More Cacti, Succulents and Flowers

Hi there.  These are three cards which were my contribution to the TV launch of these new Chocolate Baroque stamps which were shown on Hochanda at the beginning of June and are the last of the cards I have at the present time featuring these three new sets.  The first card features Scrumptious Succulents.

I used four of the different cacti and made a nice arrangement by masking, and then coloured using quite a few colours of Distress Ink applied with a waterbrush, mixing colours to vary the greens, and as you can see the two succulents at the front have quite a blue tinge.  In my ignorance I wrongly thought that cacti came just different tones of green, but after looking on line the colours vary enormously.

I finished by adding some white gel pen on some of the cacti and flower centres, and then added one of the sentiments, and matted on to kraft card before adhering to the white card.

This next card was made using Captivating Cacti

I started by making a sky background using a piece of white velvet card smooshed with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink using it spritzed with water on my glass mat and the card pressed into it several times to cover the card.  This particular blue is quite a strong one so I did use quite a bit of water as I didn't want it to be too dark.  I then used a Crealies Pierced Rectangle die to cut it.

I used another piece of the velvet card and stamped the image using Versamark Ink and heat set it using WOW Opaque White Embossing Powder.  I coloured it with the DI and a waterbrush  using Carved Pumpkin and Mowed Lawn, together with small amounts of Cracked Pistacio, Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover and Ground Espresso to help give light and shade.  I then fussy cut the image.

As an afterthought I decided to give the sky a couple of grey clouds and also grounded the cactus with some underneath the base using Hickory Smoke DI.  I then gave the image some shape before adhering it with Pinflair Glue Gel, and also added the sentiment using another piece of velvet card which I stamped with Smokey Gray Versafine Ink on a fishtail banner secured beneath the cactus.

This last one uses the Blossom and Grow set.

I decided to have a go at an alcohol ink background using Flamingo and Limeade and some of the alcohol blending solution on to some glossy paper I already had.  It worked quite well but I had to be quick mixing it with the blending solution as it was inclined to sink in to the paper and where there are two or three purple blobs is where it sunk in and wouldn't move.  I'm not sure why it went purple but as it happens it complements the red and green so looks OK.  I saw Heather Telford using some gold leaf with an alcohol piece she had done, as the alcohol does leave a bit of residual stickiness which the gold leaf will stick too, so I gave it a try and although you can't see it in the photo small amounts stuck to the surface.  I finished by giving the whole piece a buff up with a soft tissue which made it shine beautifully. 

I stamped the flower and two of the leafy stems and coloured them with a waterbrush using Distress Inks including Picked Raspberry for the flowers and Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover and Cracked Pistacio for the foliage.  I then fussy cut them and added them to the background using Pinflair Glue Gel to give them some dimension.  The foliage wasn't so bad but the flowers were extremely fiddly with lots of little nooks and crannies.  If I had used a lighter weight card it would have made life a lot easier...lol, but I did like the look of the finished result.

I finished by adding the sentiment stamped using Versafine Smokey Gray Ink just cut in to a simple rectangular shape and cut this to fit my rectangular card using a Crealies Pierced rectangle die.

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

Cards for two CAS Challenges

Hi there everybody.  I have two rather late entries for a couple of challenges which I like to enter every month if I can.  Due to my week away and the hot weather which has slowed me down somewhat, I am rather late with these so I have decided to show them both in one post.  The first is for the CAS Watercolour Challenge and the techique to use this time is Splash Watercolouring.  I have used a 3D embossing folder which I bought a while ago and am only just getting around to using, which is by Sheena Douglass called Trailing Time.

I embossed the folder using a piece of white card and then used this watercolouring technique, a video for which you will find over at the challenge.  The colours I used were Worn Lipstick, Squeezed Lemonade, Salty Ocean and Wild Honey Distress Oxide Inks.  I did want the blue over the clock face which I managed to do fairly well, and then I added some extra colour over certain areas to strengthen the look using the same inks, i.e pink on the flowers and some honey colour over the bits of clock face, and I mixed the yellow with the blue to make a green shade to add to the leaves.  The colours won't look true but I felt it bought out some of the lovely deep embossing.  I finished by framing the piece with white card and added the gold embossed sentiment using WOW Metallic Gold Embossing Powder.

The second card  is for the CAS Mix Up Challenge which asks us to colour our die cuts, use stamping and a techique of our choice.  The die is a little turtle which I got from The Range.

 I used the piece of card which was left over after die cutting the frame above and I coloured it with some Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Fossilized Amber and also Salty Ocean Oxide ink using the same watercolouring technique as above.  I also decided to make some waves which I heat embossed using WOW Opaque Bright White EP using a Versamark pen.  I also did a bit of water bleaching, especially at the bottom which I hope looks a bit like the water's edge.  I then die cut the turtle from a piece of white card and backed it with another piece because I wanted the shell without the die cut holes, and actually it has given it a more ridged look.  I then coloured it using the Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio plus some Ground Espresso, using a waterbrush.   I finished by adding a dark green background layer and added the turtle using some Pinflair Glue Gel for dimension.  I then added the sentiment using Adirondack Bottle Ink.

I would like to have entered the CAS Christmas and Darnell's Twofer Challenge as well, but I know that with a busy time coming up I probably won't manage them as they end on Tuesday.  Do go take a look and maybe enter yourselves if you have some time over the weekend.  Whatever you are doing I hope you have an enjoyable one and I'll see you again soon.

Quick Cards Cacti, Succulents and Flowers

Hi there everybody.  Once a month over on the Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog they post some examples of quick cards, and if you would like to see more from some other members of the team please do go and take a look.  Here are my three cards using the Cacti and Succulent sets which were introduced recently.

This first card uses the Scrumptious Succulents and I made a smooshed background using Brushos in turquoise and yellow and then stamped three of the images from this set using Versamark and WOW Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder.  I then coloured using more Brusho powders by dropping a little on to my glass mat and mixing with water before colouring with a waterbrush.  This keeps the colours quite light.  I die cut the sentiment mat and added a sentiment from Blossom and Grow using Versafine Smokey Gray ink.

This second card uses the Captivating Cacti stamp.  I made a background using glossy card and three colours of alcohol inks, Indigo, Pool and Stonewashed by placing dots of it on to an alcohol ink blending tool, and then added some blending solution to them.  I swiped and dotted the tool over the card and finished up with this mix.  When dry which is almost immediate, I stamped the image in my Misti using Black Archival ink, second generation ink just to give a  light outline.  I allowed a little time to let it dry and then coloured very quickly with more of the alcohol inks with a small brush using Watermelon and Clover, and I think I also added some more Pool, but obviously because they are going over the blues the look of the colours were influenced by that.  I finished the middle of the flower with some Lemonade and I just dropped it straight into the centre to get maximum yellow coverage over the blue.  The Watermelon on the flower became purple because of the underlying blue too.   The original lines had got blurred by the added ink so I re-inked the stamp and placed the card back into the Misti and stamped it again which strengthened the outlines nicely.  When that was dry I added some white gel pen to the body of the cacti and the flower, and also a few of the foreground pebbles.  I finished with a sentiment from the Scrumptious Succulents set stamped with Versafine Majestic Blue ink on to a small spare piece of the background  backed with a piece of parchment die cut using two sizes of a set from The Works.  This was a fast card as you have to work extremely quickly as alcohol inks do not stay wet for long on ordinary glossy card which is different to Yupo paper.

The last card uses the Blossom and Grow set.  I had some alcohol ink left on my blending tool so I added some more blending solution and a little light green called Limeade, and then covered this piece of textured card.  I then dropped more blending solution on to the card which took away some of the colour.  When dry I stamped using Versafine Majestic Blue ink and coloured with my Lyra Aquamarkers.  I decided to leave it without a sentiment for now.

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

Script Heart Anniversary

Hi there.  This is an anniversary card which I made for my DH for our 36th anniversary last week.  I  had to make a card in a bit of a hurry as we were getting ready for a week away in Pembrokeshire, booked just a few days before going which left me short of time to make a card and consequently have only put it up now on our return.  Needless to say with the good weather we had a great time and the lovely sunny weather made the wonderful coastal scenery looking even more beautiful.  I will try and show a few photos once DH has sorted them out.

I used this heart shaped sentiment die by Lil'inkers which I was lucky enough to win over at Pixie's Playground back in February and had in mind to use it for our anniversary.

I kept it relatively simple with an inset die cut technique using a snippet of dark blue self adhesive glitter paper, and then cut the die again using a snippet of light blue card (unfortunately it looks grey in the photo, but in reality it is a lovely soft blue).  I cut the piece of blue card to fit the white base card before cutting the die into the card just a little above the centre, and making sure to keep all the little pieces which need to be put back into the words.

After cutting I adhered a snippet of card to the back of the piece of blue card behind the script which I had covered in Stick It adhesive, and then inset the blue glitter card words and then used the blue pieces to fill in the background, i.e. the loop of the 'l' and the 'y' and the middle of the 'e's and 'a's etc.

I then embossed using an XCut Hearts and Kisses Embossing Folder which had the added effect of pushing the pieces down firmly as well as adding the pretty pattern.  I ran it through twice to make a continuous pattern across.

I finished by adding this to the approximately 7 " square white card.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No. 330 where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - 178 All About Occasions.
Happy Little Stampers July Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.

Flowering Cactus

Hi everyone.  This was a relatively quick card to make as I already had this Brusho snippet in my stash and needed a birthday card so I stamped the cactus onto it using Archival Black Ink and heat set using WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  This is from a recently added set of stamps by Chocolate Baroque called Scrumptious Succulents.  There are actually three wonderful new designs featuring cacti, succulents and flowers.

I used Brushos on the background, Scarlet and Brilliant Red, Ultramarine and Lemon.  I also coloured the cactus with the Brushos using a waterbrush, and they covered the image well considering the background was quite a bright colour, although where I stamped in the middle was lighter.

I used orange, yellow and red for the flowers and yellow with the emerald green for the cactus itself.  I added white in places using a gel pen for highlights, and shaded around the cactus base with some brown to ground it.  I also darkened the yellow around the cactus itself to make it stand out more from the background.

I finished by adding the sentiment using Black Archival and heat set again using the Clear Gloss EP.  I die cut it using a Crealies Pierced Rectangle and backed it with a snippet of black card before mounting it on to an approximately 7" x 5" white card.

Thank you for joining me today.

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No 329 where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
Happy Little Stampers July Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes/Birthday.