Tuesday, 15 April 2014

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.

Sunday, 6 April 2014

Turquoise Test


A flying visit to the Leigh Craft Show yesterday resulted in, amongst other things, some new cardstock by Limetree Crafts which is billed as good for stamping & Promarkers, so I decided to give it a try. A play with it last night resulted in the card above, which I'm entering into this week's challenge over at Less is More where it's a colour week and the theme is "A Touch of Turquoise" - although this is more than just a touch! The stamps are by Little Claire, the smaller one being another Leigh purchase to match the bigger stamp I've had for a while.

In case anyone's interested in what I thought of the card, this is the smoothest cardstock I've ever come across. I usually use 300gsm and thought that at 280gsm this might be too light for card bases but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it scores and folds well, making a sturdier card base than I expected. My first layer of Promarker colour seemed to be quite light and I discovered that's because there's a fair bit of bleed through to the reverse of the card, but there was no creep sideways over the stamped lines. Blending was extremely easy and I'm not particularly skilled with Promarkers! It's a pretty good white, too, although not quite as good as my previous favourite (Xerox Colotech Plus). You can see a bit more detail in the picture below.

 Stamps: Little Claire Flowerhead
Ink: Memento Teal Zeal
Promarkers: Tulip Yellow, Duck Egg, Cool Aqua

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Watercolour Allium


This card was an experiment with some Reeves watercolour wax crayons I picked up cheap somewhere but had never used. I'd made several failed attempts to create a watercolour background with my Inktense pencils, so dug these out instead. Once the background was dry I stamped an Inkylicious allium which I coloured with a more concentrated form of the paint.
In an effort to maintain the CAS look I simply pierced the edge of the card then stamped the greeting and numbers, finishing off with some bright white pearls from Papermania. I've decided to enter this for Lucky Dip week at Less is More where the theme is "round and round". I'm sure there'll be more inventive entries but never mind!
Stamps: Inkylicious, Personal Impressions (from "Love is the Thread" set)
Inks: Hero Arts, Versacolor Heliotrope
Paint: Reeves Watercolour Wax Crayons
Papermania Pearls