Here's One I Made Earlier...

Another week has gone by and the hand is slowly improving.  Still can't stamp, but I can click a mouse and scroll through some of my old photographs of stuff I made.  Found this one, made more than a year ago using stamps from Clarity Stamp, Adirondack dye ink pads and Nestabilities Labels 2.

Seashell Stepper

This is another of the cards that I made as part of my submission for the Elusive Images Design Team. To make it I used  Elusive Images stamps from the Underwater and Seashell Collage themeplates, both of which are available from Graphicus.  This was one of those cards that seems to take over once you start making it, and ends up being very different from the card you first imagined in your head.

To make the card I started with an A4 sheet of ice blue pearlescent card onto which I stamped the large corner stamp of the shells and seaweed  and embossed with detail silver EP at the bottom right corner.  With that done I cut the lines needed to free the middle section of the card from the outer edge, freehand cutting the curve around the edge of the stamped image and scored the lines across the card needed to create the stepped folds.  With that done I stamped and embossed the little silver seahorse on the right side of the card and then folded along all my scored fold lines.

For the seashells I used Distress Inks with the wrinkle free technique to colour some white card. The ink colours are Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage. Once that was dry I used detail silver EP to emboss the various shell and starfish images onto it and then cut them out. I glued all my cut out shapes to the front and middle steps of the card.   

The card was finished off by making a greeting for the back step using Nestabilties dies to cut and emboss another piece of my Distress Ink coloured card onto which I stamped a greeting using a stamp from Clarity Stamp. I used a little Stormy Sky Distress ink to blend around the edge of this to pick up the embossed detail from the die.  If you look closely there are also some small shells stamped randomly in the same Distress Inks used to give the card it's colour, not sure if they really show up in the photo.   This was layerd onto some scalloped mats cut from more of the the same ice blue pearlescent card I made the step base with and another cut from silver foiled card. and stuck to the back step of the card .

More from the Sea

My last posts have featured some of the lovely Elusive Images Sea themed plates, and this one does too, but after making that very grungy card I felt the the need to make something cleaner and fresher.  This card also formed part of my application for a place on the Design Team. 

While I had been toying with watery themes it had occured to me that I have the Cuttlebug "Tiny Bubbles" emobssing folder and that if I coloured some silver foil card with Alcohol inks I could make a lovely bubbly background for something. I used Stream, Stonewashed and Lettiuce alcohol inks to colour the silver card, cut a shape using a nestabilites die and cut a frame with the same dies from plain silver card.  The background shape was then embossed through the Cuttlebug folder to create the bubble texture.   I stamped and heat embossed the little seahorse from the Elusive Images Underwater themplate onto an assortment of card using different embossing powders and cut them all out to find the one I liked best against my background.. My final choice was white EP on white card.  With all my bits made I assembled the frame and background and stuck the little cut out seahorse into place. 

Next I needed something to mount this onto, so I made a background blending Broken China, Stormy Sky and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks onto some card.  Once the inks were dry I stamped one of the seashell images from the same Underwater themeplate and embossed with white EP.  I mounted this onto white card stock, added a band of silver card across the centre with some white spotted organza ribbon then finally stuck the framed seahorse over this.

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.

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.