Last minute tags
Posted: December 27, 2011 Filed under: Baroque Motifs 7 Comments
These are my last minute tags, inspired by, but nowhere near as gorgeous as, the ones featured here.
Supplies:
Stamps: Baroque motifs, PSX pine bough, Embassy arts trees
Inks: Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green
Cardstock: confetti white, confetti cream
Just one word
Posted: December 26, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Designer Paper 15 Comments
I need a few more cards on Christmas Eve so I pulled out a new punch and created a wreath from designer paper. The original card featured a two word sentiment but it worked just fine with one word too so I will enter it into this week’s Less is More challenge to use just one word.
I made some last minute tags which I post soon too. Have a relaxing day.
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Music (flourishes)
Inks: Riding hood red
Cardstock: Flourishes classic ivory
Also: Merry Moments D.P. , red twine, Recollections leaf punch
Those snow scenes I love to do…
Posted: December 22, 2011 Filed under: Branch Out, CAS, Stamped Landscapes 12 Comments
A couple of posts ago I featured a snow scene I did for the Less is More snow challenge. I love creating snow scenes but that one I entered in the challenge was not the first one I did that day. It was the fourth. The first three are featured in this post. All of them are ok, but they were not quite what I was after. Snow scenes can be a little tricky at times. In the one above you will see I managed a strange yellowy tinge in the sky; wrong sponge I think.
In the one below the tiny words in the sentiment are a little hard to read and the shadow on that tree? Well, it is hardly a shadow; I could have planned that a little better.
The card below suffered from a restamping of the foreground tree which didn’t really match up; I must have moved the positioning tool. To salvage it I used an embossing pen to draw snow on the branches but it is still a bit messy.
All that to say: sometimes it takes a few attempts before I come up with the scene I am after, but those attempts can often be used, as is, or with a little creative alteration.
Enjoy your day, still no snow here, but now we have plenty of ice!
Supplies:
Stamps: Many Merry Messages, Branch out,
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Taken with Teal, Bashful Blue, Versamark, Basic Black
Cardstock: MFP Snow Storm Smooth Heavy
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, white e.p.
Less is More Music
Posted: December 17, 2011 Filed under: All That Glitters 26 Comments
This week at Less is More it’s a music challenge. With all the music going on around our house I am always happy to come up with a music themed card, especially at Christmas.
I used my old faithful technique for this card: masking and sponging, but with stamping, colouring and drawing thrown in. First I rolled the music notes in sahara sand and sponged around them. Next I added the pine branches and sponged around them too. Finally I stamped three little Christmas balls, coloured them with coloured pencils and gold pen then added their strings.
I just did a count and I only have ten Christmas cards made! How can this be? I guess I might scrape through because there are 12 days of Christmas after all!
Supplies
Stamps: Christmas Music, All that Glitters (Flourishes)
Inks: Sahara Sand, Garden Green, Old Olive, Basic Black
Paper: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Also: FaberCastell Polychromos Pencils, Gold smooch, Black fineliner
Delighted
Posted: December 16, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Holiday Sampler, Many Merry Messages 5 Comments
Here is another card inspired by a very creative artist. I am always impressed when I visit Sarita’s blog by how elegant her cards are. Her cards often feature gorgeous flourishes, flowers or fireworks but one day I dropped in to find some delightfully whimsical creations featuring coloured lights.
My card is a pretty close copy of Sarita’s clean and simple creation. I coloured the lights with markers and drew the cord after stamping.
Still no sign of snow here but I hope to be back with some snowy Christmas cards soon. Thanks for all your kind comments, I am happy you dropped by.
Supplies:
Stamps: Holdiay Sampler, Many Merry Messages
Inks: Bashful Blue, Only Orange, Rose Red, Gable Green, Yoyo Yellow and Black markers
Cardstock: MFP Snow Storm Smooth Heavy
Less is More Snow
Posted: December 11, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Stamped Landscapes 41 Comments
This week the challenge on the Less is More blog is a One Layer Card featuring snow. I love doing snow scenes and have been looking for a window of opportunity to do one or two.
I started by masking the top and bottom of the card base to leave a panel where I could brayer the sky. I also added a moon mask. To create falling snow I flicked masking fluid all over the card base and let it dry. I then brayered Taken with Teal ink over the panel, working from right to left so it would be lighter around the moon. After I removed the masks I used a wavy hill mask to sponge in some snow drifts and stamp some clumps of trees.
Still nowhere near this amount of snow around here, but there are two weeks before Christmas so it could still be white. Thanks for dropping in, I hope you have a great week.
Supplies:
Stamps: Wondrous Gift, a little tree stamp from Embassy Arts
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Taken with Teal
Cardstock: MFP Snow Storm Smooth Heavy
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
A green Christmas
Posted: December 10, 2011 Filed under: All That Glitters, Designer Paper 6 CommentsI know it is well past time you saw a Christmas card on this blog. Sadly I have very few made. Here a couple inspired by two fabulous card makers.
I made these two cards a little while ago after several weeks of no card making. Sometimes when I have had a break from stamping I need someone else’s ideas to inspire me. The card above was inspired by one I saw in Sharon Johnson’s 12 Days of a CAS Christmas. Sharon’s cards are so elegant and refined. My tree is cut out of scraps, layered and popped up.
The card below was inspired by a lovely Christmas card Susan Roberts designed. Susan is such a clever stamper who amazes me by trying and mastering so many different techniques and styles. My pine cone is trimmed closely and popped up.
Supplies:
Stamps: Many Merry Messages (SU), All that Glitters (Flourishes)
Inks: Flourishes Classic Ivory , Merry Moments d.p. (SU)
Cardstock: Snow Storm cardstock (MFP), Merry Moments d.p., Old Olive (SU)
Also: Gold cord (SU), Gold trimmed cream organza ribbon
Seashells
Posted: December 3, 2011 Filed under: CAS 9 Comments
I made this card quite some time ago and posted it to my dad who has been undergoing cancer treatment. I didn’t send the card alone; it was part of a package of bits and pieces that I thought my parents would like. To keep the cost down I sent the package by surface mail, thinking that it might take 6 weeks perhaps. My parents received it a few days ago, 10 weeks after I posted it. As my dad reads this blog I wanted to post him a card he hadn’t already seen. There was a card for my mother in there too but it has been so long that I can’t remember which one it was!
The news has been good since I sent that card, the last two cycles of my father’s chemotherapy have been cancelled because of the success of the treatments he has had since August. He will start a new type of treatment in February.
My parents live in Australia as I did for the first 35 years of my life and the weather is warming up for them. So although a card with seashells on it might seem out of place for those of us seeing snow outside, it is not for Aussies looking forward to their summer holidays.
Supplies:
Stamps: Shells(Stampworld), Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU)
Inks: Summer Sun, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pie
Cardstock: Whisper White
Less is More Leaves
Posted: November 13, 2011 Filed under: CAS, With Gratitude | Tags: Stampin Up 35 Comments
When I saw that the challenge at Less is More was “leaves” and one layer, two favourites for me, I was very hopeful that I would find time to participate. Although I am surrounded by leaves of yellow, orange and brown I decided to stamp silver leaves because I have noticed lately a few silver birch trees around the place looking really silver when the wind is blowing their leaves. I chose to use silver, blue and grey for my leaves card instead.
I stamped the birch leaf in versamark and embossed in silver before sponging in blue and grey. I then added more leaves in grey, some double stamped to get a fainter image. The silver does look pretty but the photo doesn’t show it quite as well as I’d wished.
Thanks for dropping by today. Thank you to all the new subscribers and followers as well as the faithful readers who have been dropping in hoping to see something new here. I know it has been a while between posts but I have been busy with a different artistic project. I have been doing a printmaking unit with my small art class; if you are interested in seeing our marbling and linoprinting you can see it on my other blog.
Supplies:
Stamps: With Gratitude, Ageless Adornment (SU)
Inks: Going Grey, Bashful Blue, Versamark
Cardstock: Mark’s Finest Papers Snow Storm Smooth Heavy
Also: Sterling Silver e.p.
Bold Bright Birthday
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Extreme Skateboard 16 Comments
Today is my son’s 11th birthday so yesterday I pulled out the same set I pull out to make his card most years. I really don’t have many “boy” stamps so the extreme skater, surfer and biker are featured on most of the cards I have made for my son or his friends.
I punched a few stars out of a post-it note creating a stencil to sponge through in turquoise, brilliant blue, only orange and yoyo yellow. I was a Stampin’ Up demonstrator when there were four colour families plus the neutrals so I still think in terms of bold brights, rich regals, etc. My cardstock and stamp pads are still organized that way too as I do not own all the new colours or have a handle on the new “families” As you can see from this card the bold brights still work fine together. I stamped the skater in versafine and then restamped slightly to the left several times to create the effect of movement. To complete the card I sponged the perimeter of the white panel, matted in blue before attaching to an orange card base along with the three punched popped up stars.
It is a little different to most cards I make and post here, but a little variety now and again is good for me.
Supplies:
Stamps: Extreme Skateboard, Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU)
Inks: Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow, Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock: Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, Only Orange
Also: Star Punch
Heather Telford 