Fantastic Mr. Fox!

Hi all.  A play on words for the title of the post, as I was thrilled with a set of Wildlife stamps I got recently from Craft Stash from their Textures range by Lou Collins, great for male cards and have already used several of the images, and this one is for our son in Australia whose birthday it is today.  Until I checked I wasn't sure that there were foxes there but apparently there are, though haven't seen one when we've visited.  I also used a set of stencils, also bought in their recent £5 sale, and called Layering Mountain Landscape, and I just used a couple of them to make the scene,  This set is the It's Just Paper range by Justine Hovey.

I decided to make this a round card and I luckily do have a large circle die, again another new set, there were some bargains which I couldn't resist..can you believe they just slipped into my basket..lol.  It measures over 5" and I used a 6" square card to cut it taking the circle just beyond the fold placed at the top, and then cut another single circle to put over the top, and also cut a piece off the back so that it stands level.  I then cut a smaller circle from a set of stitched dies and inked using various green Distress Inks. Bundled Sage and Iced Spruce for the background treeline and then Mowed Lawn, and in the foreground Pine Needles for the fir trees and foreground, with just a bit of Pumice Stone for the trunk of one of the trees, which ended up behind the fox, and then Tumbled Glass for the sky.  I then turned my attention to the fox and using a piece of white card and my stamp positioner I stamped it starting with the Pumice Stone DI and then added some Carved Pumpkin DI in various places to be build up the red tones and then I used a set of Lyra Graduate Pencils to build up more light and shade, and I cut it out and added the sentiment using Versafine Vintage Sepia, and then put it together.  

For those that have relations in Australia you will know that the postal system is quite slow and a card this time of year can take up to three weeks to arrive and at Christmastime a bit longer.  I posted it on the 2nd May and to my amazement it actually arrived within a week which has never happened before, and more than likely won't happen again..lol.  Thank you for joining me here today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 62 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Allsorts Challenge - Week 782 Anything Goes/Blast for the Past.
Stencil Fun Challenge - May'24 Anything Goes/Girly.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 469 Any Occasion.
AAA Birthday Challenge - No. 61 CAS (Clean and Simple).

Elegant Writer Scene Take 2

Hi all.  I have another scenic card made using the Elegant Writer Pen...the last one is here.  I used a tree and sentiment from the Textures Wildlife stamp set and a stag from the It's Just Paper set of Animal Silhouettes, both sets used on the card linked above, but these particular images have not seen any ink before.  This photo highlights what I have said about mixed media paper as it looks cream against the white card base, although in real life it doesn't look as off-white as it does here in the photo.

I decided this time to use some Canson Mixed Media paper and also as seen on one of the videos I have watched I used the pen to ink the tree stamp and then spritzed it with some water.  I think maybe I went a bit mad with the water and I blotted it with a piece of kitchen towel, and as there was quite a lot of ink on the towel it did leaves some areas of blue over other areas of the card, not totally intended but I liked the effect, so I dabbed a bit more on too.  As the outline of the tree had somewhat disappeared I re-inked the stamp with the pen and put the outline back, and then just filled in areas of the leaves on the tree with a waterbrush taking ink from scribbled ink on my glass mat.  I then extended the grass at the bottom of the tree with the pen and added some more of the ink there too.  To finish the scene I added the silhouette stag and the sentiment using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and also added some shading beneath the stag to ground it, and then used the edge of a piece of card to make a line on all four sides to frame it using an alcohol marker pen, not a perfectly even line but I decided to go with it.  It does break up the edge of the card as it makes the disparity in whiteness a little less obvious I think..I know I am far too fussy...lol.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challlenge - No 62 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
AAA Birthday Challenge - No. 61 CAS (Clean and Simple).
Allsorts Challenge - Week 782 Anything Goes/Blast for the Past.
We Love Stamping Challenge - Vintage/Anything Goes.
Seize the Birthday Challenge - No. 284 Use Metallics/Anything Goes.

Group of Seven Cardmakers - not a challenge but they have a link so am sending this along.
Darnell's I.D.E.A.S. - a challenge she has set herself but invites anyone to join in with and this is: 
Week 4: 'A' for Anything Goes.

Lots of Leaves

Hi everybody.  My card today is a mix of leaves using a Made to Surprise Embossing Folder called Leafy Background, and a set of stamps, dies and stencils from Globleland featuring Ginkgo Leaves, which are being used for the first time here.  

For the background I decided to use a piece of green textured card with the Leafy Background EF and then very carefully went over the raised parts with a Brilliance Moonlight White inkpad which highlighted it well.  I then die cut a jig to use with the Ginkgo leaf stamps cutting all the dies on white card to be kept for future use.  I then placed the cut out piece in my stamp positioner and placed the stamps within the shape for accurate positioning and placed the corresponding die cut shapes back into the holes and then inked and stamped each using Versafine Olympia Green Ink and stamped several times to get good coverage (to be honest it is a very dark green so looks like black).  I then heat embossed each with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then used the stencil which has just the leaf shapes for each of the stamps and ink blended with a brush using Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint and Crushed Olive Distress Inks.  I then decided to add a bit of Pine Needles to help the tones of green harmonise better. 

I decided to take the background a step further so got out a XCut Hexagon die set and picked one out of about 2" across the flat edges, and started in the centre and worked outwards die cutting each as close to each other as possible, and using some white card to glue them to I built up the piece which finished up about 4" square.  I probably flattened the embossing a bit as it was an afterthought to die cut. To finish I added a snippet of black card behind it and added the leaves and stamped a banner sentiment onto another piece of white card using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and  heat embossed with the Clear Gloss EP.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 62 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.  Happy 11th Blogaversary too Darnell..it's difficult to believe the challenge has been going that long!
We Love Stamping Challenge - May '24 Vintage/Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations Challenge - May '24 Mood Board/Anything Goes.
Allsorts Challenge - Week 782 Anything Goes/Blast for the Past.

Seize the Birthday Challenge - No. 284 Metallics/Anything Goes.

I am also joining in with Darnell's I.D.E.A.S., a challenge which she has set herself but has said that anyone may join in.  This is May Week Three: Embossing.

Hare in the Landscape

Hi everyone.  I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks as I have been away to Cornwall.  We went over the bank holiday weekend for a male voice music festival with a choir hubby belongs to and then we finished the week out staying at Mevagissey, and the weather was lovely with only a little rain one morning and then sunny and reasonably warm for the rest of the week, in fact as the week went on it got warmer and warmer which was great.  Since being back I have been slow to get back to anything, but  I have just bought a Speedball Elegant Writer Pen having seen it used for this month's Group of Seven Cardmakers and have also seen some YouTube videos and I thought it looked interesting so decided to give it a try.  I bought one with a fine nib and they have a flat edge as they are calligraphy pens but can be used with water, and the black pen which I bought will split out into blue and pink when the water is added.  It is the first time I have used it and I was reasonably pleased with the result.  I used a set of stamps called Wildlife for the hare and the sentiment which are from the Textures range of stamps by Lou Collins, and also a couple of different sets from the It's Just Paper range - Winter Woods from which I used the trees and grass, and Animal Silhouettes for the birds and two little hares, all of which are being used here for the first time.

I stamped all the images onto a piece of Bristol Smooth 250gsm card using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink.  I did add two layers of the grass moving the stamp up in my stamp positioner and reinking just the top half of the grass to thicken it up and make it a bit higher, and then added some of the Elegant Writer Pen over the top around the edges and where there were shaded areas, and moved it around using a water brush.  I also scribbled some on my glass mat and picked it up from there.  I didn't get much of the pink, coming through but couldn't really add lots of water as it does cockle, and it did a bit, but I sprayed the other side with water and that helped to flatten it out.  Next time I will try a watercolour paper.  I like this paper because it is nice and white which is a better match for the cards I use, and generally speaking the watercolour card does not have the same whiteness.  I finished it with a blue mat and coloured a piece of white card round the edges with a couple of my blue alcohol pens one over the top of the other to get what I thought was a good colour to go with it and brighten it up a bit.  

Thank you for coming for a look today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 62 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
We Love Stamping Challenge - May '24 Vintage/Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations Challenge - May '24 Mood Board/Anything Goes.
Allsorts Challenge - Week 780 Spots and Stripes/Anything Goes.

Typography

Hi everybody.  I have a card for my BIL today using a new Textures Vintage Typewriter die and the set of stamps from the latest Creative Stamping Magazine called Typography and a couple of stencils which came with it from their Textures range by Lou Collins.  There is a vintage and a more modern typewriter stamp in the set which is great, but they had a £5 sale over at Craft Stash recently and I couldn't resist the larger version die cut typewriter which I used here.  I added in the set of books and a sentiment from the stamp set and the letters and numbers using one of the stencils, and all being used for the first time.

I die cut the typewriter twice from white card and glued it together before using some grey alcohol pens to colour it.  I did use the blender to lift some ink for some extra highlights and I also added bits of Black Micron Pen and White Signo Pen, especially on the typewriter keys, and I finished it by adding some WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder over it using Versamark to make it look more like metal.  I then cut a white piece of card to fit a 6" square card and used the stencil on it with three different Distress Inks -  Ripe Persimmon, Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn and added this onto the card.  I stamped the books twice on a piece of white card using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink heat embossed with Wow Clear Gloss EP.  I decided to colour the books using more of my alcohol pens sticking to shades of the three colours I used on the background, and I fussy cut them and added them to each side so they would appear to be back behind the typewriter.  I finished by adding the piece of white card the die for which is part of the set, and I stamped the sentiment again using the Nocturne Ink and WOW Clear Gloss EP and added this to the typewriter which has a little slot which it fits into, and I then adhered it to the card.  I'm not sure it is very visible but I added a bit of light grey under the books and typewriter to ground them. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Stencil Fun Challenge - April -Anything Goes and optional Spring/Flowers.

Allsorts Challenge - Week 778 Use A Stencil.

NBUS Challenge - No. 62 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
AAA Birthday Challenge - No. 61 CAS.

I am also joining in with Darnell's I.D.E.A.S., a challenge she has set herself but she has invited anyone who wants to join in.  This is Week 5: 'S' = Stencils.