Upon Reflection

Good afternoon.

It's not often the I put up a challenge card in the middle of the week but I have the rest of the week off work. Hurray!

So here is a card for 2 challenges:

Sketch and Stash challenge #100 - Use any sketch from the last 99
Crafty Creations Challenges #105- No Flowers

I used the Sketch and Stash sketch no. 82 and the stash was the sari ribbon on the backing panel.

The main image is a stamp from a Barbara Gray Clarity stamp which has been given a simple reflection a moon and some bulrushes in the foreground. A brayer was used to colour the sky and water with Adirondack ink

To continue the watery theme, the backing panel has been made from beautiful strips of recycled saris which have been felted onto a cotton backing. The panel was then trimmed to size and mounted on card to give it some stability. A ribbon was wrapped round before the panel was bonded to the A5 white base card. The bow was made separately and bonded on once the card had been assembled.

The bottom lacy edge was cut from navy blue pearlescent card using a Spellbinders boarder.




Christmas Card 1

Good afternoon.

At last I have been able to start making Christmas cards. This year, for non-family cards, I have decided to go back to basics and keep everything simple.

I apologise that this is not a brilliant picture but I am trying to get used to a new camera.

This has been created purely by doing a background with Distress inks through a mask cut with a scalloped square Spellbinder die. The Sentiment stamp is by Clarity and the image from a stamp by Creative Expressions. The red berries were created with a pearl pen. The sentiment and image were stamped using a permanent ink as this was created on a white pearl card.

Geisha

Good afternoon to you all.

Here is a card for two challenges:
Spotlight challenge - Masking
Sketch and Stash Challenge #65

The design of the card is to match the sketch in Challenge #65. The stash was the Mizuhiki cord which I used to make the embellishment and also the Impressability used for part of the masking exercise.

The squares and triangles were made by putting the blue card through a Cuttlebug with the Impressability. It was carefully removed from the machine and with the Impressability still in place and this was used as the mask to add the green to the raise parts of the pattern. This was cut up and mounted onto silver mirror card and put to one side.

The main Geisha image is a stamp from Clarity stamps. A lot of masking and brayering went into producing this picture on glossy A6 white card. The right hand geisha was stamped with black Stazon ink. Two more images were stamped out on copy paper. The geishas on the copy paper were cut out very, very carefully as both the geishas and the intact surround were required for this exercise. I also cut out the moon by drawing round a 2p piece on a Post-it note.

OK, the masking challenge asked for a description of how the masking was done, so here we go:

The first geisha was completely covered with a cut out and the second one stamped in place.

When dry, the first geisha had the mask removed and was surrounded by the cut out sheet. I also masked her head so that this did not get coloured. The colour was added to her dress using a brayer and a Waterfall Big 'n' Juicy ink pad basing the brayer at the blue end of the pad. Still with the mask in place the fern (another Clarity Stamp) was added in green ink from the other end of the Big 'n' Juicy pad. When dry, the geisha mask was place over the first geisha again and a surround and head was used to mask the 2nd lady. This time her costume was brayered with ink from the green end of the pad and the ferns were stamped in blue.

When all this ink was dry, both geishas were fully covered and the moon mask was added in position.

Another piece of copy paper was torn to give the shape for the hills. Starting from the bottom of the picture, the hills were brayered in place high enough to ensure that the geishas had something to stand on. Then it was moved up and lighter coloured hills were added, again with a brayer. A third layer, lighter still were brayered in place so that the hills were receding into the distance. The hills were all done in Adirondack Bottle ink.
The sky was brayered into place using blue Adirondack ink.

All the masks were removed and the birds and flowers (more Clarity stamps) added to complete the picture.

All I can say at the end of that is "Thank you, Barbara Gray, for the inspiration"

Life

Good morning.

Here is a card for 2 challenges:
Critter #70 - Sketch
Spotlight Challenge - Sentimental

For this the sentiment had to be the main item and so I hope that the Critter team forgive me for moving the sentiment to the main image position.

I think this sentiment is lovely - Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away. This is from a Clarity stamp.
The sentiment was stamped in Dark Green Brilliance ink on a piece of my hand marbled card. A frame was cut with a Nestie from another piece of marbled card. This was bonded in place around the sentiment and the card trimmed to the edges of the frame.

Two strips of lilac ribbon were bonded in position with Stick and Stay. A double bow, using satin edged organza ribbon and satin ribbon., was manufactured using the bow maker on my Ultimate Pro.

The base card is A5 in size made from an A4 sheet of a beautifully textured lilac card. The framed sentiment was bonded in place with DS tape. The bow as added and the ribbon tails carefully bonded in place to give some dimension with the rippling effect.

The flower and leaf arrangement was made from an MCS die cut sheet with a large crystal gem in the middle for shine.