With a splash!

It's Friday so it must be DCM day - Kathy is challenging us to make a card using black and white with a splash of one other colour.

I've gone for a green alien on a night sky. This is going to a little boy who has already had a liver transplant and is currently undergoing chemo. He loves to check the mailbox each day to see whether there's anything for him and I thought he might get an extra kick out of something that's crossed the Pond to reach him.

The sentiment is three die cuts stacked together, alien's eyes have Glossy Accents and he's raised up with some glue gel so that there's a bit of dimension going on.

Stamps:
Monsters Ink (Technique Tuesday, retired)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Paper:
Bristol board
Black

Other:
Fiskars squeeze punches (stars)
Phrases Set 1 by Spellbinder
Copic markers
White Posca paint pen
Fineline marker
Glossy Accents
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!

Green tea?

Leo is setting the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week and she'd like to see projects featuring a teacup with something in it - it could be just the drink or it could be something else, have a look at the blog to see what the design team put inside theirs!

I decided to go small for a change and make an ATC. I used the MISTI to let me do some slightly complicated masking so I could stamp my little green monster inside the cup, jumping out to say hello.

I hope Leo will forgive the use of an espresso cup rather than a teacup - it was the closest thing I had. Mind you, many years ago we visited Japan and in a lovely hotel in Hiroshima I ordered green tea and a traditional cake. Maybe it was the combination of the sugar in the cake and the "gun powder" style of the tea but it practically gave me hallucinations so green tea can definitely rival espresso for potency!

Stamps:
Monsters Ink by Technique Tuesday
Splat That by Waltzingmouse Stamps (no longer with us)
My own cup design

Ink:
Soft Granite Shadow Ink by Hero Arts
Graphite Black Brilliance ink by Tsukineko
Shabby Shutters Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger

Other:
ATC and Corners die by Tim Holtz Alterations/Sizzix
Copic markers
Hello die by Waltzingmouse stamps (no longer with us)
MISTI stamp positioner
Clear Wink of Stella pen

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely weekend!

Little monster

I needed a light and flat card (it needs to go trans-Atlantic) for a young man celebrating his seventh birthday. None of the kids I send cards to are really little monsters but he probaby comes closest!

He's certainly not the tidiest of children so what started out as a very clean and crisp design (just the lettering and the monster) looked a bit too tidy somehow. Once I'd added the splotches it seemed much more "in character". Being able to stamp them gave me a sense of still being in control though!

Stamping individual letters might seem a bit of a pain but I like the bigger format for the sentiment and the fact you could do any wording you liked. I gave mine a sort of "ombre" shading to go with the funky lettering style and deliberately didn't try to stamp on a straight base line.

I used Glossy Accents to give the eyes some sheen and dimension and rounded one corner for a casual feel. The inside of the front is lined with plain paper to hide the bleed-through of the Copics that's pretty much inevitable when you add shading as it tends to soak the cardstock.

Stamps:
Monsters Ink by Technique Tuesday
Brush Strokes by Hero Arts
Journal Letters by Hero Arts

Paper: Smooth white

Ink: 
Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko
Adirondack Sunset Orange by Ranger

Other:
Copic markers
Corner Chomper
Glossy Accents

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy birthday human

This is a card for a young lad and it needs to go transatlantic so it's light and flat although I did raise the speech bubble up with a bit of silicone glue.

Because the colouring bled through the cardstock I added a sheet of paper inside to cover that up (it's stuck to the cardfront so it's pretty much invisible).

I drew the bubble and the trail leading up to it by hand as I didn't have a suitable stamp. My drawing skills are limited but I can just about stretch to an abstract blob!

Stamps:
Monsters Ink by Technique Tuesday

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Graphite Black Brilliance by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Corner Chomper

The card made DH chortle, hope its recipient likes it too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Well done!

My nephew has just finished Year 1 at primary school and got a really good report for the end of the year, being graded well above his age in the national curriculum subjects (maths, science and literacy). Perhaps more importantly, he's trying hard in everything - bless him! I thought I'd send a "well done" card to add to the encouragement my brother and sister-in-law give him.

As ever with kids' cards, I struggled a bit  and this is nothing like the initial plan but I think it's OK!

The cheery little monster is mounted on foam pads for a bit of dimension and I doodled on and around the stars.

I used a white insert on this one - I often write with a gel pen if I do a dark card base but I thought my handwriting would be enough for a six year old to cope with without adding extra complications!

Stamps: Monsters Ink by Technique Tuesday

Paper: Black, white, orange

Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance by Tsukineko

Other: 
Small star squeeze punch by Fiskars
Typset die by Tim Holtz/Sizzix
Copic markers
Gesso and dry wall tape
Copic fineliner
Uni Posca white pen
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Tear it up!

Time for a new "Take It, Make It" challenge over on the Craft Stamper blog. This time around we're being inspired by Helen Chilton's Terrific Tearing article which is on page 78 of the May issue. Don't worry if you haven't got hold of it yet, the challenge is open for a couple of months so there's plenty of time to play along.

I immediately had the idea of something bursting out of the card when I saw this technique so I ran with that and made a kids' birthday card with this cute monster and some bright colours. I used a textured white cardstock for just a touch of extra interest on the torn layer and added a simple doodled border as it seemed to fit the character of this little chap!

His eye stalks are raised up on foam pads and his feet are stuck to the card so he does have some movement as if he's coming out of the frame.

Stamps:
Monsters Ink (Technique Tuesday)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Paper:
DCWV textured white
Smooth white
Orange

Other:
Copic markers
Copic fineliner
Foam pads

There were some great entries for the first challenge - don't forget the winning entry will be published in a future issue of the magazine so if you fancy seeing yourself in print, why not join us?! There's a lovely stamp from sponsors Indigo Blu for the winner as well. All the challenge details are here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday flowers

A birthday card with some happy, sunshiney colours today to compensate for the dreary weather!

I seem to have a thing about teeny tiny bits of bling - I've been using the tiny gems intended for acrylic nail art for quite a while now and have just added the pearl variety to my stash. The tiny ones in the row above the sentiment are only about 1.5mm across!

This flower lends itself so well to the technique of embossing the outline and then flooding ink into the petals that I'm in danger of never doing anything else with it!

Stamps:
Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday)
Sentiment from Birthday Centers (CHF, retired)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Bazzill bling (Petty Cash)

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Spiced Marmalade pad and reinker, Mustard Seed reinker)

Other:
Detail white embossing powder by Stampendous
Micro pearls (acrylic nail art supplies)
Tim Holtz Alterations Retro circles embossing folder
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers
Scor-It
Foam tape

Thanks for stopping by!

Beaten metal

Somewhere in a box, I still have a copper spoon for a tea caddy that was one of the first things I made in metalwork classes at school - I've always loved the beaten metal look you get from that repeated tapping with a hammer to shape the piece.

I haven't been back to metalwork class though - just playing with chipboard again! Apologies for the fact it's a Christmas project but I've had this idea in my head since first seeing the book plates at Tando Creative and the only way to get it out of my head was to make it!

I covered the book plate with Rub n Buff and then gave it a good clobbering with the fatter end of my embossing stylus to leave little indentations all over it.

I stamped the sentiment on an oval of cardstock trimmed to fit the back of the plate and then added a thin layer of glitter for a bit of festive shimmer.

The stamped Santa is cut out and attached to one side of the frame and the other is finished with pearls (the larger central one covering the hole that would usually be used to attach the book plate to something).

Supplies:
Chipboard book plate (Tando Creative)
Holly Jolly Christmas and Season's Greetings stamp sets (Technique Tuesday)
Adirondack ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Versafine ink by Tsukinkeo (Satin Red)
Copic markers
Deko Ice glitter by Efco (Crystal)
Pearls (including tiny ones for acrylic nail art)
Cryogen White cardstock
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Florist's wire

This is the last of the technique pieces that Carol and I have been doing over the last couple of months - do pop along to the Tando blog to check out Carol's piece too if you have the chance.

Thanks for stopping by!

Feel the heat

We've had some lovely hot weather over the last week or so and Carol and I decided to take the lead from that and apply some heat to our Tando technique pieces this week with some heat embossing. Do pop over to the Tando blog to see what Carol's been up to, too!

I chose an ATC to work with and used the emboss resist technique.

The sentiment and flowers were embossed with white powder and then I flooded each petal area with watercolour and used a drop of reinker to colour the background before sponging over some sequin waste with a second shade of green. I also "stamped" a couple of leaves by pressing an inked-up skeleton leaf on there.

Stamps:
Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday)
Sentiment from CHF (retired)

Paper:
Chipboard ATC from Tando Creative

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko
Adirondack by Ranger (Lettuce and Pesto)

Other:
Detail white embossing powder by Stampendous
Pink watercolour pencil
Sequin waste
Skeleton leaf

The beauty of the white lined board for projects like these is that you get a really solid base that doesn't warp at all when you apply heat for the embossing and your colours go on true without any priming - gotta love something that lets you stamp and go!

Thanks for stopping by!

PS - have you seen the new Andy Skinner stamp line? Andy's new to the world of stamp designs and has just had his first sets released by Personal Impressions. There's a competition running on his blog with a fab prize, why not check it out?

Less is More Week 8

It's recipe or sketch time at Less is More - Chrissie and Mandy have given us a sketch to play with this time around. It's a DL card, tall and slim (for our friends in North America - it's roughly equivalent to taking two thirds of a letter size sheet and folding in half; the sort of size you'd get for a business letter or bank statement!).

I used the same Technique Tuesday set I used on Friday as it was still out on my desk. The original plan was just to use the flower in the place where there's a circle on the sketch but it looked just a tad out of scale so I ended up creating a little group and breaking over the boundaries of the card. No colouring though and this flower is a really easy shape to cut out so it was still a fast card to put together.

The embossed area at the bottom has just a hint of colour - I brayered Bundled Sage ink onto my folder before running it through the Big Shot.

Stamps:
Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Cryogen white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Bundled Sage)

Other:
Embossin folder by Provocraft (Victoria)
Copic marker (to colour the brown strip and the pearls)
Pearls

I always find this shape card looks much better in real life than it does in photos - maybe it's the proof that not everything long and lean is photogenic?!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunshine flowers

We've had a few sunny days this week - enough to bring the daffodils out in profusion! So this week's "free for all" challenge at Splitcoast Stampers felt like one to join in with since the theme is "hello sunshine". I went for a "hello" card in sunny colours.

I just got this little set as a gift (thank you Laura!) and love this sketchy flower! I used a technique that makes for a really fast way to colour something like this - just heat emboss with either clear or white powder and then flood each area with a drop of reinker on a wet paintbrush. The colour will spread out to the embossed lines and you'll get some natural variation going on with no effort at all!

I thought the delicate skeleton leaves would provide a nice textural contrast to the bold lines of the flower. I have a stash of neutral coloured ones and just use a Copic marker to get whatever colour I want for a particular project.

Stamps:
Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Kraft

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko
Distress ink reinker (Spiced Marmalade)

Other:
Skeleton leaves
Clear detail embossing powder
White detail embossing powder
Pearls
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers

Thanks for stopping by, hope your day has plenty of sunshine!

Retro circles Santa

Hazel's Christmas challenge is up to week 10 already - eek! This week she's asking us to use embossing on our cards (dry or heat embossing, either is fine).

I think this Santa has a rather retro feel so I've teamed him up with the Retro Circles embossing folder and a brighter green than your average Christmas card for a funkier feel. Baker's twine makes a candy stripe edging and the larger circle is coated in glass glitter for a super sparkly finish.

Photographing the shimmery cardstock was a bit of a nightmare this morning - we have glaring sunshine interspersed with fierce snow showers here in Northumberland. Definitley not the weather for March!

Stamps:
Holly Jolly Christmas and Season’s Greetings clear stamps (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Bazzill Bling (Petty Cash)
Black
Simply Smooth

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Satin Red)

Other:
Copic markers
Texture Fade embossing folder by Tim holtz/Sizzix (Retro Circles)
Scor It
Baker’s twine
Circle punch by Fiskars
Deko Ice glitter by Efco (Crystal)
Foam pads
Double sided adhesive tape sheet

Thanks for stopping by!

Reindeer games

Hazel's challenge this week over on Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge is to feature a creature on your card.

I chose this elegant reindeer and gave him a snowy landscape (torn cardstock) to leap across on this teeny weeny card (it's a 3 inch square). The stamp set has one snowflake stamp and the dot but I used a separate sentiment set and that also has a snowflake so you can mix them up to create a bit more variety.

The antlers are beautifully delicate but would be a nightmare to cut out so I stamped the reindeer first on the card base and then stamped again on a scrap of cardstock and cut him out, chopping off the antlers. The head and body are raised with a scrap of cardstock underneath for a tiny bit of dimension with the hooves stuck directly to the card base.

Stamps:
Holly Jolly Christmas and Season’s Greetings (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Kraft (actaully a file folder chopped up)
Cryogen white

Ink
Adirondack in by Ranger (Espresso and Latte)
Colorbox Pigment ink by clearsnap (Frost White)

Other:
E35 marker by Copic
White pencil by Prismacolor
Detail white embossing powder by Stampendous
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers
Nail art gems

Hazel is celebrating lots of visitors to her personal blog with some blog candy - she'd love it if you stopped by to say hello. You can find the details here.

Thanks for stopping by, hope your week is off to a great start!

One layer Santa

I've combined two challenges for today's project - this week's One Layer Wednesday is a recipe and I'm dipping in to Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge for the first time - week 5 is to include Santa on your card. The idea of the challenge is to spread out your card making over the whole year, hence the Christmas card in February!

One Layer Wednesday calls for a border stamp (or stamped border), an image and some bling. I wanted to team this Santa up with some gingham so I used a background stamp for the border as that's what I had - I just used a piece of paper to mask off the top of the card while I stamped it. I'd already stamped and masked Santa. I struggle with bling so as Susan said glitter would count I opted to glitter the furry bits of Santa's hat with chunky glass gitter.

I'm glad I opted for a brighter green than is usual for a Christmas card - I think it gives this a fun retro feel that goes well with the style of the Santa stamp.

Stamps:
Holly Jolly Christmas and sentiment from Season's Greetings (both Technique Tuesday)
Fine Gingham backgrounder (CHF - retired)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Spring Green)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Copic multiliner
Deko Ice glitter by Efco (Crystal)

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely weekend!