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 from a set by The Range and then used the largest size stitched die to 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.

Hearts and Flourishes Anniversary

Hi everybody.  Thank you so much for all the good wishes I have received regarding my gall bladder surgery, and just a quick update to say I am doing well and feeling much less sore and am just pleased, after having to wait quite a time, to just get it over with, so hopefully I can get back to normal.   I am hoping to get back to cardmaking soon, but for now this is a card I made a little while ago but haven't got around to showing yet.  It's another anniversary card I'm afraid, but anyway here it is.

I wanted two different sized hearts and unfortunately I don't have a decent set of nesting hearts so I used a couple of sets.  One was from the Sue Wilson Heart of Hearts set, the largest of the two hearts, and the other was from a set of Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Hearts dies, the larger of the two straight edged hearts.  I then cut the two flourishes from another piece of white card.  These are also from a set of Sue Wilson dies called Noel Star.

I cut the two hearts from the Brusho coloured panel and then cut two of the flourishes from another piece of white card.  I decided to use a NBUS stamp from Papermania called Postmark, and I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it with WOW Silver Metallic Embossing Powder straight on to the 6" square white base card.  I then layered the hearts and flourishes and added a sentiment again using the Versamark and the Silver EP.

Thank you for stopping here today and I'll be back soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers August Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.  (I have only made it by a whisker so apologies to Kylie)
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Hedgies Anniversary

Hi there everyone.   I was lucky enough to win some Penny Black stamps recently and this is the first outing of these cute hedgies, and just perfect for an anniversary card.  This is called The Park Bench Affair and I adore those two sweet ladybirds in the foreground too.  I'm not sure about it's availability over here though.  I also used a freebie embossing folder.

I stamped the image on to a snippet of white card using Versafine Smokey Gray Ink and then heat set it using WOW Clear Gloss Embosing Powder.  I decided to colour it with my Lyra Aqua Brush Duo Pens.  I scribbled them on to my glass mat and picked the ink up with a waterbrush.  When dry I die cut the image with a 4" square stitched die and stamped the sentiment in my Misti using Versamark ink and heat set with WOW Metallic Silver EP.

I made the background using a selection of Brushos which were Leaf Green, Emerald Green, Lemon, Scarlet Red and Brilliant Red.   These colours echo those on the topper.  I sprinkled the colours randomly over the snippet of white card and then spritzed with water.  When it was dry I embossed using a freebie folder which came with a magazine some time ago. 

I finished by adhering the background to the 6" square white base card and before adding the topper I backed it with some fun foam to give it some dimension.

I am running out of time to enter one or two more challenges that I would have loved to have entered this month, because at long last I am having my gall bladder surgery on Friday and so for a while I probably won't feel like making cards, although it is keyhole surgery so recovery time will be quicker.  I will maybe schedule a post or two as I do have some cards which I have made over the last few weeks but haven't got around to showing here.  I will also try to keep up with my commenting and hopefully cardmaking will be resumed fairly shortly.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 295/296 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.
Penny Black and More Challenge - All Creatures Great and Small.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add a Sentiment.
Fashionable Stamping Challenge - No. 126 Use your Inks Anyway You Like.
Stamping Sensations Challenge - August Anything Goes.

Flight Path

Hi everybody.  I have another masculine birthday coming up and the Less is More Challenge this week is entitled Vehicle, and it is also a one layer card week, so I thought I would combine the two and this is what I came up with.  I used a NBUS set of stamps by Sheena Douglass called Street Life, and the map is from Indigoblu.  

I stamped the aeroplane using Black Archival Ink and heat set it with WOW Clear Embossing Powder.  I then used Pebeo Masking Fluid over the white highlights on the plane and stamped the map with Versafine Smokey Gray Ink.  I didn't stamp the whole of the map as I wanted it to fade out at the edges.

Making sure it was thoroughly dry I then used my Lyra Aqua Markers and some glycerin to colour the map.  This is a new to me technique which entails scribbling some of the colour on to a blending mat or glass mat etc. and picking some of the glycerin up on a blending tool or blending foam, then picking up the colour and blending it on to the surface.  I used a couple of blues together and a little orange round the edges.  I kept the orange pale as I wanted it to fade out, and added what was left of the blue on the blending foam in a circular motion round the scene.  I then removed the masking fluid from the plane and took the edge off the white with a little more of the blue.

I finished by stamping the sentiment using Black Archival Ink and again heat set it with the Clear Gloss EP.

I did have a sudden panic as I had thought the challenge was Transport, but on looking again I realised it was Vehicle, but the dictionary did call an aeroplane a vehicle so I think this will be OK.

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

I am also entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add a Sentiment.
Addicted to CAS - One Layer Card.
CAS on Sunday - No. 114 Birthday.
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes.

 

Balloons Overhead

Hi there everyone.  I have a male birthday coming up so balloons sprang to mind, I think because it is the time of year when they have the Balloon Fiesta in Bristol.  We went to it a few years ago but that particular day it was rather too windy so not a lot happened.  I have some fairly new stamp sets with some nice scenes by Sheena Douglass and this one is called Looking Up.  I have already used one which has a boat, and there is one with a bridge, and this one has a countryside scene and I took the three balloons from across the three sets to use here.

I stamped the scene on a piece of white card about 51/2" square using Adirondack Lettuce Ink and then added colour into the trunk and branches of the tree using a waterbrush and Walnut Stain Distress Ink and added Mowed Lawn and then Mowed Lawn with the added brown for two darker shades, and then to give some lighter tones and early morning sunshine I used Adirondack Sunshine Yellow.

Once I was happy with this I then added in the balloons using my Misti and Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade DI's and Momento Nautical Blue Ink, and added some of the brown for a bit of shading.
Finally I added the blue sky using Tumbled Glass DI.  I decided to make it light as first thing in the morning the sky tends to have less colour and I didn't want it to detract from the balloons.

I finished by adding a black and then a larger dark green textured layer, and then mounted it on to a 7"white base card.  I then stamped the sentiment using Adirondack Bottle Green Ink.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers August Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (without the twist).
Fashionable Stamping Challenge - No. 126 Use Your Inks Anyway You Like.
Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes.