Rudolph Days Challenge for September

Hi all.  Well, it's nearly the end of the month and the Rudolph Days Challenge is upon us again and it is my team's turn to do a card this month.  The challenge runs from the 25th to the end of each month over at Mo's blog Scraps of Life by Scrappymo, and there is always a lovely prize on offer to the winner so do go and check it out.

I have used a freebie set of stamps by Penny Black to make this card which I have had for some  time and the tree from it is one of my favourites.

I decided to try and make a triangular card to echo the shape of the tree and so I made myself a template.  This was a case of trial and error.  I started with a piece of copy paper and obviously the left hand side of the triangle has to be the fold of the card.  I folded the A4 copy paper in half and tried to place it with the fold in the right place and at the right angle, but I couldn't seem to make this work.   I then folded the paper with the fold at a slant across it and then by degrees cut the other side to match, and then evened up the bottom, and more by accident I feel, managed to get the shape right.  I wanted it to fit in the region of 6" but no bigger so it would fit into  6" square envelope, and amazingly and to my delight, it fits exactly.

My card was cut from a piece of white pearlescent card and then I cut a slightly smaller triangle from a snippet of silver mirri card and mounted this on to the base card.  I found another snippet of dark blue card and cut another triangle slightly smaller again and heat embossed the tree onto it using WOW Sparkling Snow Embossing Powder, and I added a sentiment, from the same set of stamps, underneath the tree, using WOW Metallic Silver EP.  To add some interest to the background I used a Marianne Snowflakes Embossing Folder.  I had to run it through twice to cover the shape.  I finished by adding this to the card.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.  See you again soon.








I am entering the following challenges:

WOW Embossing Powder Blog September Challenge - Anything Goes.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 248 where we use our snippets of paper and card etc.

In the Pink Anniversary

Hi there.  I made this card several weeks ago but have only just got around to showing it here.   I am using the Indigoblu Poppy Heart stamp that I used quite recently and decided to go with the white embossed look again but this time I have used the blended background technique which is becoming a favourite of mine.

This time I stamped and heat embossed on to a snippet of white card using WOW Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder.   I coloured the heart with inks and a water brush using Adirondack Pink Sherbet and Eggplant and  Shaded Lilac Distress Ink for the flowers,  and Memento Bamboo Leaves with a bit of the Eggplant added in to the green for the darker green shading.

I then blended Pink Sherbet and Shaded Lilac into the background using a blending tool making it darker around the outside of the heart.  I used a bit more of the Pink Sherbet through a mini Creative Expressions stencil called Shabby Harlequin and then using a Clear Wink of Stella pen I just highlighted the stencilling to give it a bit of a sparkle although this doesn't show up very well.  I then layered it on to a snippet of silver mirri card.

To finish I added some little silver hearts and a sentiment.

Thank you for stopping to look at my blog today.  See you soon.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 247 where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
IndigoBlu August Challenge -  All Things Bright and Beautiful.  Sorry it is rather late!  I hope this fits the challenge as I have used lovely bright colours, and I hope you think it is beautiful.   (I am thrilled to have been chosen as one of the Top 3 for this challenge)  
WOW Embossing Powder Blog September Challenge - Anything Goes.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge No 211 - Anything Goes.

Through the Porthole

Hi there.  Well here I am with another masculine card and using the Chocolate Baroque stamps with an underwater theme called Funky Fish and Steampunk Sea World.  I decided to look at the fish through a porthole and that's where I started.

I began with a snippet of white card and die cut a circle using the biggest die, which is 4", from a set by XCut.  I started by blending inks on to the circle using a blending tool.  I used Adirondack Lettuce and Stonewashed,  Mowed Lawn and Stormy Sky Distress Ink, and the Peacock Feathers was used mainly on the fish, nautilus and seahorse.  I think my sea has ended up rather more green than blue.

I picked a selection of fish stamps across the two sets keeping to the smaller sized stamps and made a pleasing scene.  To make the bit of greenery at the bottom I used the tentacles from what I think is a squid, inking just the smaller tentacles, which worked quite well.  I coloured with a waterbrush using the same inks as mentioned above but with some Adirondack Sunshine Yellow added in.  I did add some interest using a stamp by Creative Expressions called Bubbles, and then using the same inks as above, I darkened around the edges and then decided to take away some of the colour within the bubbles and around the fish etc by bleaching out with water, as I thought the whole thing was beginning to become too dark and heavy.

For the background I found a snippet of white card and embossed with a Sizzix Embossing Folder called Woodgrain, this comes as a pair together with one called Bricked.  I had to extend it  a bit to make it square.  I used Antique Linen DI to colour it with.  I mounted this on to my white square base card.

To make the porthole I took a snippet of black card and cut a circle slightly larger than the 4" one I cut originally.  To do this I scoured the kitchen to find something circular with the right dimensions and finished by using a holder for my kitchen utensils and pencilled around the base.  I cut this by hand and then cut out the centre by using the largest XCut circle I used earlier but this time pencilling round the inside of the die so that when cut out it was a fraction smaller to cover the edge of the original circle.  Note to self, I MUST buy some more circle dies so that this process is less labour intensive and gives a better finish! The XCut dies are a great basic set which I bought several years ago and have used quite a lot, and I also have some stitched circles, but both sets have about five dies and they have an inch in between each die which for something like this doesn't work.

To finish the porthole I found some little round dots which I stuck on and coloured with a silver Sakura pen which has a glitter finish but looked OK for this.

I decided to embellish with an anchor die, one of three, which go with a set of Lawn Fawn stamps called Float My Boat, but the die works fine on its own, and using another snippet of black card I cut the anchor, and using my pokey tool I made a hole in the top big enough to take the twine which I doubled, twisted, and wrapped round the anchor and then stamped a sentiment on to a snippet of white card using Black Archival Ink, and cut it into a tag shape with a fishtail, and coloured using the Antique Linen DI and a little Black Soot DI.

To finish I adhered the scene and the frame and then added the anchor and sentiment tag which,  with hindsight, would have looked better with a smaller sentiment so it would have cut into a smaller tag, and I'm not sure that I like the colour tone I ended up with, but hey ho it's done now and I will stop being picky Pat..lol.

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









I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 246 where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It.
Cuttlebug Mania - Anything Goes with die cuts.  (I cut the image circle and anchor using a Grand Caliber.
Penny Black and More - Add  A Sentiment.
Stamping Sensations - One for the Boys.
*Shown in the October Chocolate Baroque Reader's Gallery.

Californian Poppies

Hi there everybody.  Today I am showing a card made with one of my favourite flowers and a stamp by Penny Black.  I was late sending this card so opted for something straight forward.  I coloured the poppies using a set of Lyra Aqua Markers, just a small set with basic colours as I just wanted to see how they worked, and I was fairly satisfied with the result.  The paper was a snippet and to be honest as this technique uses a fair amount of water the paper didn't hold up all that well, but as time was short I persevered.

The background was made using the smooshing technique by swiping the inks from the pad on to a piece of acrylic cut to a little larger than my base card,  and I used just a couple of blue inks, Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky,  spritzed with water and pulled the paper through it to give quite an even finish.  I wanted a bit darker colour in the top left corner so I added a bit more of the darker colour which was the Stormy Sky DI, and added more water, and this time laid the card down and concentrated on keeping the colour in that corner.

After drying it I stamped just one of the flowers with a bit of the stem using Versafine Smokey Gray ink, and then coloured with the Lyra Aquamarkers.  I used the lightest yellow straight from the pen and then darkened a bit with the next yellow just leaving a few lighter areas, and then finally the orange, which is quite a strong colour, so I used it watered down by putting some of the colour on my glass mat and then used a water brush and gradually darkened in some areas as you can see.

I finished the card by mounting on to a white square base card and layered up using snippets of dark blue and a cream which I cut using a Scalloped Square die from a set by Tonic.  I then added the die cut sentiment using another snippet of dark blue backing the card with Stick It adhesive.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today.  See you soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 245 where we use our snippets of paper and card etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Stamp It.
Penny Black Saturday Challenge Blog - Nature.
Penny Black and More Challenge - Add a Sentiment.