Two of your Five a Day!!

Hello there :0)... yes I've turned my attention to Fruit and Veg for my Monday morning blog post and it just so happens that today also marks the start of National Vegetarian Week too!!. I could pretend I planned it that way but that would be fibbing!!

I fell in love with the sketchy images in the Hero Arts 'Stamp Your Own Salad' set, they have a bold graphic feel and I could see textiles and patterns popping out at me so I suppose it's a bit odd that I should be trying watercolouring with these images. They help you cheat a little at watercolouring but the recipients of your projects will think you've spent ages on them :)

Because the images have a crosshatch scribbled look to them it means they lay down a nice amount of ink when you use distress ink pads so all you need is a damp waterbrush to fill in the base colour. I found second generation stamping best because its best to start with a pale colour!! Once the base colour is dry you can then build up extra layers and shades to add shape and texture to your images. It's all about taking some scrap watercolour card and having a play with ink and water :)

With the tomatoes above, I completed one fruit first and then blasted it with a heatgun to dry it off before stamping the second image behind it. You don't really need to make masks because you can roughly judge where to wipe the ink away from your image before you stamp it.... any overlap or gaps can easily be rectified when you add water. I got brave and tried inking half the tomato to make a wedge shape.... by wiping some of the ink away in the centre and using second generation stamping I managed to get a paler impression to work with. I Googled an image to make sure I replicated the inner colours and shapes right. I had a few practices first on scrap card :)

The carrots are created pretty much the same, one at a time and allowing them to dry in between layers. The tops aren't quite right for carrots (think they're supposed to be parsnips actually) but that's okay unless you show your husband who's a keen gardener!!

I stamped the tops in a pale green and used darker ink to colour them. The colour bled a little with these so I decided to go with it and work on that look but it's quite hard to make an accidental colour bleed look accidental!!

To finish them off I kept the base card simple and used Lawn Fawns Argyle and Gingham backdrops to add a subtle pattern. The sentiments are from Wplus9's Hand Lettered Thanks and Fresh Picked.

                

                           

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Summer Dreaming

Hello Everyone.. Jenny here to inject some summer into the beginning of June!!

Yes, so far we haven't had much of that Summer feeling here in the UK and with the

longest day approaching I thought I would try and tempt Mr Sunshine back 

with my Strawberry themed card...

These juicy berries are made using the Fresh Picked stamp set and dies from Wplus9.

I found it easier to stamp the two part berries first before die-cutting using the method from this 

blog post.... I cut the leaves the same way and then fussy cut the smaller strawberry and leaf.

The aperture has been made using the largest Pinking square die with faux stitching added for detail

... yes it is a little wonky but that's how it would look if it was real stitching!!!

I've used a dienamics die to cut some vellum for the sentiment 

so it would stand out above the gingham.

  

Well our strawberries plants are flowering nicely in the allotment so hopefully with the right weather we should be in for a good crop this year... fingers crossed eh!!

Thanks for stopping by and keep an eye out on the website for the next pre-orders which are 

going to be Wplus9.... they have some gorgeous eye candy in their recent releases *wink*

Jenny x

Christmas Poinsettia

Hi it's Jenny here, I'm filling in for Ruby today and I have another one layer card to share with you :0)

After using the Wplus9 'Fresh Picked' stamp set on Saturday I couldn't stop thinking about using the leaves from the set to make a Christmas Poinsettia...

I stamped the paired leaves three times with a bit of masking and added a bit of depth with Coloursoft pencils again and then used the single leaf in green.

The sentiment is from a Lawn Fawn set called Bows and Holly which isn't in stock at the moment, I really like how large and handwritten it looks :0) ...and I finished off the flower with some lemon Liquid Pearls for the centre, I'm quite pleased how it turned out and happy that I used the leaves to make something different :0)

Thanks for looking

Jenny x

Berry Best Wishes

Hi, it's Jenny here....

Sorry I'm a bit later than usual but I do have a card to share with you today using another of the new Wplus9 stamp sets in store....

I've made a CAS one layer card using the 'Fresh Picked' stamp set.
I've used chalk inks and a bit of masking to make the berry cluster, the solid stamps allow you to add different shades of ink to them so you get a three dimensional effect and then I touch up the images with Colour soft pencils afterwards to add extra definition.

I just love this set, it has some lovely sentiments and a matching dies as well, perfect for clean and simple cards :0)

Thanks for stopping by
Jenny x