May Rudolph Days Challenge

Hi, I'm here again with a quick offering for this month's Rudolph Days Challenge using three items which have not been used for a very long time, a Cuttlebug Holly Ribbons Embossing Folder, a Chocolate Baroque Snowflake Shadow stamp from their bold backgrounds range,  and a Sue Wilson Vintage Bauble die which unfortunately doesn't seem to be available now.  The challenge is run by Mo of Scraps of Life by Scrappymo and runs from the 25th to the end of each month.  I am late posting as usual so this has had to be a quick card in order to make the challenge.

I used a piece of white card about 5" square and die cut the aperture in the card and embossed it using the Holly Ribbons EF.

I then cut the gold mirri bauble frame using this die and the other slightly larger one.  I ran a gold pen round the edge of this white layer using it up against a ruler to keep it straight and this highlighted the edges nicely.  I matted this on to the white card.

I cut another of the small baubles from white card and stamped the Chocolate Baroque Snowflake and Versamark Ink and heat embossed using WOW Gold Glitter Embossing Powder.  I then blended some Festive Berries Distress Ink on it before setting it into the aperture.

I finished by adding the gold mirri bauble frame over the top and also a gold sentiment.

Thank you for taking a look today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am also entering the following challenge:

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - No. 387 Anything Christmas Goes (no optional twist).
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Music Speaks

Hi there.  This is a birthday card that I made for our DS in Australia and which he has received luckily in time for his birthday today, so I can show it here.  The postal service in Australia can be a bit random, and even when you allow lots of time things still sometimes arrives late, luckily not so this time.  I used a Visible Image stamp called Music Speaks and one of their stencils called Strobes.

I found a snippet of white card and coloured it with Salty Ocean and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide inks and some Blueprint Sketch DI around the edges, using my gelli plate to mix the colours on and then spritzed with water before laying the card over to transfer the colour.  I wanted there to be a circular shape of lighter colour where I knew the guitar would be placed.  I then stamped the music stamp twice using Hickory Smoke DI as I didn't want it to stand out too much.  I then placed the Strobes stencil over the top and ran it through my machine to emboss it and added some silver gilding wax to the embossing.  I'm afraid that catching the shine is really difficult, but in real life it certainly glints in the light. 

I found another snippet of white card and stamped the guitar using Blueprint Sketch DI and then using a silver glitter pen I highlighted the words and the pegs, and then fussy cut it out.

I then stamped the words with the Blueprint Sketch DI on to a further snippet of white card stamping each work individually by masking the other words off when inking, and blended a little more of the same colour just to take the whiteness off the card.  I then added the die cut Happy Birthday and the matted layer using some mor snippets of dark blue before sticking it on to the white 6" square card.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No. 327 where we use our snippets of card, paper etc.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Masculine.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge  - Anything Goes.

Chocolate Baroque Tulips

Hi everybody.  I'm back again with my third and last card for now as part of the Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog, and I have opted for a more CAS card this time featuring some lovely tulips from the Spring Bird Tulip set of stamps.  There are some pretty tulips still blooming at the moment which prompted me to use them for this card.

   

I started by cutting the pierced rectangle with a Crealies die using the grey card, and then cut the Spellbinders Floral Oval from that.  Unfortunately the Crealies die does not seem to be available any longer.

I stamped the flowers on to a piece of white stamping card using Versafine Smokey Gray ink, and coloured them with pencils, using three pinks and a purple for the flowers, and then two greens plus some yellow and brown for the leaves and stems.  I then fussy cut and shaped them a little before adhering them using glue gel to give some dimension.

I stamped the sentiment, again using the Versafine Smokey Gray ink, and then heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder which gives it a darker finish.

After placing the rectangle on to the white 7" x 5" card I inset the oval back within it.

I will be back on Chocolate Baroque later in the year, but for now a big thank you for stopping by today and I'll be back soon.

Twofer Challenge - Butterflies

Hi there all.  I am last minute again for a couple of my favourite challenges.  I say every month I am going to get ahead but things keep getting in the way.  I nearly missed the last Twofer Challenge, and have made it through the door with about a day to spare.  It is run by Darnell and the theme this time is butterflies.  We have to make two cards for two different occasions using the same stamp or die.  The stamp used on both cards is from Chocolate Baroque's Fluttering Hearts set.  Here are the cards:

I am entering these cards into the Twofer Challenge - No. 5 Butterflies.


The first card is an anniversary card using the CB stamp, a square stitched die from The Works, a heart from a set by Sweet Dixie, and a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Kimmy-Luvs, which is so old they don't make it any more, but it remains a favourite of mine.

I started with a piece of white card which I die cut with the stitched square and using Candied Apple Distress Ink I inked up the inside front piece of the embossing folder, spritzed it and then pressed the card on to it to give this loose watercolour look for the background, and I stamped the sentiment using Versafine Smokey Gray ink.  I then stamped the image twice on to a piece of white card and fussy cut the butterfly on one and the heart on the other.  I decided to do it in two pieces to give it more dimension when layered up.  I coloured both using a combination of Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Mermaid Lagoon and Twisted Citron Distress Inks using a Wink of Stella pen instead of a waterbrush which gives it all a lovely glittery finish.  I decided to layer the heart and butterfly on to another heart cut with the Sweet Dixie die, and blended Mermaid Lagoon ink on to it again using blending foam.  I finished by layering it on to a 6" square white card. 

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Use More Than One Stamp.
Happy Little Stampers May Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes/Optional Twist CAS.


The second card  has just the  butterfly part of the CB stamp plus a stamp from their Texture Fragments set, a Tonic Scalloped square die, and a Sheena Douglass embossing folder from her Textures range, but which again doesn't seem to be available now.

I found a snippet of white card, die cut it with the scalloped die and dry embossed it using the Sheena Douglas EF, then mounted it on to my 6" square white card.  I then die cut the stitched square from a smaller scalloped die using another snippet of white card and stamped the Texture Fragment stamp on to it several times to cover it using Versamark Ink and heat embossed using WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I then inked in stripes using Candied Apple, Fossilised Amber and Mermaid Lagoon, and the orange, green and purple are a mixture of these primary colours, together with a stripe of Picked Raspberry DI.  I stamped just the butterfly part of the CB stamp on to another snippet of white card using the Versafine grey ink  and heat embossed with WOW Silver Embossing Powder, and fussy cut it.  I coloured in just part of the butterfly with a mixture of Blueprint Sketch and Mermaid Lagoon DI and coloured with the WOS pen which I also brushed over the whole of the butterfly to give a sparkle to the white bits too.  I finished by  die cutting the sentiment using WOW silver foil instead of mirri card, just as an experiment to see what the finish was like in comparison.  I glued the foil to a snippet of white card using Stick It adhesive and then die cut.  It worked well and I think the foil has a brighter look than the mirri, but it was a rather fiddly procedure so not sure that I will be doing it that way again.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

CAS Watercolour May Challenge - Rainbow.  I hope this is CAS enough with the background embossed layer, but it is white so hopefully will be OK.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No. 326 where we use our snippets of card, paper etc.
Allsorts Challenge - Happy 9th Birthday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope to see you again soon.

Chocolate Baroque Spring Bird and Leafy Scene

Hi everyone.  This is my second card this month as one of the Guest Design Team over at Chocolate Baroque, and as Spring is definitely here now I used one of the Spring Bird Sets Spring Bird Crocus, which has this sweet little bird surrounded by fresh green leaves and with eggs in the nest, which just sums up this time of year.   I also used two different leaves from the Autumn Poppy set of stamps.

I cut a piece of white card and using my gelli plate covered it with Distress Inks, Blueprint Sketch and Mermaid Lagoon at the top and then some Fossilised Amber and Twisted Citron towards the middle, and Cracked Pistacio and Lucky Clover at the bottom, and then spritzed with water and laid the card over and the colours mixed together to make this loose and colourful background.

I then added the bird and the two different leaves to frame the scene making sure I stamped them well within the piece of card as I knew I would be cutting it back a little, and coloured with the same inks using a waterbrush, with the exception of the bird's head on which I used some Carved Pumpkin and Abandoned Coral Distress Inks.

I cut the piece down and matted on to a piece of white card, and then on to a piece of cobalt blue, and added it to a 6" square white base card.

I finished by stamping the sentiment using Mermaid Lagoon, and then darkened it a bit with Stormy Sky, and couldn't have done this if I hadn't used my Misti.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Penny Black and More May Challenge - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations May Challenge - Close to Nature.

Chocolate Baroque Sketchy Doodle Flower

Hi everybody.  I am so thrilled to have been chosen to be part of the Guest Design Team at Chocolate Baroque and this is the first of three posts that I will be doing over the next three weeks.  This card features one of the Sketchy Doodle Flowers and I just love the shape of it.

I started by placing some Distress Inks on to my glass mat and spritzed with water before smooshing on to a piece of white card.  I used Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon and a little Carved Pumpkin, continuing to layer and dry in between until I had the card covered.  I then stamped four of the flowers, one in each of the corners, using Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink and coloured them with Mermaid Lagoon plus some Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet.  I then cut this piece down a little to fit a 6" square white card, and darkened the edges with some of the Blueprint Sketch DI applied using a piece of blending foam.

I decided to add an extra flower to the top of the card so I stamped it on to a piece of white card using Versamark Ink, and heat embossed it with WOW Metallic Silver Embossing Powder, and fussy cut it out.  I then coloured it with the same colours as above.

I then added the sentiment to a strip of vellum which I tore using the edge of a ruler to give a more random look.  I stamped and heat set it using the Versamark and Silver EP and added it to one edge of the background piece, creasing and attaching it to the back, before adhering that to the  base card.  The other end of the vellum was stuck to the card beneath the flower.

Thank you for joining me here today and I hope you will drop by again soon.

 

Layered Oxide Ink Anniversary

Hi there.  I decided to try this technique after watching a video by Jennifer McGuire, quite recently actually.  I used a heart stamp by Creative Expressions called Heart of Blossoms which I only got recently to make anniversary cards with.

I started the technique following Jennifer's instructions, by covering a piece of white card with a very thick layer of Distress Oxide ink in Salty Ocean.  When it was dry using my Misti I inked the stamp up with a paler colour of Oxide ink in Squeezed Lemonade which I then spritzed with a little water and stamped on to the inked card, but when it dried it was really difficult to see the outline of the image.  The stamp that she used was more of a mandala shape geometrical stamp with more open space which perhaps was more suited the technique, and  I thought maybe if I coloured in the flowers they would show up better so I used a waterbrush to bleach out some of the blue and added more Squeezed Lemonade Oxide ink to the larger flowers and also a bit of ordinary Distress Ink in Blueprint Sketch to the smaller ones, and then some Carved Pumpkin Oxide to the centres of he flowers.  This did look slightly better but still wasn't sure I liked it.

Finally I put the piece of card back in the Misti which luckily still had the stamp attached to it, and inked it with Majestic Blue Versafine Ink and this has given the image more structure.  I then added a sentiment using the same blue ink.  This is obviously not the same techique as demonstrated by Jennifer, but still something I have never done before so a partial success.

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

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Penny Black and More Challenge - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations May Challenge - Close to Nature.
613 Avenue Create Challenge - Anything Goes/ Optional Twist Mainly Blue.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 291 Anything Goes.

Across the Fence

Hi there everybody.  This is a card I made for my brother-in-law who has one of those more significant birthdays to celebrate, today actually, hopefully he will have received the card, and anyway he doesn't look at my blog so it's safe to show it.  He is a very keen walker so I thought this Sheena Douglass A Little Bit Sketchy stamp called Across the Fence would be a good one to use.

I cut a piece of white card roughly 6" square and stamped the image using Versafine Smokey Gray Ink.  I then coloured it using a variety of Distress Inks and a waterbrush.

I cut the image back and mounted it on to another piece of white card which had been cut with a Crealies Pierced Rectangle die.

I finished by adding the sentiment and the numbers which I die cut from white card and then coloured with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink.  For small items like sentiments and numbers I have got into the habit of using a dryish wet wipe wrapped round my finger (I used one that had been sitting on my table for a while) which makes it easier to get into all the little areas and seems to help get smooth coverage.   I then mounted it on to a 6" square white card.

In case you wonder what that orangy red blob is amongst the trees, it is the roof of a house.  I made it quite bright because I thought if it was more slate coloured it might be a bit difficult to see.

Thanks for dropping by today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Time Out (who wouldn't love to take some 'time out' walking through this beautiful countryside).
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes.

Debossed Poinsettia

This is a very fast card for Rudolph Days Challenge which is run by Mo over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo, and is open from 25th to the end of every month.  Stupidly I forgot that this is only a 30 day month so one day less than I was thinking.  I am taking a chance as it was after midnight here in the UK when I finally posted it, but Western Canada is 8 hours behind so I hope that this is OK with Mo. 

I used the Crafters Companion Pretty Poinsettia Embossing Folder which I debossed on to a snippet of light blue card, and then used some silver gilding wax.   I then die cut a Sue Wilson Noel Star die using a snippet of silver mirri card, cutting away the star to leave just the word, and then added the Craft Emotions Snow Crystals but decided to use just the smaller centre part of the largest star and cut away the rest, again using a snippet of silver mirri card to cut the three.  I finished by cutting this piece down slightly and mounted it on to a 7" x 5" white card.

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

I am also entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 325 where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
Merry Monday Christms challenge - No. 288 No Stamping.
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - April Anything Christmas Goes.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.