Gardens

Hello,
This is my third post today because I have had a busy time this July and it has, and is, taking me away from my craft room and computer. I have a few hours free today so I am posting the cards that I made last weekend. I don't want to miss the deadlines for the challenges I made them for and tomorrow I have my grandson, who is 6, coming to stay.  I shall be driving to London to pick him up, really looking forward to it as I haven't seen much of him recently.

My 2 cards in this post are for the July Twofer #18, the theme this month is garden.

Here are my cards:

The first card is a bit of a departure from my normal style but I saw Jennifer McGuire make one of these see through cards and wanted to give the technique a go. I used a layered rose die by Altenew that was free with Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine. Although the technique worked the rose was a little small so I had to add something else to fill the gaps and chose a small layered flower. This is the die that I used on both cards. I chose to secure my card front to the base along the side rather than the top as it was a little flimsy in places and I didn't think it would stand up if I attached it at the top. The message inside reads 'on your birthday'.

You can see the see-through effect in this picture.

My second card is a friendship card that came about during an afternoon spent with my alcohol inks last weekend. I created the alcohol ink background on yupo paper and stamped the small butterflies with archival ink that I then wiped away to leave the shadow of the stamp. I die cut the wreath and the flowers and arranged them with the little heart on the wreath. The wreath was then attached to the yupo paper which was mounted on some craft foam and attached to the card base. The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed in Wow pastel glazier mint EP. I was very pleased that the EP seemed to exactly match the blue coated card used for the wreath and heart.

I am going to enter this card in CAS mix it up July. I was also going to enter it in the Snippets playground but I have missed the deadline!



Finally here are some pictures of my garden taken this morning:

I am very proud of the Aeonium Zwartkop you can see in the white pot, it started with one small plant bought several years ago.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx

Fishy Greetings

Hello,
Today I have a card I am sharing at CAS mix it up July Challenge, the options this month are alcohol lift ink + stamping + your choice.

I have used die cutting and dry embossing as my choice. That's 2 things so I hope that's allowed.

Here is my card:

The design of this card was inspired by Cat Craig's July Twofer entry. I really liked how she created the garden scene through a window and when I was trying to come up with a design for this card I wondered if I could make my window look like a porthole with a fish swimming by. Have I succeeded? Not sure.

The green water background was created with 2 shades of alcohol marker pen swiped over yupo paper. To create the bubble effect in the water I used a background stamp by Wow and green archival ink. I don't have any alcohol lift ink but you can get the same effect with archival ink by wiping the ink off straight after stamping. The little fish was cut once from silver card and once from white card. I wanted to highlight the scales so that they shone. This was a bit of a fiddle because the pieces are small and they had a mind of their own. In retrospect, I probably should have embossed the silver card. The circular frame was added to give the porthole effect and it was mounted on craft foam. I used the remainder of the alcohol inked panel to cut the sentiment.

I added a few clear crystalline drops as a finishing detail.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx

Ghostly Butterflies

Hello,

Today I have a card for the July CAS Stencil Challenge which has a theme of alcohol inks/alcohol lift. I love alcohol inks and haven't used them in a while so I spent a happy session with them the other day and produced a few cards. I have to say that I found lifting the alcohol ink off using a stencil quite a challenge as others have pointed out if the tool you are using to lift the ink is too wet it just leaks all round the stencil and messes up the definition. after a bit of trial and error I found it was best to use  a simple stencil, as fine detail just gets lost, and a cotton bud soaked and then squeezed out in the lift medium which was surgical spirit for me.

Here is my card:

The colours were dripped quite generously on yupo paper and allowed to blend a little, once it was dry I laid over the stencil (from Funky Fossil) and set about lifting the ink.

I really had to put aside the part of me that wants clean crisp lines and accept the imperfections with this technique. Once I had successfully done that the card has grown on me! I attached the yupo panel to the base card and propped the frame up on foam tape trapping the sentiment die under it.

Here is a close up:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx

Guest Designer

Hello,
Today I am thrilled to be guest designer over at Stamping Sensations. I was lucky enough to win the May Challenge with the card you can find here. I have to say it was a complete shock as I think it might have been the first time I had ever entered one of their challenges, how amazing is that?

Anyway, now I have the pleasure and the agony of coming up with a card that I consider good enough for a guest designer slot. Originally, when thinking about what I would do, I had every intention of using the stamp sets by Chocolate Baroque that I won, but when I sat down to make my card something completely different happened, I am not sure how or why but never mind. The stamp sets I won are wonderful and I have used one of them several times already.

The prompt for the July challenge is:

'The earth laughs in flowers'

Here is the card I came up with:

This background flower stamp is by Wow, I stamped and heat embossed it in Wow gold pearl embossing powder and then painted the panel with my Zig clean colour real brush pens. I really like that embossing powder it gives such a lovely shine that you can see better in this picture:

The sentiment was part of the free gift with issue 191 of Simply Cards and Papercraft. I thought it fitted this occasion perfectly. I heat embossed it onto vellum and wrapped it around the die cut panel before mounting it on some pink craft foam. It doesn't show on the photo but it adds a bit of interest and dimension. Finally I mounted the panel on a piece of adorable scorable purple card.

Here is a close up:

I am pleased with the vibrancy of this card, I hope you like it too. thanks also to Stamping Sensations for giving me an opportunity to be a guest designer.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx

June Card Chain Challenge

Hello,
Today is reveal day at Card Chain Challenge and my card went to Lucille in Colorado this month. Just for a change this card came together quite easily. I used my favourite Concord & 9th turnabout stamp, I think it is called 'all seasons'. I like it because it is not as hard to line up as some of them and it creates a perfect circle. Here is the card:

I have tried to use the colours and the sketch for my card, although they are not exact.

I made this by masking the panel with a die cut circle and 2 strips of post it tape and blending distress inks to get the yellow panel. I then used moment ink to stamp the flowers and the sentiment. I trimmed the panel and mounted it on a blue card base. Finally I fretted about whether to add any embellishments. I decided against it because I am generally not very good at getting then right and the card was going to the States so it is best without lumps and bumps in the envelope.

Here is a close up:

This month I was lucky enough to receive a card from Cat Craig. She makes the most amazing CAS cards. Here is the one she sent me:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.
Hilary
xx