Amour!

It's one layer week over at Less is More with the theme of "Love". This was a really quick & simple card involving a Stampin' Up! stamp heat embossed in white, a mask cut with a Spellbinders heart die & Hero Arts Pale Tomato Shadow Ink sponged through the mask.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Less is More - One layer "Love"

CASology - "Love"

Addicted to CAS - "Mask"

CAS Vellum

The challenge over at Addicted to CAS is vellum, and for once I knew immediately what I wanted to do but it took 3 attempts before I achieved it!

I started off by stamping the Hero Arts flower in Versafine Onyx Black, then heat embossing it with Wow clear embossing powder. I coloured it on the back with Promarkers in Spring Lilac & Peony, then added clear Wink of Stella to the circles on the front. The greeting by Flowersoft was also heat embossed. The difficulty came when trying to adhere the vellum to the card, and I eventually achieved this with some Woodware Miracle Adhesive Film, although I think that may eventually come unstuck too!

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.

Watercolour Sympathy

Sometimes a card just suddenly comes together after a few false starts; this was just such a card.

I stamped the Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms stamp in Antique Linen onto watercolour paper, then coloured it with Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils.

A few ink splashes completed the watercolour look, and the greeting was stamped in olive Yinks ink. Both the main image & the greeting were mounted onto textured olive cardstock. The cross by Papermania was stamped in mid grey ink.

I'm entering this at "101 Watercolor" and "That's Crafty".

Butterflies

This card is based on the sketch at the Clean & Simple challenge 297, but by a happy accident I've just discovered that it also qualifies me for this week's LIM challenge which is to use something recycled. Possibly not CAS enough for LIM, though!

The backing paper is from my stash. The butterflies are cut from the reverse side of some of my previous stamping mistakes! That's the first bit of recycling. The butteflies were stamped then coloured in Promarker to match the backing paper. The white sections have had Anita's Clear Gloss applied to add a bit more dimension, and the largest butterfly has had clear Wink of Stella applied although the photos don't show it.

The greeting is also stamped, and the second bit of recycling is the ribbon, cut from the inside of a blouse and coloured with the same Promarker.

Backing Paper: K-Ology Addison by K & Company

Butterflies: Sizzix/Hero Arts Framelits

Cardstock: Limetree Crafts

Ink: Memento Paris Dusk

Promarker: Pear Green

Greeting: Papertrey Ink

Arigatou!

Last week our 14 year old son - after 2 years of extremely hard work - became a 2nd Dan black belt at karate. Not only that, he improved his points score by 6 over his 1st Dan grading score, so to say Mum & Dad are proud would be a huge understatement! He owes his success in no small measure to a teacher called Steve, who notices the little things that make a big difference, so this card is to say thanks ("Arigatou" in Japanese, apparently!) to him.

I downloaded the image as an SVG from the internet & cut it on my Sizzix Eclips. The stamp, by American Crafts, was inked up in 3 colours of Hero Arts ink then embossed with clear embossing powder. Although the ink is supposed to be quick drying I've found that if I've got everything ready beforehand, the ink stays wet just long enough to emboss it. The background was created using various masks & stamps in second/third generation inking.

 Stamps: American Crafts 59006 Thanks Lg,

Inspired by Stamping Guitars (background splats)

Inks: Hero Arts Soft Granite, Charcoal, Black

Stencil: Crafter's Workshop Mini Punchinella

Two for the Price of One!

I normally only post one card at a time, but today I'm posting two cards, which will be the last ones I'll upload to the Online Watercolour for Cardmakers gallery. The first uses one of the background techniques from day one of the course:

The background uses a stencil I cut on my Sizzix Eclips and Cosmic Shimmer Iridescent Watercolour paint. The glasses were also cut on the Eclips, and the greeting was stamped in Memento Rhubarb Stalk. Here's a picture showing the background a little more closely, although you can't see the sheen of the paint, unfortunately.

The second card also uses the Cosmic Shimmer Iridescent paint, this time on a faux handpainted Hero Arts stamp:

The stems were painted in an olive green colour from my Whispers brush markers set, and I think I'll make this my final entry into the challenge over at Stamping Sensations, where "Anything Goes".

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.

Mother's Day Watercolour

I've seen a number of cards which use white ink for stamping the image, and I decided to try this on kraft card using Inktense pencils as my colouring medium. The ink I used was Hero Arts Unicorn which is the best white ink I've come across & is supposed to be fast drying - not on kraft, it isn't!! This turned out to be a happy accident because after leaving my first stamped image for a day to dry, I found that my watercolouring skills weren't good enough for the more detailed parts of the image, and I kept going over the lines. So I re-stamped & embossed it with clear fine detail powder to make the watercolouring easier.

The colour is Inktense Fuchsia & I returned to the image numerous times to tweak it until I was happy with the result. The greeting is by Clearly Besotted, stamped with Brilliance in Pearlescent Orchid, and the "raindrops" are Viva Decor Glass Effect Gel which I'd dropped onto a craft sheet & left to dry. Another happy accident is that although the overall card design just fell into place, it also happens to be the same as the sketch challenge running this week over at Splitcoaststampers so I'm going to enter it there.

Stamps: Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms CL449, Clearly Besotted Many Messages

Cardstock: Docrafts Kraft, Coredinations Fuchsia Fizz

Ink: Hero Arts Unicorn, Memento Brilliance in Pearlescent Orchid

Derwent Inktense pencil in Fuchsia

Viva Decor Glass Effect Gel "raindrops"

Meiflower Heart

Ribbon from stash

Seaside Watercolour

When I painted the main image for this card the first signs of spring were creeping in & it seemed like summer was on its way. But as I write this, the sky is grey & a cold wind is whistling around the corner of the house so let's hope that's a temporary setback in the weather.

Just lately I've been enjoying doing watercolouring, something my late father would have been very pleased about as he was a very talented watercolour painter. I've got a long way to go before I get to his standard but I've really enjoyed losing myself in the creative process. This image is one by Michael Powell and I've coloured it with Aquamarkers & a fine paintbrush, I really don't get on with waterbrushes as I find they make it more difficult to control the amount of water used.

I added a stamped greeting from Clearly Besotted, some birds by Inkylicious & a few shells (again, Inkylicious), cut out to add a little bit of dimension. I hope I'm not too late to enter this into the challenge over at Virginia's View - take a look, there's some stunning work on there.

Stamps: Michael Powell "Shore Thing"

Inkylicious, Clearly Besotted "Many Messages"

Ink: Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Charcoal

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs, watercolour card unknown

One for the Chaps!

Just one chap in particular - my brother-in-law, in this case, who celebrates his birthday next week.  My husband's first comment on this card is that it's a load of . . . . . well, I'll leave you to work that one out for yourself!!

Believe it or not, this card was my inspiration. The golf ball stamp is by Craft UK,and is quite an old one as I'm trying very hard to find new ways to use my old stamps. The greeting stamp is by Clearly Besotted, from their Many Messages set. I first stamped & embossed one golf ball & the greeting in black, then masked off the centre of the card. I used my Woodware stamp positioner to randomly stamp the golf ball in various Hero Arts Shadow Inks in shades of black & grey. I decided the focal golf ball wasn't quite focal enough, so I used Anita's Clear Gloss to make it stand out a bit more.

I'm entering this into this week's challenge at Less is More.

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs

Stamps: CraftUK and Clearly Besotted "Many Messages"

Inks: Hero Arts Black, Charcoal, Soft Granite Shadow Inks

LIM - One Layer week 158 Take 2

Wonders will never cease - a second entry for the same challenge. Again, the One Layer Anything Goes challenge at Less is More. For reasons I won't bore you with, this card was a very quick one to make.

The butterflies are Hero Arts stamps, masked then sponged over the top using an Imagination Crafts Honeysuckle stencil. The greeting was computer-generated in Craft Artist 2 Professional.

The largest butterfly was stamped onto the card & also onto a piece of vellum, which was then attached & the wings lifted. Although it's difficult to photograph, the smaller butterflies & some detail on the larger butterfly with glittered with some clear Wink of Stella.

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs

Ink: Memento Elderberry

Stencil: Imagination Crafts Honeysuckle

Stamps: Hero Arts

LIM - One Layer week 158

The challenge over at Less is More this week is One Layer, and for once I've got myself organised in enough time to take part! This card is for a French friend whose birthday falls this week, and although she isn't from Paris I know she loves it there so it seemed fitting to try out my recent purchase of some Stampin' Up! stamps with a French theme.

This was my third attempt! The greeting was stamped using individual letter stamps, and my first attempt saw me mis-spelling "Bon" - you'd never guess I got a B in A-level French, would you? My excuse is the number of years since I took it . . . . 

There was lots of masking and inking using my new Hero Arts Blackboard shadow inks which arrived yesterday, before sponging some Distress Spun Sugar over the ticket. Voila!

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Artistic Etchings, 

Crafty Individuals CI-128, 

Kirsty Wiseman for Personal Impressions Alpha Script PICSA6276

Inks: Hero Arts Shadow Inks: Black, Charcoal, Soft Granite

Distress Inks Spun Sugar

Poppy Sympathy Card

Sympathy cards are so difficult but I always think poppies are quite appropriate. This was coloured using dry Derwent Inktense pencils blended with a blender pencil, then masked so I could do the background stamping.

I never intended the script stamp to be so patchy but my first attempt, using the first generation ink, was too dominant so I decided the second generation ink would be better. I'm entering this into this week's challenge at Keep It Simple, where the theme is text.

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm

Stamps: Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms, Inkylicious Script Stamp,

Greeting: Inspired by Stamping

Inks: Memento London Fog

Inktense Pencils

Butterfly Thanks

A few challenges have caught my eye this week. The first is at Stamping Sensations where the inspiration is a picture of poppies. The second is a colour challenge at Less is More, the colours being dark green & rust, and the third is at CAS-ology where the cue is silhouettes. I immediately decided against rust-coloured poppies as they would look like they should be thrown on the compost heap!

Instead I settled on silhouette-stamped poppies with a brayered & script-stamped background on the base card, behind an aperture cut from a piece of card popped up on dimensional glue. The greeting & butterfly were stamped in rust-coloured ink.

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm

Stamps: Artemio 10001023, Inspired by Stamping Fancy Sentiments, Hero Arts, Inkylicious Script

Inks: Adirondack Terracotta, Distress Peeled Paint

Fancy Floral

Another day, another experiment! This time a little bit of parchment craft using some Hero Arts stamps which were an Ebay bargain a few weeks ago.  The smaller flowers were stamped using Memento Elderberry ink on parchment paper, then I drew the white lines in pencil on the front & embossed them from the back. The larger flower was also stamped in Memento Elderberry but this time I embossed between the stamping to create the white on the petals.

The frame & numbers were created in Silhouette Studio, cut out on my Craft Robo Lite then I stamped a few leaves around part of it in white Brilliance ink.  The central cardstock was embossed using Couture Creations Tied Together embossing folder and I decided a few pearls were needed just to balance things out.

Cardstock: White - Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm, lilac from stash.

Stamps: Hero Arts CG303 Luscious Bold Flowers, Inkylicious leaves

Ink: Memento Elderberry, Brilliance White

Papermania Pearls.

Wedding Hearts

I'm rather late posting this, the wedding was a couple of weeks ago now.  As usual it was a rather last-minute rush to make it but apart from the dodgy stamping in the top left corner I think it worked out ok!

Hunkydory cardstock cut with Nestability Hearts.  Background paper & greeting stamped with Hero Arts Two Hearts wedding stamps, small hearts were free with a magazine.