More Zendoodles

I decided it would be fun to try the round Zendala type of zendoodling, so I cut some circles with round nestabilities and got doodling. Next I added colour by brayering over my doodled circle using a Kaleidacolor ink pad (Caribbean Sea) which has colour bands that go from blue through to green so I though this might be acceptable for the challenge over on Colour Create this week which is to make something in Blue and Green.

I mounted the circular doodles onto some coordinating scalloped nesties that I had cut from gold foil card and then mounted these onto some light blue card. The greeting is a stamp by Elusive Images and comes from the Words of Inspiration themeplate.

All of a Flutter

This card was made for a swap on Craft Telly forum where the monthly swap theme was All of a Flutter. The background is made in 2 halfs using a brayer, a Kaleidacolor ink pad (Melon Melody) my cuttlebug to emboss the lower half and stamps by Elusive Images to heat emboss the sparkley Dragonflys and butterflys on the top half. All the stamps for that are on the Butterfly Blush themeplate and I used Stamp N Stuff Kaleidascope EP which changes colour when heated.

The main Butterfly is from another Elusive Images theme plate, this time Just Butterflies. The image was stamped using Adirondack ink in Butterscotch, heat embossed with more of the Kaleidascope EP and then painted using Twinkling H2O paints in colours to coordinate with those in the background. This was mounted onto card cut with Nestabilites dies. The ribbon is from Maya Road.

Apologies and a Tiddley card

I just want to say sorry to friends who's blogs I have not been visiting a lot recently. My old 'puter was getting very wobbly, dying on it's feet actually. Anyhow I had to nurse it along and avoid having it turned on for too long as it was running too hot and getting ready to fry itself. Thankfully the guys in my local computer shop are very cool guys, they kept my old 'puter running for about a year longer than I had expected and they have now built me a nice new one for not too large a number of pennies. Well not too large in the scale of 'puter stuff, but enough pennies to buy rather a lot of rubber stamps with if I hadn't needed the new 'puter.

Anyhow here is a "tiddly" card I made for a swap on Craft Telly Forum recently - the swap theme was to make a small card.. The card is what we refer to in the UK as A7 size - I know I have some American freinds who drop by occasionally so for you guys the card size is close to 1/4 of your American Letter size card which has then been folded in half to make a little card.

The whole thing was made from a piece of lovely pearlescent Moondust card - the butterfly was cut and embossed from some of the Moondust card with my Cuttlebug using one of those dies that has a matching embossing folder. I brayered some ink over the embossed butterfly using a Kaliedacolor ink pad - Calypso if I remember correctly - and finished by adding some sparkle with Stickles glitter glue.

The layer underneath the butterfly was stamped with a small text stamp which I had inked using the same Kaleidacolor pad and the daisy border at the bottom was stamped and embossed with gold EP then painted with Twinking H2Os. I can't recall who made the littel set of text stamps, but the border comes from a set made by Crafty Secrets. The other matting layer was simply another piece of the moondust card which I had coloured with the brayer in the same way as I coloured the butterfly. I did find it was best to give the ink a gentle heat set on this kind of card.

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!

Red Sky At Night

The challenge them on My Time To Craft this week is "Nature". This gave me a nudge to get a card that has been in my head for a long time - since last summer actually - made and out of my system!

The stamps are by Elusive Images and come from the Wild Meadow themeplate. Inks are from a variety of Kaleidacolor ink pads, but mainly Desert Heat and Creole Spice. The stamps were heat embossed onto the red sky background with black EP and on the main card I stamped with Versamark then dusted over with Perfect Pearls using a purple colour from the Jewel set.

The red sky background was created simply by using torn paper masks to sponge colour from the ink pads down onto the card, starting with the sponge on the edge of the mask and drawing the ink down onto my card. The colours graduated from lightest to darkest and I moved the mask a little further up with each colour. Once that was done I gently washed over this with a water brush to bleed the colours together even more.

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.

Birthday Card for a Man

It was my dear freind Fab's birthday the other day and I know he loves this Elusive Images Owl stamp so it made it easy for me to decide on the main image for my card. The stamp is from the Wise Owl themeplate.

I started by making a brayered background using a Kaleidacolor ink pad (Country) which has bands of brown, green, blue, pink and yellow. I stamped the owl onto this using Midnight Blue Stazon. As I had chosen to stamp the owl with the colour bands of the background running vertically and had kept the stamp to the side with the brown, green and blue colours, the yellow band of colour my brayer had created was left clear. After cutting out the stamped owl I used the unstamped area of the background to stamp the owl's head again on the yellow area so I could cut out the eyes and glue them over the eyes in the orignal stamping giving the owl those wondeful amber eyes. I applied a thick coat of Glossy Accents to the eyes to make them shine. My finished owl was mounted onto some cream card that I had cut with an oval Nestability and then matted onto a scalloped oval cut from some brown Bazzill cardstock and which I had edged in gold using a Sakura Pentouch pen.

The card itself is a lovely amber yellow card from Stampin' Up which I thought picked up nicely on the colour of the owl's eyes and the pattern paper is also from Stampin' Up and was part of some lovely blog candy I won a while back from my SBS 20 sister Sam. I added a narrow strip of the same brown Bazzill to the card to create a contrasting border at the edge of the printed paper. Some very plain gold peel off corners added a finishing touch. I think think the image and the colours make this a lovely card for a man.

Bling!

I got a bit carried away with the sparkle perhaps, but what the heck, I had fun making this card for a swap where the theme was to colour in something on your card. I decided it would be fun to stamp and heat emboss one of the big flowers from Elusive Images themeplate onto silver foil card and then colour it in with Sakura Glaze pens, which allow the silver foil to gleam through. I think the name of the themeplate "Diamante Delight" got stuck in my head because once the flower was ready I could not resist adding a ring crystal gems around the inner part. I think there must be close to 40 little gems on it despite the fact it was already sparkling due to being embossed with Stampin' Stuff's "Disco Black" EP which is a holographic powder.

Next I stamped and embossed a stem element and a double flourish from the Diamante Delight themplate onto some green card using the same black holographic EP. This was layered onto some black card and more sparkle was added by appying a thin layer of Stickles "Star Dust" glitter glue to the revealed edges of the black card. Finally I attached my cut out flower to the top of the stem.

With my flower ready to mount onto a card, I made some backing paper by sponging some cerise and purple inks from a Kaliedacolor Inkpad onto a pale lilac paper and then stamped the flourish stamp into diagonally opposing corners and extended this along the top and bottom edges. The paper was then applied to black card and my flower was mounted on top with foam pads. So much sparkle made this a tricky card to get a photograph of but I think the one I did manage to get shows the card reasonably well.

Some More Skinnys

Well life conspired again to keep me away from my craft stash last week - don't you just love it when you think you have lots of free time and things just happen! Oh well that's the way the cookie crumbles, maybe this week I can have a bash at making some cards for Fab's Christmas Challenge. I want to join his "nutters" this time and try to make 6. But first I have been making more skinnys for the swap list with a floral theme which I joined. The swap is organised by Craft Swap Forum.

From the left the first skinny was made using a stamp which is a limited editon stamp from Elusive Images and made avaiable to members of the Graphicus Guild. I stamped this with Black Stazon then painted the flowers with Twinkling H2Os, allowing the colours in the flower to bleed a litte into each other. The edges are inked with some Violet ink from a Petal Point pigment ink pad.

The middle skinny was made using a brayer and masking technique. The stamp is from the Laura Ashley Contemporary Collection. First I stamped my image onto my card stock using a Kaleidacolor ink pad (Desert Heat), next I stamped the image again twice onto a post-it note and cut the images out to create masks. The masks were then placed over the original stampings and I used a brayer to create my background this time using the Fresh Greens Kaleidacolor ink Pad.

The third skinny on the right was made with some Moondust Pearlecent card - I love the shimmer on that card. First I used a sponge to blend in 2 colours of inks which would work well with the Prima Flowers from the "Stone Rose" collection. The inks were from an Adirondack Rainbow pad called Stained Glass. I used the same ink pad to ink a stamp from Clarity Stamp and stamp the leafy background. Finally I stuck on the Prima Flowers and added a gem in the center of each.

Florrie's weekly ATC Challenge - Mellow Yellow

This week the theme for Florrie's Weekly ATC Challenge over on Craft Swap Forum was Mellow Yellow. I had fun getting inky with some inks and sprays for this project. First I took a blank ATC which was white and coloured it all over with inks from a Kaleidacolor pad in shades of yellow. Then I stuck down some punched out flowers and a butterfly shape using repositional adhesive so as I would be able to remove them. I then spritzed my ATC with some Memories Mists and let it dry. Once dry I sponged a little dark ink around the edges of my punched out flowers then removed them and sponged some orange ink into the middle of each flower and onto the butterfly. I decided to give the butterfly a little more emphasis by adding an outline of glitter with a Sakura Stardust pen and also added some sparkle to it's body.

World Stamping Week - my first Challenge attempt

I heard about this even from Jan (Far North), it's organised by Two Peas in a Bucket and sounded like a lot of fun so I went to take a look. WOW!! Loads of fun challenges to attempt this week. This is my first - the challenge was "Naked Stamping" - use only ink and stamps to create your project - no printed papers, diecuts etc.

For this card I created a background using a brayer and Kaleidacolor ink pad (Cappuccino Delight) and edged round it with Brilliance Galaxy Gold. The flowers were stamped using stamps from the Elusive Images "Big Flowers" themplate with Archival Black ink and coloured by sponging on colour from a Kaleidacolor pad (Desert Heat) and also some Distress Ink (Mustard Seed). The flowers were cut out and mounted on foam pads - the edges of the flowers have been cuved over the back of mu scissors to give a little more dimension and to help conceal the foam pads underneath.

I had fun making this and hope I can find time to fit in a few more of the World Stamping Week Challenges. Take a look at the Two Peas site, there is lots going on - just visit the message board and choose General Stamping - posts relating to the challenge all start with WSW in the thread title - you need to look for the WSW Master Thread to get all the information about taking part.

Black Colour Challenge Card

I got some new ink pads yesterday, they are Kaleidacolour pads which are a rainbow effect pad. I have already got some of these and they are fun to play with. Today's card is one I made using the one of these pads, the pad is called Desert Heat, scrummy hot oranges and reds!

First I brayered my background using the Kaleidacolor pad, then I stamped some flower stamps from Lavinia Stamps using Versfine Black Onyx ink. I was using a glossy coated card stock and this was my first mistake - the Versafine does not seem to dry on the none porous card and it smudged long after I thought it was dry... oh well back to the drawing board. I started again recreating my background with the brayer, but this time I used Ranger's Black Archival Ink to stamp my flowers - success - no more smudges! I then trimmed the edges and ran the Archival pad round them, mounted this onto some gold foiled card and then stuck it onto some glossy black card stock. I rather like the result. Sorry about the photo, it's kind of tricky to get a good photo of glossy card.