chocolate orange

Hi crafter's

Just finished my entry for the Indigoblu challenge, and just in time! The theme is chocolate orange so I have used wild honey and spiced marmalade distress inks, also coffee adirondack ink. The first thing I did was to die cut a circle in Clarity coated card stock and put a small circle mask in place. Put the distress inks on to a splodge mat and using a brayer colour the background starting with the wild honey, then adding the spiced marmalade. Ink up the stamp (I have used the boxing hares that came free with Crafter Stamper magazine) with coffee adirondack ink. Stamp on to a scrap piece of paper first to take some ink off before stamping onto the coated card stock. Stamp right down at the bottom of the circle, there will be a gap so turn the stamp upside down and fill the space. Now ink up the flourish from Wild Meadow set with coffee ink and stamp around the top edge. Ink up the same stamp with Versamark and heat emboss using copper powder, do this top and bottom. On to the base card, stamp flourish in coffee ink in each corner. To create the circle design I used a Mister Huey stencil inked through with wild honey and spiced marmalade. Blend the colours out to nearly nothing at the sides. To frame the card I used Versamark ink which I swiped around the edge so it is uneven then add the copper powder and heat emboss. Quite an easy card but I do like the circle stencil. That's all for now.

Happy crafting

Sally

Vintage Santa

Hi crafter's

It's been awhile but here is my first Christmas card this year. I bought a few things from Crafty Individuals recently and I have used most of them in this design. To make the background I used the Calligraphy Christmas words which I inked up with Versamark and heat embossed with Seafoam white powder. Stamp down the right hand side of a piece of white card. Next hold the Christmas tree stencil down on the left hand side. Blend Cranberry Adirondack over the stencil then go all around the edge and over the embossing. When the colour is built up enough take a soft tissue and rub off any ink that is left on the embossing. Now ink up a snowflake and emboss with gold powder, keep in mind where the topper is going to be. To soften the edge I rubbed some gold Inka Gold. The topper is quite simple to do. Take a slightly bigger piece of card than the stamp, ink up the Vintage Santa stamp with Versafine black ink then colour in with some colouring pencils. Use a darker red pencil around the edge to draw your eye in. Lay the stencil down on the right hand side of the topper, only use part of the tree not going over Santa too much. Then blend softly around the stamping with  Cranberry ink. Mat topper and background on to gold mirri card then attach to a white square base card. The ribbon and beads are actually off some crackers we had a few years ago so really good for the Christmas card. Stick down with dimensional glue. That's about it for now hope you like it.

Thanks for stopping by

Sally

October colours

Hi crafter's

This is my entry for the Crafty Individuals challenge which is called October. My card, I hope, reflects all the colours we see at this time of year. I started with the background, take a piece of white card which is larger than I need so I can choose the area I want to use. I have used a small floral tile to create a big tile. Stamp the tile on the diagonal using adirondack inks. I used caramel, red pepper and bottle as well as brown archival. Some of the stamping, especially near the edge, was second generation. Cut to size. Cover the tile with Versamark ink and clear embossing powder, heat emboss. Attach to a 6" x 6" white base card. Ink up the tree stamp in brown ink on to a small square piece of card, blend some red ink over to take away the whiteness. Glue on top of the tile a little to one side. On a separate piece of card stamp the leaves, I have used some Sheena stamps for this, and the bird. Colour in with pencils. I also stamped over the top with the Crafty Individuals crackle stamp. Cut out the leaves, acorns and bird. Using dimensional glue stick the leaves and acorns to the side and the bird sits on the trees frame. Stamp the 'Be like the bird' quote down the bottom of the base card. Draw a line from the quote all around the edge with a brown fine liner pen in brown. This will help to draw your eye in. That's about it this time.

Thanks for looking

Sally

Autumn colours

Hi crafter's

Another card this time for the Lavinia challenge which is about autumn colours. I love this time of year but I don't use these colours together very often. I have used the small tree house stamp and the small leaves that came with it, the large vine, small fairy and toad stalls. First I die cut a Grand Nestabilities shape of white card and a larger one in tan card. Stamp the tree near the bottom of the white card and colour in with distress markers. Using the small leaf stamp and a selection of adirondack inks (I used caramel, bottle and red pepper) and a brown archival ink, stamp randomly in first and second generation. Lay a piece of copier paper under the tree and stamp the toad stalls in black this way they are not too tall, then stamp the fairy off to one side also in black ink. Use distress markers to ground the tree and fairy. Blend stonewashed ink over the background to take away the whiteness. The background is very easy to make, stamp the vine leaves over a piece of paper slightly smaller than an A4 card in red, green and brown. Take some ink off on a scrap piece of paper before stamping on your background. Blend red and brown ink around the edge then draw a wiggly line in brown to frame. On a separate piece of white card stamp the vine leaves in the autumn colours. Use the bottle green in second generation to fill in between the other colours to give dimension. Cut around the edge of the leaves then lay this over the tree topper and decide where you want the leaves to be, mine are across the corners. Keeping it in place turn it over and draw around the die shape and cut out. Repeat for the bottom. To assemble, stick the background paper on to an A4 white base card. Glue the tan card in place and draw a running stitch in brown around the edge. Attach the tree topper onto the tan card. To add some dimension round the vine leaf cut outs slightly with a bone folder and glue in place with dimensional glue. To finish put dots of glitter glue in the tree and the fairies wings. That's all for this one, hope you like it.

Happy crafting

Sally

Winter

Hi crafter's

This card will be my entry for the Clarity challenge which is called winter. I have used an A4 white base card for this design. On a piece of white card stamp the quirky house and trees in black Archival ink then colour in with colouring pencils in light and dark blue, turquoise and purple, I use Derwent Artist pencils. Cut this out with a die cut circle, I used one with eyelets around the edge. Now cut a plain circle out which is slightly larger, colour with denim ink. Then to give a frosty feel cover with crackle accents and sprinkle glitter over whilst still wet. Leave to dry, this means being very patient. For the background I stamped the Curly Curve twice on to a strip of white card then coloured it in with the same colours as before. I then blended denim ink at the bottom and stream at the top. Glue this strip on to the bottom half of the base card. Next I took the verse stamp and covered the bottom two lines with a post-it note inked up with black ink then stamped the words at the top. Repeat this covering the top two lines this time then stamp at the bottom. Ink up the miniature robin and stamp so that it is standing on the strip, colour in softly with the same blues and greens. Glue the circles together and attach to the card. That's about it for this time, hope you like it.

Happy crafting

Sally

Butterfly dance

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Hi crafter's

Finally managed to finish my entry into the Indigoblu challenge and just in time! The theme is Things with Wings so I immediately thought of butterflies.To start I have used an A4 white base card then cut another piece of card a little bit smaller. I stamped around the edge with the tickets from the Grand Tour 1 stamp set in French Ultramarine Archival, which is my favourite colour at the moment. I used denim and black Adirondack ink and blended around the edge then distressed it with a scalpel. The main topper was made using the Wild Meadow stamp set. I stamped the dandelions at the bottom and again I used the French Ultramarine. As well as the butterfly from the set I used the free butterfly from Craft Stamper. Stamp these going up the card. I coloured them with Inktense pencils. Stamp the butterflies again, this time on to vellum. Heat dry. Turn them over and using an embossing tool highlight the lines in the wings then colour with the pencils. Cut out the wings. To make more depth in the background I used a stencil (Prima perforated dot flower) and blended ink through in Latte Adirondack. Use a black pencil ( I used Prismacolor) and draw around one side of the butterflies to create shadow then blend with Sansador. Curl the vellum wings slightly then put a little glue down the centre and stick over the butterflies. Blend ink around the edges as before then attach to the tickets background. Wrap a piece of dotty organza ribbon round the card and tie a small piece of lace into a knot. Glue a Cardworks Candi in place. Attach to the base card. That's all for this time thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting

Sally

Baby girl

Hi crafter's

A new card to share. I was asked to make 20 thank you cards on the arrival of a new baby. I really like the patch stamps for babies so I chose this stamp from Woodware. The colours I used for the background are Juniper, Peach Bellini and Shell Pink Adirondack inks and Baby Pink, Buttercup and Meadow Green Promarkers for colouring. To create the background I put the Moroccan mask on to the white base card and inked through with the Adirondack inks using my ink dusters. I let the colours fade out towards the edge. I then cut some white card for the toppers and stamped the elephant in black Archival ink. As well as the elephant you also get the word baby in the boxes and two sizes of hearts so I stamped these out at the same time. I coloured the elephant in as shown and also the hearts adding the word Girl (this was from Stamping all day great place for all your words and sentiments) to the largest one. To finish the topper I ran the Baby Pink Promarker around the edge to frame. After colouring the boxes I embossed the card using a buttons mask by That Special Touch, then inked with Peach Bellini to enhance the embossing. I cut around the word to make a tag and punched a hole to thread some organza ribbon through, then stuck a pink button over the hole. Now I started to assemble. First I glued the topper in place then I stamped Thank you (which was a Clarity stamp) at the bottom of the card. The tag was stuck down with Pinflair glue to give a little dimension. Now stick down the hearts, rounding the largest one to give a bit of shape. To finish I used glitter glue on the flowers. For the insert I used a stamp of a babies hands I got from Crafty Individuals, this was stamped in opposite corners in Peach Bellini.

That's all this time, thanks for stopping by.

Sally