Gum blossoms blue

Posted: September 1, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Bloom Away | 4 Comments

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When I received my new Bloom Away set from the Australian catalog, I stamped each image in black and then looked up the colours of the flowers to try watercolouring them as realistically as possible.  This is the first image I did after searching online for my colours and finding this painting.   I should have looked even closer to home as there was a beautiful picture that my dad had taken and included in a calendar he made and sent us last year.

After I had finished the colouring I wasn’t sure what I wanted in the background and tried several arrangements of blue blossoms before deciding to fill in the entire background.   On one hand it seems a bit busy, on the other I feel like I just made my own patterned paper.

Supplies:

Stamps: Bloom Away
Inks: Basic Black, Not quite Navy
Cardstock: Not quite Navy, Whisper White
Also:  Faber-Castell watercolour pencils

1 set, 1 colour scheme: 2 ways

Posted: August 23, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: CAS, Of the Earth | 9 Comments

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I played with the new hostess set, Of the Earth, the other day.  It has three pretty picture stamps and a quote.  I decided against the quote and chose “thinking of you” sentiments instead.  The colour scheme I used is a calm one so I wanted the words to be restful as well.

I used Rose Red, Mellow Moss and Bashful Blue on both cards.  The little bird stamp is easy to punch out with the 1¼” square punch, but the rectangular pieces I cut before stamping to make sure they were identical.  All the images are popped up on stampin’ dimensionals.

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Thanks for dropping in today.

Supplies:

Stamps: Of the Earth, Thoughts and Prayers, All Year Cheer
Inks:  Mellow Moss, Rose Red, Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Whisper White
Also:  Stampin’ dimensionals, square punch

Bloom Away

Posted: August 16, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Bloom Away, CAS | 12 Comments

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My parents arrived from Australia a week or so ago, with this stamp set.  It is an SU set but I don’t imagine it will ever appear in my Canadian catalog because it features Australian native flowers.  I was browsing some blogs one day and saw a card which featured a gum blossom, so followed up the card information to find the set in the Australian catalog.  My dad  located a demonstrator not far from their place and… now I have a new set.

The set includes a waratah, a gum blossom and a banksia, these are a couple of my first attempts with the gum and banksia.  I know the gum blossom will be my favourite stamp from the set.  I have like gum blossoms ever since my  mum read Snugglepot and Cuddlepie to me when I was five or six.  I even won a prize in Grade 1, when I dressed up as Ragged Blossom for a Book Week parade!

I stamped the full image twice for both cards, once in green, once in black.  I coloured the black images using  watercolour pencils, ink from the stamp pad lids and a blender pen.  I then punched out a feature square from the coloured image, matted it and attached it to the green image with stampin’ dimensionals.  In the gum blossom card above I masked the edge of the background image using a post-it note and then stamped the left of the stamp again to create a larger bunch of blossom.

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Thank you for dropping in today and a special thanks for the encouraging comments people have been leaving for me.  I have really enjoyed your kind words.

Supplies:

Stamps: Bloom Away, Fundamental Phrases
Inks: Basic Black, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Pixie Pink
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Whisper White
Also:  Faber-Castell watercolour pencils, square punches

Happy Birthday Stamp Simply

Posted: August 13, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Extreme Surfboard | 28 Comments

Sharon is celebrating over at No Time to Stamp because the Friday Stamp Simply  challenge is turning 100.  The 100th challenge is to make a birthday card.   Sharon  invited a bunch of guests to celebrate and I was happy  to be included.  There is quite a line up of talented stampers with all sorts of birthday projects and blog candy galore!

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My parents are staying with me at present and asked whether I could make a card for a 21 year old young man.   As you know I make very few masculine cards but I have a few new stamps which should change that a bit.  I bought three of the new SU Extreme stamps with my son, his friends and my nephews in mind.  This is my first effort with the Extreme Surfer stamp.

I began by flicking embossing fluid on watercolour paper with a paintbrush.  I then embossed in white and soaked the watercolour paper with water.  I used three reinkers to create the surf and then waited for it to dry before embossing the surfer.  Actually that is not quite true, I should have waited until it was totally dry because a couple of wet patches did retain a bit of black embossing powder.  In Australia your twenty-first birthday is considered a milestone so my parents thought it would be appropriate to have 21 on the front of the card.  None of my numeral stamps looked right so I wrote the words on with a black fineliner.  I then fiddled around with the mattes and split the scene in three panels.  Inside is a repeat of the surfer on a Not quite navy splodge.

Edited to add: A few people have asked what embossing fluid is.  It is a fluid for re-inking a clear embossing pad, I bought it quite a long time ago,  I wonder if the versamark pad refill in the SU catalog  is the same sort of thing.

Thanks for dropping in, make sure you check out the great projects completed by the other birthday guests.

  1. Pat Adam – Christmas Gift Tags with BLOG CANDY

  2. AJ – 1 Card Done 3 Ways

  3. Janine – A Stress Free Summer Menu with BLOG CANDY

  4. Tammy – Birthday Reminder Book with BLOG CANDY

  5. Jennifer – Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY

  6. Julie – Card Set in Tote with Directions

  7. Barbara–  Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY

  8. Deb– Tutorial on Dying Silk Ribbon Using Copics and Refills

  9. Jenny– Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY

  10. Jerri – Birthday Card and Tutorial on Hand Embossing with Light Box

  11. Joan– Birthday Card and Etched Glass with BLOG CANDY

  12. LeAnne – Birthday Card with Glitter

  13. Barb– Birthday Cake 3-D Gift Item with BLOG CANDY

  14. Darlene – Birthday Card with Special Recipe

  15. Rose Ann– Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY

  16. Leslie – Gift Tin of Soaps with Coordinating Card

  17. Heather – Birthday Card  (that’s me!)

  18. Sabrina– Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY

  19. Sharon– Monogrammed Birthday Gift Set with BLOG CANDY

Supplies:

Stamps: Extreme Surfboard
Inks: Versamark, Not quite Navy, Night of Navy, Buckaroo Blue, Basic Black
Cardstock: Not quite Navy, Basic Black, Whisper White
Also:  White e.p., clear e.p., Pilot fineliner

So thankful

Posted: August 12, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Lovely as a Tree, My Kid's cards | 2 Comments

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A few days ago I posted the birthday cards my girls made for each other.  Today I have a card my fifteen year-old made for my husband and me and gave to us on her birthday.  We were surprised to be receiving a card but there was a beautiful hand made gift too, which blew us away.  I wrote about it here

Supplies:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, All Year Cheer
Inks: Versamark, Not quite Navy
Cardstock: Not quite Navy, Brushed Silver, Whisper White
Also:  Silver e.p.

Birthday girls

Posted: August 8, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Branch Out, Itty Bitty Buds | 4 Comments

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Above is the card my 15 year old daughter made for her 13 year sister on her birthday.

Below is the card my 13 year old made for her sister for her birthday.

Two very different cards.
Two very striking cards.
Two lovely and talented girls, but then I am biased!

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Supplies:

Stamps:  Branch Out, Itty Bitty Buds, Simple Sayings 2
Inks: Basic Black, Bold Brights & Rich Regals markers, Summer Sun, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie
Cardstock: Whisper white, Basic Black, Pixie Pink, Summer Sun, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie

Brayered backgrounds

Posted: July 29, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Garden silhouettes, Inspired by Nature, Upsy Daisy | 7 Comments

I  have been working on this trio of cards for a couple of days .  The idea had been in my head for a while but when I saw  Susan’s masked and stippled cards here I was inspired to make these cards with a masked rectangular focus.

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There was a bit of trial and error involved.  I masked with post-it notes and then brayered with two colours.  Both the orange card and the grey/green card took four attempts.  Each time the brayering went through the post-it notes or the silhouette touched outside the brayered space or the post-it note tore the cardstock but finally I achieved what I had set out to do.  The grasses card worked first time?!

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I stamped over the brayering with Basic Black ink, sometimes more than once to make a solid image.  I had trouble photographing these cards.  I think I need to spend some time with the camera manual.

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Things I learnt while making these cards:

  • Sometimes it is necessary to mask with two layers of post-it notes so the brayering won’t go through, mark the edge or the cardstock and turn what was going to be a one layer card into a two layer card.
  • It is probably best to use a fresh post-it note to mask the second, third or fourth attempt, they did come from the dollar store after all.
  • Rather than try and use your stamp-a-ma-jig after you have stamped an incomplete image, stamp with it the first time, them it is in place for the second and third inking.
  • If you stamp on your stamp-a-ma-jig imaging sheet with waterproof black ink you might want to wash it straight away.

Hmmm…

Supplies:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Inspired by Nature, Garden Silhouettes, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Inks: Pumpkin Pie & Summer Sun,  Brocade Blue & Mellow Moss,  Sage Shadow & Bordering Blue
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue, Whisper White
Also:  Brayer

FTL 52

Posted: July 27, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Garden silhouettes, Thoughts and Prayers | 2 Comments

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I am enjoying the wide range of Clean & Simple cards being created around the place these days.  I came across the Clean & Simple stamping blog the other day and decided to play along with their current challenge FLT52.

I chose a favourite set of mine, Garden Silhouettes.  I inked the whole stamp in Pretty in Pink then used markers to ink in the red centres and green leaves and stems over the top.  I did a little masking to overlap the branches a little.  The flower is made with the Boho Blossoms punch and a red brad.

Supplies:

Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Real Red and Garden Green Markers,  Pretty in Pink
Cardstock: Garden Green,  Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Also:  Real Red brad, Boho Blossoms Punch

Andy Warhol inspired

Posted: July 26, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Baroque Motifs, Itty Bitty Buds, Lovely as a Tree, One of a Kind, Pocket Silhouettes, Season of Friendship, With Gratitude | 4 Comments

The title should really read ” Andy Warhol and Lateblossom inspired!  A few days ago Susan at Simplicity by Lateblossom  issued a  challenge to search through our stamp collections and try making a Andy Warhol inspired card along the same lines as her two cards here and here.

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I was pretty certain that the only images I had that would work were  flowers and snowflakes.  Susan had already made a striking snowflake card so I tried flowers and then realized I might have enough leaves to try again.  The flowers are stamped on Whisper White and the leaves on Confetti Cream.

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Thanks for dropping in, hope you are having a great day.

Supplies (Flower Card):

Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, Baroque Motifs, One of a Kind, Pocket Silhouettes, Season of Friendship
Inks:  Bravo Burgandy, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Ruby Red
Cardstock: Whisper White

Supplies (Leaf Card):

Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, With Gratitude, Lovely as a Tree, Pocket Silhouettes, Season of Friendship
Inks:  Ruby Red, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Handsome Hunter, Garden Green
Cardstock: Confetti Cream

CAS24 Colour Challenge

Posted: July 23, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: CAS, Paint Prints | 1 Comment

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My best laid plans for a card a day during the summer, or even one every couple of days, have come to nought so far.  I have a painting project which is my first priority.  I have never painted a room before and it has been a little nerve wracking at times.  I think I am over half way through now and it looks pretty good.

I thought I’d make a quick card before I got started with the paintbrush this morning so I turned to the CAS challenge for the week.  A CAS card is sure to be quick, right?  Not always.  It took a few takes before I was happy, then I stamped the sentiment and it was crooked!  Perfect chance to use my new oval punch.  These colours are not colours I would normally reach for,  I rarely grab the Bold Brights but they do make happy cards.  I inked the flowers on the yellow pad first, then rock ‘n’ rolled them on the orange.

Thanks for dropping in, I’m off to do some more painting.

Supplies:

Stamps: Paint Prints, Best Yet
Inks: Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise
Cardstock: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise

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