Little Fishes

Today I am in a rush as I need to get this card posted in order to join in with Craftlandia Challenge 7 where the theme is 'sea'. As I seem to be a bit short of time these days, I told myself that I had to make a quick and easy card. I often tell myself that but it doesn't often happen, usually because I spend far too long agonising over each little decision. Well just for a change it worked!

I started by taking a bit of glossy card and used a brayer to apply distress oxide ink, this gives a lovely smooth blend. Once that was done I took the stencil and applied ink through it with a sponge applicator. I think I used the same broken china ink on the top part of the panel and worn lipstick on the bottom. I quite liked the look. The only thing I could think of that I had in my stash that suited the sea theme, required by the challenge, was this little fish, so I went through my background folder and found a piece of mixed media background made yonks ago and cut the fish 3 times. I rather like that each fish looks slightly different and they all have a bit of a shine because the panel had been finished with glitter modge podge.

You can just see the shine in the close up.

I finished it with some little bubble embellishments, can't remember where I got them. I decided to leave it without a sentiment this time. i have just realised that there is no stamping on this one so that made it quicker to make too.

Supplies:

cardstock: Clarity A6 coated/silk; white card base; 160gsm coloured card

Ink: Distress Oxide

Dies: ?Docrafts dinky die

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

WLCB June Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder that you still have time to join us at We love Chocolate Baroque. I am still feeling excited about joining this wonderful design team and getting the chance to use the wonderful stamps from Chocolate Baroque

***The challenge for June is for a hand coloured or paper-pieced image ***

As my first card was hand coloured my reminder card uses paper piecing. Unfortunately the stamp I used is no longer available, which is a shame I think. As you can see from the picture below I only used part of the stamp for my card but did stamp the whole thing on the back of the envelope. I started by inking my background with specked egg DI through the forest vines stencil. I repeatedly move the stencil around and used a different intensity of ink to get the shadowy effect. I did the partial repeat stamping by mounting my card on a larger square and then, using my misti, I positioned the stamp and then rotated the large square piece of card 4 times to get the 4 impressions positioned as I wanted them. I was pleased with how this worked.

I didn't need to worry about the background showing through as I was going to paper piece the flowers. I actually used 4 different patterned papers for the paper piecing but they don't show up that well, you can see them better on the close up picture below.

Once I had done that I felt that this 'flower' needed something extra so I added a die cut centre using 2 of the patterned papers and some of the orange highlight paper. My panel was mounted onto orange paper and then onto a grey card base.

I was a little disappointed that the papers didn't show up more and considered changing them but then I decided it had grown on me and stuck with it.

What do you think?

You have until 30th June to join us

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery

I am also sharing this at:

613 Avenue Create #6 - anything goes with optional twist paper piecing

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; adorable scorable coated card; orange 160 gsm card; various PP

Ink: Distress ink speckled egg

Stamps: Chocolate Baroque Peony

Dies: Lawn Fawn stitched square stackables; Gemini by crafters Companion just because; Flower die by Docrafts

Stencil: Sara Davies signature collection forest vines

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

Simply CAS

Today I am sharing a card that I made a while back but for some reason I haven't posted it yet (I do have quite a lot like that), so I thought I would put that right today as I quite like it. Sometimes I look back on cards and don't like them much, but this one I am still pleased with, so that must make it worth sharing.

The flowers were stamped and coloured with water colour pens, cut out with the matching die and mounted it on a small square of gold card.

The sentiment is heat embossed onto the coated card base. I added interest by stamping the image onto a paper insert.

I hope you will think it is a simple and effective CAS card.

I am sharing this at:

The Flower Challenge #57 - CAS

Krafty Chicks Thursday - CAS

CAS on Friday - Flowers

Supplies:

Cardstock: Mixed media paper; Adorable scorable coated card; 160gsm paper for insert

Ink: Stabilo watercolour pens

Stamps: Happy Hibiscus, Tonic Studios and matching die; Simply said by Uniko

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

June CAS Mix Up Reminder

Time for a reminder over at CAS Mix Up, we are using watercolour this month, our host is Viv of Viv's Visuals. She has chosen the them of flight and our very special guest designer is Joyce of Cards by the sea.

I have seen lots of butterfly cards recently so I thought I would join the club with one of my own.

This butterfly was stamped in black ink and then coloured with watercolour pens. Once I was happy with the watercolouring I re-stamped it and heat embossed with clear EP to give it a lovely shine, I then fussy cut it and mounted it on a piece of pearlescent vellum that I had dry embossed.

I wanted to frame it with black but didn't want the black showing through the vellum so I cut a frame with 2 square dies. The sentiment is heat embossed on a piece of co-ordinating card.

You can see the pearlescent shine and the embossing on the close up photo.

I am not quite finished yet, I have another card to share. This one was made first but I decided the background was at risk of compromising the CAS nature of the card so made another.

I do hope you have been inspired to join us this month, don't forget to use watercolour and keep your design CAS.

I look forward to seeing you in the gallery, you have until 24th to get link your entry up.

I am sharing my second card at:

Allsorts - week 628 Butterflies and Bugs

Supplies:

cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper; white card base; pearlescent vellum

Ink: versafine onyx black; Stabilo watercolour markers

Stamps: Keiserkraft; Hero Arts; Uniko Background builder (card 2)

Dies: square & oval nesting dies by Waffle Flower

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

Silver Wedding

Today I have a quick post to share a card I made for a friend who recently celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary.

This was very hard to photograph because of the reflections so my apologies for that.

I just love dies and recently got sucked into another sale, this time by Sizzix, where I bought the lace coverplate and the heart frame that you can see on this card.

I cut the lace from a pice of thin card to create a stencil and used brilliance silver ink through it onto a piece of silver paper for the insert and the white envelope

the cover plate was cut from white card and mounted on a metalic silver panel. The heart frame was mounted on vellum and the numbers attached

I am rather liking this lace die, so I hope it will mean it gets plenty of use.

My friend and her husband liked the card anyway, which is the main thing, and it was very easy and quick to make.

I am sharing this at:

Just Us Girls #588 - Trend week, no stamping

Supplies:

cardstock: Xcut adhesive metal effect sheets

Ink: Brilliance starlight silver

Dies: Sizzix thinlits intricate lace and geo frames; Number by Concorde & 9th; Sentiment Gemini by Crafters Companion

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

Gerbera

Today I am sharing a card I made after I was lucky enough to win a random draw from the very generous Bev at Uniko. I do love her stamps.

This card uses the Gerbera stamp set. I stamped the flower and leaves, coloured them with polychromo pencils and fussy cut them out.

The picture doesn't show it, but I have put a little sparkle in the flower centre with a sparkle pen, just to add a little extra interest.

The basket weave  embossing folder was cut to size and gently inked with distress ink.

The sentiment was heat embossed on the coated card base. I know I use this card for my bases a lot, but that is because it embossed beautifully, it comes in all kinds of different colours and it is a very good weight for a card base (300gsm). Just some of the reasons why I love it.

I am sharing this card at:

Uniko challenge 65 - Anything goes, unusually for me I don't have any die cuts on this card

AAA Birthday Game 26 - Flowers

By the way, I have imported all my email followers into follow it and deleted my feedburner account, so I hope it works for you.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Adorable scorable; stamping card

Ink: Distress ink; Versafine toffee

Stamps: Uniko pure florals Gerbera

Embossing Folder: Spellbinders 3D M-Bossabilities - Basket weave

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

We love Chocolate Baroque

Today is a very exciting day for me, as it marks my first post as a designer for the we love Chocolate Baroque challenge. I am sure you will all be very familiar with the challenge, it is a monthly stamping challenge and you can use any stamps you like, but it is always good to use Chocolate Baroque stamps if you have any. The designers always use Chocolate Baroque stamps on their inspiration posts, which is very good for me as it gives me an excuse to buy more stamps and get to know this little company a lot better. I also hope that I will improve my stamping skills. Thank you to Brenda and the team for inviting me to join them. I do feel very honoured.

Chocolate Baroque is a small independent art and craft company, based in the historic market town of Barnard Castle in County Durham in the North-East of England and is owned and run by Lesley and David Wharton. 

They design their own range of natural rubber art stamps from hand drawn originals, complemented by typography from Lesley.  The rubber stamps are made in house, by David, to their very exacting quality standards. Nothing gets past his eagle eye!

***The challenge for June is for a hand coloured or paper-pieced image ***

Here is my card:

I used potting soil archival ink to stamp my image onto watercolour paper and then I painted it with Zig Clean Colour real brush pens and a size 4 brush with water. I coloured the bees wings with a silver sparkle pen. As you can see from the photo above I also stamped the insert on the corner and the whole image on the back of the envelope.

For the background I took 2 pieces of A2 card, glued them together and ran them through my big shot with the background die. This did not cut the card but left a lovely embossed pattern. Then the panel, that I cut from shiny copper coloured card, fitted beautifully onto the solar white base. I saved just a few of the millions of little hexagons to add a little extra interest.

I used a word die to create the bee happy sentiment, I just cut it up and glued it together again. A bit fiddly but I think it works.

You have until 30th June to join us, I do hope you will. I shall look forward to seeing you in the gallery.

I am also sharing this at:

Double D Challenge - Bee inspired

Supplies:

Cardstock: Hot pressed watercolour; Nina solar white 81/2 x 11; Xcut adhesive metal effect A5 sheet

Ink: Ranger potting soil archival ink; Zig clean colour real brush pens

Stamps: Honey Bee by Chocolate Baroque

Dies: Concord & 9th Hexagon Designer Dies and parts of sending happy thoughts

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

May Card Chain Challenge

Today is 2nd June so time for the reveal post over at the card chain challenge where each month participants send a card to a fellow participant and receive one back. This month 30 people took part so there will be 30 gorgeous cards to see on the reveal post.

My card went to the lovely GerJanne in The Netherlands.

This month I didn't use the colours or the sketch but the theme of coffee and cake (hmmmm cake) and the product of embossing folders.

I have used a digi stamp by Stamplorations which I printed onto watercolour paper and then painted with my Zig clean colour real brush pens.  I added some detail and definition with my polychromo pencils too.

The image was then fussy cut and mounted onto a pale grey embossed background. I gave it a bit of a lift by matting it onto some green card. The sentiment is also a digi stamp that I printed onto vellum. The panel was mounted onto a grey card base.

I chose this sentiment deliberately for GerJanne because she is so inspirational and can turn her hand to any style of card, so it is an honour for me to send her a card and also to receive them from her. I am so glad I came across her blog a while back now. At first I was afraid that I had messed it up with the sentiment as it looked very bold against the soft colours, but I decided that I would ruin the card if I tried to change it and managed to tone down the black a bit by going over it with a white coloured pencil. I did it a few more times after I took the photo, so it looked more grey in the final version.

I received this amazing card from Tina in Slovenia. I do love that embossed background.

You have until 6th June to sign up to take part in the June Card Chain Challenge.

Supplies:

Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper; grey 120gsm paper; green 160gsm paper; adorable scorable for the base

Ink: Zig clean colour real brush pens; polychromo coloured pencils

Digi Stamps: Stamplorations

Embossing Folder: ?

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

June CAS Mix Up

Time for a new watercolour challenge at CAS Mix Up up. Viv is our host this month and she has chosen the theme of flight to inspire us. Don't forget to check out our wonderful guest designer this month too, Joyce of cards by the sea.

Don't forget to use watercolour as your main medium and as always, make sure your card is CAS.

I am very pleased to have used this hummingbird stamp for the first time on this card.

I started this card by adding a watercolour wash to some watercolour card and die-cutting it for my background. The hummingbird was stamped and watercoloured with my Zig clean colour real brush pens. I added some wink of stella around the edges and fussy cut it out.

The flower is part of the same set as the bird and the happy birthday is stamped and heat embossed onto a left over piece of the watercoloured background

I am sorry that you can't see the sparkle on the pictures.

Supplies:

cardstock: cold pressed watercolour paper; adorable scorable coated card

Ink: Zig clean colour real brush pens

Stamps: Uniko

Dies: Nellies multi frames square

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