Hobby House Wedding Couple

This is a card I have made for a friend's wedding. I have used a 7x7 pearl card blank for the base and added a craft card layer. On top of this is have used papers from First Edition pad 'Isabelle'. All the layers on the card have had the edges distressed with Tea Dye Distress Ink. Across the middle of the card I have added 2 layers of Duchess Lace from Creative Expressions. The main topper is from the Hobby House Sylvia Zet collection - 'Love Me Do'. I have cut the image out using Spellbinders dies Labels Two and also created a matt with the same dies. There are 2 panels behind the topper and these have been created using more papers from the First Edition pad and cut with Scalloped Labels One. They have been matted onto Decorative Labels One shapes cut from craft card. At the top and bottom of the card I have edged the paper with a gorgeous cream woven style ribbon. The flowers and pearl pins were from my stash; I have picked colours from the main image and built it all up from there. The little sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the foliage has been created using Tattered Lace dies. Again, a box is needed for this one!

New Baby Girl Card

This card is based on a 6x6 card blank. I have used Kanban papers for the background along with some coordinating pink pearl and yellow card. The central image is a Hobby House topper from the Wee Stamps by Sylvia Zet collection called 'It's a Girl'. I have distressed the edges with Scattered Straw Distress Ink to bring in more of the yellow colour. The flowers are also from Hobby House, the ribbon and gems from my stash. Behind the main image is a rectangular panel, again backed with coordinating papers, and stitched all around using a sewing machine. The border die cut is from Tattered Lace and the Flourish is a Spellbinders D-Lites die. I had to make a box for this one as it would not fit in an envelope!

Watercolour Tonal Florals and Butterflies

Another simple design to follow the same theme as the last one. Difficult to see from my photograph I admit, but the large background is watercolour card distressed with Dusty Concord and Milled Lavender Distress Inks. I have also used a swirly stencil over the top in tones of the same colours to make a feint pattern. The main panel Indigoblu 'Summer Lovin'' stamp has been stamped with Versafine black ink and embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder. I have picked out the different flowers and coloured them with the same colours using Distress Markers this time (with water, as my watercolour medium.) Once dry I have used Stickles in the flower centres. The sentiment is also from Indigoblu and the different butterflies are from The Artistic Stamper 'Encyclopaedia Botanica' plate. The butterflies have been watercoloured in the same way as the flowers, cut out and then made '3D' with Pinflair gel. The card has been layered onto an Anne Marie Designs black 6x6 blank and some small Perfect Pearls dots finish two edges off. I am not used to using such subtle colours, but I quite like the effect on this one...
I am going to enter this into Lisa Baker's Challenge 'Spring Watercolours'.

Flowers and Fairies...

You know when you buy a stamp plate and you love it, but you haven't used it for ages? I am like that with all my Crafters' Companion fairies stamps. I decided that I liked this little fairy and wanted an excuse to use her on a project! The fairy, sentiments, butterfly and flowers are all from the 'Lavender Fairy' plate. The flowers were tricky to line up and overstamp, but I think they came out ok in the end. I think if I had used a stamp without a definite line at the bottom it would have been much easier! The outlines were all embossed with black detail powder and the colour was applied using watercolour pencils. A touch of Hunkydory Diamond Sparkles 'Fairy Daydreams' finished the card off, along with some stickles in the lavender. I will enter this card in Lisa Bakers' challenge this month - 'Spring Watercolours'.

Just a Line to Say...

This card was made for my brother-in-law. I find mens' cards really tricky, as there seems to be certain stereotypes, but not all men fit into these! This card has a base made from two 6x6 craft card blanks made into a gatefold card. I have used a Crafter's Companion CD Rom - Beatrix Potter's Jeremy Fisher. The decoupage has been printed from the disc and then layered up with Pinflair. I have also made the images nest into a Spellbinders die in some complimentary green. The backing papers have been printed from the CD and again layered onto complimentary cardstock. The 'wheat' is a Spellbinders D'Lites die and the foliage is made from Tattered Lace and Marianne Creatables dies. The sentiment is from the Crafter's Companion Jeremy Fisher stamp plate. On the reverse of the card I have used the CD to print a matching 'insert'.

Textured Backgrounds and Pastel Blossoms

The focus of this card is a Stampendous stamp. In our monthly class Lisa gave us free reign with lots of papers, stamps and other crafty bits and bobs. The flowers were coloured here with Spectrum Noir Aquamarkers and a mask was then applied over the petals. The lace background is an Indigoblu 'Itsy Bitsy Background' stamp. I have also used the same stamp on the yellow side panels to tie it all in. Less is more... A simple piece of ribbon and some Card Candi finish the project off.

Fairy Romance with added Sparkle!

I was actually really pleased with how this card turned out for me! When I started, it just seemed a rather busy mess, but a little more play and I got what I wanted. The 6x6 craft card blank has been layered with coordination card stock in matching colours to the inks I chose: Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Scattered Straw and Spiced Marmalade.The main panel is matt cardstock, coloured using layers of ink graduating in colour. I have then taken a script stamp and stamped over the lot in the palest of the inks. On top of this I have stencilled through the Sweet Poppy stencil (dandelion like) in various layers of ink and again tried to graduate the colour. The mushrooms are a Lavinia Stamp, as is the fairy couple. I have gone over the fairies with a layer of Wink of Stella (clear) and have grounded the fairies by creating a small hill using torn paper as a stencil. The top sparkly dandelions are from the same beautiful stencil, but this time pasting some Champagne Sparkle Medium through it; I love this colour, more subtle then gold, but still a great feature. The card has been finished with a Crafter's Companion Cute Companions sentiment stamp put on a Spellbinders Basic Oval. The dark brown matt is a D-lites die. The small brown pearls bring the eye in. Overall I think I like mixing up lots of layers and textures!
Thanks for looking!

Textured Backgrounds

These cards were inspired by the previous post. The card sizes are 6x6 and the blanks are from Anne Marie Designs. The front stamped panel has been created by using the Imagination Craft's Stencil 'Apple Blossom' and gently adding the colour 'creamy brown' from a Cat's Eye pad though it. On top of that I have randomly stamped the Indigoblu 'Dinky Flourish' stamp in Distress Ink (bundled sage) all over the sides. The butterfly is from Penny Black and has been randomly stamped again before being heat embossed with Cosmic Shimmer sparkle detail powder. The same has been done with the sentiment, which is from the Crafter's Companion plate Beatrix Potter - The Tale of Mrs Tiggywinkle. All the butterflies have been 'painted' using the inks. I have also stamped the butterfly again, embossed and cut it out. I have shaped it and raised it using Pinflair to give some dimension. The backing paper depicts the same colours and is from the pad 'Isabelle' by First Edition. Some raffia and some wooden embellishments finish the front. The inside has had a very faint version of some of the same initial inky layers applied.

 

Inky Layered Backgrounds

The theme of Lisa Baker's class this month was 'Inky Backgrounds'. This was a fab class with loads of ink, stamps and stencils all out on a table for us to play with.
The starting point for me was picking two random colours that you would not normally use together. I chose pink and blue shades of Distress Inks. We chose a stencil (I used inky splats) and lightly applied the inks through this into matt white card. On top of this a black embossed butterfly was used again in a random manner, along with a sentiment. Although it is hard to see here, I have also used the same colours of ink to 'paint-in' some of the sections of the butterfly. The slightly lined texture effect was from an Indigoblu stamp. On the inside I used the same stencil, but have been a little more subtle with the application... The finished card is 6x6 in size with a few pearls added.

The card below was also done in the same class, but changing the way we make the background this time. The centre panel is thick watercolour card. We have used small acrylic blocks, added some ink directly onto them, spritzed with water until the ink blends and then 'stamped' the blocks straight onto the paper. There is no 'right' way to do it and in theory you could use any shaped object to stamp, or if preferred, the specially designed solid shaped stamps you can buy. My first go here; trying to get used to it! The flowery image is from Penny Black and I think the word was from Indigoblu. Placing the sentiment was tricky: you could not just stamp across the papers as the matting and layering made a very uneven surface and also gets in the way. It was a case of placing the word stamp on the main panel, leaving a little over-hanging. At this point you then place this panel in the place that you want it on the main card. Once the layering is done, but NOT stuck to the card blank, you hover over the card aligning the word, then carefully remove the panel and stamp. A bit frustrating, but quite cool!

 
 

Spring Flowers With Love

Moving away from Christmas into spring now!
These cards have been made using 7x7 white Centura Pearl cardstock. I have then chosen some backing papers from the First Edition pad 'Dreamcatcher' and some co-ordination cardstock to pick out certain colours.
The first two layers are co-ordination card to which I have added a 'dot-dash' pattern using a Micron pen. I have then cut a piece of white Centura Pearl card to fit inside this and using Spellbinders D-Lites flower dies, cut several shapes. Some more Dreamcatcher card has been added behind the cut -out flowers to show through to the front. I have also cut several more Spellbinders flowers in all sorts of co-ordinating card, embossed them to make them 'pop' and added them randomly. The little butterflies are actually from a Card-io set called 'Sketchy Spring Floral' and I have added little 'tails' to them. Finally, the sentiment is from one of the Flower Fairies stamps from Crafter's Companion. I am going to enter this card in Lisa Baker's blog challenge - 'Anything Goes'.