Sending a little Sunshine

As we continue to have summer weather its rather hard to even envision Autumn is on the way. Its still hot as here so I thought I might send a little sunshine your way.

What better way than in a floral card. This bunch of flowers is a digital image and coloured with copics.

I then cut it out with the wonky stitches square die and mounted onto a yellow card base.

Then it was the usual decision time, the sentiment. I wanted to use the die cut 'sunshine' and then decided that the 'sending a little' was perfect for todays card.

All very simple and fast, even the colouring is very basic, no blending just using two variations of a colour each time to give depth etc. All finished.

also I would like to thank everyone who has been commenting on my last couple of posts, with limited internet I have not been able to get around myself but I will be heading home tonight so will be able to catch up tomorrow.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge : Anything Goes

Create and Inspire: Challenge 42

Fan-Tastic Tuesday: 29th March challenge: Anything goes with a twist hearts or flowers

2 Creative Chicks :Challenge #8 Anything Goes

Okay so thank you for coming to visit and I hope I see you again soon.

Smile.......Its your birthday.

What a simple card this turned out to be. First I stamped and heat embossed this delicate little flower onto a piece of vellum then I coloured with my copics on the side of the embossing. Didn't worry about blending and multi layers as its apparently not good for your copics to touch the embossed ink. I did try on the other side of the vellum but it looked too wishy washy to me so I went with the proper side and tried to be careful (as I can be which isn't very). Anyway used two colours to add a bit of variety as you can see with the petals, leaves and flower centres.

It was quick and easy to colour the piece then it was what to do with it. Thats the long process, of course it looked brilliant on a white card base to show it up BUT it didnt do anything for me.

I fiddled around a bit, got sidetracked. Made a different card or two then came back, saw the purple spotty dotty acetate and it just went bang, bang, bang (well maybe not that loud) but it fell into place.

White card base, purple dotty acetate layer connected by putting small amounts of glue on the purple dots.

I also folded it over at the top with a quarter inch over the edge and attached a strip of double sided tape. Attached the vellum to the acetate with glue behind the flowers and a dot at each corner that I covered over with an enamel dot.

Finished off with my die cut 'Smile' using a gold sparkle dot for the 'smiles' 'i'.

Ohh my goodness I loved it, so bright and uncluttered and just looks brilliant and perfect for  a friends birthday. Inside it says

"They say that your memory starts 

to go as you get older.......

Happy Birthday Whoever You Are"

That cracks me up!!!

Stamping Sensations: March Challenge: Flower Power

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C329 Purple

Addicted to  CAS Challenge #84: Delicate

Less is More Challenge #269 Polka Dots

Okay thats it for this post. Rate Im going at I will have used up my quota of wifi on my phone before I finish up at mum and dads. Hopefully enough to upload one more time tomorrow.

Hope you all enjoyed your visit and come again soon.

Butterfly Rainbows

Its getting close to my One Year Anniversary for my blog and I cant believe how many wonderful people I have met. I will have to do something to celebrate but that will be mid April so will talk more about that later, like in a few weeks :)

Still learning to get this blog to work properly and spent yesterday getting it to show a link to my Pinterest page but couldn't work out how to add the button that gets the Pin to show up when you hover over the photo.
After trying and reading for a couple of hours I gave up and deleted the Pinterest link as my photos aren't all up in Pinterest cause I don't know how to add, any help welcome. Preferably in the Dummies Version.


Now onto the cards. I have two in this post and will enter in some challenges. I wanted to do a comparison with some watercolour papers and mediums.

I wanted to do some cards with Spring in mind, rainbows and butterflies. Both cards have been done using the Hero Art Butterfly. I love butterfly stamps and have many and they are all in need of a rally good workout but the problem is just too many stamps and any I use as you know from what I have said before I always have to do multiples in different stampings and embossings.

In this instance I have used only white embossing powder and three types of paper. This one is the Canson Watercolour paper that isn't that expensive and I am rather enjoying using. It is not white white more a creamy colour but doesn't seem to stand out unless next to another card that is white.

I stamped and white heat embossed (very fine white embossing powder Hero Art). As you can see I did two main butterflies then did a  bit of masking and stamping to have the others partially behind the main ones.

I coloured these with the Zig watercolour pens, just adding some colour at one end then adding water and moving the ink around. If the colour was too dark anywhere I just added more water and blotted to remove some colour then added more as I went.

Aren't these colours vibrant. Love them and they work on this paper brilliant.

Finished the card off with some different coloured enamel dots and stamped the sentiment.

Now the next card I used Tim Holtz Watercolour card stock.

This cardstock does not work with the Zig watercolour pens unless you are just painting straight on with very little water involved. It will not move loosely on this cardstock, its like it digs in.

So here I have used my Distress Ink pads, collected a rainbow collection of colours and squished down on my art pallet. Actually I made this pallet up about 6 months ago and as long as its sitting where it cant get knocked or anything placed on it the colours last and stay wet indefinitely. You would think I had just done the squishing.

The main error I made here was my blue and green were too close in colour and don't stand out well here. They do look different IRL.

Distress ink goes onto this type of card stock like soft butter on bread, beautiful, easy to move around and play with with water.

I wish I had seen the colour wasn't standing out between the blue and green on these photos but I took them then left for mum and dads. Don't have the cards with me to re-photograph. 

A few more scattered enamel dots and a different sentiment. Beautiful to work on.

I would like to enter these in some challenges so:

A Blog Named Hero: Hello March Rainbow

a2z Scrapbooking March 2016 Challenge : Embossing

Penny Black and More : March Challenge: Feature a Creature

Alphabet Challenge Blog: B for Beautiful Butterflies

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #186 : Anything Goes

Thank you so much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

Further with the watercolour comparisons.

Alright here they are together, as you can see the card stock is slightly different in colour. Another reason I like the Canson is its easy for fussy cutting but then the Tim Holtz is better when die cutting for giving nice firm cutout (you know what I mean yeah!!)

Have you noticed my mistakes, I swear I didn't see them. My family dint notice them as we all stood there admiring the latest until I was editing and I'm thinking 'how' 'how could I do that??'

I  also did some colouring onto cheap watercolour paper that I had in the draw and wondered how the hell I was happy with that for all those years.

a) the embossing sinks into the watercolour paper so its not raised and sharp therefore

b) the watercolouring tends to spread

c)I must have been so lucky I painted those flowers with the creamy watercolours cause it didnt work with the zigs and the Distress Inks it just sank in and looked blah..... so I haven't bothered to post.

I suppose it comes down to I used cheap watercolour paper for years and have done some lovely cards over time but whether it was luck or just better paper at the time as I was constantly buying different ones. I would rather have a mix of the Tim Holtz and Canson from now on and will probably cull the million and one pre stamped and preprinted images that are for whenever I want to watercolour and start again.

I hope you all had a great Easter break. See you soon Xx

Happy Mothers Day

Its time to knock out some Mothers Days Cards. when I was doing  my card I made the other day I ended up painting four different panels. As you know I can never do anything by one thats why I'm always behind the times.

This one I did in purple tones again with the Kuretake paints. Not as happy with this mix so will try again later and on better paper as I have now used up all the embossed images on the cheap watercolour paper. Still to post two others so you will hear me mention again BUT it will be interesting to see the difference between this watercolour paper that was fine to paint on just doesn't look as good and the better watercolour paper. Will let you know.

the top flower you can see is much closer to the true colour of the flowers, the larger bloom looks dull but is actually more like the top smaller flower.

I have die cut the stitched rectangle die from the watercolour piece and another the same size in a purple cardstock then decided to mount on a lilac card stock. Stamped the sentiment undated a gem above and below. I know the rule is usually never even numbers but it just worked for me, they are large and another was too much so I left it as it was. I liked it.

Its a pretty card and I will probably give to mum as she loves these soft colours. Plenty of time to decide as Mothers Day isn't till May.

Challenges:

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges #297: Flowers

Cards in Envy: Just Purple Card Challenge

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #122: Any shaped card

Thanks so much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

THE BUG

Wondering why I haven't posted, interested in the drama in my household then read on.....

Well I haven't posted since last Tuesday and I'm finally back. I have neglected commenting on blogs left right and centre with all these beautiful cards and challenges around. I did get to a couple last night.

Tuesday is babysitting day with my two youngest grandchildren. Welllll they decided to get sick before the day ended so there was lots of sadness, tears, yuck, moping, cuddling, washing and redressing before my time was up.

Long and the short of it is they decided to share their germs (was it their fault or MINE cause I just cant get enough of kisses and cuddles even when their sick) and of course being sick they love to cuddle up to Nanny.

 Elysha and I lasted a day before it hit us, vomiting and diarrhoea, same with my son and his wife and her parents. Boy it wiped us all out. 

We are both only just starting to think of eating again and still thinking we will wait another day just to be sure. Of course the weekly visit to mum and dad had to be postponed.

 I hope you all have a wonderful time at Easter and celebrate in the way that you want. I'MMMM BACK. How many cards can I post before Monday????

Today is Down Syndrome Awareness Day and Elysha has been Featured.

Just a quick post, not card related.

Elysha as many of you know has Down syndrome and is Hearing Impaired. Elysha uses a combination of sign language (is fluent) voice and a program called Proloquo4Text. Her story has been featured over at AssistiveWare Website. For those of you interested please check it out:

AssistiveWare have made communication available for so many people and over the years I have worked for and enjoyed the company of the staff who are scattered all over the world. With the use of a voice output program used on iPhone, iPad or iPod people from all walks of life are able to tell others what they want, answer questions, make conversation and much much more.

Young Woman with communication device finds her voice - this particular story is about Elysha but there are many other stories there to tell you about Proloquo2Go and Prolouo4Text and how it works for them.

One of my favourite photos of Elysha dancing with her dad at my sons wedding.

My girls and the love they share.

Sophie helping with the icing

.

Elysha loves cooking (nearly as much as eating)

Hope you enjoy this little piece of our lives.

You are always in my thoughts.

I know its my second post today, I'm getting early as its babysitting day tomorrow down the coast and this will take the pressure off. Also I have been trying to get this card finished so I can enter the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge. I don't want to miss out and on Wednesday I head off to Canberra to spend Easter with my parents and Elysha goes to stay with her sister for a week.

I absolutely love using this flower stamp with my Kuretake paints. If you look back through posts I think you will find I have only ever used this flower stamp. I know I need to branch out but 

a) these flowers are just perfect for dropping colour in at one end and then another colour at the other end of each petal. These paints are so rich and creamy and I love them. 

Also b) when I did my stamping and embossing, its like everything else I do. I stamped and embossed in white, gold and silver in different formations and on different card stocks, watercolour paper, vellum so I end up with so much pre- prepared stuff. I have to make myself stop and use it. 

The only down fall of this was that I was using cheap watercolour paper at that time which is fine with this paint but you can see it is no where near white enough to go on a piece of white card so I have to try different ideas.

Here in the close up you can see the paper is not the best but I hate waste specially after all the embossing. Okay this one was done with the red wine, a wee bit of black for depth. I then added white from the other end and a bit of silver that gives that brilliant sparkle. Its lots of just playing around till your happy or let it dry then add some more. Like all watercolours start light and add.

Then I did the leaves and stems with turquoise green and olive green.

When I stamped the flowers in the first place I masked off a rectangle so not all the image was stamped.

I finished it off by die cutting with my stitched rectangle die. Then I used the same die to cut out a rectangle from the pink card front, as its double sided stitches it leaves a lovely look on the cut out and the card base.

Stamped the sentiment and added a wee little butterfly I coloured with copics. All done and finished with and hopefully CAS enough for the challenge.

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge: March 2016 Stamping + Watercolouring + Your Choice

Stamping Sensations: March Challenge : Flower Power

As You Like It Challenge: Favourite Style of Embossing and WHY

Love embossing, heat embossing the most. Especially in gold and silver and white but also in black. Ut adds a crispness to the image or sentiment, defines the lines better and is ideal when using watercolours as it acts as a natural barrier for the paint. If I could have my embossing stuff set up all the time I would heat emboss everything (well in card making that is, not so sure the kids or my husband would look so great heat embossed :)

Thanks for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

Thanks Faux Mother of Pearl Orange & Gold

Check out this panel. I mentioned in my last post that I decided to try acrylic gold paint with the same technique for the Faux Mother of Pearl look. I used my 'Silks'  gold paints that are wonderful and creamy. I put a small amount on my craft mat then did the same technique as with the opal white. Pouncing with scrunched up glad wrap. It goes on so beautifully and as its gold colour you can see where its gone on so you don't over do it.

I blended with orange and yellow Distress Inks for this panel.

 In this instance I have used a Papertrey Inks die that I bought and have barely used. But love it here, its just perfect. 

This was a purchase I should have learnt from, read what size the die is so you know what your getting. I thought it looked wonderful, had seen it on a card but hadn't realised the card was a small one that made the die look bigger. I was expecting a panel that would be the main part of the front of the card. Not that they had misrepresented, it was my error not checking.

The piece that you die cut is the gold area, I cut twice, once with gold and once with the pearlised panel then I carefully kept all the itty bitty pieces so I could put them all into the cut sections cause I think it looks brilliant like that. Then of course I had to turn it over and tape all the pieces in place.

I have made this a smaller card so the panel can be the main feature, Also added the 'thanks' die from Penny Black which I just love. Its small and flows and looks so delicate and elegant.

  I needed something for the centre of my frame and tried butterflies big and small and miniature and then flowers. W

asn't working for me, then I used a flower die from Memory Box and the flower here is the small one on a two flower stem. I swapped it around by cutting off the main flower and adding the smaller flower again connected at the twisted stem that was already there. Used a small piece that was from one of the curves as a leaf . Its not perfect but I think it really works here.

 It was great to be able to use a die that I just had to have, from the day I saw it released, and yet have hardly used. 

I did learn a lesson from that, rather than buy on the impulse of one card seen, sometimes its worth waiting to see how many more ways it can be used.  How often do we get caught up in the fever of a release (and I have done that even more with stamps) yet when we got it we cant seem to see beyond whats in front of us?

 How many times have you taken out a stamp or a die and typed it into Image Google to see what others are doing with it to find that other than the release time very little is available? 

What I do love to see is companies that spend time also going back over their older stock getting their Design Teams to highlight these items as well. Also like when I can go to a company and see plenty of samples. A pet hate is going to some companies and finding their samples are so small you can barely see them but lets not get onto that subject..

Okay lets link it up

Happy Little Stampers March CAS Challenge: Faux Mother of Pearl Technique 

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #84 Delicate

 Create  and Inspire Challenge #41 : Anything Goes

Thanks so much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.