Last but not Least

The last of the 6 cards I made for the Elusive Images DT application - a colour challenge.  Glenda had specified that one of the projects submitted must follow a specifed theme and given a choice of about 4 or 5 themes, I chose a colour challenge - Brown and Teal. 

This time the main image is by Clarity Stamp, but the patterns in the dress, and on the edge of the inside back, are done using what I tend to think of as "incidental stamps".  Those small decorative stamps that come on sheets of unmounted stamps which, while they are pretty, often sit around unused because we are not sure what to do with them!  The stamp in question comes from the Elusive Images "Delightful Damask" themeplate

To make the card I stamped the lady onto some white card using a permanent black ink, I also made several stampings onto pages of a post-it note pad, making sure that part of the image fell over the tacky area, this was for cutting out to make masks for the dress.   I placed the masks in turn over various parts of the image and coloured the dress using a stencil brush and Versamagic inks in the appropriate brown and teal colours.  The pattern was added  by overstamping through some of the masks with the pattern stamp from the Delightful Damask themeplate.  The border round the image and also on the edge of the inside back of the card was created in much the same way, using masking, stencil brushes and overstamping.  The right hand edge of the front of the card has been trimmed back to reveal the stamped border inside the card. 

The background layers were cut from card in the challenge colours, the ornate cormers were cut with a Cuttlebug die.  I should appologise for the photo, this one seems to have a lot of camera shake in it, I always take more than one picture of my card, but in this instance I must have deleted the wrong image from the camera and as the card is no longer in my possession I cannot take a better picture.

Orange and Yellow Challenge on Stamp TV

Having caught up with various birthday card makes I found myself with some time to play just for the fun of it. The Orange and Yellow colour challenge on Stamp TV took my fancy and this is what I came up with.

The Butterfly is by Elusive Images and comes from the Butterfly Daisy Collage Themeplate. It's stamped with Fired Brick Distress Ink onto card that I had first coloured using Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks.

The yellow background is a piece of core'dinations card stock which I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then rubbed the surface colour off the embossed areas with an emery board. This was matted onto some orange card stock that was punched along one edge with a Fiskars border punch. The orange corners were cut using my Cuttlebug.

Shirley Poppys

This card came about after something I read made me Google Shirley Poppys, the flowers in this variety of Poppy are a pretty shade of pale pink. It's also another of those cards made for a March Birthday.

The stamp is from Elusive Images and is part of the Flora and Fauna Themeplate. I stamped and heat embossed it with Silver EP, then painted it with Twinkling H2Os. The greetings are also stamps by Elusive Images and were part of a Graphicus Guild Member's Limited Edition stamp plate. The frame is one stamp and there is a selection of greetings that are all made to fit inside the frame.

The image is layerd onto black card and I added some black Stickles glitter to give some more sparkle. The decorative corners were were cut from white card with my Cuttlebug and then painted with the same shade of green paint I had used on the poppy flowers. I am not sure if the end result is a good representation of the real flowers but I like to think that it's just as pretty as the photos I found in Google of the real thing.

With a Cuttlebug and a Brayer...

I finally had success with a techinique that I first read about several months ago on my friend Jan's Blog - Far North Designs. The technique was for inking Cuttlebug embossing folders before you pass them through your 'bug. My first attemps were horrible and on the odd occassions I have tried since I was still ending up with a mess. I had been applying ink to the embossing folder direct from my ink pad and things were getting just too inky. Anyhow this time I tried using my brayer to apply the ink - RESULT! I ended up playing for quite a while and created lots of lovely bits of inky embossed designs - this is the card I made with 2 of them.

Both of the embossed bits were inked using my brayer and a Kaleidacolor ink pad - Carribean Sea. The piece for the top half uses a piece of card I had already coloured with the brayer before embossing, once it had been put through the 'bug I ran the inky brayer over it again very lightly to strengthen the colours on the raised embossed areas without squishing the embossing flat again. The bottom section was simply I piece of white card which I had emobssed and then coloured with the brayer.

The rest of the card was so simple, I just chose some lovely vibrant turqoise card from my stash that toned with the colours from the ink pad. Added a little bit of ribbon and a pretty flower and brad. The tag was stamped and embossed with clear EP and then brayerd with more of the Kaleidacolour ink so it would tone in - the clear embossing provided a resist to the inks so the stamped words would show through in white.

I really like the effects I can get with this technique, you can ink first and emboss after, emboss first then ink, or you can do both, and you can apply the ink to either the raised embossed side or the indented debossed side of either your embossing folder or your card - so loads of possibilites! I think my assortment of rainbow style inkpads and brayer are going to be in for a hammering cuz this is just too much fun!

Another Owl Card

This time it's for the Sunday Stampers Challege. I was ever so pleased to see the challenge involved Owls this week because after making Fab's birthday card I was itching to try stamping that Elusive Images Owl on the same brayered background, but this time with the bands of colour running horizontal to the owl and using brown ink rather than dark navy for the owl itself. Anyhow here is the card I came up with.

As before the background colours for the Owl image are from the "Country" Kaleidacolor ink pad brayerd onto white card. This time the owl was stamped with "Brushed Corduroy" Distress Ink and embossed with clear EP. The eyes were glazed with Glossy Accents and once this was dry I cut the owl out. The cream matting layer was cut with one of my Nestabilities dies and my Cuttlebug, then stamped with a little feather stamp that comes on the same Wise Owl themeplate as the Owl stamp. I used more of the Brushed Corduroy Distress ink to stamp with and then edged the layer with a gold Sakura Pentouch pen.

The card itself is some russet colour card from my stash. The ornate corner flourishes are also by Elusive Images and can be found on the Butterfly Daisy Collage themeplate. They were stamped with versamark and then I used some Perfect Pearls in Heirloom Gold to dust over them.

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Not only one of my favorite songs, but a post title that suits this card. The card was made for a swap on Craft Telly Forum with the theme "a mostly white card".

All cardstock used is bright white card from my stash. The flowers are from a stamp by Personal Impressions. I stamped and heat embossed them onto white vellum using powders from the Cosmic Shimmer Range of embossing powders . Some of the flowers were stamped with Tropic Pearl Luster and some with Iced Blush Luster. The "Luster" Cosmic Shimmers are the very translucent powders. I used a ball tool to dry emboss onto the back of the vellum inside each of the petals to turn the vellum opaque white and then cut the flowers out. I added some translucent yellow glitter to the center of each daisy.

The matting layers were cut using a Spellbinders Nestbilites die and the larger one embossed through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder. On the smaller layer I embossed the sentiment with more of the Iced Blush Luster. The text stamp is from Elusive Images and can be found on the Rose Script Themeplate. It's hard to see in the photo but the text says "Earth Laughs in Flowers". I swiped my Versamark ink pad round the edge of both of the layers and used more of the Cosmic Shimmers on that to give each layer an edge. Iced Blush again on the top layer and Tropic Pearl on the Swiss Dots layer.

Finally I assembled all the elements using Pinflair Gel Glue (which behaves like a Silicone Glue but without the smell) to mount the flowers. The final touch was to add a bow of pale pink organza ribbon. I was really pleased by how pretty and delicate the finished card turned out.  With a change of sentiment to something more relevant I think this would make lovely Wedding card.

Christmas Mouse

I love those House Mouse stamps and invested in a couple recently. This is a Christmas card I made with one of them - isn't that lil' mouse sweet! Due to unforeseen events that kept me from stamping much for about 3 weeks the last week has been pretty hectic trying to finish off cards for Christmas and this card was really quite simple and fast to make - just what I needed!

I cut a label shape from some white card with a Nestabilities die then stamped the image with gray Versafine ink and coloured it with Twinkling H20s. This was then layerd onto the next size up of lable in the Nestabilities set which had been cut from red foiled card. Finally I attached some ribbon with a brad. The card itself is just some red card stock to which I applied a white panel which I had embossed in the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and then stamped a little greeting on the bottom edge which I had deliberatly left unembossed to take the greeting. I added a border of red Stickles Glitter where the white panel meets the red card and then adhered my mouse tag with foam pads.

Simply Santa

I guess we all have our own ideas about how Santa should look, well for me this stamp from Rubber Stampede is more or less my "perfect santa", wrinkled and weather-beaten from riding that sleigh throught the night in the dead of winter, but with a twinkle in his eyes and the hint of magic surrounding him!

The image was stamped with Adirondack Dye Ink (Red Pepper) onto white card. I trimmed away all white edges from the image then mounted it onto red foiled card, layered that onto more white card that had been embossed through the Cuttlebug and then on to silver foiled card. I added just a little more sparkle with some stickles glitter and then applied the whole thing to some red card stock.

It looks so easy on T.V.

I invested in a Cuttlebug in the summer and have been having fun playing with it. One of the reasons I bought it was I love the effect created by colouring onto the embossed areas of their card. I have seen this demonstrated so often on televsion and they make it look very easy to do, but I think I still need some practice because I am not entirely happy with how this turned out, despite having several goes at it. It was a card for a swap on Craft Telly Forum where the theme was to make either a card with the theme "wide thing" or one suitable for a man. I liked the idea of this card because I felt the little bird is indeed a "wild thing" and the overall effect results in a card you could give to a man.

The the main image is from a Cuttlebug Embossing folder and coloured with chalks. The text is from Elusive Images and was stamped with an Adirondack Rainbow Inkpad. It's from the Words of Wisdom Themeplate. The background is was stamped and embossed with clear detail EP using another Elusive Images stamp, this time from the Wild Meadow themeplate.

My First Cuttlebug Card

I treated myself to a Cuttlebug a couple of months ago, but since getting it I have not actually used it apart from playing about and experimenting a bit. Not the machine's fault tho as most of what I have been up to recently has invovled me playing with my stuff, inks, stamps and the 'bug too, but not really actually making things from the experiements. Either the results did not turn out as I had wanted or simply because I often procrastinate when it comes to trying to decide what to make with them. It seems that Fate decided to intervene however when my latest aquistion, a Cuttlebug Die and Embossing folder of a leaf, arrived in yesterday's post on the same day that the challenge on the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog is to make a Fall or Hallowe'en card. The theme also ties in with the current "Anything Goes" challenge on Craft Swap Forum where the theme is "Autumn".

Here is the card I made, it's a rather unusual one for me as not a single ink pad or stamp was involved! I made the card using the leaf die which has been embossed in the co-ordinating folder embossing folder then painted in autumn leaf colours with Twinkling H2Os. The background layer is cream card which I embossed in another cuttlebug folder and then chalked over the raised embossing with some shimmery gold chalk that came in a kit from QVC and finally edged with some ink... oops there was an ink pad involved after all. That was matted onto some gold mirror card. The cardstock is some brown card that has a lovely golden shimmer all over it, I think you can see that in the photo, but in reality the shimmer is quite a bit more noticeable. The the greeting is a peel-off, which says "Birthday Wishes", sorry that bit just kept reflecting too much light for me to get the text readable in the photo.

As we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK and the sending of hallowe'een cards is not a tradtion here I decided that the card would be more useful to me as a birthday card for someone with an autumn birthday, but I guess it would work for lots of things such as a Thank You or a Get Well card at this time of year. That's the beauty of peel off greetings, you can peel them off and replace them with another one!