Moonlit owl

 This beautiful owl stamp from Crafty Individuals was a freebie with Creative Stamping magazine a few months ago. 

A stamp as lovely as that deserves a special background, so I made a night sky background (obviously this owl lives somewhere there's no light pollution!).  First I blended distress inks in pinks and purples over the card. When that was fully dry, I added a layer of various shades of blue. Next I blended black ink over the whole thing, spritzed it with water and blotted it. Finally I spattered diluted white gesso over the whole thing. I die cut a moon and stamped the sentiment on it, then coloured the owl with Promarkers, fussy cut it and added it with 3-D adhesive. 

I'm sharing this with Just Us Girls where it is a photo inspiration week. 

Embossing with a die

 The "frame" for this card is made using a stitched rectangle die, on the "wrong" side of the card, run through the machine with the embossing mat and plate in place of the cutting plate. Embossing with a die is a technique I've not used for years, but it can be very effective and gives extra versatility to your dies. 

For the central panel and sentiment, I inked the die cut while still in the die, then stamped, still in the die, with stamps from SU's Just Believe set. The dragonflies are stamped from an old magazine freebie set, and lightly tinted with  the blue ink before cutting them out. 

I am sharing this with Colour Hues - Aqua and Black  

That Buddha again

This was an amazing coincidence - I had the Buddha stamp on my desk ready to make the card from my previous post, when the postie delivered a parcel - a bundle of beautiful First Edition 6 x 6 pads which I had won from Craft Label on Instagram. One of the pads was the Free Spirit pad, which I've had my eye on for some time, and just look at the main background paper I've chosen! It couldn't have been a better match for the stamp if I'd spent months searching for it. 

Naturally with a coincidence like that, I had so make a card straight away. I covered a card blank completely with the paper and ran a gold Delicata pad around the edge, then die cut circles of  one of the textured papers and gold mirri and placed them centrally on the card. 

Next I stamped and heat embossed the image on gold mirri - I wanted to emboss with black paper so I made sure to use the anti static pad very generously. Then I fussy cut it and arranged it over the circles. I finished off with a sentiment also cut from the pad. 

I am sharing this with

Fab'nFunky - Anything goes 

Allsorts - Design Paper 

Stay calm....

 and just.... 

The latest challenge at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is Watercolour. For this card, I stamped the buddha image on watercolour paper using Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. It takes a LOT of impressions to stamp on rough paper with distress ink, don't even think of doing it if you don't use a stamping platform! 

Then I coloured it in by using a water brush to draw the stamped lines out into the coloured areas of the robe, headdress and features. 

Next I roughly painted in the background using a diluted Rose Gold metallic watercolour paint,  then placed a sunburst stencil over it and sponged distress inks over, avoiding the image. I used Tea Dye out towards the edges and Walnut Stain nearer to the middle. Finally I rubbed gold finger wax around the edge of the paper. 

The sentiment is created with a Dymo label maker. 

And finally, here's Edna, looking like something out of Monet's garden 

Hush Puppy

 I can never think of basset hounds without thinking of Hush Puppies shoes. If  you know, you know! 

This rather dolorous chap is from one of The Card Hut's Precious Pets stamp sets. I embossed a pawprint border on the card then stamped him above the border and coloured with pencils. I chose a sentiment from one of Ranger's Tim Holtz Snarky Sentiments pads  - I reckon my Hush Puppy is rolling his eyes at his owner's latest choice of dog food! 

I am sharing this with 

Make My Monday - Cats or Dogs

Alphabet Challenge - Furry Friends 

Cardz 4 Guyz - Dogs or Puppies

Butterfly Birthday

 I've used up some of my oldest patterned papers on this card - the band across the middle is a paper from a pack that I was sent when I joined a stamp club run by Graphicus about 25 years ago, and the other papers are from a pack I bought in Tesco, of all places, at about the same time. I stamped the large butterfly across the bottom of the lower paper, but once I'd added the other stamped butterflies higher up I decided the bottom row looked a bit insignificant so I stamped the central butterfly again and added it with 3D adhesive. 

I'm sharing this with 

The Butterfly Challenge - I've chosen the colour Plum 

Cardz 4 Galz - Circles and Purples 

Sweet Stampin - something beginning with B (butterflies) 

Addicted to Stamps and More - Birthdays 

Watercooler Wednesday - all about occasions 

Lots of sunshine

 Well, there's not much sunshine here today. Unlike the hot sunny weather we had last week, Midsummer's Day  has dawned cold, wet and windy. But never mind, here's some sunshine in stamped form. 

These are the cards I have med for this month's Twofer Card Challenge - Sunshine. An encouragement card and a birthday card, made using a very old (about 25 years, I think) unmounted stamp which came in a grab bag. I love the cheerful face and chubby cheeks, 

Now the individual cards.

Blimey, for a CAS card this was a lot of trouble! My first attempt went totally awry, with both the sun and sentiment badly positioned and a large ink blob appearing out of nowhere. My second attempt used Promarkers instead of watercolours, and the edges of the blue area were too crisply defined for the look I wanted. Finally I got the positioning right and went back to watercolour, drawing the edges of the blue out on the right with an almost-dry brush to give a windswept look. 

I am sharing this with 

Addicted to CAS - Sun 

Less is More - Pale Blue and Yellow 

Perfectly CAS - One corner 

Now the second card. 

This time I stamped the sun onto hot sunshine colours of card and die cut them. Three squares is a classic layout for a slimline card, especially with a nice l-o-n-g sentiment to underline them. 

I am sharing this one with 

Craft Rocket - Birthday  

Just Us Girls - Orange, Poppy Red, Hot Pink  

Inkspirational - Slimline Cards