Spring Snowdrop

The challenge this week on Daring Cardmakers is Feeling Green and challenges cardmakers to use lots of green on their card.

My card uses a stamp from Elusive Images and was stamped with Forest Green Stazon then painted with Twinkling H2O's. I edged the image with some lighter shades of green from a ColourBox Queue that has an assortment of green shades in it. I made a shimmery green background layer by blending a little more of the green inks onto some white card then spritzing with Glimmer Mists in green and yellow. The Snowdrop word stamp is from the same Snowdrop Script themeplate as the flower image and was stamped in green pigment ink then heat embossed using a clear pearl Cosmic Shimmer EP that has a green mica sparkle to it once heat set.

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

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.

Brrrrrr......Freezing

I am still working on the "nutters" challenge for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge this month. As June is the sixth month Fab's "nutter's" challenge for June is to make not just one Christmas card as is required for the regular challenge, but six! Not sure if I will manage all six, but every card I do make just now means less pressure for me at the end of the year. Last year I found that the pressure to make enough Christmas cards was actually taking away a lot of the pleasure in making, so I am not too worried if I don't manage all 6 this month so long as I am enjoying making the ones I do make. I will be that much closer to having all the cards I need for Christmas 2008 ready in plenty of time. If you haven't started making your Christmas cards yet, why not join in with Fab's challenge, you don't have to go for the "nutter's" one, for the regular challenge all you need to do is make a single Christmas card - and you never know you might find yourself in festive mood and make more - not a bad thing to have some cards made nice and early if you always need a lot of hand made cards for family and freinds at Christmas.

Fortunately I found some more inspiration in another challenge this week. Daring Card Makers Challenge is entitled "Brrrrrr.......Freezing" and the brief is to make a card that is inspired by images, colours, embellishments - anything that makes you think of feeling cold and reminds you of winter. Anyhow here is my "chilly" card!

The Snowman stamp is from Visible Image and has been stamped in Black Archival Ink then coloured with Prismacolor pencils. The shimmery snowflake background was made by sponging blue dye based ink onto white card stock the spritzing with Gimmmer Mists. After it dried I stamped the snowflake image in Adirondack Dye ink (Denim) then spritzed some more with the Glimmer Mists. The photo really does not do justice to the gorgeous icy shimmer from those Glimmer Mists. Finally I edged the both the Snowman image and the background with a silver Sakura Pentouch pen.

The card itself is some pearlescent card stock that I picked up at the SECC in March and I have used some of the offcuts of my background to punch out small snowflakes and to make the text message. The Let It Snow text was also stamped with the Adirondack Denim ink.

Three Challenges - One Card

This card has been in my head now since I made hubby's birthday card. As the idea formed I thought great, I can make that for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge this month. It also works for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week as the theme is "Christmas in June" and my third challenge is My Time to Craft where this weeks's theme is "Seasons".

The card was made using a limited edition stamp from Elusive Images which has been made for members of the Graphicus Guild. I stamped the image in black Archival Ink, then created masks by stamping on to scrap paper and cutting out the elements I wanted to mask. With my masks in place I was able to use my brayer to colour the hills in the background and then to colour the sky using Adirondack dye based inks. The Christmas star was stamped with a stamp from Clarity Stamp and heat embossed using a mix of gold and holographic embossing powders. I mixed them as I wanted only just a hint of sparkle. I then added snow to the tops of the hills and on the trees with a white Sakura Souffle Pen and finally added another hint of sparkle using Stickles glitter glue in "Frosted Lace". The Frosted Lace is not a very sparkly glitter so it's quite subtle. The backing paper is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD set and the words are from a favorite Christmas Carol - "In the Bleak Mid Winter".

Daring Card Makers Challenge - A Quick Card

Wow, last week flew by and I hardly had time to get my craft things out at all. Some stuff was good like hubby's birthday - he was well chuffed with both his pressy and his birthday card, despite the teasing about my inability to stick stuff down straight! Some stuff not so good like pulling an extra shift at work. Hope this week I can get some more crafting done! To get going again the Daring Cardmakers Challenge to make a "quick card" was ideal on 3 counts: firstly time has been at a premium for me recently, secondly I did promise myself I would get a ahead of the game with my cards for Christmas 2008 and finally my mind had been wandering to thoughts of Christmas cards as the date for this month's "Fab's Big Christmas Challenge" draws closer - so this project is a nice little warm-up before the 25th of June arrives.

The card took a little over 20 mins to make. First I punched out 2 circles of card, stamped and heat embossed them using Gold Sparkle EP and the Holly background stamp from the Elusive Images Christmas Flourish Themeplate, coloured them green using a Stampin' Up brush marker and cut some little tops from gold card to stick to the back (what do you call those bits you suspend Christmas baubles from?). With my two baubles ready I chose a background paper from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD. printed it off and covered part of my card. Finally I stuck on my "Christmas Baubles" and added a couple of green organza bows and a peel-off sentiment - I figured peel-off sentiments are OK for quick cards.

Heaven in a Wild Flower

My second attempt at a blog based challenge, this time Daring Cardmakers and the theme is "Quoted by..." The challenge was to include a quote on a card, the text of the quote could be incorporated by any means, stamps, rub-ons, computer generated etc. I have been dying to find a reason to use my recently purchased Elusive Images Wild Meadow themeplate and this seemed like the perfect chance, all I needed was a quote that referred to wild flowers and the Willam Blake one was perfect!

I made a background using some blue and green inks applied to my card with a sponge. Once this was done I stamped lots of the flowers from the Wild Meadow themplate around the bottom and sides. The birds in the sky are were added by stamping just part of an image from a stamp by Lavinia Stamps and finally the quote the quote was printed. Once this was done I added some silver round the edges with a Pentouch Pen and mounted it onto dark blue card that has a silver shimmer over it.