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

Beatrice

Hi crafter's

I finally got round to making my card for the Clarity challenge. The subject is vintage. I thought Beatrice would be the perfect stamp to use, and because there are flowers in the image there has to be some in the background! So I started with a piece of white card placed on my base plate and some flowers from my garden ( I only took a few so my husband will not notice) I used some pink cosmos. The first thing I did was to pull the petals off and arrange them on the card. You can use whole flowers but I find the centre can sometimes end up a brown mess. A bit of experimentation is needed for this technique. When I was satisfied with my arrangement I put another piece of card on top, then the cutting plate on top of that and run it through my Grand Calibur. Carefully pull the two pieces of card apart, they do stick together slightly. Using tweezers gently pull the petals off the card and see what colour  the flowers have left behind. Any little bits can be gently rubbed away. You end up with two pieces of card to use one will be darker than the other. Leave to dry. The colour I had was very similar to Milled Lavender so I used that along with Seedless Preserves. First I stamped Beatrice in place then coloured her in with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Sansador. Next I used a flower template (from Crafters Workshop) and Milled Lavender distress ink. I placed the template just around the edge and blended the ink. Turn the template around so each side is different. Then with the same ink stamp the key next to the hollyhocks. To frame the card I inked up the delicate corner in Seedless Preserves and stamped in each corner. Now ink up the rod from the Birdcage set and stamp in between the corners. Using black ink stamp the Count your Garden word stamp at the top of the card. Rub a little Inka Gold in Antique Gold around the edges with your finger. Mat the card on to some antique gold card then glue on to a white base card. For the embellishments I stamped the key and the miniature robin in Seedless Preserves. Using a water brush blend the ink to colour the robin, adding a little Vintage Photo. Blend a little Milled Lavender over the key to take away the whiteness, then rub some of the Inka Gold over the top. Cut out the key and robin and attach as shown. To make my bow I used two strips of lace then tied a piece of cream organza ribbon around the middle, the knot is underneath, glue this to the key and add a pearl in the centre to finish. That's all this time, let me know if you like it.

Happy Crafting

Sally

Dandelion Fairy

Hi crafter's

I have made this card for the Craft Stamper magazine challenge which I've never entered before, even though I've subscribed for some years. It made a change to not be restricted to a certain make of stamps, all that's needed is some acetate, somewhere. I decided to use a resist technique. First I coloured a piece of acetate with some alcohol inks, I used stream and raspberry. I randomly dabbed the ink around until I had the look I wanted. You will get a better result if the colours are quite strong. Next I inked up my fairy, which came from a set by Joanna Sheen, with Archival ink and stamped her in place. Take a piece of kitchen towel and dab off the ink. Don't rub or the ink might leave a mark. I normally put gold mirri card behind the acetate to show up the stamp but this time I used some cream coloured glitter card, this makes the whole panel glittery. Lovely! Mat the panel on to black card. The background paper was made using Adirondack ink pads in the same colour as the alcohol inks. I put ink on to my mat, spritzed them with water then placed my card on top moving it around to mix up the colours. Stamp the flowers in Archival ink, mine are from Stamp Addicts, and watercolour them in with the Adirondacks then cut out. Stamp and emboss the butterfly, this one came from Kaisercraft, with black embossing powder. I coloured it in with colouring pencils then cut out. Mat the background paper on to some black card then place on to a white base card. Stamp some flourishes in opposite corners then attach the acetate panel. Glue the flowers and butterfly in place with pinflair glue. That's it for now, hope you like it.

Sally