I adhered this background to the card and then added the leaf using some Pinflair Glue Gel to give it a but more dimension, and then added the die cut sentiment using a piece of card which I had liberally covered with the gilding wax, buffed and backed with Stick It adhesive.

Thank you for looking at my blog today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - Week 436 Trees and Leaves.
Country View October Challenge - Mixed Media with Autumnal Hues.
Seize the Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes Birthday. (I have not used the optional twist)
Uniko Challenge - No. 43 Autumn/Fall. (no twist)

Silhouette Rose

Hi there everyone.  This is a card for a friend whose birthday I very nearly forgot so this was a bit last minute.  I used a stencil from a set I bought at The Range and which is having it's first outing, and used my Brushos with it.  This means I can enter my second card over at Darnell's Challenge where we have to use our NBUS, this means Never Before Used Schtuff, which I'm sure we all have ample supplies of.

I thought I would try the monoprint technique which involves inking up the stencil itself, spritzing it with water and laying over a piece of card so that in this particular instance the the rose shape would remain white whilst the rest would be inked.  I tried this using and Ultramarine colour Brusho powder and this rose stencil, and then spritzed it with water, but unfortunately as this is quite a thin stencil the ink crept under quite a bit and the image wasn't terribly clear.  I then did the same steps again after drying it, but it made it worse rather then better.  I then thought I would add some colour to the rose itself by shaking the Brushos through the stencil before spritzing, but it didn't look that great.  After drying it I turned the card over and the colours from the other side had bled throuth and given it quite a pretty look, so I thought this time I would just use the ink straight from the pad through the stencil to give it the look of a silhouette, using Memento Teal Zeal but I didn't like the finished colour, and adding water didn't improve it.

My last shot was to try using a  Black Micron Pen through the stencil.  Eureka! it looked better!  I decided to leave it at that and this is the finished look.  The black pen could have been smoother but with time running out I was not going to start again.

I hope you managed to follow all that without going to sleep....lol.  I cut this out using a Crealies Nesting Die XXL No. 44 with dots, and then I cut the blue layer using the same set of dies, the largest die.  I then dry embossed it using a Sheena Douglass Textures Embossing Folder Distress.

I finished the card by layering it up and cutting the white base card down to leave a small margin all the way round.  I then die cut the sentiment twice, once from white card and once from blue and both backed with Stick It adhesive.  I then layered the blue over the white and attached it to the card which helped it to stand out better from the background.

Thank you for taking a look today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge No. 12 - Anything Goes with NBUS.  (The stencil is my NBUS item) 
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 301/302 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.  (I have used snippets of white and blue card and a further small piece of blue for the sentiment)
Dies R Is Challenge No. 82 - Life's Events. 
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes Birthday.

Butterfly Medley

Hi there everybody.  This is a card full of butterflies.  I used a butterfly stencil in the background and then added a die cut butterfly as the focal point.

The starting point was the die cut butterfly using a NBUS die of no special make which I bought at The Range, and I used a leftover piece of card on which I had used my Brushos, a turquoise and dark red colour mainly.

I used a yellow and blue acrylic paint mixed on the gelli plate with a brayer to get a bluey green and left it to dry on the plate.  I then added the butterfly stencil over the top, another of the stencils I bought from The Range a while ago, and one which I have never used before.  I mixed a slightly bluer mix of the yellow and blue and brayered over the stencil and lifted that away to reveal the blue butterflies, and again left it to dry.  I then got my piece of card ready for the print and covered the whole thing with a creamy yellow paint and immediately laid the card on top, rubbed it well and pulled the print.  The idea is that the cream paint being wet soaks into the other layers of dry paint which lifts it all on to the piece of card so the butterflies should be visible.

Well this is where it went a little wrong as the butterflies were very faint, so I took a wet brush and managed to lift some of the cream colour off with a piece of kitchen towel to reveal more of the blue of the butterflies underneath.  It did lift more paint away than I wanted in places but it worked quite well.

I then took a NBUS stencil with dots, again from The Range, and I added some dots using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink which just makes the butterflies a bit more interesting.  I also blended some around the edges too.

I die cut a mat using an XCut nesting die set called Parenthesis.   I then dry embossed this mat with the dots stencil and inked with the Peacock Feathers DI around the edge.  The dots are not that easy to see in the photo I'm afraid.

I coloured another piece of card with more Peacock Feathers DI and die cut the sentiment.  I then layered it up and added the sentiment.

As this consists of nearly all NBUS, i.e. never before used schtuff, I am entering Darnell's NBUS Challenge No. 12 where the theme is Anything Goes with NBUS.  

Thank you for looking at my blog today and I'll be back soon.

I am also entering the following challenge:

Happy Little Stampers September Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.
Allsorts Challenge Week 434 - Things With Wings.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Brushos Anniversary

Hi everyone.  This is a scheduled post as I am too busy to craft this week, but hope to keep an eye on what is going on though.  This is a card I made a while ago but haven't got round to showing.

I love my Brushos and here is another card using them.  I made a panel using Brilliant Red, Scarlet, Orange, Turquoise and Purple which I thought would work well for an anniversary card.

I cut a strip and dry embossed it with a Leonie Pujol embossing folder called Dotty Heart, but you have to look quite hard to see the pattern, but it does add some texture.  I then cut a heart using another piece of the panel using a set of Sue Wilson dies called Heart of Hearts, the second largest die and then I cut the heart shape out of the strip using the largest die.

I finished by adhering the strip and heart to the 6" square card and I stamped the sentiment using Versafine Majestic Blue ink.

Thank you for taking a look today and I hope to see you again soon.

 

Landscape with Silhouette

Hi everybody.  I have a friend's birthday coming up and I usually end up doing a pretty flower or two, but this time I decided to use this silhouette stamp from Chocolate Baroque called Baroque Meadow.  I was going to do just a loose wash to roughly represent sky and greenery, but as quite often happens I get carried away and end up not knowing when to stop....lol, and it turns into a full scale much more detailed background.

I started with a piece of white card about 6" square and stamped the Baroque Meadow silhouette using Versafine Majestic Blue ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.

I have some new Derwent Art Bars, just a small set of a dozen colours, which I got in a sale, and I am quite happy with them.  You can take them straight to the card like pencils and the more you apply the more vivid the colour when water is added, and you can move it around with a brush, but I nearly always use just a waterbrush.   You can also just take the colour straight on to the waterbrush from the bar and then you get a softer finish, and the same thing applies when mixing, I usually brush the colours on to my glass mat and then mix together.

I applied the main colours for sky and grass, i.e. a couple of blues and a yellow and green, by using like a pencil, and then I just washed  it across the card.  I then bleached bits of the sky with some water and lifted it with a piece of kitchen towel, and added some of the peachy shade taking the colour on to the waterbrush straight from the bar.  I then decided to have some distant foliage and trees for which I used some green mixed with brown and black, and then behind that I decided to add some hills and I introduced some more blue and pinky purple for them.  I then added some more darker tones in the foreground with green and brown and a little more of the peach in the middle distance.

I die cut the scene with a stitched square die using a set from The Works and then with the largest size die cut the dark green layer behind.

Finally I used some repositionable adhesive to place the topper before sticking it permanently, so I could stamp the sentiment in the right place.  This was stamped using the same Majestic Blue heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I then mounted this on to an approximately 6" square white card.  I then decided to add the three little birds and debated whether to use a micron pen or the art bar and a little water.  I didn't want them to be too distinct as they are very distant but looking again they are rather smudgy, so perhaps the pen would have worked better.  I hope I haven't bored you all to tears by going into quite a lot of detail, but I understand if you felt you had to skip to the end, or cut to the chase, or whatever...lol. 

Thank you for visiting today.  I have been blogging for four years now, in fact my first post was on the 11th September 2013, and I have just reach 50,000 page views which is very pleasing.  I appreciate every single person who takes the time to come and visit me and hopefully leave a comment if they have time.  I enjoy every minute of it and hope to be able to do this for a long time to come, and that we can continue to make the journey together.

I am entering the following challenges:

CAS Watercolour September Challenge - Silhouette. 
CAS Mix Up September Challenge - Watercolour Wash.  (As well as the stamping and watercolour wash I have used die cutting and heat embossing)
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Clean and Simple.
Artistic Stamper September Creative Challenge - Take a little Colour.
Happy Little Stampers CAS September Challenge - Silhouette.
Addicted to Stamps and More - Clean and Simple.
The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge - run by Kathy Racoosin it aims to get people to colour something every day for the whole month, or as often as you can.  In my case I will probably not have time to do something every day, but hopefully a few times during the month.

I do find it hard sometimes, even when reading the rules, to know whether something is clean and simple enough for a particular challenge.  I have added a mat but apart from that there are no extra embellishments and there is some white space, so hope this is OK for those challenges.

Looking Good

Hi there.  This is my first forray into cardmaking since I had my surgery and I don't know why but when you've had a break it does seem harder to get going again.  I needed a card for a birthday coming up shortly so here it is.  I used a NBUS set of stamps by Woodware called Looking Good which isn't readily available at the moment.

I started by die cutting a stitched square using a snippet of white card.  I then stamped and heat embossed the three largest of the stamps using Versafine Majestic Blue ink and WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.

I then coloured the background with Ultramarine and Leaf Green Brushos.  I sprinkled the colours on to my glass mat and spritzed with water and laid the card over it.  I did each colour separately and then dried before applying the next.  As I wanted a bit more blue I added  more colour by sprinkling straight on to the card and again spritzing with water.  It still didn't seem to be quite right so I used a dark blue and light green Lyra Aqua Marker and in the same way applied them to the mat, spritzed and then applied the card to it.   Although I dried each application of colour before adding more the card stretched somewhat and creased a bit but I decided to go with it.  I coloured the images using the two marker colours, i.e. blue on the tie, trousers and shoes, and the green on the shirt and socks, but it is quite subtle as I used the ink with my waterbrush.

I finished the card by layering it up on to a royal blue colour card and added the sentiment using the Versafine Majestic Blue and again heat embossed with the Clear Gloss EP.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Less is More Challenge - Lime Green/Royal Blue.  (I hope there's enough white space).
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 296/297 where we use up our snippets of card, paper etc.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Stamp It.  (I am so excited and pleased to be included in the Top 5 Designer Spotlight)
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It.
Artistic Stamper September Challenge  - Take a Little Colour.
WOW Embossing Powder September Challenge - Resist Technique.