Bokeh Effect Anniversary

Hi all.  Yes, I know, I can hear you all saying 'not another anniversary card', but I had another family anniversary to make a card for and I have seen this technique used quite a bit recently so wanted to try it out.  The equivalent word for 'bokeh' in Japanese means blur or haze and refers to a technique used in photograhy where out of focus points of light are produced by a lens, sometimes accidentally and sometimes to give a certain effect.  I know the points of light should be round but as this is an anniversary card I thought I would make them heart shaped, just a bit of artistic license. 

I decided to make this a clean and simple card for the Happy Little Stampers two challenges which I am just in time to enter.  The first is Stencilling, and the second is this Sketch.

                                                                                 

I notice that the Guest Designer Nancy Littrell over at the HLS Challenge has used this technique on her card which I think must have stuck with me and given me the idea, although I must admit it wasn't until I looked at the challenge again after I had made the card and I went back to the beginning of the month to check it out that I remembered that this was one of the places I had seen it used, so I will credit her with giving me the idea.  

My piece of card was actually made with acrylic paints on the Gelli Plate.  I bought some cheap Docrafts paints in primary colours and used a small bit of Electric Blue and Canary Yellow straight on to the Gelli Plate and mixed it using a brayer.  I got a piece of bubble wrap and imprinted the pattern on to the wet paint and allowed it to dry.  When it was dry I used a buttermilk colour brayered over the top to refresh the paint and then using some gelli card I pulled the print. I found the gelli print colour was a bit uninspiring but I added some exra bits of Mowed Lawn and Mustard seed Distress Inks sponged on to give it a bit more punch.  I then used a stencil I made myself from a piece of acrylic and a small heart from a set by Nellie Snellen which I used on my last post and sponged white acrylic paint through it and overlapped the shapes to give a bit more depth.  I wasn't sure whether it had the right look as my paint was a bit thicker perhaps than a white pigment ink and covered the background a bit too heavily.  I then decided to add the odd bit of sponged Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspberry DI to highlight the white hearts and was happier with the finished look, although I think that the pattern from the bubble wrap can't really be seen now.

The central die cut is a Marianne Creatables die called Folklore.  I cut the first from the piece of Gelli printed card and I cut a second out of a snippet of Gold Mirri card and this one I embedded into the background card.

I finished by layering the background card on to a snippet of Gold Mirri card and stamped the sentiment using Brilliance Galaxy Gold Ink.

Thank you for taking a look at my blog today.

Pat x

I am also entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop  - Week 174. Where we have to use up our snippets of card etc.
Inkspirational Challenge - the word prompt is 'Space', and my card has lots of white space.
Addicted to Stamps Challenge - Make your Mark.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

     

Silver Wedding Anniversary

Hi all.  About two weeks ago I did a Golden Wedding card and now I have one which I did for some great friends who have just had their Silver Wedding.  For this card I have used my dies from Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Heart and Corners 1, and then Creative Expressions Sue Wilson dies Finishing Touches Classic Rose and Petite Vinery.  Unfortunately Mirri card does not photograph well and tends to look like black, but in real life looks nice and shiny.

I used a snippet of white card about 1/2" smaller than the square base card and cut the corners and mounted this on to a piece of silver Mirri card just a fraction bigger.  The hearts are lovely because the multi frame sets have both fancy edged and straight edged dies, so I cut two of each using snippets of white and silver Mirri card and mounted as you can see in the photo.  For the centre white layer with the numbers on I pencilled around the inside of the smallest die and cut by hand.

For the flowers I used two different sizes of die and cut one bigger and two smaller flowers using some more snippets of white card, a slightly lighter weight card is easier to shape.  I creased all the petals in the middle and sort of pinched them into shape, and the top layer I also removed one petal to make it a little smaller.  I then put them together and placed a pearl in the centres of the two finished flowers.  I cut two of the leafy swirls, one from each die, and I cut the bottom section off beyond the leaves and then put them together to the side of the heart and placed the flowers centrally.  I love making these flowers which you can vary the shape of when making them up but they are quite bulky on a card so I don't very often send cards with them on through the post.  Luckily for me this was hand delivered so no problem.

This was finished with silver stick on numbers and a sentiment.

Thank you for joining me today, and thank you also for your continuing support.

Pat  x

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 173.  The aim is to use up all our snippets/scraps.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Due Date.  This due date is 25 years of marriage.
Simply Create Too - No Digis or Stamped Images

Chess Collage Card

Hi there all.  This is a card I made recently for a masculine birthday in the family, in fact a cousin of mine.  I saw a similar card which had been made by Asha who is a design team member over at Chocolate Baroque and you can find the card on her own blog here.  I decided to use a set of chess stamps from Chocolate Baroque called The Art of Chess for my version.  The technique is called partial retiform which is something I have not heard of before.  I looked up retiform in the dictionary and it means 'netlike', and I suppose if you think of a fishing net or a wire netting fence, it is made up of holes of a similar shape and size, and although my segments are not all uniform they are shapes made using inks and stamping into each masked shape, and you end up with a sort of collage effect.

I decided to use a piece of white card the same size as the base card to stamp on to and starting from the lower edge I used a piece of copy paper to mask the bottom half of the card and placed the first edge using Stormy Sky Distress Ink sponging with a piece of blending foam.  I then did  the same at the top left hand corner, then the top right hand corner, but using some post it notes to mask to avoid marking the white space where the line intersects the first line, and so I gradually made all the cells.  I then masked off each cell at a a time and built the colour up around all the edges also adding some Mustard Seed DI.  I then took the main image of the set and using small parts of the stamp made three images in one of the segments keeping the masks in place to avoid stamping outside the cell.  As you can see I gradually built up the different segments using different stamps and then coloured all the images with turquoise and yellow Spectrum Noir Pencils.  I accentuated the edges of each segment with a dark grey pencil to give a more solid line.

I finished by adding a sentiment and some numbers in Black Archival Ink.  I then attached this to the white base card.  You could of course stamp straight on to the card but in case of mistakes and rather than waste a card I preferred to adhere when finished.

Before I go I would like to introduce a new follower called Florence Bernier who I'm afraid I can't introduce properly because I don't have the relevant information.  If you get back to me Florence with some details, if you have a blog, I will pass the information on.

Thank you for stopping by today.  I really appreciate all your interest.

Pat  x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Penny Black and More Challenge - Birthdays.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Make Your Own Background.
Stamps and Stencils - Anything Goes.  This is a totally new challenge.

Fifty Golden Years

Hi everyone.  I hope you all had a good Easter break, and it is nice to see the weather has cheered up somewhat this week.  Before I go any further I would like to introduce you to a new follower called Karen Haskeck whose blog you will find here.  She does some beautiful work so please go and check her out.

One of my cousins has recently celebrated her Golden Wedding and the family are getting together to celebrate it shortly.   I decided to use another of my Chocolate Baroque stamp sets which is called Rose Stem Script.

The background is embossed using a snippet of white card with Couture Creations EF called Tied Together and then some pearls added.  Unfortunately this seems to be unavailable now.   I did originally have a Tied Together EF but it was faulty so I sent it back and since then have never managed to find it, so a lovely blogging friend supplied me with this and a couple of other samples from similar folders so I could compare with a view to buying one of them in the future.  I added a piece of scalloped gold card down the sides which I made with the scallop blade on my Woodware rotary cutter.  I attached the gold edged white ribbon to the embossed piece before adding the scalloped edge.

I stamped the rose on to a snippet of white card using Perfect Medium and then heat embossed with WOW Gold EP.  I stamped and heat embossed it a second time on to another snippet of white card and cut it out and attached with silicon glue over the top of the original to give it a bit of dimension.

I finished the card with a stamped and embossed fifty on another snippet of white card die cut with a S/B scalloped oval die.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat x 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 171 where we use up our snippets.
Virginia's View Challenge - Cards with Dimension,.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - 'A' is for.  My 'A' is for Anniversary.