WOYWW 65

I missed WOYWW last week, had a rather shocking visit to the optician for an eye test - geeze the price of varifocals!!! Who ever said old age does not come on it's own must have been thinking about the massive bills for things like that that come with it!  Anyhow after some help from other crafters online I found a better deal on new glasses, which I sorely need, at Tesco..... just a case of getting them made up now.

First pic up today is for Julia - the evil genius behind this regular Wednesday madness and if you want to know how to join in the fun, well all you have to do is visit Julia's Blog.  Thank you Julia for my lovely WOYWW easel that arrived safely last week.  The card was made using a stamp I have been playing with for a forum swap where the theme was "Old Freinds or Latest Purchase"  The "Floral Spray" was one of my first ever Elusive Images stamps and is indeed an old and trusted freind - a lovely image for so many occasions.  While I was making my swap card another idea for using the stamp was kinda bubbling away underneath and this is what happened.... seemed that turning it into a "thank you" card was the right thing to do.  I matted it onto some orange card and thought I would then stamp sort of background on a card blank, but when I went digging in my stash I found that silvery green card that I had forgotten I had, and it just seemed to colour match so well with the leaves in the main image that I decided that leaving it plain was best.

And here's my workspace as I left it at bedtime - sorry the bit of white card on my cutting mat is something I cannot show as it's a Design Team project so I turned it over - but I spend last night colouring the stamped image on the other side with Derwent Inktense Pencils.... mmmm I lurve those pencils. The bottles in the plastic bag are Tinkabella Inks from Graphicus, got an idea for that red colour that's lying on it's side. Behind that some attempts at a brayerd card with a halloween theme... not happy with any of them so not sure that idea will mature into anything worthwhile, but they are there cuz I will probably have another crack at it some time this week.

This is the space to the left of my work area - see I am still being good - no return of the huge piles of stash - I can even have my box of pencils open with both trays available for me to pick colours from! The box of stamps contains the stamps the sets of stamps that I am currently working with, there is more in there than just those house stamps.

Playing with Backgrounds

This card was made for a swap that required a brayered background. The main image is a brayered resist. I stamped first with versamark using stamps by Hero Arts then brayer in the background colour and the Versamark resists the inks. I used an Adirondack Rainbow inkpad (Wild Flower) for the background.

The matting layer is also a fun background technique - I used Cut and Dry foam to blend Distress Inks (Faded Jeans, Dusty Concorde and Vintage Photo) onto some white card in a random way then spritzed this with water. Next I used a fairly wet sponge to dab on gold mica poweder from the Luminarte Polished Pigments range and then spritzed this again - this makes the Distress inks move some more and they carry the mica with them giving a lovely diffused look.

The card base is cream card which I have stamped with the same stamps as used for the main image using the Wild Flowers Adirondack Rainbow pad.

A Sympathy Card

What can I say, these are perhaps the hardest cards we ever have to make because we want them to say so much and yet there are no words that can be said to make things better. I tried to create a mood of calm and peace - I hope I succeeded

The stamps are all from Clarity Stamp, the technique of creating reflections with a Brayer is one I learned some time ago from Clarity's very talented owner, Barbara Gray. Ink pads were all Adirondack dye based inks from Ranger - mostly Mountain Lake which is one of the now sadly discontinued Adirondack Rainbow pads. I added some of the individual colours from that are combined in the rainbow pad around the edges of the card blank -the colours were Stream and Lettuce.

All of a Flutter

This card was made for a swap on Craft Telly forum where the monthly swap theme was All of a Flutter. The background is made in 2 halfs using a brayer, a Kaleidacolor ink pad (Melon Melody) my cuttlebug to emboss the lower half and stamps by Elusive Images to heat emboss the sparkley Dragonflys and butterflys on the top half. All the stamps for that are on the Butterfly Blush themeplate and I used Stamp N Stuff Kaleidascope EP which changes colour when heated.

The main Butterfly is from another Elusive Images theme plate, this time Just Butterflies. The image was stamped using Adirondack ink in Butterscotch, heat embossed with more of the Kaleidascope EP and then painted using Twinkling H2O paints in colours to coordinate with those in the background. This was mounted onto card cut with Nestabilites dies. The ribbon is from Maya Road.

Silhouette Birthday Card

This card was made for a Birthday Swap Group and now that the recipient has seen it I can post it here. The stamps are from Clarity Stamp.

The main image was stamped using dark blue Stazon ink onto some glossy card which I had first coloured with my brayer and Ranger Adirondack Inks. The Bullrushes were stamped onto some light blue card with more of the Adirondack inks. Both layers have been matted onto some silver foil card. The greeting is from a set by Woodware - the set I have shown on this blog a few time, but couldn't recall the maker - I came across them the other day in an online shop so now I know who makes them and very useful those tiny text messages are. The flower and brad are part of a kit which I bought from QVC, they are made by Paper Mania.

Apologies and a Tiddley card

I just want to say sorry to friends who's blogs I have not been visiting a lot recently. My old 'puter was getting very wobbly, dying on it's feet actually. Anyhow I had to nurse it along and avoid having it turned on for too long as it was running too hot and getting ready to fry itself. Thankfully the guys in my local computer shop are very cool guys, they kept my old 'puter running for about a year longer than I had expected and they have now built me a nice new one for not too large a number of pennies. Well not too large in the scale of 'puter stuff, but enough pennies to buy rather a lot of rubber stamps with if I hadn't needed the new 'puter.

Anyhow here is a "tiddly" card I made for a swap on Craft Telly Forum recently - the swap theme was to make a small card.. The card is what we refer to in the UK as A7 size - I know I have some American freinds who drop by occasionally so for you guys the card size is close to 1/4 of your American Letter size card which has then been folded in half to make a little card.

The whole thing was made from a piece of lovely pearlescent Moondust card - the butterfly was cut and embossed from some of the Moondust card with my Cuttlebug using one of those dies that has a matching embossing folder. I brayered some ink over the embossed butterfly using a Kaliedacolor ink pad - Calypso if I remember correctly - and finished by adding some sparkle with Stickles glitter glue.

The layer underneath the butterfly was stamped with a small text stamp which I had inked using the same Kaleidacolor pad and the daisy border at the bottom was stamped and embossed with gold EP then painted with Twinking H2Os. I can't recall who made the littel set of text stamps, but the border comes from a set made by Crafty Secrets. The other matting layer was simply another piece of the moondust card which I had coloured with the brayer in the same way as I coloured the butterfly. I did find it was best to give the ink a gentle heat set on this kind of card.

With a Cuttlebug and a Brayer...

I finally had success with a techinique that I first read about several months ago on my friend Jan's Blog - Far North Designs. The technique was for inking Cuttlebug embossing folders before you pass them through your 'bug. My first attemps were horrible and on the odd occassions I have tried since I was still ending up with a mess. I had been applying ink to the embossing folder direct from my ink pad and things were getting just too inky. Anyhow this time I tried using my brayer to apply the ink - RESULT! I ended up playing for quite a while and created lots of lovely bits of inky embossed designs - this is the card I made with 2 of them.

Both of the embossed bits were inked using my brayer and a Kaleidacolor ink pad - Carribean Sea. The piece for the top half uses a piece of card I had already coloured with the brayer before embossing, once it had been put through the 'bug I ran the inky brayer over it again very lightly to strengthen the colours on the raised embossed areas without squishing the embossing flat again. The bottom section was simply I piece of white card which I had emobssed and then coloured with the brayer.

The rest of the card was so simple, I just chose some lovely vibrant turqoise card from my stash that toned with the colours from the ink pad. Added a little bit of ribbon and a pretty flower and brad. The tag was stamped and embossed with clear EP and then brayerd with more of the Kaleidacolour ink so it would tone in - the clear embossing provided a resist to the inks so the stamped words would show through in white.

I really like the effects I can get with this technique, you can ink first and emboss after, emboss first then ink, or you can do both, and you can apply the ink to either the raised embossed side or the indented debossed side of either your embossing folder or your card - so loads of possibilites! I think my assortment of rainbow style inkpads and brayer are going to be in for a hammering cuz this is just too much fun!

Bluebell Woods for a Floral Challenge

The challenge this week on Theme Thursday is "Flowers". I love bluebells, such pretty colours and delicate flowers, so this stamp from Elusive Images is a favorite. The stamp can be found on the Snowdrop Script Themeplate.

I used green Stazon ink to stamp the image then painted it with Twinkling H2Os. This was matted onto layers of dark blue and lilac card stock from my stash. Next I made the picture of the Bluebell woods using stamps from the Elusive Images Arboretum and Wild Meadow themplates. The background was brayered using Adirondack Dye Inks then the trees and grassy bits were stamped with more of the same inks. Finally the bluebell flowers were added using a mix of stamping with the H2O paints and adding some extra spots of colour with a paint brush.

The card base is some blue card from my stash that has been spritzed with Glimmer Mists over Glimmer Screens. The Bluebell text stamp was stamped over the Glimmer mists using Azure Stazon - the shimmer of the Glimmer Mists still shows through the Stazon.

Forever Autumn

The challenge on Daring Cardmakers this week is "Forever Autumn" so here is my take on the theme.

The card was made by first brayering colour from an Adirondack Rainbow Pad (Woodlands) onto some cardstock, then stamping the leaf image randomly using various autumnal colours of Twinkling H2Os painted directly onto the stamp. This was matted onto some dark green cardstock. Another matting layer was made by spritzing Glimmer Mists onto some orange card stock and that was also layerd onto more of the dark green card. I chose some russet coloured card stock for the main card and used an Elusive Imgages text stamp to stamp and emboss the Just a Note greeting onto it. The stamp is from the Delightful Damask themeplate

Christmas Resist

This card was made using the resist technique where you stamp with versmark, let it dry then apply colour with a brayer. The stamps are by Elusive Images and are from the Kings of the Orient themeplate and the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh themeplate. The colour was brayered on using an Adirondack Rainbow Ink Pad, the Stained Glass one. The paper is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD.

UTEE Card for DCM Mid Week Challenge

It's been a busy week, but I love messing with UTEE so when I saw the midweek extra challenge on Daring Cardmakers I just knew I wanted to play along. The challenge was to stamp into Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). But first I had to cut out my stamps, a full Illuminated Alphabet set from Elusive Images which I bought recently! Anyhow here is my card.

I made the UTEE piece by using an Adirondack Rainbow ink pad to stipple colour on to a piece of chipboard. There are quite a few variatons of there Adirondack pads, the one I was using is called "Noel" Perhaps I should say there were several variations of these ink pads, because I hear that Ranger have discontinued most, if not all of them. Such a shame as they are lovley to use. Once I had coloured my chipboard I covered it with UTEE heated and stamped the word "Noel" using gold Encore Metallic ink into the hot UTEE. Next I mounted my UTEE piece onto some gold foil card.

The matting layer was created by using a brayer and the same Adirondack "Noel" Rainbow pad to colour some glossy card stock which I then stamped and embossed a patten over using detail gold EP and a stamp from the Elusive Images Filigree Fusion themeplate. This was also layered onto more gold foil card. Finally I used the same stamp from the Filigree Fusion Themeplate and the rainbow pad to stamp a background all over some Stardream Pearlescent card and then mounted my elements.

Sorry about the photo, it's a tricky card to get a photo of because the light keeps shimmering of the pearlescent cardstock.

Some More Skinnys

Well life conspired again to keep me away from my craft stash last week - don't you just love it when you think you have lots of free time and things just happen! Oh well that's the way the cookie crumbles, maybe this week I can have a bash at making some cards for Fab's Christmas Challenge. I want to join his "nutters" this time and try to make 6. But first I have been making more skinnys for the swap list with a floral theme which I joined. The swap is organised by Craft Swap Forum.

From the left the first skinny was made using a stamp which is a limited editon stamp from Elusive Images and made avaiable to members of the Graphicus Guild. I stamped this with Black Stazon then painted the flowers with Twinkling H2Os, allowing the colours in the flower to bleed a litte into each other. The edges are inked with some Violet ink from a Petal Point pigment ink pad.

The middle skinny was made using a brayer and masking technique. The stamp is from the Laura Ashley Contemporary Collection. First I stamped my image onto my card stock using a Kaleidacolor ink pad (Desert Heat), next I stamped the image again twice onto a post-it note and cut the images out to create masks. The masks were then placed over the original stampings and I used a brayer to create my background this time using the Fresh Greens Kaleidacolor ink Pad.

The third skinny on the right was made with some Moondust Pearlecent card - I love the shimmer on that card. First I used a sponge to blend in 2 colours of inks which would work well with the Prima Flowers from the "Stone Rose" collection. The inks were from an Adirondack Rainbow pad called Stained Glass. I used the same ink pad to ink a stamp from Clarity Stamp and stamp the leafy background. Finally I stuck on the Prima Flowers and added a gem in the center of each.

Hubby's Birthday and Our Anniversary

These occasions both fall in June. Last year my card for hubby's birthday was a disaster and I mean a serious disaster - my first attempt at using a brayer and it all went horribly wrong and kept doing so no matter how many times I tried. Anyhow this year I think I managed to produce something better.

My Anniversary Card to hubby was made using 2 heart shaped stamps and a text stamp from the Elusive Images Damask Hearts themeplate. I stamped and embossed the hearts in clear onto white card stock then used pigment inks in 3 shades of blue to achieve a resist effect then cut them out. The background was made with a brayer and Adirondack Dye inks - Denim and Stonewashed. I was hoping for something romantic for an anniversary, but not too soppy and girly.

Hubby's birthday card I have posted details of how I stamped the image before, but here it is again mounted onto a card now. Umm this time at least hubby's only complaint was it was a bit squint... it is too! Maybe one of these days I will master the art of sticking stuff down straight, but until then I shall carry on insisting that "squintness" is a highy desirable and unique feature of a hand made card.

World Stamping Week - my first Challenge attempt

I heard about this even from Jan (Far North), it's organised by Two Peas in a Bucket and sounded like a lot of fun so I went to take a look. WOW!! Loads of fun challenges to attempt this week. This is my first - the challenge was "Naked Stamping" - use only ink and stamps to create your project - no printed papers, diecuts etc.

For this card I created a background using a brayer and Kaleidacolor ink pad (Cappuccino Delight) and edged round it with Brilliance Galaxy Gold. The flowers were stamped using stamps from the Elusive Images "Big Flowers" themplate with Archival Black ink and coloured by sponging on colour from a Kaleidacolor pad (Desert Heat) and also some Distress Ink (Mustard Seed). The flowers were cut out and mounted on foam pads - the edges of the flowers have been cuved over the back of mu scissors to give a little more dimension and to help conceal the foam pads underneath.

I had fun making this and hope I can find time to fit in a few more of the World Stamping Week Challenges. Take a look at the Two Peas site, there is lots going on - just visit the message board and choose General Stamping - posts relating to the challenge all start with WSW in the thread title - you need to look for the WSW Master Thread to get all the information about taking part.

Skinnys with a Floral Theme

I joined a swap list recently to swap skinnys, the theme for the swap is "floral" and these are my first three makes for the swap.

From the left the first one was made using a Kaleidacolor inkpad (Pastel)to brayer the background. I was curious to see how this would turn out on porous cardstock so I used 200gsm artist's cartridge paper. It's not as smooth a finish as obtained using coated cardstock but I like it. I the stamps are from and Inkadinkadoo set called "Bohemian Flourish and were stamped with Versfine Onyx Black ink. The white highlights were added with a Sakura Souffle Pen. The finished result was edged with a sliver Pentouch pen and mounted onto black card.

In the middle skinny I used a stamp from the Laura Ashley Contemporary set. I stamped the image twice onto damp watercolur paper. Before stamping I had spritzed the paper with water and then rolled a clean dry brayer over it to make sure it was evenly damp. With this done I first stamped the image using a Kaleidacolor Pad (Desert Heat)the inks bled on my damp paper just a little, blurring the image as I had hoped. Once this was dry I stamped over it again using an Adirondack Pad (Cappucino), this time leaving a much sharper impression as the paper was dry. Finally I made my background layer by sponging ink onto my card using various shades from the Kaleidacolor Desert Heat Pad, and then stamped one of the Inkadinkadoo Bohemian Flourish Stamps around the edge.

The skinny on the right was made using another Kaleidacolour pad (Fresh Greens) to brayer the background. This time I added spritzes of Memories Mist in Mango Lemonade, Orange Juice and Amaretto. I used a stamp from the Elusive Images Wild Meadow Themeplate with Versafine Onxy Black ink and used a Sakura Clear Glaze Pen to colour the and give it some dimension. Finally I edged this with a gold Pentouch pen and mounted it on black card.

On a final note, today I received a lovely surprise with which I hope to make something tonight. If it works out I will share this fun technique tomorrow.

Black Colour Challenge Card

I got some new ink pads yesterday, they are Kaleidacolour pads which are a rainbow effect pad. I have already got some of these and they are fun to play with. Today's card is one I made using the one of these pads, the pad is called Desert Heat, scrummy hot oranges and reds!

First I brayered my background using the Kaleidacolor pad, then I stamped some flower stamps from Lavinia Stamps using Versfine Black Onyx ink. I was using a glossy coated card stock and this was my first mistake - the Versafine does not seem to dry on the none porous card and it smudged long after I thought it was dry... oh well back to the drawing board. I started again recreating my background with the brayer, but this time I used Ranger's Black Archival Ink to stamp my flowers - success - no more smudges! I then trimmed the edges and ran the Archival pad round them, mounted this onto some gold foiled card and then stuck it onto some glossy black card stock. I rather like the result. Sorry about the photo, it's kind of tricky to get a good photo of glossy card.

Another Graphicus Guild Limited Edition Stamp

This is another of the Graphicus Guild Members' Limited Edition Stamps which some of us who were at a recent workshop were allowed to purchase early! I think this one may be my favourite.

I have used water colour paper for this project, spritzing it lightly with water as I wanted to see what happened when the paper was already damp before the ink was applied. The inks were Adirondack inks applied with a brayer. First I stamped the image onto some scrap paper and then tried to tear fairly accurately along the line of the hills in the background. Once I had torn this I had a mask which let me apply the green Airondack ink (Bottle) to the bottom and leave an edge which would match the skyline created by the hills. I then used the other peice of paper I had torn to mask my newly created skyline, and a second torn edge just a few centimetres above that to create the deeper yellow area of the sky using Adirondack Butterscotch ink. Next I removed all the torn paper masks and added more ink to the top. At this stage it had not turned out as well as I had hoped. I had been looking for a softer more mellow effect, so I decided I had nothing to loose by spritzing more water onto it to see what would happen. So I did, I spritzed rather a lot actually and the paper was now very wet but I could see that under the water I was getting a result. I got some kitchen towel and blotted my paper to get rid of the excess water and was really pleased to see I now had the background I wanted! Finally, once my paper was dry or at least nearly so, I inked up the stamp with Adirondack ink (Espresso) and lined it up with the paper so as once I had stamped it the top edge of the hills would match fairly closely to the skyline I had created. I like the fact that the texture in the water colour paper has left a kind of mottled effect on the trunks of the trees as I think it creates the look of the bark you see on Silver Birch trees.

I have not put this on a card yet, as I can't quite make up my mind what to use with the image which is just a little under A6 in size. If anyone has any ideas about what would look good leave me a comment. I often get stuck when I have stamped something I really like because I find it hard to decide what other things will be worthy of my stamped image.