Toujours Paris

Well, we didn't get our trip to France at Easter, goodness only knows when that will happen, but for now we can only dream about it!

I've die cut a Paris skyline  and backed it with a piece of origami paper, then layered up and added to a larger white square finished with French Hearts ribbon from Crafty Ribbons and a stamped sentiment. The background paper is printed to look as if it  is textured IYSWIM - perfectly smooth and yet it looks as if it would feel suede-y if you ran your hands over it. The finished card is a large 20cm square one. (I've had to do a lot of thinking in inches recently  as I've been doing some stitching from American patterns, and I very nearly wrote a 20 INCH square card. Now that really would be a big one!)

I am sharing this with

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - Anything Goes

Shopping Our Stash - Oh, the Places You'll Go! 

Pearly Sparkles - Add ribbon and/or a bow

Feeling paw-ly?

I like to send Get Well cards that raise a smile,  and I'm sure this one would. The images I've used here are a stamp set from The Card Hut, my favourite source of laugh-out-loud stamps. I love the expressions on the animals' faces, even those tiny little meeces.

I made a background by repeat stamping the clothes-peg-nose mouse in dark pink onto pale pink card. I would have normally used Versamark for this to get a watermark effect but the tone-on-tone stamping makes the image stand out more, and he's part of the whole scene really. The rest is stamped with memento ink and coloured with Promarkers. The sentiment was a random stamp lurking in my stash. Everything is cut out with stitched dies to pull it all together.

I am sharing this with

Show us your pussycats - Furrything Goes 

Fab'n'Funky - Hand Coloured Image 

Sweet Stampin - Funny That

Make My Monday - tone on tone background  

A Place to Start - Create a Custom background 

Jacobean style

Years and years ago I got a couple of sheets of rubber stamps from a company called Graphicus - they closed a long long time ago, probably around 15-20 years. And part of one of the sheets still looked like this:

So I thought it was about time I put that right!

After cutting  out the stamp I used a Kaleidacolor pad to ink and stamp it. It needed multiple impressions to get a good colour, so I used a stamping platform which meant brayering the ink onto the stamp because the sticky outy thing for separating the pads is too sticky outy for inking it directly when it's on the platform. A brayer gives a nice soft blend to the colours though for a really good ombré effect. 

For extra interest I added a garnish of crystal Stickles and gold Liquid Pearls. My original plan had been to stamp a large bold sentiment over the design in black ink, but having scuppered that one with my garnishing, I decided to add a small one heat embossed in white on black. I think it was the right move. 

Here's a closer look at the sparkle and dimension: 

Isn't that image gorgeous? All these years without ever seeing a drop of ink and now I'm asking myself WHY????? Incidentally, I've just remembered that a lot of Graphicus designs were taken over by Chocolate Baroque so I just checked their site and this set is still available, it is called Brocade Backgrounds. It reminds me a lot of the Jacobean Work embroidery my grandma used to love doing.

I am sharing this with

NBUS - Challenge 14 

Cardz 4 Galz - Birthday 

Allsorts challenge - Anything  Goes 

Black and gold

These pretty wild roses and the sentiment came from the Craftascop goodies that I won a few months ago.

Stamped and heat embossed  in gold,  I added a tiny amount of colour to the flowers and buds by picking up ink from the pad with a damp paintbrush. The sentiment, too, is heat embossed in gold. I  cut out the image and used 3-D adhesive to attach it to the background. 

I am sharing this with

Little Red Wagon - Flowers 

Watercooler Wednesday -  Feminine

Gears and screws

An outing for my beloved screw-headed brads today - using quite a few of them too, must get a new pack!

The background is stamped with Versamark to give a watermark effect. It and the die cut cogs are attached with screw headed brads. The band is a strip of self adhesive cork that's been lurking in my stash for years. The tag is stamped with a Crafty Individuals stamp that came with a magazine last year some time and the sentiment with a stamp from this month's Creative Stamping.

I am sharing this with Cardz 4 Guyz - Vintage 

Another attempt at Bokeh

A few months ago I tried a bokeh effect background but was pretty unhappy with it. However I still had the template I had made by die cutting various sizes of circle into a sheet of strong card, so I decided to have another try, and this time I made sure the colours worked well together by separately using all 5 shades from a Kaleidacolor pad. To do this, I din't push the strips together in the usual way, and picked up each colour with a smallish spong that didn't overlap onto the next strip.

I kept the more intense colours to the outer edge of the rectangle and emphasised that by inking the edges of the finished piece. Then I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment onto vellum and wrapped it around the panel before attaching to the card. 

I am sharing this with 

The Male Room - Sentiment in Focus 

A Place to Start -  Create a custom background 

Guess what? Mackintosh again!

I just can't get this stamp set out and use it for just one card - here's my third card in three days made with it (I'm ready for a change now so it's going back in the storage box today).

I can never decide what's the best angle to arrange a gatefold card for a photo so take your pick! 

I am sharing this with 

Use Your Stuff - Flowers and/or butterflies 

Crafty Cardmakers - Celebrations 

AAA Birthday - Things with wings 

Allsorts Challenge - Butterflies

2 Crafty Critter Crazies  - anything goes with a creature