CAS Anniversary

Hi all.  I'm back with a clean and simple anniversary card with the Less is More challenge in mind which is to use berry colours, and also using the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch.  Here it is but unfortunately the challenge has closed now.

          
Well I needed this card for a niece and her husband and thought I would combine the challenges on this card, but to be honest I am not sure that it works, but I am getting short of time so I am going to send it and hope that as they are young they will think this untraditional anniversary card is alright and not wonder if I've lost the plot ..lol.

I started by making a watery background using a snippet of white card and three different colour inks, i.e. Distress Inks in Festive Berry and Picked Raspberry and Adirondack Ink Eggplant.  I then die cut it using my Simon Says Stitched Circle die and cut portions of it and added an extra curved bit or two, until I built up the shape you can see by mounting it on to a snippet of purple cardstock and leaving little gaps so the purple shows through.  I also cut the purple by hand to leave it extending a little beyond what I intended to be the last piece, but after looking at it I decided to add another piece to the top which as you can see was after I had mounted it on to the base card to which the Ink Splats had been added.  This is another That Special Touch mask which is another never before used/NBUS item which has been sitting on the table waiting to be christened as it were.  I used the same inks here as well.

I added a heart from my Nellie Snellen set of dies and finished with the two sentiments using Brilliance Starlite Silver.  I'm not sure that the 'congratulations' is quite straight but as this card has a slightly distressed look I will allow the slight dip in the stamping ..lol.  Stamping straight on to the card is something I don't like doing but it was appropriate for this card. 
  
Before I finish I would like to introduce a new follower who is Barb and you will find her blog here.  I'm sure she would appreciate a visit and she is a very creative lady who in the past has painted and fired her own china, and she has just recently posted a beautiful piece of parchment work which she did a while ago but like most of us who have done other things card making is now her passion.

Thank you for taking a look today and I really appreciate all your interest.

 Pat  x

I am also entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 188, where we use up our scraps/snippets.
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes with a Stamp and a Die.

Seaside Themed Birthday

Hi there everybody.  It was DH's birthday a couple of weeks ago and the usual dilemma is what am I going to make as I'm sure most of us find it more difficult to make masculine cards.  He does like to get out into the countryside or down by the sea, and in the past we have done a fair bit of walking, not so much these days though, but we do try to get out and about, and he has taken up photography in a bigger way since he retired.  Well,  I do have some seaside themed stamps and I decided to stick with them.

I found a snippet of white card about 5" square and started with the background to the image.  When looking on Pinterest recently I found some cards where the background had been applied using the sticky side of masking tape which gives it a rougher more textured appearance, so I thought I would give it a try.  I used Sunshine Yellow and Stonewashed Adirondack ink and Faded Jeans Distress ink.  It did say you should use shiny card so that the glue would not stick firmly to and damage the surface.  Well I wanted to use ordinary white card so I ran the tape over my trousers a few times to remove some of the tack and then inked up a piece cut a bit shorter than the card.  To ink I just ran the pad straight over it and then pressed it down firmly on to the card and worked my way up from yellow to light blue to the darker blue.  If it didn't seem dark enough I inked and went over it again.  When I changed colour I used a fresh piece of  tape.

I used my Sheena Douglass stamps for the plant, I think it's called Thrift (I didn't ink quite all of the stamp), and the Puffin, and a set from Crafty Individuals for the Seashells, and I stamped these using Espresso Adirondack ink.  I then coloured these images with my Spectrum Noir pencils.  I did think that the brown was a little dark but decided to go with it, and I also used a white gel pen to whiten the feathers on the Puffin a bit.  I also used the pencils to add a litle extra shading and to darken the horizon.  I layered the topper on to a snippet of blue card.

The background was made using another slightly larger snippet of white card and a NBUS stencil from That Special Touch called Wavy which I bought for using with sea related cards and I inked it very lightly with the same two blue inks and a very little Peacock Feathers DI as well.  I applied it using some blending foam and I moved the stencil over a bit to fill up the gaps for a bit more coverage.

Before putting the card together I ran off the personal sentiments from the computer on to the inkjet paper I use for inserts and cut them out using a stitched circle die and punched a hole in each one using a screw punch.  I then wrapped three pieces of baker's twine round the image mat and fixed the tags in place with a bit more baker's twine, and to keep them in place I adhered them to the card as they tended to twist.

I finished with the die cut sentiment which I cut from a snippet of dark blue card.

I wasn't quite sure if he would like it but he has said several times how much he loves it so was relieved that I made the right choice. 

Thank you for stopping here today.

Pat x

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 188 where we use up our left over stuff/snippets.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations  - Anything Goes with a Stamp and a Die.
Artistic Stamper Challenge - Anything Goes.

Zentangled Flowers

Hi there everybody.  I have something a bit different to show you today which I haven't actually tried before.  I have a new/NBUS stencil from That Special Touch which I bought intending to try with texture paste but still haven't got any paste so I looked at it and thought I would try some zentangling.  Here it is .....

I'm afraid the zentangling is all my own made up design and I just looked at the petals and leaves and started to make shapes using a Micron pen.  I outlined the whole thing on to a snippet of white pearlescent card  and then filled it in.

When I had finished I coloured it in using my Spectrum Noir Pencils and then found a snippety frame which was leftover from my chevron flower card the other day, but the chevrons go down instead of across due to the way it was cut, but I quite like that.  With the size of the aperture which is 4" square, the bottom of the stencil which is mainly a bit of foliage had to be cut off. 

I added some clouds using a piece of  paper with some curvy cloud shapes and some Adirondack Stonewashed ink with blending foam.

I then finished it with a die cut sentiment made using a snippet of blue cardstock.

Thanks for all your interest which I really appreciate and I hope you enjoy the upcoming weekend.  Lets hope we get some better weather by then.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Less is More - Recipe.  After it didn't work out the other day because I linked to too many posts I wasn't sure whether I would make the deadline but luckily I have so Happy Birthday Chrissie.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 187 where we use up our snippets.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Winter Tree

Hi there.  Today I have a Christmas card to show you as Happy Little Stampers has a CAS Sketch  and a Christmas challenge which have a tree as the theme and also it is Rudolph Day which runs from the 25th to the end of the month.

For the tree I used a freebie set from Penny Black and made a little background for it.  I had a go at this technique on a card I made last Christmas and thought that I would give it another go.  I found a snippet  of white stamping card and cut it to about 4" square.  I inked the stamp using Adironack ink in Bottle and spritzed it several times with water before stamping it, having first placed a piece of scrap paper cut with a curve underneath the bottom edge so the water would not spoil the white of the card.  I spritzed it on the card to get the ink to move a bit more and then dried it with my heat tool.  I then inked and stamped over it again without any water which firmed up the outline.  I started with some Stormy Sky DI and thought this was a bit dark so decided to try some watercolour from a tube in French Ultramarine and mixed this in a bit to give a more definite but not too dark blue sky.  I have recently resurrected my watercolour tubes so I decided to mix it up a bit but the distress inks and also Adirondack and Momento do work well with water.  I think the only difference for me personally is that the watercolour paint will lift out better where the inks stain much quicker, if something is put on rather dark lightening it is quite difficult.  I then decided to give the sky more warmth at the horizon so added some Spiced Marmalade DI.  I made some shadows at the bottom of the tree with the Stormy Sky DI and a bit of Momento Tuxedo Black well diluted.  I finished by stamping over the tree with the Tuxedo Black but only inked the stamp very lightly.  It was mainly to give the bottom of the tree more definition and also to define some of the outer branches a bit better.  I then made some falling snow with a white gel pen.

I made a frame with my stitched square dies using a snippet of white card and finished with a sentiment from the same freebie set stamped using Archival Black.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat  x

These are the challenges I am entering:

Happy Little Stampers - Sketch Challenge.
Happy Little Stampers  - Christmas Challenge.
Rudolph Day Challenge - July.
Happy Little Stampers - CAS Challenge Stamping.
                   
p.s.  So excited to be chosen the winner of HLS Christmas Challenge.  Really made my day!

 

CAS Geometric + Flower

Hi there all.  Here we are at the end of another week and very nearly the end of another month.  Where does the time go.  Talking about time I saw this sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and decided I would use it to make a card but by the time I finished it I realised that I had just missed it.  I was away on holiday all last week and when I came back I had several cards to make so have been busy doing that and have not had time to post anything until now.  As you can probably guess I am not the most organised of people ..lol.  Anyway here is the sketch.

....  and here is my card.

                                                                                                                                                      
I used a That Special Touch Mask - Chevrons which I embossed using a snippet of white card and then coloured using Stonewashed and Pink Sherbert Adirondack inks and some Shaded Lilac Distress Ink which I applied with blending foam.  I die cut the piece with a stitched square die and then cut the circular shape using a stitched circle die.

I placed the shape in the centre of my square base card but didn't stick it down so I could judge where to stamp the little flower stamp.  This is a Claritystamp Stamp Club stamp which I hadn't used before and decided that being quite small it would fit nicely in the circle.  I hovered with the stamp which I inked up with  the Stormy Sky DI and then moved the chevron embossed snippet to one side whilst I stamped the flower.  I coloured it using the blue ink but decided to add a bit more depth with my Spectrum Noir pencils to give a more pinky blue colour.  I also added a little more blue and pink ink through and around the flower to highlight it a bit more.

I then adhered the shape into place and made a fishtail banner for the sentiment from a snippet of white card which I stamped using Stormy Sky DI and glued it in place on the topper.

Thank you for dropping by and I really appreciate your continued interest in my blog.  Have a good weekend.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS  - Chevron.
Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge  - Stamping.
Addicted to Stamps - CAS.
CASology - Lines.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 187 where we use up our snippets (just a couple this time).

P.S.  I really did want to enter the Less is More Challenge seeing that it is a special week with Di as Guest Designer and Chrissie's birthday too, but didn't realise that they only allow five challenges to be entered including their own so had to scrub it as I had already entered five. 

On the Look Out

Hi there everyone.  This is a NBUS stamp which I bought fairly recently from IndigoBlu called Blue's Look Out as I just couldn't resist this cute cat.

I started by watercolouring a snippet of white cardstock using the smooshing technique and Adirondack Shell Pink and Distress Ink Picked Raspberry.   I then stamped the image on to this watercoloured card using Versafine Smokey Gray ink and then die cut the image mat using a Simon Says Stitched Square, the largest die.  The stamped image didn't quite fit into the square die so ended up cutting just a little of the original image away.  I coloured the eyes of the cat with  Spectrum Noir yellow and orange pencils and added some Glossy Accents on top, and I also coloured the flowers on the image with a pink Spectrum Noir to make them show up a bit more.

I embossed a background white layer using a piece of white card and a Tim Holtz Brick Wall Embossing Folder.  I then adhered this and the pink image mat to the base card.

I decided to use a frame which was left after I cut a stitched mat for my last project and so stuck it over the top of the image but as you can see instead of square on I twisted it.

I decided to add  a couple of corners and thought I would use a Memory Box die called Snowflake Corner
which actually looks like little flowers or stars and so doesn't necessarily have to be used for Christmas.  I cut two of these using a snippet of white card and decided to make them silver which I thought would go nicely with the pink.  To do this I used my Brilliance Platinum ink pad and just swiped it all over the die cuts until well covered.  This is a pigment ink so left them to dry for a little while, and to be sure I just went over them with my heat gun a few times.   I also stamped and cut out a couple of little butterflies, using another snippet of white card, with a freebie set I got with a magazine a little while ago which are actually Sheena Douglas designs.  I again used the Brilliance Platinum ink to stamp with and layered them up.  I also die cut a sentiment using a Britannia die and another snippet of white card which I coloured with the Adirondack Shell Pink ink.  I decided after I had cut it to darken the pink a bit with a Spectrum Noir Pencil

I finished by adding little pearls to the butterfly, the corners and on the larger flower on the image.

Thank you for dropping by today.

Pat x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

I have been away for a week and this was a scheduled post so have only today been able to link up to these challenges which means they are rather close to the finishing dates unfortunately.

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Time Out Challenge - Nature with Optional Twist of Animals.
Cuttlebug Mania - Tic Tac Toe - middle line across - use pink, emboss and Birthday Theme.
Stamping Sensations - Feature a Creature.

P.S  I was tickled pink to be chosen as one of the runners-up over at Cuttlebug Mania.

Time for Tea

Hi all.  I made this card some time ago but for one reason or another never got round to blogging it.  I used one of the stamps from a set by Kanban call Damask Divas - Lets Do Lunch, which I was lucky enough to win over at Pixie's Playgrounds.  The backing card and teacup are elements from a set which I bought eons ago from Hunkydory.

I started by folding back the front of a white square card and covered the folded back piece with one of the pieces of card which I thought was quite appropriate as the words went perfectly with the stamp, and then I covered the inside with another piece of the co-ordinating cardstock.

I used a snippet of white card and stamped the image using Black Archival ink and then coloured it using Spectrum Noir Pencils.  In the meantime I cut two hexagons from a set by XCut using two snipppets of plain card, one in dark blue and one in lilac.  I cut out and mounted the image on to the lilac hexagon so that it fitted flush with the bottom edge, and the only other thing I did was to cut a curve on to the table edge.  I then mounted the lilac layer on the the slightly larger dark blue layer and added another layer of gold mirri to the back of this, which I'm afraid doesn't show up very clearly in the photo.  I cut it by hand as I wanted just a narrow border.  I then fixed this to the card front.

I finished by adding one of the die cut images from the Hunkydory set to the inside of the card and then added some punched flowers and die cut swirls, cut to fit, and also three extra flower centres were added to the front lefthand corner of the card and the sentiment banner was cut from a leftover piece of  the pink border.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and your interest is greatly appreciated.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 184.  The challenge is to use up our snippets, and there were quite a lot on this card.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Coffee or Tea.
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes.
Penny Black and More - Anything Goes with a Sentiment.