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Wednesday 30 April 2014

April Rudolph Day

This challenge is run by Sarn over at Stamping for Pleasure and tomorrow is the last day for this month's entries.  Since the beginning of the year I have intended to enter but it hasn't happened.  I recently acquired some stamps from Claritystamp called Winter Wonderland which have inspired me to get my finger out and get my cards made in time, if only just in time, for this month's challenge.


These two cards are in fact polar opposites, as card one was quite involved and took quite a bit of time to achieve, so I then, realising time was of the essence, decided to make the second much more of a CAS card.

The first card I am entering in a couple of other challenges on it's own so please see the next post for the details of how I made it.

The second card was actually a test sheet I did which when I got to adding the deer went a bit wrong so I decided to cut it down.  The only difference with this was that over the Archival Black ink I added some WOW Clear EP and heat embossed it.  This nice shiny finish doesn't actually show in the photo.  I decided that the snow scene would probably look better without the embossing.  I decided to leave the sentiment off at present as I may buy some new sentiments to use on this year's cards.

Before I go I would like to introduce you to Cathy - Cathys Card Spot, and Lynne - Lynnes Bows and Belles who have become followers, and thank you both very much.  Please go over to their blogs and see the wonderful work which they both produce.

I am entering these cards in the following challenge:

Stamping for Pleasure - Rudolph Day, where the challenge is to produce two Christmas cards.

As I said earlier I have split the post to make it easier to enter the other two challenges, so please look at the next post for more detail on the first card.

Monochromatic Winter Wonderland

This card uses a lovely Claritystamp set called Winter Wonderland.  These stamps by Barbara Gray are some of the best made and designed stamps I have ever seen.  For those of you who do not know anything about Clarity, these stamps have Barbara's patented handle and are clear photopolymer, hence the name.


I used Black Archival ink and white stamping card, and for the shadows Memento London Fog which seemed a little pale so I then added a bit of Memento Tuxedo Black which I also used over the foliage around the top and sides, applied with blending foam.  The foliage is actually the branches of the tree stamp.

To finish I mounted on black card and the on to an approximately 6 inch square card.  I decided to leave the sentiment off  the card as I thought it was probably better to put a sentiment on just the inside.

I am entering the following challenges:
 
Claritystamp where the challenge is Monochromatic.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop  where the challenge is to use snippets/scraps of paper and card, and I have used snippets of white and black card.

Thanking you for looking at my blog today.

Pat x

Monday 21 April 2014

Underwater World

Hi to everyone, and I hope you are having a good Easter weekend.  The card I have chosen to show you today uses a technique that is not a new one, but which is new to me, and uses tissue paper to give a nice textured surface.  The stamps are a set from Crafty Individuals - Seaside Treasures  from which I used some of the shells and starfish, a sentiment and the lovely seahorse.




To start the background I used a scrap/snippet of white card, and a snippet of tissue paper which I scrunched up, opened back out and stuck with a wet glue to the card trying not to flatten it out too much.  I used a selection of inks to colour - Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers, and Adirondack Ink - Lettuce, and Memento Inks - Nautical Blue and Bamboo Leaves.  The shells and starfish were stamped on to snippets of white card using Memento - London Fog and coloured with inks and a water brush using the Nautical Blue and Adirondack - Sunshine Yellow, and for the seahorses I used the Sunshine yellow and DI - Spiced Marmalade, and a little Nautical Blue.  These inks were well watered down to keep the colours reasonably light so they harmonise but don't merge into the background too much.  I cut all the pieces out and before placing I decided to darken the bottom area with a bit more of the dark blue to the bottom and the sides, and added some touches of the green to look a bit like underwater foliage.  Luckily the Memento ink pads are triangular which makes it easy to use the ink straight from the pad.  As a final touch I used a Letraset fine line pen to add a little more definition to the background and to the seahorses etc.  I added the sentiment using Memento - Tuxedo Black.

Finally I glued the seahorses and shells etc. using Pinflair Glue Gel, and looking at it again I thought some bubbles might look good.  When showing my DH the card he said he didn't think seahorses blew bubbles, but I think they add something to the finished look.   I don't know what you think, but I quite like the effect although mine are not as stylish and beautiful as those Ryn produces, but for a first try I think they are ok.  There is a rather dark area on the left where I overdid the blue shading rather, and sometimes it's knowing when to stop messing with something and to call it done, but overall I'm happy with it.

Hopefully I will have a bit more time this week and it won't be so long between posts.  Anyway, thank you for stopping by today and taking an interest in my meanderings.

Pat x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop where we have to use some scraps/snippets, which I have on this card.
Crafty Individuals - Nature's Beauty.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Animal Antics.  They did say including birds and insects, so hopefully my seahorses will count as well.


Friday 11 April 2014

Good Luck

Hi all.  Today's card is a good luck card for someone who is running in the London Marathon on Sunday.  Her name is Louise who lives just down the road from me, and she is running for Children with Cancer UK.  She is a lovely lady and I have seen her pounding the streets round here preparing for this epic run for quite a few months, and I see from her donation page that she has managed to raise £2,175.80 which I think is fantastic, and I'm sure we all wish her well for Sunday.

Luckily I have a sweet little four leaf clover which came as part of a set from Chocolate Baroque - Lily and also in the set is a little silhouette leaf which I incorporated into the background too.  I also used a great alphabet set from Clarity Stamp.  In  addition I used Adirondack inks - Lettuce, Bottle, Sunshine Yellow, Butterscotch and Espresso, and also Memento - Bamboo Leaves.


I stamped the clover leaf in Bamboo Leaves, Bottle and Lettuce, and the silhouette leaf with Espresso, for variation on some of the leaves I used second generation ink.   I did colour the clover slightly with the relevant colour ink, but actually after then using the different inks on the background and obviously over the top of the stamped images it doesn't really show.  When happy with the background I mounted it on to a snippet of bottle green card, and then mounted that on to a piece of butterscotch card.

Clarity have very cleverly made squares for you to stamp out the letters on to if you wish, and they come as a one, two, or three, and you also get a filled in square as well.  I decided to use the two square stamp obviously twice for each word.  I stamped using Adirondack - Bottle on to scraps/snippets of white card and used a mask so that you can make the squares cross over one another.  I think my squares could have crossed over one another a little more but I haven't used the squares before so I probably need a bit more practice.  I finished by mounting the background on to a square white card, and then after cutting out the two words, these were added to the card using sticky pads to make the words stand out better.

When Louise has done the Marathon I will find out how she got on and report back.  Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you all have a good weekend. 

Pat x

I am entering this card in the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop where the challenge is to use snippets/scraps somewhere on our cards.

Saturday 5 April 2014

Flying High

Hi there everyone.  I made this card for a family birthday using Couture Creations - Ascension embossing folder.  The embossing folder is 5" x 7"  so a good size.  I used a snippet of white stamping card and inked it up with some Distress Inks in Mustard Seed, Walnut Stain, Peacock Feathers and Memento Bamboo Leaves .  When embossed I found the ink hadn't totally covered the card so I spritzed with some water to help merge the colours a bit more, and then I dabbed on some extra ink until I was satisfied with the result.  I highlighted the balloons and other impresssed bits with the Walnut Stain to give them more emphasis, and I also highlighted part of the larger balloon with the Peacock Feathers just to make it stand out a bit more.




I decided to back the image with black card, and before doing so I trimmed it back very slightly, then I mounted that on to an 8" x 6" card leaving a bit of space at the bottom for the sentiment.  I decided to mount the sentiment on to a punched strip of black card made using a punch from Tonic called Doily Border which had a piece of grey satin ribbon down the middle, but when I experimentally placed this at the bottom I wasn't sure that I liked it.  After thinking for a bit I decided to sit it over the image itself and change the shape so that one end was cut in a 'v' and the whole thing wasn't quite from edge to edge.  This left a bare piece at the bottom which I ended up cutting off.  The sentiment plate itself I cut using one of the smaller dies from a set of Spellbinder - Scalloped Ovals.  I left the die in place and used a very small amount of DI - Peacock Feather to highlight it.

Well I hope you are enjoying your weekend, and thanks for looking at my blog today.

Pat x

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Yellow and White Butterfly

Hello there everyone.  The basis of my card today is a Marianne Butterfly Die which is quite large for the main focus of a card.  I found a card on Pinterest which had tiles with rounded corners, but I'm afraid to say that I am not sure which Pinterest site it was now, but anyway it gave me the idea for this card.


To make the tiles I started with some yellow card which I cut into 1 3/4" square pieces with two of the opposite corners rounded off.  I ran them through a freebie EF with grasses and wild flowers just to give them a bit of a pattern.  I highlighted the embossing with black Memento ink rubbed on afterwards very lightly using a piece of blending foam.  The yellow card was rather an acid yellow which I wanted to soften a bit, so I used a little Memento ink - Bamboo Leaves.  I made sure the ink was perfectly dry before using the UTE Powder.  I rubbed the Versamark all over the tiles and then coated them with the EP and then heat set.  I repeated this process to make sure there was a good thick even coverage.  I layered these tiles on to black card.  The finished tiles have quite an irridescent finish but it doesn't show up very well in the photo.

The butterfly has three layers.  The bottom layer is just embossed and cut, then a die cut layer, these are both in snippets of black card, and then the top layer is a snippet of nice thick yellow vellum.  Originally after cutting the vellum layer I decided to darken up the yellow and aded a little bit of orange, but I didn't like the finished result very much.  I decided on a radical change and rubbed some Versamark on and used WOW EP - Sparkling Snow which is quite opaque, and then added the yellow Promarker round the edges.

After completing the layout of the card, I added a sentiment using a snippet of the yellow card and a    S/B Labels Thirty Three  die, the third smallest.  I stamped the sentiment with a Creative Expressions stamp, and added two little flower shaped button decorated with a little twine.

After messing about with the butterfly rather a lot with the different colouring techniques, I found that one of the fancy shapes at the bottom had broken off, so to even it up I cut the equivalent bit off the other side.  When I had taken the photo I wasn' t too sure about the look of the finished card.  The colour on the tiles looks more green than yellow because I hadn't accounted for the fact that colours become darker and brighter after using the UTE Powder.  Anyway I am entering the card in the following challenges:

Butterfly Challenge - Springtime at Last, which must include the colour yellow.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes with Buttons.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop where we use up our snippets of card and paper.

Thank you for stopping by today,
Pat x