Stripes!

I  do love the artwork on the late Polyanna Pickering's CDs. This beautiful zebra and the papers are from the CD "A Walk in the Wild"

These are actually all the scraps left over from a card I made more than a year ago, carefully saved until I was in the mood to finish them up. I distressed all the edges and added a strip of mesh fabric for extra texture. 

I am sharing this with 

Make my Monday - use up your scraps  

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 387 

CD Sunday Plus - Anything Goes 

Monochrome rambling roses

 Yes, I know - yet another card made with this beautiful stamp. I just can't resist it! 

I've already made a card using the same layout and fancied using the layout again in a different way.  I stamped the image onto watercolour cardstock using Altenew Crisp Dye ink in Cosmic Berry,  then stencilled the diamonds over the bottom half of the card. I also daubed the inkpad over a scrap of the same card, sprayed it with water and set it aside to dry. 

Next I used a fine water brush to draw out the colour from the stamping to colour the flower petals. While everything was drying I stamped the sentiment,  from a very old Hot Off The Press set, and trimmed it into a band to fit across the card. 

I inked all the edges and assembled the card, then used the inked scrap and a plain one to die cut the butterfly, attached it and finished it with tiny mauve pearls. 

I am sharing this with The Butterfly Challenge using the options Damson, Diamonds and of course a butterfly. 

The Sky's The Limit

 I'm STILL having a lovely time with the Indigo Blu magazine kit - I can't think when one stamp set has inspired me so much. 

This stamp was just calling out to be made into a slider card. 

I cut a piece of card for the sky and used scrap paper, cut into a "Cloud" edge, as a mask while blending Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud ink all over. Then I used a slider card die to cut a swooping opening so the balloon could "take off" and fly across the card.  I worked out where the opening would be on the base card and sponged more ink behind it. 

Then I stamped the balloon and coloured it with Promarkers, adding blue around the edge so that white edges wouldn't show, as I didn't want to have to fussy cut it too closely. If there had been any very delicate details, such as the flag or ballast bags,  on an interactive card like this, they would have been too fragile to withstand the inevitable playing-with. 

Moving the balloon around the card  to make sure the sentiment wasn't going to be obscured, I positioned and stamped the sentiment and  then added a couple of other elements in a paler ink, then distressed and inked the edges. After assembling the slider with 1p coins and foam pads, I attached the whole caboodle to the card front with foam tape. 

I am sharing this with: 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - S is for Slider  (sorry, sistahs, I thought this less-than-snarky sentiment was perfect for the card so it's a snark-free entry from me this time) 

The Male Room - Travel 

Guest Designer at Retro Rubber

 I'm delighted to have been invited to be Guest Designer at Retro Rubber - where the stamps we use need to be at least a year old - for the latest challenge which is Anything Goes. 

I decided on a distinctly Autumnal theme for my card. 

The main stamp I have used here is one of my oldest - and most often used - stamps, a Rubber Stampede one that is well over 20 years old. I stamped it onto a piece of a Master Board I had pre-prepared. To make the master board, I used a complete sheet of A4 card and applied shades of green, yellow, orange and tan ink in a mixture of sponging, spraying and direct to paper  techniques then sprayed the whole thing with green, copper and gold mica pearl sprays. Since I made a whole sheet you'll be seeing a few makes featuring it over the coming weeks. 

I fussy cut the image and curled the edges of the leaves slightly then added it to a panel of green card  with a sentiment stamped near to the bottom, wrapped the panel with twine, matted it on white and added it to the front of a brown card blank. I surrounded the leaves with "dewdrops" of clear liquid pearls. The bottom of the card looked a bit empty compared to the top, so I took a sycamore leaf stamp (this one only about 15 years old!) and used Stazon ink to stamp it onto shrink plastic, then cut and shrank it to make tiny embellishments. 

Yet more rambling roses

 I am loving the Indigo Blu magazine kit, and this beautiful rose stamp is probably my favourite element of the whole kit. Here it is yet again: 

This time I stamped it in the upper half of the card topper then covered it with a mask and blended light and dark blue inks over the lower half. Then I coloured the image with promarkers, stamped the sentiment and finished with ribbon before attaching to the card. 

I am sharing this with Just Us Girls - Green Pink and Blue 

Tranquil by moonlight

 When I made this sunset scene card a few weeks ago,  I planned to use the same ink blending technique  to make a moonlight scene, but couldn't think what image to use with it. Then I received the lovely stamp sets I won over at Stamping Sensations and know they were perfect for the job! 

I masked the edges of a square of white card then added a circular mask for the moon. I blended turquoise distress ink all over the unmasked area then added navy around the edges. Then I masked the top half of the card with scrap paper and added more navy to the bottom, drawing the sponge out horizontally from the edges to give a rippled effect. 

Next I used navy and turquoise Versafine inks to stamp the boat, lighthouse and seagull, stamping the turquoise layer several times to get a good deep colour, after all, everything looks darker at night. Finally I removed the masking from the edges and stamped the bulrushes. I know bulrushes don't grow by the sea, but I didn't have any suitable shoreline plants and I really wanted something to overlap into the border! Anyway, in the dark, who can tell that it isn't really some kind of dune grass? 

I am sharing this with 

Stamping Sensations - The Great Outdoors  

Colour Hues - Navy and Turquoise  

Daring Cardmakers - Masculine 

Watercooler Wednesday - Masculine 

Cardz 4 Guyz - Monochrome 

Checkmate!

 Actually, looking at the white king lying on his side, I think white has just resigned. Now, we send "new job" cards and "retirement" cards, but why don't we send "resignation" cards? After all, when somebody's made the difficult decision to resign from a job, shouldn't it be marked in some way? And this image would be perfect for it! 

The image and paper are printed from the CD "The Best of La Pashe 2014". The image sheet has two identical sized images, one round and one square, so I used the square one and cut just the king from the round to attach with 3D adhesive for a bit of depth. I cut the background paper into an asymmetric point  then added the sentiment and button in the bigger corner. 

I am sharing this with 

CD Sunday Plus - Anything Goes  

Fab'n'Funky - Add a Button 

Green Dragonfly

 As many of you know, dragonflies are my favourite crafting theme (I also love them on clothing, jewellery and accessories) and it's never long between me making cards featuring them. 

For this card I've used a stamp set that came with Creative Stamping magazine about 2 years ago. I stamped the dragonfly and sentiment in green, then masked the dragonfly and used yellow to stsamp the text background. The wings are lightly touched with Stickles. 

I am sharing this with

Allsorts - I love.... (dragonflies, stamping, masking, olive green) 

Retro Rubber - Yellow and green  

AAA Birthday - Animals/Critters 

Little Red Wagon - Nature, flora or fauna 

and a new to me blog, We Love Chocolate Baroque  where the September challenge is Wings with Anything Goes  - and they have a giveaway going on too! 

Getting messy

 Yet another project I've made using the new Indigo Blu mixed media magazine kit, this time featuring the stencil. 

For the background on the card, I used diluted metallic gold watercolour paint to create a wash all over a piece of watercolour card and, once dry, the same paint undiluted to stencil the dot pattern all over the card. 

Now on to the topper. I scraped metallic gold, pewter and copper metallic watercolour paints very thinly over a piece of watercolour card,  making sure each layer was completely dry before applying the next, then brushed gesso sparingly over the surface. Then I stencilled the butterfly postmark section of the stencil over the background using Starlights Metallic Paint in Topaz. I added some stamped words then tore  the edges and layered it over the background. 

This is probably the messiest thing I've ever made, both the mess made during the creation of it and the overall appearance, and I have to say the result isn't really "me" but I didn't half have fun playing with all my paints and tools! 

I'm sharing this with Shopping Our Stash - Make a Mess 

Trees for two

 and two for trees, me for you and you for me... 

Well, maybe that doesn't work as a song, but here are my Trees for this month's Twofers, which is what made it pop into my head. 

The first card is a Christmas scene. 

If you go out at daybreak on Christmas morning, you may just be as lucky as this family and spot Santa heading back to the North Pole after a hard night's work delivering presents. Don't try it this year though as he's probably going to have to do 14 days' quarantine between each country so I reckon his journey is going to take the best part of 7 years! 

I punched a circle in scrap paper for the sun and dabbed in orange ink through it, then removed the scrap paper and using a piece of Cut'n'Dry foam, firmly pulled out the ink each side of the sun to create a winter sunrise effect. Then I stamped and heat embossed  the sentiment in metallic gold. And I still maintain that heat embossing, especially in gold, is real, actual magic. 

Then I placed the card in the Misti and assembled the scene, using a set of stamps from an issue of Creative Stamping a year or two back then stamped it with Versafine ink, stamping several times to  get  good clear silhouettes. Finally I used a black pen to continue the ground below the trees and crate a couple of hills. 

I am sharing this card with 

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Black, Orange and Gold 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes  

Jingle Belles - Baby it's Gold Outside 

Make my Monday - Christmas in September 

*******

Now, a tree is for life, not just for Christmas, and that row of fir trees would work at any time of year, so I used it again on a much more autumnal card. 

The squirrel is stamped using an image from the latest issue of Creative Stamping. I didn't have a single ink in exactly the shade I wanted, so keeping the stamp in the Misti I stamped him repeatedly in several different shades of red and brown,  always inking the stamp a bit patchily with each colour so there was some variation in his fur. Then I masked the image and stamped the trees repeatedly to form a forest background. 

I am sharing this with 

2 Crafty Critter Crazies  - anything goes 

*** 

Finally the two cards together

I am sharing this pair of cards with 

Twofer Card Challenge - Trees 

Stamping Sensations - The Great Outdoors 

More rambling roses

 There's a new challenge in town - Colour Hues. And the current challenge colours are yellow and green. Well, that combo just cries out for a floral stamp, and what could be better than the beautiful rambling rose stamp from the current Indigo Blu magazine box kit? 

I followed one of the "serving suggestions" in the magazine for this card, but keeping entirely to shades of green and yellow and colouring the image with Promarkers. 

I am sharing this with Colour Hues - Yellow and Green 

Rambling Roses

 Here is my second make using the beautiful Indigo Blu magazine boxed set. 

The gorgeous rambling rose image is perfect for a DL card. I stamped it in brown and coloured in pink and brown  then added a couple of stamped words and the moth, die cut and lightly glittered, and the lightest scattering of tiny pearls. 

I am sharing this with: 

Pearly Sparkles - pink, pearls and sparkle  

The Flower Challenge - Brown and Pink 

Shades of Blu

 I've just treated myself to the latest Indigo Blu boxed kit of magazine, stamps, stencil, embossing folder and dies and here is my first make using the set. 

I made a background using distress inks and stamped the railway on it, stencilled a "cloud" of dots then stamped words here and there. Then I stamped the tickets onto blue paper and the engine on white, cut them out and attached them. 

I am sharing this with 

Cardz 4 Guyz - Monochrome 

The Male Room - Travel 

NBUS - NBUS 

With friends like these, who needs a liver?

 I know that my friends over at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers are as fond of a glass (or three) of wine as I am, so here's a tribute to them - in card form. 

I've used one of my favourite Art Impressions stamps and a Clearly Besotted sentiment.  I chose a background paper with three distinct colour groups on it then used Promarkers to colour each lady to match one of the colour groups. Those rosy cheeks tell me that glass they are raising isn't their first! 

I am sharing this with Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - F is for Friends 

Robins and pillar box

 Cross everything for me, I'm tackling New Blogger at last - I keep switching back to the legacy version but now I get moved to the new one every single time I log in. I think I've mastered New Facebook so I'm hoping I will come to terms with this as easily... in the meantime, if  I have faulty formatting, messy links or pathetic photos, and tips will be most welcome. 

I have a friend who loves to receive cards featuring pillar boxes, so I always make sure her Christmas card from me features one. This delightful image from the Hunkydory Wonderful Wintertime collection is perfect for it. I've used a sentiment from the same sheet, a matching background and livened it all up with some ribbon - Pillar Box Red, of course! 

I am sharing this with 

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Festive Things With Wings 

Watercooler Wednesday - All about Occasions 

Christmas Cups

I won this stamp set in the Playground some time ago so it seems very appropriate that this fortnight's snippets make uses it!

All the card came from my snippets box - I would normally have made a slightly bigger background but the snippet was too small! I stamped all over it with the cup and snowflake stamps using Versamark ink to give a watermark effect. Then I stamped the three drinks and coloured them with Promarkers, cut them out and attached with 3D adhesive. The sentiment is heat embossed in white on black. I made the banner long so I could position it under the central mug but then the space on the left looked a bit unbalanced so I counteracted the "weight" of the sentiment with some gems at the other end.

I am sharing this with

Pixie's Snippets Playground  - challenge #386

Sweet Stampin - Anything but a birthday card 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything goes 

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - sketch 

Autumn leaves

It's only early September but there's a definite hint of autumn in the air and the leaves on some trees are beginning to change colour.

For this card I used a stamp set that came with Creative Stamping a couple of years ago. I made the background using a speckle stamp and a Kaleidacolor pad and stamping repeatedly to cover the card, then randomly overstamping with a leaf sprig stamp. The oak leaf image was stamped in olive green, then without removing it from the Misti, inked around the edges in dark tan and stamped a second time.

I am sharing this with

Just Us Girls - leaves 


Crafty Calendar - Anything goes 

Christmas is coming...

I've not felt like making Christmas cards for weeks and weeks, then suddenly this weekend I've gone feeling all festive!

For this card I used a Clearly Besotted stamp set that came with Creative Stamping a couple of years ago.  I stamped and masked the images, then cut a circle from masking paper and used that and tape to create the snowdome shaped space which I filled in with blue inks, getting darker at the edges. Then I coloured the images - and yes, that kitty really is almost as big as the reindeer - just imagine how much Whiskas he eats! - with Promarkers and stamped the sentiment. I finished it off with a star brad and some sparkly Stickles.

Here's a closer look at all that sparkle:

I am sharing this with

Allsorts Challenge - Include a hand coloured image 

Christmas Kickstart - Festive Furbabies


Passion for Promarkers - Christmas in September  

Christmas Cards All Year round - at least 2 things beginning with S (star, snow, sparkly Stickles)

CAS Christmas - Christmas Tree 

Lilac and blue

.. the two favourite colours of a friend whose birthday is approaching.

I used the die that came with the current Tattered Lace magazine along with an image sheet and two papers that I downloaded and printed from the Tattered Lace website. It fascinates me how the rather blurry image gets transformed into such an intricate, dimensional-looking one by means of the die! The two small roses are meant to be added to the image to give depth, but I used them to decorate the stamped sentiment panel instead.

I am sharing this with

A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - Anything Goes 

CD Sunday Plus - Anything Goes using a CD or download

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - Anything Goes using patterned paper 

Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine anything goes

Right outside my comfort zone!

I'm really not at home with mixed media - I tend to flounder around with no idea where I'm heading,  but this time i set out with a plan and a pretty good idea of what I wanted to achieve, and that helped me a lot!

I'd been trying to think of something to make for the current snippets challenge. My snippets basket is so overloaded that I tend to discard tiny scraps unless they are of something too special to part with, and this time I decided to use some of those tiny scraps of special stuff. So I fished out:
* a tiny scrap of facsimile early edition of Shakespeare text paper
* an almost as tiny scrap of corrugated kraft card
* a little piece of lilac patterned paper that was part of a sample set I was sent when I was thinking of buying my first craft CD, many many years ago (I didn't buy the CD so can't print any more!)

As the snippets were all so tiny, I decided I had to make something equally tiny to make them count, so I decided to try my hand at a canvas. It is only 7cm (just under 3") square.

I wish I'd taken step by step photos to make sure I remembered exactly  what I did! Hopefully writing it out will act as an aide-memoire for if I want to try anything this complicated again.

First I selected my colours - distress ink pads in Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves, plus a Rose Gold metallic paint and a brown Memento ink pad.

Next I found a scrap of pink ribbon. It was looking pretty crushed and wrinkled so I knew it would give the effect I wanted. I ran the darkest distress pad over both sides of it, spritzed it with a little water, scrunched it up into a tiny ball and left it to dry.

To prepare the canvas, I tore the text paper into rough strips and stuck them randomly over the canvas.  When they were dry, I painted over the whole thing with gesso and left that to dry while making a start on the tag.

I cut a tag shape from the card and painted it all over with the metallic paint. Once dry I brushed a little dilute gesso here and there to run into the "valleys" and swiped the medium distress pad over the "ridges". Punched a hole with the Crop-a-dile.

Now back to the canvas. I blended the three inks all over the surface, with the lightest in the middle and the darkest at the very edges. Then I took a very old Kanban stamp set which has 3 small butterfly stamps plus a larger butterfly and lace background, inked the background with the brown ink and pressed it to the canvas. This was probably an unnecessary step as the canvas didn't meet the stamp in the middle, just around the edges, but it did add a little more shade to the edges.

I used a small stencil and opaque texture paste to add some raised triangles to the upper right corner of the canvas, and when it was dry painted the raised areas with pink Wink of Stella. 

To complete the background, I brushed the Rose Gold paint all around the sides of the canvas.

I used the brown ink to stamp the butterflies onto the patterned paper, fussy cut them, used a finger dauber to add the darkest ink around the edges of the wings and painted the bodies with the Rose Gold.

Now I unrolled the ribbon and used it to make a bow and finish the tag, fraying all the cut ends.

I assembled the canvas using Pinflair glue which seems to stick just about any surface to any other surface, then added tiny highlights of clear Liquid Pearls. I was a bit conflicted about the button - I like the holes on a button to be horizontal, but as the holes and text image on it weren't at the same angle, then the text would have been crooked. I opted to keep the text straight - but as the glue dried it seems to have twisted around so now neither holes nor text are straight and all my fretting was a waste of time!

Phew! I think I used just about every weapon in my arsenal in this tiny weeny piece of work.

I am sharing this with

Pixie's Snippets Playground - challenge 385

Crafty Cardmakers - Things with wings 

Alphabet Challenge - K for Kraft