Misty Trees
Posted: April 22, 2011 Filed under: Ageless Adornment, Stamped Landscapes, Trees 7 Comments
This is my second card using the beautiful tree set from Darkroom Door stamps. I know the snow has gone but I couldn’t resist a snow scene with my new trees. I created a slightly foggy scene by using grey and blue to sponge the snow and sky.
Supplies:
Stamps: Trees (Darkroom Door), Ageless Adornment (SU)
Inks: Basic Black, Going Gray, Brocade Blue
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White, Going Gray, Brocade Blue, Basic Black
OLW 49: Green, Pink and Never Seen Ink
Posted: April 18, 2011 Filed under: Berry Branch 9 Comments
I haven’t had a chance to play along in any challenges lately as we have been very busy with violin related activities. Both my girls competed in the local Kiwanis Music Festival last week. On Saturday most of their ensemble came to our place to make truffles for a fundraiser. We rolled 2000 truffles in 2 hours and then they all left to play at a concert Saturday night. When Sunday afternoon arrived I took a little time to play with a new stamp from Penny Black. It was the perfect stamp to use with Pink and Green as Jennifer challenged in the One Layer Wednesday challenge this week.
I inked the whole stamp with Pretty in Pink then added Old Olive to the branches and twigs with a marker. I used a mask and sponging to create the bottom left corner. It shouldn’t be too long before I see blossoms like this on some of my trees.
Supplies:
Stamps: Berry Branch (Penny Black), Eastern Influences (SU)
Inks: Old Olive, Pretty in Pink
Cardstock: SU Confetti White
Through the Darkroom Door
Posted: April 12, 2011 Filed under: Darkroom Door, Stamped Landscapes, Trees 9 Comments
Browsing through the Clean and Simple gallery at Splitcoast one day I came across a beautiful card featuring some lovely floral stamps I had never seen before. I did a little searching and discovered a company selling very original and artistic stamps which I knew I just had to have. The company is Darkroom Door and is based in Australia. After some serious analysis I narrowed my first order down to three stamp sets and waited impatiently for them to arrive. It was after placing my order I noticed that Darkroom Door is five minutes away from where my brother lives. So I guess I know what I’ll be telling my family I’d like for Christmas!
The first set I cracked open was the tree set, hardly surprising for me. I decided to try a spring scene to match what I see outside these days. My daughter said it looked like an orchard so, an orchard it is, at sunrise with the mist rising and a golden tinge spreading across the hills. There are four trees in the set but I repeated only one for this card, using close to cocoa for the trees at the back and chocolate chip for the foreground.
Supplies:
Stamps: Trees (Darkroom Door)
Inks: Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Summer Sun, Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip
Also: Natural Cotton twine
A little more texture
Posted: April 6, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Of the Earth 11 Comments
I haven’t had any time to stamp lately but I made this card a couple of weeks back when I was playing with the technique of laying the cardstock on the ink pad then rolling the brayer across it to pick up the texture of the fabric. The green panel with white flowers was done this way on a Certainly Celery ink pad after embossing the flowers in clear.
The background strip was made using one mask at the bottom. I stamped the flower repeatedly without re-inking the stamp then added a little sponging at the bottom.
I hope to be stamping again this weekend, especially as a stamp filled package arrived in the mail today!
Supplies:
Stamps: Of the Earth, Teensy Tiny Wishes
Inks: Certainly Celery, Versamark
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
Also: Clear e.p.
Casing the CAS (once more)
Posted: March 31, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Garden silhouettes 12 Comments
I delved into the CAS favorites thread at Splitcoast again for inspiration before making this card. I came across this lovely sponged panel card and wanted to create something just like it. I prefer Andrea’s beautiful scene with grasses to my silhouetted blossoms but I enjoyed creating something with a sponged panel over a sponged panel; most of my sponged cards lately have been one layer.
I masked the card base to create the horizontal panel, which I embossed in black then sponged in pretty in pink, almost amethyst and going gray. I then created a vertical image panel which I matted in black and popped up on the card base.
Supplies:
Stamps: Garden Silhouettes (SU), Taglines (Flourishes)
Inks: Versamark, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst, Going Grey
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White, Basic Black
Also: Black e.p.
OLW 46 Eggs
Posted: March 28, 2011 Filed under: Ageless Adornment, CAS 19 Comments
When I saw that Susan had picked eggs as the feature element for her One Layer Wednesday challenge this week, I knew I would have to think a little outside the box because I don’t own any egg stamps. I settled on cutting an oval mask so I could sponge or colour my eggs. My first thought was to cover them in designs which would make them look a bit like Ukrainian easter eggs but in the end I went for the natural look. I know eggs are not really oval shaped, but I decided it’s close enough. I sponged the eggs and added the flecks with a marker.
Supplies:
Stamps: Ageless Adornment
Inks: Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Tempting Turquoise, Going Gray, Chocolate Chip.
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white
Playing with texture
Posted: March 23, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Infinite Goodness 7 Comments
Creating my floral panel was a little like designing a piece of fabric. I started by stamping the flowers in versamark and embossing in clear. Then I added pink by using a direct to paper technique. I wanted to create a little texture in my background so I laid the cardstock on the stamp pad and rolled over the top with my brayer. The fabric of the stamp pad as well as the edges showed up on the cardstock. It was very patchy coverage so I added sponging in many places otherwise the embossed flowers would not have been prominent enough.
The panel was still a bit empty so I randomly added pink flowers. There was still something missing so I stamped some more flowers in black. After adding a black mat I was happy with the way the flowers popped, both the black and the white. So this was definitely one of those cards that evolved.
Thanks for dropping by; I’ll have another card featuring the same texture technique later in the week.
Supplies:
Stamps: Infinite Goodness, Hugs and Wishes
Inks: Basic Black, Pixie Pink, Versamark
Cardstock: Basic Black, Pixie Pink, Flourishes classic white
Also: Clear e.p.
Monochrome and Masculine
Posted: March 19, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Lovely as a Tree, Stamped Landscapes 50 Comments
The challenge at Less is More this week is to make a masculine card. I certainly don’t have many masculine cards in my stash so it will come in handy. There are not many masculine stamps in my collection either, most were bought with my son and his friends in mind: the extreme sports stamps from Stampin’ Up. Rather than be extreme I pulled out the ever faithful “Lovely as a Tree set” and created a foggy hillside scene.
I worked on a piece of cardstock larger than the finished panel so I could crop it to the most appealing view. I used chocolate chip ink for the whole panel, stamping the foreground trees first then adding a mask, stamping again, sponging, then moving the mask and repeating the pattern until I was stamping the final pale trees in the distance.
So my clean and simple does not include “white space” this time but plenty of empty unstamped space surrounding my image panel. The matted panel is popped up over the textured card base.
Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, textured and flat
Card makeover 1
Posted: March 17, 2011 Filed under: CAS, With Gratitude 10 Comments
I mentioned in the last couple of posts that I had cast several cards aside because they didn’t work for some reason. They did not, however end up in the garbage, I photographed them and put them in the makeover pile as there was something in them worth saving.
The card above is the made over card. The card below is the rejected one. It was the reject that I was happiest with, the one that almost made the cut as it was, but it had a few issues. One was the badly stamped sentiment and the other was the edge of the sponging. I wish I had softly diminished the sponging instead of using a mask to create a line.
In the makeover I just used the leaf panel, sliced into three and popped up. Slicing is a very helpful technique to apply when making over a card. I was going to use a white card base but, inspired by Susan Raihala’s commitment to use up more of her coloured cardstock, I reached for a coloured card instead. I definitely do have plenty of coloured cardstock lounging around.
That is the first of the makeovers, the others will be harder to do as the rejects were not as pretty as this one!
Supplies:
Stamps: With Gratitude, Simple Sayings 2 (SU)
Inks: Versamark, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White, Certainly Celery
Also: White e.p.
Less is More challenge 6: Off the Edge
Posted: March 15, 2011 Filed under: CAS, With Gratitude 16 Comments
The challenge at Less is More this week is a One Layer Card which includes stamping off the edge. I often stamp off the edge of my cards so you would think I could whip one of these out quickly. Sadly it took three attempts before I had something I was happy with. I have a growing pile of “blunders” that I have to turn into something attractive.
I masked with post-it notes leaving a long thin panel to stamp on. Before sponging I stamped the leaf four times, some without reinking. Then I sponged in four colours and removed the masks. I added the sentiment and three more leaves to complete the card. Who knows why I am stamping fall colours just as spring is appearing?
Supplies:
Stamps: With Gratitude, Thoughts & Prayers (SU)
Inks: Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Heather Telford 