Holly Wreath

Hi everybody.  Well, here we are nearly at the end of October and the clocks going back this comng weekend...ugh... hate the thought of all those dark nights!  I decided that I need to crack on with my Christmas cards so here is one to show you today.  I used a couple of new dies which I bought fairly recently, both Sue Wilson ones, the Snowflake Mini Striplet and the Holly Branch.

For the holly I decided on slightly unconventional Christmas colours using the marbling technique with snippets of black and white card and White and Bronze Acrylic Paint which worked reasonably well.  The colours turned out a little muted, obviously the white paint in there wasn't going to do anything on the white card, so I added some more bronze with a brush.  At this point I though that it might be nice to have some totally Bronze coloured pieces to mix in, so I painted some white snippets with the Bronze paint.    

I then made the background using another snippet of white card, and die cut the striplet three times across the card and attached this to the white square base card.  I found a left over snippet of black which had been cut with a circle die some time ago, I keep a plastic box with all sorts of bits in.  I heat embossed a sentiment on to it using some WOW Copper Metallic Embossing Powder.  I then attached this to the centre of the card.

To finish I die cut the holly branches and cut them in half, and then using Cosmic Shimmer White Pearl PVA I made the berries.  They weren't totally successful as the holly die berries are like the leaves in that they are open, so the beads of PVA went slightly flat as they fell through the holes a bit, but there were too many of them to use gems.  I then adhered them round the circle.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 252 where we use up snippets of paper and card etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Happy Little Stampers October Christmas Challenge - Embossing (I heat embossed the sentiment).
Happy Little Stampers October Anything Goes with Dies.

Blue Poppies with Marbling

Hi there everybody.  I decided to try my hand at marbling using shaving foam which entails spraying foam into a tray and adding either drops of acrylic paint or alcohol inks, or watercolour paints from a tube the pigments of which are very strong so you would only need a very small amount.   You then move the colours around using the end of a paintbrush or something similar and lay the paper face down on top of the foam for a few second.  After lifting you scrape away the foam to reveal the pretty pattern.   I did originally have it in mind to enter the CAS Mix Up Challenge but realised that I hadn't done any stamping but I enjoyed trying the technique out anyway.

I did as I explained above, using a snippet of white card and acrylic paints in yellow and blue which in places mixed together to make green.  I did make several pieces but to be honest the first was the best as even if you add more inks it doesn't take long for the colours to become muddy, and personally I prefer it when the colours look quite separate and clean.  I mounted this marbled piece on to another snippet of white card.

I die cut the poppies from yet another snippet of white card using a Memory Box die called Row of Poppies and then coloured them using the blue acrylic paint on the flowers adding the paint with a waterbrush and adding some extra colour over the top to make the bottom of the flowers darker to add shading.  I used my Distress Inks on the stems and buds, again using a waterbrush.   The colours were Mowed Lawn with a bit of Walnut Stain.

I die cut the sentiment using another snippet of white card which I coloured with Mowed Lawn DI and I backed this with the Stick It adhesive.

Thank you for joining me here on my blog today, and see you again soon. 

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 251 where we use our snippets of paper and card etc.
The Flower Challenge - Anything Goes.
Happy Little Stampers October Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.

Autumnal Birthday

Hi all.  Well Summer is finally over and Autumn has definitely arrived now and the nights are getting quite chilly here.  There are quite a few Autumn challenges around at the moment and one is brand new.  It is CAS Watercolour Challenge being run by Loll Thompson and Bonnie Klass,  and is in addition to  the *CAS Mix Up Challenge which they already run and which this month asks for Stamping+Ghosting+Own Choice which in the case of my card below is either the die cutting or heat embossing.

The Ghosting technique is fairly new to me, and there are several ways of achieving this but I used water, i.e. removing ink by spritzing water on to the stamp and pressing down on to an inked surface.  I covered a snippet of white card with several different colours of Distress Ink, namely Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Walnut Stain, using a dry baby wipe as I happened to have one handy.  I then found a maple leaf stamp from a set by Hobby Art called Falling Leaves.  I spritzed it with water and placed it down on the inked card for quite a number of seconds before lifting it away.  This lifts some ink and makes a lovely pattern.  I repeated this randomly.  When I had finished I used a stitched square die, the largest in the set which is about 4" in size.

I found another snippet of white card and stamped two of the leaves using the Walnut Stain DI.  I made sure this was perfectly dry before adding several of the colours mentioned above to watercolour the leaves with, using a waterbrush.  When happy with the look of the leaves, and again when perfectly dry, I pressed them into my Versamark pad to coat them and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I repeated this again to give them a nice even shiny finish.  When using water based products to colour you should use a permanent ink to stamp with, but I took a chance and although a little of the detail was lost I just readded it with a pencil before heat embossing and it looks fine.

When I had adhered the background and the leaves to the white square base card I added a sentiment stamped with Adirondack Espresso ink.

Thank you for dropping by my blog today.

I am also entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 250 where we use up our snippets of card and paper etc.
Addicted to CAS Challenge - Watercolour.
Penny Black and More Challenge - Autumn.
Uniko Studio Challenge - Autumn (no twist though).
Happy Little Stampers October Mixed Media Challenge - Nature.
Happy Little Stampers October Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.
CAS on Sunday - Heat Embossing.
Stamping Sensations October Challenge - Autumn.  (voted winner by DT - so pleased!)
Rubber Dance October Stamp Challenge - Fall (in Love with Autumn).
Casual Fridays Challenge - 158 - 1 in 8.  (I have six leaves whole/partially stamped in the background and two whole leaves as the focal image.
*I am thrilled to have been chosen as one of the Outstanding Designs over at CAS Mix Up.

Hummingbird and Lilies

Hi there everybody.  Guess what, I found another great set of freebie stamps with an embossing folder.  They came with a Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine and are by Apple Blossom and I must say that for freebies are very good quality.  There are a couple of flowers, a lily, an Hibiscus with some leaves, and a few sentiments and the pretty Hummingbird.

The colouring throughout was done with a set of Lyra Aqua Markers.  I found a snippet of white card and embossed with the folder and coloured all the leaves which is easier with the raised pattern but did take a bit of time, but I think worked quite well.  The technique I decided to used was to lay down the green on to my glass mat, and to lighten and vary the colour a bit I picked up the green on a yellow pen and then painted on to the leaves.  I managed to colour a few of the leaves before I needed to reload the pen from the glass mat.  When I had finished I blended a bit of extra colour, namely Memento Bamboo Leaves, around the edges before attaching this to my square white base card.

I then stamped the lily flower three times on to another snippet of white card using Versafine Smokey Gray ink and coloured with a peachy orange before highlighting with a darker more red shade.  I coloured the stamens with yellow and a little black added to the anthers, i.e. the bits on the end...lol.  I then fussy cut these three flowers which were a trifle fiddly cutting round the stamens.  One flower did end up with a few less when I inadvertently chopped them off but the hummingbird's beak sits nicely over the top fortuately.  I glued them to the corner using Pinflair Glue Gel for a little dimension.

I stamped the hummingbird on another snippet of white card and coloured with a yellow and blue stroked over the top to make it look more green and then blue and red on the wings and tail and also a little on the neck, and the end tail feathers were again the yellow with blue over the top.   Again I fussy cut and mounted it on to the card using the Pinflair.

I finished the card with a sentiment from the set mounted on to tag using one of the Spellbinders Floral Oval dies.  It just about fitted but I didn't want to make the tag much bigger so I stamped it very slightly on the slant to fit it on.  I again stamped with Versafine Smokey Gray ink and added some WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder and heat set it.

Before I go I would like to introduce a new follow called Sue whose blog you will find here, and her creations are very varied and all beautiful, so if you haven't visited before I'm sure she would appreciate you popping in.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 249 where we use our snippets of paper and card etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Inkspirational Challenge - Glamour.  I think that the Hummingbird is one of the most glamorous birds with its beautiful irridescent feathers so I'm hoping that this will fit the challenge.
Virginia's View Challenge - Focal Point.  I think the leafy frame draws your eye into the focal point which is the bird and flowers.