Welcome Spring

Hi there.  I made this card for a lovely lady and a good friend whose birthday was this week and decided that as we are now officially in Spring I would use these new stamps which I bought recently from Chocolate Baroque which include these pretty Daffodils and a sweet bird on a flowery branch.

I started by smooshing the background - what a lovely word - which basically means putting ink down on a piece of acrylic sheet, spritzing with water, and then laying your card on top to transfer the ink, drying with a heat tool,  and continuing in this way until the desired coverage is achieved.  I used a snippet of white card and Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass, Mustard Seed and Shaded Lilac.

I stamped the bird on the branch and then the Daffodils stamped and masked several times to fill the space.  In order to get the flowers as close as possible to the bird image I placed a piece of paper over the nearest branch so I wouldn't stamp over it.  With rubber stamps there is a certain amount of guesswork and I inadvertently cut off the edge, but with the use of my Spectrum Noir pencils with which I coloured the images I made the edges look fuzzy and faded into the distance which luckily worked quite well.  I have the Primary and Essentials sets and I love these as they are quite waxy and work well over a watercoloured background.  I did try to make the background colours tie in with the colours I would be using for the images and tried not to make the background too dark.

I have some Tsukineko cling mount (Di from Pixie's Playground has kindly told me it is called Tack n Peel) which works like cling for rubber stamps and sticks permanently to a large acrylic block and means you don't have to mount every stamp.  It has worked well but it has got discoloured with the inks which have gradually built up so it is getting difficult to see through it for placement, and although I wash it regularly stamps don't cling as well anymore.  Anyway the inevitable happened and a couple of times the stamp fell off as I was stamping so I covered the bad bits with little flowers over the top using some snippets of white card.  The air was a little blue but I got there in the end, so note to self GET IT SORTED!!

Finally I mounted it on to two different snippety offcuts of green card and then mounted that on a square white card.  The sentiment is a Britannia Die.

Thank you to everyone who stops to take a look, I really do appreciate your interest.

Pat  x

Darnell at djkardcreations has a new NBUS (never before used schtuff) challenge, and she has been very generous in offering five $25 vouchers for any US company of the winner's choice.  Congratulations on having over 800 followers Darnell. 
   
                                                   
The other challenges I wish to enter are:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 169.  Where we use up our snippets of paper, card etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
The Artistic Stamper - Spring is Coming.

Graffitti Sentiment

Hi all.  Sorry it has been so long since my last post but I seem to have had such a lot of things going on lately which have taken me away from cardmaking and left me rather lacking inspiration, but I have kept up with the comments and looking at what this talented community has been getting up to,  and I do mean to do better!  I made this card with the Addicted to CAS challenge in mind, which is to use green, but now I have finished it I think it is probably not CAS enough.  Anyway it is intended for a birthday later in the month and I am sure there are other challenges which it will be fit for.

I used Tim Holtz  Bricked embossing folder, but first I inked a snippet of white card using Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed using the 'smooshing' technique which seems to be very popular and this lady Betsy is very good at it, and you can find her here.  This is similar to the acrylic block technique but uses a piece of acrylic sheet to mix the inks and water on and makes it easier if you want to make a larger background.  I used Distress Inks Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade and did the process several times until the card was adequately covered.   I dried the card with my heat tool and then embossed using the Bricked EF.  I had to run the card through twice and matched up the pattern as well as I could in order to cover my square piece of card.  

I stamped the Clarity stamp, which is one I received through the Clarity Stamp Club, using Adirondack Inks in Lettuce and Bottle.  I stamped with the Lettuce first and then stamped it again using the Bottle just round the edges.  I moved it down a little to get a shadow effect which gives it a looser look.  I then used my Spectrum Noir pencils to bring out the letters and add a little shading.

I finished by making the Ivy using a Creative Expressions die by Sue Wilson called Trailing Ivy, using snippets of light and dark green card.  Unfortunately the dark green looks more blue then green in the photo.  I also used a snippet of the same dark green card for the sentiment which was made with a Britannia Die which allows you to make a Birthday and a Christmas sentiment so is very useful. 

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 168 where we are on a mission to use up our snippets of paper and card.
Virginia's View Challenge - All Things Embossed.
Country View Challenges - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations - One for the Guys.

Misty Morning

Hi there everyone.  I have a male birthday coming up and it is always difficult making cards for men. I got out a few stamps including a NBUS set from Claritystamp which consists of a windmill, long grass, and long grass flower heads.

I started with a snippet of white card 41/2" square, and stamped the long grass at the front to frame the scene using Adirondack ink in Lettuce which I added all over the stamp first, and then Bottle which I dabbed on in places to break the colour up.  I then added the water using some blending foam and a slightly curved piece of paper to mask, and some Adirondack ink in Stonewashed, and starting at the edges I built up the colour, keeping it darker round the edges and lighter in the middle.  I then cut a piece of scrap paper with larger curves for the hills and the same greens that I used for the grasses.  I used the curved edge of the scrap paper to form the hills starting with the Lettuce and then adding the Bottle for some darker areas and shadows.  I then very lightly added another couple of hills in the background but literally using just the ink which was left on the blending foam.  I finished the scene by filling in the sky using Adirondack Stonewashed and a very little Adirondack Faded Jeans.  I used another piece of scrap paper with two or three smaller curves and moved it randomly around dusting the colour on to give lighter and darker areas, and then I went over the whole sky with a bit more Stonewashed to even it all out, but with a bit of variation so that it wasn't too flat and uninteresting.  I used a bird from a set of stamps by Sheena Douglass over a darker patch which I couldn't seem to blend away so the bird disguises that a bit.  Being a picky person I also see that there is rather a definite line in the right hand hill where I added another hill over the top and didn't smooth the ink out enough, but I think in real life it doesn't show as much as it does in the photo, and it is in the post now so too late!  The trouble is sometimes I get impatient and try to add the colour too quickly which leads to an irritating blob, so I say 'steady as you go' when adding colour, it doesn't always work though.

You will notice that I didn't use the windmill in the end because as the scene progressed there didn't seem to be anywhere where it would fit in, so no windmill this time.  I also decided the grass looked better without any of the leaves or flower heads.  I mounted this on to a snippet of dark green card and then on to a white square base card and then added a sentiment to finish.

This is the first scene like this that I have done recently and Mr Mojo stuck around so it went quite well.  When completed I decided that the colours were quite soft and it reminded me of the early morning before the sun has burnt the hazy cloud away, so misty morning it is.

Thanks for stopping by.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 166 where we use up all our leftover paper and card etc.
Stamping Sensations - One for the Guys.
Seize the Birthday - Masculine.
Happy Little Stampers - Sponging.  I sponged the ink on using blending foam.
Country View Challenges - Anything Goes.