Blooming birthday

I’m combining challenges again — this time it’s the new Time Out challenge (pick at least two from: pastel, earth, rain, hope, bloom, tree) and Die Cut Divas who are looking for birthday or anniversary cards this month (this is my second card). 

I chose pastel, bloom and rain from the Time Out list as my starting point. I did a light watercolour wash for the background, die cut the flower and ferns and coloured with a mix of chalks and Copics then assembled a little cluster. The daisy head has a couple of cardstock scraps behind it to give it a bit of "lift". I stamped a sentiment and finally added a fairly liberal scattering of Glossy Accents dots and a few tiny clear gems to represent a spring shower of rain. I don’t usually work well with pastels so this was a stretch, I’m sort of happy with it but still not quite convinced! Perhaps I should have gone with just bloom and rain and stuck with stronger colours.

Stamps: Say it All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper: Watercolour

Ink: Memento by Tsukineko (Bamboo Leaves)

Other: 
Wildflower Stems 1 dies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Fern Valley dies (Arden Creative Studios, Maker series)
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
Copic markers 
Chalks
Watercolours (Winsor and Newton)
Glossy Accents by Ranger
Nail art gems

Thanks for stopping by! Links to the challenges if you’d like to join in:

Birthday chemistry

This is a birthday card for a young woman who is studying bio chemistry at uni and is not at all a girly girl. I got this set ages ago (think years rather than months!) when it was on sale and have failed to use it before now! I thought a little chemistry set up might do the trick when thinking what to make for her birthday card this year. It’s completely fanciful of course, unless that liquid is condensing to a significantly reduced volume, that receiving container is going to overflow!

Some simple masking and quite a lot of careful positioning (hooray for a stamping platform!) got everything stamped as I wanted and then it was just a case of colouring (mostly Copics and then a white pencil to colour over the horizontal surfaces of the vial contents), adding some grounding shadows and gluing on the sentiment — I went with a die cut one to make it big and bold since it’s maybe not an obvious birthday image! The whole panel is cut out with a stitched rectangle die and there’s a white liner inside the card, cut with a matching die.

Stamps:
Les flacons (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board, black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other: 
Happy Birthday Poe Script die (Poppystamps)
 Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
 Copic markers 
White pencil
White paint pen (Posca)

The Die Cut Divas are looking for birthday and anniversary cards this month so I’m linking up there, here’s the link if you’d like details of the challenge:

Thanks for stopping by. 

Spring is in the air

The northern hemisphere has entered meteorological spring and the Die Cut Divas would like to see some signs of the new season in our projects this month.The challenge provided a perfect starting point for a birthday card I needed to make.

A couple of months back I bought a bundle of Lisa Horton products on eBay which included a pretty buttercup set. As they generally start flowering in March I thought that might be a good place to start. I’m still enjoying playing with some dark backgrounds so I added my stencilled, die cut and embossed spray of buttercups to a black card base with a white heat embossed sentiment and a frame drawn with a white paint pen and given some smudgy, chalkboard sort of corners with a white pencil.

I only used two ink colours on the stencilling, one yellow and one green, which sort of made up for the amount of other stuff taking up real estate on my desk! The camera hasn't picked up the shading details of the green leaves very well but it's the best I could manage.

Paper: Bristol board, smooth black

Ink: Adirondack by Ranger (Sunshine Yellow), Memento by Tsukineko (New Sprout)

Other:
Buttercup Bloom bundle (3D folder, outline die, layering stencils — Lisa Horton Crafts)
Sentiment from Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Bright white embossing powder (Wow!)
White Posca paint pen
White pencil
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! 

Butterfly birthday

I needed a birthday card for a friend and found myself short of ideas so used a challenge to give me a kickstart on it. Unusually for me there’s no stamping here! 

The Die Cut Divas are asking for shades of red and/or pink for the current challenge.

I die cut the butterfly from watercolour paper and used various shades of red and pink paint to colour it, mixing some Gansai Tambi white gold with pink to colour some cells with subtle sparkle. I’ve also used some Stickles dotted around the butterfly for extra glitz and added a sequin and a nail art gem where the two fern stems join. 

The top of the card was inked with Distress Oxide and then I splattered some diluted ink — it left coloured dots on the white portion of the card and lifted colour from the inked portion. The sentiment was die cut from card inked in the same Distress ink and the slender ferns left crisp white. Then of course, as it’s all die cuts, I spent ages shuffling elements around before getting something I was vaguely happy with — why do I find it so much more difficult than composing something with multiple stamps?!

Paper: Bristol board

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Picked Raspberry)

Other:
Mini Detailed Butterfly dies (Tim Holtz/Ranger)
Happy Birthday Poe Script die (Poppystamps)
Fern Valley dies (Arden Creative Studio, Maker Series)
Watercolours (Winsor & Newton)
Gansai Tambi Starry Colours
Corner Chomper
Stickles glitter glue (Frosted Lace)
Sequin
Nail art gem

Everything’s coming up roses

It’s my turn to set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week. As one of June’s birth flowers is the rose I thought we’d go that way but with an option of using yellow (with a rose image or with any other image/technique) as yellow roses represent friendship. 

I went for vivid yellow roses against a green backdrop. The flowers are stamped with some masking and coloured with pencils. A bit of inky stencilling for the background, a bold sentiment and a few nail art gems to finish. I haven’t made a square card in ages, it was nice to use different proportions for a change.

Stamps:
Jumbo Rose (Stampendous)
Say It Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mowed Lawn)

Other:
Black fine liner
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper
Nail art gems

August's elements

Nat has chosen the mood board for our "elemental" challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week — as ever, just chose at least three elements to feature on your card.

I chose the woodgrain, yellow flower and striped ring. I cut an extra flower head and layered it behind the main die cut, slightly offset, and curved the petals on the front one for a bit more dimension. 

Retro Rubber has an “anything goes” theme for the current challenge so I’m linking up there too. My woodgrain stamp has been well loved since being added to my stash around 2008!

Stamps:
Woodgrain backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Buff

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Vintage Photo)
Momento Luxe by Tsukineko (Espresso Truffle)

Other:
Wildflower Stems dies (Time Holtz/Sizzix)
Stitched rectangle dies (Paper Rose)
Circles Nestabilities
Gold paint pen
Copic markers

Here’s the inspiration picture for August

Floral Friday

Apparently it’s Plant a Flower day so Jenny’s challenge to us over at Daring Cardmakers this week is to feature a favourite flower or flowers. 

I don’t really have a favourite but I do have plenty of floral stamps - you might say I’m equal opps when it comes to flowers! I got this one on sale a couple of years back and have so far failed to use it. I see it is now on sale again but this time as an “end of line” item. Still, I suppose at least I managed to use it before it actually retired! 

The stamp is detailed enough that I thought a simple black and white image with some dramatic background colour might make a striking card. I masked the image, smooshed ink over it and then added some gold splatters before taking the mask off. I decided a little more colour concentration around the flower head would be good so I added a bit of Copic marker as well. 

Stamps:
BEAUtanicals Large - Peony (Bee Crafty )
Sat It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress and Oxide by Ranger (Picked Raspberry)

Other:
Gansai Tambi Starry Colours
Copic marker
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by!

Square dance

Our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week is focusing on squares - Shabneez would like to see squares feature in any way in our cards. 

I opted for a small square card base, square image panel and hand painted some little square embellishments rather than adding sequins as I might have done - I think those are visible on the photo (I used white gold paint so they're pretty subtle!).

I tried something a bit different with an embossing folder this time and added watercolouring to the raised image. It was a bit fiddly but I think it’s a pretty effect and I found it quite a “mindful” process. Running it through the embossing folder does seem to change the properties of the paper a bit, I found the colour didn’t move quite as easily.

Stamps:
Sentiment from Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Winsor & Newton watercolours
Silver gel pen 
Gansai Tambi starry colours (white gold used here)
Flower Frame embossing folder (Nellie Snellen)

Thanks for dropping by, hope you are keeping safe and well. 

Blooming!

Ruth is setting today's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like to see a riot of flowers on the blog this week!

Irises are one of my mum’s favourite flowers so when I saw this stamp at a bargain price I couldn’t resist getting it even though I keep telling myself I have enough floral stamps! It’s a lovely big stamp, almost 6 inches tall if you use the full length of the stem.

I stamped in a very light green ink so I could do a spot of “no line” colouring, using simple masking to add two flowers, and then coloured using a combination of Copics and coloured pencils.

The little dots were stamped with gold ink and then I used a gel pen and a glitter pen to add a few extras and deepen the gold.

Stamps:
Iris (Bee Crafty)
Dots from Believe in Unicorns (Visible Image)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Willow)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate, Galaxy Gold)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Gold gel pen
Gold Spica glitter pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Totally tropical

It's Shabneez's turn to set the challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like to see us go tropical - bright colours, clashing patterns, tropical motifs - just right for summer!

It's a quick one layer creation from me using hot colours and a silhouette style hibiscus image in two sizes with a glittery die cut and stamped sentiment and a few tiny gems to finish it off. I think I might have been happier with a darker colour for the “happy” - maybe I’ll try it out and see but I’d run out of time for Friday deadline!

I’ve held out against Distress Oxides until now but I caved and bought a few this week. The orange here is a first play with one of them, I like the way it layered over the pink (which is regular Distress).

Stamps:
Emerging Hibiscus and Emerging Dragonfly (both Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Hero Arts Essential Messages

Paper:
Bristol Board
Green glitter card

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Picked Raspberry)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Carved Pumpkin)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Happy Stamp & Cut by Hero Arts
Corner Chomper
Nail art gems

Thanks for stopping by!

Blooming birthday!

My mum is celebrating a round number birthday this year - this is the card I managed to make for her after suffering a severe inspiration bypass. I’m kind of happy with it, I just wish it had come about more easily. The important thing though is that Mum liked it!

The flowers are coloured with a mixture of Distress ink, Clean Color markers, Copics, pencil and gel pen. The green dots are stamped with the little circles in the Happy stamp set and I used some textured gold cardstock and sequins for a bit of added glamour.  

Stamps:
Roses in Bloom by Waltzingmouse Stamps (no  longer with us)
Happy Stamp & Cut by Hero Arts (die cut sentiment as well)
Say It All by Hero Arts (because I wanted “birthday” a bit bigger than the Happy set one)

Paper:
Bristol board 
Gold linen textured

Ink:
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Rosebud, Pear Tart)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Picked Raspberry, Shabby Shutters)

Other:
Tim Holtz/Sizzix dies (Mixed Media I)
Zig Clean Colour markers (pink and light green)
Magenta coloured pencil
Copic markers
Gold gel pen
Tracing wheel
Sequins
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!

February flamingo

It's the first Friday of a brand new month. That means it's time for an "elemental" dare over at Daring Cardmakers and Dawn has chosen the inspiration picture (it's at the end of this post) this time. It could lend itself to Valentines cards if you have those to make but equally could provide inspiration for any sort of project. As ever, just choose at least three elements from the picture to kickstart your project.

I sort of deconstructed a bit on this one! Rather than going with a flamingo, I zoomed in on the feathers and the concentric circles of its eye for two of my elements.

The third element is the coloured foil appearance of the balloons - I used silver mirror card and some alcohol ink for the die cut feathers. A very light rub over with a sanding block made silvery highlights for the embossed veins on the feathers.

Stamps:
Limor Circles by Indigo Blu
Big Day Today by Waltzingmouse Stamps (no longer with us)

Paper:
Smooth white
Silver mirror card

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Feathers Duo die/folder by Tim Holtz/Sizzix
Fucshia Copic Various refill ink
White Enamel Accents by Ranger
Corner Chomper

Here's this month's inspiration photo, we'd love to see you at DCM if you fancy playing along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Elements for August

It's the first challenge of August over at Daring Cardmakers and of course that means we have an"elemental" dare - just choose at least three elements from Miri's picture to kickstart your project.

I rebelled against the flamingo trend and chose hibiscus flower, hot pink and turquoise from the color palette and a script style sentiment!

This is a quick and easy card - central panel masked with low tack tape and sponged with inks, splashed with water droplets for some interest and then overstamped with the bold, graphic style hibiscus image. Die cut sentiment and doodled border to finish.

Stamps:
Emerging Hibiscus by Cornish Heritage Farms (no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board 

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Picked Raspberry)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Pool)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Fine line black marker
Phrases Set 1 by Spellbinder
Low tack tape

Here's the summery picture Miri chose for this month, it would be lovely to see your take on it - the DT cards feature lots of flamingos!

Thanks for stopping by!

Elements for June

It's Shabneez's choice of inspiration picture for the start of a new month at Daring Cardmakers - as ever, just choose at least three elements to kick start your card.

I chose the shades of red/orange/pink from the ice lolly, the sprinkle of tiny flowers from the cake and the raised "stripes" from the top of the lolly.

The background wash of colour is just scribbled watercolour pencils blended over with a damp brush. Once that was dry, I scored some vertical lines with the Scor-It (useful for this sort of decorative scoring as it's a "face up" tool).

I cut out three teeny tiny stamped flowers, shaped them slightly with an embossing stylus and sprinkled them on to finish the card.


Stamps:
Tea Time by Graphic 45
Say It All by Hero Arts

Paper: Bristol board

Ink:
Pearlescent Chocolate Brilliance by Tsukineko

Other:
Derwent Watercolour pencils
Copic markers
Scor-It 

Here's the inspiration picture if you haven't already seen it on the DCM blog and would like to play along:

Thanks for stopping by!

Peacock parade

The first dare of the month from Daring Cardmakers is always an "elemental" one - just choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture for your project.

I'm in the hot seat this month and I've chosen this lovely mood board from the folk over at Tanis Fiber Arts.

I'm very late to the Yupo paper party but I've just treated myself to a pack and had a first play with it here to mimic the looks of the top right and middle left squares in the inspiration picture.

The stamped butterfly is coloured with Copics and then has turquoise glitter pen over the top. Crisp white die cuts (inspired by the leaf sprig of the necklace) provide contrast for the busy, rich colours and a stamped sentiment and doodled border finish it off.

Stamps:
Antique Engravings and Say It All (Hero Arts - both retired, as far as I can see)

Paper:
Yupo
Smooth white

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic ink refills
Copic markers
Fineline marker
Crop-a-dile
Back to Nature dies by Sizzix

Do have a look at the DCM blog - it looks gorgeous with all the samples inspired by this picture!

Thanks for stopping by!

April: showers and flowers!

Kathy is setting our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers today and she'd like us to celebrate the season by breaking out the spring flowers!

Hellebores are one of the earliest spring flowers and are probably about over by now but I've been eyeing up this image for ages and decided this challenge gave me a good reason to just go ahead and get it! I'm not much of a digital fan in general, I like my crafting to be time away from the computer but every now and again I give in to a lovely image! Since I just printed and then took it to my craft table it didn't feel much different to stamping and colouring in any case.

I printed on kraft and accidentally ended up doing "no line colouring" because the toner didn't fuse properly on the cardstock and mostly rubbed off as I worked. I'd done a test print card on ordinary paper first so I had a strong line image to refer to, though.

I decided to do a super-simple one layer card and just let the image speak for itself.

Supplies:
Hellebores digital stamp by Power Poppy
Sentiment from Big Day Today stamp set (Waltingmouse stamps, no longer with us)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Kraft cardstock
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper

Have a lovely Easter weekend!

Geometrics

Leo is setting the challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she's asking us to make geometric patterns on our cards. Any kind of shapes used repeatedly to make a pattern is fine here, Leo's only stipulation is that it shouldn't simply be a piece of patterned paper, you should make the pattern yourself (stamps, die cuts, stitching etc).


I decided to make my pattern with die cut circles, double sided tape sheet and glitter. In the end I chose a reinforcer die from a tag set so I ended up with rings rather than solid circles.

I stuck the die cuts to a square covered with tape, keeping my fingers off the sticky as much as possible (keeping the release paper handy and using it as a shield is a good idea). Then I burnished fine glitter over the piece to complete the pattern and stuck it to a black mat.

A stamped butterfly and a simple sentiment finish off a fairly bold, graphic look.

Stamps: 
Antique Engravings and Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Microfine glitter
Tag die set (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Double sided tape sheet
Copic markers
Corner Chomper

Size: 14cm (5.5") square

Take a look at the blog to see what the team has been up to with triangles, squares etc - it would be lovely to see you there with your own geometrics, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mirror, mirror

Sharon is setting this week's dare over at Daring Cardmakers and she's asking us to include a reflective element in our cards this week.

I started with some watercolour paper and stamped the seahorse then used a mask cut from a Post It to cover him up and stamped the streaks in three Distress inks. I spread the ink just a little with a damp paint brush and then added three stamped splashes.

There's just a tiny touch of Copic shading added to the seahorse before finishing with a stamped sentiment and the very shiny dots. They're the "waste" portion from various dies that include a hole which are domed with an embossing stylus on a piece of fun foam. The mirror card really is very reflective - you can see the window frame if you look carefully!

Stamps:
Under the Sea by Darkroom Door
Brush Strokes and Say It All by Hero Arts

Paper:
Watercolour
Silver mirror card

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlscent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Broken China)

Other:
Copic marker (Eggshell)
Tag and bauble dies
Embossing stylus 
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a lovely weekend!

Gilded die cut resist

It's dare day over at Daring Cardmakers and Kathy has asked us to do something new as we're just into a new year.

I've had this idea I've been meaning to try out for a while so the dare gave me a little prod. Gilding flake acts as a resist for water or dye-based media and I thought that rather than stamping with glue and gilding, it would be fun to try die cutting double sided adhesive and gilding that before using wet media over it.

As well as trying a new technique, I haven't used this die before so that's an extra new element, too! Being tape rather than card stock meant I could curve the die cuts as I stuck them down so the two shapes look a bit different.

The gilding flake I used is gold but as it's extremely reflective the richness of colour changes with the angle and the light.

The Brushos were still out on my desk from last week so I used one of those over my gilded leaves. I sprinkled a second time when it was almost dry to intensify the colour near the edge and a bit along the leaf shapes. I stamped background leaves with Distress ink (which the gilding also resists in the areas there's overlap).

When the piece was dry, I added a couple of gilded spots and some tiny gems along with a sentiment to finish it off.

Supplies:
Back to Nature Thinlits dies by Sizzix
Double sided tape sheet
Mega Flake by Indigo Blu (Chariot of Fire)
Turquoise Brusho
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Salty Ocean)
Brilliance ink by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Doddle Parts clear stamp set by Dylusions
Essential Messages stamp set by Hero Arts
Nail art gems

Thanks for stopping by - hope you get the chance to try out something new, do join us at DCM if you do!

Sparkle and shine

It's challenge day on Daring Cardmakers - today's challenge has been set by Nat and she wants us to make our cards sparkle and shine this week - glitter, gems, metallic paints, sequins, anything with some shiny glitz!

This is one of those cards that looks a whole lot better in real life, for some reason I couldn't make a photo of it look terribly coherent!

I stamped a leaf with Flitter Glue on dark brown cardstock and used metal leaf in autumn colours once the glue was tacky. I did make two leaves but decided I only wanted one so I  used the second one to punch out some circles to use as dots around the leaf on the finished card.

The glitter strips are just double sided tape sheet trimmed to the widths I wanted with gold and copper glitters burnished onto the tape.

Tiny nail art gems have been my "go to" for years - two slightly different sizes and colours got used here. Keeping the sheen thing going, the sentiment is stamped in a pearlescent ink.

Although I've gone down the birthday route, shine and sparkle would give you a great starting point for a Christmas card or two so why not join in with the dare this week and add to your Christmas stash?!

Stamps:
Falling Leaves (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)
Say It Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps - retired)

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Flitter Glue by Indigo Blu
Easy Metal by Eberhard Faber
Fine glitter (copper and gold)
Nail art gems
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!