Framed Silhouette Sympathy

Hi everyone.  Unfortunately I have had to make a sympathy card for a more distant family member.  I decided to use some silhouette flowers using a stamp from Crafty Individuals called Ornamental Grasses Silhouette and made an embossed frame around it.

I used a piece of card just a little smaller than my go to 6" square white card and embossed the sets of triple lines on three sides equally but making the bottom set of higher up to allow for the sentiment.  I used Versafine Clair Nocturne ink for both the flowers and the sentiment and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then added some soft colouring with a brush using some Fossilised Amber distress ink for the setting sun sweeping it in a tight circle before covering with a mask and added the Stormy Sky and a little Victorian Velvet Distress Ink to the bottom.  I finished with a sentiment stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder, and decided that in this particular case  a 'thinking of you' sentiment was better and  I didn't want any strong bright colour so used a more subtle colour palette, not my normal..lol.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - No. 316 All About Occasions. 
Crafty Creations May Challenge - No. 421 Anything Goes.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Frame It.
Stamplorations May CAS Challenge - Anything CAS Goes (no twist).

  

Bold Blooms Birthday

Hi everybody.  I have a card today using one of the Woodware Bold Blooms stamps called Isabella, which I was lucky enough to win recently over at The Playground, coloured using Distress Inks, and don't faint with the shock, but I used a slimline card for a change.  I have a few 8" square cards and I cut it down to 4" wide.  I have decided as an experiment to follow the trend to display a card in a slightly different way and will see how it goes but I still think there are occasions when having a photo of a card square on is better.   I showed hubby several different presentations of this card in my photos, and hubby thought this was the best, so the jury's out as they say.

I used one of the off cut pieces from the side of the card which were the same width as the card and stamped using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink heat embossed using WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I decided on the purple and teal colour scheme so that I could enter the present Colour Hues Challenge.  I didn't have teal so I used Peacock Feathers and also some Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord and Wilted Violet for the purple tones and mixed in some purple into the blue for shading on the leaves, and applied the inks from my mat using a waterbrush.  I think it would have been better to put some more blue into the mix as in the daylight today the tones are definitely more green than I thought they were but I will go with it.  I finished with some washy Peacock Feathers around the image and added some splatters using Dusty Concord and added the sentiment with the Nocturne ink and again heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP. 

Before I go I just wanted to say that I recently had two of my posts taken down and I was informed by e-mail that these two posts violated guidelines, but subsequently were in their words reevaluated and reinstated and restored to my drafts, and I have put them back up where they were, luckily still with comments and links so all OK.

It is a mystery to me why these two posts were picked out but really I am suggesting that everyone does a backup because there is a chance that instead of a couple of posts it could be the whole blog, and for me personally, and everyone else I'm sure, this would be extremely upsetting.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

AAA Birthday Challenge - No. 25 Happy Birthday (congratulations on their 2nd Birthday).
Happy Little Stampers May Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations May Challenge - Beautiful Blooms.
NBUS Challenge - No. 26 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Colour Hues Challenge - No. 18 Purple and Teal.

Tall Ship Birthday

Hi everyone.  I recently got the latest Creative Stamping Magazine with the Message in a Bottle set of stamps and a stencil with waves, hearts and shells, and made this masculine card with them for a family birthday using the waves on the stencil and the sailing ship, shells and starfish, but there are also some bottles in which you can place different images and lots of other sea related ones and also some flowers for more feminine cards.

I started with the background using Turquoise and Ultramarine Brushos and Peacock Pixie Powder sprinkled on to my glass mat and spritzed with water before laying the stencil card over and moving it around to cover it.  I then added the stencilled waves using Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink added to the card applied with a blending tool.

I then inked up the tall ship stamp using Versafine Deep Lagoon ink on to a stitched die cut circle and ink blended the clouds with the ink left on the blending sponge using a small cloud mask I made myself, and then added the water with a bit of the Deep Lagoon ink and also coloured the hull of the boat with it, sponging very carefully.  I also added the little birds in the sky with the inked end of a pokey tool.   I then stamped the different shells from the stamp set again using the Versafine Deep Lagoon ink and fussy cut them out, and gave them some soft colour with the inked blending sponge before adding them around the left hand edge of the circle.  It is amazing how far the residue ink on the sponge goes.

I finished by adding the 'Happy Birthday' from the set on to the banner which actually comes with a different sentiment on it, but I inked just the banner and in order to fit the birthday sentiment on to  it I inked and extended the straight edges to the length I needed and then added the end pieces.  I wasn't sure this would work as I did it with an acrylic block but luckily it was more or less OK and a bit of ink blended over the top hid most of the imperfections.  I then added this all on to my 6" square white card as you can see.  

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers May Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 404 Any Occasion.
NBUS Challenge - No. 26 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge - No. 270 Monochromatic.
The Male Room Challenge - No. 150 Water/Beach.