Paradise Beach

This weeks challenge at Stamp n Doodle is ST. PATRICK'S DAY and/or GREEN and GOLD, you can use the theme, colours or both on your creation.

My Blog Hop Winner from last week was:

JOAN

who kindly participated in the hop and left comments on the blogs of all our DT members,
thank you also to everyone who played along, and left their fabulous cards on the Stamp n Doodle challenge blog.

If you would like to email me Joan at claire@cnewcombe.co.uk,  I can arrange for the digi image I used in the hop to be sent to you,

WELL DONE

 



I chose to go with using the colours this week and used the idyllic Paradise Exotic beach image from Stamp n Doodle shop

......ahhh, who wouldn't want to be walking along that beach watching the sunset ?

I wanted to keep the card simple so that the image can be the focal point.

Card Recipe

Base card - lime green 8x8" scalloped card by papermania

Basic Grey, Origins collection (sea salt)  patterned paper

Basic Grey co-ordinating stickers

Gold card stock

4 gold brads

Laser suitable acetate

Ranger Alcohol Inks - Citrus, Aqua, Watermelon, gold mixative

1) I printed the image at true size (5x4") onto laser acetate.

2) Onto a piece of smooth card (5x4") I used the alcohol inks to create the mood of the sunset beach colours, and my aim was to coincide a strip of blue and the red with the level of the sea. Instead of randomly dabbing the colours, I swiped them from left to right, flowing with the horizon.  By changing the colours and pattern of the inks, the mood of the image can really be altered.

3) I mounted the acetate, alcohol ink layer, and the gold card mat all together with 4 gold brads.

4) I cut the patterned paper from 12x12", to 8x8", according the orientation of the pattern. y placing the mounted image on the paper, it was covering some of the lovely flowing pattern - and as I am very fond of all the backing paper I have (something I'm sure you'll understand) the solution was to use a craft knife, cut around the essential parts of the pattern, and have them layer over the main image (a bit like a photo corner if you will).

5) The text was mounted firstly onto the same basic paper, then mounted again onto the reverse of the same sheet and gently nestled under the image.

6) The flourish in the top corner, and the flower next to the text are from the stickers sheet accompanying the paper collection (Basic grey, origins).

I hope this has given you some inspiration and confidence in using this type of digi image. The solid blackness can be a little intimidating - but honestly it really needn't be. Experiment and don't be frightened to use colour, or something a bit different.

Have fun with it.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and have a read.

Wild Cards

 

Hi, here are a couple of cards I made with some digi stamps that caught my eye from Stamp n Doodle, a digi stamp site that has a lovely range of wild animal images, amongst others.
I was pleased with how the images were coloured with promarkers, and because of the detail of the image not a huge amount of colour was necessarily needed to bring the stamp to life. The colours of the card around the zebra I hope you will agree, sets the whole African safari feel, at either sunrise or sunset.
To get the soft blend of safari plain colours in the background of each card I used alcohol inks with blending solution and a gold mixative, to add a subtle sheen.

 These cards are perfect as mens cards, but I would happily give and receive these to and from anyone who enjoys wild animals and nature.

This was the perfect opportunity for me to also road test my new cricut cartridge, Rosettes and Ribbons. I cut to different sized rosettes and stacked them om top of each other to make the embellishment in a co-ordinating paper.





Thanks for taking to look through my pictures.

Sheena Douglass - Stream of Life

I combined a few techniques with this card, and stamped the detailed stamp over a background created with muted alcohol inks. Because I still wanted to colour the stamp with promarkers I used the momento black ink. I tried to roughly place the colous of the alcohol inks in the relevant place according to the landscape and meant that any areas I chose not to colour were not immediatly obvious, as it would have been, stamping directly onto white card stock.

There is also a lovely sheen to the card, as the alcohol inks are best applied to a glossy cardstock.

I was very pleased with the outcome, it took a fair few goes to get all the ideas in my head to come together on paper. As it was for my Dads birthday, it had to be right.



Sheena Douglass Stamp - Stream of life

Alcohol Inks - gold & silver mixative, sandal, slate, latte, aqua

Distress stickles - old paper

Memento Ink - black

Promarkers - cinnamon, dusky pink, blubell, ice grey 1, holly, mint green, meadow green

karen Foster Scrappers Floss - suede

Crate paper - frame & accent from Avenue collection

The promarkers give subtle colour to highlight the features of the stamp, and worked perfectly well over the alcohol inks, I wondered, being solvent based themselves if they would or not.

To add a bit more dimension I decoupaged the bridge and a front section of the boulders and used scrappers floss as an accent.

Dude birthday card

As a follow up to the last post, I had kind 'thanks but no thanks' reply from Kaisercraft - perhaps i will try again next year. It will be interesting to watch this years designers, and perhaps learn from them.

Over the last couple of days I have had a real brain block each time I have sat at my desk. I have lots of ideas, that all seem to be merging into one at the moment and when I sit down I have no idea where to start, and has resulted in an incredibly messy room.

This morning I pulled myself together, cleared up, turned on the Imagine and was determined to make a card with the cartridge I have treated myself to - JT.

Here is the result;

Cricut Imagine Cartridge - JT

Cricut Wild Card Cartridge (to cut card blank)

Printable Acetate

Kaisercraft clear stamps - music, grid & birthday wishes

Ranger Alcohol Inks - slate, sail boat blue, terracotta & silver mixative

Distress Ink - black soot & faded jeans

I was really pleased with outcome. The shield in the background is comprised of 4 layers, but layered with double sided flat tape, just to take the flatness from the image. The shield was printed and cut on printable acetate, adding a shiny element to the card, along with the silver mixative in the background.

Makes a good card for an 11 year old boy, who I had in mind for this.

There is also a link to this card on the Make It Monday challenge blog.

Mothers Day Card

I am particularly proud of this card, as it is one of those that actually turned out the way I imagined it. How many times do we all sit down with an idea in our head, and find that what we actually create is completely different??

Hopefully this card demonstrates that Tim Holtz distress inks can actually create a soft and pretty feminine card, and not just the strong 'grunge' style that is synonymous with his name.

Card Recipe

White smooth coated card stock 

White floss card

Cream card stock, 8x8"

Bazzill basics card stock, olive green & a lighter spring green (sorry no names)

Basic Grey paper, Wisteria Collection, muted flower paper, 8x4"

Butterfly and dragonfly stamp by Judikins

Various floral stamps to create background

Tiny dragonfly & flower stamps by Hero Arts

2 eyelets, and 2 'bug' charms

Fabulous Finds Cricut Cartridge

Ranger alcohol inks (sandal, currant, salmon)

Tim Holtz Distress Inks ( bundled sage, crushed olive, broken china, victorian velvet, pumice stone )

1. Fold the 8x8" cream card to make the 8x4" card base Cut one side of the card to create 2 4x4" squares, on which to mount the two feature panels.
2. Cover the base of the card with the Basic grey patterned paper.
3. Cut 2 4x4" squares from the white smooth card and apply the distress inks to resemble a soft landscape (to both panels). As a base I used pumice stone all over, and the victorian velvet to a centre section. The top half of the panel I worked in the blue broken china, and on the bottom half worked in the bundled sage, ensuring that some of the pink victorian velvet could still be seen. I finished off running the pumice stone (a really useful colour) all round the edges of the card.
4. Using the same inks and the various floral stamps I created the meadow effect stamped background. To keep the muted feel, I inked the stamp and lightly blotted it once on scrap paper, before stamping onto the panels.
5. Using the large butterfly and dragonfly stamps and the crushed olive distress ink, stamp the images onto a sheet of gloss card that had previously been coloured using alcohol inks. When fully dried, the images were cut out and mounted on the panels, and the wings shaped slighted (with fingers) to create the 3D effect.
6. Mat and layer each panel onto the light green bazzil basics card, then again onto the olive (darker) green bazzill.
7. Return back to the base card and position it in fron of you (folded) as a landscape card (longest length east to west). Working on each 4x4" panel separatly and starting with the left panel, lightly drawer a pencil line diagonally from the top right corner to the bottom left. Repeat with the right panel, this time drawing from the top left corner down to the bottom right.
8. Take a scoring tool and score along the line and fold crisply with a bone folder.
9. With the card laying flat and folded in front of you take one stamped panel, turn once to the left (from the original position) and adhere to the botton triangle scored on the left hand side of the card.
10. Repeat with the other stamped panel, turning it once to the right, and adhere to the bottom triangle of the scored panel on the right hand side of the card.
11. When you open the easel elements of the card, the images should be in the right orientation.
12. Using the fabulous finds cartridge cut the bookplate16 and insert from bazzill basics olive card & smooth coated card respectively, at 1.25". Create a stamped meadow effect to suit size, using the method from before. Use archival black ink to stamp the sentiment. Stick the elements together and add eyelets.
13. Using sticky foam pags stick to the base of the card (on top of the basic grey accent paper)
14. Take 2 co-ordinating charms and place with 3D foam in a position that will hold the easels of the card.

I have provided a link to this card on the Make it Monday blog challenge.

Distressed Happy Birthday

Card recipe

Paper Artsy stamps

Distress Inks (pumice stone, victorian velvet, crushed olive, aged mahogany)

Alcohol Inks (meadow, cranberry, sandal)

Distress Stickles (old paper, frayed burlap, peeled paint)

DCWV adhesive ribbon

Text peel off

Dragonfly brad

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Karen Fosters scrappers floss

To make the flower I stamped out the 2 flowers paper artsy stamps with the distress inks and cut them out. Because they are 2 slightly different sizes they nest together really well. I distressed each cut flower further with the pumice stone ink (a really useful colour that ages paper really well, see the embossing on the card for an idea). I then cut a slit about 1.5cm at the natural places to create the flower petals before curling them slightly with scissors and fingers, to give dimension. To layer i placed the stamped flowers on top of each other along with a peach prima fabric flower (from my stash), a pink button and tied it all together with a few lengths of Karen Fosters scrappers floss (tinted with aged mahogany distress ink)

This has turned out to be one of my favourite cards I have made recently. It incorporates most of the new 'goodies' I bought from from recent trip to the Make It craft show in Farnborough. It was the first time that Mum and I had visited one of these much talked about shows, and it lived up to expectations. We met up with 2 seasoned show attendees (mums crafty sisters) and had a whole day of pure self indulgent shopping!!

Entered as part of the 'Distressed' challenge on 2sisterschallenge blog site.