Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 259

The theme for this challenge is Masculine and other that that, we'd love to see whatever your creativity comes up with.

I made a couple of birthday cards. The first is for my husband.

I started with a piece of mixed media paper, and added some Brusho ink. Then I stamped a Woodware stamp using Versafine Clair ink and matted the result onto some white card. The blue layer was cut at both sides using a very old Spellbinders border die, and the holes filled with some stick on studs from The Range which I really like as they're decorative but not so blingy as adhesive gems.

I liked the effect so much, I decided to try again with different colours for my daughter's partner.

This time, I kept to just two colours of Brusho, and again I matted on to white. Then, I added two die cuts from another very old Spellbinders die to complete the effect.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 85

The challenge for this fortnight is Under the Sea and can be anything so long as there is an under-sea theme.

My immediate thought when I saw this challenge was to reach for my Josephine Wall Enchanted Dreams CDRom. Having said that, there weren't so many under sea images there, but I found one that's lovely and went with it.

I love the images on that CDRom, but I'm generally disappointed by the background papers supplied - they always seem rather plain and drab compared to the gorgeous, vibrant images. This time, I decided to make my own but not using digital means. I started with my 6in gelli plate. I added an all-over layer of Distress Ink, and printed it on to copy paper. Then, I chose a stronger, bluer shade and again applied a layer to the plate, but before printing to paper, I used a stencil to remove areas of ink. The result was the wavy pattern. I wanted to add a subtle hint of seaweed, so the next stage was to use a stencil of long fronds (from Crafter's Companion) and I added Distress Oxide ink through that. The result was definitely subtle! To get the stronger shades at the edges of the background, I stamped with Versacraft Ink. That's the most opaque of the inks I own, and it definitely gave the desired effect. I used some Creative stamps for this. They're supposed to be watercolour greenery images, but I think they pass for a stylised sea weed!

And, apart from some matting and layering, that's it.

I do hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 258

The theme for this fortnight's challenge is Weddings! Now, most years, this would be a hard theme for me as almost no one I know ever gets married. But this year, a former colleague is getting married to her long time partner, and I made this:

I started with a Brusho background in blues and purples. However, they were too bright for a wedding card, so I added a layer of tracing paper which I heat embossed in silver. If you've never tried this, let me tell you, it's brilliant! It worked better than I could have expected.

Not a great photo, and of course I covered up a lot of it! But I was very impressed.

Edited: Of course, the wedding has had to be postponed due to the Covid19 Pandemic. So, there'll be another wedding card to do when they fix the date!

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 84

The theme for this fortnight is Humour. Like many things, humour is very much a personal taste - and as a result I rarely use it in the cards I make. So, this is a struggle for me and so the humour is very gentle, and perhaps some people won't even see it as humour.

The bar of chocolate was made using lots of squares, cut using a Spellbinders die. I've layered a base piece of card, then a sticky pad, then a die cut piece, then and other sticky pad and finally a last die cut piece. I attacked the edges of the sticky pads with a Promarker in Umber so the white edges didn't detract from the end result. I finished by wrapping the 'bar' in cooking foil, then tearing off a strip.

The sentiment was computer generated in Photoshop Elements and printed on to kraft card, and the paper is a rather lovely foiled craft paper from The Works.

I do hope you can join us this time.