Getting Sentimental

Flourishes is releasing three new stamp sets at the end of this week and to celebrate they have posted a challenge where the sentiment is to be the main event on the card.  My first Flourishes set is enroute as I write this, a birthday present from my daughter.

As I have some new texturz embossing plates from SU I thought I would use the Flourish plate to provide the background for my sentiment.  I put it through the cuttlebug and then wiped the Bashful Blue stamp pad back and forth across it to highlight the swirls.  I had to try a couple of times before I found the right “sandwich” but it worked with “A” plate, silicone rubber, cardstock, texturz plate, cardstock+paper(as shim) and finally Texturz impressions pad.   I split my background piece in two and then put lace and ribbon either side of the white strip, then added a bow.  I decided to triple matte the sentiment and add one little flower and sparkle using stamps from the hostess set Itty Bitty Buds.

Thanks so much for dropping in and for leaving such encouraging comments.

Supplies:

Inks: Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Whisper White, Bashful Blue
Stamps:  Itty Bitty Buds, All Year Cheer
Also:  Rhinestone, Flourish Texturz plate, Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon, cotton lace from my lace basket

Story-book window & tutorial

I have finally completed a card tutorial!  I had hoped to do one for a snowscape, but the seasons are changing and I have more of a spring scene  instead.  I used some of the same techniques to do this scene as I used for my snowscapes.  The inspiration for this card came from the cover of a children’s novel The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson

First I cut a piece of scrap card to be a mask for my hillside.  I kept both pieces so I could mask the sky and the hills at different times.  Of course you don’t need the huge piece I have, I’m not sure why I went so large?

I started with the sky, holding the mask in place while I sponged with both Bashful Blue and Ballet Blue.

To do the hills I swapped masks and sponged down the left hand side and across the bottom with Garden Green.

I then moved the mask a little to make the edge of a hillside and sponged with more Garden Green and some Certainly Celery.

On the right hand side of the hills I sponged with  Summer Sun which I blended into Certainly Celery to create a lighter hillside.

With all the background sponging done I began to stamp the  silhouettes along the bottom of the card.  I used Basic Black,  stamping some of the stamps upside down to use just the stems as grass.   Where the flower stems were a little short I lengthened them with a black marker.  I used two stamps from Garden Silhouettes to frame the picture in foliage.

Around the outside of the scene I embossed a silver border using an embossing marker and ruler to make a line down each edge.

I added a little flourish to each corner with versamark and the large flourish stamp from Baroque Motifs.

Rather than pouring embossing powder over the whole image I dipped the edges into silver e.p. one at at time and then did the corners.

I stamped the dragonfly in black and  coloured the wings with an embossing pen before embossing them in silver.

To make the sentiment I sponged a rectangle of Whisper White cardstock in Garden Green and Certainly Celery, then stamped the words in Basic Black and matted in black.( the photo didn’t turn out, sorry)    I attached silver cord to both ends, wrapped it around the back of the cardstock and taped it. I also added the tiny butterflies from the Branch Out set.

As I was mounting the card on black I needed a white panel inside, so I sponged a bit in both greens and made the silver edges and flourishes using the same method described above.

I hope my instructions make sense, the method is fairly straight forward so have fun if you try it.  Thanks for dropping in and reading this far!  Have a great weekend.

Supplies:

Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Pocket Silhouettes, Infinite Goodness, Season of Friendship, Baroque Motifs, Branch Out
Inks: Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Summer Sun, Basic Black, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black
Also: Silver e.p., silver cord

Simply embossed

Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge this week really appealed to me as I like to heat emboss.  That being the case it is funny that I ended up with so little embossing on this card.  Just keeping it simple I guess.   This set arrived earlier in the week and last night was my first chance to use it.  I couldn’t resist getting it as it has a tree ( my stamping weakness at present is trees) and lovely wording on the stamps.

I stamped the tree with Certainly Celery and then embossed the sentiment with Gold e.p.  The paper and the ribbon are from the Sale-a-bration catalog.  I thought the celery and white combo was fresh and pretty  for a friend I know who is facing  treatment over the coming months.

Make sure you check out Sharon’s card and you will find links to her wonderful design team on her blog.  I had a great time being part of the team in February and now look forward to seeing the beautiful creations of Barb, the March guest designer.

Supplies:

Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Versamark, certainly Celery
Cardstock: Whisper white, Certainly Celery, Delicate dots d.p.
Also:  Gold e.p. Celery twill ribbon

Black, white and teal

This card is a bit of a departure from the soft spring designs I have been creating lately.  I wanted to use the beautiful digital paper designed by Jak Heath, and decided not to reach for red as an accent colour but teal, a colour I rarely pull out.  The layout is a sketch by Kurt on StampTV.

I embossed the  flowers on the black cardstock with white e.p and stamped the other flowers with black or teal, colouring one in with a teal marker and adding a rhinestone to the other.  Not my usual style, but it is fun to try something a little different from time to time.

Supplies:

Stamps: Boho backgrounds, One of a Kind
Inks: Basic Black, Taken with Teal, Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Taken with Teal, Damask d.p.(from Jak Heath)
Also: Rhinesones, Boho Blossoms punch, stampin’ dimensionals

Splashed Daisies

My post will be short and sweet tonight as I am having issues with my back and cannot sit for long without being in too much pain.   I intend to take my marking and lesson planning off to bed.

I love the way the pink daisies turned out for this card,  I’m not sure that I could make it happen twice though.  I coloured the stamp with markers, the same ones I used for Sharon’s Spring challenge, I seem to be stuck on those three markers (Artichoke, Regal Rose and Rose Red).  Then I spritzed the stamp with water;  I used the perfume method,  where you spray perfume in the air and walk into the spray!  I sprayed water and walked my stamp into the mist… tada… water marked petals.  A little bow and a few more daisies in the background and there you have it.  I did add a white panel inside with even paler watermarked daisies and the birthday sentiment.

Thanks for dropping in, see you soon.

Supplies:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Hugs and Wishes
Inks: Rose Red, Regal Rose and Always Artichoke Markers,  Always Artichoke
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Also: Moss gingham ribbon

Olive Dream

Remember the other day I mentioned that I had made a card just the way I had planned it in my head?  And it had worked!  Well this one did not happen the same way.  I tried a couple of different colour schemes before I settled on this one and then decided that I would complete it for the Stampers Dream Dreamy Challenge, where you needed to create a monochrome card with three different shades of the same colour.  I would say I have a light, medium and dark olive green in there wouldn’t you.  I used Always  Artichoke and Old Olive to brayer the background and stamped the trees in Artichoke and Black.  The black matte and the bottom of the card have distressed edges.

I hope to be  back with something else tomorrow, thanks for dropping in.

Supplies:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Sincere Salutations
Inks: Basic Black, Old Olive, Always Artichoke
Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White
Also: Olive wide grosgrain ribbon