Analogous collage
Posted: January 15, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Berry Branch, CAS, Collage cards 22 Comments
I have another collage card today, this one with a colour scheme more common in my work but probably not as striking as the previous contrasting scheme. An analogous colour scheme is one made up of colours side by side on the colour wheel. An analogous colour scheme works well for a sympathy or get well card because it is more soothing and harmonious than a contrasting one.
To create this card I positioned a mask across the lower third of the card and stamped the branch around the edges, lifting the mask once so a twig could fall below the line. I stamped a couple of times without re-inking to get that misty background look. I partially inked the music background in grey and stamped to the right of the panel then added the blue and green sponging with a little grey on the right.
My older daughter and I were discussing the sentiment; she felt that it always seems a little odd to send a card saying “get well soon” or “feel better soon” as it sounds like a command! As if someone wouldn’t feel better if they could. I guess it is probably short for “I hope you feel better soon”. That is the meaning behind this card made for my son’s writing class teacher who has fractured her wrist.
Supplies:
Stamps: Berry Branch, Music Background, Feel Better (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento London Fog, Summer Sky, Olive Grove (Tsukineko)
Complementary collage
Posted: January 14, 2013 Filed under: Bliss, CAS, Collage cards 14 Comments
Most, if not all of the collages I have done previously have been analagous colour schemes. This one is a complementary colour scheme meaning that it uses colours opposite each other on the colour wheel. Complementary colours create more contrast and each colour promotes the other. In creating this card with red and green together you can see that my natural tendency for muted and harmonious tones influenced which red and green I chose to put together.
I started by stamping a very light impression of lace background in red where the image was darker at the bottom and hardly visible at the top. I then sponged the red from the bottom right hand corner to around the middle and the green from the opposite corner down. I stamped the flower in the same red but with some brown added on the stem. Finally I added the letter background in red to tie the whole panel together. I sliced the panel and matted it before adding the ribbon.
Tomorrow I have a collage in an analogous colour scheme, more of what you are used to from me. Thanks for dropping in. I am glad when I have inspired you to try something new and love reading your kind comments.
You probably realize this, but on the right side of my blog I have a little drop down menu that allows you to search my archives by single stamp, set, technique, tutorials, manufacturer, etc. I have just added a “collage” category and there is already a stamped landscape category. Just thought I’d mention it as it might be helpful if you are looking for something specific.
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background, Floral Thread, Gratitude, Bliss (PB)
Inks: Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Rich Cocoa and New Sprout, (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Mix & Match Coral Reef
Lemon and Lace
Posted: January 13, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Collage cards, Lace Flower, Penny Black 16 Comments
This is an unusual colour scheme for me but a happy one. Because the flower is made of lace I think it works well in white. I began the design on a rectangular piece of Penny Black Mix & Match Summer Sun cardstock by stamping the diamond design background stamp around the edge of the panel and the letter background in the middle. I then stamped the lace flower several times on in versamark ink and embossed in white embossing powder. To highlight the edges and the flowers I sponged some memento dandelion ink around the edges of the panel then sliced it into four pieces. I had a scrap left over so I punched a tag out and tied it on with embroidery floss. The four panels are popped up for a little added dimension.
I hope your day is happy and sunny.
Supplies
Stamps: Letter Background , Diamond Pattern, Lace Flower, (PB)
Ink: Memento Dandelion, Versamark (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match Summer Sun
Also: embroidery thread
Winter challenges
Posted: January 12, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Hoot of a Time, Stamped Landscapes 47 Comments
One of the challenges of winter is the warm days, like today. It may not sound hard to take but when you get rain instead of snow you get ice covering everything. And, I may be wrong, but the bitter cold seems to keep the germs at bay whereas the unseasonal thaws don’t.
But this post is really about a couple of card making challenges I am entering. The first is the current CASology challenge “winter”
and the second is CASe this Sketch #10.
I have been inspired to enter a few more challenges by Ardyth who enters several regularly and always nails each one. I think I have said it before but I actually find challenges quite, well “challenging”. It seems to me that being given the parameters for a card is a sure way for all my inspiration to disappear. I was pretty safe with the ‘winter” challenge as I never seem to tire of those winter scenes and the sketch was similar to one of my favourite layouts so I was, this time, up to the challenge. It still took me two attempts to get it right!
This branch is from a Penny Black halloween set but as far as I am concerned it can be useful all year round; I just left the bats out! I stamped the branch in black first then, using a stamp positioning tool I stamped it again in versamark a little above the black image. After embossing in clear powder I was able to sponge the sky behind and expose the snow laden branch. When I had the snow banks and sky completed, the scene really cried out for a little contrast. A few red berries would have been perfect but I didn’t want to risk wrecking it by adding them over the sponging so instead I added a few hints of pink to the sky and snow.
Enjoy your weekend.
Supplies:
Stamps: Wishes, Hoot of a Time (PB)
Inks: Memento Teal Zeal, Angel Pink,Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark(Tsukineko)
Also: clear embossing powder
Butterfly Symphony
Posted: January 9, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Butterfly Symphony, CAS, Penny Black 21 Comments
The design team at Penny Black are playing with Valentine Stamps this week; to show the versatility of the stamps we are each making a couple of cards using the same stamp. One card is celebrating love and the other is for another occasion. I created the pink toned card above by sponging a panel in pink and plum tones. The lower butterfly image is stamped with water rather than ink and the upper one a mix of ink and water. To finish I flicked water and ink droplets over the panel and the card base.
My second card is a birthday card for my daughters’ violin teacher made using layers of vellum. Because of the vellum it was very hard to photograph, hence the three perspectives to try and give you the idea. There are four layers and a card base making up this card which is rather unusual for me! The first layer is ivory cardstock stamped with the music background in black. The next three layers are all vellum each stamped with the butterfly from Butterfly Symphony, once in sepia, then black and finally gold.
Supplies
Stamps: Butterfly Symphony, Music Background, Sweet Wishes (PB)
Ink: Memento Angel Pink, Sweet Plum, Elderberry, Versafine Onyx Black and Sepia, Encore Metallic Gold (Tsukineko)
Card stock: Vellum and Mix & Match cardstock Rose Garden
Fern Fronds
Posted: January 7, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Enjoy LIfe 10 Comments
The card above was inspired by the packaging of the gift that went with it. I forgot to take a photo but you can see it here.
The packaging featured fern fronds and soft greens so I pulled out the fern stamp from the transparent “Enjoy Life” set. I masked the left and bottom edge of the panel with post-its then stamped the fern frond in several greens before sponging and popping up the whole panel on a white card base.
Supplies:
Stamps: Enjoy Life, Wishes(PB)
Inks: Memento New Sprout, Pear Tart, Bamboo Leaves, Versafine Olympia Green (Tsukineko)
Snowscape glimpse
Posted: January 4, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Christmas Park, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps 33 Comments
Sometimes a small snapshot of a scene is all that is necessary to give you the big picture. That’s why I like making stamped landscapes which are either wide and short or narrow and tall; they give you a glimpse of a larger scene.
The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays today is to make a clean and simple thank you card. I need a few thank you cards so I decided to keep it simple and enter the challenge. This card started out as a one layer card masked top and bottom with post-it notes but I stamped a simple “thank you” and got two extra black dots I hadn’t asked for. Not to worry, I sliced the stamped panel out of the card and stuck it on a white card base and proceeded to stamp the sentiment again. This time no dots, but crooked! I peeled off the snowscape panel and re-positioned it over the crooked ‘thank you” then wrote my own. The landscape was stamped in the following order:
- Position top and bottom masks then curved horizon mask
- Stamp trees in Paris dusk over the horizon.
- Re-position curved mask and stamp trees in black, emboss in clear.
- Return curved mask to horizon, add a post-it circle for the moon and sponge the sky in Summer sky and Paris dusk
- Return curved mask to lower hill position and sponge snow bank in Summer sky
- Remove curved mask and sponge lower edge in Paris dusk
My son has gone downhill skiing with a friend today for the first time. He’ll probably love it…
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park(PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Paris Dusk, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark(Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder
OLW 121 Simply Snowy
Posted: January 3, 2013 Filed under: CAS, OLW 12 Comments
Susan is hosting the first One Layer Wednesday of 2013 and the challenge is to get inspiration from the Snowy Day post on the Cake Wrecks blog. After all the snowy cards I created before Christmas I decided to use a totally different method to create some little white snowflakes on a blue background. My inspiration is the cake below. I have an EK snowflake border punch which I used to punch tiny snowy flakes out of the sticky edge of a post-it note. Once arranged across my masked panel I sponged in Memento Summer Sky ink.
Check out the inspiration link; there is a wide variety of themed cakes to choose from.
Thanks for all the lovely comments you left on my last post. It seems that many of you have also seen sunsets over snow just like the one my husband and I saw. He agreed I had captured what we had seen as we finished our skiing so I was pretty happy with that comment too!
Winter Sky
Posted: January 1, 2013 Filed under: Stamped Landscapes, Winter Sky 49 Comments
A couple of days ago my husband and I went X-Country skiing. After two big storms the woodland we skied through looked beautiful. I took a few photos but the weather was too cold to take my mitts off and fiddle with my camera for long. As we were heading back to the car the late afternoon sky was turning pink and apricot where it met the expanse of untouched snow in front of us. I took a mental picture rather than freeze my fingers and then tried to recreate it this afternoon with stamps and ink.
I masked the horizon first so I could sponge the sky in pink, yellow, grey and blue. I also dotted some grey twigs along the top of the hill. After removing the mask I partially inked the Winter sky stamp with a grey marker so I could make a little patch of brush in a hollow of snow. When the masks were removed I stamped the complete stamp in grey then black.
Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Sky, Enjoy Life (Penny Black),
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Angel Pink, Cantaloupe, London Fog, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match Papers Storm, Rosegarden
Casing Patsy Collins
Posted: December 28, 2012 Filed under: Fantasy, Penny Black 10 Comments
Edited to correct the name of the cardmaker. My apologies to Patsy Collins who is the creator of the lovely cards that inspired mine.
I have a card for you today inspired by card pinned on my Handmade Cards board. Usually I browse those cards and get a few ideas. This time I pretty much copied the card. I loved the combination of colour, text and tree image which Patsy Collins used in her cards.
I stamped the letter background first, then brayered and sponged the colours before adding the tree. Thanks Patsy for the inspiration.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fantasy, Thanks, thanks (Penny Black)
Inks : Memento Summer Sky, Danube Blue, Tangelo, Morocco, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match Papers Fall Festival
Heather Telford 