Happy Easter!

I've not made many cards lately, life's been getting in the way a little too much!  This card started out as a free download from here which I took into Craft Artist 2 Professional, using the cutout studio to remove the white space, then adding a yellow circle behind the cross.  After applying a transparency effect to the circle I printed it then coloured it with Promarkers.  A quick, easy card which reflects the true meaning of Easter.

More Inkylicious!

The image on this card was made at the same time as the one on last week's sympathy card.  But as it's for a friend's birthday I obviously wanted it to have a completely different feel to it.  Despite having brightened it a little with some orange ribbon (actually, white coloured with Promarkers!) I still think the nature of the picture makes it a bit too sombre but I know my friend will still appreciate it.

Cardstock: from stash

Stamps: Inkylicious, Sue Dix "Love is the Thread"

Inks: Adirondack

Happy Mother's Day

This is my card for my lovely Mum and, as often happens, the end result doesn't remotely resemble what I'd planned!  I fell for the Sketchy Flowers set at Digistamp Boutique and loved the card Kerry Cox (aka Pickle) had made, so intended to do something similar.
Once I'd got going, though, I decided to colour one of the flower images using a Lavender Promarker; I imported the image into Craft Artist 2 Professional and recoloured it.  When I'd finished colouring the flower I decided it was too "flat", despite shading & blending.  As an experiment I went over the flower with short strokes of a Copic Blending Pen as I know that, unlike the Promarker Blender, it tends to bleach the colour out and I quite liked the resulting effect. Still in Craft Artist 2 Professional, I recoloured some backing paper to match & made the word art.  I cut a couple of slits in the card either side of the flower stems & threaded some matching ribbon through before tying it in a bow.
Once the card was assembled it looked ok but just not quite special enough.  Then a discussion about micro beads on the Docrafts forum made me realise what was missing - a bit of bling!  I took the card apart & used some Glossy Accents to attach some Sweet Poppy Clear Micro Beads as flower centres.  Then I covered a new piece of backing paper in double sided adhesive sheet & attached the micro beads to that.  Although I think the beaded flower centres work well, the subtle pattern on the backing paper doesn't show through the beads so I'd use a stronger-patterned paper next time as it was an easy technique to do.

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm

Digistamp: Digistamp Boutique Sketchy Flowers

Coloured with Lavender Promarker.

Sweet Poppy Micro Beads.

Inkylicious Sympathy Card

I paid a fleeting visit to the craft show at Event City back in February - we would have stayed longer but it was so busy we really didn't enjoy it.  One stand I made sure I visited was Inkylicious where I bought some new Adirondacks & a number of stamps, including the Meadow Breeze set.  I then spent an enjoyable evening brayering & stamping a number of pictures to keep in stock for making quick cards.

Well, this week a close colleague's father passed away very suddenly so I decided one of the images I made the other week would be really appropriate to send from the rest of us in the office.  As the recipient is a man I tried to avoid the card becoming too feminine.

Base cardstock: from stash

Stamps: Inkylicious Meadow Breeze & Flight of Dreams (birds), 

Papermania Bunting by Lucy Cromwell (sentiment)

Inks: Adirondack Peach Bellini, Sunset Orange, Terra Cotta, Memento Tuxedo Black

Not So Hairy Biker!

My next door neighbour will be 60 on Friday; a few years ago he achieved a long-held ambition to buy himself a motorbike. We frequently rib him about being an ageing biker so when I saw this digital stamp at karensdoodles.com I just had to buy it, even though the biker in the stamp has more hair than my neighbour!

Having recently got hold of a copy of the Docrafts Chronology CD which came free with the Docrafts magazine I really wanted to use one of the backing papers and once I'd decided which one, I felt the card needed a suitable border to finish it off.  I created the border in Craft Artist 2 Professional, exported it as a png file to use in Silhouette Studio & cut it out on my Craft Robo Lite.  The cogs border and the numbers (also cut on my Robo Lite) were coloured with Promarkers, as were the digital stamp & the grey card.

For once the card came out exactly how I planned it in my head - a rare event!

Base cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm

Cogs/numbers cut from Tesco Executive 160gsm

Backing paper: Docrafts Chronology

Promarkers: Cardinal Red, Satin, Denim Blue, Ice Grey 1, 2 & 4

Finished card size: 15cm square