Rudolph Days September Challenge

Hi there everyone.  Another month has whooshed by and so once again it is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo, run by lovely Mo, and believe it or not there are now only two more challenges before Christmas, so time to motor on with those seasonal cards.  The challenge runs from the 25th to the end of each month, and as it is the last day of the month today I have made this very quick card using an upcycled topper.  Our son has been visiting from Australia and we had a great time in Cornwall this last week with beautiful weather, warm sun every day, definitely good for the time of year.  Sadly we have now said goodbye as he has gone to visit friends prior to returning to Sydney tomorrow, and thank goodness for Skype, how did we manage before.

I used a couple of foliage stamps and a sentiment from a Chocolate Baroque set called Robin the Spruce and made this wreath of foliage around the topper using two of the stamps, and also added a sentiment from the set.  I put the 6" square white card into my Misti and laid the pinecone foliage stamp across the corner  and stamped using Versamark ink, and by twisting the card a quarter turn each time placed the corners.  Then I used the smaller berries stamp and put that in between and did the same thing to get that circular shape.  I finished by heat embossing with the WOW Metallic Gold Embossing Powder.

To finish I then placed the sentiment and again embossed with the Gold EP.  I do think my sentiment could have been a little straighter though.  I decided to give the topper more dimension by adding a piece of white foam behind to raise it up a bit.

Thank you for visiting here today and I will be back again tomorrow.  

I am also entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - No. 405 Anything Goes.
Addicted to Stamps Challenge - No. 166 Christmas Comes Early.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Steampunk Airship/Balloon

Hi everybody.  I needed a masculine birthday card and I thought I would use this fabulous airship cum balloon which comes in a set of steampunk stamps by Chocolate Baroque called Steampunkery.  These stamps are steampunk with a twist, a little quirky but very useful for male cards, though I think they can be appreciated by all and they are very detailed and fun too.

I started with a piece of white card about 5.75" square on which I stamped the image using Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and then I heat embossed using WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then stamped the image on to a piece of copy paper and fussy cut it out to use as a mask.

I then ink blended using a Visible Image stencil called Strobes, using a stencil brush and a couple of colours of Distress Ink - Fossilised Amber and Spiced Marmalade.  Keeping the stencil in place I added some clouds with a mask I drew and cut out myself, again using the stencil brush, and Broken China and Mermaid Lagoon DI.  Using the brush means you can add the colour very carefully and build it up to whatever strength you want, and I didn't want the colours to be too strong.  I think the colours do look more green than blue due to the yellow already added.    I removed the stencil and took the white off the Strobes and the clouds by adding more yellow and orange to them.  I then removed the mask and coloured the airship using a waterbrush and some Walnut Stain and a little Broken China mixed in to keep the colours in harmony with one another.

I finished by stamping a sentiment, again using the Versafine Vintage Sepia, and then added WOW Clear Gloss EP over the top before adhering it to a 6" square white base card.

Thank you for joining me today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations September Challenge -  I Spy something beginning with 'B' (Balloon, Blue sky, Birthday card).
Allsorts Challenge - Week 486 Water or the Colour Blue.  (My sky is a blue colour so hope this link to the theme is sufficient).
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.  (I was thrilled to be chosen as the weekly winner of this challenge).

Quick Cards for September

Hi everyone.   Here are a couple of quick cards I made for a post which Chocolate Baroque do once a month over on their Design Team Blog featuring cards which take about 15 minutes to make.

I started this using two different images from the Nature's Paisley set of stamps using Ground Espresso Distress Ink and heat embossing with Versamark Ink and WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then blended ink into the background using Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover, Carved Pumpkin and Blueprint Sketch Distress Inks.  I added a bit of script from the Paisley Elephant set using Blueprint Sketch DI ink, and then added a little stamp from the Indian Textiles set and heat embossed with WOW Silver Metallic EP.  I also defined the edge a bit more with the Blueprint Sketch.

I finished it with a piece of turquoise vellum stamped and heat embossed with the sentiment which wraps around the background before adhering to the white base card.

For this second card I used a flower image from the Indian Textiles set, and stamped the flowers using Ground Espresso Distress Ink and coloured using Abandoned Coral DI and Fossilised Amber for the flowers, and some more Fossilised Amber and Twisted Citron for the foliage, applied with a waterbrush  I then filled in the background using Salty Ocean and some more twisted citron together with a bit of Blueprint Sketch around the edges, again using a waterbrush.  The water had made the lines of the stamped flowers a bit indistinct so I defined them with a very fine Black Micron Pen.

I die cut it with a Crealies Pierced Rectangle and added a white layer behind it.  I then added one of the stamps from Nature's Paisleys set to each of the corners of the white base card using Versamark and WOW Gold Metallic Embossing Powder before mounting the  flowers on to it.

Thank you for looking at my blog today and if you want to see lots of great inspiration then head on over to the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog.

Ammonite Birthday

Hi everyone.  I needed a masculine birthday card and decided to use a Chocolate Baroque Ammonite stamp.  I live only about an hour from the Jurassic Coast and in Lyme Regis the shops are full of fossils and even their street lamps have an ammonite design incorporated into them, and I do love the shape of it.  Here is what I did.

I decided to try a new to me technique using Brushos directly on to the stamp and spritzed with water before stamping, and it worked fairly well.  I used Brown, Turquoise and Orange sprinkled randomly over the stamp, and I stamped it down on to a piece of lightweight card.  I used the same colours with the addition of a bit of black Brusho to paint over it and add a few more lines and additional colour.  I then fussy cut it out once it was dry.

In the meantime there was so much ink left on the stamp that I spritzed it again and stamped it again on to another piece of white card with the whole image in the middle and then partial images round the edges.  I managed all five times without adding any more Brushos but obviously it gradually faded but I thought the four around the edges didn't need to be bright.  I then added some Distress Inks with a blending tool, using Mermaid Lagoon and Ground Espresso, and then I decided to make the outlines more defined so stamped with  Hickory Smoke, just lining it up by eye as I didn't use my Misti, and as it is a fairly simple shape it was fine.   I decided to keep the colours quite light as I didn't want it to be too dark and heavy.

To be honest I wasn't sure whether to use the background with just a sentiment and use the cut out image on another card, but finally decided to add it over the whole image in the centre using Pinflair Glue Gel to give it a bit of dimension.

When dry I attached it to a 6" square white base card and added the sentiment beneath using Versafine Smokey Gray heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.

Thank you for coming to take a look a my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations September Challenge - Something Beginning with 'B' (I have used Brushos).
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Stamp on It for Stamptember.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Stamp It On. (So pleased to be one of the four to be chosen for the Designer Spotlight)
Happy Little Stampers September Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (no optional twist).

Ruby Wedding Card

Hi everyone.  My cousin and her husband are celebrating their Ruby Anniversary, and 40 years is not to be sneezed at, so I thought I had better pull out as many stops as possible and try to make a really elegant card....well, I hope I have succeeded, and I hope they like it.

I started with the background on a snippet of white card and I decided to use a Tim Holtz Mixed Media die to pretty up the corner, and then I cut th red mirri card a little bit bigger and attached these two layers to the white square base card.  I cut three heart dies from a set by Sweet Dixie, and I generated a sentiment on the computer to add to the smallest heart.  I printed it on good quality copy paper and cut it with the same sized heart using a snippet of white card, and added it to the red mirri heart, cut from another snippet.  I then used an XCut Embossing folder on the largest white heart called Hearts and Kisses, again using a snippet of white card, which I added behind the others.  I finished by cutting a selection of the flowers using more snippets of red mirri and white card with a Sue Wilson die called Cape Daisy and also some foliage using more snippets of white card using her Orange Blossom Leaves die.  I arranged them as you can see on the finished card.

Thank you for your visit and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No. 334 where we use up some of our snippets of card and paper etc.