OLW 44 Marta’s Pinterest Inspires
Posted: March 14, 2011 Filed under: CAS 14 Comments
Many thanks to Susan at Simplicity for introducing me to Marta’s fabulous pinboards. Pinterest is a site where people catalog the things they love by “pinning” them on boards. Susan directed us to Marta’s boards so that we could find inspiration for this week’s One Layer Wednesday challenge.
I chose two inspiring boards. I’m not sure if that is bending the rules, but it ended up working for me, which is more than I can say for some of my cardmaking lately! I chose the pictures below.
I created the whole card without stamping which was not my initial intention. I wanted a funky font like the one on the mug so I scanned through the fonts on my computer and chose joehand2 which I printed onto white cardstock. The white mug is beautiful as it is, but my card was lacking a little with just the words happy birthday so I created my own yarn wrap with markers. This part was fun as I pulled out one Stampin’ Up marker after another and drew lines from bottom to top over the torn mask I had covering the words. I ended up using 52 markers and did not repeat a single colour.
Check out the other nifty cards linked on Susan’s blog.
Supplies:
Computer Font: Joehand2
Inks: 52 Stampin’ Up Markers
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
Green silhouettes
Posted: March 10, 2011 Filed under: Garden silhouettes 18 Comments
I decided to play around with some greens to create this card. To me it has a bit of a misty rainforest look.
I created the stamped panel first on certainly celery cardstock as follows:
- flick masking fluid around
- stamp branch in versamark
- stamp branch in artichoke
- emboss in clear
- brayer celery ink over whole panel
- brayer artichoke ink on left side of panel
- remove masking fluid
Although I didn’t used black on the stamped panel, black looked better than artichoke for framing the panel.
Edited to add: Several people asked about Masking fluid. It is a liquid you will find in the paint section of the art store. You use it to paint in the areas of a painting that you want free of paint, such as white highlights. When you have finished applying the surround paint you peel off the masking fluid and the paper underneath is untouched. I bought it to use when watercolour painting but it is very handy with stamping as well
Thanks for dropping in today.
Supplies:
Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, All Year Cheer (SU)
Inks: Versamark, Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Basic Black
Also: Clear e.p. Masking fluid(Windsor & Newton)
Pastel Panels
Posted: March 8, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Cuttlebug 22 Comments
The current challenge from Mandi and Chrissie at Less is More is to use pastel colours. I tried three different designs before settling on the one above. The totally pastel colour scheme gave me trouble, but that’s part of the challenge isn’t it? I have set aside the other attempts to transform into something else when inspiration hits.
I cut my cuttlebug panel in three strips and sponged in celery, amethyst and pretty in pink. I popped up the strips before adding some gingham ribbon and a little oval tag.
Supplies:
Stamps: Teensy Tiny Wishes (SU)
Inks: Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Almost Amethyst
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic white
Also: Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls folder, pink gingham ribbon
OLW 43 Shimmer
Posted: March 6, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Rollers 7 Comments
Susan’s challenge on Simplicity this week was to add a little shimmer. Once again this was indeed a challenge to me. I rarely add shimmer and could only think of one product I had which would provide any shimmer: some pearl ex powders from SU. I have hardly used them and have forgotten the techniques I once tried.
To make the top card I flicked around a bit of masking fluid first then rolled the dragonflies with versamark before brayering celery and bordering blue over the top of that. I shook pearl ex powder onto the coloured panel and it stuck to the versamark but also lightly to the rest of the area. You can see a bit of shimmer at either edge of the card but the string of shimmery dragonflies actually goes right across the card.
The card below was done in a similar order but I embossed a string of dragonflies first. After that I added a string in versamark and pearl ex and a few coming off onto the ivory cardbase.
All in all it was a fairly experimental exercise which is half the fun of challenges. As others have said in their posts there is a lot more shimmer to be seen in real life but there are glimpses in the photos.
Supplies:
Stamps: Dragonfly roller, Paint Prings, Simple Sayings 2 (all SU)
Inks: Versamark, Certainly Celery, Bordering Blue
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Also: clear e.p., Pearl Ex powder
OLW 42 I’ve got the music
Posted: February 27, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Rollers 51 Comments
Jennifer gave us a musical challenge this week for One Layer Wednesday while Mandi and Chrissie at Less is More sent out a three square challenge. I don’t often combine challenges as that makes them all the more challenging but I had a picture in my mind as to how these two themes might work together.
For the music theme I wanted to create the feel of an aged piece of sheet music and combine it with the warm colours of the wood of a violin. Both my girls have lovely violins; one is over 100 years old and the wood is a warm muted colour, the other is under 10 years old and is a darker, shinier finish. I knew when creating this card I would have to get the musical elements right or they would tell me so.
I cut three 1½” squares out of a post-it note mask and used the SU roller “Music Notes” to fill all three squares. I didn’t re-ink it as I wanted the faded look. I then sponged in close to cocoa and ruby red before stamping my little violin stamp in the same colours. I coloured the violins with watercolour pencils and blended them with water, flicking a little around at the same time to add to the aged look. The treble and bass clefs and the sharp and flat were drawn with black watercolour pencil.
Supplies
Stamps: Music Notes roller(SU), Fiddle(Parlour Victorian Atlantic Canada), Thank You Kindly(SU)
Inks: Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa
Paper: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Also: FaberCastell Watercolour pencils
Three panel daisies
Posted: February 26, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Upsy Daisy 5 Comments
Here is another spring inspired card using the daisy silhouette stamp from Stampin Up. I clear embossed the daisies then brayered the whole panel with summer sun and and pumpkin pie. Before splitting the panel into three I stamped and restamped the daisy stamp in pumpkin pie. Each panel is popped up on stampin’ dimensionals.
I did try a couple of sentiments both on scraps and on the bottom of the card. None of them added to the design so I sliced the bottom off and left it without any text. This is the first card I have photographed with the new camera, I am not convinced my settings were the best but I will keep learning, practising and posting. I have high hopes. What is great is that the colour is exactly what is on the card.
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy (SU)
Inks: Versamark, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
Also: clear e.p.
50th Wedding Anniversary
Posted: February 25, 2011 Filed under: Poppy Patch 6 Comments
My parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend in Canberra with family and friends. Sadly my family will not be there but we managed to get a parcel together containing cards and other handmade items. It reached them a few days ago so now I can post the card I made.
It was quite a departure for me to make a card like this after making so many one layer cards lately. I embossed the poppies in gold, coloured with SU ink and an aqua painter, then sponged the pale blue background. It is not really visible (perhaps my new camera might have captured it better??) but I also embossed poppies in white around the left-hand and bottom edge of the large white panel.
When I was speaking to my mother yesterday she mentioned the card my dad made her. After she described it to me I asked if they could perhaps send me a picture so I could display it on the blog. My dad printed a photo from before they were married, added a sentence on the front and wrote a poem for the inside. I think it is superb.
I got a Nikon camera…
Posted: February 24, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 3 Comments
I’d love to take a photograph.
(Name that song!)
It happens to be my birthday and my sweet husband bought me this very camera. I was equally thrilled and astounded. Now that I have a new and way fancier camera, I also have a manual to read.
Stay tuned…
Less is more challenge 3
Posted: February 23, 2011 Filed under: CAS, In Full Bloom 21 Comments
The third challenge from Mandi and Chrissie at the Less is More challenge blog is to make a clean and simple card with a spring theme. We have been having a few spring-like days around here but I am not convinced that winter is finished with us.
I pulled out a stamp set that I rarely use and applied a technique I often use: masking. I masked a rectangle area and stamped the flower and leaf stamps several times always overlapping the mask edges. I then used my new Faber-Castell coloured pencils to colour. After removing the masks I drew double broken borders with a black fine tipped marker and added the sentiment. The card base is white but has taken on a bit of a pink tinge in the photo.
Supplies:
Stamps: In Full Bloom, Simple Sayings
Inks: Basic Black
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
Also: Prismacolor premier fine line marker, Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils
OWL 41 It’s Christmas…
Posted: February 21, 2011 Filed under: All That Glitters, CAS, Holiday Sampler 9 Comments
Susan threw out a challenge this week to create a one layer Christmas card on white or cream using only green and red. I am certainly not in Christmas card mode, but it doesn’t hurt to start early. This one was finished before I realized I hadn’t checked if natural flecked cardstock was allowed in the challenge. Natural is indeed permitted so here is my masked and slightly sponged panel card. Before stamping and sponging I flicked masking fluid on the panel. Masking fluid is used by painters to mask areas they want to preserve as white while they are painting the rest of the painting. You paint (or flick) it on and when you’re finished you peel it off to reveal white spaces.
Not too much of a stretch from my usual but I did put the sentiment on top of the panel for a change. Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies:
Stamps: All that Glitters(Flourishes), Hugs and Wishes( SU)
Inks: Mellow Moss, Real Red, Always Artichoke (all SU)
Cardstock: SU Natural white cardstock
Heather Telford 