Summer Garden Angel

Hi all.  Things are returning to normal now after a wonderful holiday in France.  I was hoping to be able to keep up with some commenting whilst away, but I'm afraid it very quickly went wrong as wifi was a bit variable to say the least, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I made this card for one of the younger members of our extended family.  It is another stamp which is getting it's first outing, and I also used some LOTV papers and a sentiment stamp which came free with a magazine.

I used two different snippets of this paper which I backed with Purple pearlescent card, and then cut two mats in purple and white using my S/B Decorative Elements - Labels Eight, the middle two dies.  I cut the purple one as a frame, and then cut the smaller die in the white which makes them fit together like one layer.  I stamped the Angel with Black Archival ink and then coloured using my Spectrum Noir pencils and after cutting the image out adhered it to the mat.  I also used a little Perfect Pearls - Pewter, mixed with water, on the wings and flower centres and on bits of her dress to add a little sheen which doesn't show up very well in the photo, and also the wings look rather dark.  With hindsight I wish I had used just the mica powder and water on the wings so they would have stayed whiter. 

I finished the card by punching some flowers using a very old pair of punches from Dovecraft and some snippets of pink and lilac glitter card.  I used a narrow piece of white ribbon for a bow and then stamped a 'seven' with Black Archival, on to a mat cut from a S/B Labels Thirty Two set using the smallest die, and before  attaching it to the centre of the bow I inked with Distress Ink Picked Raspberry.  I used the freebie sentiment again stamped with Black Archival and inked with the Picked Raspberry, both used snippets of white card.

Thanks for dropping by.

Pat  x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 143.  I used lots of snippets on this card which means I will certainly be allowed through the gates this week.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Stencils and Stamps.  If I have interpreted this correctly you can use one or the other or both.
Cuttlebug Mania - Anything Die Cut.
Lili of the Valley - Pretty Papers.

Embossed Hearts and Flowers Anniversary

Hello everyone.  This is another scheduled post.  I got the idea for this card from Pinterest and adapted it for this card.  The original had flower shaped apertures with patterned paper behind and this led me to think of circles with paper behind and then hearts stuck within.  I used my Xcut circles  and my Nellie Snellen Multi Frame hearts dies.  I embossed the hearts with a Cuttlebug EF - Divine Swirls, and the outer embossed layer was a Crafter's Companion EF - Regal Damask.

The paper was snippets from a Papermania pad.  The flowers were also punched from snippets of different papers from this pad together with a few white and red punched flowers, and then a Marianne Creatables die - Forest Branch was used for the red and black foliage behind the flowers.  I finished by stamping the sentiment using Black Archival on to a mat made using the smallest die from the S/B Labels Eight.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat  x
 

Cherrylicious

Hi there.  This is a scheduled post as I'm busy at the moment, so please forgive me if I don't get to visit as often as I would normally.   I have a couple of birthdays coming up and I have this embossing folder Cherry-licious by Crafter's Companion which I haven't used yet (hereafter known as NBUS - coined by Darnell of djkardkreations).  I decided to emboss on to a snippet of white card and then colour using my Spectrum Noir Pencils which are my favourites at the moment.  After colouring I used an Adirondack Pink Sherbet ink pad and some blending foam to gently colour the background.

I then made a frame using a snippet of white card and a S/B Captivating Squares die, the second largest, and I cut out the centre, and then cut the next size die to fit within that.  I finished by stamping the sentiment in the centre using Black Archival ink, added a bow and mounted on to green card then on to the base square white card.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat x

P.S  I am back in the blogging swing again and I would like to enter this card into the NBUS Challenge which is running over at Darnell's blog at the moment and has only a few days left to run, so do go take a look.

Vintage Telephone

Hi all.  This is a scheduled post as I am busy still, so please forgive me if I don't get round to visiting quite as often as normal.  This telephone is a NBUS Cottage Cutz die.  It comes as one 4" x 4" plate and as most of it is black I used a snippet of black card across the whole plate, and then the gold bits were a snippet of gold pearlescent card which I ran through the machine after.  I think what makes this so fiddly is that the plate does not have any holes to help release the card from the die, and some of the components are very small.  Anyway I did like the finished result.

The background was a snippet of card which I embossed by running through my machine using a chevron stencil from Creative Expressions, and then inked over it with Distress Inks in Mustard Seed and Mowed Lawn.  When putting it together I thought the telephone merged into the background too much so I embossed part of the stencil again in a snippet of dark green card and then cut out two strips and attached them to the background as seen here.  Finally I stamped the sentiment using a Black Archival ink pad.  The base card is a square cream card, but actually looks more like white in the photo.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat  x

Hunkydory Celebration

Hello All.  This is a scheduled post as I am busy at the moment, so please forgive me if I don't get to visit as often as I would normally.  I needed an Anniversary card and thought of a set of stamps which I have had for quite a while made by Hunkydory called Celebrations.  I have been practising with my Gelli Plate and decided to see what I could do with a mask I have from That Special Touch called Chevrons.  Here are the results.

   
As you can see the one on the left is rather pale.   I used Memento Lady Bug which is a nice bright red but didn't come out red at all.  I think I layed the stencil on the Gelli Plate and inked through the stencil before removing and pulling the print.  On reflection I think the other red I have, which is Distress Ink Fired Brick, might have come out darker.  The middle sample I coloured after printing using three different shades of red Spectrum Noir Pencils, and then the right hand one I used the Lady Bug with Memento London Fog and I think I inked up the stencil with the first colour, layed it on and brayered over it, lifted the stencil pulled the print and then did the same with the other colour making sure before pulling the print that the card was replaced in the same position but the other way up so the chevrons overlap each other.  You do have to be careful that you don't mark the Gelli with anything sharp as the marks will obviously pit the surface and leave the marks on any subsequent prints.  The thing with the Gelli is that the results are quite random and you can never be quite sure what will happen, especially if you are using several colours.  Although you can use dye based inks I do think acrylics give more dramatic results, but at the moment I don't have any so am going with what I have.  It is certainly fun to use.

The print I went with in the end was the reverse of the third sample which I made by covering the Gelli Plate with the Lady Bug ink and then inked the stencil, layed it on and then I think I dabbed through the stencil with a tissue to randomly remove some of the ink before lifting the stencil and pulling the print.  I decided to cut round the chevrons to give it a shaped edge and then backed it with black card.  I used the champagne glass stamp and using a snippet of white card I stamped with Archival Black ink and and as it stays wet a little longer I used the clear holographic embossing powder which I'm afraid does not show up in the photo.  I stamped two of these and coloured in parts of the image using a red Spectrum Noir pencil and then cut them out.

As a finishing touch I decided to make a small tag for the sentiment and attach it with Baker's Twine to the stem of the glass before adhering it to the card.  I also wrote the sentiment by hand.  I have some of the small nibs which attach to the Promarker Pens which made the writing fine enough, but I have to admit it took several goes before I was happy with the writing.  I cut the label shape by hand using another snippet and punched a hole in one end and rounded the other with my Tonic corner rounder.  I assembled it using my usual square white card.

Thank you for dropping by.

Pat  x