More Than One Stamp for LIM #174

The challenge this week over at Less is More is to use more than one stamp. Well, for this card I've managed three: the flower image, "Happy" and the dotty background. I've also just realised that I can enter this months "Tags and Scraplings" challenge over at Virginia's View. I *just* qualify because the ribbon is recycled (it was originally on a blouse!)

This was one of those cards where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Still, the end result was more or less exactly what I'd set out to achieve and as it's for my oldest friend it's worth it.

The tag & birthday word (from the Birthday Words set at Miss Kate Cuttables) were cut on my Eclips. The stamped flower was coloured with Promarkers, there's a close-up of it here (and I did re-do the dodgy petal before I sent it!):

Cardstock: Limetree Crafts, Coredinations Fuchsia Fizz

Stamps: Stampin' Up Reason to Smile

Inspired by Stamping Fancy Sentiments

Personal Impressions Marion Emberson Designs Polkadot Background PICSA6186

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid

Promarkers: Peony, Fresh Bloom, Pear Green

Doodlebug Designs Enamel Dots

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

Watercolour Grunge

I'm taking part in an online watercolour class at the moment, and one of the techniques on day 1 was using stencils with watercolours. This was my second attempt and it ended up looking more grungy than I intended, but as I needed to make a card for a teenage boy that was a happy accident! I had intended the finished card to be a little more CAS than it is, but a not-so-happy accident was getting some stray black ink where I didn't want it, so I had to cover that up with grunge stamps.

My first attempt had turned out too pale, so this time I dug out my Whispers brush markers which I haven't used for a couple of years as it belatedly occurred to me that they could be used for watercolouring, and they worked really well. 

Stencil: Mini Punchinella by Balzer Designs

Ink: Hero Arts

Stamps: Greetings - Woodware Large & Small, guitar & grunge - Inspired by Stamping
Backing paper: Bazzill

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.

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

Christmas Catch-up Part 2

This was our son's Christmas card this year. As an avid guitarist the phrase "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" seemed most appropriate.  I was going to cut out the tree & guitar on my new Eclips but ended up doing it by hand (long story!). I got the tree from here then paper-pieced it. The guitar was stamped in Adirondack Red Pepper then glittered with my Wink of Stella clear pen & the rest was done in Craft Artist 2 Professional:

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus

Ink: Adirondack Red Pepper

Stamps: Inspired by Stamping

Silver Wedding - Sketch Saturday #282

I needed a silver wedding anniversary card & decided to play along with Sketch Saturday's current sketch; it didn't take me long to come up with the basic idea but seemed to take forever to work out how to finish it off. I'm still not completely happy with it but it's close enough so I decided to quit while I was ahead!

The numbers were cut on my Craft Robo Lite for my own silver wedding anniversary card to my husband. I used an Inkylicious script stamp with second generation ink for the right hand side, and the greeting stamp was from Inspired by Stamping.

The heart is a Meiflower ribbon buckle but I snapped the central bar off to make it work as a flat embellishment. An arty collage of shots:

Ink: Versacolor Silver

Stamps: Inkylicious, Inspired by Stamping Fancy Sentiments

Bling: MeiFlower

Mirri card from stash

Bowled Over

Cards for my nephews' birthdays all tend to revolve around cricket, and this one is no exception. I don't have very many cricket stamps, though, so I decided it was time I became more inventive with the ones I have got.

The main image was a test of my new Woodware stamp positioner to stamp 4 times without re-inking the stamp in between, therefore using the second, third & fourth generation ink.

The background was created using a mix of background stamps & masks with several generations of ink. It turned out more grungy than I'd intended but I was still quite happy with it.

Cardstock: Coredinations

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Woodware FRCL069, Kaisercraft, Inspired by Stamping.

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