My Mind's Eye Birthday

Hi all.  I needed a card for a female relation and with Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge in mind I used a sketch  I found over at Fusion Challenge.

I used the sketch and the pretty blue in the photograph for my card.  I found some My Mind's Eye freebie papers which I thought would work, and also a Lily flower stamp from a set by Sheena Douglass called A Little Bit Floral.

I stamped the flower on to a piece of the paper twice using Black Archival ink.  I cut the whole flower out and then on the second image just the three largest petals,  and used my white gel pen to fill in the lines on the stamp and the stamens as I thought this would tie it in better with the rest of the card.  After I had shaped the petals and stuck the flower together I added a centre  using a hole punch and a snippet of white card.  I shaped the pieces with a ball tool and attached them in the middle of the flower.

I made the tab shaped topper with another piece of the paper and backed it with a piece of blue card which was a snippet which had been dry embossed originally, but I thought that as very little of it would be visible this would look fine with the patterned paper.  A tip which I have found useful when trying to make the shape at the bottom is to line up both pieces  and after snipping the 'V' shape slide the top layer up as far as you wish and then cut the excess off the top.

The background layer is the third of the patterned papers with a snippet of the pink either side because it seemed to look better with the pink flower and harmonised the design.

I don't have any butterfly stamps only a couple of dies, one of which is very large, and one very small, so I decided to draw and cut out one of my own design.  I did look at a few different shapes and just sketched one, made a paper template.  I cut out a butterfly using a snippet of white card, and used this together with a freebie star stamp which I got recently with a magazine, and stamped the design from the stamp on to the butterfly using Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and also blended some of the ink on to the butterfly using blending foam.  I finished the butterfly with three of the white punched pieces shaped as above.   

The stars were a freebie stencil which I got with the same magazine and I drew round it and cut it out using a snippet of white card, and then stamped the design with the same star stamp using the Picked Raspberry and also blended some over the stars.

I finished by stamping the freebie sentiment from the same set on to the bottom corner using Black Archival ink.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat x

As well as the above challenges I am also entering this card at:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 151. We have to use up our scraps/snippets.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge  - We're Seeing Stars.
Country View Challenges - Bugs, Bees and Butterflies.

Optical Pattern Birthday

Hi there all.  I hope your weekend has started well.  A few days ago I needed a male birthday card and I was musing about what I might do and was just surfing the internet when I came upon this optical design by Julianna Kunstler which you can find here.  I was completely bowled over by it and just had to grab a piece of paper and follow her instructions for making it, to the best of my ability anyway.  I really thought that it would probably end up in the bin so chose a snippet of inkjet paper that had a sentiment which had been printed wrongly on one end so I cut this down to round about 51/2 inches square.  With hindsight it would probably have been better on something a bit more substantial.  Something like this is completely therapeutic and apart from cooking dinner and then eating it, I was determined to sit and finish it.  I must admit that by the time I had completed it my fingers were aching somewhat but I was quite happy with the effect.

She suggests you start with series of vertical wavy lines and then put one wavy line across the middle, and this is where you start pencilling in the segments so that all the lines curve towards the centre.  I will say at this point that when I mounted it I twisted the whole thing round by 90 degrees so the tubes are running horizontally not vertically.  You can use a fine line pen but I decided to pencil so I could erase and change anything I didn't like.  After all the lines were done  I started to colour with my Spectrum Noir pencils.  I started with the two plain tubes thinking this would be easier to achieve, but frankly after doing two plain ones I thought it would look more interesting if I alternated the colours.

I didn't at first think that this would work as a birthday card, but once I had mounted it on to a snippet of black card and then adhered this to the square white base card I began to think that maybe it was ok.  I finished by adding a strip of black card on which I added the sentiment.

Thank you for looking today.

Pat x

Birds on a Branch Anniversary

Hi all, and here is an Anniversary card I made for some good  friends whose 20th Wedding Anniversary was towards the end of November.  When it comes to Anniversary cards my mind seems to go down the same routes all the time, so had a look around for fresh ideas and found that the pair of birds idea came up quite a bit, and I don't think I have used birds on any of my recent cards.  A particular bird punch by Stamping Up  kept appearing, and as I don't own this punch and needed the card in a hurry, I decided to try making a bird of my own design.  It does look a little similar but the punch gave the bird just one wing but I have given mine two and the tail shape is a bit different.   I tinkered about a bit and finally drew one I was happy with, so just reversed it for the other bird to make a matching pair.

I used my Gelli Plate and Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Victorian Velvet with a snippet of white card applying the ink direct from the pad to the plate, and in this instance I think I mixed them together with my finger and then misted with a little water and pulled the print.  I think I may then have added some more Victorian Velvet  to random areas of the plate and misted then put the card back on the plate and pulled the print again just to darken the colour a little.  I then cut the background to size and ran it through a Card Concepts EF called More Dots.  I had to extend the pattern as the EF was rectangular not square, but with this simple pattern it proved quite easy to do.   I finished the background by inking a little more round the edges with Distress Ink - Faded Jeans.

The heart topper was made from another snippet of white card and using a Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Heart die, after which it was embossed using a folder by Cuttlebug called Birds and Swirls.  I then cut the birds from snippets of pink and blue paper from a pad of plain papers from Dovecraft, and cut the wings separately and ran them through the CC folder and attached them to the birds and pencilled an eye on each.  I decided to add a little shading to each bird with some Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans on the blue, and Picked Raspberry and then to darken the wings a little of the Faded Jeans.  The branches were made using the Sue Wilson die - Petite Vinery.  I inked up the veins of the leaves while they were still in the die using Faded Jeans, and then I cut each branch a little shorter and coloured with the Tumbled Glass and Victorian Velvet inks.

Finally after assembling the card I ran off the sentiment on the computer and then made a mat for it using Spellbinders Decorative Elements  die Labels Eight.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat  x

I am entering my card in the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 150 where we us up our snippets of paper and card.

Under Sail

Hello fellow card lovers.  Well, I took my life in my hands and changed my blog a little, just the fonts anyway.  I am always a bit nervous of changing the look of the blog in case anything goes awry.  What prompted me was a post by Di about blogger and its problems which you can find here.  I left Di a comment thanking her for bringing this site to our attention and said I was afraid to change anything in case of problems.  Afterwards I thought "come on Pat, it really should be ok, just give it a go".  Well I did and everything appears to be alright.   The only thing that is slightly bugging me is that when the blog first comes up, and before it is fully loaded, it seems to flash up the old heading, but because the sizing of the new heading is a little different it flashes up the old heading on two lines before it finally loads and then puts up the heading with its new font.  I know this is just one of blogger's little foibles, and hopefully over time it will stop doing this.

Anyway, here is another male birthday card with a watery theme.  I enjoy making cards with a sea theme and I found this image that I thought would make a nice card and I used it in conjunction with my Gelli Plate and Distress Inks.

I covered the Gelli plate in four different colour Distress Inks, namely Faded Jeans, Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac and Peacock Feathers.  I swirled the ink straight from the pad over the Gelli Plate starting with the darkest colour, Faded Jeans, at the bottom, then the Tumbled Glass, then a small area of Shaded Lilac, and then the Peacock Feathers at the top, and then spritzed with a little water.  I made sure there weren't too many areas of white left and then pulled the print using a snippet of white card.  The print was quite good but decided to add some Shaded Lilac, again spritzed with water, to the bottom two thirds of the plate, put the print back on and was happier as the lilac had lightened and filled in the gaps.  I then decided to add  some Faded Jeans to approximately where the horizon line would be, and again added some water and pulled the print for a third time.

After printing the image, then colouring and cutting it out, I glued it in place.  It was a bit difficult to cut out as I had to cut off the lines attached to the sails which in turn were attached to the boat as they were too thin to cut out successfully.  After glueing in place I took a Spectrum Noir pencil and put the lines back in as accurately as I could and also added the birds at this stage.  The lines could perhaps have been a little sharper, but I went over them with a pencil to give a bit more definition, and decided not to chance my arm any more and just left it there.

I cut the finished picture down a little to give a good edge and mounted on a piece of dark blue card which in turn was mounted on to a square white card, then added the sentiment.  The only other thing I did was to create shading under and around the boat so it looks as though it is in the water and not on top of it.  I am fairly pleased with the result, and at a distance the horizon line seems to have morphed into a bit of distant coastline which is an added bonus.  The thing with this printing is that the results are quite random and unpredictable and if you'll excuse the pun you have to 'go with the flow' as it were.

Anyway, thank you for stopping by today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 149 where we use up our snippets of card and paper.  Only a couple here - a large leftover piece of white and dark blue card.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Dahlia with Embossed Frame

Hi there.  I can't believe that it is nearly the end of October and although the weather has been mild, now the clocks have gone back and the trees are changing colour, Autumn is well and truly here, and this seems to make me want to use different sorts of colours.  I made this card for a friend whose birthday was fairly recently, and used this Dahlia stamp by Sheena Douglass from her range A Little Bit Floral, and also a Crafter's Companion Embossalicious Embossing Folder called Elegant Frame.  I also used a newish die I have from Sue Wilson at Creative Expressions called Petite Vinery.

I started by stamping the image on to a snippet of white card using Distress Ink - Spiced Marmalade and then using Adirondack Sunshine Yellow and the Spiced Marmalade ink on a glass mat, coloured it in using a water brush, and then cut it out.  I took another snippet of white card and embossed with the Elegant Frame EF.  I coloured it in using Distress Ink - Mowed Lawn and then highlighted the edges using some gold mica powder.  I cut three of the Petite Vinery dies from snippets of gold mirri card, and cut them back so that I had six pieces, and then layered the card up as in the photo.  I also cut a little of the edge of the Elegant Frame away so that it fitted the white square card better.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 148 where we use up snippets of paper and card.

Golden Wedding Anniversary

Hi there.  Some friends have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and as far as I can remember this is the first golden wedding card I have made.  I started with the idea of making a shaped card so I took a snippet of gold mirri card cut to about 6" x 3", and using a Spellbinders Labels Thirty Three, the largest die, cut one edge with the die.  In order to establish where to cut the base square cream card to the same shape I laid it down folded and roughly measured how much of the bottom of the card to remove in order for the finished piece of mirri to be about 2" in depth.   In order to cut just one edge you just have to make sure that the rest of the card is tucked through to the back of the die.  Guess how I know this.  I then fixed the gold mirri to the bottom of the card, cutting to fit.

The heart was made using  a Nellie Snellen - Heart die, largest fancy edge die, and then the largest plain edge heart cut from a snippet of white card and then run through my Cuttlebug Kimmy-Luvs EF which sadly is no longer available.  I actually used Versamark ink on the raised side of the folder and then heat embossed using WOW Gold EP.  This was a trifle fiddly as I had to tidy up the gold powder with a brush before heat setting and there were still stray bits which don't show too much after using the ink which was a mixture of Adirondack Sunshine Yellow and a little Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.   The background is made with a snippet of cream card and a Cuttlebug - D'Vine Swirls EF extended to fit, which was shaped with the Labels Thirty Three die as well.

 I finished the card with a heart, the next smallest plain heart, die cut from another snippet of cream card, and using some Claritystamp numbers clear stamps, I heat embossed them on to the heart using the Gold EP.  Lastly I added the two pieces of Sue Wilson - Petite Vinery die cut from another snippet of cream card.  My card was rather thick and did not die cut the leafy swirls very easily, and they got a bit marked as I struggled to release them from the dies, but as this was the last of that colour cream card which went with the rest of the card, I had to go with it.  The cream ribbon was a piece from my stash. 




The second photo was taken with the card standing up so you can see how the edge looks, but it wasn't easy to photograph and didn't catch the best of the light so looks a bit dark I'm afraid.

Before I go I am so happy to introduce two new followers,  Corine and Kathy.  Please go take a look at their lovely work, you really won't be disappointed.
 
Thank you for stopping by my blog and thank you for the interest you show in my meanderings, which is much appreciated.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 147, where we use up our snippets of paper and card.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Leaping Salmon

Hi there all.  This card was made for a friend, and I found this free image of a fish.  I am not great at recognising fresh water fish, and although I think this is supposed to be a trout of some kind, the fact that it is leaping out of the water is more the behaviour of a salmon, and also my colouring makes it look more like a salmon too, so a salmon it has become.  I printed this free image and coloured using my Spectrun Noir pencils, and for the background I made a print from my Gelli Plate.

I used a 6" x 4"  Kraft card and made a print using Distress Inks - Walnut Stain and Spiced Marmalade, and also some Adirondack -  Espresso.  I laid the ink down straight on to the Gelli Plate in vertical stripes quite randomly and then brayered the ink smooth but keeping he different tones a bit, and pulled the print using a snippet of white card.  When dry I ran it through a Craft Concepts - Wood Grain Embossing Folder.  I had to extend it a bit to keep the pattern running in the right direction on this landscape card.  I cut it into four pieces and backed it with a snippet of black card.  The image, which I cut out after colouring has been placed on two mats cut using a S/B Labels Thirty Two.  The smaller one was cut from a darker blue snippet, and then stamped with a Creative Expressions - Bubbles  using Adirondack - Stonewashed ink blended with some DI - Faded Jeans and then some Memento - Nautical Blue to darken the corner, and also on the water attached to the image.

I finished with some Glossy Accents on the eye and some Perfect Pearls on the on the bits of foamy water, and then added a sentiment.

Thank you for stopping by.

Pat  x

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 146 where we use snippets of card and paper, and I used quite a few here.