Blue Hillflowers

blue hill flowers

As I mentioned in my last post I am on the other side of the world. I am visiting my parents who live in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. My mother is currently in hospital so I have been spending part of each day visiting her with my father. When not at the hospital we have been preparing for possible evacuation due to the serious bush fires in the area. I have written a bit more and posted some photos on my other blog, Sentient. Thank you to all who have participated in my One Layer Wednesday challenge to use leaves. I have not been able to visit all of your blogs just yet. Things have been a little busy.

The card above is one of my favourites from the classes I taught in Washington last June. I started by embossing the hillflowers stamp in clear embossing  powder onto white cardstock then flicked masking fluid  over the whole panel. I applied the blue ink by sponging from one corner towards the other fading the colour out toward the “light source”. I only used one blue ink and finished the design by flicking some of it over the whole panel. Once all the ink was all dry I rubbed off the masking fluid to reveal the little white flecks.

Supplies:

Stamps: Hill flowers , Eloquence PB)
Inks: Memento Nautical Blue & Versamark (Tsukineko)
Also:  clear embossing powder, Winsor & Newton masking fluid


OLW 162 Leaves

OLW Leaves

As I write this post our backyard is beginning to fill up with leaves. The strange thing is that by the time this post goes live I will be far away from our autumn leaf filled yard in another season and country all together!

Wherever you are and whether you can see golden, red or green leaves the challenge this week is to feature them on your one layer card. I used one of the leaf dies from the Penny Black creative die set Leaves to cut a couple of masks from post it notes. I then sponged over the masks in warm fall colours and added a thankful sentiment.

Supplies:

Stamps: Hot Rod (PB)
Inks: Memento Dandelion, Potter’s Clay, Cantaloupe, Morocco  (Tsukineko)
Dies: Leaves


City skyline

downtown die

On the Penny Black blog this week you will see that the design team have been having fun with the new Christmas Dies. I chose to show off the ‘Downtown” die in front of a warm sunset. I die cut the downtown shape from black then hand cut a piece from yellow to place behind it. I masked the sky area and sponged yellow from the bottom up, sweet plum from the top down, a bit of angel pink in the middle and some elderberry on the top right. I then re-positioned the top mask down lower so I could sponge the dark area below the horizon in black.

Supplies:

Stamps: Peace on Earth (PB)
Creative Dies: Downtown (PB)
Inks: Memento Sweet Plum, Angel Pink, Dandelion, & Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)


Blue flower by surprise

Blue flower

A while ago I hosted the One Layer Wednesday challenge with a one colour, one stamp, one sentiment card. (you can see it here). When I was working on that card I stamped the flower stamp, Dazzling on the plastic imaging sheet I use with my stamp positioning tool (stamp-a-ma-jig). I needed to use the tool to decide where to place the stamp on my one layer card. The image in blue ink stayed on the plastic sheet for days. The ink had formed into droplets almost immediately but had not dried up at all. After seeing it there untouched I decided to see what it would look liked stamped onto cardstock. The panel above is the result. The flower is basically the same but is made up of little ink droplets and the occasional air bubble. I thought it was quite a cool effect and shows that it is not always best to clean up straight away; inspiration may strike a few days later!

Supplies:
Stamps: So Blessed, Dazzling (PB)
Inks: Memento Paris Dusk (Tsukineko)


White berry collage

white berry collage

I made this one layer card weeks ago so I am no longer sure of my order of stamping. This is what I might have done:

  1. position a post-it note mask
  2. emboss winter berries in white
  3. sponge grey ink from bottom left hand corner and teal ink from top right hand corner but keep a centre strip paler to create a highlight area
  4. stamp letter background stamp in grey and lace border stamp in teal (lace stamp is probably patchy because I may have wiped some of the ink off on purpose.)
  5. stamp the word ‘smile’ and the berry branch in teal

I  vaguely remember dropping a stamp on the panel at some point which almost made me toss the card.  Sorry I can’t be more precise; I guess it really makes sense to write about the cards as soon as I make them!

I just realized that I can add this to Karen’s One Layer Wednesday challenge this week. It is a free for all so go and check it out

Supplies:

Stamps:  Berry Branch,  Lace Trims, Winter Berries Letter BackgroundEdge to Edge (PB)
Inks: Memento Teal Zeal, London fog & Versamark (Tsukineko)
Also:  white embossing powder


OLW 158 Fly away with me

Butterfly in brown

This week’s One Layer Wednesday challenge is to feature something with wings on your card. I chose this beautiful butterfly stamp and a palette of browns.

I masked the left hand side of the card front so I could sponge and stamp  the right hand side. I have roughly used the rule of thirds for my stamped panel. The butterfly is stamped over both sides directing the eye from left to right. I also added a little sponging to the bottom edge in keeping with the vintage feel of the card.

OLW 158 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of card stock folded in half. No other layers of paper allowed.

2. Make a card with wings on it. It could feature birds, butterflies, planes, mosquitos ; anything with wings.

3. Post your card somewhere online and link back to it here using the InLinkz button on the sidebar. If linking to a blog post, please be sure to link to the specific post and not your blog’s home page.

4. The most important rule of all…HAVE FUN!


Colourful Christmas Combo

Colorful Christmas

There is a colour challenge for you on the Penny Black blog at present. Penny Black has created five colour combos and would love to see your projects. There are three prizes and the challenge runs until September 27th.

I chose this colour combo along with the new wood mounted stamp, “Christmas Reds and Greens”. I stamped and embossed the branch in smokey grey then masked top and bottom so I could create an aqua background panel. The panel is sponged and stamped with Versamagic Sea Breeze & Sahara Sand. To add the rusty red colour I punched tiny dots from glossy card to be the berries on the branch.

Supplies:

Stamps: Christmas Reds and Greens , (PB)
Inks: Versamagic Sea Breeze & Sahara Sand, Versafine Smokey Grey (Tsukineko)


More silhouettes

bird silhouettes

The challenge at CASology this week is Silhouette and I have managed to just squeak in with a card. Edited to add: I  finished this post only to find that I didn’t squeak in; the collection just closed 😦 Oh well, here are the details anyway!

My original concept for this card changed several times but that is a story you have heard more than once from me. I started by making three watercoloured small square backgrounds using Memento inks and a square acrylic block. I pressed the acrylic block onto the ink pads to pick up ink then added a drop or two of water to blend the inks. I then stamped the acrylic block onto water colour paper and let it dry before adding the silhouette stamps in black. As a background to the three scenes I masked and sponged in paler tones and added a large silhouette stamp in green and the sideways sentiment in black.

I have used a vertical three square layout many times before but it is only recently that I have been choosing to place all the elements on the right rather than the left hand side. (I was inspired by this lovely card)

Here are a few using the left hand side layout: holly cards, ferns

A couple using the right hand side layout: i love  you, green grasses

Do you have a preference? When I searched my blog for examples I found that a horizontal landscape oriented card with three tiles in the lower half of the panel is also a very common choice for me.  eg. fern fronds

Supplies:

Stamps: Tweet Tweet, Season’s WishesWinter Sky, Edge to edge (PB)
Inks: Memento Dandelion, Bamboo Leaves, New Sprout, Danube Blue, Summer Sky & Versafine Onyx Black(Tsukineko)


Scene by the sea

scene by the sea

I have used my usual sponging and masking techniques to create this scene but by masking a straight line through the sky and sponging below it I was able to give the appearance of an ocean view.

I sponged blue on the top third of the panel, green on the lower third and yellow in the middle. I then cut a hill shaped mask and sponged green below the mask, re-positoned it and sponged a second paler hill behind. I stamped the Queen Anne’s Lace in two green tones then finally positioned the straight mask to create the ocean in the distance.

The current One Layer Wednesday in on Ardyth’s blog for a few more hours (sorry for the late notice) and the new one  will be on Cheryl’s blog tomorrow.

Supplies:

Stamps: Queen Anne’s Lace, Every Happiness (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Pistachio, Olive Grove, Dandelion  (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: PB mix & match olive grove paper, Neenah Solar White and Cream
Also: olive grosgrain ribbon


More “Less is More”

less is more bookmark card

I made another card for the Less is More “Use a stamp” challenge. I still had the pretty blue and wheat coloured chalk inks out so I made a bookmark shaped panel as the only decoration for this CAS card. I sponged the background then layered some text and frame images over the sponging before punching a hole and filling it with blue ribbon tied by a scrap of embroidery thread.

The Penny Black design team are playing along with the Less is More challenge all week so you will find inspiration on the blog each day.

Supplies:

Stamps: With Florish, Life’s Messages,  (PB)
Inks: Versamagic Wheat, Aegean Blue & Night Sky  (Tsukineko)