Poppy Patch
Posted: March 19, 2009 Filed under: Poppy Patch, Thoughts and Prayers 4 Comments
I love these poppies!
This is my first stamp set from Flourishes, a birthday gift from my daughter. I haven’t quite worked out an efficient way to clean the clear stamps so if you have any hints for me please leave a comment. I realized when I was colouring these poppies that I haven’t used outline stamps in a long while, so I haven’t used my watercolour pencils in a while either. You would know, if you visit here regularly that I have been stamping a lot of silhouettes. Well, that might change, with these poppies and the new Sweet Peas from Flourishes also, when I get hold of them!
I began by stamping the poppies in Basic Black and colouring with watercolour pencils and a blender pen. I then sponged a Bashful Blue background around the poppies. I stamped one poppy and cut it out ready to overlap some of the others and decided to let it overlap a little of the oval where I stamped the sentiment. I chose gingham ribbon because poppies seem to be carefree and casual flowers to me. Not like the formal roses who might demand satin or velvet ribbon, the poppies are happy with gingham! There is a challenge on the Flourishes blog this week to use ribbon on your card, so this is my entry, not a very adventurous use or ribbon, I know but ribbon all the same.
Supplies:
Stamps: Poppy Patch (Flourishes), Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Basic Black, Bashful Blue,
Cardstock: Whisper white, Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke
Also: Red gingham ribbon, Creative memories oval cutters, Faber-Castell Watercolour pencils, blender pen
Branch Out – Summer
Posted: March 18, 2009 Filed under: Branch Out, Pocket Silhouettes 3 Comments
I am making a set of cards for a friend, which I will first show at a workshop, using the designer paper from the Sale-a-bration catalog. This blue paper is so bright and pretty, like a summer sky, that I decided to make it the background for this summertime scene. I didn’t emboss this time just started with a chocolate chip tree, added lots of celery leaves, a swing and a few butterflies.
To make the little friend to friend tab I stamped the sentiment and then punched it out with one side of a square punch (and the matte with a larger sqaure punch), which was much easier than trying to cut it evenly with my big cutter.
This is such a cute stamp set, but I need to play around a bit so I can come up with some different layouts and ways of using the tree.
Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out, Pocket Silhouettes
Inks: Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black
Cardstock: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Delicate Dots d.p.
Blossom tree
Posted: March 17, 2009 Filed under: Branch Out 7 Comments
Here is my first effort with the Branch Out set. Although our trees are nowhere near looking like this and our grass is just beginning to appear from under the ice and snow, I hold out hope that I will see blossoms blowing off trees in the not too distant future.
The first thing I did was stamp the tree in Close to Cocoa Craft ink, then embossed with clear e.p. To make the blossoms I used versamark and Pretty in Pink so I could emboss them in clear also. I then ripped a piece of paper to make the hill shape and kept both pieces so I could mask the hill area while I sponged the sky with Bahsful Blue and Ballet Blue, then vice versa for the grass, which is sponged in Garden Green.
Thanks for dropping by, I hope you are enjoying some spring where you are.
Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out
Inks: Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Garden Green, Close to Cocoa Craft, Pretty in Pink, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Pirouette Pink, Garden Green
Also: clear e.p.
Simply White
Posted: March 15, 2009 Filed under: Designer Paper, Garden Whimsy, Stamp Simply challenges 2 Comments
Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge this week is to use a white mat in your card. I was surprised how hard it was. I usually pick a colour from the stamped image for my mats so I ended up stamping in versamark and embossing a white image on designer paper then matting each square in white. Sharon’s design team made some beautiful cards, several using white on white which was lovely, but I couldn’t seem to get that to work for me today.
I gave my white base rectangle a little bit of texture with the Large Dots Texturz plate (which I just noticed you cannot see at all!) and added a strip of Sahara Sand behind my little square images. I used the bug, butterfly and snail from Garden Whimsy and Delicate Dots d.p. as they were in keeping with my dotty theme. The ribbon is narrow white satin from my ribbon basket.
Supplies:
Stamps: Garden Whimsy
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Delicate Dots d.p.
Also: White e.p., white satin ribbon
Pink Posies
Posted: March 12, 2009 Filed under: Itty Bitty Buds 4 Comments
Just a quick post tonight with my take on CPS sketch 106. I really like the simpicity of the sketch and may try it again with a square card. I have used the flowers, flourishes and leaves from Itty Bitty Buds, some stamped directly on the white base and some cut out and raised with stampin’ dimensionals. The sentiment needed to have a little swirl to it so this one from Best Yet worked well. I know I left plenty of white space, but I like the clean look.
I hope to be back tomorrow to play in Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge.
Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, Best Yet
Inks: Pink Passion, Green Galore
Cardstock: Whisper White, Pink Passion, Green Galore
Also: Stampin’ dimensionals
Add a doodle
Posted: March 11, 2009 Filed under: Itty Bitty Buds 4 Comments
I pulled out the black fneliner again to doodle for the challenge at Our Creative Corner. This time I used a new set; the flowers from hostess set Itty Bitty Buds are perfect for doodling stems and leaves. Rather than add bling with rhinestones like I did here, I decided to add a colour on a few flowers. I chose Cameo Coral, and just happened to find some matching satin ribbon in my ribbon box which I folded into tabs on one side of the oval sentiment.
The card is black so I needed a little more doodling inside on the white panel.
Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, Hugs & Wishes
Inks: Basic Black, Cameo Coral
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Cameo Coral
Also: Pilot fineliner, Coral satin ribbon, Creative Memories oval cutters
Getting Sentimental
Posted: March 9, 2009 Filed under: Cuttlebug, Itty Bitty Buds, Texturz plates 2 Comments
Flourishes is releasing three new stamp sets at the end of this week and to celebrate they have posted a challenge where the sentiment is to be the main event on the card. My first Flourishes set is enroute as I write this, a birthday present from my daughter.
As I have some new texturz embossing plates from SU I thought I would use the Flourish plate to provide the background for my sentiment. I put it through the cuttlebug and then wiped the Bashful Blue stamp pad back and forth across it to highlight the swirls. I had to try a couple of times before I found the right “sandwich” but it worked with “A” plate, silicone rubber, cardstock, texturz plate, cardstock+paper(as shim) and finally Texturz impressions pad. I split my background piece in two and then put lace and ribbon either side of the white strip, then added a bow. I decided to triple matte the sentiment and add one little flower and sparkle using stamps from the hostess set Itty Bitty Buds.
Thanks so much for dropping in and for leaving such encouraging comments.
Supplies:
Inks: Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Whisper White, Bashful Blue
Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, All Year Cheer
Also: Rhinestone, Flourish Texturz plate, Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon, cotton lace from my lace basket
Story-book window & tutorial
Posted: March 7, 2009 Filed under: Baroque Motifs, Branch Out, Garden silhouettes, Pocket Silhouettes, Season of Friendship, Stamped Landscapes, Tutorial 6 Comments
I have finally completed a card tutorial! I had hoped to do one for a snowscape, but the seasons are changing and I have more of a spring scene instead. I used some of the same techniques to do this scene as I used for my snowscapes. The inspiration for this card came from the cover of a children’s novel The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson
First I cut a piece of scrap card to be a mask for my hillside. I kept both pieces so I could mask the sky and the hills at different times. Of course you don’t need the huge piece I have, I’m not sure why I went so large?
I started with the sky, holding the mask in place while I sponged with both Bashful Blue and Ballet Blue.
To do the hills I swapped masks and sponged down the left hand side and across the bottom with Garden Green.
I then moved the mask a little to make the edge of a hillside and sponged with more Garden Green and some Certainly Celery.
On the right hand side of the hills I sponged with Summer Sun which I blended into Certainly Celery to create a lighter hillside.
With all the background sponging done I began to stamp the silhouettes along the bottom of the card. I used Basic Black, stamping some of the stamps upside down to use just the stems as grass. Where the flower stems were a little short I lengthened them with a black marker. I used two stamps from Garden Silhouettes to frame the picture in foliage.
Around the outside of the scene I embossed a silver border using an embossing marker and ruler to make a line down each edge.
I added a little flourish to each corner with versamark and the large flourish stamp from Baroque Motifs.
Rather than pouring embossing powder over the whole image I dipped the edges into silver e.p. one at at time and then did the corners.
I stamped the dragonfly in black and coloured the wings with an embossing pen before embossing them in silver.
To make the sentiment I sponged a rectangle of Whisper White cardstock in Garden Green and Certainly Celery, then stamped the words in Basic Black and matted in black.( the photo didn’t turn out, sorry) I attached silver cord to both ends, wrapped it around the back of the cardstock and taped it. I also added the tiny butterflies from the Branch Out set.
As I was mounting the card on black I needed a white panel inside, so I sponged a bit in both greens and made the silver edges and flourishes using the same method described above.
I hope my instructions make sense, the method is fairly straight forward so have fun if you try it. Thanks for dropping in and reading this far! Have a great weekend.
Supplies:
Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Pocket Silhouettes, Infinite Goodness, Season of Friendship, Baroque Motifs, Branch Out
Inks: Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Summer Sun, Basic Black, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black
Also: Silver e.p., silver cord
Simply embossed
Posted: March 6, 2009 Filed under: Designer Paper, Thoughts and Prayers 4 Comments
Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge this week really appealed to me as I like to heat emboss. That being the case it is funny that I ended up with so little embossing on this card. Just keeping it simple I guess. This set arrived earlier in the week and last night was my first chance to use it. I couldn’t resist getting it as it has a tree ( my stamping weakness at present is trees) and lovely wording on the stamps.
I stamped the tree with Certainly Celery and then embossed the sentiment with Gold e.p. The paper and the ribbon are from the Sale-a-bration catalog. I thought the celery and white combo was fresh and pretty for a friend I know who is facing treatment over the coming months.
Make sure you check out Sharon’s card and you will find links to her wonderful design team on her blog. I had a great time being part of the team in February and now look forward to seeing the beautiful creations of Barb, the March guest designer.
Supplies:
Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Versamark, certainly Celery
Cardstock: Whisper white, Certainly Celery, Delicate dots d.p.
Also: Gold e.p. Celery twill ribbon
Black, white and teal
Posted: March 5, 2009 Filed under: Boho Backgrounds, Designer Paper, One of a Kind 3 Comments
This card is a bit of a departure from the soft spring designs I have been creating lately. I wanted to use the beautiful digital paper designed by Jak Heath, and decided not to reach for red as an accent colour but teal, a colour I rarely pull out. The layout is a sketch by Kurt on StampTV.
I embossed the flowers on the black cardstock with white e.p and stamped the other flowers with black or teal, colouring one in with a teal marker and adding a rhinestone to the other. Not my usual style, but it is fun to try something a little different from time to time.
Supplies:
Stamps: Boho backgrounds, One of a Kind
Inks: Basic Black, Taken with Teal, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Taken with Teal, Damask d.p.(from Jak Heath)
Also: Rhinesones, Boho Blossoms punch, stampin’ dimensionals
Heather Telford 