Under an African Sky

Hi everyone.  It's our DS's birthday today and as he lives in Australia it is the first time in many years that he has been able to celebrate it here with us, which makes it extra special, and I bought these four Sheena Douglass stamp sets recently with mainly masculine birthdays in mind and I thought that he would like the African wildlife theme.

I started the card using my 7" square gelli plate which I covered in Distress inks using Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans at the top, Spiced Marmalade and Mowed Lawn towards the middle and Mustard Seed and Walnut Stain at the bottom.  I spritzed it with some water and pulled the print using a piece of good quality smooth card.   I did have a couple of goes to get the balance of colours right and then dried it using my heat tool and trimmed the finish background down a little.  I love the randomness of these prints as you never know what you are going to get, and often it is not until you add in the stamping that you get a proper idea of whether it is going to work or not.

I continued to stamp on to the background using the African Landscape set and my misti stamping tool.  I stamped the large Acacia tree first using the Walnut Stain ink and then the background smaller tree using the same ink but second generation.  I then stamped the small group of elephants using Memento London Fog ink and stamped over them several times to get a better depth of colour, but am not totally sure that it wouldn't have been better if I had added a little brown to make them a bit more distinct, although they are better in real life than they appear herecra.  I then added the giraffes in the foreground using Spiced Marmalade and Walnut Stain, but using more of the Walnut Stain on the second to make it stand out enough against the first one.

I finished the background by adding a bit of shading under the animals and around the trees using a water brush with the brown ink, making it darker under the foreground tree to ground it.

Lastly I stamped the sentiment on to a 7" square white card again using the Walnut Stain ink, and then adhered the scene to it.

I have a new follower Sandra who I'm sure a lot of you will already know, but if you haven't been to her blog do go and take a look at her beautiful cards here, her scenic cards are very special.

Thank you for joining me here today and I hope to be back soon.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers May Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (no optional twist).
Fashionable Stamping Challenge - No. 123 Let's Go Wild.

Santa for May Rudolph Days Challenge

Hi there.  Well, it is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo run by lovely Mo of course and opens on the 25th until the end of each month and helps us to get ahead with our Christmas cards, and she also has a lovely prize for the winner so do pop over to take a look.  Personally I need all the help I can get as I always end up making them at the last minute....lol.  This month Mo has very kindly asked me to be a Guest Designer and this is the card I have made.

This Santa is proving very popular at present and I was lucky enough to win this set a while ago, and this is the first outing for this particular stamp.  It is from a Nabico set called Christmas 4.  There is another set which has the larger image, but this is quite small so decided to put it on to a tag, in fact a double tag as you can see.

I started by stamping the image using Versafine Smokey Gray ink on to a white tag shaped by myself, I made a template which I keep which helps to get even curves on the top.  I then made an identical tag from red card and stamped with Versamark Ink using a Penny Black Stamp called Jolly Chant which doesn't seem to be readily available at the moment.  I used just the Versamark ink which has given quite a muted finish but is actually clearer than it appears here.  It has lots of words associated with Christmas and is quite a large stamp so only a little bit of it is visible on here.

I then die cut the red and white layers using a Crealies Nesting Rectangles with Dots die set, and embossed just the white layer using a Cuttlebug folder which I have had for a long time, and I don't think this is available now either.

I finished by putting it all together and I added a piece of silver chain through the punched holes as a finishing touch.  Didn't think I needed an extra sentiment as the red tag and the background embossing are both covered in sentiments.

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

I am entering the following challenge:

Addicted to Stamps and More - No 243 Holiday.
Watercooler Wednesday - Gail's Christmas Challenge.

CAS Watercoloured Magnolia

Hi there everybody.  I am playing catch up here as there are three challenges that I really want to get a card entered into before they close and I think I have managed it by a whisker.  I decided to use this magnolia stamp by Sheena Douglass which hasn't been inked up for a long time.  Unfortuately it seems to be unavailable at the moment.

I cut this white card just a little smaller than my white base card, and using my misti I stamped with Versamark Ink and heat embossed with WOW Metallic Silver Embossing Powder.  I then watercoloured the flowers with a water brush using Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Mowed Lawn and Walnut Stain.  I then decided to cut around the outside edge of the flowers to add a bit more interest and in order to take the flowers closer to the edge I trimmed the layer down a little.

I finished by splattering some of the pink and green ink and heat embossed the sentiment again using the Metallic Silver EP.

Thank you for stopping to take a look today and I'll be back soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

CAS Watercolour May Challenge - Watercolour Flowers.
CAS Mix Up May Challenge - Stamping, Splattering and my choice Heat Embossing.
The Flower Challenge - No. 8 CASE a DT Member.   I think mine is a CASEing of both TaeEun and Vivien, i.e. the opposite corner positioning of TaeEun and the cutting round the flowers on Vivian's card.
Country View Challenges - Flower Power.

Acrylic Paint Resist Stencilling

Hi everyone.  I do like to try a new to me technique occasionally and I spotted this one the other day over on Barbara Gray's blog here.  I thought it would work with one of my new stencils, so I found a piece of white card and cut it to the same size, and after taping the stencil to it I sponged some white acrylic paint through it using a piece of blending foam, and then I removed and washed the stencil in some soapy water immediately.

After the paint was thoroughly dry I used my Distress Inks to add colour.  These were Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn.  I then got a baby wipe and carefully rubbed over the white painted areas to remove the ink.  The white paint acts as a resist, and although not perfect most of the ink did wipe off so I was pleased with the result.

Before adhering this to the card I added a piece of funky foam to the back so it would have some dimension.  I then cut a sentiment from a piece of white card using a Sue Wilson Scripted Happy Birthday die and sponged it quite heavily with Pine Needles Distress Ink and  using Versamark Ink I heat embossed it with WOW Clear Embossing Powder to give it a nice shine.  I then finished by adhering it to the centre of the stencilled panel before adding it to a 7" square white base card.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

I am entering the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More - No 242 Make Your Mark.
Happy Little Stampers May Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.

With Sympathy

Hi there.  I have one of those cards today that we unfortunately need but never want to have to send.  This is the fourth person we know that has sadly passed away since the start of this year and hopefully there will be no more for some time to come.

I used a stamp from Penny Black called Lofty and stamped it three times on to a snippet of white card using Archival Black Ink and WOW Clear Embssing powder heat embossed over the top, and then stamped it three more times using second generation ink.  I wanted to make an oval shape of it but my oval dies were just too small so I pencilled round the outside of the largest die and cut the shape by hand which made it just large enough.

I found another snippet of white card and embossed it with a Couture Creations Embossing Folder called Compassionate.  My white base card was roughly 7" x 5" and I cut the embossed piece to fit this leaving a space at the bottom for the sentiment which I again stamped in Black Archival and heat embossed with the Clear EP.

I was going to leave it black and white but decided it did seem a bit stark so introduced some colour with the Tumbled Glass Distress Ink which I applied with some blending foam.

Before I go I would like to introduce a new follower who is Mac Mable and her blog is here.  She is very clever with her inks and watercolouring and uses lots of great techniques so if you haven't been to her blog before you will find lots there to inspire.

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

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 281/2  where we use up our snippets of card and paper etc.

Birds in Flight

Hi there everyone.  I needed a card for my DH's brother who loves birds and is a volunteer at a bird reserve, and I immediately thought of this stencil which was one of the collection which I bought recently.  This is the first time it has been used and I'm sure it won't be the last.

I started by covering the piece of white card with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink using my Gelli Plate which I haven't got out for a while.  I inked the plate and then added a little texture using a bit of bubble wrap so the ink would not be too flat a colour,  and then spritzed with water, applied the card and pulled the print.  I did this a couple of times to build up the colour a bit more.   I'm not sure that you can actually see the texture after adding other inks but I like to think it has added something to the finished piece.

I then continued by stencilling the birds on to the blue background and for this I blended DI's in Faded Jeans at the bottom, Stormy Sky through the middle section and Peacock Feathers for the more distant birds.  When dry I continued by replacing the stencil and dry embossed it.  It is difficult to see here but it has added to the dimension of the birds I think.  I decided that it did need something else so I masked off the sun/moon, I think it could be either, and then added some Peacock Feathers with blending foam around it, and then this and Stormy Sky round the edges.

Lastly I heat embossed the sentiment using WOW Silver Embossing Powder and added a backing layer of silver mirror card before adhering it to the 7" square white base card.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Monday Challenge - The Great Outdoors.
Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Flutter.
Cardz 4 Guys Challenge - No. 168  Inspired by a Film, a Book or Music (mine is the film The Birds).