Say It With Flowers

Hi Everyone.  Yes, I know, long time no see.  I have been so busy of late that I'm afraid card making has gone out the window.  Disaster struck last week when I had a card ready to put up and in my rush to get it in the post on time the photo was appalling so had to abandon that, and since then have not had the time, and when there was a bit of time was feeling too tired for inspiration to strike.  

Anyway, let's rectify that immediately.  I made this card using one of the stamps from a set from Chocolate Baroque called Poppy Meadow.   These are very detailed stamps and so pretty.

Although this sheet has poppies there are also some other images, and this is one of them.  I'm not quite sure what flower this is, but anyway, I fancied using these shades of yellow - Adironack Sunshine Yellow, and Distress Ink Spiced Marmalade, and around the image some Adirondack Stonewashed.  I used Archival Black ink to stamp the image, and then watercoloured with a waterbrush.

The construction of the card is very straightforward.  I used a snippet of white card and Black Archival ink to stamp the image, and then another small piece of white to mount that on, and then this was mounted on the white base card.  Lastly I stamped the Papermania sentiment with Black Archival directly on to the base card.

I'm sure a lot of you will be aware of the challenge here going on at the moment being run by the lovely Darnell to celebrate reaching 500 followers so congratulations on this achievement Darnell, and I have to be quick to enter as it finishes tomorrow.

                                      

She has asked us to use a NBUS item which in my case is the stamp which has not been inked before.  The friendship theme was a little more difficult as I don't have any stamps on that theme, but I felt that congratulations are sent by me as a sign of friendship to Darnell for her wonderful blog which always makes me smile when I read it, and the encouragement she gave to me when I first started blogging as she was one of my first followers, and her cards are great too!

I would also like to enter:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Challenge 130 where we are asked to leftovers/snippets of paper or card.
Less is More - Challenge 177 - Watercolour.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - I Ought To Use This More, as I have had this set of stamps for quite a while and have not used this stamp before.

Thank you for dropping by today.  Enjoy the weekend too.

Pat x

   

Pretty Handbag

Hi there crafty friends.  I made this card to send to someone in Australia and am hoping that she has received it in time for her birthday today.  The postage service to there can be a bit variable, and I could perhaps have sent it a little sooner than I did.  Anyway when she receives it I hope she likes it.  It was made using one of the bags from a set by Creative Expressions called Bags of Style.

For the background I started with a snippet of white stamping card and stamped and embossed using WOW EP White Pearl, and a stamp from a set by Chocolate Baroque called Lily  and then stamped using Adirondack Stonewashed ink with a stamp from a set called  Poppy Meadow .  I also used a Crafty Individuals Crackle Background stamp for extra texture.  I stamped it in my hand using my fingers to support it, just to get little touches of it using Adirondack Stonewashed and Distress Ink Picked Raspberry.   I finished by embossing with a Cuttlebug embossing folder called D'Vine Swirls and on removing from the folder I inked the edges and the swirls with some more Stonewashed ink and Picked Raspberry.  I layered this on to a piece of dark blue card.

I then found some more snippets/scraps of dark blue card and die cut using a Spellbinders die D- Lites  called Grate Works which I cut into four, and filled three of the four corners with it.  The piece of card from which it was cut I decided to use as a mat which I paired up with another mat, which I had cut but never used, using a SB die called Captivating Squares,  the second size die, which I distressed using Adirondack Stonewashed and DI Picked Raspberry, using it sparingly just to give the mat a more lilac tone. 

I used another snippet of white card and with WOW EP Metallic Silver stamped and embossed one of the handbag stamps,  and then I decided to use WOW EP White Pearl over the top of the top piece of the handbag to fill in the pattern.  So I went over it with a Versamark Pen and then used the embossing powder.  It didn't quite have the effect I thought it would but decided to leave it.  I then paper pieced the handbag using a leftover section of the background card and a piece of paper which I coloured using blending foam and Stonewashed ink for the handle and the bottom of the bag.

I finished by layering it up on to a white square card and stamped a sentiment on a snippet of white card using Stonewashed ink and then distressed the edges with the Stonewashed and Picked Raspberry ink as for the topper.

Thank you for stopping by today, and I hope you enjoy the upcoming weekend.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop  Challenge No. 128, where we have to use up snippets of card and paper, and I have used quite a lot of snippets of white and dark blue card.  This is also my third entry for a special challenge that Di is running which is to enter three cards in two weeks.

Chess Game

Hi there everyone.  I needed another male birthday card so I decided to make a card using the Chocolate Baroque - Art of Chess stamps.   They come with a background, but I decided not to use this but make my own chess board.  Another make of stamps I love are Claritystamp, and Barbara Gray has her own blog on which she shows some great techniques and does some in depth demos.  One of them was to make your own chess board with the pieces on it.  She has a stencil for her chess pieces, but as I already have these lovely ones from Chocolate Baroque I thought I would just try to make the chess board and give it some perspective as Barbara did in her demonstration.  I have to say that after she did this demo which was rather fiddly as there is a lot of masking to do, she brought out a stencil for the board to save some time, but as I haven't got round to getting one yet, I thought I would give my own version a try.

I began by pencilling out the board by imagining a vanishing point beyond the board for the verticals and for the horizontals I tried to bring the lines gradually closer together, and although it is no way all that accurate, it is actually the first time I have tried something like this, and it does look more realistic than just doing all the squares the same size.   When I was happy with the shape I stamped the pieces on the board using Black Archival ink and then stamped and cut out a set of masks which I sprayed on the back with Stick N Spray which makes things temporarily sticky.  After masking the pieces I masked off one black square at  time and coloured with a mixture of Memento London Fog and Tuxedo Black and Adirondack Stonewashed.  The masking tape I prefer is Scotchtape Removable Tape which I have had for absoulutely ages, and I'm not even sure where I got it now, but I have tried lots of different tapes and have found many to be far too sticky and tend to take the surface off the card when removed.

 For the dark chess pieces I decided to use the same colours I used for the chess board, and the white pieces I coloured with Adirondack Butterscotch toned down with the Memento London Fog for the shadowy areas.  Finally I used Antique Linen Distress Ink and a little of the Butterscotch round the edges and randomly across the white squares which gives it an aged look.  I have to say this was in part to cover some of the ink which inevitably seems to find it's way on to areas where you would rather it didn't.

I have to say I can see why Barbara decided to make a stencil for the chess board after doing this technique, as about half way through I did start to question whether I was a bit mad to be doing this, but there was a sense of satisfaction on removing all the masks, and seeing the end result, which in some respects turned out better than I thought it might.

If you would like to take a look at Barbara's blog post you will find it here.  Hers has more squares and pieces, so far more masking than mine, and she placed the pieces and then put the chess board around them, but personally for me I felt it was easier to do it the other way round, but I have to say Barbara's is absolute perfection.

Well, another weekend is looming so I hope it is a good one for you all.  Thank you for taking a look today, I really do appreciate it.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop where we use up snippets/scraps of card or paper.  I used up pieces of white and black card.  This is my second  card this week as there is a special challenge on top of the normal weekly challenge which calls for three cards over two weeks and hopefully I will get to enter another next week.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Father's Day/Masculine.

Denims and Faux Leather Belt

Hello.  I recently joined the Claritystamp New Design Stamp Club which sends out a new stamp every month with some ideas of how to use it.  The stamp for May was a pocket, and one of the ideas was to make a card in the shape of a pair of jeans with two hip pockets.  When I had nearly finished the card I decided it might look quite nice with a leather look belt so I decided to try the faux leather technique which I remembered Sheena Douglass doing.  This technique consists of spraying Kraft card with a mixture of glycerin and water until the paper becomes soft and pliable, and then using inks or stamps and some dry embossing, if you like, to add colour and texture.  If you would like to see Sheena demonstrating how to do this, it is here on You Tube.  I made this card for our DS whose birthday it was just recently, and I think this is quite a good idea for a masculine card, but it you want to make it more feminine you could use a brighter colour or paper piece with a flowery design stripes or spots or something.

I started the card by using Adirondack - Stonewashed, and Memento - Nautical Blue and building up the colour all over the whole card until the colour was as near to denim as possible.  The best colour to use is probably Faded Jeans Distress Ink, but unfortunatelty I don't have that one.  I then added the lines where the seams are using a Promarker in Indigo, with the fine nib in place.  I then added some piercing above the waistband which cannot be seen now the belt is there,  and under the seam line below the waistband, and to the right of the centre seam, and using the same Indigo Promarker I joined the holes up to make it look like stitching.  I finished this stage of the card by adding the shaping which I marked with a pencil bringing it in gradually until about level with the position of the pocket, and then curving in more dramatically and taking about 1" off the waistband.  When happy with the shape I cut the front first and closed the card and cut the back to match.

To give you an idea of where all the lines go,
the card is 6" square and the waistband is
about 1" in depth, the dip in the next seam is
about another 1" down, and the pockets are
placed approximately another 1/2" down from the central line.  The pockets are approximately 21/4" x 2", and these you could make from two rectangles of card.  They are placed about 11/2" in from the side.  These measurements are a very rough guide and I tend to do most things by eye and with a bit of experimentation.

I used some snippets/scraps of white card for the pockets and the three belt loops.  I did notice that the piece of card I used for the pockets being different to the pre-creased cards I use as the base card, took the colour differently and seemed to come up quite a bit darker, but I thought this seemed ok as the pockets stand out from the background more.  I used the Memento ink in London Fog, and using the Indigo Promarker again I went over all the stitching lines so they all match, and no piercing here either.  I then coloured them using the inks above.  The three belt loops are about 1/4" or so wide and just a little longer than the waistband, and I pierced the holes, made the stitching lines and coloured in the same way as above.

It was at this point that I decided that a belt would look quite nice, so I made the piece of faux leather.  For mine I used Walnut Stain and some Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks, and Craft Concepts EF - More Dots which seems to be out of stock at the moment, but I did notice that there is another CC folder called Ossie Dots, so perhaps this is a replacement for the other.  I made two strips and joined them under the middle belt loop.  My faux leather does not really have a shine because I do not have the spray varnish which Sheena finishes with which makes it look more authentic, but nevertheless I was pleased with the way it turned out.







I finished the card off by adding a sentiment plate on the belt using the faux leather.  I used the S/B Labels Thirty Three second smallest die and marked and cut out using the inside edge as a guide in order to get the right size to fit on the belt.  I fixed to a piece of dark blue card and cut by hand just a little bit bigger.  The sentiment was stamped using Black Archival ink, and I fixed one small black brad at each end before adhering to the belt.  The sentiment in the pocket was stamped on a snippet of white card using Memento Nautical Blue ink, and the edges softened with a little Adirondack - Stonewashed, and a Tonic corner rounder punch.  I did think about leaving it loose, but it was quite a tight squeeze to get it in the pocket, so I stuck it down.

This is a bit of a departure for me, but I wanted to make something special for DS so it was worth having to spend a bit longer than normal making it.  Now I know a few people will be heartily laughing by now because my cards do tend to be of the time consuming variety anyway.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Pat  x

I would like to enter the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop where we are asked to use snippets of card or paper, and I used up some bits of white card for the pockets, belt loops and sentiment.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.