Alcohol ink background

Hello,
Today I am sharing a card with an alcohol ink background and a die cut foreground.

 The die is from Clarity Stamp and has been cut from glossy black card which I have mounted over a die cut from white craft foam.

 The alcohol ink background also has some silver foiling on it which is hard to see on the photo. I am pleased with the contrast created between the black glossy card, the white craft foam and the bright colours of the background.

The simple sentiment is heat embossed with wow primary ebony embossing powder.

I am entering the following challenges:
1. Happy Little Stampers anything goes with dies
2. Colour throwdown#499

           

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

Blooming Lotus Die

Hello,
Today I am sharing a card I made with the memory box blooming lotus die. I love this die, I have used it several times already and I have only owned it a short while. I used the stained glass window technique recently demonstrated by Jennifer McGuire. I thought it was so neat I had to give it a go.

Here is my card:

 I coloured the petals with alcohol markers and then used nuvo crystal glaze to fill the space. You can just see the shine in the next picture.

 I didn't want to detract too much from the flower so after a lot of fiddling about I plumped for a simple hello white heat embossed on vellum. I layered the frame so that the flower wasn't standing proud of the frame as this technique uses several layers.

I am quite pleased with the end result. I might make it again using different colours - you never know.

I am entering this card in:
1. Just add ink #414
2. Crafting by design, flowers flowers flowers





Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. I would love you to leave me a message to let me know what you think.
Thank you
Hilary xx

Trees

Hello,
Today I am sharing 2 cards I have made for Twofer #6 trees.

Unfortunately I haven't posted anything for a while as I just keep running out of time and being fairly new at this game, it all takes me rather a long time. I have, of course, still been making cards but haven't easily found challenges to enter them in. This time I was determined to make an effort and enter the Twofer challenge.

I recently bought some Catherine Pooler ink, which has not been available in the UK for long, so these cards are about experimenting with the ink and I like it a lot, the colours are wonderful.
Here are my cards:

The 2 tree stamps I have used come from Clarity Stamp and the colours on the first card are rocking' red and orange twist. I made the sentiment with my Scan n Cut machine, coloured it with the ink and then did several layers of clear heat embossing. I also used clear embossing powder on the frame. I had intended to put a piece of velum on this card just to break it up a bit and would have put it on the left side until I found a smudge of the green ink on the right side. I have no idea how it got there!

You can see the shine from the embossing on the picture. The birthday part of the sentiment is coloured using the same red ink but it did darken up considerably as I ensured good coverage and put the clear embossing on it. I don't mind though, I think it still works and it matched the colour of the enamel dots.

I have been wondering what the occasion is for my second card, I think I am plumping for just a note, but I toyed with making it a celebration of green, which I just love. I even tried to make a little love green tag to put on the card but I couldn't get it to work. I used a stamp positioning tool and a template I made to ensure the card got rotated accurately. I hung a little die cut heart on it to emphasise the celebration of green. The ink colour is grass skirt. The daisy type flower in the middle was stamped twice and fussy cut. I coloured them with alcohol markers and was pleased to find that the ink didn't bleed hardly at all.

Do let me know what you think, I am intrigued to know as these cards are different to my usual style.



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

Hilary xx

Simple CAS card

Hello,
Today, after bit of a break from posting, I have a CAS card to share that I am entering in CAS Colours and Sketches #269, Addicted to Stamps and More #289 and Dare to be Artsy pastel colours.
My card was inspired by Cat Craig's entry in the colours and sketches challenge. I loved the simplicity of the lay out.

Here is my card, I hope you like it:

The succulent stamp is from the free gift with issue 176 of Simply Cards and Papercraft Magazine. I heat embossed it with white embossing powder, painted, and fussy cut it. The background is cracked pistachio distress ink. Here is a close up:

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

Twofer Challenge #3

Hello,
Today I have 2 cards that I am entering in the twofer card challenge #3 which has the prompt blossoms. My 2 cards are very different, in fact I have gone 3D for one of them, I hope that is allowed.

I have had a blossom stamp by Kaiser Craft for a while now and hadn't yet found an occasion to use it, until now of course. Here are my cards:

I will need to show you some more photos so you can see the stamp properly. The box card is for my granddaughter's 3rd birthday. She really liked the box card that I made for her older sister last year so I thought I would do one for her too. Her sister's card was a princess castle, this one needed to be different so it was the challenge that made me decide on a garden scene. I stamped the blossom in archival plum ink and then put little dots of colour in each blossom with my spectrum noir alcohol pens. I also used them to colour the little girl and the cheeky looking rabbits. You can see the blossom stamp better in these photos:

The second picture is the card folded up.

My second card is probably the most CAS card I have ever made. The blossom is stamped on a piece of yupo paper that I had coloured with alcohol ink. I then used the technique shown by Jennifer McGuire that she called alcohol ink ghost stamping. I used the same archival plum ink to stamp the image and then wiped it away and you are left with quite a detailed shadow left by the stamp, it is very neat. I decided to make this the focus of my card, so put it in a panel and scored the white card either side of the panel. I shall send this to a very special person in my life who has been unwell.
Here are the pictures:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it and if you can also take the time to leave me a comment it would be even better.
Thank you
Happy crafting
Hilary
xx