Cards

 I've made a few cards this week, all for reasons you'd prefer not to have for making cards.

First, a card I made for a friend who's due to go into hospital for surgery:

I used a Sizzix die set for the owl, and an Elizabeth Craft set for the oval. The papers are from a magazine. I cut an aperture out of the paper-covered front of the card and placed the mounted owl into the space.

And the inside of the card. Paper is the reverse of the piece I used on the front of the card. Excuse my fingers in the top photo. I couldn't get it to lie flat enough!

And then, a couple of sympathy cards.

In both cards, the focal image is from Lavinia and the sentiment is Woodware. I've also used a couple of Aall and Create stencils, and in the top card, also a Woodware background text stamp. I masked the sentiment panel with removeable tape before adding Distress Ink. The top image was stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear powder. The lower card has the image stamped in Versafine Clair, as were the sentiments in both cards.

International Art and Soul Challenge 62

The challenge for this fortnight is Christmas in July. So, here's your chance to get started on your Christmas cards or gifts, if you haven''t already done that.

I've been playing with a technique for a while - using Tapestry or Majestix stamps or other small stamps from my collection.

And this is another one! The main tree stamp is from Crafty Impressions and I'm afraid I've got no idea who made the bauble stamps. They've been in my collection for years, and I suspect they came from Hobbycraft when I was first trying my hand at stamping.

I've used a Kaleidacolor ink pad for all the stamping. I was lucky enough to find some on sale at Ally Pally in April, and this is one of the new ones  - Fruitcake.The background shading uses Distress Ink.

To finish the card I added some sticky gems to the tree, and ran a clear Sakura Stardust pen around the dotty outline.

International Art and Soul Challenge 61

Our challenge for this fortnight is to use stars and/or stripes in your creation.

I opted to use some stars, and came up with this - an early Christmas card.

I started by stamping the central image. It's a stamp I bought which I believe is from Creative Expressions/U Mount. I coloured the letters with Promarkers. Then, I masked around the sentiment and added some Distress Ink in Scattered Straw and Wild Honey. I stamed some stars: they're mainly from another Creative Expressions set, but the patterned one comes from a magazine freebie from quite a long time ago. The outline stamps were stamped with Memento ink and coloured with Promarkers. The solid stars were stamped with Versamark ink and then I added some Perfect Pearl in gold. To add a little more texture, I added a little more blue ink using a Creative Expressions stamp, and finished the background using an embossing pen and more Perfect Pearl.

I hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 58

The challenge for this fortnight is ecology/environment/conservation. That's quite a wide-ranging theme, and there are lots of possibilities.

I decided to go for a 'weather' theme; something close to my heart coming from the wettest part of the UK (by some measure for some time period.)

The girl and umbrella images are freebies from Creative Stamping magazine and the background was embossed using an Apple Blossom folder.

To add some further detail to the background, I added some Pan Pastel in white to the clouds, some shimmer to the wavy section using a Sakura Stardust pen and some glitter to the raindrops using a Quickie glue pen and some Glamour Dust.

The images took a bit of combining. I wanted the umbrella in the foreground, but I needed the handle to be behind the girl's hand. It took me a couple of goes to get it right, but I finally got something close to right. The only issue was that I had to use a dark colour when colouring the umbrella handle as the end of it wasn't properly masked!

I coloured the result with Promarkers and cut around the combined image.

I do hope you can join us this time!

Stamp Something!

When I first got into papercrafting, I tried stamping and quickly decided (well, not that quickly - I still bought quite a few stamps) that it wasn't for me. Then, I joined the Crafty Cardmakers group and decided to give it another go. Now, it's something I'm starting to enjoy although I still get frustrated from time to time when things don't work the way I expected. Still, I recently got some Oliphant stamps which intrigued me because they've got a figure of a boy and a girl as well as several background elements.

The Crafty Cardmakers challenge this time is to stamp something, so I had a play.



As an additional challenge, we had to try something we hadn't tried before. Well, I tried something I've never had any success at before ... masking so I could add the chair, tree stump and robin.

I coloured with my Promarkers. I'm still getting the hang of them, and I'm finding it easier to get the effect I want but sometimes it still doesn't look the way I expected it to. I suspect that's my total lack of an artistic background coming through.

In the background is some paper from the Paper Cellar and I Wizarded some Co'ordinations card with a Cuttlebug folder and cut a snowflake. Then I added some glitter, a stick on gem and some ribbon.