Springtime Crocuses

Hi there.  It is time again for my Guest Designer spot over at Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog.  I know Spring is definitely a couple of months away but the bulbs start appearing soon, snowdrops followed by crocuses, and I have this pretty set of flowers and birds and in fact there are three sets featuring different birds as well as crocuses, daffodils and tulips, but as the crocuses appear earlier than the others I decided to use them for this card.  The set is called Spring Bird Crocus. What can be lovelier when everything is still rather wet and grey to see huge swathes of crocuses, in yellow and purple.

I started with the topper and stamped one of the crocus images and the little flower border four times on this 4" square piece of white card using Versafine Imperial Purple and then coloured them using a waterbrush with Distress Inks in Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord on the flower heads, and then the leaves using Scattered Straw and Mowed Lawn over the top.  I then blended the Scattered Straw and some Fossilised Amber and around the outside the Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord.  I also used a little dotty stamp which comes with the Freedom Flower set using the Dusty Concord and then a bit of Brilliance White over the top to lighten it a bit.

I then cut a larger square of white card and used one of the Texture Fragments to make an all over pattern using Peeled Paint Distress Ink and then used the dotty stamp all over with Fossilised Amber, followed by the Small Graph Paper all over that with Shaded Lilac ink.  I darkened the edges with this and the Dusty Concord.  To finish I added a sentiment stamped on a die cut stitched tag and attached it to the centre of the topper with a little of the two lilac and purple inks added for shading.

I will be back again next week with my second post, and there will be another the following week.  Thank you for coming to take a look today and I hope to see you again soon.  If you like what you see do go and take a look over at the Design Team Blog where there are new posts most days from the DT and the GDT to inspire you. 

More Chess Art

Hi everybody.  Another masculine birthday card to show you today using the Aall and Create stamp called Chess Art (No. 115).  I stamped it on to a piece of card which had some remnants of alcohol ink from the oxidised metal heart I did a while ago.  I had a piece of kitchen towel which got quite soaked with the Indigo alcohol ink and whilst it was fresh I found a piece of card lying on my table and I added some blending solution to the ink on the kitchen towel and then ran it over the piece of card until it was covered and it came out as a medium blue which I thought looked quite nice.

I stamped using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and then heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  In order to fit it on to the card I had to cut a bit off each end of the image, and then I decided to add a bit more ink to darken it round the edges so I blended some Salty Ocean and then a bit of Wilted Violet to brighten it a bit.  I then matted it onto black card before adding it to the white card and stamped a sentiment below it again using the Nocturne ink and heat embossed with the Clear Gloss EP.

Thank you for visiting today and I'll see you again soon.  I have been away in Dorset for a week and although I did do some visiting and commenting I have fallen behind a bit so will be catching up in the next day or two.  Quite enjoyed the break and though not cold the weather was rather wet.  The best day was yesterday when it actually stayed fine and we even managed some sun on and off throughout the day.

Lastly,  I have a new follower called Corry whose blog you will find here.  She had another blog which she had some problems with and unfortunately lost all her followers so is starting again with this new one, so do go and visit her. 

A Year in Cards

Hi there everybody.  Each year I choose twelve cards, one from each month, which represent my creative year, using some which I personally loved and those which seemed to be favourites of you all, so here goes.

              
                                                        

I also want to show the cards that I made for the two most important men in my life.  Unfortuately our son's card only arrived at his Sydney home a day or so ago, due in part to my being a little late sending it though sent by the date specified, and also the vagaries of Australia Post.  So here they are and they complete my cardmaking year.

This was made using a stamp by Studiolight and I stamped with Versafine Nocturne and Satin Red Inks  and the embossing folder is a Sheena Douglass one which doesn't seem to be available now, and over which I used silver wax.  I finished by matting it on to white and then red card and added the sentiment using Satin Red Versafine and also used Glossy Accents on the two baubles.

I am entering this into the challenge over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop where Di has a special Christmas draw going on, and I have used snippets of white and red card.  Thank you for all the great prizes on offer Di. 

Finally this is hubby's card.  I used a Clarity Woodland Stencil and Clarity brushes to add the ink for the background and the snow hills and slopes using one of the masks and  Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Ripe Persimmon, and then added the three deer using Black Soot Distress Ink applied with blending foam using the deer mask included in the Woodland set of Masks.  I finished by adding the sentiment using Versafine Deep Lagoon Ink over which I used WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder and darkened the edges with more Stormy Sky.

I hope you haven't fallen asleep throughout this rather lengthy post but I would just like to finish by saying that I value every one of my followers and all of you that visit and leave a comment when you can, you are all very important to me.  I would just like to wish you

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

and it goes without saying a wonderfully creative 2020

                                     

Flowers, a Tree and some Butterflies

Hi everybody.  Here are the last of the cards I made for last month's TV shows on Hochanda.  This first card features  the F is for... stamp set.  I stamped it on to white card using Versarmark Ink and heat embossed using WOW Platinum Metallic Embossing Powder.  I then coloured the flowers using Distress Inks in Candied Apple and Lucky Clover and cut it using a Crealies Pierced Rectangle Die, and finished by adding the sentiment inking up just the 'abulous' and again using Versamark and the Platinum EP.

I then moved on to the background using some alcohol inks and metallic mixatives in Oregano, Clover and Terra Cotta, plus Pearl and Rose Gold Mixative for some metallic shine.  I finished by adding both to a 7" x 5" white card.

My second card features the Butterfly Mind stamp set and I started with the background using my Brushos - Brilliant Red and Purple.  I put some on to my glass mat, one colour at a time, mixed with some water and dragged the white card through it, drying before adding another layer.  I then stamped the image using Versafine Imperial Purple Ink and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I then cut round each of the three butterflies to raise the wings and took the white off the edges of the apertures left after partially cutting the butterflies and round the edges and back of the butterfly wings using Spun Sugar Distress Ink.  I finished by adding two of the sentiments from the set again using the Imperial Purple Ink and Clear Gloss EP.  I then cut a coordinating mat from purple card and layered it on to a white card.

My last  one is an ATHeart using the Harmony Tree set.  I coated the greyboard with some white acrylic paint but you don't have to, you can use the inks straight on to it, and then when dry stamped the tree using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and then heat embossed using WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I coloured the tree and background using some Distress Inks and a waterbrush including Salty Ocean, Ground Espresso and Twisted Citron and Lucky Clover mixed together.  I wasn't sure this would work but it looked OK and then I added some of the words from the two sets of trees again using the Nocturne Ink and the Clear Gloss EP.  Finally I covered the whole thing with Versamark Ink and heat embossed it with the Clear Gloss EP, and then did the whole process again to give a nice shiny finish.

Trees for All Seasons and a Scripted Flower

Hi everybody.  Here are some cards I made for Chocolate Baroque's TV shows on Hochanda last month. This first card features one of these pretty new tree stamps called O is for... using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and then heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I coloured it using my Distress Inks in Twisted Citron and Lucky Clover used together for the leaves, and Brushed Corduroy for the trunks and some Blueprint Sketch with a little of the green and well watered down to soften it, and more of the greens for the foreground grass.  I used a sentiment from the
Remembrance Tree set and split it into two placing one bit at the top and the rest at the bottom, also stamped with the Versafine Clair and heat embossed with the Clear Gloss EP.

I did add an extra tree to the scene placing it to the left and did it such that I didn't have to mask anything.  Doing it in my Misti helped me to work out approimately how much of the tree would be needed to fill the space and I stamped it gradually until I had the tree looking right and filling the space nicely.  This Versafine Clair stays wet longer and allowed me to do all this and still heat emboss it, though I did this as an after thought so the rest of the scene had already been heat embossed.  I finished the topper by die cutting it with a pierced rectangle die.

I then moved on to the background which I die cut with a slightly bigger pierced rectangle.  I then added a border using the numbers from the Small Graph Paper set repeated along the top and bottom, and then added the little tree from the O is for set, stamping and heat embossing with the same black Versafine Clair ink.  I used the two green distress inks also used on the topper blended around the edges and then mounted it all on to a white card raising up the topper using some craft foam for dimension.

My next was made using stamps from across the sets.  I made a background with Brushos in Orange and Brown and whilst it was drying I stamped the new Freedom Flower in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and the words I inked up with Versafine Habanero which worked pretty well.  I then heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I now finished the flower with Scarlet Brusho added with a waterbrush.  I cut it out and stamped over it with the spatter stamp from Butterfly Mind using some Ripe Persimmon DI. 

I then found a piece of black card and I stamped the plain film strip from Butterfly Mind using Versamark and heat embossed it with WOW Opaque Bright White EP.  I cut the background down to the finished size of 61/2" square and I used some more habanero with the splatter stamp from the same set and just stamped it randomly.  I took the mesh/net square from the Small Graph Paper set and stamped and heat embossed this, again with the black Versafine Clair, and then took the flora definition stamp from F is for and did it twice top and bottom and filled the side in with the chain strip but didn't emboss these.   I then decided to darken the edges of the background with some Salty Ocean DI applied with a blending sponge and a bit more Ripe Persimmon inside that.   I added some more splatters also using Ripe Persimmon, and I finished by adding a sentiment from F is for at the bottom using the Nocturne ink and heat embossed again with the WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I then put the card together as you can see.

This last card for now features another new stamp called Remembrance Tree which I decided to use in a winter scene.  I placed the tree and stamped and embossed it with Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink  heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I decided to have a nice bright sky so got out my Distress Inks and started with the Wilted Violet, then Salty Ocean and finishing at the horizon with the Chipped Sapphire applied using a waterbrush and the first two colour starting at the top with diagonal strokes and then finishing with the darkest colour along the horizon.  I added very diluted Wilted Violet and Salty Ocean as a shadow under the tree and finished with a sentiment  from Let's Get Festive set of sentiments applying the same Nocturne Ink and then heat embossed again using the Clear Gloss EP.

Finally I added some snow on the branches and snowflakes with a Sigma Gel Pen and mounted it on to a piece of dark blue card before mounting it on to the white base card.

Thank you for joining me today and I hope to see you again soon.  This is an appropriate card to finish with as I want to wish my followers and everyone who visits me here a very:

   MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a
    HAPPY NEW YEAR    

                    

                                                          

Winter Trees

Hi everybody.  This one layer card uses the Impression Obsession stamp Birds on Trees which I have adapted to give it the winter feel by adding some snow on the branches and also some falling snow using a white gel pen.  I used some Distress Inks blended using a blending tool which were a small amount of Salty Ocean in the sky and some Black Soot around the edges, and also added some Ripe Persimmon around the sun which was done with Adirondack Sunshine Yellow.  

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes.
Artistic Stamper - Christmas is Coming.
Uniko Challenge - No. 56 Christmas.

Glitzy Tree

Hi everyone.  This is a card made using the Studiolight Stamp (No. 394)  and also the freebie Poinsettia Embossing Folder.  I bought a couple of different designs of these recently as I was way behind with my cards and thought these would be quite good for batch making in different colours.

I embossed the poinsettia background on to white card and I then highlighted the embossing and surrrounding area using a copper wax blended on to it using my finger.  I then stamped the tree using Versamark Ink and heat embossed using WOW Green Glitter EP and attached it to a white card.  I added some drops of Red Berry Nuvo drops as baubles to finish it.

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