Brayered backgrounds

I  have been working on this trio of cards for a couple of days .  The idea had been in my head for a while but when I saw  Susan’s masked and stippled cards here I was inspired to make these cards with a masked rectangular focus.

There was a bit of trial and error involved.  I masked with post-it notes and then brayered with two colours.  Both the orange card and the grey/green card took four attempts.  Each time the brayering went through the post-it notes or the silhouette touched outside the brayered space or the post-it note tore the cardstock but finally I achieved what I had set out to do.  The grasses card worked first time?!

I stamped over the brayering with Basic Black ink, sometimes more than once to make a solid image.  I had trouble photographing these cards.  I think I need to spend some time with the camera manual.

Things I learnt while making these cards:

• Sometimes it is necessary to mask with two layers of post-it notes so the brayering won’t go through, mark the edge or the cardstock and turn what was going to be a one layer card into a two layer card.
• It is probably best to use a fresh post-it note to mask the second, third or fourth attempt, they did come from the dollar store after all.
• Rather than try and use your stamp-a-ma-jig after you have stamped an incomplete image, stamp with it the first time, them it is in place for the second and third inking.
• If you stamp on your stamp-a-ma-jig imaging sheet with waterproof black ink you might want to wash it straight away.

Hmmm…

Supplies:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Inspired by Nature, Garden Silhouettes, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Inks: Pumpkin Pie & Summer Sun,  Brocade Blue & Mellow Moss,  Sage Shadow & Bordering Blue
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue, Whisper White
Also:  Brayer

FTL 52

I am enjoying the wide range of Clean & Simple cards being created around the place these days.  I came across the Clean & Simple stamping blog the other day and decided to play along with their current challenge FLT52.

I chose a favourite set of mine, Garden Silhouettes.  I inked the whole stamp in Pretty in Pink then used markers to ink in the red centres and green leaves and stems over the top.  I did a little masking to overlap the branches a little.  The flower is made with the Boho Blossoms punch and a red brad.

Supplies:

Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Thoughts and Prayers
Inks: Real Red and Garden Green Markers,  Pretty in Pink
Cardstock: Garden Green,  Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Also:  Real Red brad, Boho Blossoms Punch

Andy Warhol inspired

The title should really read ” Andy Warhol and Lateblossom inspired!  A few days ago Susan at Simplicity by Lateblossom  issued a  challenge to search through our stamp collections and try making a Andy Warhol inspired card along the same lines as her two cards here and here.

I was pretty certain that the only images I had that would work were  flowers and snowflakes.  Susan had already made a striking snowflake card so I tried flowers and then realized I might have enough leaves to try again.  The flowers are stamped on Whisper White and the leaves on Confetti Cream.

Thanks for dropping in, hope you are having a great day.

Supplies (Flower Card):

Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, Baroque Motifs, One of a Kind, Pocket Silhouettes, Season of Friendship
Inks:  Bravo Burgandy, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Ruby Red
Cardstock: Whisper White

Supplies (Leaf Card):

Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds, With Gratitude, Lovely as a Tree, Pocket Silhouettes, Season of Friendship
Inks:  Ruby Red, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Handsome Hunter, Garden Green
Cardstock: Confetti Cream

CAS24 Colour Challenge

My best laid plans for a card a day during the summer, or even one every couple of days, have come to nought so far.  I have a painting project which is my first priority.  I have never painted a room before and it has been a little nerve wracking at times.  I think I am over half way through now and it looks pretty good.

I thought I’d make a quick card before I got started with the paintbrush this morning so I turned to the CAS challenge for the week.  A CAS card is sure to be quick, right?  Not always.  It took a few takes before I was happy, then I stamped the sentiment and it was crooked!  Perfect chance to use my new oval punch.  These colours are not colours I would normally reach for,  I rarely grab the Bold Brights but they do make happy cards.  I inked the flowers on the yellow pad first, then rock ‘n’ rolled them on the orange.

Thanks for dropping in, I’m off to do some more painting.

Supplies:

Stamps: Paint Prints, Best Yet
Inks: Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise
Cardstock: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise

CAS23 Showing some artwork

There are several challenges I would like to play along with on a regular basis and the Clean & Simple challenge at Splitcoast is definitely one.   This week the challenge is to get our inspiration from the huge art site  art.com I am hoping to go back for more inspiration later, but for starters I chose this asian style piece:   Spring Flowers Light Green

My images from Eastern Influences are stamped and embossed in detail gold embossing powder and coloured with SU markers.  I have added some smudges of red around the images because, after they appeared on the Very Vanilla cardstock on my second attempt, I decided I would rather incorporate a bit of smudging than start on a third try!

Supplies:

Stamps: Eastern Influences
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Basic Black, Confetti Cream, Very Vanilla
Also: Detail Gold embossing powder, Real Red, Garden Green, Brilliant Blue, Close to Cocoa markers

My birthday girl

I know I promised another card by my daughter but time got away from me so instead I have the card I made for my daughter who turned thirteen today.

Her favourite colours are green and yellow, so I stamped the flowers with versamark and summer sun, then the stems in versamark and green galore before embossing in clear.  The colouring is done with SU markers.  I haven’t really used them like this before, I usually colour directly onto stamps with them.  I was please to be able to get some darker definition just by colouring over with the same colour.

The bee is cut out and stuck down on the body only so the wings could flap.  I added extra stem and dots with a marker and wrote my own Happy Birthday greeting.

Thanks for dropping in today, I’d better go there are birthday details to attend to!

Supplies:

Stamps: In Full Bloom
Inks: Versamark, Summer Sun, Green Galore
Cardstock: Whisper White, Confetti White, Gable Green
Also: Gable Green, Green Galore, Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Close to Cocoa Markers

13 year-old boy

I gave my almost thirteen year-old girl the task of making a card for a thirteen year-old friend with whom we celebrated on Sunday. It was hard coming up with an appropriate gift let alone a card. My stamp collection does not have much in the way of “boy stamps”. Miss A rose to the occasion and did a hand drawn card. It is not obvious in the photo but the “13″ is cut out and popped up. She used Whisper White cardstock and Bold Bright markers.

She created another clever card for a 13 year-old girl which I will post next time.

Thanks for dropping in.

Inspired by…

The following cards were inspired by the talented and very amusing Joan from Paperlicious.  I made them a couple of weeks ago after I saw hers and then forgot that I had photographed them.   I was inspired by her cards HERE and HERE

Note added – Joan’s layout originally came from Krystie Hersch

I decided I would try and use up some cuttlebug embossed scraps I had lying around in place of the designer paper panel.  I like the colour contrast of  the Teal and Moss  mattes below but think there might be a bit too much white.

When I looked at the Handsome Hunter embossed swirls  I wasn’t particularly  inspired.  The only thing I could think of to use it with was some gold for a Christmas card.  So that means I have ONE Christmas card done!  Sticking those little half gold pearls on was a little frustrating and I almost left it with just three, but that did not look right so I persevered.

The last one is my favourite with the crisp contrast of black, white and Brocade Blue.  I love the classy textile cuttlebug folder.

Supplies:

Stamps: 1. All Year Cheer  2. Many Merry Messages 3. All Year Cheer
Inks: 1. Mellow Moss  2. Handsome Hunter  3. Brocade Blue
Cardstock: 1. Mellow Moss, Terrific Teal, Whisper White 2. Handsome Hunter, Brushed Gold, Confetti White  3. Brocade Blue, Basic Black, Whisper White
Also: 1. Moss gingham ribbon, Birds and Swirls folder  2. Gold ribbon, gold half pearls, D’vine swirls folder  3. Black grosgrain ribbon, Textile folder

A rather late Fathers’ Day post

I’m sorry for the tardiness of this post.  My children did indeed make great cards for their father on Fathers’ Day, but I didn’t get them up here.  We could just consider them very early for Fathers’ Day in Australia, after all their father is Australian!

Once again everyone took a different route when making their card.  Remember my eight year-old son made me a huge Mothers’ Day card because he couldn’t be bothered going downstairs for cardstock? Well this time when I reminded him about Fathers’ Day he was downstairs near the cardstock so he picked up the already folded piece of blue cardstock on the table and drew computer inspired card you see above.

Our 12 year-old daughter printed a photo out on vellum which features my husband a few years ago when we were visiting his brother and trying a strange motorised scooter thing!  The classic style on the right was made by our 14 year- old daughter who printed out her own sentiment.  I never think of doing that, but it makes sense, then I can say absolutely anything on my cards!

Thanks for dropping by.