Autumn Leaves

Hi all.  I have an autumnal card today made for one of our friends, and I decided to use a set of leaves which I got a while ago but have not got round to using until now.  It is by Chocolate Baroque and called From Nature 1, and I used four of the leaves for my card.  I also used a bird and a sentiment from a freebie set called British Garden Birds which came with a magazine a few months ago and included some dies, an embossing folder of some branches to sit the birds on, and also some toppers and papers.

I decided to make a 7" x 5" card, though in the end I did cut it down a bit to fit the snippet of white card I had in mind, and decided to make a frame of leaves above and below the central sentiment strip.  I used my Misti stamp positioner and randomly stamped the leaves to the top and bottom of the card.  I used quite a few different Distress Inks mixing them on the stamps and spritzing with a little water  to give them the autumn tints.  I also used a waterbrush to add extra ink and also to mix and soften the colours in some places.  When I had finished this I used some Adirondack Stonewashed Ink to blend around the leaves and over the whole background.  

I finished by stamping the bird and the sentiment on to another snippet of white card using Versamark and heat set with WOW Metallic Gold Rich Embossing Powder.  I then ink blended around the edges of the strip with the blue ink and added it to the leafy background, and finally mounted it on to the white card. 

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

I am entering the following challenges:

The Snippets Playground Challenge - No. 439 Where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
Allsorts Challenge - No. 699 Colours of Autumn.
We Love Stamping October Challenge - Autumn Colours.
Stamping Sensations October Challenge - All Things Autumn.
Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge - No. 307  Autumnal Colours.
NBUS Challenge - No. 43 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Happy Little Stampers October Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes.

Crazy Birds

Hi there.  I have a masculine card today for a friend who is 60 and I was very lucky recently to win this fun set of Pink Ink stamps called Crazy Birds so I decided to christen it for this card.

As I don't use kraft card very often I thought I would today, and I stamped the three bird images using Versamark and heat embossed with WOW Metallic Copper Embossing Powder.  I then coloured the images using my Inktense Pencils without any added water, and added some ink blending around the edges using Distress Inks - Tea Dye and then Ground Espresso, and I also added more blue around the bird with Salty Ocean DI, to add to the pencil colouring I had already done.  Just a tip which I expect a lot of you will know that by colouring with white first before adding the colour it helps to neutralise the brown and allows the true colour to come through.  I finished by adding the sentiment and the die cut number using Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink and then I heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I also added a blue mat before adhering it to a 7" x 5" kraft card base.

Thank you for visiting me here today and I hope you'll come back again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers October Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Critter Crazy Challenge - Anything Goes with a Featured Critter.

Plaid with Ornamental Grasses

Hi everybody.  I needed a quick birthday card for a friend whose birthday I nearly forgot and I needed to post it asap.  I decided to make a background with a new stencil, bought at the recent craft fair I went to, from Sweet Poppy called Plaid Back Plate and which is getting its first outing, and a Crafty Individuals stamp called Ornamental Grasses Silhouette which I have had for a while.

I started with a piece of white card cut to fit my 6" square card and masked off an 8cm square and then ink blended with the plaid stencil using three Distress Inks - Lucky Clover, Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean, starting from the bottom left in a diagonal and fading out a bit towards the righthand side.  I decided to set the  stamp below and to the right of the square and then to balance it I placed the sentiment across the top left hand corner and stamped with my usual Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  A very quick card and I hope she likes it and that it arrives on time.

Thank you for coming to see my blog today and I hope you'll visit again soon. 

 

 

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 43 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Happy Little Stampers October Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes.
Happy Little Stampers October Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 440 Die Cuts and/or Stencils.
Stencil Fun Challenge - October: Anything Goes using a Stencil (Optional Theme: Halloween).

Pine Forest

Hi all.  I went to a craft fair recently and spotted some Stampscapes stamps and couldn't resist this Nature No. 6 set including the tree which I have used here repeat stamped to build the scene.   I also bought the Ducks in Flight, the larger size stamp, as I thought it went well with the other set and both being used for the first time.  I did see the tree used in a similar way online and as I needed a card which was fairly quick to make I thought this fitted the bill.

I cut a 5" square piece of white card and inked the tree stamp with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and added the trees and made them shorter as though on a slope, and then I filled in with some second generation ones, and I heat embossed them with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then inked around them leaving a lighter space to the righthand side using Mowed Lawn and Lucky Clover Distress Inks blended with a brush making the edges darker and I then added the hills bottom right using a set of acrylic masks by Sweet Poppy Stencils, also bought at the craft fair, and finished with the sentiment and the flying ducks also using the Nocturne ink and Clear Gloss EP.

I finished by mounting it on to a piece of black card and attached it to the 6" square card.

Thank you for joining me here today and I hope you visit me here again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge - 'N' is for Nature.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 439 Any Occasion.
AAA Birthday Challenge - A Favourite Technique (stamping and heat embossing).
NBUS Challenge - Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.

Jeepers Creepers...Sneakers!

Hi everybody.  Today's card is for hubby's 12 year old great nephew using this stamp from Woodware called Sneakers  and with a nod in the added sentiment to the song Jeepers Creepers which is where I got the title for the post from, although I didn't use it on this card.  I found this stamp at a craft fair I went to recently and am using it for the first time, and as his birthday was approaching I thought this would work well, and I can see it working well for a few others in the family approaching a similar age although.  I also used a That Special Touch mask called Splats which I have had for a very long time.

I started by stamping the sneakers using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and then heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I the coloured them using Faded Jeans and Black Soot Distress inks using a waterbrush, and fussy cut them out.  I realise that I should have continued the blue on the upright shoe on the left and added another lace, must have had a senior moment and too late now as it has been posted...I'll get it right next time.    

I then cut a piece of card to fit a 6" square card and used some Brushos to colour the background with Ost. Blue and a little Turquoise.  I continued with the stencilled splats using the Faded Jeans DI applied with a brush and placed so they surrounded the sneakers.  I picked out the main large one to do top right and bottom left and then filled in with a couple of smaller ones top left and bottom right, and I finished with the sentiment using the Nocturne ink and the Clear Gloss EP.

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

I am entering the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 439 Any Occasion.
NBUS Challenge - No. 43 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Happy Little Stampers October Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Happy Little Stampers October Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
AAA Birthday Challenge - No. 42 A Favourite Technique (I love anything with inks..stamping, watercolouring, inkblending, stencilling etc.).

Peaceful Night

Hi everyone.  I have a rather late entry for the September Rudolph Days Challenge using this new Woodware stamp called Peaceful Night, bought recently from a local craft fair and having its first outing. The challenge is run by Mo over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo, and it opens on the 25th and runs to the end of the month, and I had forgotten that this is a shorter month, so a bit of a scramble to get a card in..I do need to get on with them so I'm not making them until the last possible moment..lol.

I decided to stamp this Bethlehem scene on to black card and used WOW Metallic Gold Rich Embossing Powder.  I got out my Sakura Starlight pens and having coloured one or two of the houses realised that they looked a bit pale so I used a little white gesso with a water brush over each to lighten then added the colours which then looked a bit too bright, so I dabbed it with some tissue whilst wet to remove a little of the colour so that they looked softer, not a terribly realistic look but very bright and shimmery using shades of red, orange, blue and purple and also silver and gold.  I finished by adding a sentiment using the same embossing powder and also ran the gold Sakura pen around the edge of the piece before adding it to a DL card.

Thank you for joining me here today and I hope you can visit again soon.

I am also entering the following challenges:

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - No. 124 Anything Christmas Goes.
Merry Little Christmas Challenge - No. 45 Anything Christmas Goes.
NBUS Challenge - No. 42 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge No. 613 Anything Christmas Goes.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 439 Any Occasion.

Fly and be Free

Hi all.  I have an extremely late entry for the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge and the technique this time is to use a stencil and gesso.  I decided to use a Crafty Individuals stamp called Fly and be Free which is having it's first outing, and I also used some Brushos to paint the butterfly which was added over the stamped one, and also some Distress Inks which I applied with a brush, and of course the white gesso through a Dutch Doobadoo stencil called Geometric Tiles, although as you can see there are all sorts of circles and some lines and ink type blot shapes on the stencil.

I started by stamping the image with Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then cut it down to 4"square and added the the grungy dots and open circles around the edges of the image mat using the white gesso.  I haven't used it before and this Pebeo gesso was quite runny and I found it a challenge to get it through the stencil cleanly, but decided to go with the more grungy finish.  I then added the Distress inks using a brush with Fossilized Amber to the centre and Carved Pumpkin to the edges and darkened with Ripe Persimmon.

I continued by stamping and heat embossing just the butterfly and used some Brushos with a waterbrush in colours Sea Green, Ost. Blue and Violet which is much more purple than it looks in the photo, and Pumice Stone DI on the body.  I then fussy cut it and added it using Pinflair Glue Gel and finished by adding a sentiment to the base 6" square card again using the Nocturne Ink and Clear Gloss EP.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you will visit again soon.

I am also entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff (the butterfly and the gesso are being used for the first time.
We Love Stamping Challenge - Anything Goes with Stamping.
Stamping Sensations September Challenge - Feminine.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - Birthdays.
Allsorts Challenge - Week 695 Anything Goes with option Spots and/or Stripes.