Red Sky At Night

The challenge them on My Time To Craft this week is "Nature". This gave me a nudge to get a card that has been in my head for a long time - since last summer actually - made and out of my system!

The stamps are by Elusive Images and come from the Wild Meadow themeplate. Inks are from a variety of Kaleidacolor ink pads, but mainly Desert Heat and Creole Spice. The stamps were heat embossed onto the red sky background with black EP and on the main card I stamped with Versamark then dusted over with Perfect Pearls using a purple colour from the Jewel set.

The red sky background was created simply by using torn paper masks to sponge colour from the ink pads down onto the card, starting with the sponge on the edge of the mask and drawing the ink down onto my card. The colours graduated from lightest to darkest and I moved the mask a little further up with each colour. Once that was done I gently washed over this with a water brush to bleed the colours together even more.

Better Late Than Never

As the challenge this week on My Time To Craft is "Going for Gold" I decided that I really should take that as a sign that I needed to finish a card I had started making in January, it was originally meant to be for "Plum and Gold" for the challenge on the Graphicus Team Blog, but as I have mentioned January was a bit of a nightmare. Anyhow here is my "Going for Gold" (with Plum) card.

The stamp is by Elusive Images and can be found on the Harlequin Rose Themeplate. It was stamped and embossed with Gold EP onto black card first. I then bleached out the card where I wanted to paint the rose and used Twinkling H2Os to paint the flower and leaves. This was matted onto some plum colour Bazzil card and then onto gold mirror card.

The main card is black card which I have partly covered with paper printed from the Artylicious Damask Delights CD. A narrow gold peel off border was added to the edge where the paper joins the card. Finally this was spritzed with Silver Bells Glimmer Mists to give both the printed paper and the blank card a lovely shimmer.

Easy Elegance and a Thank You

The challenge theme on My Time To Craft this week is "Easy Elegance" My interpretation of that is something elegant but simple to make - a nice way to ease back into making something after the rush of Christmas crafting! So my card is just one stamp, one ink pad, a gold pen and a few peel-offs - couldn't be simpler.

The stamp is from Clarity Stamp and one I have been lusting after for a long time! I finally treated myself to it and a couple of others at the NEC in November and this is it's first outing. I stamped the image using Tim Holtz' Distress Ink in Aged Mahogany then, using a water brush, pulled in colour from the stamped image. Using the same ink pad and Judikins Color Duster I stippled some of the ink round about the image to soften the background and added the gold edge with a Sakura Pentouch pen.

The image was mounted on some Basill cardstock and then onto white linen finish card. The greeting and corners are peel-offs.

I also need to say thank you to Smullis for passing on to me a Kreativ Blogger award - it's in my side bar. As I had received this award previously I hope I can be excused from passing it on again as I think most of the blogs I love to visit already have this one. Please take time to visit Smullis blog Dragonfly Dreams, she has some lovely work to share. Oh, and incase like me, you find yourself wondering what "letterboxing" is then you may find this wikipedia link useful.

California Dreamin' and A Cracked Bone

The challenge this week on My Time To Craft is Trees and Leaves. I started this card by creating the image of a windswept tree on a stormy day but then I got stuck with where I would go next to finish the project. However while waiting for an appointment yesterday I came across the lyrics of the song "California Dreamin'" by the Mammas and Pappas and that was my inspiration to finish the card.

To create my picture, I first made the background using Adirondack dye inks and torn paper as a mask to for the hills. The stormy sky was a mix of Distress inks, mainly Weathered Wood and Dusty Concord. The tree is a stamp from Elusive Images, one of my favorites on the Design-A-Tree Set themeplate. I stamped it with Adirondack ink (Espresso) and then used one of the leaf clusters to stamp the leaves by colouring the just one or 2 leaves at a time with Stampin Up markers and stamping a few on the tree but most swirling in the wind.

The leaves on the front of the fold back part of the card are from a set of stamps that I bought in Partners some time ago. I tried a technique I first learned about on Michelle Zindorf's blog a while ago which was to ink my stamp first with Versamark then with the Adirondack dye ink and then once I had stamped this, heat embossed with clear EP. Once the leaves were embossed I coloured them with the Stampin' Up markers. I also used Versmark and the leaf stamp to stamp a watermark effect on the dark green cardstock, but it's not showing up very will in the photo.

The paper is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD, but I copied the image into my graphics programme and fiddled about a bit to get a grayer more stormy colour and added a text box with the opening lyrics from "California Dreamin". They may be a bit hard to read in the photo but they say : "All the leaves are brown , And the sky is grey, I went for a walk, On a winter’s day".

And the appointment I was waiting for when inspiration hit? Well that was my appointment with the Oral Maxillo Facial Clinic yesterday. If you read my blog regularly you will know I had a rather painful head to head collision with my dog last week. It turns out I have a hair line crack along one of my cheek bones. It will heal on it's own so thankfully no nasty treatments are needed.

Glimmer Mist & Masking in Blue

My friend Jan kindly sent me a Heidi Swapp mask as a little extra treat along with a card she had made for me. I had some fun making a simple card by sticking the mask down onto some pale blue pearlescent card and spritzing it with darker blue glimmer mists. I cut the result out and mounted it onto some deep blue card and then onto a card made from the same pale blue pearlescent card. Added some gems and ribbon for a quick, but I think rather effective card and it's definately "Blue" so it works for the challenge this week on My Time To Craft.

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".