A Touch Of Summer

Hi all.  Oh dear, I've done it again.  I made this card for a birthday and also with Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge in mind but the challenge had already finished by the time I made it!  This seems to be becoming a habit ..lol.

I used a NBUS Peony stamp from IndigoBlu, and a NBUS Sunflower doily die from Xcut, and also some NBUS Papermania Butterfly stamps. I also used two Sue Wilson Creative Expression dies, Finishing Touches Trailing Ivy and Petite Vinery, and Configurations Collection Elegant Laced Edger, the corner die.  Behind the doily I also used a Simon Says Die Stitched Circles which is another NBUS set of dies.

I started with the background which I made with Clarity gelli plate card which takes the water very well, and then used the smooshing technique with Peacock Feathers and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks.  I then stamped the Peony all over the background using the Peacock Feathers.  When dry I cut it to fit the square base card and darkened the edges by sponging some more Spiced Marmalade DI around the edges with blending foam. I adhered this base layer to the white card.

When I had cut the doily using a snippet of white card, I filled in the doily a little more with the stitched circle which I embossed on to another snippet of white card, and I cut with scissors on the outside line of stitching which made it slightly larger so that it fitted the space up to the outer edge as you can see, and then glued it to the under side of the doily.  Using more snippets of white card I die cut the corners and the Petite Vinery flourish using just one of the two dies and cut the flourish in half so that it would mix in with the Trailing Ivy which was a left over piece cut from dark green card a month or two ago.  The last things I did were the peonies and the butterfly which I stamped using the Peacock Feather DI and coloured with two shades of blue and a yellow Spectrum Noir pencil.  I then cut them out with scissors and inked the edges of the flowers and the butterfly with some more Peacock Feathers DI to darken and define.

I finished by inking a snippet of white card with some more Peacock Feathers DI using blending foam and went over it until it had a good coating of the ink and then die cut the sentiment using a Britannia Word Dies set.

Thank you for dropping by my blog today and thank you for all the interest shown in my little corner of blogland.

Pat  x

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - where we use up our snippets. 
Penny Black and More - Wings.
Stamping Sensations - Dies and Punches.
Butterfly Challenge - Butterflies + F for Flowers.  How lucky as the new challenge started today and my card has flowers.  Mrs A I've made it this time.

Electric Guitar Birthday

Hi there everyone.  As you can see I made this card for our DS's birthday.  I was trying to find something different and I came across a free template for this guitar and thought it was quite fun, so here is the card.

I used snippets of red and black card for the sections of the body and I heat embossed them with Clear Gloss EP, and then the silver pieces I made by covering some snippets of black card with Brilliance Starlite Silver Pigment Ink straight from the pad all over it and dried with a heat tool.

The background is two stitched squares die cut from snipppets of white card and embossed using two different stencils and then I put a little of the Brilliance silver ink on to a dry baby wipe and inked the embossed pattern to give it a bit of definition.

The sentiment plate was made with one of the stitched square dies for the white layer and to make the black layer I embossed with the die and this Simon Says Stitched die has a line of stitching inside the cut line and another outside the cut line so I layered the white on to the black and then cut with scissors beyond this outer line of stitching which looks quite good.  I used a fine line Micron pen for the strings and the peg board, and the sentiment is computer generated.

Thank you for taking a look today.

Pat x

I am entering the following challoenges:

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 180 where we use up our leftover stash.
Words 2 Scrap By - It's a Man's World.

African Elephant Birthday

Hi all.  I needed a masculine birthday card this week and I also saw that there were two CAS challenges where the theme was relevant.  The first is over at Less is More where they are asking for something with two or four legs, now this of course doesn't specifically have to be an animal, it could of course be a person, a bird or perhaps a chair or a table, but my elephant definitely fits the bill.  The other is over at Addicted to CAS where they are asking for an animal.

I used a Deep Red stamp called African Elephant.  I used the stamp here on the blog a while ago and I made a background scene, but this time as it is a clean and simple card I stamped using Versafine Smokey Gray ink on to a snippet of white card and coloured using my Spectrum Noir pencils, and then cut the image out using a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Square die.  These dies are different in that the stitching pattern is on either side of the cut line, so if you cut an aperture you get a nice line of stitching all the way round.  The dies are well made and cut beautifully but I did find that they were not the easiest to get apart as the 'pips' or tabs that hold the dies together in transit were so solid that they did not come apart very easily.  Maybe there is a knack to this, but in the end I used a fine small tipped buffer on an electric manicure set which I ran over and over each one, and finally they did come apart.  I don't know if anyone else has found this or perhaps the two sets I bought came from a particular batch where the tabs had been manufactured a little too thickly.

I finished the card with a couple of flourishes from a magazine freebie set by Sheena Douglass, which I stamped on to the base card using Brilliance Starlite Silver pigment Ink, and when dry I used an orange and a green Spectrum Noir pencil to highlight which I thought gave them the look of long dry grass.  I then added a die cut sentiment cut from silver mirri card.

Thank you for looking at my blog today, and thank you also for your continued interest.

Pat x

I am also entering the following challenge:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Make it Masculine.
AAA Cards Challenge - For The Guys.

May Rudolph Day Challenge

Hi there.  Hurray, hurray, I am so pleased that I have managed to make the deadline for the Rudolph Day Challenge over at Mo's Blog where we have from 25th to the end of the month to submit a Christmas card.  I think I have only entered once since the beginning of the year so haven't done very well up to now.  I have been greatly hampered this time by the fact that I made the card on Wednesday, and was just thinking about writing the post and putting it up when our telephone line ceased working, and so not to be thwarted here I am two days later in the local library writing it up.  I was hoping that by now all would be fixed but seems that it might not be put right until early next week and it won't be a moment too soon as you don't realise how much you miss it until it isn't there!  I was determined that as I had made this card specially it would be posted. 

Anyway on to the card.  I used a Penny Black stencil which I was lucky enough to win a while ago and a snippet of a gelli plate creation which was left over from a card I made several posts ago.

I transferred the stencil outline on to the card using a fine Micron pen and then watercoloured using Momento Bamboo Leaves and a little Pine Needles Distress Ink on the leaves and a little DI Walnut Stain on the stems, and to emphasise the leaves a bit more I used my Spectrum Noir pencils, just a light brown and a dark green, and then I used a mid colour blue and went round the edges of the image in places to make it stand out a bit more.

I have just bought a new Sue Wilson die from her Configurations Collection called Elegant Laced Edger and consists of two dies which as the name suggests can be arranged to make different borders and frames.  I mounted the topper on to a piece of green card and then cut the die cut frame and sandwiched this between the topper and the textured gold card behind.  I also cut a piece of soft green ribbon and layered this between the gold card and the frame.  I also embossed the base card with the stencil.

I finished by adding some pearls to the corners and dotted the 'i' with one also, and added a die cut sentiment, and as a last thought I decided perhaps some glossy accents would look nice on the berries too.

I hope this all makes sense as I have had to rush somewhat to get this posted in the time they allow you on line in the library, but hopefully normal services will be resumed at home next week, and so I will catch up with everyone then.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to stop and take a look, and all your interest is much appreciated.

Pat x

p.s.  Here we are less than a day since my library visit and out of the blue a gentleman has arrived and corrected the phone line fault so will be catching up on visits shortly.  So pleased to be back in proper contact with the outside world again!

I am also entering this card in the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 178 and 179 where we use up our snippets/scraps of card and paper.
Cuttlebug Mania - Bling.  I have used some pearls.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Rose Blush Birthday

Hi there.  This is probably going to be the fastest written blog post ever.  I have been meaning to write this post for the last few days but needless to say it just hasn't happened and the IndigoBlu Challenge for this month closes any time now.

I created the background using Adirondack inks in Lettuce and Stonewashed, with just a touch of Pink Sherbet, using a piece of acrylic and swiping the colours on to it and diluting with a spray or two of water.  I then laid the card on to the acrylic and transferred the colour.  I did this a couple of times to add extra colour until I was happy with the result.  I did try to keep the colours fairly light and minimal where I knew the stamp was going to sit so that the colours used to colour the stamp would stay fairly true and I wanted to keep the background quite light anyway.   I then stamped the IndigoBlu Rose Blush stamp on to the background using Black Archival ink.

I coloured the image using my Spectrum Noir pencils and I added a little extra pink randomly to the background as I felt this would complement the stamp more.  I finished by adding the sentiment using Black Archival ink.

I have to admit that my white square cards do not work well with watercolour techniques, so I used a piece of stamping card and then attached this to the base card when finished.  It did warp a bit so I ended up cutting the whole thing down to get a better edge for gluing. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenges:

IndigoBlu Challenge - Just One Layer.
Stamping Sensations - Flower Power.
Sweet Stampin'  - Clean and Simple.
Uniko Studio - Happy Birthday to Bev with Flowers.
AAA Cards

CAS Bird on a Branch

Hi all. This card is for DH's brother and I used a recently bought set of stamps from Chocolate Baroque called Spring Bird Crocus which included this lovely bird which I think may be a Wren, so I have tried to give her the appropriate colours.

I was intending to enter this in the CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge but unfortunately realised after I had made the card that by the time I could put the card up that particular challenge would be finished, but not to worry I enjoyed making it anyway.

I coloured the image with my favourite Spectrum Noir Pencils and decided to add just the hint of some scenery in the background.  I did use the blending solution on the actual image and on the hills and sky in the background but decided to keep more texture in the bit of foreground behind the image to give it just a bit of texture though I didn't want it to take the attention away from the image too much.

I finished it with a sentiment stamped using Black Archival Ink.

Before I finish I would like to welcome a new follower Petra Swart.  She is a very talented lady who is skilled in all sorts of crafts so please do go and take a look, and you can find her blog here.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS -  Birds.
Addicted to Stamps - Clean and Simple.
Papertake Weekly - In the Garden.  I hope this is not too obscure, but birds are found in the garden and although this does not look like a typical garden scene hopefully this will be acceptable.

Time for a Snooze

Hi there everybody.  I have made a couple of cards recently using this digital stamp from Di's Digis called Time for a Snooze.  They are both much the same in style but I used different colours for the layers and both were coloured using my Spectrum Noir Pencils and the blending solution which I find blends colours together really well and gives a nice smooth finish.  Here is the first one I made for a friend who has been chillaxing in the sun recently so I thought the image rather appropriate. 

The only additions on this one were the snippets of yellow and blue card for the background and a snippet of the same blue for the die cut sentiment, and also a couple of gold tone sticky numbers as it was his sixtieth birthday so I stuck them on the bottle as he is rather partial to a glass of wine.  Mind you I made a bit of a faux pas as I think he normally drinks more red wine than white but never mind.

This second card is for our nephew, and I decided to colour the bear in a slightly lighter colour and I also had a go at layering the die cut sentiment with the two colours used in the layering, which were snippets of card, with the darker colour behind to make a shadow.   It was rather fiddly to do but I quite like the effect.  

Thank you for taking a look today.

Pat x

I  am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 175 and 176.  We aim to use up our snippets here.