Wings and Things

This one layer card was inspired by a stunning project by Jennifer Mullens in this month's Craft Stamper magazine, and although I've not managed to achieve the 3D effect that she has I'm still happy with the result. I'm entering this into the Things with Wings challenge over at Stamping Sensations.

The butterflies (Hero Arts) were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black first, then masked. I then stamped the leaves (Imagination Crafts) and used masking fluid to cover them. I masked off the entire top half of the card then stamped the woodgrain effect (Kaisercraft) in Distress Black Soot, but using the third generation of ink to mute the effect. I then very lightly sponged more Black Soot at the top of the "wood panel". The greeting (Papertrey Ink) was stamped in Memento.

I had intended to make this card monochrome but the masking fluid had discoloured the card, presumably because it isn't watercolour card but card by Limetree Crafts intended for alcohol ink markers. So I ended up watercolouring the leaves & butterflies but tried to keep the colours muted, in keeping with the occasion.

LIM Week 169

It's a sketch challenge this week over at Less is More and for once I had time to play along. My take on the sketch involves a stamp by Imagination Crafts which is meant for decoupage, but that's a technique I'm not especially fond of. Instead I stamped it in Hero Arts Unicorn white ink then embossed parts of it from the back. I coloured it, again from the back, with a mix of Promarkers & coloured pencils. 

The individual crocus is another stamp in the set, which I stamped in Memento Gray Flannel and then coloured with pencils, fussy cut & popped up on foam pads.

The matching curl stamp was also in the set, and the greeting is from a set I won in a challenge last year which was sponsored by Inspired by Stamping from Australia.

Purple Blossoms

The theme over at Virginia's View Challenge this month is Stencil so I decided to dig out a stencil which I bought some time ago but hadn't used yet. It's called Summer Blossom Border by Imagination Crafts and I sponged Adirondack Eggplant through it for the background.

The focal image is a Hero Arts stamp from the Luscious Bold Flowers set, stamped & embossed in white on kraft cardstock then coloured with Adirondacks, and the greeting is by Imagination Crafts.

The finished card was for an elderly relative whose eyesight is failing so I hoped that the bold patterns would be easier for her to see.

Embossing Paste Alternative

Lately I've been making a huge effort to start using what I've already got in my stash rather than buying new. So if I spot a craft item I'd like to try, I look for a home made alternative first rather than splashing the cash. Embossing paste seems to be popular at the moment and a quick Google search to try to find out what it was made of led me to an American discussion about "spackle" which turns out to be - Polyfilla! I decided to try using some of the One Strike Filler we had to hand, and which costs about £3 a tub. It's strange stuff, very light like marshmallows, so I mixed it with a little bit of pearlescent stencil paint to turn it a gorgeous purple colour. I cut an acetate stencil on my Eclips using an SVG file from here then spread the paste over it to make this:

It dried within 30 minutes to a rock hard finish. Now I've no idea whether this bears any resemblence to the proper arty stuff but I think it looks pretty darned good!

This last picture doesn't make it look too good but I'm not sure why - it looked a lot smoother than this would have you believe!

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs

Imagination Crafts Stencil Paint

Stamps: Imagination Crafts

Ink: Brilliance Pearlescent Lavender

Swinging 60!

My sister-in-law turned 60 the other week. Despite looking 10 years younger than her age, she absolutely hates anybody reminding her how old she is so of course I couldn't resist putting huge, shiny numbers on the card!

The numbers started out as covered chipboard which I painted with Imagination Crafts Silkies. The colour happened to be a perfect match for the We R Memory Keepers papers I chose.

The brads were another happy accident. I don't know the make of them but they were also a perfect match.

Cardstock: The Range Linen 300gsm

Papers: We R Memory Keepers Bloom & Grow

Paint: Imagination Crafts Silkies in Tuscan Satin

Ink: Memento Love Letter

Stamp: Woodware FRCL134

Float Like a Butterfly

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is to use 3 colours: aqua, green & orange. Not my usual sort of colour combination but I decided to play along. My camera was playing up so the pictures aren't too good. However, it's still possible to see that the butterflies were stamped in teal ink on vellum then coloured with Cosmic Shimmer watercolours in aqua & orange. 

The leaves were chalked through an Imagination Crafts mask.

Cardstock: The Range Linen 300gsm

Stamps: Hero Arts, Imagination Crafts

Ink: Memento Teal Zeal

Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour paints

More Inky Experiments

This time with Inkylicious stamps & sponging with Adirondack inks.  The main image is the Inkylicious Allium 2-step stamp inked up with Memento Paris Dust & Adirondack Sailboat Blue, and you'll see from the picture below that I didn't manage to stamp it quite perfectly but I decided that I didn't mind the offset effect & used the image anyway.

The background to the main image was then sponged using Adirondacks Cloudy Blue, Sailboat Blue & Denim.  I spent ages trying to decide how to finish the card off until I decided to keep it simple, sponging again straight onto the main card & then partially inking up an Inkylicious small script stamp with a combination of the same inks.  The greeting was from Imagination Crafts, stamped in Memento Nautical Blue and I added a trio of square gems to finish.

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm

Stamps: Inkylicious, Imagination Crafts

Inks: Adirondack Cloudy Blue, Sailboat Blue, Denim

Memento: Paris Dusk, Nautical Blue

Watercolouring with Silkies

I bought some Imagination Craft Silkies cheap at the QVC Outlet recently & this is my first real attempt to paint with them. I didn't use the supplied brush because it wouldn't allow me to create the fine detail I needed.  For the main image, which is from an Imagination Crafts decoupage stamp set, I painted the background in diluted Apple Lace, then coloured the leaves with it undiluted. The flowers were painted in Sunset Satin and Firecracker Satin, and I did two layers of the smaller flower & three of the larger one, layering them up with Collall dimensional glue.  American Crafts Pop! Microbeads were used for the flower centres, stuck on with Cosmic Shimmer glue.

For the background strip I masked off a section of the card & used diluted Apple Lace again, then stamped smaller individual stamps from this decoupage set & another Imagination Crafts set to create the background pattern.  This was where I got really creative!  Using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on an  Inkssentials Cut-n-Dry Pen Nib, I drew along the edge of the strip a few times to match the edge of the stamped main image.  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, despite the fact that both decoupage & shiny finishes really aren't normally my sort of crafting!  It's good to go out of your comfort zone sometimes.  My late father was a very talented watercolour artist. I thought about him a lot while I was making this card & I think he'd have liked the finished result.

Cardstock: Base - Colotech Plus 300gsm, Flowers - Southfield Stationers 160gsm

Stamps: Imagination Crafts decoupage range

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Paints: Imagination Craft Silkies

Microbeads: American Crafts Pop!

Inspired by Craft Stamper

This card, for my sister-in-law, was inspired by a magazine article. It didn't quite go according to plan because it was supposed to be a one-layer card, similar to the one by Chrissie Stokes on page 22 of the July 2012 issue of Craft Stamper. I can't believe I've never found Chrissie's blog before but I'll be a regular visitor from now on!

Anyway, back to the card.  I stamped the flourishes & butterflies with Versamark & embossed them with Cosmic Shimmer white embossing powder.  Then I used ink dusters to brush on Adirondack Denim & Lettuce inks, then stamped more butterflies in the same colours.  The mistake I made was in using low tack masking tape to mask off the area I wanted to stamp; it wasn't low tack enough & took off some of the top layer of the card.  Also some of the ink seeped under the tape and resulted in blurry edges. I didn't want to waste it so I trimmed & mounted it on a new card blank.  A few flat backed pearls, a stamped greeting, and it was done.

Stamps: Inkadinkado & Imagination Crafts