Hearts and Flourishes Anniversary

Hi everybody.  Thank you so much for all the good wishes I have received regarding my gall bladder surgery, and just a quick update to say I am doing well and feeling much less sore and am just pleased, after having to wait quite a time, to just get it over with, so hopefully I can get back to normal.   I am hoping to get back to cardmaking soon, but for now this is a card I made a little while ago but haven't got around to showing yet.  It's another anniversary card I'm afraid, but anyway here it is.

I wanted two different sized hearts and unfortunately I don't have a decent set of nesting hearts so I used a couple of sets.  One was from the Sue Wilson Heart of Hearts set, the largest of the two hearts, and the other was from a set of Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Hearts dies, the larger of the two straight edged hearts.  I then cut the two flourishes from another piece of white card.  These are also from a set of Sue Wilson dies called Noel Star.

I cut the two hearts from the Brusho coloured panel and then cut two of the flourishes from another piece of white card.  I decided to use a NBUS stamp from Papermania called Postmark, and I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it with WOW Silver Metallic Embossing Powder straight on to the 6" square white base card.  I then layered the hearts and flourishes and added a sentiment again using the Versamark and the Silver EP.

Thank you for stopping here today and I'll be back soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers August Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.  (I have only made it by a whisker so apologies to Kylie)
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Hedgies Anniversary

Hi there everyone.   I was lucky enough to win some Penny Black stamps recently and this is the first outing of these cute hedgies, and just perfect for an anniversary card.  This is called The Park Bench Affair and I adore those two sweet ladybirds in the foreground too.  I'm not sure about it's availability over here though.  I also used a freebie embossing folder.

I stamped the image on to a snippet of white card using Versafine Smokey Gray Ink and then heat set it using WOW Clear Gloss Embosing Powder.  I decided to colour it with my Lyra Aqua Brush Duo Pens.  I scribbled them on to my glass mat and picked the ink up with a waterbrush.  When dry I die cut the image with a 4" square stitched die and stamped the sentiment in my Misti using Versamark ink and heat set with WOW Metallic Silver EP.

I made the background using a selection of Brushos which were Leaf Green, Emerald Green, Lemon, Scarlet Red and Brilliant Red.   These colours echo those on the topper.  I sprinkled the colours randomly over the snippet of white card and then spritzed with water.  When it was dry I embossed using a freebie folder which came with a magazine some time ago. 

I finished by adhering the background to the 6" square white base card and before adding the topper I backed it with some fun foam to give it some dimension.

I am running out of time to enter one or two more challenges that I would have loved to have entered this month, because at long last I am having my gall bladder surgery on Friday and so for a while I probably won't feel like making cards, although it is keyhole surgery so recovery time will be quicker.  I will maybe schedule a post or two as I do have some cards which I have made over the last few weeks but haven't got around to showing here.  I will also try to keep up with my commenting and hopefully cardmaking will be resumed fairly shortly.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 295/296 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.
Penny Black and More Challenge - All Creatures Great and Small.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add a Sentiment.
Fashionable Stamping Challenge - No. 126 Use your Inks Anyway You Like.
Stamping Sensations Challenge - August Anything Goes.

Flight Path

Hi everybody.  I have another masculine birthday coming up and the Less is More Challenge this week is entitled Vehicle, and it is also a one layer card week, so I thought I would combine the two and this is what I came up with.  I used a NBUS set of stamps by Sheena Douglass called Street Life, and the map is from Indigoblu.  

I stamped the aeroplane using Black Archival Ink and heat set it with WOW Clear Embossing Powder.  I then used Pebeo Masking Fluid over the white highlights on the plane and stamped the map with Versafine Smokey Gray Ink.  I didn't stamp the whole of the map as I wanted it to fade out at the edges.

Making sure it was thoroughly dry I then used my Lyra Aqua Markers and some glycerin to colour the map.  This is a new to me technique which entails scribbling some of the colour on to a blending mat or glass mat etc. and picking some of the glycerin up on a blending tool or blending foam, then picking up the colour and blending it on to the surface.  I used a couple of blues together and a little orange round the edges.  I kept the orange pale as I wanted it to fade out, and added what was left of the blue on the blending foam in a circular motion round the scene.  I then removed the masking fluid from the plane and took the edge off the white with a little more of the blue.

I finished by stamping the sentiment using Black Archival Ink and again heat set it with the Clear Gloss EP.

I did have a sudden panic as I had thought the challenge was Transport, but on looking again I realised it was Vehicle, but the dictionary did call an aeroplane a vehicle so I think this will be OK.

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

I am also entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add a Sentiment.
Addicted to CAS - One Layer Card.
CAS on Sunday - No. 114 Birthday.
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes.

 

Balloons Overhead

Hi there everyone.  I have a male birthday coming up so balloons sprang to mind, I think because it is the time of year when they have the Balloon Fiesta in Bristol.  We went to it a few years ago but that particular day it was rather too windy so not a lot happened.  I have some fairly new stamp sets with some nice scenes by Sheena Douglass and this one is called Looking Up.  I have already used one which has a boat, and there is one with a bridge, and this one has a countryside scene and I took the three balloons from across the three sets to use here.

I stamped the scene on a piece of white card about 51/2" square using Adirondack Lettuce Ink and then added colour into the trunk and branches of the tree using a waterbrush and Walnut Stain Distress Ink and added Mowed Lawn and then Mowed Lawn with the added brown for two darker shades, and then to give some lighter tones and early morning sunshine I used Adirondack Sunshine Yellow.

Once I was happy with this I then added in the balloons using my Misti and Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade DI's and Momento Nautical Blue Ink, and added some of the brown for a bit of shading.
Finally I added the blue sky using Tumbled Glass DI.  I decided to make it light as first thing in the morning the sky tends to have less colour and I didn't want it to detract from the balloons.

I finished by adding a black and then a larger dark green textured layer, and then mounted it on to a 7"white base card.  I then stamped the sentiment using Adirondack Bottle Green Ink.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers August Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (without the twist).
Fashionable Stamping Challenge - No. 126 Use Your Inks Anyway You Like.
Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes.

Red Poppies with Brushos

Hi all.  I made this card for a lovely lady I know whose birthday is today.  She has a beautiful garden and I have chosen poppies because I'm pretty sure she will have some, and hope she likes these poppies of mine too.   I used a stamp from Penny Black called Divine and also a Curved Frame stitched die and numbers from an Alphabet both from The Works, and an XCut Embossing Folder called Art Deco Scallop.

I started with the background which I embossed using a roughly 51/2" square snippet of white card and the XCut EF.  I had to extend the pattern which worked well.  I then used my Brusho powders in Turquoise, Ultramarine and Leaf Green.  I wanted to cover the whole piece with colour so I blasted it with my heat gun and then tapped colour on to my glass mat and spritzed, and then laid the card down into it where I wanted to fill in the white spaces.

I continue by die cutting the Curved Frame from another snippet of white card using the largest die, and then using the Misti I stamped just the stem and buds with Adirondack Bottle Ink.  The Misti stamping tool is ideal for this sort of stamping when needing only certain bits of the stamp as repeating the process is easy.   I then stamped the poppy flower heads on to a snippet of white card and coloured them using the Brushos on my glass mat with a waterbrush.  I used Scarlet, Brilliant Red and Purple on the flowers and then cut them out, and Leaf Green, Emerald and Dark Brown and a very small ammount of the Scarlet on the buds on the Curved Frame.  I finished the topper by adding the flower heads using Pinflair Glue Gel for dimension.

Before layering the background piece on to a 7" square white base card I decided to add some Distress Ink to darken the edges, using Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers.  I thought perhaps I had overdone it but after putting it all together I think it works.

I finished the card by adding a sentiment and the numbers, cutting them from Gold Mirri card backed with Stick It Adhesive.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 293/4 where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes.
Uniko Challenge - No 42 Flowers.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Happy Birthday.   (Congratulations to them as they are celebrating their 7th birthday.  My card wasn't made solely with this in mind but I hope this is OK for the challenge, and I do wish them well for the future, and who knows, they may still be going strong when they are 80)

Snowflake Paper Piercing and Stitching

Hi everyone.  This week's Less is More Challenge is pierce your project and I thought I would give it a go.  I found a snowflake pattern and went ahead and pricked the pattern on to a piece of white cardstock.  I then cut it out using my new Stitched Circle Die set from The Works.  I also cut another Stitched Circle from some red card using the next size larger die.  I thought it needed something else so I cut a star with the smallest die, again from red card using a set by XCut.

I decided to give it a background and found my Crafters Companion Embossing Folder Snow Flurry which is 5" x 7" and embossed it using another piece of white cardstock, and then cut it back to 5" square and mounted it on to a 6" square white base card.  The photo is a little dark and the background card looks cream in comparison to the embossed layer, but it matches much better IRL.

I was still not entirely happy with just the piercing, and have done some stitching on card in the past and still have a lot of threads, so got out some gold metallic and decided to stitch it with that.  The metallic thread is not as soft and malleable as the silk embroidery thread, and I knew I had to be quick, so I burned the midnight oil a bit last evening and got it finished,  It isn't the neatest work I have ever done but I think it does look prettier with the gold thread.  It is stranded and I used two of the threads which is a good thickness.  It is quite a long time since I have done any stitching and I found it quite tiring, especially as the holes were quite fine and close together, and my piercing could have been a bit more accurate.  Anyway I do like the finished piece so I'm glad I persevered.

When finally assembling the card I added some craft foam to the snowflake circle to add a bit of dimension, and a sentiment die cut from a piece of gold mirri card.

Thank you for dropping by today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am also entering the following challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge - No. 179 Dies Only, No Stamps.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 253 Holiday.