Tuesday 30 August 2016

Retro Rubber 46 - Guest Design Card

One of the many lovely things about Retro Rubber Challenge is that it lets you get out your old stamps and rediscover why you loved them in the first place. Stampin Up Aviary was the second set I got. Ever. I suppose that technically it was first equal since I got it in the same order as another set but I think of it as second. Anyway this critter challenge had me reaching for it. Birds are critters, right? They were certainly the only critters in my old stamps pile!



These quirky little birds, along with the owl  - who does not appear here - are just adorable, especially when paired up with the birdcages in the set. But in this card, they're roaming free.




The 'Just Because' comes from a set called A Dozen Thoughts, which retired with the last catalogue and I've had since it first came out. The curly font appealed to me and I couldn't help but use it as a perch for the smallest bird critter. Thank you, stampamajig, for letting me get that right!


Somehow, I managed to channel the challenge graphic because it wasn't until I came to write up this post that I realised the background of this card owes a lot to the graphic in both colour and style! I masked off the strip, sponged it with Cucumber Crush and Delightful Dijon and flicked it with water to lift some of the colour. I thought about adding in some more to the silhouette but in the end, less is more.

So, in the end a simple, quirky-critter general purpose card.

Ingredients
Card: Cucumber Crush, Watercolour paper
Stamps: Stampin Up Aviary and A Dozen Thoughts
Inks: Cucumber Crush, Delightful Dijon, Tuxedo Black
Other: Cucumber Crush baker's twine, sponges and water.

Monday 29 August 2016

Pals Paper Arts 315

Last night in bed, I planned in my head a card for the colour challenge at Pals Paper Arts which was going to use the beautiful Dapper Denim ruched ribbon.


This morning, all was going well until I reached for the ribbon only to discover that I'd never actually purchased any. The Plan B I never knew I had came into action instead!




I used the one of the new Seasonal Masks from the soon-to-be Holiday Catalogue to create a ground for the flower using Old Olive and So Saffron. My missing ribbon was replaced with a strip of Dapper Denim embossed with the Seaside embossing folder. So while it didn't quite turn out as I'd planned, it's still turned out well.

Ingredients
Card: Dapper Denim, So Saffron, Whisper White, scrap of Old Olive
Stamps: Wild about Flowers, Thoughtful Banners
Inks: Old Olive, Dapper Denim, So Saffron
Other: Seasonal decorative mask, Seaside embossing folder, Thoughtful Banner punch, So Saffron enamel dot, sponges, dimensionals.


Saturday 27 August 2016

Freshly Made Sketches 251

This week's Freshly Made Sketch was perfect for a baby boy card I wanted to make with a set I haven't used nearly enough, Best Birds.

For this card, I've rotated the sketch and also broken out the watercolour paper so I could use ink washes to colour my bird.


The background vellum is embossed with copper using the hessian textured stamp. It both picks up the light and the copper embossing on the sentiment.



Ingredients
Card: Soft Sky, Watercolour paper, Vellum, scrap of Calypso Coral
Stamps: Best Birds
Inks: Soft Suede, Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Versamark
Other: Copper embossing powder, Burlap ribbon, Sparkle embossing folder, Soft Suede marker, dimensionals, Clear embossing powder





I

Friday 26 August 2016

CAS Colours and Sketches 188

The beautiful clean sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches this week lent itself nicely to a Christmas card I'd been thinking of.


I've rotated the sketch and used the tree from Thoughtful Branches as the focal point of the card.




Update: Delighted to be a Top Pick at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Gold foil, scrap of Gold glimmer paper
Stamps: Thoughtful Branches, Embellished Ornaments
Inks: Soft Suede, Garden Green, Versamark
Other: Gold embossing powder, Holly embossing folder, dimesionals, Mini-treat bag thinlits (for the star), Oval framelits


Thursday 25 August 2016

Global Design Project 50

With Father's Day just around the corner, I was on the look-out for a sketch that might lend itself to one for my extremely lovely father-in-law. For me, that pretty much meant it had to be compatible with the now retired Going Global stamps. Global Design Project's sketch came to the rescue.

That big textured block in the sketch got me thinking of embossing folders and that also lead me back to the World Traveller folder that matched that stamps. I got to playing with it.



The folder was inked with Marina Mist, then run through the Big Shot. I sponged the land areas with Crumb Cake and Soft Suede, while the oceans got some dabbings of Dapper Denim. Some coastlines were given an outline with Soft Suede marker to define them further. The latitude and longitude lines I sponged in Soft Suede, then rubbed with Versamark.  Then I applied gold powder, which I allowed to randomly go onto other map parts too. 

I made a card similar to this once before, but with different colours, and they're a lot of fun. For quite a while it just looks like one BIG mess that ought to end up in the bin but eventually it all comes together in a satisfying manner.

Then to complete the aged map look, I took to the background with Timeless Textures and Soft Suede on Soft Suede.



The compass was coloured in Dapper Denim and Soft Suede, sponged around the edges with Soft Suede and the rim run through Versamark and gilded.

Ingredients
Card: Soft Suede, Whisper White, scraps of Dapper Denim and Very Vanilla
Stamps: Going Global, Timeless Textures
Inks: Marina Mist, Dapper Denim, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Versamark
Other: World Traveller embossing folder, Gold embossing powder, Dapper Denim and Soft Suede markers, dimensionals, sponges, 2" circle punch, Dapper Denim enamel shape





Saturday 20 August 2016

Freshly Made Sketches 250

It seems way too early to be thinking about Christmas but when my pre-order holiday catalogue box arrived, it seemed that I was destined to start working on Christmassy things. The sketch at Freshly Made Sketches lent itself to an idea that I wanted to explore using the beautiful background stamp, Merry Medley.


So, here it is.


With the abundance of sentiment already present, I opted to leave out the sentiment suggested in the sketch. The Christmas wreath was made by layering up some of the Swirly Scribbles dies, leaves from the same set and some feathery leaves from Botanical  Builders.




Simple, but cheerful and Christmassy.

Ingredients
Card: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, scraps of Gold Foil, Garden Green and Cucumber Crush
Stamps: Merry Medley
Inks: Cherry Cobbler
Other: Cherry Cobbler thick baker's twine, Enamel shapes


Thursday 18 August 2016

GDP49 and Casology Dream

I was on Facebook chatting with some crafters the other day about favourite challenges. This card is inspired by two of them, even though I don't play them as often as I'd like.

Global Design Project has a lovely colour challenge and Casology's cue word is 'Dream.'



An interesting couple of things to combine really. Add into the mix that tonight, after my Thursday card class, I wanted to play with Touches of Texture because that's my featured set next month - and I just like it a lot! So, here's where I ended up:



The masked and sponged strip has been flicked with water to lift some of the ink. Pear Pizzazz at the bottom leads up through to the Daffodil Delight, leading the eye from the earth upwards to the sun and the bee taking flight: a kind of visual journey to support the sentiment. The lacy pattern splats run through from horizontal to vertical up to the sun and bee also to lead the eye upwards.


The bee's wings and the flower centres have a wee coat of clear Wink of Stella, not so visible in the photo.


And a little peek inside...


Ingredients
Card: Flirty Flamingo, Whisper White, Watercolour paper
Stamps: SU Touches of Texture, Clearly Besotted Say It In Style.
Inks: Pear Pizzazz, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Tuxedo Black
Other: Wink of Stella, Pear Pizzazz marker, sponges, spritzer.





Monday 15 August 2016

Freshly Made Sketches 249

I'm under some time pressure tonight for two reasons. Firstly, a friend and I had a bit of a crafting day on Saturday and lent each other some sets to play with. I promised to give her sets back to her this morning, so feel I really need to give it back to her in tomorrow morning. Secondly, in playing with Jar of Love I ended up making a card for Freshly Made Sketches and it's closing very soon! It's also very late and past my bedtime.





I think we'll swap again - but maybe Jar of Love needs a longer visit!

Update: Utterly delighted to be a Freshly Made Princess at Freshly Made Sketches!



Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Soft Sky
Stamps: Jar of Love
Inks: Tuxedo Black, Soft Sky, Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi.
Other: Everyday Jars framelits, Pearls, Sweet Sugarplum ruched ribbon, dimensionals.





Tuesday 9 August 2016

Create with Connie and Mary 418

Oh, such a beautiful colour combination at Create with Connie and Mary! I'm still in my "I can't get enough of Thoughtful Branches" phase and this combination seemed just perfect for it.




You could almost say that I just couldn't resist...

Ingredients
Card: Sweet Sugarplum, Mint Macaron, Whisper White
Stamps: Thoughtful Branches
Inks: Sweet Sugarplum,  Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron, Versamark
Other: White embossing powder, sponges, Affectionately Yours washi tape, Sweet Sugarplum ruched ribbon, dimensionals, a pearl






Monday 8 August 2016

Retrorubber 44 CTS184 Casology Watercolour

The colour challenge at Retrorubber this week worked exactly as I imagine it was intended to. The gorgeous colours made me think of watery pools with leaves floating on them, which made me think of one of the first ever stamp sets I ever got - French Foliage. My children got it for me for Christmas the year I discovered Stampin' Up, so maybe three catalogues ago. Certainly a set more than a year old!






The sentiment is also more than a year old as I bought it second hand at a retired stamp sale in February.

The background watercolour started out as a colour wash in a masked area. Once the tape was removed, I stamped and embossed the leaves then added in more accents of colour to accentuate them. Finally, I overstamped using the script and splatter stamps from the same set. And then, the sequins started begging to be included.

I do think the result does give the idea I started with - a deep, cool pool of water and leaves floating.

I was also inspired by the sketch challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch, which I just couldn't quite get out of my head. The resulting card is perhaps not as CAS as I usually go for but I had such a great time making it, I'll enter it anyway. And the same goes for the Watercolour challenge at CAS-ology.



Update: So very delighted to be a Top Pick at Retrorubber and to get a guest designer offer as well!

Ingredients
Card: Pacific Point, Whisper White, Cucumber Crush, Watercolour paper.
Stamps: French Foliage, Four You
Inks:Pacific Point, Cucumber Crush, Versamark
Other: Copper embossing powder, aqua painter, dimensional, random sequins.




Sunday 7 August 2016

Fab Friday 93

The winter storms and cold temperatures continue and sadly, it's back to work tomorrow. Still, it was much better in my craft room today with electricity - so there was light and heating and embossing ability again! This morning I spied the sketch challenge at Fab Friday and have used that as inspiration for this card which is part of my continuing fascination with the Thoughtful Branches bundle.




Having made a similar sort of card recently, and  having spent a lot of time cutting up dimensionals into micro-dimensionals, I decided to just cut two extra layers of the flower heads to add in some dimension instead.


I added in some copper embossed flower centres to tie in with the washi tape that I've edged the cut-down Lots of Labels die with.

Update: Delighted to be picked in the  Fab Four at Fab Friday.

Ingredients
Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Watermelon Wonder, Pop of Pink DSP
Stamps: Thoughtful Branches
Ink: Tuxedo Black, Watermelon Wonder, versamark
Other: Copper embossing powder, Thoughtful Branches thinlie dies, Lots of Labels dies, Affectionately Yours washi tape, dimensionals.




Friday 5 August 2016

Pals Paper Arts 312

Friday night at home feels extra specially good when the wettest, coldest weather of the whole winter is raging outside. I nipped into my craft room after work (once the heating had kicked in) to make something for the sketch challenge at Pals Paper Arts. I love this sketch! So many possibilities...


I was very late to the Thoughtful Branches party but my set arrived last week and I'm in love with it! So I've used it here for this challenge as I'm still in experimental mode with it.


One leaf is silver glimmer paper, one is cut from paper that has been sponged with Bermuda Bay. The two small leaves have been stamped using the new ombre stamp pad, which is a real favourite of mine.



The rhinestones pick up the bling of the silver accents and reflect the shapes of the patterned paper and the roundness of the font.

Update: So delighted to be a Top Pick at Pals Paper Arts!

Ingredients
Card: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, scrap of Winter Wonderland specialty DSP from a couple of years ago, silver glimmer paper.
Stamps: Thoughtful Branches
Inks: Bermuda Bay, Bermuda Bay ombre pad, versamark
Other: Beautiful Branches thinlits, silver embossing powder, circle framelits, silver cord, dimensionals, rhinestones, sponges.