Saturday 28 February 2015

Another Coffee Card

Here is my second card for the Coffee Lovers Spring Blog Hop.  This one was using some scraps left over from the first blog hop.


The coffee cup , sentiment and the tag were left over from the first Coffee Lovers blog hop and the
rose is off a practice sheet. I've been playing around with Altenew's Vintage rose set, trying to get it right - this is one of my better attempts. The trick is getting the right ink combination as well as stamp placement.  I really love this stamp set!



I'm also entering this card in the City Crafter Challenge - Use it Up





Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Hi there! Welcome to the 3rd Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. This time we are celebrating Coffee and Spring... Hang on a minute, I spend so much time communicating with all my Northern Hemisphere
crafters, I tend to forget what season I'm in. Yep it's nearly Autumn down this part of the world so I made a card that fits either season I think.



I hope this doesn't look too amateurish, but I had this idea to put the bird in my coffee and so I had to freehand the cup to suit. I used Distress ink pad and markers, my favourite Fabriano watercolour paper and stamps from Penny Black and Stamplorations




                          ETA:    I'm entering this in the Simon Wednesday Anything Goes challenge and the                                          Simon Monday No Rules challenge.



Wednesday 25 February 2015

Recycling Scraps



Today I made a couple of cards, using some of the scraps from this card and this card.

The die is called Butterfly Drift, from Simon Says Stamp.  The spray is Heidi Swapp Color Shine.
The sentiment on the black card is from Stamplorations and the sentiment on the white card is from Altenew.




                               I'm entering these cards in the City Crafter Challenge - the theme is Use It UP!
                               Also entering the Simon Monday - No Rules and the Simon Wednesday Challenge - Add a little texture.





Tuesday 24 February 2015

Casing Chaitali

I have a quick post for you, with an inky, fun card which was inspired by one of Chaitali's beautiful creations. You can see her card here.





I have used very old, but favourite stamps from Hero Arts and made my tag stencil/mask from a Papertrey Ink die.


The elements I took from Chaitali's card, were the stencilled/masked tag, the watercolouring and the background stamping.


Since I have used masking in my card and this time I've used Hero Arts, I shall enter this card in the challenge at A Blog Named Hero.  It's Anything Goes at the Simon Monday Challenge, so I'm also entering their challenge and I did add a bit of texture with the silver embossing, the stitching and the butterflies, so I can also enter the Simon Wednesday Challenge.




Monday 23 February 2015

Just Because

Hi there. Another Monday has rolled around in the blink of an eye! I feel like I'm sleep walking today after 2 very hot unsettled nights - we're expecting a cool change today and I can't wait!

Yesterday I was playing with some never before used stamps and made card. I had no plan in mind, I just coloured, which was very relaxing.

The flower image is from Stamplorations Bloom Sketches and the vintage script stamp is from Pink Paislee(an oldie). I stamped the flowers, then mad a mask ans stamped the script. then I put the mask back and added the water colour background with an acrylic block and distress inks.
I am entering this in the Stamplorations Anything Goes Challenge , the Addicted to CAS challenge and the challenge at A Blog Named Hero Hero challenge.







Sunday 22 February 2015

Petals and Stems



I have been meaning to have a play with the Avery Elle Petals and Stems stamp set for quite a while and I noticed there are a few challenges to include masking in your project, so this is the perfect opportunity to ink them up!


I've used a combination of inks - Simon Says, Memento dye and Distress for the stamping and added a bit of copics and watered down inks for the shading and splatter. The Mum sentiment is a freebie from a magazine - it's my Mum's birthday in a few weeks.

I am entering this in the Avery Elle monthly challenge,
the Addicted to CAS challenge and A Blog Named Hero challenge.








Friday 20 February 2015

Dutch Blue Rose

Hi there.  I have a very quick post. I made another card for the CASology Monochrome challenge - this time more CAS.


This stamp set is from Kaisercraft,  I love the graphic rose. I stamped with Memento Luxe Nautical Blue and then
watered it down with a lighter shade to colour it in and add a bit of splatter.  


Monochrome 80th Birthday

My Mum asked me to make a card for a friend who is turning 80.  So I put my thinking cap on and this is what I came up with.




The handmade paper has been in my stash for many years and I thought it would suit an 80th Birthday card.
The silver makes it more special I think.
The sentiment is from Just Rite. The tag is from a Papertrey Ink die and the butterfly die is from Memory Box. The wooden numbers are from a discount store and coloured with chalk ink.


I notice that the theme for CASology is Monochrome, so I shall enter their challenge - I hope this is CAS enough, but possibly not enough white space.
I'm also entering the Simon Wednesday Challenge which is to add texture.




Wednesday 18 February 2015

Sunflowers Make me Happy

I'm back today with a card for the Stamplorations Bi-weekly sketch challenge.  I'm on a bit of a mission to use as many un-inked stamps as possible, before I buy any more!

When I think of Sunflowers, I think of the beautiful paintings by one of my favourite artists Vincent Van Gogh.


The sunflower image and sentiment are  from the  Bloom Sketches set. I stamped the image using distress markers applied directly to the stamp. Then I  used distress markers and glitter pens  to add more colour and detail to  the bloom. Next I made a mask and  spritzed some Colour Shine over the image.

I'm also entering this in the Stamplorations Anything Goes challenge and the CASual Friday challenge, which is a watercolour theme.

ETA: I'm also entering this in the Addicted to CAS challenge - which is to *Mask* and Addicted to Stamps Challenge -make your mark.








Tuesday 17 February 2015

A Sketchy Rose

Hi, I'm back again! Can you believe it - 3 cards/posts  in one day!

This card was inspired by the challenge at A Blog Named Hero. They we want to see projects that use only a small section of the card, small pieces or small-scaled items like tags etc. 

So I thought of the gorgeous stamp set from Stamplorations - Boxed Blooms and decided to use the never before used rose image.



I wanted the colouring to look a bit sketchy too. I stamped with Hero Arts black ink,  clear embossed and then coloured with Twinkling H2Os. I think next time I might use a crackle embossing powder over the top to make it look like a stained glass window. I don't have the cracle embossing powder so it's now on the wishlist!
The sentiment is from an old hero Arts set.







More Watercolour

While I had my CASual Friday stamps out, I decided to make a second card for their challenge, because I love watercolour soooo much! Actually, I love these stamps too - the font and the sentiments are just gorgeous!



I decided to use my new distress markers this time. I scribbled on an acrylic block, blotted on the white card stock and also spritzed with white Color Shine. The colours I used were Pickled Raspberry/Ripe Permisson/Seedless Preserves and Peacock Feathers.  I die-cut the panel with my favourite Lil' Inkers stitched rectangle die and then cut a piece of dry embossed car stock and swiped with versamark ink and finally silver embossed. Then I stamped and  embossed the sentiment , die cut the vine and put it all together.


I am also entering this card in the City Crafter Challenge #249 Love Metal and the Addicted to Stamps challenge - Make Your Mark.






Watercolour with Brushos

Hello there. I've been fairly quiet on my blog of late.  That's because I've been watching lots of Youtube tutorials to try to learn how to use all the art supplies I've been collecting on a whim!
Have you ever bought something ie in my case - Soft Gel Medium and then wondered what technique you bought it for. I'll have to make a reference list! I read on Facebook that sniffing Rosemary (the herb, not the person) can improve your memory, so I'll have to remember to plant some!

Anyway, I happened to see that CASual Friday have started their challenge again and that the current challenge is watercolour - I couldn't resist!



I think this is is self explanatory - I stamped the sentiment and flowers, with a tiny bit of masking.
I added the Brushos in stages, using a spritzer and aquabrush and moving the colours to blend. I tried to keep as much white space as I could to keep the card CAS, but it's a bit tricky with the spritzing. The stamp set is CASual Friday's Wonderful Words - beautiful set!

Saturday 14 February 2015

Die-cuts, Inks, Stamps and Stencils

Today I am sharing a colourful, mixed media  card, which I made for the Craft Stamper Take it, Make it February challenge.
                       
                                                                                     


The first step was to create the patterned butterflies. I sprayed some Heidi Swapp Color Shine over some white card stock and let it dry. Then I took a stencil and used various colours of Distress ink to sponge over a stencil, spritzed it lightly with white Color Shine and left it to dry.  Next I die-cut a piece of white card using the SSS Butterfly Drift and keeping the pieces in place sprayed the Color shine over the butterflies. I then removed the die-cut pieces and replaced them with the black outline and the patterned butterflies and backed it with white card.  I hope that all makes sense.
I finished it off by stamping the sentiment, also from SSS, adding the bling and mounting it on the black card base.
 




I'm also entering the following challenges:-
  Simon Wednesday Challenge - the theme is All Creatures Great and Small.



City Crafter Challenge