Folk Art Garden and some Haberdashery

Hi everyone.  I haven't been doing any crafting for the last couple of weeks as we have had our son staying from Australia and have been making the most of his visit as he is flying back this coming weekend, so for now here are two of the cards I made for the February Chocolate Baroque TV shows on Hochanda.

This is a new stamp set called The Folk Art Garden, and this is the main image which is very large and has a lot of detail.  I used a piece of Velvet Card  and stamped the image using Versamark and then heat embossed using WOW Silver Metallic Embossing Powder.  I decided to colour it using Brusho Powders which I sprinkled on to my glass mat and applied the colour using a waterbrush.  I used Orange, Brilliant Red, Turquoise, Purple, Yellow, Leaf Green and Emerald Green, and before gluing it to the white card I added some watered down Broken China Distress Ink to the background, and then added a bit more blended round the edges with a blending tool.  I finished by adding one of the sentiments stamped and heat embossed using the same Silver Metallic Embossing Powder.

This card uses the Haberdashery set of stamps.

I have recently acquired a Gina K Wreath Builder stencil as part of a prize which I was luck enough to win, and I decided to go off piste a bit and use the smaller of the pairs of scissors in the set which have a lovely ornate shape, and using the stencil built up the shape which I think looks a bit like a mandala.  I stamped using Versafine Majestic Blue Ink on to a snippet of card coloured with Salty Ocean and Wild Honey Oxide Ink.  I finished the topper by colouring the scissors using Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and I emphasided the centre where all the tips of the scissors cross with some Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink, and a bit more Spiced Marmalade in the centre.  I layered this on to a snippet of blue card.  Simply, the Gina K Stencil has has eight indents where you seat the card, and using a stamp positioner you lay the stamp where you want it to be on the card and as you turn the card within the stencil you get a repeat pattern in a circular shape.

I then started on the background.  I mounted the two thimbles and the four different buttons on to an acrylic block in a random fashion and stamped them all round the edge of the snippet of white card using the Majestic Blue Ink, and then coloured them with Twisted Citron, Broken China, Blueprint Sketch and Fossilized Amber Distress Inks.  I finished by adding some more Fossilized Amber and Broken China round the edges using a blending tool, which obviously mixed to give a green colour.  I then added the white on blue sentiment using another snippet of the blue card, and heat embossed using WOW Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder and mounted this on to my white square base card.

I also want to introduce a new follower to the blog called Marjan who does some really interesting and beautiful work and you will find her blog here, and I'm sure she would be delighted to have you visit her.

Thank you for visiting today and I will be back again soon with some more of my sewing themed makes.

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No. 348 where we use our snippets of paper and card etc.

15 Minute Cards for March

Hi all.  Here are three quick cards that I made for the 15 Minute Card Post over at the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog.  The first was made using the The Sewing Room set of stamps.

I made a background with Cracked Pistachio and Blueprint Sketch Distress Inks spritzed and the card laid over to pick up the ink, doing this several times to cover.  I then added the borders using the Blueprint Sketch DI and stamped them twice joining them up, which luckily worked quite well using my Misti, and trimmed the background and added some extra blue ink using the blending tool.  I then stamped one of the mannequins with the same ink and watercoloured it lightly with the two inks using a waterbrush being careful not to be too heavy handed so that I didn't blur the outlines as I had used water based inks to stamp and colour, and I also added the sentiment with the same blue.

This next card features stamps from the Haberdashery set.  I started with a gelli plate background using a mixture of white acrylic paint and some Scarlet Brusho mixed in and brayered on to the plate and then the coloured transferred to the piece of white card.  I then covered the plate with Aquamarine Brusho mixed in to the white, and using the four buttons from the set I laid them in a row on an acrylic block and using the same blue paint I stamped them on all four sides of the gelli plate before laying the card over and adding this new colour to the print.   The paint dries so fast that by the time I pulled the print again a lot of the blue was dry and it only left patches and a faint impression of the buttons, but I thought the finish was interesting, so I left it like that.  I added one of the mannequins, three of the buttons in each of the corners and the sentiment using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.  I then stamped the smaller of the scissors across each corner and randomly stamped the sentiment all over the background using Twisted Citron Distress Ink, and I also added some of the same colour blended around the edges.  I finished by colouring the mannequin with pink, and the scissors and buttons with pink and green pencil, and mounted it on to a 6" square card.

My last card was made with a piece of white card stamped with another of the mannequins from the Haberdashery set of stamps, and the background stamped using the Floral Mannequins and for both Faded Jeans Distress Ink, and then smooshed using Leaf Green and Emerald Brushos.  The inked image did fade a little with the addition of the water but held up surprisingly well.  I then layered it on to a piece of blue card and added it to a 7" x 5" white card on which I stamped both the frilled and floral lace pieces as a background to the topper, and finished with a sentiment, all stamped with the same blue ink.

Thanks for looking at my blog today and I really appreciate all your visits and comments, and if you would like more inspiration you will find new posts most days from members of the DT and GDT over on the Design Team Blog.

Perching Kingfisher

Hi there.  Here is a recent birthday card for one of the chaps in our extended family, and I decided to use this Kingfisher from the A Little Bit Sketchy range by Sheena Douglass.  There is nothing so beautiful as seeing that flash of blue and orange as it swoops over the water, not that I have actually seen one myself, but I would love to one day.  This is its first inking and I have to admit I more or less followed the picture on the packing for the colours, but I'm quite pleased with the result.

I started with the background which is alcohol inks on Yupo paper.  I wanted water and sky so I used a mixture of Stonewashed and Pool in the sky and more of these two plus Clover and Limeade for the water, and also some Blending Solution.  I also added a little white Posca pen smudged with the finger to look like spray on the water, but may be it looks too faint to see it.

I then stamped the Kingfisher on to a piece of white card using Versafine Smokey Gray ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder and coloured with my Distress Inks using Carved Pumpkin, Abandoned Coral, Blueprint Sketch, Lucky Clover and Brushed Corduroy applied with a waterbrush from ink put on to my glass mat.  I then fussy cut it out.  I thought I would add a little Wink of Stella on the wings and the head to add a bit of iridescence, not sure that it did a lot and it definitely doesn't show in the photo.

I decided to make a window for the background which I die cut from some more white card, cut using my square dies from The Works cut just a little bit smaller than my 6" square white base card and I added the sentiment using more of the Smokey Gray ink heat embossed with the Clear Gloss EP.  I fixed the alcohol ink background behind the aperture and fixed the bird to it too.

This was not trouble free as I forgot that the card had to fit into an envelope of just over 6" square.  There was a little swearing at this stage when I realised the bird was stuck not to be removed and it was sticking out over the edge too far, so after a little thought I decided to trim a bit of the left hand side of the aperture layer and also the side and bottom of the white card.  This made the card a bit smaller,  and also with a bit off the poor bird's tail feathers it just fits...what a palaver...lol.  I then adhered this piece to the white card.

Sorry for this rather lengthy discussion on how 'not' to make a card, but thank you for joining me today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
The Male Room Challenge - No. 105 Anything Goes/No Designer Paper.
Seize the Birthday Challenge - No 160 Anything Goes.