Flamingo Anniversary

Hi all.  There are some great dies given away with magazines these days and this is yet another which I got recently.  I always look when I am out and about and this struck me as being quite a useful die for either a birthday or, as here an anniversary.

I decided also to use the CAS(E) this Sketch current challenge for the design which I flipped the other way up.
 

I also had in mind the current Happy Little Stamper CAS Challenge this month which asks that we use Stencil Monoprinting.  This entails using ink on the stencil itself with a little spritz of water or not, and transferring this by pressing it face down on to the card. 

I cut the Flamingo twice using a snippet of white card and watercoloured with a combination of Distress Inks Picked Raspberry and a touch of Adirondack Peach Bellini to get the right shade of pink for the flamingos.  I also used Black Soot for the bill and then black with the pink on the legs and feet.

I then made the stencilled monoprint using a snippet of white card using a That Special Touch Mask called Wavy, inked with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink and then used some Mustard Seed DI, added very sparingly with blending foam so it wouldn't be too dark, to make it look like the sea with some sand.  I decided to die cut it into a heart shape and then to make a silver mirri small heart to fit at the top of the inked heart.   Both these hearts were cut using a Nellie Snellen set of Heart Dies.  The silver heart was cut from a snippet of mirri.

The background was made with another snippet of white card embossed with the same Wavy stencil.

I finished with a snippet of black card cut into a strip to fit across the embossed background and a Sue Wilson Congratulations sentiment die cut with a snippet of silver mirri backed with Stick It adhesive.  I mounted the Flamingos so that they were grounded on the edge of the black strip rather than floating in mid air.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Pat  x

I would also like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop Week 226 where we use up our snippets.
Uniko Challenge No 31 Use Metallics.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Show Us Your Metal.

Pretty Peacock

Welcome everyone.  Here I am with a birthday card this time using a freebie die which came with a magazine.  I saw it in the shop and umm'd and ahh'd as to whether I should get it or not and ended up leaving it.  I then noticed this card by Liz of Crafty Sunflower which made me wish I had got it after all.  On my next visit to the shop they still had some copies so I snapped one up immediately, and this is what I have come up with using it.

I decided to ink up the embossing folder, which was a freebie I got some time ago.  The technique I use is to run the ink pads across the raised side of the folder and then spritz with a little water before adding the snippet of white card and embossing it which pushes the colour into the embossed pattern.  In order not to contaminate the pads too much I start with the lightest colour and also try not to overlap the colours too much.   After embossing I used my mica powder in gold and put a little on my glass mat and using my water brush mixed it with some water and painted it on to various parts of the finished piece to add some pretty shimmer.  The colours of Distress Inks I used were Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Spiced Marmalade, and I then blended some more Peacock Feathers round the edge using blending foam.

I then die cut the peacock out of another snippet of white card and two extra tails also from white snippets.  I coloured the body of the peacock with the peacock feathers darkened with Stormy Sky, and for the tail pieces I made it more blue toned by adding more of the Stormy Sky than the Peacock Feathers.  I again added the mica in the same way as for the background.   I then cut and fitted the two extra pieces of tail to the peacock, and I also used a tiny pearl for the peacock's eye.

I die cut and embossed the leaves using a Sue Wilson die called Orange Blossom Leaves using another snippet of white card and then coloured using some Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn and Adirondack Lettuce, and then put the die back over and coloured the veins with more Mowed Lawn.

I cut the sentiment mat using another snippet of white card using an ornate Spellbinders oval die called Floral Ovals the second size of die, and  added the sentiment using Mowed Lawn DI.  I finished by layering it up on to a square white base card.


Thank you for dropping by today and see you again soon.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 225 where we use our snippets of card, paper etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Make it Girlie.
Stamping Sensations - One for the Girls.  (There has been a query about my entry as the only stamping is the sentiment on the central mat so if this is not sufficient stamping for an entry please accept my apology). 
Bizzy Becs April Challenge - Anything Goes.

Three Feather Fun

Hi all.  Another masculine birthday and so difficult to think of new ideas for a male card.  Then I thought of the freebie feather which I had with a magazine sometime ago and have never used.  I do look for ideas and have seen negative shapes with a little scene within the shape and haven't done this in quite this way before so here goes.

I die cut the shape from a piece of white card and the positive shape became one of the feathers and the negative I used to ink through using Adirondack Stonewashed and Stormy Sky Distress Ink.  I used a piece of inkjet paper which is fairly good quality and which I actually use for inserts.  I inked with the two inks mentioned above using the negative shape and then keeping this shape in place I found a small deer stamp with comes from a Claritystamp set called Winter Wonderland and Snowscape and which just fitted in the feather shape and stamped it into place using some Versafine Smokey Gray ink.  I used some of the Stormy Sky DI and some blending foam and a piece of torn paper to build up a little bit of shading around and under the deer to give the idea of a background and then using some Black Archival Ink and a foliage stamp from a freebie set from Sheena Douglass  I stamped this, with first and second generation ink, at either end of the feather.  I also added a little Mustard Seed and Fired Brick DI for the sun.  I did intend it to be quite bright to represent the look of a late in the day/almost setting sun, and in real life doesn't look quite as bright as it appears here. I cut this out leaving a reasonable margin round the edge.  This little scene didn't work perfectly first time as I actually did three before I was happy with the result.

I cut a piece of white card to fit on my square base card leaving a narrow border round the edge, and decided where the scene in the feather was going to be placed and then die cut the feather shape from this piece of card.  I then decided to emboss this with a small dots embossing folder.  I also embossed the die cut feather with the dots.  I fixed my little scene to fit behind the feather shape and glued into place, and then glued this to the front of my white base card.

I decided to colour one of the feathers with Brilliance Starlite Silver Ink and I did this by swiping the ink across the feather to get a good coverage.  It wasn't an entirely smooth finish but buffing it with a soft cloth when dry improved it.  The other feather I coloured with the two blue inks used above making the dots quite dark with the Stormy Sky and then I added some Black Soot DI around the edge and finished with some silver mica powder applied while the ink was still damp to give it a bit of a sheen.

I bound the two feathers together with a piece of blue baker's twine and then adhered these to the card.

I finished by adding a die cut sentiment cut from a piece of white card which I inked with the two blue inks and backed with the Stick It adhesive.

Sorry, this was a bit long winded today but hope you find the 'how to' of use.  I would also like to introduce a new follower Janice whose blog you will find here.  Sorry Janice I should have introduced you a time or two ago.   I hope she agrees with me that she has quite a CAS style and her cards are very elegant and pretty so please go and take a look.

Thank you for stopping by and see you again soon.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Let's do the Polka.
CAS Mix Up April Challenge - Stamping, Stencilling and one other technique which in my case is die cutting and there is also a bit of inking too.
Uniko Challenge - No 31 Use Metallics.
Addicted to Stamps and More  - Clean and Simple.
Less is More - Use 3 Stamps (deer stamp plus foliage stamp twice).

Flying High

Welcome all.  Today I have a male birthday card to show you.  I was in a bit of a rush to get it done so kept it relatively simple.  I found a digital image of a plane as he does fly so I thought he would appreciate that and I used an embossing folder which was a recent freebie with a magazine.

I started with a white square card and used the embossing folder on the front of it.  I gave the embossing some colour with Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky which I applied with some blending foam.

I then die cut the digital image with an XCut circle die.  I cut a cloud shape from a piece of copy paper and using Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass I gradually built up the clouds round the plane using blending foam.  I then gave the plane a bit of extra shading with a black Spectrum Noir pencil and then adhered it to the card front.

I finished by using the Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky on a snippet of white card and then die cut the sentiment having first used some Stick It adhesive on the back.

Before I go today I would like to introduce two new followers who are Anne who you will find here, and Judy whose blog you will find here.  Both ladies are fabulous cardmakers with quite different styles but do beautiful work and I'm sure they would love you to go and visit them.

Thank you for coming by today.


Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Clean and Simple.
AAA Cards CAS Challenge - Anything Goes.

 

Embossing Folder Inking Technique

Hi everybody.  I have used this technique quite a few times now and really like it.  I had a couple of male birthday cards to make and as a bit short on time I had decided to do two the same, but then at the last minute changed the second one slightly.
    

Both cards use the Sizzix Embossing Folder Bricked which comes as a pair with a Woodgrain one.
I layed the folder out flat and inked the inside of the front of it using Memento London Fog ink, and then spritzed it a little before laying a snippet of white card over it and pressing firmly before lifting it away.  I used a Sue Wilson large Happy Birthday and die cut this inked piece of card using the Stick It adhesive.  As this is quite expensive I economised by just backing the area where the sentiment would be cut out.  I matted the negative shape with a snippet of black card and then adhered this to a piece of silver mirri card on the left hand one, and on the one on the right I left the inked layer larger so only matted on to black.

The left hand card I continued by cutting another sentiment from a snippet of white card again backed with Stick It adhesive,  and this was stuck to the underside of the original sentiment cut from the inked piece, and then I placed this back into the negative space and the extra layer makes it stand out better.  I decided that the sentiment edges were a little difficult to see on this one so when cutting the under layer for the right hand card I used a snippet of black card instead, and I think when comparing the two the black card makes the letters stand out better.

I finished the left hand card with three enamel dots, and the right hand one with some Xcut Nesting Stars.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 224 where we use up our snippets.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Happy Birthday (they are 7 years old).

Monochrome Anniversary

Hi there.  I had a family anniversary this last weekend and I made this card using the  Heart of Hearts die by Sue Wilson at Creative Expressions, and this is a lovely die because you can cut plain hearts in two different sizes and cut the little hearts out, or you can cut the heart shape into the card as I have done here.  I looked at Sue's Pinterest board and found this card which was on her blog in February, where she cut the heart four times into the piece of card which I thought looked quite nice so that's where I started. You can see her card here.  I also used an embossing folder from XCut  called Hearts and Kisses, and a Nellie Snellen Corner Die Corners 1 for the sentiment tag, the smaller of the two.  The silver embossed sentiment is from a stamp set by Verve called  Poppy Birthday, and the butterfly is from a set by Justrite called Multi-step Butterflies and Flowers.

To begin with I cut the four die cut hearts out of a square white snippet of card and then I embossed with the Hearts and Kisses EF which I extended to cover the whole background and it matched up really easily.

With Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge in mind I found a large snippet of mint glitter card which I cut just slightly larger to leave a narrow border round the edge when layered up.  The challenge asks for margins and although not a huge one there is a margin round the layer showing just a little of the white square base card so hope this is OK. 

I found another snippet of white card which I cut with the Nellie Snellen corner die, the smaller of the two.  The die cuts into the card and before cutting the second corner I worked out how much space I would need for the sentiment before cutting the other end.  I then cut in a straight line at either side of the two cut corners to make the tag shape.  I  cut a second from a snippet of the mint coloured glitter card and cut it across the middle so I could stagger the two layers and have a bit of green showing beyond the top white layer. 

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on to the tag using Versamark and some WOW Silver Embossing Powder and adhered it using a piece of thin foam tape to give it a bit of height.

Lastly I stamped and heat embossed the butterfly, just the pretty top layer, and after fancy cutting attached it to the corner of the tag using a small piece of the foam tape.

Thank you as usual for all the interest you show in my blog.  See you soon.

Pat  x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Butterfly Challenge  - M for Margins and/or Mint.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 223 where we use up our snippets of card and paper etc.
Cuttlebug Mania - Monochrome.  I have used a little silver but hope this will count as a neutral.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.