CAS Black, white, lilac
Posted: May 23, 2009 Filed under: In Full Bloom 5 Comments
This week’s Clean and Simple challenge is to use Black, White and one Bold Bright. What I envisioned in my head was a black tree branch with green leaves. As you can see, that is not what happened. I stamped these three flower and stem combos using In Full Bloom and then added just a little lilac ink with a blender pen dipped in the lid. I fiddled around a bit with black hemp twine, which filled some space on the bottom right hand side, but it was not delicate enough so I took it off. That is why the sentiment is on the left, whereas I would normally put it on the right.
So glad you dropped in.
Supplies:
Stamps: In Full Bloom, Hugs and Wishes
Inks: Basic Black, Lovely Lilac
Cardstock: Basic Black, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White, Confetti White
Also: Blender Pen
Grassy sunset
Posted: May 20, 2009 Filed under: Inspired by Nature, Stamped Landscapes 8 Comments
I created this scene a week or so ago but did not get it made into a card until the other day. There are no flowers or butterflies so I decided to created a card for Sharon’s “For the Guys” challenge. Aside from a scene which would work for a man I needed a little bit of string or rope somewhere. I actually unraveled the natural hemp twine and used one strand which gave it the nice wavy look.
The scene is done on watercolour paper which I embossed first. I inked the grass with Artichoke first and then versamark so I could emboss in clear. As the watercolour paper was fairly course the embossed image is not sharp. I don’t have a circle stamp that size for the sun so I punched a circle out of a scrap and then used it as a stencil to stamp the versmark pad through before embossing in clear. After embossing I soaked the whole piece with water and started dropping and spreading inks across the paper with a large paintbrush. The only Stampin Up ink I used was Always Artichoke, the others are Winsor and Newton drawing inks. The size is suitable for a business size envelope, and hopefully suitable for a guy!
Supplies:
Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Fundamental Phrases
Inks: Versamark, Always Artichoke, Winsor & Newton drawing inks
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Confetti Cream, Watercolour paper
Also: Natural hemp twine, Clear e.p.
CAS Rock ‘n’ Roll
Posted: May 18, 2009 Filed under: CAS, Season of Friendship 7 Comments
I have been aiming to participate in as many of the Splitcoast Clean and Simple challenges as possible but I seem to get to them just as a new one is posted. Anyway, last week’s was a challenge using the Rock and roll technique which means you ink up your stamp in a light colour and then roll the edges on a darker ink pad. I used the technique to ink my leaves for this card, in Celery first and Artichoke second.
The panel of embossing is done using the Cuttlebug Forest Branches folder and the ribbon is Celery twill from the sale-a-bration bundle. This week’s challenge is Black & White & 1 bold bright, which sounds fun, I might try and do that one tonight.
Supplies:
Stamps: Season of Friendship, Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Also: Celery twill ribbon, cuttlebug Forest branches embossing folder
Glossy flowers
Posted: May 15, 2009 Filed under: Inspired by Nature 4 Comments
I think I am going to have fun with this new set (new to me, that is). I used markers to ink up the stamp and spritzed it with water before stamping it. I then decided to give it a little more definition with the markers by drawing in some petal lines and giving the lower edge of the petals a dark line. I softened the background with some sponging in Saffron, Mustard and Artichoke.
When I began I didn’t set out to make a cracked glass card but it happened any way. As you can imagine an image that size takes a lot of embossing powder so I stopped short of making a smooth surface. Probably another coating of Glossy Glaze would have done that. I decided instead to have the stippled glass look. When I had added the ribbon and the matte, it still needed something so I added the little friend tab which seems to have balanced it out.
I hope to play with this set again this weekend.
Thanks for dropping in.
Supplies:
Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Pocket Silhouettes
Inks: Versamark, So Saffron, More Mustard, Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke stamp pads and markers
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Elegant Eggplant,Confetti Cream
Also: Eggplant Grosgrain ribbon, Glossy Glaze e.p.
Butterfly thank you
Posted: May 13, 2009 Filed under: Ageless Adornment 4 Comments
Last week my daughters played in a benefit concert for the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. It was quite a big deal, and it attracted quite a bit of attention in the local medai resulting in a sell out and a wonderful fundraising result. After such an event there are always many people to thank so I designed a card which I could mass produce without too much trouble. ( I have since decided that if I want to mass produce I shouldn’t include embossing and watercolouring!)
The logo of the Royal Ottawa is a butterfly and the benefit was called Bows for Butterflies so I chose a butterfly for the card. I made them business size so individual letters could be slipped inside. As you can imagine I didn’t make them identical. All had the same butterfly stamp on the left but to keep myself from getting bored I used a different sentiment, different colours and made them on Whisper White, Very Vanilla and Watercolour cardstock. To do the watercolouring I used a blender pen dipped into the ink left on the lid of a stamp pad when the pad is pressed down.
Supplies:
Stamps: Ageless Adornment, All Year Cheer
Inks: Versamark, selection of classic stamp pads
Cardstock: Very Vanilla
Also: Gold e.p, blender pen
Happy Mother
Posted: May 10, 2009 Filed under: My Kid's cards 6 CommentsThat’s me.
Here are the lovely cards my precious children made for me. Each one says something about the child who made it. The first one was made by my 14 year old daughter.
My 12 year old daughter made the card below with the Chinese theme. She drew the little fan, decorated and cut it out.
The card below was made by my 8 year old son. It is very large, he made it with sheets of newsprint! I asked him whether he thought I might need it large so I could read it without my glasses. He answered, “No, I just couldn’t be bothered going all the way downstairs for the cardstock” !?!
Field of daisies
Posted: May 6, 2009 Filed under: Upsy Daisy 8 Comments
At last… a new card! This card was something of an experiment, because I was watercolouring the background. I love the look of watercolouring but I am far from an expert in the technique so I just play around with the colours and hope for the best. I totally covered the watercolour paper with water and then dropped drips of Brocade Blue ink in the sky area and guided them with my paint brush. I wanted dark and light areas so I removed ink in some places with paper towel and added more in other places. On the bottom two thirds I dropped Garden Green ink and kept the coverage fairly uniform. After it had dried a little I turned the Garden Green ink pad on its side and “painted” the grass.
To create the daisy feature I inked the stamp with versamark and then drew yellow centres with the So Saffron marker and stalks in Garden Green. I embossed in clear before sponging the background with Bashful Blue and Ballet Blue. I thought the hemp twine was appropriate for my country scene and added the knots so it would look a little like a fence. The left side of the card is scored so it opens like a folio. The daisies are stamped on Whisper White but the card base and the distressed matte are Confetti White.
I am so pleased you dropped in ( and pleased I finally managed to post!).
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Inks: Garden Green and Brocade Blue reinkers, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Confetti White, Watercolour paper
Also: Natural hemp twine
Popping poppies
Posted: April 28, 2009 Filed under: Poppy Patch 7 Comments
Ever since I got this beautiful poppy set I have been planning to stamp it in a single colour. Red seemed an obvious choice. I arranged my poppies across the white rectangle and then matted them but felt that I wanted something more, but only a little something. I decided to emboss the poppies on the background white in white embossing powder, a technique I saw on this beautiful card made by Jak Heath. I’m afraid I have not been able to capture the effect very well with my camera, but trust me, there are white poppies embossed at the top and bottom of the card! I added a bit of that sweet gingham ribbon and that was it, a simpler and faster treatment for the poppy patch stamps.
Thanks for dropping in.
Supplies:
Stamps: Poppy Patch (Flourishes)
Inks: Real Red, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper white, Real Red
Also: Red gingham ribbon, white embossing powder
Double Play
Posted: April 26, 2009 Filed under: Garden Whimsy 4 Comments
This is my first time playing along with the CAS challenge at Splitcoast. The challenge this week was to use the children’s bedroom sets at JC Penney’s for inspiration. I chose this set of bedding. I was part way through designing by ladybug card when I realised that I could play along with Sharon’s piping challenge at the same time. Like Sharon my sewing background goes back further than my stamping background so I often see card designs the same way I see fabric and sewing projects. Piping is a fiddly but classy touch on sewn items: I did it on cushions and bed covers occasionally, but the main area where I used it was on the smocked dresses I made for my girls.
The little lady bugs on this card remind me of some of the ‘oh so cute” outfits my girls had when they were little. I wish I had a photo of one to post but my pictures of them at that age were not digital. When I searched through the choices on the JC Penney site, the bugs jumped out at me because of the colours and the chance to do a little doodling on the card. The canvas background stamp was perfect to add a little gingham touch.
Thanks for dropping in.
Supplies:
Stamps: Garden Whimsy, Hugs & Wishes, Canvas, Itty Bitty Buds
Inks: Real Red, Basic Black, Garden Green and Black markers
Cardstock: Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black
Lego birthday
Posted: April 25, 2009 Filed under: My Kid's cards 5 Comments
My son is off to a birthday party this afternoon and this is the card he made for this friend. Whenever he makes card he tends to use the paper cutting method, cutting out all the separate components of a picture usually from his own design. He had one of his lego men in front of him when he did all the cutting for this card. And he added a little free advertising on the corner!
Heather Telford 