Less is More Snow
Posted: December 11, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Stamped Landscapes 41 Comments
This week the challenge on the Less is More blog is a One Layer Card featuring snow. I love doing snow scenes and have been looking for a window of opportunity to do one or two.
I started by masking the top and bottom of the card base to leave a panel where I could brayer the sky. I also added a moon mask. To create falling snow I flicked masking fluid all over the card base and let it dry. I then brayered Taken with Teal ink over the panel, working from right to left so it would be lighter around the moon. After I removed the masks I used a wavy hill mask to sponge in some snow drifts and stamp some clumps of trees.
Still nowhere near this amount of snow around here, but there are two weeks before Christmas so it could still be white. Thanks for dropping in, I hope you have a great week.
Supplies:
Stamps: Wondrous Gift, a little tree stamp from Embassy Arts
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Taken with Teal
Cardstock: MFP Snow Storm Smooth Heavy
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Reflections
Posted: September 5, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Stamped Landscapes 23 CommentsThe photography section of the National Geographic website is full of breathtaking photos. One caught my eye a couple of days ago and inspired the following card. You can see the photo by Macduff Everton here.
I took a few stamper’s liberties in recreating the photo as I was limited by the stamps I had. I masked the top and bottom of the card then place a mask across the line of reflection to create the top part of the scene first. Using three tones of brown I sponged the sky , hill and ground then added the trees.
After moving the centre mask I sponged the reflections. I then re-stamped the trees on the plastic positioning sheet that comes with stamp-ama-jig. I placed the sheet upside down and ink side down below the line of reflection and rolled over it with a brayer to transfer the image. I know, I know a photo tutorial would explain it much better than me!
The National Geographic site has also inspired me to try and take some reflections shots of my own. I hope you enjoy your long weekend, if you have one. It’s back to school tomorrow for everyone here. Thanks for dropping by and thanks for leaving comments here; I love to read them and follow the trail back to your creations when I can.
Supplies:
Stamps: Little stamp of four trees I acquired somewhere, Thank you Kindly (SU)
Inks: Crumb cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso (SU)
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Summer Haze
Posted: July 22, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Stamped Landscapes, Trees 10 CommentsWe have had some hot summer days this week; perhaps that is why I ended up stamping with warm yellows and reds again. Each day this week I have dropped all my children off at camp and had the day to myself-a very rare occurrence. Each time I picked them up my son has asked whether I made a card and uploaded it. Finally I have one.
I created the picture panel on white cardstock, masking the sun and sky first before sponging in summer sun, apricot and rose red. I then created the hills with a curved mask and celery and summer sun inks. The trees were stamped in black while the final (lowest) mask was still in place. It is not clear in the photo but both the card base and olive strip are textured cardstock,
I hope you are enjoying some great weather wherever you are. Thanks for dropping in today.
Supplies:
Stamps: Trees (Darkroom Door
Inks: Basic Black, Summer Sun,Apricot Appeal, Rose Red, Certainly Celery
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White, Textured Summer Sun & Old Olive, Basic Black
Under a tree
Posted: June 25, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Stamped Landscapes, Trees 10 Comments
With the busyness of the end of the school year there hasn’t been much time to stamp of late. When I sat down to create something the other night I was somewhat lacking in ideas. A little bit of time spent on other people’s inspiring blogs helped but I think I am out of practice. Hopefully now that the summer holidays have officially begun you will see a little more action here on bits & pieces.
To create this card I pulled out another tree from the Darkroom Door Trees set. I think I’ve tried three out of the four now. I like the wide spread of this tree so went for a wide card base and a quote which matched also. The sponging was done with a post it note mask placed twice.
Supplies:
Stamps: Trees (Darkroom Door)
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Certainly Celery
Cardstock: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip textured
Less is More: Embossing
Posted: May 14, 2011 Filed under: CAS, Stamped Landscapes, Wilderness Vol.2 43 Comments
When I first began browsing the Darkroom Door site, I kept coming back to this stamp. Images of trees are a favorite of mine and this scene of a wooded path is the type of scene I try to create with tree stamps.
This week’s challenge at Less is More is to emboss; I chose to heat emboss the woodland scene in black, then add some colour by sponging. I didn’t know if the detail of so many fine interwoven branches would work without detail embossing powder but I am very pleased with the result. Before sponging I masked the edges of the image.
I am looking forward to trying other colour schemes and techniques with this beautiful stamp.
Supplies:
Stamps: Wilderness Vol.2 (Darkroom Door), Teeny Tiny Messages(SU)
Inks: Versamark, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun
Cardstock: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Also: black e.p.
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
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
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
Snow Storm
Posted: February 19, 2011 Filed under: Branch Out, CAS, Stamped Landscapes 21 Comments
I came home and created this card last Sunday after walking my son down to the park to play hockey on the rink with his buddies. The snow was coming down very steadily and it was beautiful. I decided to try and recreate the scene on a card. I know spring might be showing its face in some places but I think we have a bit of winter to live through yet.
I started with two masks and then flicked masking fluid all over the panel. When the masking fluid was dry I removed a few very large blobs and positioned my horizon mask. Instead of sponging I used my new soft brayer to create the sky. I started at the left and moved toward the right as the ink ran out so I would have the impression of light and darkness. After the sky was done I moved the mask a couple of times adding trees and sponged snow drifts.
It really does look a bit like this during a snow storm; even after 10 years here in Canada, I still think it is a beautiful sight
Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out, Ageless Adornment & a little tree stamp of unknown origin which really comes in handy at times
Inks: Brocade Blue, Going Gray
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
OLW 38 Let’s get sketchy
Posted: January 31, 2011 Filed under: Branch Out, CAS, Stamped Landscapes 11 Comments
I guess they’re called challenges for a reason! This week’s One Layer Wednesday challenge was to use a design sketch. I tried several pretty flower themed cards before I settled back into the comfort of my sponged winter scenes. I will post one of the flower cards later this week. After cropping, matting and layering it was no longer anywhere near the brief for this challenge.
Several times lately I have noticed that an overcast day can look quite pretty particularly when the trees are still laden with snow. The colour scheme tends to be very monochromatic though. I tried to recreate that here with the sun weakly shining through the cloud. It is not a particularly “pretty” card, but I thought it might be appropriate to send, with encouraging words inside, to someone going through a difficult “season”.
To see a much prettier card using this technique check out the beautiful one by Sarah at Criminal Grace
Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out, Season of Friendship
Inks: Basic black, Going Gray
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white
Also: White e.p.
Heather Telford 
