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Sunday, August 27, 2023

Poppies and Texture

Welcome

Thank  you for taking the time to visit.

Do you ever start a project with one idea in mind, and end up with something totally different?  That is what happened with this card!!  I won't bore you with all the details of how it morphed to this, but I will say I am very happy with this outcome!


The poppy is an old Memory Box Prim Poppy die cut

The dark background layer was embossed using an old Sizzex folder


The bow is a NBUS from earlier in the year, again from Memory Box, the sentiment stamp was a magazine freebie, stamped in Memento Paris Dusk ink, and the banner shape hand cut


The poppies were cut from white card, and coloured with so AI markers, and then had several layers of Wink of Stella applied for sparkle, which can just be seen in the upper flower


The inside was adorned with some washi tape, and until I saw the photos, didn't realise that the tape in the centre of the white card must have wrinkled and buckled the card
  
  

I used the negative of the die cut to 'stencil' some poppies onto the envelope.

I am linking this to:



Friday, August 25, 2023

Bookmarks Recycled

Welcome
Thank you for taking time to visit 
Don't quite know what has happened to this week - it has whooshed by at the speed of light.
(or maybe my age is telling, and time is moving faster than me?)

Onto the card, while I have time to be here...
I recently came across some bookmarks - they display part of a piece of canvas work by Linda Ingles called Canvas Again, and it featured on the bookmarks used by the Association of New Zealand Embroiderer's Guilds.
They were unusable due to the 'contact' information on the back being out of date.


I started by trimming off the dark green sides of the bookmark, shortening them and fiddling around until I was happy with the placement on the card.
I used one of the side trimmings down the 'spine' of the card


The sentiment was embossed in rich green ep after I had positioned the pieces, but before I adhered them.  The card looked fairly stark, so I decided on some butterflies, and when I went to get the die out of its pocket, I discovered the gold one there.  I then matched some sparkle card to the greens and die cut some more .
I ran the edges of the cut pieces over the ink pad, and then as I adhered them, smudged ink onto the card front.  I didn't want to start over, so out came the sequins!!


The inside was finished with some green sparkle scotch tape and another deep green side trimming


I had originally cut three green butterflies, so decided to use one on the envelope


The envelope had some of the green ink brushed onto it, then I sprayed it with some green and gold mica sprays before adhering  the butterfly flat onto it. 


I know the recipient loves butterflies and sparkle, so I think this card will be a hit.

I am linking this to:
The butterflies were cut from snippets


Sunday, August 20, 2023

Leafy Sympathy

Welcome
Thank you for taking the time to visit

I decided to update my Sympathy card stash, as it has got a bit low of late.
I had the idea to use autumnal tones and my tiny maple leaf stamp, so that was  my starting point


I 'inked' the stamp with my watercolour crayons, spritzed and stamped... it took a bit of trial and error before I got a panel of leaves I was happy with


I laid everything out, and decided that the base was too stark, although the colour was what I wanted, so I embossed it with a magazine freebie embossing plate that had sat around for years.
The result was 'okay', but just, after several passes through the Cuttlebug.  
Don't think I will be using it again...  it may end up in file 13...

I mounted that panel, and the gold embossed sympathy panel on orange, and then gold papers.



Friday, August 18, 2023

Masculine Balloon Mix-up

Welcome

I didn't think I would get this post up in time at one point - the kitten chewed through the Fibre Optic cable this morning, and 'killed' the internet.  
Thankfully a technician came sooner than expected, and all is now well!!

This is my card for my mid-month post for We Love Stamping August Challenge , where the optional theme this month is to make a masculine card.


I decided to have a play with mixed media, loosely following this tutorial by Lou Collins
I started with a full A4 page of mixed media paper, torn out of a book, and decided to make the one background, then split it, and make a masculine and a feminine card. 

I started using the mixed media paper. Oops, should have been the water colour paper as recommended, as the inks (mixed DI and Dox inks) didn't play nicely and I ended up with some unexpected pink tones.   

Next was a layer of stencilling using a texture paste and an Altenew stencil - I obviously didn't let the page dry long enough, and the past took the colour of the inks... 


Next step was to cut the page in half to make a background  - as it was the masculine card I was working on, I decided to leave the torn edge on for more visual texture
I then stamped the page with a random texture stamp that looked like a tyre print
I  took a stamp with some script on it, and stamped it on some scraps of white card, then die cut it using a small hexagon  die. I then edged them all with the same grey ink I had used for stamping.
Next ingredient was some Washi tape, randomly placed on the surface. 


I then stamped the balloon, fussy cut it and ran a black pen around the edge
The hexagons and balloon were mounted using foam dots.
The sentiments were from various stamp sets, stamped onto white card, trimmed out and mounted before adhering the completed panel to the black base card


The inside was finished with a trimming from the main panel


The envelope was sprayed with some blue mica spray, and the balloon stamped 'off the edge' directly onto the blue area. 
Over-all there was a lot of mixing in this card - mediums, stamp sets, inks, etc
The card was well received. 

I am linking this to:




Thursday, August 17, 2023

All The Bright Colours.........

Welcome.
Thank you for taking the time to visit

The theme for this month's swap in the wee (N.Z.) group I am in was to use bright colours, "all the colours of the rainbow", but not necessarily a rainbow, or in rainbow order!"
This because of the looooong, and very wet, dull, winter we have had. 

I mulled over it for several days, and then thought my brightest colours would be an Alcohol Ink background, so that was my starting point, and I made three, and chose this one, that I realised later actually has all the colours of the rainbow present!!


I then had to figure out how to use it.... another few days later I came across this NBUS die from Simon Says Stamp and I was away - QACAS I thought - white on the background - nope, it got lost.


So out came snippets from my "one day I will use this" file, and I ended up paper piecing the petals and leaves, then coating the petals with Wink of Stella


The sentiment was a Magazine Freebie (NBUS again) stamped on a white snippet in Memento Danube Blue ink and trimmed into to double fishtail banner, and edged with the same blue.


A trimming was used for the insert decoration, all edged with the same blue ink.


The focal panel was layered over blue, which was another snippet from my file, and them mounted on the yellow.  Another trimming adorned the envelope.

I am linking this to:



Saturday, August 12, 2023

NBUS Stash Busting!

Welcome
Thank you for taking the time to visit.
I recently made a card using some relatively new purchases...


The die is Tulip Border Die1 from Paper Rose - I had seen it somewhere online and fell  in love with it.  Not always a good idea to impulse buy, as when I got it, I drew a blank as to how to use it... 
The stencil is a Uniko one, Mod Background Builder, and again I was a bit lacking in inspiration, 
but then... I looked up Paper Rose and saw a couple of samples using the die, and then spotted my stencil on my desk and creativity flowed.

I started by positioning the stencil roughly where the open parts of the die cut would sit, and inked it up trying to make the colours correspond with the die cut.  I also 'lengthened' the die to fit my card by moving it part way through inking. I also inked the edges of that panel to give a border for the top layer


After I had adhered the die cut over the base, I added Wink of Stella to the flowers - you can just see the sparkle in the left hand flower above


I added the sentiment using a stamp from the Altenew Label Love set, and popped it up on foam dots
After many false starts, I have found the best way to stamp these is repeatedly, using minimal ink each time - my Misti gets a workout with these !!


The inside was decorated using three different washi tapes 


Thursday, August 10, 2023

Dragonfly Birthday

Welcome

I made this card some time ago, and forgot to blog it... 


The dragonfly stamp is huge, but beautiful - it is very intricate in it's detail.  
Not sure of the maker as it came in an unmarked package.


I stamped and embossed it  in silver detail ep on patterned paper.  
It was then painted with twinkling H2Os.


Although the paint doesn't show well on the wings, I did use a pale purple on them - the detailing is amazing.


Sunday, August 6, 2023

Chugging Along

Welcome

Thank you for taking the time to visit
The challenge at We Love Stamping this month is
Anything Goes with an option of Masculine.

I made this card for a youngster who lives on a farm.


I used a 'mop-up' background, for which I had used some textured card, 


 I stencilled across the bottom of the card as a grounding for the tractor


The tractor was stamped, embossed and coloured and die cut and popped up on foam dots.
The Vintage Tractor stamp and die set is from  Paper Rose.   


The sentiment from the set was stamped and embossed on white card, 
then  die cut and edged with brown ink.

From memory I used a trimming from the background panel to 'decorate' the inside of the card.

I am linking this to:

(there are stripes in the background)


Friday, August 4, 2023

A Birthday Bicycle

Welcome
Thank you for taking the time to visit.
I am not quite sure where the last five days have gone, but I am now back... 


This card was made for a woman who loves going on cycling holidays/treks - don't think the flowers would be going on holiday, but they are acceptable for a birthday :)


The birthday banner was tied using a piece of fine, sparkly thread, to one end of the banner, and under the saddle of the bike. 


The tulips were cut using  a Gummipan die from white card, and then water coloured, the basket came with the bike die, and it, and the bike, were also water coloured


The sky was created using some mica spray, as was the grass - I simply masked the two parts as I sprayed... you can see some of the glimmer on this photo, and also above the tulips.  The less than perfect 'join' of the colours was masked with ribbon, to suggest a road... 
The focal panel was mounted over silver paper, then onto the dark blue base.


The inside was finished with some shiny Washi tape


The envelope was finished with a row of wee bicycles stamped in grey ink using an old Hero Arts stamp.

I am linking this to: