Punky and Fluttering Hearts

Hi everybody.  Here are another three cards I made for Chocolate Baroque's Hochanda Shows with a love theme this time but also with a steampunk flavour to some of them.  My first card features the Punky Hearts set of stamps.

I decided to use the balloon so watercoloured the background using Salty Ocean and Squeezed Lemonade Oxide Inks.  I laid the inks down on to my glass mat and added some water and put some yellow on first, dried it and then some of the blue, and did this several times.  I then stamped the balloon onto the background, minus the three little flags at the bottom, using Versafine Majestic Blue Ink and then matted this background on to a piece of dark blue card.

I then stamped the balloon on to  piece of white card using Versafine Majestic Blue Ink and added colour using more of the Squeezed Lemonade Oxide Ink and some Carved Pumpkin with some Candied Apple Distress Ink over the top as I decided I wanted it darker, and then just the Candied Apple on the little flowers, and then fussy cut the balloon envelope and also the flowers and basket and added these on to the base image.  I the stamped the vertical hearts using the same ink and coloured in the same way and cut these out and added them to the image.  I finished by adding one of the sentiments from the set on to the heart using the same blue ink.


The next card features the Punky Hearts set and the flower in particular.

I started by using my Crealies Pierced Rectangle set of dies to cut a rectangle from white card just a bit bigger than the flower.  I then coloured it using Victorian Velvet Distress Ink in the centre and Bundles Sage around the outside, and to darken it a bit of Peeled Paint around the edges.  I stamped the image using Versafine Onyx Black and coloured the image with the same colours using a Wink of Stella Clear pen to add sparkly to the colour on my mat before applying it with the pen.  I then covered the image with a piece of paper and spritzed with water to bleach out some of the colour.  I must say some of my splatters were rather larger than I had anticipated, but it suits the steampunk design.

I finished by adding a sentiment from the A Heart Full of Love set using Versafine Smokey Gray Ink and then layered the image on to black and then pink card before adding it to the white card.


The last card was made with the Fluttering Hearts set of stamps.  I started by stamping the large butterfly heart on to a piece of white card which I had die cut with a stitched square from The Works, and gold embossed it with WOW Gold Metallic Embossing Powder.  I coloured it using Crushed Olive, Carved Pumpkin and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks.  I finished by adding a sentiment from the set also gold embossed.

 I cut the background to the correct size for the card and gold embossed the heart flowers with the bird and butterfly several times across the card bottom taking the image off the card.  I then blended Crushed Olive ink over the embossing taking it beyond the embossing and fading it out towards the top and just inking the edges.  I finished by spritzing to make some water bleached spatters.

I glued this to the card, and then added the image square but gave it some dimension by adding a piece of foam to the back.

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

Love and Romance

Hi everyone.  These are some of the cards which I made for last month's Chocolate Baroque TV shows.  They all have a love theme this time.  For my first card I used a new stamp set called A Heart Full of Love, and a couple of the heart backgrounds stamps were from the Floral Heart set.

I started by stamping and heat embossing a flowery heart from the A Heart Full of Love set using WOW Bright White Embossing Powder, and also a separate spray of flowers which can be used just as it is or decoupaged on to the front of the heart.  I coloured the spray of flowers using Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers, Lucky Clover and Hickory Smoke Distress Inks.  I then coloured the background heart using Broken China and Dusty Concord Distress Inks.  I then mounted the flowers on to the heart using Pinflair Glue Gel for dimension.  I die cut a stitched square using my usual set from The Works and blended the Dusty Concord Ink all over it, and I also matted this on to a piece of white card and added a piece of foam to the back to give it more height on the card.  I also stamped one of the sentiments from the set using Versafine Smokey Gray Ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP.

I then started the background by dragging a piece of white card, cut just a little bit smaller than my white base card, through some inks added to my glass mat and spritzed with water.  I used the same colours, Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers and Dusty Concord.  It does look a bit different because the blue tended to mix with the yellow, so it has more of a greeny tinge.  I did dry in between layers and I added extra layers until I was happy with it.  I then dried it thoroughly before adding a sentiment randomly placed and stamped using Peacock Feathers, and then one of the bubble hearts from the Floral Heart set heat embossed with the white, followed by another bubble heart stamp from the Floral Heart set stamped with the Dusty Concord, which I also blended round the edges of the background before adding it to my white card.


This second card was made using the Punky Romance stamp set.   Steampunk style is not something I am immediately comfortable with, but these stamps give steampunk a slightly softer edge and I really love them.

I started with the main image and stamped and heat embossed the large 'Love' sentiment using WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then coloured the background using Dark Brown, Orange and Turquoise Brushos.  I sprinkled one colour at a time and built up the colour.  I didn't want too much brown so added the orange over the top, and then just the blue at the top letting the colours overlap.  I used a lot of water and the brown especially seeped under the gloss on the lettering a bit, but I thought it added to the overall look.  I finished the topper by adding the background image stamping with Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink, and I coloured the images using my Spectrum Noir pencils, and then matted this on to a piece of black card.

I then used two of the smaller images on the background layer heat embossing with WOW Metallic Copper Embossing Powder and then blended Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink over the top fading it out beyond the embossing, but I did ink the rest of the edge with some of the ink just to make it stand out from the background white card.


The third card also features the Punky Romance set of stamps.  I also used my gelli plate to start the background off using Lucky Clover and Fossilized Amber Distress Inks, with the green round the outside and some yellow in the centre.  I then added a bit of Pine Needles DI around the edges too.

I started adding the background stamping using more of the Pine Needles but second generation stamping using the harlequin butterfly and the cogs and flowers.  They do merge a bit as I didn't want to  add in any more colours.  I then finished by addig the heart with the wings over the top, heat embossed using WOW Metallic Gold Embossing Powder, and then added the sentiment which comes from the Fluttering Hearts set using Versafine Majestic Blue Ink, and adhered it to a complementary blue mat before adding it to the white base card.

Thank you for stopping to take a look today and I will be back soon with with a few more to show you.

CAS Poppies for April

Hi everybody.  I adore poppies and so this month's CAS Watercolour Card Challenge, run by Loll and Bonnie, is right up my street...lol.  I saw this very traditional poppy image by Sheena Douglass from her A Little Bit Sketchy range called Perfect Poppies, and so I just had to get it to use for the challenge and it was really lovely to colour.

I used Candied Apple, Fired Brick, Carved Pumpkin, Dusty Concord and Peeled Paint Distress Inks applied with a waterbrush.  I then cut the mat with a Crealies Pierced Rectangle and then on another piece of white card I cut this again using the same size die and one a size smaller to make a frame to place over the top.

I then finished it with a gold embossed sentiment and adhered it to a  7" x 5" white card.

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

I am also entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Beautiful Blooms.
Uniko Challenge - No. 52 Spring (no twist).
Stamping Sensations - April Showers Bring May Flowers (flowers/flowers and showers).
Penny Black and More April Challenge - Spring.
Craft Stamper Take It Make It April Challenge - Anything Goes.
Artistic Stamper - New Growth.

Quick Card for April

Hi there.  This is a quick card that I have made for the Chocolate Baroque mid month 15 Minute Card post.  I have used the dandelion clock and the harlequin butterfly images from the Punky Romance set of stamps and also some Distress Inks for both the background and the stamping.  This was quite rough and ready stamping and I didn't want it to look too precise being a quick card it is what it is as the saying goes.

I cut a piece of white cardstock into a tall rectangle shape and after laying some inks in Broken China and Dusty Concord down on to my glass mat which I spritzed with water, I dragged the card through the wet ink to take up the colour, using more of the blue than the purple.  After it was dry I stamped the dandelion clock image with the Dusty Concord, and then stamped again roughly over the top with Carved Pumpkin and Abandoned Coral for a brighter look.  I then added the harlequin butterfly image, inking just the bit around the butterfly, using more Dusty Concord, but this time I spritzed the stamp with water for a more watercolour effect and stamped it a second time with just the remaining ink on the stamp.  I also stamped the dandelion clock image on to the base card along the bottom using this purple ink.

I finished by mounting the image on to a piece of purple foil which I adhered to another piece of white card for added strength, and stamped a sentiment on to the top of the image again using the purple ink.  I then added this to the base card.

Thank you stopping to take a look today and see you again soon.

Steampunkery Penny Farthing

Hi all.  I had in mind to make a card for a upcoming masculine birthday using my alcohol inks on Yupo paper with some stamping which is what I did but wasn't sure that it was good enough to send, but have decided to show it here and see what you all think.  I used the Steampunkery set from Chocolate Baroque, and I eventally made another card to send using the same set which you will see on a future blog post, but I used another stamp for that instead.

I started with the alcohol ink background.  I dropped several shades of blue on to the yupo paper with some blending solution and used a brush to move it about.  I started with Indigo but it was far too dark so gradually added more solution and covered with mainly Stonewashed with a little Pool, and then Lemonade and Butterscotch for the sun.  I wanted to make it  a little bit surreal so I pushed the yellow around a bit and on the surrounding sky in those lines you see as I think it gives the feeling of movement.  When dry I added the winged penny farthing using Black Archival ink and using my Misti I was able to ink it up quite a few times but I still feel it is rather patchy and some bits look darker than others.  I was going to use Versafine but I wasn't sure that it would dry on the yupo so stayed with the Archival.  I mounted it on to black card and then on a 6" square white card and for now decided to leave it without a sentiment as I'm still not sure if I would send it to anyone anyway especially as it was a bit of an experiment having painted but not stamped on the yupo before.

It would have been better to heat embossed the image but this yupo is very thin and does not like the heat gun.  It is a recent acquisition and I obviously didn't read the description properly where it plainly says 85gsm which is only like the thickness of copy paper so no wonder it won't heat emboss.

On a different subject, I have a lot of  spare 7" square white envelopes which I don't need, and also some 8" square ones too.  Due to a lack of space I buy just one size of white cards and cut them down to suit and buy a couple of sizes of envelopes i.e. 6" square and 7" x 5" which are the two main sizes I make.  Before sending them for recycling I thought I would see if anyone in the UK has need of this size of envelope.  I have 'comment moderation' switched on so if you would like some just leave me a message there and I will get back to you.  I do occasionally make my own cards but I am basically lazy and much prefer just picking up a pre-folded card.

Lastly before saying goodbye, I have a new follower called Lia who I can't find any details for, so Lia if you would like to get in touch by leaving me a comment (as mentioned I have comment moderation), leaving your details and then I will give you a shout out on here.

Thanks for visiting today and I will see you again soon.

Mannequins and Haberdashery

Here are the final three cards I made for the Chocolate Baroque February TV shows.  The first is made with the Floral Mannequins set.

I started with the background and blended Twisted Citron and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks on to it using a blending tool.  I then stamped the flower randomly using water spritzed on to the stamp to bleach out the colour leaving the shape of the flower on the inked background, and I added the lace stamp tone on tone in between the flowers.  

I stamped the left hand border several times on to white card using Dusty Concord Distress ink and fussy cut them out and coloured with the same colours as I used in the background well watered down for a softer effect.  I then joined them into a border and covered with a piece of lilac ribbon and added the bow.  I then stamped the mannequin stand using Versafine Onyx Black Ink, heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder, and then fussy cut it out.  I added one of the flowery mannequin tops also stamped using the Dusty Concord and then heat embossed this with the Clear Gloss EP.  I then coloured the flowers and leaves with colours already used plus a bit of Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  Similarly the two pin cushions, the two cotton reels and the flowers, all watercoloured with a waterbrush.  I did just use the black ink on the safety pin before cutting it out, but decided to heat emboss it, so I covered it with Versamark and then used WOW Gold Metallic EP, and did this twice to build up the metallic finish.  I mounted the pieces on to the card and added the sentiment using Versafine Onyx Black and covered with Clear Gloss EP.  Really it is not adviseable to use a water based ink to stamp and colour with as the water may blur the outlines, but it can work as long as you don't use too much water and disturb the outlines as little as possible.

I am entering the above card in the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No. 349 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.  (There are a lot of snippets used here on the mannequin and stand, the ribbon and the border, the flowers and the small haberdashery items)

The second card uses one of the mannequins from the Haberdashery set, and the background made with the Folk Art Garden set.

I stamped and cut out the tag from white card, cutting a piece off the bottom, and then I used some Brushos, some Yellow and Purple,  shaken very sparingly on to the tag and well spritzed with water to give just a softly coloured slightly vintage looking background.  I then stamped the image and heat embossed with WOW Gold Metallic EP.  I watercoloured using some of the Purple Brusho for the top, and watered down a bit more for the strip up the front, and Brush Corduroy DI for the top and stand.  I made a hole with a punch and threaded a piece of orange spotty ribbon through it.  I then coloured the background using Carved Pumpkin DI blended using a blending tool and added the Folk Art Garden stamp using the same ink for a tone on tone look.

The last card was made using the Floral Mannequins set for the background panels, and the sewing machine and large scissors from the Haberdashery set.

I started with the background using Aquamarine and Turquoise Brushos sprinkled and spritzed  on to Velvet card.  I then stamped and heat embossed the panels using WOW Gold Metallic EP and blended Blueprint Sketch DI on to them using a blending tool.  I cut the panels to fit each side of the background.  I then die cut a circle from more white card using some stitched dies from The Works.  I added the sewing machine stamped using Blueprint Sketch DI and then heat embossed with Clear Gloss EP, and did the same with the scissors.  I then blended a bit of the same ink around the circle and on the blades of the scissors.  I finished with a sentiment strip again stamping the sentiment with the same blue ink and heat embossed with the Clear Gloss EP.