CAS 83 Sketch challenge
Posted: September 9, 2010 Filed under: CAS, Lovely as a Tree, Stamped Landscapes 6 Comments
This week’s CAS challenge at Splitcoast is to make a card using this sketch. I decided to make a one layer card sponging my design through a mask. I realize I am in a bit of a rut as far as sponging and masking is concerned but I keep on thinking of different approaches to it.
I made my window mask by punching squares out of post it notes and lining them up to give me a window. My sky and the hills were sponged in using a torn paper mask and the background trees were stamped while the lower mask was still in place. That is all there is to it.
Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Brocade Blue, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Also: Post-it notes
Casing the CAS (again)
Posted: September 6, 2010 Filed under: CAS, With Gratitude 3 CommentsOnce again the CAS favourites thread at Splitcoast provided me with an abundance of inspiration yesterday afternoon. The first one I CASEd was a bright happy card by Wanda Cullen. I used her layout and some of her techniques but went with a different theme and colour scheme.
I embossed the bottom of the card using my cuttlebug, then masked and sponged the top area with Really Rust, Ruby Red and Rose Red. I stamped and restamped the leaves using the same three colours before hunting through my ribbon for a co-ordinating colour. I’m not sure what it is, it was from a sample pack and isn’t in the SU line up anymore. I stamped my little sentiment, punched it, inked the edge and then adhered it over the ribbon with stampin’ dimensionals.
That’s all for now, school starts tomorrow so my stamping and blogging time is going to be somewhat diminished.
Supplies:
Stamps: With Gratitude, Teensy Tiny Wishes
Inks: Rose Red, Ruby Red, Real Rust
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Also: grosgrain ribbon, Forest branches embossing folder
Year round friendship
Posted: September 2, 2010 Filed under: Lovely as a Tree, Stamped Landscapes 20 Comments
This is my card for Speedy the Cat’s Friend’s challenge#18 which is to make a “friendship” themed card. Susan Raihala’s One Layer Wednesday challenge is to make a tree card this week so this card is also perfect for that. Trees are easily my favourite image to stamp and my favourite stamps to buy, so thanks Susan for this weeks challenge.
I designed this card in my head while swimming laps, I often do this, it makes the time pass more quickly! Of course designing something in your head is no guarantee that it will work but I’m happy to say this one did. As you can see below I created a four season scene across the inside of the card. I masked off the area I was going to use and sponged the sky. I then roughly divided it in quarters, sponged in the three season colours and left winter white, just adding a few smudges of blue. I stamped the trees from Lovely as a Tree twice across the bottom as the card is 7 ¾” long. The colours on the trees are done with markers plus a little sponging with the end of a Q-tip. The final step was the hardest: punching the squares in the right place. I did a rough try on paper and then did a bunch of calculations to get it exact, which it isn’t , but I decided the error was not worth worrying about.
To finish it off I added the sentiment and balanced it out with the black twine. I had to scan rather than photograph as you can’t really get the effect of the scene through the punched squares if the card is sitting open.
Thanks for dropping by today.
Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Season of Friendship
Inks: Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Garden Green, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
Also: Markers
OLW 17 Border Stamps
Posted: August 29, 2010 Filed under: CAS, Rollers 3 Comments
Susan’s One Layer Wednesday challenge this week is to use a border stamp. Rollers are all I really have in the way of border stamps and I tend to forget them most of the time. I decided to pull out this one and my watercolour pencils, which have also been neglected of late. There is not much to explain really; I inked in black, coloured and then blended with a blender pen.
When the stamping and colouring was done I asked my younger daughter for input regarding ribbon. The choices I gave her were black gingham or red gingham. She didn’t really like either so suggested green, one of her favourite colours. Turns out she was spot on.
Supplies:
Stamps: Time for a Tree, Short & Sweet
Inks: Basic Black
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
Also: Faber-Castell Watercolour pencils, Apple Green grosgrain ribbon
Signs of Autumn
Posted: August 27, 2010 Filed under: Branch Out, Stamped Landscapes 10 Comments
Although we are still in summer, there are definitely signs of autumn already. So, I think this card for a friend having a birthday today will still be appropriate. The nights are cooler and the colours are beginning to change. This one is another for the Friends of Speedy the Cat’s Fall/Harvest Challenge. Do you like my new watermark? I carefully followed the tutorial on Vicki Dutcher’s blog and there it is. My husband did show me how to do it a few years ago but as I didn’t go over it straight away I did not remember the process.
This card was another one inspired by the art magazine I picked up. The artist is Michel LeRoux and his woodland scenes are beautiful, especially those with some fall colours. As he creates movement, light and darkness with dabs of paint I thought the leaves stamp from Branch Out might do a similar thing. I started by colouring directly onto the tree stamp but only inking parts of it so that the branches would peep out through the leaves. I repeated this several times and then started inking the leaves stamp for repeated impressions. After there was a lot of colour on the card I used the choc chip marker to lengthen some of the branches and create a few extras.
Thanks for dropping in, have a great weekend.
Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Chocolate Chip,Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Almost Amethyst, Old Olive, Apricot Appeal, So Saffron
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Flourishes Classic Ivory
Birds in a row
Posted: August 21, 2010 Filed under: Of the Earth 6 Comments
I dropped into a newspaper and magazines store a few weeks ago to look for a papercraft magazine. I don’t have a subscription anymore so I thought I would treat myself during the summer. There were no papercraft or card magazines at all so I started browsing through some of the painting magazines. I ended up buying a magazine from Quebec which contained mainly articles written in French. Even though I don’t speak French the magazine was full of inspiration both for painting (I teach an art class to 10-15 year olds) and stamping. I saw ideas for colour combinations, layouts and content.
This card was inspired by a couple of paintings by Noriko Imaï . I used the brayer to create the background, inking it up with more than one ink at a time. As you can see I wasn’t aiming for complete or even coverage, I wanted texture and colour. I stamped the birds in versamark, then embossed in white before adding colour with markers. I dragged the markers across the three images randomly applying mustard, turquoise and green.
The bird strip is popped up a little and the “just for you” tab had to be distressed so it would blend in. The look is a little different to my usual creations but I think it works.
Supplies:
Stamps: Of the Earth, Teensy Tiny Wishes
Inks: Tempting Turquoise, More Mustard, Garden Green, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, More Mustard
Also: White e.p.
Thanksgiving leaves
Posted: August 19, 2010 Filed under: CAS, With Gratitude 16 Comments
I have been thrilled and amazed at all the encouraging comments I have received about yesterday’s OLW 16 Scene card. I was very happy with it but had no idea it would appeal to so many people. Thank you for your kind words. I mentioned at the end of that post that I would try the same technique again but with some autumn colours. Well here it is; not a scene this time but the same process. I masked off my panel, sponged in three colours, stamped the leaves in the same colours and then removed the masks before stamping the bold brown leaf and sentiment.
Those who have regularly drop in here might have noticed the layout has changed. I decided I wanted to try a new theme. All the elements are still here just moved around a little. Just click on the Bits & Pieces title at left to go to the full blog.
PS. I have just been looking at the Speedy the Cat’s Friends Challenge over at Mark’s Finest Papers and I think this card fits the Harvest Theme so I will link it. I have another idea forming in my imagination so check back later in the week.
Supplies:
Stamps: With Gratitude, Teensy Tiny Wishes
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Ruby Red, Real Rust
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
OLW 16 Stamp a Scene
Posted: August 18, 2010 Filed under: CAS, Lovely as a Tree, Stamped Landscapes 44 Comments
Susan’s One Layer Wednesday challenge this week is to Stamp a Scene. You can use a stamp of a scene or make your own.
I have made my own, using a technique I often turn to. I create a background with sponging and then start stamping the far off elements in lighter colours, the middle ground elements in slightly darker colours and foreground larger elements in black. To make this scene I masked off a panel on the card first using post it notes and then began sponging. After sponging three colours one under the other I stamped the trees in Mellow Moss and then Always Artichoke before removing the post it notes. I finished by stamping the trees in black and adding a sentiment.
I think I might try another one using this technique, perhaps with autumn colours. (I have made a new one with autumn leaves here.) Thanks for dropping in today.
Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Basic Black, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White
OLW 15 Unexpected Colours
Posted: August 17, 2010 Filed under: CAS, Snowflakes 1 Comment
Susan’s latest One Layer Wednesday challenge is to use an unexpected color scheme for a card. It doesn’t get much more unexpected than making pink snowflake Christmas cards. I didn’t really want to make pink Christmas cards, it just didn’t sit right with me! But I persevered and think I might even know who I’ll give these pink cards to. My camera didn’t really pick it up but both cards are embossed with iridescent ice e.p. for a little snowy sparkle.
Supplies:
Stamps: Snowflakes
Inks: Versamark, Pink Passion, White Craft
Cardstock: Whisper white, Pink Passion
Also: Iridescent Ice e.p.
The dragonfly tale
Posted: August 12, 2010 Filed under: CAS, Infinite Goodness 3 Comments
I mentioned earlier in the week that I had a set of dragonfly cards to share. I have five in total but I only set out to make one. The one above. The fact is that the one above ended up being the fourth one I made as things didn’t always work as I wanted them to.
So keeping in mind that I was aiming for that one above you can probably see how I made the one below. I had my dragonflies stamped in silver on my brayered cardstock. I had also added the eggplant dragonflies on the natural cardstock but something wasn’t working so I took my punch and extracted a few squares and created the layout below. It was then that I decided to be a little more methodical in my approach as it can be tricky to line up an image on a top layer and a layer underneath.
I brayered Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal and Sage Shadow on a piece of white cardstock so that I had plenty of background colour to work on. For the top card I cut a strip and stamped the dragonflies in silver encore ink and embossed them in silver ep. It worked much better when I made sure the brayered colour was entirely dry and was not going to pick up any of the embossing powder. I then lay my coloured strip with dragonflies on the Natural card base and used a stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the eggplant dragonflies.
To make the one above and the one below I punched the squares out of the brayered cardstock and used classic CAS layouts.
Finally,I wanted one more card but my brayered cardstock was punched full of holes so I created a one layer card and instead of brayering the colour I sponged it using a mask punched out of post it note.
Thanks so much for scrolling through the whole dragonfly tale, once again I’m glad I didn’t give up when the first idea didn’t work as planned.
Supplies:
Stamps: Infinite Goodness, Graceful Words, Upsy Daisy, Best Yet, Simple Sayings 2, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Inks: Taken with Teal, Elegant Eggplant, Sage Shadow, Encore silver
Cardstock: Naturals White, Whisper White
Also: Silver e.p
Heather Telford 