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.

Thank You Sam

I was lucky enough to win some absolutely gorgeous blog candy from Sam who is one of my my SBS 20 Sisters. It seemed like a nice idea to make a thank you card for Sam with some of the lovely things she sent. I made the card a little over a week ago, but I had to wait to post this picture because I didn't want Sam to see the piccy till she had actually received the card and it takes about a week to 10 days for stuff to cross the big pond! Anyhow this is what I made.

The card uses stamps, papers, ribbon and cardstock from Stampin' Up - Sam is an SU Demo, you should visit her blog for some great ideas. The flower stamp was stamped using Brilliance ink and then embossed with clear fine detail EP. The papers were edged with more of the same ink. Thank You text is from an Elusive Images themeplate.

Autumn 4x4

The theme in a recent 4x4 swap that I joined was "Autumn". So here is my take on the theme.

I used torn paper to mask the background to create the skyline and hills and the setting sun. The tree is a stamp from the Elusive Images "Arboretum Design-A-Tree Set". I stamped the bare tree using Adirondack dye ink (Espresso) and then added the leaves by colouring the small leaf stamps with Stampin' Up marker pens in various autumn shades and stamping them on the tree and on the ground around the base of the tree. The leaves on the background were stamped using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I think are from a set of clear polymer stamps I got a while ago in Partners, I think they were sold under the Partners brand name.

Florrie's Weekly ATC Challenge - Trees

The theme this week on this challenge hosted by Craft Swap forum is Trees, and I guess the awful weather we are having has got me in autumnal mode already! I made my ATC using various inks in yellows, orange, green, russet with a tiny amount of pink to create a background that would create an autumn feel then inked up my tree stamps from The Angel Company in autumn colours using Stampin' Up marker pens and stamped them onto my background. Once the trees were in place I sponged on some more brown inks to ground the trees. Finally I added a leaf from a set of clear stamps purchsed in The Stationary Box which I heat embossed with copper EP and some pretty cabochon gems that match the colours in the ATC.