Mixed Media Valentine

I was lucky enough to receive a subscription to Craft Stamper for Christmas and a project in the March edition really caught my eye when looking for some Valentine inspiration. I haven't copied Tracy's project but have been inspired by the design and by her sketch to make my card.

I made a masterboard by brayering 'Blue Oyster' acrylic paint lightly in patches onto a piece of 300gsm card and then with a dry brush/baby wipe applied patches of 'Mermaid', 'Jade', 'Lime Marmalade' paints and white gesso until I was happy with my background. I then dry brushed it with the Interference paint which gave it a gorgeous opalescent sheen in places. I stamped the background script with Distress ink.

I don't have any mdf shapes so I made my own heart embellishment by die-cutting a heart five times from strong grey card and sandwiched them together. I applied texture paste on top and left it to dry before adding patches of 'Mermaid' and 'Lime Marmalade' paint and then overpainting with 'Park Lane'.

I dry brushed two doilies, one for the outside and one for the inside with 'Mermaid', 'Lime Marmalade' and 'Park Lane' paint. The sentiment was printed using my Dymo Letratag gadget with paint smeared over the top.

I cut a piece of the masterboard to fit my card blank using a dark blue mat. The doily and the sentiment were stuck to the card colouring around the edges with a blue pencil to embed them into the card. Scraps of ribbon, lace and cotton thread were stuck to the doily before placing the heart on top. I finished by making some marks with white gesso and splattering blue paint and white gesso to tie everything together. The piece of the doily that was left over from the front of the card was put on the back for interest and the remaining doily was stuck inside with the other part of the sentiment.

Supplies Used:
Acrylic Paints: Blue Oyster, Jade & Mermaid (PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk); Lime Marmalade & Park Lane (IndigoBlu), Interference Green (DecoArt Fluid)
Stamps: Background Script (Lavinia Stamps)
Inks: Stormy Sky (TH Distress)
Dies: Classic Hearts (Spellbinders)
Snippets: 300gsm card, Thick grey card, White doilies, White gesso, Pearlescent embossing paste, Blue pencil (Derwent Cumberland), Ribbon, Lace, Cotton thread

Tracy's original

I would like to enter this project into the following challenges:

Country View Crafts: February 2018 Anything BUT Cute

Happy Little Stampers: February 2018 Anything Goes With Dies

I seemed to have everything everywhere while making this project but I really enjoyed doing it! Thanks for visiting.

Stef x

New Year, New Challenges, New Job?

So I've been away for a while focusing on family and personal stuff but really want to get back to sharing my crafting and joining in with a few challenges along the way. My thoughts led me to join in with the Mission Inspiration challenge for January on facebook. So two firsts! My first ever art journal page and my first ever entry into the challenge. Each month Mike Deakin sets a series of prompts together with some colour swatches and inspirational words and that takes away the fear of starting with a blank page! I followed the prompts exactly and am reasonably pleased with the results. I just need to spend far less time faffing and trying to decide what to do and just go for it! I hope that this is the first of many art journal pages to come!

Supplies Used:

Paints: Apricot Blush & Townhouse Teal (IndigoBlu Acrylic)

Stencils: Bubbles & Faded Dots (IndigoBlu)

Images: Snowdrops (Carol Ann Clarke for Craftsuprint), Photo from my garden

Music Text: Auld Lang Syne

Stamp: Ivy leaf (Toodles & Binks - free with Craft Stamper Sept 2011)

Ink Pad: Lettuce (Adirondack)

Page Title Font: Annie BTN

Snippets: Stripy patterned paper, White gesso, Black Staedtler triplus fineliner, Derwent Cumberland colouring pencils

Can't wait to see what Mike's got lined up for tomorrow when the February challenge starts!

Thanks for visiting

Stef x

CC&S 179 Sketch: Pretty Peony

I loved making my card for CAS Colours and Sketches this week. Bev has designed us a great sketch and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it so I didn't waste any time faffing around trying to decide!

This lovely peony stamp was stamped and embossed in white. The BG is coloured with three blended Distress Inks. The flower was then watercoloured by removing the ink with water and a paintbrush, giving a bleached effect. A few splatters of water were then added to work together with the stamped image. What really makes it come alive is the next part. I used three different Promarker blues to shade around the flower edges and a light grey to add highlights to the petals. The sentiment is also stamped and embossed in white (it shows up better in real life!) and a few gems and sequins added to finish. Finally I attached two loops of coordinating ribbon to the top left hand edge before adhering it to a card blank.

Supplies Used:
Flower Stamp: Dinkie Peony (IndigoBlu)
Sentiment Stamp: Free with a Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine (Clearly Besotted)
Ink Pads: Tumbled Glass, Broken China & Salty Ocean (TH Distress)
Markers: Azure, Sky Blue, Arctic Blue & Cool Grey 4 (Letraset Promarkers)
Snippets: Watercolour paper, Sequins, Gems & Grosgrain ribbon

Please try and find some time to join us this week. Can't you tell I loads of fun doing this! Do visit some of the other DT blogs for even more inspiration.

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S 178 Colours: Summer Butterflies

Welcome to our latest set of colours for CAS Colours and Sketches! This week I have gone with my go to favourite 'butterflies' (that's after the first design ended up in the bin)!!

I sponged the blue and green inks through part of the stencil until I got the effect I wanted and then overstamped with the text stamp using all three colours and misting before stamping. I coloured three scraps of cardstock with each of the inks and then die-cut and punched the butterflies, curling them before adding them to the card. Finally I stamped the sentiment and added a few adhesive gems.

I would also like to enter my card into the CAS on Sunday Challenge #85: Butterflies

And also the Inkspirational Challenge #110: Word Prompt 'Text'

Supplies Used:
Stencil: Doodle Squares (Creative Expressions)
Stamp: Script Background SB1 (IndigoBlu)
Die: Butterfly #12 (Sizzlets)
Punch: Small Butterfly (Personal Impressions)
Ink Pads: Bamboo & Celadon (VersaColor), Abandoned Coral (TH Distress)
Snippets: Sentiment stamp, Adhesive gems

Thanks for visiting. I hope to be able to visit more of your entries this week than I've had time for lately!
Stef x

CC&S 167 Double: IndigoBlu Butterfly

I actually don't mind coming up with a card for the dreaded double challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches (we have one of these every time there are five Thursdays in a month). You are provided with a sketch and a colour palette, surely that's your card half made! Yet sometimes, something creeps in that makes you wonder what to do exactly. This week, for me, it was the colour brown! Flowers, no, they would appear to be dead; Autumn, no, wrong season!

After flowers, my next go to would be butterflies and yes there are a lot of brownish butterflies in nature but on our cards we usually inject more colours to pretty them up a bit. So I stamped the large butterfly with a brown inkpad, cut a square from part of the image and used the yellow and blue to watercolour (still my favourite technique at the moment) parts of my image. I colour-matched the sentiment on my computer and used a scrap of textured brown cardstock as a band to tie in with the sketch. I also ran a brown inkpad along the edges of my image and sentiment to avoid two slightly different whites coming together and raised them on foam pads.

Don't be scared of the double! Please set yourself a challenge and come along and join us this week. I liked my finished card better than I thought I would.

Supplies Used:
Stamp: Big Butterfly BBII (IndigoBlu)
Inkpads: Pinecone (VersaColor), Salty Ocean & Squeezed Lemonade (TH Distress)
Sentiment Font: Allegro
Snippets: Brown textured & White cardstock

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S #152 Sketch: Gilded Christmas

I'm very pleased with the way my card has turned out this week for CAS Colours and Sketches. Louise has given us a delightful little sketch to work with and I have also combined my DT card with two other challenges involving the use of metal/gilding.

My card involves gilding in three different ways. Firstly, I made the background. This involved getting messy with my mica spray mists, a piece of hammered cardstock and the cling film technique which pools the mica together in glorious folds when it's dry. Then I simply cut a rectangle with a stitched die. For my second gilding technique, I sponged Flitter Glu directly onto a piece of white cardstock and applied gilding flakes to make a solid piece of gilded card. From this I die-cut two circles of different sizes. I die-cut a small white Christmas tree and stuck it to the centre of the larger gilded circle and then layered this onto a white scalloped circle. This was then cut in two down the middle and positioned on the background piece as shown in the sketch, raised on foam pads. The third piece of gilding involves the printed gold sentiment  which was stuck onto the smaller gilded circle and adhered to my card with foam pads.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:
CAS-ual Fridays challenge #145: Precious Metals

and Happy Little Stampers November CAS challenge: Gilding

Supplies Used:
Dies: Stitched Rectangle Layers (Memory Box), Plain & Scalloped Circles (Spellbinders), Christmas Tree (free gift on PaperCrafter 88)
Mica Sprays: Meadow Lush & Rich Gold (Cosmic Shimmer)
Gilding Flakes: Yorkshire Dales (IndigoBlu)
Greeting: Gold sentiment (Craftwork Cards)

I hope you're not too busy yet with your Christmas preparations to join us this week and don't forget that we currently have a DT call!

Edit: So sorry my card didn't post on time. I had saved it as a draft instead a published scheduled post!

Thanks for visiting!
Stef x

CC&S #131: Colours and LIM #230: Sketch

Busy week so quick post from me today! Jane is our hostess for the challanges at CAS Colours and Sketches this month and we have a lovely summery set of colours to start us off. They reminded me of cornfields/sand & sea/sky so have gone down that route and created a little sunset scene.

By masking off areas of my rounded cardstock one at a time I have blended inks to create the basic landscape. I then used a watercolour brush to give some depth to the scene by creating a few shadows and textures. The meadow in the foreground has been stamped with two colours using different parts of the same stamp.

The sentiment has been die-cut and the negative placed over a piece of rounded cardstock coloured with the same ink that I used for the sun. The butterfly has been die cut from a spare piece of the same cardstock using the same die and mounted slightly off the edge of the main image.

When searching for inspiration I came across this wonderfully uncomplicated sketch at Less Is More #230. I thought it would suit the design I had in mind so would like to enter it into their challenge too.

Supplies Used:
Inks: Amethyst & Turquoise (Versacolor) and Toffee Crunch (Memento)
Stamp: Wild Meadow (IndigoBlu)
Die: Happy Birthday (free with a copy of Papercraft Essentials)
Snippets: White linen cardstock

Thanks for visiting. Look forward to seeing your entries!
Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches #117

I have always loved IndigoBlu stamps and have decided to use them again on my card for CAS Colours and Sketches this week. Even though I've been using them for several years, I don't think I've ever entered their blog challenges so, to put that right, I would like to enter my card for this month's IndigoBlu Blog Challenge #26. Jane has given us a great sketch to work with and IndigoBlu's theme is 'Off The Edge'. Darnell has unknowingly encouraged me to use this NBU stamp set so I would also like to enter her NBUS Challenge #4 where the theme is 'Anything Goes'.

I've used an unusual colour for me, 'red'. I have 3 colleagues at work with birthdays this week and one of them loves red so this is for her. I took a strip of red textured cardstock and stamped the flower image randomly with Versamark ink and embossed with another new product for me, white embossing powder. I then stamped the flower again and another smaller one in between in black ink. I also stamped and embossed the large flower twice onto a scrap piece of the same cardstock and then cut the two images out. The sentiment is from the same set which is actually a set that came free with a craft magazine last year which I bought just for the gift! This is stamped straight onto the card blank with the two flowers raised on foam pads. The only deviation from Jane's sketch is that I positioned the two flowers in the opposite corners as they worked better that way. 

I enjoyed making this card so much that I made another one at the same time using a deep purple cardstock instead of red and altering the position of the elements a little.

Supplies used:

Stamp set: Free gift with a craft magazine (IndigoBlu)

Ink pads: Versamark, Black (Whispers)

Snippets: Red & purple cardstock, White EP

I have really enjoyed working with Jane's colours and sketches this month. It will be my first turn soon; I have a lot to live up to! Can't wait to see what you make of this week's sketch.

Thanks for visiting!

Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches #114

Jane will be our hostess for the month of March at CAS Colours and Sketches and the first week is a colour challenge. My card didn't exactly turn out as planned, it kinda just went that way - still they do that sometimes, don't they!

The stamps are from Indigo Blu, one from the 'Wild Meadow' set and I think the other is from the 'Nature 1' set. They have been stamped using Memento inks, 'Grape Jelly' and 'Summer Sky'. I covered the bottom of the cardstock with a random piece of paper from my stash to match the 'Mossy Meadow' challenge colour and tied a piece of matching satin ribbon over the join. This has simply been layered onto a card blank. The sentiment stamp is by Uniko Studio.

Thanks for looking.
Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches #113

Being the fourth week of the month we have a sketch challenge for you at CAS Colours and Sketches. I decided to go with the same stamp set as last week, as they were still on my desk, but with colours that I feel more at home with and at the same time enter challenge #212 at Less Is More where their theme this week is 'Wings'.

I wanted to follow Patricia's sketch reasonably closely. First of all I used my ink dusters and Pan Pastels, in shades of blue, green and purple, through a rectangle mask to create a background directly onto my card blank, masking off an area for the sentiment. I then inked my script background stamp from Indigo Blu with  DIs in Bundled Sage, Faded Denim and Dusty Concord, spritzing the stamp with water before applying to my card.

The butterfly is from IB 'Wild Meadow' set which has been stamped onto a piece of spare cardstock in Bundled Sage and Dusty Concord. I then used a water brush and the ink pads to draw the colour further into the white areas. The butterfly has also been stamped in fourth generation Stazon Black ink, so that it didn't overpower the other colours, onto a piece of acetate, cut out, creased very gently and mounted over the top to accentuate the lines and give movement to the butterfly adding three small lilac gems on its body.

The sentiment is one I've had for ages and has been simply stamped in the space I left for it. I may give this card to my mum for Mothering Sunday which is coming soon on Sunday 15th March. I made another one at the same time in slightly different colours so I have one for Martin's mum too! I hunted high and low in my stash for a Mothering Sunday sentiment stamp only to discover that I don't have one so I will have to rectify that for next year!

Thanks for visiting my blog today. I love reading all the comments you leave me and visiting as many of the challenge entries as I can and commenting there too!

Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches #112

I've had a really busy week. I've just found some photos on my camera of a card I made for a friend the other day that I meant to enter into a challenge but completely forgot about it and have now missed the deadline!! Never mind, this week's challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches is a colour challenge. This particular colour combination has definitely taken me outside my comfort zone as I'm not a reds, oranges, yellows kinda person. But I thought I would team this with some of my favourite stamps and see what happened and I'm kinda pleased with the result so that's OK!

Using my ink dusters I blended Memento inks onto a strip of linen cardstock from the left with 'Cantaloupe' and from the right with 'Tangelo'. I then stamped the image using 'Bahama Blue'. The stamp is from an IndigoBlu set called 'Wild Meadow' which I have had for ages and used many times before. I then mounted the strip onto a matching piece of cardstock and onto a card blank. The butterfly stamp is from the same IB set. This has been inked and stamped onto a spare piece of card using a combination of the orange and yellow colours, cut out, curled and mounted with foam pads. The sentiment has been stamped with 'Tangelo'.

We would love to have you join us in our colour challenge this week. Please remember that if you would like us to consider your card for one of our top three, you must stick reasonably close to the challenge colours with black, white and ivory being the only other colours allowed. I don't have any Stampin' Up ink pads but always try very carefully to match the colours with other makes of ink that I have in my stash. Your card must also feature some stamping on it and be CAS, of course!

Thanks for visiting today
Stef x

CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge #108

I love using sketches. They give you lots of design inspiration either when you're in a hurry or your imagination seems to have gone AWOL! This week at CAS Colours and Sketches we have a lovely sketch from our hostess, Jacqueline. I've gone with a Valentine's theme as love definitely seems to be all around blogland at the moment.

The banner strips are scraps from my box and surprisingly were not from the same patterned paper pack originally. The stamp is a dinkie from one of my favourite companies, IndigoBlu. This is stamped in Versafine 'Vintage Sepia' which is a great ink for very detailed stamps. It has been die cut with a Spellbinders label die and mounted on foam pads.

I have followed the sketch quite closely as I like to be able to see the original sketch clearly in my finished creation. The sentiment has been attached with a homemade heart pin using a paper clip! I have reprinted the simple directions below if you want to have a go at making some.

Thank you - we had a bumper crop of entries last week. I look forward to visiting your blog and seeing what you make of this week's sketch.

Thanks for visiting.

Stef x

Pink and Grey Bauble Flourish

That's better, I like this one more than the last! Tonight's card is made for two challenges. The challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches is a Colour Challenge (#103) and you can choose any of their previous colour combos from the archive and make a Christmas card.

I have chosen combo #81 from July this year as I love pink and grey together!

The second challenge I would like to enter is sketch challenge #102 at CAS(E) this Sketch. They do come up with some lovely sketches and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with this one.

I have used the 'Bauble Flourish' stamp from IndigoBlu, one of my favourite stamp companies. I have flipped the sketch, masked off the bauble and stamped it across the corner with VF 'Smokey Gray'. I then masked off the flourish and stamped the bauble twice, once onto the card and once onto a piece of pink cardstock. The bauble has been die-cut and mounted on foam pads. The sentiment stamp is by Hot Off The Press. I found a scrap of card to match the 'Crumb Cake' lighter shade of grey and cut a frame partly with a die and partly by hand. I felt the card needed something to finish it off so without using any more colour, I have highlighted the bauble, flourish and greeting with Stickles. 

Thank you for visiting today. Having a well-earned day off tomorrow and taking my Mum Christmas shopping!

Stef x

Stylised Flowers

I have been playing around, not entirely successfully, with shadow stamping today taking inspiration from both the current Indigo Blu and Less is More challenges. The theme from Indigo Blu is 'Spring Blossoms' while on Less is More it is one layer week with a shadow stamping theme. The stamp I have used is called 'Stylised Flowers' from Indigo Blu. This has been stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver pearl embossing powder. I then used circle masks to colour the backgrounds of each flower using my ink dusters. The trickiest part was inking up the stamp with three different colour inks at the same time as I wanted to get the same 'shift' in each of the shadows. The final touch was to wipe and buff the embossed flowers to make them 'pop'.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Indigo Blu Challenge 14: Spring Blossoms

Less is More Challenge 167: One Layer Card with evidence of Shadow Stamping

Thanks for visiting

Stef

CAS Autumn Tree

I wanted to make an Autumn card for my brother's birthday on Friday and taking inspiration from some of the CAS challenge blogs came up with the following design. My main inspiration came from sketch #10 on Less is More. I used a circle aperture card blank and created a background using my Ink Dusters, a moon mask and Distress Ink Pads (Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Dried Marigold, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap).



















I stamped the image (Oak Tree/Lavinia Stamps) in Frayed Burlap/Peeled Paint and used gilding flakes (Yorkshire Dales/Indigo Blu) to highlight part of the tree trunk and branches. The card was finished with a simple sentiment from Craftwork Cards.

Happy birthday Neil and enjoy your holiday!

I would like to enter it into the following challenges:
Less is More: Week 139 Sketch #10
Addicted to CAS: #23 Code Word - Autumn/Fall
Addicted to Stamps and More: #64 CAS
Crafty Little Fairies: Autumn Colours

Stef

Made with love... just for you!

I sat down to make my husband a Valentine’s card and had a look at a few challenge blogs for inspiration. I also wanted an excuse to play with my IndigoBlu ‘Poppy Heart’ stamp, Flitter Glu and Mega Flake ‘Winter Dawn’ which I've had for a few months but haven't had a lot of time to play with and now seemed like the perfect opportunity! This is what I came up with (hope he likes it!):

I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge Blog: 193 Valentine’s Card
Daring Cardmakers: Love is in the Air
Divas By Design: Love and Romance
PanPastel UK Challenge Blog: 6 Love and Romance
Sketch and Stash Challenge Blog: 107 Sketch and optional theme of ‘Love’