A Special Birthday Card

 I had to make a card for a special birthday.  I'd seen someone using the Lavinia Lillium stamp as a partial background recently - I think it was on the Lavinia group on Facebook, but I wasn't planning on using it when I saw it, so I didn't not the originator. Anyway, that's how I started.

I made the card base approximately 8in square, and I've created a vine effect with the Sizzix/Susan Tierney Cockburn Beeblossom die, along with a couple of other branch dies from other Susan Tierney Cockburn set from other manufacturers. I coloured the flowers with Promarkers, adding some detail with Pan Pastel. The leaves were made using olive green card. I stamped the Lillium with Versafine Clair ink, and coloured the blooms with Promarker, then outlined them with an fine Posca pen. You can't see it in the photo, but I finished the flowers by adding a layer of clear glitter marker (Crafter's Companion). I created a suitable sentiment in Photoshop Elements and cut it and a mat with a Spellbinders die set. The stamped area was shaded with Distress Ink in Tattered Rose and Spun Sugar. I added a darker shade around the whole edge using Picked Raspberry (which I originally misread as Pickled Raspberry, and that's how I always think of it!) I've digitally removed the sentiment for the photo.

I made a couple of insert pages using similar techniques.

Beeblossom is quite a dimensional flower, so there's no way this card was going into an envelope. Therefore, the next stage was to make a box. I used 12 by 12 white card to make a basic lid and tray box which I decorated to match the card. Again, I've digitally removed the recipient's name.

I added an oval label area with a mask, and a little background texture with Tattered Rose ink and a Lavinia stencil.

International Art and Soul Challenge 135

 The challenge for this fortnight was set by my team mate Jennie who wants projects with a theme of Summer. 

I'm not a fan of summer, it has to be said. But I am a fan of the coast, and listening to the water, although I generally avoid it when the weather's hot and sunny. But it's still what comes to mind when I think of summer, so this is what I came up with.

I started with the stamp of deck chairs which came with Creative Stamping magazine some time ago. I coloured the image with my Koh-i-Noor pencils, and lightly shaded the background with the same pencils - a very subtle effect to remove the whiteness and no more.

Then, I added more colour with Pan Pastels rubbed on using cotton wool make-up removal pads. At this point, I almost ruined the whole thing. I wanted to add some white to the water, and thought I'd use an oil pastel crayon, thinking it would mix well with the Pan Pastel. Well, it didn't. The white oil pastel was invisible against the blue, until I put some more Pan Pastel on top, and then it showed darker than the surrounding area. But, fortunately with Pan Pastels, it's possible to erase, and that's what I did, carrying on and removing colour to get the white sea foam effect. I used the eraser again to just go around the stamped image to sharpen it where it had been softened by the Pan Pastel. I added a little more white using a white gel pen, and finally the sentiment which is from the same set as the deck chairs, and I stamped it in Versafine Clair in green.

A little matting, and that's it. I do hope you can join us this time!

International Art and Soul Challenge 98

 This challenge lasts for four weeks, taking us through the festive season, and it's an easy one - Anything Goes with a Bow! So, what are you waiting for?

I decided to have a go with my new hexagonal frame dies from Tonic. I already have a couple of sets of square/rectangular frame dies from Elizabeth Craft and I like those, but was intrigued by the different shape. I finally got something that worked well enough, but I need to find a way of reliably getting the angles between the sides more accurate.

It looks ok, but I can't line the inside with a decorated background because the angles between the sides aren't quite right. Still, I made the best of it by filling it with some flowers. Apart from some greenery which I cut using a Sue Wilson die set, the rest were cut using various dies from Susan Tierney Cockburn. The doily in the background was cut using a pink die which I think means it's Marianne, but I'm honestly not sure. Both the bucket and the doily were shaded with a variety of Distress Oxide inks, and flower details were achieved with Pan Pastel and Liquid Pearl. The silver decoration on the frame was cut using a very old Spellbinders die, and the bow using a Creative Expressions/Sue Wilson die set.

And that's it. I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 92

The challenge for this fortnight is to follow this board:

Your project has to contain three elements from the board - any line, horizontal, vertical or diagonal.

I chose to go with the middle horizontal line and made this:

I started with white card and made the frame using a die from Elizabeth Craft. Another piece of white card, and I stencilled that using stencils from Crafter's Companion and Imagination Crafts using Distress Ink and gilding wax.

The dies used to create the floral arrangement are (almost) all from Susan Tierney Cockburn's various collections. The exception is a die I bought in The Works which makes a useful piece of background with added perfect pearl dots.

I completed the frame by adding some die cuts cut using a Spellbinders die.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 83

Our challenge for this fortnight is one I'm sure you'll want to enter. Any project, and colours. It just hast to contain flowers and butterflies.

I made something for my sister when she was feeling down.

I made the frame using an Elizabeth Craft die, embossed the card with an Embossalicious folder and added detail with some gilding wax then finished with some Modge Podge. The backgroudn was created with a couple of stencils, Versamark ink, Perfect Pearl powder and some embossing gloop I've had for many years. The fowers were made using a variety of dies, including ones from the Sizzix Susan's Garden range, Memory Box, Joanna Sheen and shaded with Pan Pastel, and the butterfly used some Spellbinders dies.

I hope you can join us.

International Art and Soul Challenge 79

The theme for this fortnight is to use green as the main colour.

I decided to go for something that seems quite spring-like, and came up with this:

I first heard of Susan Tierney Coleman when she published a book showing how to make realistic flowers out of punched shapes. I then followed her when she turned to die cutting - first with Sizzix, then Elizabeth Craft and most recently with Tonic, and I've used mainly her dies to create the arrangement above.

I started with some card which I tinted with Distress Oxide ink in a variety of green shades. Then, I stamped a floral trio repeatedly and heat embossed.

The dies include the Japanese Fern and Galvanized Tub from Susan's most recent Tonic collection, along with Dogwood and Gerbera Daisy from the original Sizzix range. I've also used a few leafy sprigs that came from The Works. I shaded petals in a pale blush pink using Pan Pastel and added a slightly stronger colour to the edge of the dogwood petals using Promarker. To complete the flowers, I dabbed some glue on the stamens and sprinkled some magenta shaded glitter.

I do hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 248

Welcome to the first Crafty Cardmakers challenge of 2020, and to get it off to a really easy start, the theme this fortnight is Anything Goes!

I decided to make a new home card for a friend, but instead of a flat card, I went with a pop up box.

The base die is from Spellbinders, and I covered the panels with paper from a Joanna Sheen box magazine.

I added a tag using a Tonic die. The flowers were made using dies from Crafter's Companion and The Works, I added shading using Pan Pastel and flower centres and the berries using Liquid Enamel.

I do like this style as it's possible to fold them fairly flat for postage, although I used a piece of scrap card inside the envelope to give it a bit of extra rigidity, and am keeping my fingers crossed it arrives safely.

I hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 58

The challenge for this fortnight is ecology/environment/conservation. That's quite a wide-ranging theme, and there are lots of possibilities.

I decided to go for a 'weather' theme; something close to my heart coming from the wettest part of the UK (by some measure for some time period.)

The girl and umbrella images are freebies from Creative Stamping magazine and the background was embossed using an Apple Blossom folder.

To add some further detail to the background, I added some Pan Pastel in white to the clouds, some shimmer to the wavy section using a Sakura Stardust pen and some glitter to the raindrops using a Quickie glue pen and some Glamour Dust.

The images took a bit of combining. I wanted the umbrella in the foreground, but I needed the handle to be behind the girl's hand. It took me a couple of goes to get it right, but I finally got something close to right. The only issue was that I had to use a dark colour when colouring the umbrella handle as the end of it wasn't properly masked!

I coloured the result with Promarkers and cut around the combined image.

I do hope you can join us this time!