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. 

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!

Getting to know you

Dawn has set the challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she’d like to know a little more about our crafting selves, asking: what is your favourite crafting style or technique? Where do you craft?

I found this quite difficult as I don’t really have a single style or favourite way to do things so I tried to zoom in on a few common denominators!

I  almost always use stamps when I craft and I like to colour in. Floral stamps are a favourite thing to use. I keep telling myself  “no more flowers, you have enough” and then something like this pretty magnolia shows up in a sale and I can’t resist!

Mum has observed in the past that I often go off the edge with images so obviously I had to do that here.

I tend to use minimal layers; even if something is not necessarily a clean and simple design it’s unlikely to involve more than a couple of layers and I’ll often use just a card base, as I have here. I often round a single corner of a card, too.

I really enjoyed using a single die cut word with stamps to complete the sentiment on my Christmas cards this year so I thought I’d try extending that idea to other occasions. This Hero Arts set has lots of options to go with the ‘happy” so hopefully I’ll get plenty of use out of it.

I’m lucky enough to have a room to craft in. On the down side that does mean that it’s often a complete mess because I don’t have to clear up after myself as a I go!


Stamps:
Magnolia by Stampendous
Happy Stamp & Cut by Hero Arts

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
Sequins
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by!

Take a break

We have a challenge from Enfys over at Daring Cardmakers today - she'd like to see something you associate with a morning break. Coffee, tea, biscuits, cakes - what do you have mid morning?

I'm likely as not to choose a cup of tea if I'm at home. If I'm out and about I might go for a cafe latte but even then it might well be tea, usually Earl Grey and no milk!

This set is perhaps more of an afternoon tea image but they're pretty stamps and I'd be happy to see a tea pot like this one at a morning break - it's usually a much more prosaic mug around here!

The tea pot is stamped on the die cut and the rest of the images are stamped and cut out with the coordinating dies then popped up at various levels with some gel glue. The spoon has some Wink of Stella on there for a bit of metallic sheen.

Stamps:
Tea Time (stamp and die set by Graphic 45/Hampton Arts)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Hioltz Distress ink by Ranger (Bundled Sage)

Other:
Lables 20 Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Copic markers
Charcoal pencil
Pinflair glue gel
Piercing tool
Wink of Stella clear pen
Jamara embossing folder by Cuttlebug

Thanks for stopping by!

September elements

Unbelievably it's September - eek! Kathy has chosen our "elemental inspiration" picture at Daring Cardmakers as it's the first Friday of the month and she found herself unable to resist one last mood board of soft, summery shades. As ever, just choose at least three elements from the picture to kick-start your project.

I'm afraid pastel shades are always difficult for me and I struggled more than usual with this one - the circular file in the craft room saw quite a lot of action!

From the picture, I chose the overall colour palette (making it a bit deeper because, well, pastels!), a frilly flower (I don't have a ranunculus stamp so I went for a poppy instead), the herringbone tiles and a splash of shiny gold.

I raided my scraps folder for bits of cardstock in soft mauve, pink and blue-grey and cut little rectangles to stick onto a chocolate brown base - fiddly but quite satisfying! They're 4x1cm and yes, I really did study the picture to figure out those rectangles were four times as long as wide!

I ended up painting the die cut leaves with acrylic paint because they were already out on my desk but not the right shade of green at all. I could have just cut another out of a different cardstock, I know!

The dots are "waste" circles from various die cuts that were lying about on the desk - I covered them with Zig two-way glue and then added gilding flake before doming them with an embossing stylus. Adding them with glue gel is a good idea as it stops them flattening if you put pressure on them (inevitable if you're posting your card).

Stamps:
Poppycock by Indigo Blu
Sentiment from Say It Loud by Waltzingmouse Stamps (no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Chocolate brown
Scraps!

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black and Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Copic markers
Palm Fancy Die by  Hero Arts
Acrylic paint
Chariots of Fire Mega Flake by Indigo Blu
Zig two-way glue pen
Pinflair glue gel

Here's the inspiration picture

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!

Elemental July

Dawn is setting the challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and of course because it's the first one of a new month, it's an "elemental" dare - just choose at least three elements from the inspiration photo to kick-start your project. The picture's at the end of this post if you didn't arrive here from the DCM blog and want to see it.

I chose: girl's face, pastel colours and sequins (after the fact I realised the ones I chose had the same iridescence as the material behind the plates top right).

Molly is delightful and she's a lovely big stamp so you don't need to do much else really. I masked her off, sponged on some pastel inks and then used a piece of acetate with circles punched in it as a stencil to sponge on a bit of white paint for a sort of bokeh effect.

Stamps:
Molly by Beeswax Stamps
Journaling Words 3 by The Artistic Stamper

Paper: Bristol Board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar, Scattered Straw)

Other:
Sequins
White acrylic paint

Here's the picture Dawn chose to inspire us this month:

Do pop by to see which elements inspired the DT and we'd love to see your take on it, too!

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!

Look Ma - no lines!

I sent my mum some yellow freesias for Mother's Day and thought it would be nice to make a card that tied in with the theme. This lovely freesia stamp is an oldie from Cornish Heritage Farms and I thought I'd try something a bit different with it to see if I could get a genuine-looking watercolour result.

The no-line colouring technique (stamp in a very pale colour and use markers or pencils so that the lines don't show) works well for many stamps but this one is in the style of an etching and has quite a lot of shading lines so I didn't think the technique would work well for a transparent medium like watercolour. Instead, I stamped on scrap paper with black ink and then put the stamped image on a lightbox with a piece of Bristol Board over the top.

For those of us who can't really draw (so faint pencil is out of the question) this provides a great way of getting an image without having an outline that will show. I just left everything in place on the lightbox until I had enough colour on the paper to be confident of the shapes.

I also had a first play with some Kuretake Clean Color pens here. I have one Wink of Stella pen and (perhaps bizarrely since the glitter is supposedly what it's all about) have pretty much fixated on the brush nib! When I saw that Kuretake did watercolour pens with the same sort of nib I thought it would be fun to try a few.

I used Lemon Yellow to put down a base layer for the flowers but probably the biggest advantage was when it came to the background. The really fine point made it easier to get in to those fiddly spaces between the flowers with Light Blue.

The Kuretake colours played nicely with the Distress inks I used for the rest of the colouring and lifted to make highlights as a traditional watercolour would do (hopefully the detail shot will show that). So all in all, I'm pleased with those.





Stamps: Freesia and Mother's Day Centers (CHF, retired)

Ink: 
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Pearlescent Chocolate
Distress ink by Ranger - Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint

Other: 
Clean Color pens by Kuretake - Lemon Yellow, Light Blue
Artograph Light Tracer

Hope all the mums out there are having a lovely day and hugs to anyone missing their mum. Thanks for stopping by!