Coneflower

Hi everybody.  This is a very quick birthday card I made for a friend who had her birthday recently.  This is one of a couple of different coneflowers on a set by Aall and Create - #199 Eclectic Stems.  The stamps they produce are always that bit different, and this is one of two sets of their stamps I bought a little while ago and this is the first card using them.  I also bought a pad of papers recently too which have that inky look made by Craft Consortium  Grunge - Light Tones and you can stamp and watercolour on them very well.  I used one of the pink ones on the bottom row to the left.

I stamped all the images using Versafine Olympia Green ink and then coloured the flowers with Distress Inks using Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Lucky Clover, Mermaid Lagoon and Brushed Corduroy.  I used a Dutch Doobadoo stencil Geometric Tiles to add a bit more interest to the background and also added some more Seedless Preserves DI around the edges and and in towards the middle just to darken it a bit.

Thank you for dropping by today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Penny Black and More: October - Pretty in Pink.
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes (no candles on mine).
Watercooler Wednesday - No.244 All About Occasions.
Just Add Ink - #480 Add a "Technique".

Floral Delights

Hi everyone.  Here are some cards which I made for Chocolate Baroque's TV shows last month.  These are new stamps again and the first is a Brusho Background and a pretty bouquet of flowers called Celebration Bouquet.

I started with Dark Brown Brusho which I sprinkled around the outside of the card and spritzed with gold mica infused water to give it some extra glimmer.  I then added a little orange and I mopped up a lot of water from the centre so it was a little lighter.  I then decided to go for more of a dramatic look and added more Distress Inks using a blending tool and darkened the edges with Walnut Stain, then a bit of Ripe Persimmon and finally the centre with some Scattered Straw.  I then stamped the flowers using Versafine and heat embossed using WOW Metallic Brass Embossing Powder.  I then bleached the colour from the flowers and leaves to give some contrast against the now very dark background.  I finished by adding a sentiment from the same set to a strip of white card stamping it with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder and blending some of the Walnut Stain and Ripe Persimmon ink around the edges before adding it across the corner of the card.   This did end up being a bit darker than I had at first intended but I think it makes a good contrast with the metallic finish of the pretty bouquet.

My next card features the pretty Magnolia flower from Happy Flower's Day.  I stamped the image four times over a piece of white card using Versafine Olympia Green Ink and colour the flowers using Spun Sugar, Forest Moss, Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks.  I found a strip of light green vellum and using my Misti I placed the strip over the background floral images, anchoring it in various places with repositionable tape, and then tucked a piece of copy paper underneath so that when I stamped off the edges it would not get on to the stamped background.  I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with WOW Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder.  I worked my way round the parchment strip embossing with the White EP.  Maybe there was a quicker and easier way to do it but it worked fairly well and only one of the four images was not quite stamped in the right place, but good enough not to do it for a second time and luckily that was hidden by the sentiment plate.    I creased the top of the parchment so that it could be stuck on the back before glueing the background layer in place on the white base card.

I die cut two layers for the sentiment which came with the same set of stamps and I cut the green layer with the smaller die to inset the white piece into it.   I then stamped it with the sentiment using the Olympia Green Ink and then heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss EP.

I then made the one more large flower and two smaller buds stamping them on to white card and coloured them using the same Versafine and Distress Inks.  I then put the card together and attached the largest behind the inset layer of the sentiment, and the other two behind the whole thing mainly because the large flower was inclined to hang off the edge of the card so I needed to bring it in a little.

I am adding this card to the Challenge over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No. 363 where we use up our snippets of card and paper etc.  I used quite a few with bits of white card for the flowers and sentiment, and the vellum, as well as a piece of dark green card for the sentiment.

My last card for now has the Snakes Head Fritillary flower featured on the same stamp set that I used for the last card.  I made the background using an old plastic card and with Cracked Pistachio, Shaded Lilac and Broken China Distress Inks.  I laid each ink down separately and spritzed with water before adding one colour at a time, drying in between, dragging the ink across the white card, and then using the Broken China I also added some lines using the edge of the card.  I then stamped the central flower, and used a mask before stamping each of the flowers to the left and right of it.  I used Versafine Crimson Red Ink on the flower and Momento Bamboo Leaves for the foliage adding the inks to the stamp.  I then coloured them in using the same green and added Fired Brick Distress Ink to each of the flowers.

I finished by die cutting this using my Crealies Pierced Rectangle dies and added a cobalt blue coloured mat to it.  I stamped the sentiment using Deep Lagoon Versafine Ink and adhered it to a white base card.

I 'm hoping this last card will fit the theme over at The Flower Challenge as they are asking for CAS cards, and they are celebrating their 3rd Birthday, so congratulations on three years of running this super challenge.

Thank you for dropping by today and I hope to see you again soon.

Evening on the Savannah

Hi everyone.  I made this birthday card featuring a Sheena Douglass set of stamps called African Landscape and then stamped the images on to a piece of background paper from a pad by Craft Consortium called Grunge - Light Tones, and the paper I chose is the 2nd from the left with orange and blue in one corner, as I thought this was a good starting point.  I laid down some of the Distress Inks first to give a basic background colour and then stamped the large acacia type tree first in Versafine Onxy Black and some Vintage Sepia on the top of the tree, following by more Vintage Sepia for the three giraffes, and then I added the smaller trees using the same black, one tree stamped three times overlapping with two stamped in second generation ink to add perspective.  

I then used more of the various Distress Inks, Chipped Sapphire, Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo and Black Soot, using a blending tool to apply it, to give a darker tone to everything   I also used the side of the pad dragged upwards to give the look of long grass using the Vintage Photo.  Applying more inks to the background did add a bit of ink to the images but I did where possible go round them and I think the overall effect adds some mistiness to the scene so I was happy.

I finished by stamping a sentiment using the Onyx Black and heat embossed using WOW Clear Gloss EP.

I am entering the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations - Trees and/or Leaves and/or Autumn.
Addicted to Stamps and More - Make Your Mark.
Seize the Birthday - No. 176 Anything Goes (No Optional Twist).

The Key to your Heart

Hi there.  Hubby and I are away in Yorkshire for a few days, but I have my laptop and we do have reasonable reception here so I decided to put post something from my drafts to give you all something new to look at.  Several weeks ago I made this quick card to get into the post asap using this harlequin patterned heart with a key from a set by Chocolate Baroque called Punky Hearts.  It is a bit quirky with the metal tie and staples holding it together, but this couple have been married for 20 years or more and are very happy so no broken hearts there, but I thought it was fun and a bit different to the normal style of heart image and this is what I did.

I stamped the heart on to a piece of white card using Momento Teal Zeal ink and heat embossed it using a Papermania Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then cut it out and started on the background.   I used another piece of white card and stamped this group of hearts from the same set using Momento Grape Jelly ink first, second and third generation of the ink.  I also stamped again using Brilliance Starlite Silver ink centre top and bottom.

I finished by blending some more of the Grape Jelly round the edges and then blended some of the Teal Zeal in the centre before adding this to the base card.  I then adhered the heart to the card using some Pinflair Glue Gel to give it a little bit of dimension, and then stamped the sentiment using Versafine Imperial Purple ink.  This is rather risky and I held my breath and hoped it would work and did it by hand instead of getting the Misti out.  How lazy am I, it wouldn't have taken that much longer really..lol, but luckily it was OK...phew!

Thank you for joining me today and I hope to see you again soon.

The Last Flowers of Summer

Hi there everyone.  Well I suppose we have to accept that Summer is now gone though no frost yet to kill the blooms entirely, and one of the last flowers to go is the sunflower and you often see them standing tall in a garden with flowers and leaves gone brown and the seeds ripening in the centre of what is left of the flower.  I have a mixture of nuts in a jar on the table and I always include sunflower and pumpkin seeds too.  Anyway I digress.  Here is the card I made for our next door neighbour for her recent birthday using a pretty sunflower wreath called Flowers All Around which I won as a prize on the Penny Black and More Challenge quite a while ago, and recently realised that it was a NBUS one, i.e. never before used schtuff, so I have now remedied that, but unfortunately I don't think it is available anywhere at the moment.  I also used paper from a pad by Craft Consortium which I bought on my way home from holiday in Cornwall at a stall in the pannier market in Tavistock, together with a few stamps which will get used soon I'm sure. 

I started by selecting a paper which I thought would go nicely with the colours that I was going to use with the wreath stamp and stamped it on to the paper using Versamark ink and WOW Metallic Gold Embossing Powder.  I then coloured the stamp using my water brush and several colours of Distress Ink, namely Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Candied Apple, Forest Moss, Peeled Paint and Cracked Pistachio.  I think this is the first time I have used a piece of paper on a card for absolutely ages, but these papers have the look of washy ink which appealed to me and nice and thick at 180 gsm so took the water beautifully.  I also used a bit of the Cracked Pistachio over the background under and around the wreath and added a sentiment using Olympia Green Versafine ink which actually looks like black in the photo, and then heat embossed with some WOW Clear Gloss EP.

Thank you for your visit which I always appreciate and I hope you'll come back soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge September - Anything Goes (Optional 'Use Something Old  or Neglected').  This stamp has certainly been neglected and is one of the older stamp images.
Uniko Challenge - No. 55 Anything Goes (optional twist Autumn).
Addicted to Stamps - No. 177 For a Lady/Girl.
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes with Flowers.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.