Retro Shadow Stamped Card

Was watching TV and the printed design on the top a presenter was wearing made me think of some stamps I bought from Elusive Images some years back.  Elusive Images is gone, but many of the stamp designs are available from Chocolate Baroque - these ones may be too but I'm not sure.  The greeting is a stamp by Hobby Art.  The card is stamped with Bundled Sage, Seedless Preserve and Shaded Lilac Distress inks, some are first generation impressions and some second generation.

Elegant Ladies From Elusive Images

Elusive Images has just launched some lovely new A5 themeplates, each of which features a beautiful lady in a fabulous evening gown. Accompanying the lady on each of the plates are a lovely mix of swirls, ornate corners, chandaliers and candelabras.  You can see the new stamp sheets in their full glory over on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog where, if you are lucky, you might win one of the themeplates in a random giveaway.  You will also get to see some of the beautiful creations made by my fellow DT memebers to give you some inspiration.  We all agreed that these stamps would be very pretty to use for wedding themes, making lovely cards to give to the bride and bridesmaids etc, but their versatility does not end there, as the samples shown on the EI DT blog show!  The samples I made did wedding themed items, but this one is an any occasion card made when I gave in to my addiction to Vintage Photo Distress Ink and just had a nice inky play! 

The stamp was stamped with the Distress Ink onto cream card, only stamping the upper part of the image. I blended more ink around this and also used the ink as a paint to add some shading to the lady's face and arms.  The frame was cut using Nestability dies from more of the cream card which then had lots of that lovely Vintage Photo  ink blended over it.  The pattern on the frame was created by stamping the skirt part of the lady's ballgown in Versmark ink and dusting with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls. The frame is mounted over the image of the lady using foampads.  The background is more cream card and paper from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD onto which I blended yet more of the Distress Ink.  To finish the card I stamped a greeting, added some cotton lace and some amber coloured cabochon gems to the frame and as the corners of the backing paper.

Haunted House Card

This is a card I made using a stamp from the Elusive Images Spookylicious themeplate.  The background for the house was made by randomly blending Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans and Pine Needles Distress Inks over some white cardstock to completely cover the card surface.  I stamped and embossed the house using Cosmic Shimmer Arctic Black Aurora embossing powders, then highlighted the house using a faux bleaching technique.  

The faux bleaching is done by simply painting clean water over the areas you want to remove ink from, then dabbing the area with a kitchen towel to remove the water and as much ink as you can.  Because the stamped image has been heat embossed the inked background becomes slightly heat set and you don't remove quite as much colour using this technique as you would from unheated card.  For that reason I used  real bleach to take almose all the colour away from the moon area.  Once dry the card was dry, I blended Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges then mounted the finished image onto a mat cut from dark green foiled card.

The base card is a deep purple foiled card and the corners are chipboard pieces from Maya Road which I inked with more of the Black Soot Distress ink then covered in UTEE, two coats of clear UTEE followed by a top layer of the Cosmic Shimmer Arctic Black Aurora embossing powder.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

This card was made using Hallowe'en themed stamps from Elusive Images.  The the toadstools, the spider web on the corners and the greeting all came from the Halloween Candle Themeplate.

To make the card I stamped the toadstools onto white card using black Adirondack Dye Ink.  Next I added spots over the tops of the toadstools using a Versamark Pen, then sprinkled clear embossing powder over the image and heated it.  With the spots of clear embossing in place I coloured the image using Copic markers then coloured over the whole image with the Versmark pen, coated the image with clear embossing powder and heated it up.  The clear embossing was to provide a resist so I could ink the background around the toadstools. 

The background was inked first with Pine Needles Distress Ink, blended right up to and over the image.  Next I blende some Dusty Concord around the outer edges of the image, then wiped the ink away from the clear embossed area.    I stamped the branches of one of the trees from the Arboretum Design-A-Tree themeplate around the edges and inked up just the spider dangling from it's web on the large Candle stamp in the Hallow'en Candle set and stamped it in to look like it was dangling from one of the tree branches.

I made a card blank from some black card and added mats and layers in orange and purple card. On the purple layer I blended Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Inks around the edges and stamped and embossed the greeting with black embossing powder.  The corners were cut from some of the orange card and stamped with the spiders's web stamp.  Finally I added some Black Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue around the corners and around the edges of the mat and some black brads.

Trick or Treat Part 4 - Time's Running Out

It’s that time of year again when the nights are drawing in, the kids are back at school, the leaves are starting to turn and the pumpkins are ripening......... and even more exciting it's nearly time to reveal who has won blog candy in the Elusive Images Hallowe'en Blog Hop.  Do I have some of these scrummy Elusive Images Hallowe'en Blog candy treats to give away, or is this just a trick?  Well if you want to know the answer you're going to have to check back later today when all will be revealed. 

There will be winners for sure, but did you leave your comments on the right blogs? The lucky winners will receive one of these Elusive Images Hallowe'en themeplates so if you haven't joined in yet you still have a few short hours in which to do so.  Scroll down to my "Trick or Treat Part 2" post and follow the instructions on the post.  Then make sure you visit the Elusive Images Design Team Blog and use the links there, or the ones in my sidebar to visit the blogs of the other DT members.  There are at least 2 DT members who have some blog candy to give away so hurry hurry..... don't be missed!

Trick or Treat Part 3 - Found that Blog Candy Yet?

We have been having a lot of fun on the Elusive Images Design Team for the last few weeks playing errr I mean working hard, making samples with Hallowe'en themed stamps.  A dirty job for sure, but someone had to do it [Grin].  Today I thought I would share one of those samples with you. The card was made using stamps from the Twilight Zone and Spookylicious themeplates, and paper from the Artylicious Essence of Nature CD.  I also used Distress Inks and Twinkling H2Os.

Right now we have a fun blog hop running for anyone who wants to win some hallowe'en themed blog candy.  Now the candy is hidden, not every Design Team member has any, some do, some don't.  The challenge is to find the blogs with the candy.  To give you a helping hand, here is the link to my blog candy post - be sure to follow the instructions in the post if you hope to find that blog candy! 

Of course I may or may not have candy, so to be certain of being in with a chance to win some of these spooktacular Elusive Images Hallowe'en themed stamps you will need to visit the Elusive Images Design Team Blog and also the blogs of the other DT members - you can find their links in my side bar and on the main post about the Blog Hop on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog.  You only have a day or two left to find that candy, as the winners will be drawn on Friday 17th September 2010.  Good Luck in the hunt!

Trick or Treat?

Good morning, I hope everyone is having a  great weekend.  Just a wee peek at something I've been working on for the Elusive Images Blog Hop which starts tomorrow.  If you want to see what happens to my pile of pumpkins, you need follow the Hop.  Your launch pad will be the Elusive Images Design Team Blog tomorrow.  Take care not to miss anything because you never know, there may be Hallowe'en candy to be found along the way!

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.

Sparkly Stuff

Today I have been making something just for my own pleasure, one of the stamps from the new Elusive Images Christmas designs kept popping into my head with thoughts of an ice blue and white colour scheme. At first I was thinking "stamp it on vellum", but when I sat down to have a play with the stamp  I found my hands reaching for some Stamp 'n' Bond and Glitter.... have I ever mentioned that I am addicted to glitter? The stamp in question comes from the Winter Birds themeplate, it's a sort of counter part to the ornate corner stamps which feature on the Angel of Light themeplate, and yes I used one of those fancy corners too.

The dangly square is actually 2 squares, cut with nestablilites, which I stamped and sprinkled Stamp 'n' Bond onto, heated, then applied the glitter.  I edged the squares with a little Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, then stuck them back to back so as no matter which the the dangly bit turned you would see the design.

I cut an apperture in the main card with one of the bigger nesties, edged it with glue and more of the same glitter.  I also stamped the corner stamps in each corner, again using the Stamp 'n' Bond and glitter.  The greeting was created the same way.  The dangly square was suspended on jump rings and a bow at the top finished it off. 

As this weeks challenge on My Time to Craft is "Glitter and Glitz" I have decided to enter my card into the challenge.

WOYWW 62 - I tidied a bit

Ok the mess got to me.... it was getting to be really tricky to make anything without loosing stuff I was actually trying to use! Now I just need to organise the rest of my storage a bit better, cuz it's pretty much a hodge podge.  Anyhow the tidy was done on Sunday, and included the piles of stuff on the left side of my desk. What you see now is something I have been working on... a stamped image which I have had to cut out as I can't show it yet, and some card and papers in colours I might use with it.  The papers are from an Artylicious paper pack which I think you can see in the second photo.  I also included a piccy of a cupboard where I keep a lot of my unmounted stamps and a few other bits and pieces.

Thanks for all the lovely comments last week.... perhaps I ought to explain about the wallpaper... When we moved in, that was the wallpaper that was on the walls, we thought OK that can wait to be redecorated...BAD MISTAKE... because the spare room ended up becoming a dumping ground for stuff we couldn't find a space for, we never seemed to get around to doing something with it and then my I got my first computer and needed a place for that....and finally when I took up stamping I needed a craft room!  The room still fulfills all of those functions, but as a result I'm sorta trapped as to how to change that wallpaper cuz I have no idea where we could put our stuff if we had to empty things out to redecorate.

Now there were somes questions in amongst those comments last week, so I figured I should reply.

Pam, what I was doing with the trees will be revealed in due course .... but it's something spooky.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth, the white looking thing is a one of those La Blanche foam backed rubber stamps.  As for the stamp in tubs... well there's more, check out my third photo today.....all those A4 storage boxs stood on end like books contain more rubbah.

Sunshine Girl, the trees are from an Elusive Images Themeplates called Arboretum: Design-A-Tree.  They are bare trees that come with small leaf and flower stamps to "dress" the tree with - if you want a spring,  summer or autumnal tree you can have it... or just leave them bare as winter trees.  I've put a link in for you cuz I love to enable fellow stampers!

Julia, yes haha.... I adore trees so of course I have a bit of a "tree thing going on" [insert evil grin here]

I hope I have answered everyone's questions, sorry if I missed any out and for writing such a long post.  And there you have it, the crazy snoopy fun that is WOYWW - to join in the fun, visit Julia's Blog Stamping Ground - but be warned, it's addcitive!

Last but not Least

The last of the 6 cards I made for the Elusive Images DT application - a colour challenge.  Glenda had specified that one of the projects submitted must follow a specifed theme and given a choice of about 4 or 5 themes, I chose a colour challenge - Brown and Teal. 

This time the main image is by Clarity Stamp, but the patterns in the dress, and on the edge of the inside back, are done using what I tend to think of as "incidental stamps".  Those small decorative stamps that come on sheets of unmounted stamps which, while they are pretty, often sit around unused because we are not sure what to do with them!  The stamp in question comes from the Elusive Images "Delightful Damask" themeplate

To make the card I stamped the lady onto some white card using a permanent black ink, I also made several stampings onto pages of a post-it note pad, making sure that part of the image fell over the tacky area, this was for cutting out to make masks for the dress.   I placed the masks in turn over various parts of the image and coloured the dress using a stencil brush and Versamagic inks in the appropriate brown and teal colours.  The pattern was added  by overstamping through some of the masks with the pattern stamp from the Delightful Damask themeplate.  The border round the image and also on the edge of the inside back of the card was created in much the same way, using masking, stencil brushes and overstamping.  The right hand edge of the front of the card has been trimmed back to reveal the stamped border inside the card. 

The background layers were cut from card in the challenge colours, the ornate cormers were cut with a Cuttlebug die.  I should appologise for the photo, this one seems to have a lot of camera shake in it, I always take more than one picture of my card, but in this instance I must have deleted the wrong image from the camera and as the card is no longer in my possession I cannot take a better picture.

Quick 'n' Easy Elegance

One more of my design team submissions, and a break from the nautical theme.  This card uses a stamp from the Words of Inspiration themeplate by Elusive Images.  It's been heat embossed in gold on to Southfields gold Moondust pearlescent card that I had cut using a Nestabilites die.   The card blank is also the same gold Moondust card. The matting layer is cut from Base Metal card also by Southfields.   The printed design is from the Artylicous Decadent Brocade CD.  I printed this onto ink jet printable pearlescent paper so it would have the same shimmer as the rest of the card stock I was using, sadly the photo does not do the shimmery quality of the cardstock and papers real justice.

I chose the words for this card because it seemed to fit the occasion, applying to for a place on the Elusive Images design team, I was indeed holding onto the thought "why not"!  However, while I was making the card I was thinking that any appropriate sentiments could be substituted to suit many different of occasions, Birthdays, Christmas and even sad times such as a sympathy card.  For any of these occasions and more, the design printed from the CD would make a lovely elegant background for a wide variety of messages.  I suspect that for Christmas this year I may make a few more cards using this kind of layout and some of those lovely papers as it's not a time consuming card to make when lots need to be made!

Seashell Stepper

This is another of the cards that I made as part of my submission for the Elusive Images Design Team. To make it I used  Elusive Images stamps from the Underwater and Seashell Collage themeplates, both of which are available from Graphicus.  This was one of those cards that seems to take over once you start making it, and ends up being very different from the card you first imagined in your head.

To make the card I started with an A4 sheet of ice blue pearlescent card onto which I stamped the large corner stamp of the shells and seaweed  and embossed with detail silver EP at the bottom right corner.  With that done I cut the lines needed to free the middle section of the card from the outer edge, freehand cutting the curve around the edge of the stamped image and scored the lines across the card needed to create the stepped folds.  With that done I stamped and embossed the little silver seahorse on the right side of the card and then folded along all my scored fold lines.

For the seashells I used Distress Inks with the wrinkle free technique to colour some white card. The ink colours are Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage. Once that was dry I used detail silver EP to emboss the various shell and starfish images onto it and then cut them out. I glued all my cut out shapes to the front and middle steps of the card.   

The card was finished off by making a greeting for the back step using Nestabilties dies to cut and emboss another piece of my Distress Ink coloured card onto which I stamped a greeting using a stamp from Clarity Stamp. I used a little Stormy Sky Distress ink to blend around the edge of this to pick up the embossed detail from the die.  If you look closely there are also some small shells stamped randomly in the same Distress Inks used to give the card it's colour, not sure if they really show up in the photo.   This was layerd onto some scalloped mats cut from more of the the same ice blue pearlescent card I made the step base with and another cut from silver foiled card. and stuck to the back step of the card .

More from the Sea

My last posts have featured some of the lovely Elusive Images Sea themed plates, and this one does too, but after making that very grungy card I felt the the need to make something cleaner and fresher.  This card also formed part of my application for a place on the Design Team. 

While I had been toying with watery themes it had occured to me that I have the Cuttlebug "Tiny Bubbles" emobssing folder and that if I coloured some silver foil card with Alcohol inks I could make a lovely bubbly background for something. I used Stream, Stonewashed and Lettiuce alcohol inks to colour the silver card, cut a shape using a nestabilites die and cut a frame with the same dies from plain silver card.  The background shape was then embossed through the Cuttlebug folder to create the bubble texture.   I stamped and heat embossed the little seahorse from the Elusive Images Underwater themplate onto an assortment of card using different embossing powders and cut them all out to find the one I liked best against my background.. My final choice was white EP on white card.  With all my bits made I assembled the frame and background and stuck the little cut out seahorse into place. 

Next I needed something to mount this onto, so I made a background blending Broken China, Stormy Sky and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks onto some card.  Once the inks were dry I stamped one of the seashell images from the same Underwater themeplate and embossed with white EP.  I mounted this onto white card stock, added a band of silver card across the centre with some white spotted organza ribbon then finally stuck the framed seahorse over this.

Getting Grungy

This one is another card that I made for the Elusive Images Design Team Application - remember I said in my previous post that the Lighthouse Scene is a lovely image - well it is an I couldn't resist making a very different card with it.  As Glenda has posted a photo of  this one over on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog I thought I would share how I made the card.

The image was stamped with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and I used a wet paintbrush to drag colour from the stamped outline to create extra shading in the image.  Where I needed more shading I dabbed the ink pad onto my craft sheet and used my wet paint brush to pick up a litte more colour.  If you look carefully there is also a tiny touch of Aged Mahogany in the image.  The ink was very watered down on my craft sheet then picked up on my paint brush and used to make the sails on the boats stand out just a little more.  Once the image was dry I used  the blade of my scissors to distress the edges a bit then used Cut 'n' Dry foam to blend more ink from the Vintage Photos pad around the edge to create a vignette effect.  Finally I dragged and smudged my Versamark pad around the edge, sprinkled on Gold EP and heated.

The finished image was mounted onto black card which I embellished with some kitchen twine that had been grunged up to look like old dirty ropes from a sailing ship. I did this by  using just about every shade of  brown distress ink I own, from Frayed Burlap to Brushed Corduroy!  It was easy enough to do, just splodge the brown inks onto a craft sheet, spritz liberally with water then roll and scrunch the peice of twine around in the inky puddle so it soaks in the inky water.  Let it dry then repeat as needed to darken.  Once the twine was nearly dry  I made the browny shades more uneven by smudging a little ink directly from the ink pads onto the twine and lightly spritzing so as to make the inky smudge bleed into the twine more - it bleeds better if the twine is still a little damp when you do this.   The knots were tied using an authentic sailors knot - in this case a figure of eight knot.  I wanted the knots to be the Real MaCoy, so I did some research online and found this web site with some great instructions on how to try proper sailors knots.  Just click on any of those knots and an animated page opens that shows how to tie the knot.

Finally my background layer - once again I turned to my Distress Inks in assorted shades of brown and used the wrinkle free technique to create the background.   Once this was dry I overstamped with Versamark using an anchor image from the Seashell Collage themeplate and dusted this with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls then very lightly spritzed with water to set the Perfect Pearls.  The edges were treated in the same way as the edges of the main image - distressed with the blade of my scissors, a little ink blended with Cut 'n' Dry foam, and smudgy gold embossing.  The whole thing is mounted onto black card from the same stock I used to mat under the main image.

If you got this far, sorry it's such a long post, but I wanted to share how I made this card because I had a lot of fun making it!

OMG - On Cloud 9!!! & WOYWW 60

OMG I can't believe this - I got picked. The only sure way to fail at something is to never try.......so try I did, but with no real expectation of success. What am I wittering on about I hear you ask? The Elusive Images Design Team Call,  I applied and got chosen! For me this is a dream come true and my feet haven't touched the ground since! I am both extremely humbled and incredibly proud to be a part of Glenda Waterworth's Design Team. Humbled because I see so many wonderful creations on other people's blogs and find myself thinking every time.... "if only I could make something so beautiful"; and  proud to think that someone as talented as Glenda considered my work worthy.

At this stage thanks must go to my 2 most wonderful friends Fabyon and Jess. Fab thank you, your support and belief in me when I was trying to put together projects for the DT Call submission helped me to not loose faith. Jess - you know what you have taught me about life and giving it your best shot no matter what - if not for your wisdom I would never even have applied.

Now you may have noticied my blog has been a little quiet, my father in law's death followed by an intense 3 weeks of overtime at work left me with not a lot of time to craft recently.  However normal service has resumed and I can now share some of the projects that I made as part of my DT submission.... so here's the first.  Nothing fancy, just a simple stamped image from the Elusive Images Seashore Scenes themeplate, coloured with Derwent Inktense Pencils and a brayer for some of the sky, then matted an layered on black gloss and white linen card.  This image is so lovely it really doesn't need anything else. However if you scroll down a little bit you will see a different treatment in this post.  The greeting stamp is one from Hobby Art and was stamped and embossed with black embossing powder so it would be shiny to co-ordinate with the black gloss card.

What's On Your Workdesk Wedneday (WOYWW) - hmmmm gotta be careful about what is camera view now - but this is what was on my workdesk when I went to bed last night - I am trying to flatten some card that curled when it got wet - Glossy Accents being the culprit in this case.  The bits under that acrylic block weighed down by the tub of Rock Salt are for a Design Team project, but I hope I can share the results with you soon.  Off now to take a wee peek at some other workdesks, why don't you join me by visiting Julia's Blog.  Julia hosts this little bit of fun every Wednesday and lots of crafters join in, I guess we are all a little bit nosey about other crafters workspaces!

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Two Tags and an Alcohol Ink Background

Recently I have been playing with some stamps I bought last year from Graphicus, they all have a nautical/sea theme. I have a card idea in my head for the image of the sailing ship, but it's not quite there yet. I thought I would stamp out the images last night and see where they took me. While I was playing I thought I would try out a background technique I have been wanting to have a go at since I bought some Isopropyl Alcohol a month or so ago - a much cheaper alternative to Alcohol Ink Blending Solution and it's pretty good for cleaning up that tacky gunk that cutting sticky things leaves on our scissors too! You can get it through any Pharmacy tho you may have to ask for a special customer order.

Anyhow on to my tags. First step was to chop open on 3 sides one of those tough cello bags that I get every time I buy unmounted stamps from Graphicus so as it could be opened up like opening the pages of a book. Next I dripped Alcohol Inks (the colours are Denim, Stream, Stonewashed and Lettuce and a tiny splodge of Silver Metallic Mixative) inside my "cello book" and spritzed this with some of the Isopropyl Alcohol which I had decanted into a Tim Holtz Mini Mister. Closed the cello pages and sorta smeared things around with my fingers, then opening the pages back up, I took 2 semi gloss tags I bought in Grapicus some time ago, laid them back to back and placed them between the pages of cello and once again kinda smeared things around with my fingers - I really liked the end result, the colours are lovely and soft and best of all permanent so they won't bleed when you do other stuff with them.

The stamping itself was simple enough, stamps from the Elusive Images "Undewater", "Seashore Scenes" and "Seashell Collage" themeplates stamped in Midnight Blue Stazon. The gulls in the tag with the sailing ship are from a stamp by Clarity Stamp.

On the tag with the seahorse I tried adding a little colour with Twinkling H2O paints to the shells and sea bottom to get a more sandy look - it think it looks OK even tho the paints are transparent so some of the blue/green tones of the background show through. On the tag with the sailing ship I used a white gel pen to add some foam to the waves under the ship.

With hindsight the silver mixative may have been a mistake as Stazon does not work so well with the metallic mixatives - the silver floats up to the surface of the stamping - must try this next time with Archival ink and see what happens.

Nautical Card

A few months back it was Fab's birthday and I made this card for him. The stamps are by Elusive Images and come from the Seashore Scenes and Underwater themeplates. The full range of these stamps can be seen on the Graphicus web site.

I stamped the lighthouse scene image using Broken China Distress ink, used a wet paintbrush to draw a little colour into the image to deepen the shaded areas, and finally blended a little more of the distress ink around the edges. The shell stamp was stamped with Versamark ink onto brown bazzill card and then heat embossed with clear embossing powers. The sentiment comes from the Seaside Scenes plate and was also stamped with Broken China Distress ink. Some brads and ribbon in a shade that complimented the colour of the ink added a finishing touch. Then, just because it was for Fab, and because he not only knows, but actively enables my weakness for sparkle I added the tiniest amount of Broken China Distress Stickles to the roof of the lighthouse. I guess it wasn't really necessary, but it's a sort of signature from me to Fab.

A Birthday Card

Pink 'n' Girly without being saccharin sweet, or at least that's what I was aiming for when I made this a while back for a friend's Birthday. The card base is some ice blue pearlesenct card - chosen because it would look well with the silver embossing I planned to do. The papers are from an Artylicious CD - "Decadent Brocade" . I addes some shimmer to them by spritzing with Glimmer Mists, blended a little ink round the edges then embossed the big swirl stamp in silver at two opposing corners.

The flowers were embossed in silver onto more of the same pattern paper. I spread a thin layer of Stickles Stardust glitter then cut them out. The large Birthday greeting stamp is from an A6 plate by Elusive Images. It was also stamped onto the printed paper and heat embossed in silver, then matted onto some of the same ice blue card I have used for the main card.

The flowers and swirl stamps are by Sheena Douglass.

Thank You Card

I got the new Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD recently and have been printing stuff off - stupidly I forgot to take a photo of the first of the card I made but this is the second card from the CD.

The stamped sentiment is by Elusive Images and can be found on the Words of Gratitude Themeplate. The paper was inked round the edges with Memento ink and then spritzed with Gimmer Mists to make it shimmery. The Prima flowers were also spritzed with the Glimmer Mists.