Chess Birthday

Hi everyone.  This set of stamps was the first I bought from Chocolate Baroque called The Art of Chess and I used it on the very first card I posted here.  It has had several outings but not enough really, so I decided to use it on this card for our DS who in his youth played a lot and did very well at it so I thought he might enjoy this card.  Well here goes.

I started with the chess board and cut a stitched square from a snippet of red using the largest die and eight black and eight white smaller stitched squares which fitted perfectly on to the larger square with
just a little of the red showing round the edge.  I found another snippet of silver card slightly larger and then another red snippet slightly larger still and layered these up and adhered them to the square white base card.  Unfortunately the silver looks brown in the photo but it is silver mirri.

I found some more snippets of red and white and stamped a variety of the different pieces using Distress Ink Fired Brick, and Archival Black and Brilliance White ink.   I decided to add some shading to the pieces and used a couple of my Spectrum Noir pencils, a black and a red.  I curved them a bit to give more shape and stuck them to the board using Pinflair Glue Gel.

Lastly I ran a sentiment off the computer and made a fishtail banner, my favourite sentiment banner shape at the moment and stuck to the top left of the card.

I was pleased with the result and I don't play the game so the pieces were placed just where I thought they looked best and I thought the large King framed the card nicely.

That's all for now so see you again soon.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 231 where we use up our snippets of card etc.  I used quite a few this time with the individual squares of the chess board and the chess pieces.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Penny Black and More - Anything Goes with Stamping.  The chess pieces were stamped and cut out.

May Rudolph Days Challenge

Hi all.  Well another month has gone by and it's time for the Rudolph Days Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo where it is always Anything Goes and the challenge runs from the 25th to the end of each month.  Life was rather hectic last month and I ran out of time to enter but I am so pleased I have made it this time.

I decided on a fairly simple one and have used an Indigoblu set called Here Comes Santa which has this snowflake border and I have joined it up across the card as a background to the die cut sentiment.  l seem to have gone for the black sparkly look again but with silver this time, a bit sombre perhaps but I'm sure the more traditional colours will be making an appearance in the future.  The photo makes it look as though the silver mirri has an uneven edge at the top but it is just the light reflecting off it.

The border was stamped back to back on to a snippet of which card using Versamark Ink and heat embossed using WOW Black Sparkle Embossing Powder.  I then found some more snippets of white card and die cut the letters using an alphabet from XCut called Centurion and stuck the letters over the border.  I then stamped the other part of the sentiment on to the bottom of this piece of card using the Versamark Ink and WOW Silver EP.

I finished by mounting this on to a snippet of silver mirri card and then adhered this to the square white base card and finished by adding some turquoise gems to the centres of some of the snowflakes.

Thank you for dropping by today.

Pat  x

I am also entering this into the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 230 where we use up our snippets of paper and card.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
WOW Embossing Powder May Challenge

Bronze Embossed Buck

Hi there everybody.  This is a card I made for my BIL's birthday.  I think that during the year I definitely have to make more masculine cards than feminine and it doesn't get any easier.  I always try my best to match the card to the person I am making it for and he does like walking and has an interest in nature and bird watching (the feathered variety).  My DH says that as a boy his brother would go off into the countryside and come back with a myriad of things which he would want to keep much to their Mum's disapproval, which apparently included an old bird's nest and an owl's wing and pellet and she would tell him to keep them outside and not in the house.  Anyway there are no bird's nests or owl pellets on this card ..lol, but it does have a nature/animal theme.

I started by taking a snippet of dark green card and a fern stamp from a set by Hobby Art called Falling Leaves and stamped it on to the card using Versamark Ink and heat embossed with WOW Embossing Powders in Clear Matt and Pearl White which really doesn't show up well in the photo.  I then used another leaf stamp from the set and filled in the gaps again using the Versamark Ink and WOW Metallic Copper EP.  I find it a good idea to dust the card with some talc before heat embossing as it helps to stop the powder sticking to the card where you don't want it too.  I finished by embossing the edges with a Die-namics die set called Basic Stitch Lines which has six different styles of edge which can be embossed on to the card, and I used the stitched edge.   I do have a set of stitched square dies but the largest only cuts a 4" square and I wanted it to be larger, so this is when this set comes in useful.  You can also use them anywhere on the card to make a pattern too.  Unfortunately they seem to be out of stock everywhere at present.  I decided to add some dry embossing and used a Cuttlebug folder called Birds and Swirls and this too doesn't seem to be available at present either.

Next I stamped this deer stamp from Serendipity called Buck using another snippet of light green card which actually has a shiny surface so I wasn't sure how well it would stamp but it proved to be fine, again using theVersamark Ink and heat embossed with the WOW Copper EP.   I finished by cutting this using my set of stitched square dies.  I did have to cut a bit of the stamped image away but it looks fine.  When I looked at the deer you couldn't see its eyes clearly so I put a dot of black pen on the eyes although it doesn't show all that clearly in the photo.

I assembled the card as you can see above and added a die cut sentiment.  In order to match up the sentiment I covered a snippet of card in Veramark Ink and then heat embossed using the Metallic Copper EP and placed it on to Stick It before die cutting.

Thank you for taking a look at my blog today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 229 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.
WOW Embossing Powder May Challenge

Spring into Summer

Hi there.  Well I suppose we must say that now we are nearly half way through May that Spring has probably moved on into early Summer.  I am one of those card makers that prefers to use the flowers of that season on cards but I hadn't used these tulips this Spring, in fact I don' t think I have used this particular stamp before, so I decided that while there is still a chance that tulips could still be blooming I had better use them.  These stamps are from Chocolate Baroque and called Spring Bird Tulip and as the name suggests there are birds on this set too which could more readily be used throughout the year.

I found a snippet of blue card and after cutting it slightly smaller than the white base card used a freebie border embossing folder on each of the edges, embossed using my Grand Calibur.

I found another snippet of white card and stamped the tulips twice using Versafine Smokey Gray ink.  I then coloured with Distress Inks and a waterbrush using Fired Brick and Picked Raspberry for the flower heads and Sage Green and Mustard Seed for the leaves and stems, and in the background Shaded Lilac and Tumbled Glass.  I wanted the higher set of flowers to fade into the background a bit more so I used the background colours, using the Distress Inks again with a waterbrush, over the top of them and then the rest of the background was blended mainly around the lower set of flowers.  I also used a Crackle Background stamp from Crafty Individuals and the Tumbled Glass DI which only really shows in the photo at the bottom right hand corner although I did use it randomly to fill the gaps, but after adding some more of the background ink it seems to have all but disappeared.  I added a bit more of the Shaded Lilac round the edge using blending foam before mounting it on to a snippet of dark blue card.

I finished with a sentiment which I stamped on to another snippet of the blue card using the Smokey Gray ink and as it stays wet a little longer than some other inks I managed to add some WOW Clear Embossing Powder and heat set it to give it some gloss, and then shaped it into a small fishtail banner.  I blended some a little of the Shaded Lilac DI around the edge here too.

Thank you for taking  a look today.

Pat  x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 228 where we use up our snippets of card and paper etc.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Emboss It.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Flowers.
Cuttlebug Mania - May Flowers.  


           

Happy Little Stampers May Christmas Challenge

Hi there.  I am so pleased to have been asked to be Guest Designer for the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge this month.  The challenge runs throughout May with an HLS $15 discount voucher to be won, and if you hop over to the blog you will find lots of wonderful inspiration from the Design Team, so good luck! 



 










I used white linen look card which I cut to form a 6" square base card and then cut another piece 5" square and on to this I embossed using the Spellbinders Captivating Squares largest die, it looks so different when you emboss it instead of die cutting it.   I then matted this on to a piece of black card and adhered it to the base card.   The parcel was then adhered within the embossed square.

I used a background stamp from Chocolate Baroque called Big Bold Background Snowflake Shadow and stamped and embossed part of it on to my 21/2" square parcel using Versamark Ink and WOW Black Sparkle Embossing Powder.  I then backed it with a piece of black card just to give a fine black edge and found a piece of narrow red ribbon to wrap around it, and for the bow on top.

I finished by added the sentiment on another piece of linen look card using Black Archival Ink and then cut to form a fishtail banner and attached this to the parcel as a tag.

Thank you for taking a look at my blog today.

Pat  x

Bleaching Technique Birthday

Hi everybody.  Here is a card I have made which features the bleaching technique using water to remove the ink.  I kept it simple as I didn't have much time to make it and get it in the post as I know it will already arrive late but better late than not at all, well, that's what I think, I hope the recipient agrees..lol.

I covered my snippet of white card with Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed and as you can see mixed them quite randomly and on the generous side to produce a really dark colour.  I found a piece of card left over from die cutting with some leaves and got my waterbrush and brushed through the negative leaf shape to soften the ink and then removed it with a tissue and kept doing this randomly all over the piece of card until the pattern of the leaves showed up quite well.  I think using the card the water seeped underneath a bit so the shape of the leaves got a little bit lost but practice makes perfect I suppose.  I decided to ink over the pattern with a  bit more Mustard Seed DI and then looking at it again I decided to add a bit of Seedless Preserves too.

I looked through my box of bits and found a cream coloured topper, which I had cut a while ago, using a Spellbinders Decorative Elements Die Labels Eight,  and I matted a die cut sentiment on to this which was cut from a snippet of gold mirri card.  I also found some die cut leaves which were left over from another project and had been waiting for quite a time to be used.  The leaves dies Sprightly Sprigs are from Verve Stamps and designed to match with some of their stamps, but in fact the leaves look fine cut just as they are.  I finished the leaves with a punched flower, double layered from another snippet of gold mirri card.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 227 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Stencil It.  (I used a negative shape from a leaf die as a stencil)