Spring Flower and Flourishes

Hi everyone.  Hope you are all well and finding things to do at home in these difficult times.  I have been feeling rather unsettled and my mojo has gone walkabout, probably bored with having to stay put at home..lol.  I know this is necessary but not easy to cope with.   Anyway, I needed a card for a friend's birthday and I already had the flower made and fussy cut out, so thought I would work a card around it.  I made a card with the same flower from this freebie set here.

I coloured the flower and leaves using a set of Staedtler Watercolour brush pens.  I added the colour starting with the palest pink and then a darker pink and purple, and two different greens for the leaves.  After each application I used my waterbrush to spread and blend the colour.  Not a perfect blend but considering these were not very expensive I thought they worked well, and on ordinary smooth card, it pilled a little but not too badly.  I used a circle mask and stamped using a Chocolate Baroque stamp called Edgy Edges and heat embossed using WOW Metallic Platinum Embossing Powder.  I stamped it twice to cover the circle.  I then added some Adirondack Shell Pink Ink blended over the embossed circle.  I finished by adding one of the Crafty Individuals Floral Flourishes and Swirls heat embossing with the same EP, and added a sentiment from the freebie set using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP.

I would like to introduce a new follower to my blog called Willy who is a DT member over at Art Journey and whose blog you will find here.  She does some beautiful work and I'm sure she would love you to visit.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

AAA Birthday - No. 11 Flowers.
Stamping Sensations - March - Spring Flowers.
Penny Black and More - March - Spring Flowers.
Addicted to CAS Challenge - No. 180 Circle.  (I'm not sure if this is CAS enough, but there is quite a lot of white space so I am taking a chance).
Daring Cardmakers - Floral Focus.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 382 Make Your Mark.
Happy Little Stamper March Watercolour Challenge  - Anything Goes (optional Flowers).
(so pleased to be chosen the winner of this challenge)

Chocolate Baroque Cards for February TV

Hi there everybody.  Here are some of the cards I made for Chocolate Baroque 's shows on Hochanda last month.  The first was made using the Snowdrop Script set of stamps and also the Edgy Edges stamps.

I started by stamping the flowers on to kraft card using WOW Opaque Bright White EP an coloured them using a green Lyra Aquamarker  and then stamped the name underneath using a black marker from the same set straight to stamp.  I used some white acryic paint on the flowers and die cut it using a Crealies Pierced Rectangle die.  I then backed this with white and then black card.

I used another piece of kraft card for the background stamping the Edgy Edges DL stamp twice using Brilliance white ink and then backed this with black too before adding it to the white card.

For this second card I again used the Snowdrop Script stamps which has this pretty bluebell image too.  Using a rectangular piece of white card I started with the sky using Salty Ocean Distress Ink and a Clarity cloud mask and followed this with the hills with a hill mask from Clarity, using Dusty Concord DI and the subsequent hills in Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint DI keeping the coverage fairly light.  I then stamped the bluebells using Versafine Smokey Gray ink and watercoloured them using a waterbrush and a mix of Blueprint Sketch and Shaded Lilac DI for the flowers and some Peeled Paint DI for the leaves and stems.  I then darkened the lower hills and the foreground using a bit more of the green ink.  I finished by backing this with a piece of dark green card and added a sentiment from the set using Versafine Olympia Green ink.

 The last card for now uses the Doodle Birds and the Doodle Butterfly stamps and Ultramarine Brusho for the background.  When that was completed I stamped the feather and flower images from Doodle Birds using Versafine Imperial Purple and Deep Lagoon inks and backed this with a piece of dark blue card.  I then stamped the flower from Doodle Butterfly in both of the colours on to a stitched square die cut piece of white card and blended Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet DI's around the edges and more of the violet in the centre also.  I fussy cut the flower out and backed the negative with a piece of the dark blue card and then glued the flower over the negative bending the petals up for a bit of dimension and then mounted it all on to a white square card.

I have two new followers Faith whose blog you will find here, and also Rita whose blog you will find here.  Thank you to both ladies for becoming Followers, and I'm sure they would appreciate a visit if they are new to you.

Actually this post and another to come later in the month are the last of my cards as a member of the Guest Design Team over at Chocolate Baroque.  Reluctantly I needed to free up some time so I had to make the hard decision to leave the team.  I have really enjoyed the 18 months that I have been doing this, and it has been such a great experience, and I thank Lesley and David and Judith for being such lovely people to work with. 

Thank you for your visit today and I'll see you again soon.

Oh Christmas Tree

Hi there.  I am just about in time to get my entry in to this month's Rudolph Days Challenge run by Mo over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo.  I was thinking that I had got a couple more days forgetting it is a shorter month, though one day longer this year as it is a leap year.   I have made this card using a Crafty Individuals Large Christmas Tree (CI-460) stamped using Versafine Olympia Green which to be truthful is so dark it looks black on the kraft card.  I also stamped the sentiment using the same ink and then heat embossed both using WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.

I decided to add some stars using a freebie stencil which I have had for ages, and added Brilliance White Ink through it using a piece of blending foam.  I then accentuated some of them with a Signo Gel Pen and I also used this for the snow on the tree and some falling snow.

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you will come back again soon.

I am entering the following challenge:

February Rudolph Days Challenge - Anything Christmas goes.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - No. 260 All About Occasions.  (Great to be chosen as one of the 'Rockers' for this challenge)
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Winter Wonderland Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes.

CAS in Red and Black

Hi everybody.  I just have time to enter the CAS Watercolour Challenge which this month has the theme of Red and Black.  I decided to make a stencil from a die using one from a Sizzix Mixed Media Set No. 3.  There are three dies and I used the crackle corner.  As I used the die as a stencil I also made this a second entry to the CAS Mix Up Challenge.

I cut out the die using a piece of copy paper and stencilled it using Black Soot Distress Ink on to a square piece of white card and heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then used a flower stamp from a Pinkfresh set which came with a recent magazine.  I stamped it using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and coloured it using some Staedtler Watercolour Brush Pens, a red and black.  This is in fact the first time I have used them, and I applied the colour with the brush end and moved it around with my waterbrush.  I then finished with a sentiment from the Pinkfresh set using the Nocturne ink and again heat set with the Clear Gloss EP and added this to the 6" square white card and added the flower adhering it with Pinflair Glue Gel.

Thank you for your visit today and I'll see you again soon.

I am also entering:

AAA Cards Challenge - No. 159 One Corner + Optional Twist Love Those Older Supplies (the flowers are new but the die I used for the stencil is a die I have had for a long time).
Stamping Sensations February Challenge - Feminine.
Less is More Challenge - No. 413 More (but still CAS).
 


(So pleased to be chosen as one of the  Outstanding Designs for both of these challenges)



 

                                                                                          

Sunflower Doily

I decided to enter two of Loll and Bonnie's CAS Challenges with this card as I have managed to cover both with the one card using an Xcut Sunflower Doily Die, and a little bird from Crafty Individuals which came with a few others as a freebie with a recent order.  I did try to find it on their site but couldn't.  

The CAS Mix Up Challenge asks us to make a stencil from a die and include stamping, and a technique of our choice which in my case is heat embossing, and CAS Stencil Challenge  asks for foil, so I combined both these challenges and using the Sunflower Doily die I cut a stencil from a piece of thickish paper and used some Pinflair stencil glue.  I thought it might be strong enough to use with the foil, and having used it with a wet sponge as a temporary stencil adhesive literally to hold a stencil in placed I found that it was inclined to stick to and lift the surface of the paper so thought if I used it neat it would be strong enough to hold the foil.  I applied it through my stencil using a piece of blending foam but ommitted the scalloped edge, and then I left it to dry off before placing the gold foil over it and rubbed it down first with my fingers then with a bone folder and I would say it worked reasonably well.                                                                                                                                                      

There were a few bits of foil where I didn't want them but I managed to remove these more or less with a Mono Sand Eraser.  I then stamped the little bird using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder, and then fussy cut it out.  I also added a sentiment using the Nocturne ink before adding this to a 6" square white card.  Lastly I added the bird to the centre of the doily using Pinflair Glue Gel for a bit of dimension.

I am not totally convinced that the foil would stay put when sent in the post, but saying that I have rubbed it with my fingers and it seems to be OK, but the coverage could be better, as you can see in the close up there are a few bare bits, but I think I will investigate other ways of applying it which may be better.

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

I am also entering:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add a Sentiment.
Penny Black and More February Challenge - Animals, Birds and Butterflies.
Seize The Birthday - No. 183 Show me your White Space.

Scripted Heart Valentine

Hi everybody.  Here is a valentine card I made for my hubby.  It is a bit glitsy but toned down by the black background I think.  I used an Indigoblu stamp called French Script and a Leonie Pujol embossing folder called Dotty Heart.

I started with the black background and covered two thirds of it with the script heat embossing with WOW Black Sparkle Embossing Glitter.  I then die cut a red heart using a set of dies from Sweet Dixie with the WOW Red Sparkle on the right hand side of the heart, again using the French Script.  I dry embossed the other side of the heart with the Dotty Heart embossing folder, and then added a piece of funky foam underneath for a bit of dimension.  I finished by using the sentiment die from The Works and cut two  of them, heat embossing the top one with two layers of Metallic Silver Embossing Glitter, and layered the two together offsetting them to make a white highlight which unfortunately doesn't show up that well in the photo.

Hubby did say he loved the card without any prompting from me, so I take that as a pleasing result...lol.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Playground - No. 371 where we use up our snippets of card, paper etc.  (I have used snippets of black, red and white card).
Happy Little Stampers February Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - No. 258 All About Occasions.
Double D February Challenge - Hearts.
The Male Room Challenge - No 129 Heart You.
The Card Concept - No. 128 Be Mine, Valentine)  I have chosen the clean and graphic look.
Fusion Card Challenge - Valentine.  (I used the photo)

Bee-you-tiful Bees

Hi everyone.  Less is More Challenge is celebrating it's 9th birthday, so congratulations to the team for a really fun and successful challenge, and long may you continue,  and the theme is 'Less (tiny and few)'.  I wouldn't say that CAS comes naturally to me but I do love the look, and enjoy trying to achieve it if I can.  I have not been a good contributor lately but thought that this year, and especially it being their birthday I would get an entry in, and will definitely try to enter more often.

I bought some Crafty Individual stamps recently and as an extra Jean kindly sent me a few little single stamps one of which was this really cute little bee image which is so detailed,  and that is what I used.  I have looked it up and I think it comes from the 'Floral Postcard' collage stamp.

I found a sentiment from my stash which seemed appropriate and stamped it using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then did a little fairly soft stencilling using a Tim Holtz Honeycomb stencil using Adirondack Sunshine Yellow and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.  I then stamped the bee around the sentiment again using the Nocturne ink and coloured them using more of the Spiced Marmalade DI and also some Black Soot DI and used a Wink of Stella Pen to glitter the wings a bit, though it doesn't really show.  I think perhaps my pen is running out so must buy a new one soon.  I cut the piece of white card slightly smaller than the 6" square card and mounted it up.

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







I am also entering:

Stamping Sensations February Challenge - Feminine.
Penny Black and More February Challenge - Animals, Birds and Butterflies.  (I am hoping that as butterflies and bees both have six legs and are therefore insects my bees are eligible, but please remove my entry if not)
Happy Little Stampers February CAS Challenge - Positive.  (Pleased to be one of the Favourites).
AAA Cards:CAS Game No 158 - Up To One Third + optional twist hearts.