Another Owl Card

This time it's for the Sunday Stampers Challege. I was ever so pleased to see the challenge involved Owls this week because after making Fab's birthday card I was itching to try stamping that Elusive Images Owl on the same brayered background, but this time with the bands of colour running horizontal to the owl and using brown ink rather than dark navy for the owl itself. Anyhow here is the card I came up with.

As before the background colours for the Owl image are from the "Country" Kaleidacolor ink pad brayerd onto white card. This time the owl was stamped with "Brushed Corduroy" Distress Ink and embossed with clear EP. The eyes were glazed with Glossy Accents and once this was dry I cut the owl out. The cream matting layer was cut with one of my Nestabilities dies and my Cuttlebug, then stamped with a little feather stamp that comes on the same Wise Owl themeplate as the Owl stamp. I used more of the Brushed Corduroy Distress ink to stamp with and then edged the layer with a gold Sakura Pentouch pen.

The card itself is some russet colour card from my stash. The ornate corner flourishes are also by Elusive Images and can be found on the Butterfly Daisy Collage themeplate. They were stamped with versamark and then I used some Perfect Pearls in Heirloom Gold to dust over them.

Birthday Card for a Man

It was my dear freind Fab's birthday the other day and I know he loves this Elusive Images Owl stamp so it made it easy for me to decide on the main image for my card. The stamp is from the Wise Owl themeplate.

I started by making a brayered background using a Kaleidacolor ink pad (Country) which has bands of brown, green, blue, pink and yellow. I stamped the owl onto this using Midnight Blue Stazon. As I had chosen to stamp the owl with the colour bands of the background running vertically and had kept the stamp to the side with the brown, green and blue colours, the yellow band of colour my brayer had created was left clear. After cutting out the stamped owl I used the unstamped area of the background to stamp the owl's head again on the yellow area so I could cut out the eyes and glue them over the eyes in the orignal stamping giving the owl those wondeful amber eyes. I applied a thick coat of Glossy Accents to the eyes to make them shine. My finished owl was mounted onto some cream card that I had cut with an oval Nestability and then matted onto a scalloped oval cut from some brown Bazzill cardstock and which I had edged in gold using a Sakura Pentouch pen.

The card itself is a lovely amber yellow card from Stampin' Up which I thought picked up nicely on the colour of the owl's eyes and the pattern paper is also from Stampin' Up and was part of some lovely blog candy I won a while back from my SBS 20 sister Sam. I added a narrow strip of the same brown Bazzill to the card to create a contrasting border at the edge of the printed paper. Some very plain gold peel off corners added a finishing touch. I think think the image and the colours make this a lovely card for a man.

More Glitter from Foilplay

While I had my glitters out I found my mind turning to Christmas and to an old stamp, one of my very first stamps infact. It was bought for the princely sum of 99 pence from my local craft shop and has lain forgotten about until I dug out all my stamps the other week to make a catalogue of my collection. I wanted to make a some more cards for Foilplay and I also wanted to make a card for this months Fab's Big Christmas Challenge. The idea that was forming in my head seemed like it would suit both projects. I think this card made with my little cheap stamp, some heat embossing and some more of that lovely glitter from Foilplay has turned out rather well. Oddly enough as well as the stamp being a purchase from my early days, I can recall that this particular glitter was part of my first order from Foilplay! It's the lightest colour from a set of 3 shades of blue glitter.

To make my card I stamped and heat embossed the image 3 times, then applied my glitter inside the embossed outline using a Sakura Quicky Glue pen to "colour in" the area and then sprinkling on the glitter. Once the glue was dry I covered the snowflake with a layer of Glossy Accents to seal in the glitter and to give more dimension. The greeting was stamped and heat embossed with a stamp from Dimension Fourth. All the elements were inked round the edge using ink from a Petal Point Liquid Chalk pad and then mounted onto silver mirror card. The backing paper on the card is from a Crafters Companion CD and was also edged with the same ink as the snowflake and greetings elements.

I suspect most stampers have stamps like this one, cheap ones we bought when we first started out, but which we dismiss from our minds as we progress, learn more techniques and find far more interesting stamps to buy. Suddenly those early "bargain buys" are no longer deemed to be worthy. However, I think this card taught me a lesson, by dismissing those early cheap stamp purchases from my mind I am simply depriving myself of a wider range of card making opportunities. It would be fun to know if this post has inspired anyone else to go and see what they can make with old stamps they have forgotten they own.