Bluebird

Hi there.  Another birthday card for a male member of the family using a Crafty Individuals stamp called Bluebird with Branch and Berries, an Indigoblu stamp French Script and a square stitched die.

I started by making a smooshed background using a piece of white card and Iced Spruce and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks on my glass mat, spritzed with water and the paper laid over it, using one colour at a time to build up the layers of colour and I added the script stamped with the Tumbled Glass.  When dry I stamped the pretty bird using Versafine Smokey Gray Ink and and coloured it with my Inktense Pencils picking up the colour from the tip with a waterbrush, and when finished I added a little orange around the bird's chest straight from the pencil.  I also added a few clouds to the sky with more of the Tumbled Glass using a home made cloud mask, and the sun using Adirondack Sunshine Yellow applied with a  blending tool, and finally some Glossy Accents on the berries and the bird's eye.  I layered it on to the white stitched mat and added a sentiment to the base card using the Smokey Gray Ink and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder before adding the topper to the card.

Thank you for dropping by my blog today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge - June Watercolour Challenge with the theme Flight.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Masculine.
Happy Little Stampers June Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes.

On the Look Out

Hi there everyone.  I have a card for our son's birthday made with one of the otters from a set by Hobby Art Stamps just called Otters and also another set which has scenic and water related backgrounds called Waterfalls.  It was sent over three weeks ago to Australia in the hope that it would arrive in time.  The post is rather variable to there and sometimes cards have been late which is very annoying, but this time it arrived with a good few days to go so I was really pleased.

I started by stamping the otter using Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and then masked it before stamping the rock it is standing on, and also made a mask for the rock so I could add the greenery in between before adding just a part of the same rock to the left.  I then stamped the scene using the same ink with various stamps from the background set including the river and bridge and I extended the river edges just inking the left hand rocks and added them again further into the foreground on the left had side and curved the bank around them to let the river disappear round a bend, and also similarly on the right just to fill the gap up to immediately behind the otter.  I then coloured the scene with my Distress Inks using approximately three greens, three browns and a couple of blues, and I extended the scene outwards a bit more to the left and there were some little rocks with tufts of grass with which I edged the extra piece of road, and  I also extended the bank of the river in the distance and painted the hills to the left and right and also added the large single tree.  Finally I stamped the sentiment again using the Vintage Sepia ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.

Thank you for taking a look today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Uniko Challenge - No. 65 Anything Goes (Optional Twist: Die Cuts).
Happy Little Stampers June Watercolour Challenge  - Anything Goes.
NBUS Challenge - No. 27 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff (both the otter  and the background stamps have never been used before). 

Framed Silhouette Sympathy

Hi everyone.  Unfortunately I have had to make a sympathy card for a more distant family member.  I decided to use some silhouette flowers using a stamp from Crafty Individuals called Ornamental Grasses Silhouette and made an embossed frame around it.

I used a piece of card just a little smaller than my go to 6" square white card and embossed the sets of triple lines on three sides equally but making the bottom set of higher up to allow for the sentiment.  I used Versafine Clair Nocturne ink for both the flowers and the sentiment and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then added some soft colouring with a brush using some Fossilised Amber distress ink for the setting sun sweeping it in a tight circle before covering with a mask and added the Stormy Sky and a little Victorian Velvet Distress Ink to the bottom.  I finished with a sentiment stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder, and decided that in this particular case  a 'thinking of you' sentiment was better and  I didn't want any strong bright colour so used a more subtle colour palette, not my normal..lol.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - No. 316 All About Occasions. 
Crafty Creations May Challenge - No. 421 Anything Goes.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Frame It.
Stamplorations May CAS Challenge - Anything CAS Goes (no twist).

  

Bold Blooms Birthday

Hi everybody.  I have a card today using one of the Woodware Bold Blooms stamps called Isabella, which I was lucky enough to win recently over at The Playground, coloured using Distress Inks, and don't faint with the shock, but I used a slimline card for a change.  I have a few 8" square cards and I cut it down to 4" wide.  I have decided as an experiment to follow the trend to display a card in a slightly different way and will see how it goes but I still think there are occasions when having a photo of a card square on is better.   I showed hubby several different presentations of this card in my photos, and hubby thought this was the best, so the jury's out as they say.

I used one of the off cut pieces from the side of the card which were the same width as the card and stamped using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink heat embossed using WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I decided on the purple and teal colour scheme so that I could enter the present Colour Hues Challenge.  I didn't have teal so I used Peacock Feathers and also some Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord and Wilted Violet for the purple tones and mixed in some purple into the blue for shading on the leaves, and applied the inks from my mat using a waterbrush.  I think it would have been better to put some more blue into the mix as in the daylight today the tones are definitely more green than I thought they were but I will go with it.  I finished with some washy Peacock Feathers around the image and added some splatters using Dusty Concord and added the sentiment with the Nocturne ink and again heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP. 

Before I go I just wanted to say that I recently had two of my posts taken down and I was informed by e-mail that these two posts violated guidelines, but subsequently were in their words reevaluated and reinstated and restored to my drafts, and I have put them back up where they were, luckily still with comments and links so all OK.

It is a mystery to me why these two posts were picked out but really I am suggesting that everyone does a backup because there is a chance that instead of a couple of posts it could be the whole blog, and for me personally, and everyone else I'm sure, this would be extremely upsetting.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

AAA Birthday Challenge - No. 25 Happy Birthday (congratulations on their 2nd Birthday).
Happy Little Stampers May Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations May Challenge - Beautiful Blooms.
NBUS Challenge - No. 26 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Colour Hues Challenge - No. 18 Purple and Teal.

Tall Ship Birthday

Hi everyone.  I recently got the latest Creative Stamping Magazine with the Message in a Bottle set of stamps and a stencil with waves, hearts and shells, and made this masculine card with them for a family birthday using the waves on the stencil and the sailing ship, shells and starfish, but there are also some bottles in which you can place different images and lots of other sea related ones and also some flowers for more feminine cards.

I started with the background using Turquoise and Ultramarine Brushos and Peacock Pixie Powder sprinkled on to my glass mat and spritzed with water before laying the stencil card over and moving it around to cover it.  I then added the stencilled waves using Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink added to the card applied with a blending tool.

I then inked up the tall ship stamp using Versafine Deep Lagoon ink on to a stitched die cut circle and ink blended the clouds with the ink left on the blending sponge using a small cloud mask I made myself, and then added the water with a bit of the Deep Lagoon ink and also coloured the hull of the boat with it, sponging very carefully.  I also added the little birds in the sky with the inked end of a pokey tool.   I then stamped the different shells from the stamp set again using the Versafine Deep Lagoon ink and fussy cut them out, and gave them some soft colour with the inked blending sponge before adding them around the left hand edge of the circle.  It is amazing how far the residue ink on the sponge goes.

I finished by adding the 'Happy Birthday' from the set on to the banner which actually comes with a different sentiment on it, but I inked just the banner and in order to fit the birthday sentiment on to  it I inked and extended the straight edges to the length I needed and then added the end pieces.  I wasn't sure this would work as I did it with an acrylic block but luckily it was more or less OK and a bit of ink blended over the top hid most of the imperfections.  I then added this all on to my 6" square white card as you can see.  

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers May Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 404 Any Occasion.
NBUS Challenge - No. 26 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge - No. 270 Monochromatic.
The Male Room Challenge - No. 150 Water/Beach.

 

Card for a Sewer

Hi everyone.  I have a card today made with some freebie stamps which came with a magazine bought recently for me by hubby.  It was my birthday earlier this month and he surprised me on the day with a couple of magazines and one of them had sewing themed stamps, dies and an embossing folder, and perfect timing as a friend of ours had her birthday yesterday and she is a keen sewer/quilter so I made this card with some of them.  In case anyone is interested they came with Love Cardmaking Issue 7, and after checking it out it doesn't appear to be a current issue but he did buy it from a high street chain which sells magazines, so not sure why they were selling it there, and obviously I don't know if copies are still available. 

I started with a smooshed background using Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks.  I then used the pretty pinked edge die which was one of the freebies, and cut three of the squares using some snippets of LOTV papers which I have from way back.  I stamped the images using Versafine Deep Lagoon Ink and also used it for the sentiment.  I extended the straight stitch/zig zag border which did join fairly well but luckily it is hidden under the bottom square.  I also used some more snippets from the LOTV paper pad to paper piece the tape measure, scissors and buttons which I thought made them stand out more.  I then added this to the white card and positioned the squares as you can see with the middle one as the sentiment plate.

Thank you for dropping by today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - No. 401 Where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Addicted to Stamps and More - No. 404 Any Occasion.
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - All About Occasions.
NBUS Challenge - No. 25 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
 

Two to Tango

Hi everybody.  The saying says it takes two to tango and I thought as the tango is the dance of love then this would make a good anniversary card.  I used this Art Journey stamp called simply Dance and paper  pieced using some Craft Consortium Grunge Light papers which are double sided and I used the other side of one with these red/orangy pink tones, although the same sheet did have some bluey purple too.

I started with a piece of white card just a little smaller than my 6" square card and stamped the image using Versamark and heat embossed with WOW Metallic Platinum Embossing powder.  It does look as though the finish is patchy on the dancers' bodies, but it is script which doesn't show up as well as it might.  I then stamped again on the paper the areas of the stamp to be paper pieced using the same EP, and then fussy cut around the clock faces and added them to the card.  The colour is lighter and brighter than it looks here and I went for the less busy side of the paper because I didn't think the clock faces would show up very clearly otherwise.  I finished by adding a sentiment using Versafine Crimson Red ink and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP.

Thank you for visiting today and I will see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

CAS Mix Up April Card Challenge - Mixed Media.  On my card I have used stamping, heat embossing and paper piecing. 
Kraft Chicks Challenge - No. 555 CAS.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Clean and Simple.
Alphabet Challenge - A is for Anniversary.