Purple Sparkle

Here is another card using Imagination Sparkle Medium, this time in a lovely purple and silver combination called Diamond Quartz.The inspiration for this card came from some of the art work I saw displayed on on the Imaginations stand at the NEC show back in November. The stencil is one of theirs too and they also sell some pastel printed papers for backgrounds but on this occasion I wanted to have a go at making my own. I used torn paper and a die cut paper circle with broken china and dusty concord Distress Inks to do this. Next I placed the flower stencil over the background and and added more dusty concord ink with a duster brush.I then moved the stencil slightly to the left and secured it with tape and applied the sparkle Medium. Having removed the stencil I set the card aside to dry thoroughly. My base card is approximately 6" square and I cut a pearlised mauve mat to fit, and when dry I trimmed the image panel to fit just inside it.When all was stuck together I stamped the Inkylicious quote with Memento London fog ink.
I am entering this at Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
                   and at Make It Monday - Anything Goes.
I would like to take this opportunity to say Happy new Year to all my followers and readers, thank you all so much for keep coming back to look at my work, and for your lovely and encouraging and friendly comments.
Jean x

Birthday Sparkle

Today I am showing you a card that I made a few weeks ago for one of sisters whose birthday was at the start of the month. The base card is a white 6" square with a pink mat cut slightly smaller.The top layer is made using white card again and a stencil from Imaginations Crafts. First I anchored the stencil down with masking tape, and then used more tape to cover all but the area I was working on. Using just one colour at a time the flowers leaves and stems were coloured with duster brushes and Distress Inks. I think the colours I used were spun sugar, peeled paint and probably vintage photo. I used a yellow pen for the flower centres. I then covered the flowers again and uncovered the butterflies and applied Imagination sparkle medium to them. This is one of the new ones that I bought at the NEC last month and is called Rose Shimmer, it is a pretty mixture of pink and gold. Next I removed the stencil and left the sparkle to dry completely, then I replaced the stencil and used the spun sugar ink to colour the centre square and then overstamped it with the birthday greeting. It was quite a job doing the multi coloured stencilling but I was quite pleased with the result.
I am entering this at, Seize The Birthday - Anything Birthday
                                Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Thank you for taking a look and for all your comments which are much appreciated.

Fantasy Butterfly

This is the card that I made for my Granddaughter's birthday last weekend. I began by stamping the Chocolate Baroque butterfly image onto white card with Memento elderberry ink,and coloured it with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. The edges were shaded with tumbled glass Distress ink, and then it was layered onto dark purple card. The base card was cut and folded from white A4 cardstock to make a 5" x 7" card. I used a Crafty Individuals border mask and a purple Imagination Sparkle Medium to create the border. The ribbon and bow are seam binding coloured with the same distress ink as I used on the image panel, and the greeting was cut with a Britania die from the same purple card as the mat. Having assembled everything I decided that I wanted a bit more dimension so I stamped and coloured the butterfly and the lowest flower again and cut them out. I used an embossing tool to add a little shape to the pieces and then used silicon glue to fix them over the original image. I didn't raise them very much and I don't think it shows up much in my photo but it was enough to add a bit of interest to the card.
I am going to enter this at Stamping Sensations - Free And Easy. 
And as I used snippets of card for all the stamping and for the die cutting I am also entering it at the
Pixies Snippets Playground.
Thank you for your looking and for your comments, all much appreciated.

Christmas Angel

I'm here with a quick post this morning so that I can just about squeeze in through the gates of the pixies playground before they close up for this week. I made ten of these cards over the last couple of days and as it was dark last night I couldn't get a decent photo so had to wait till this morning. The angel and flourish are Penny Black stamps and the greeting is Chocolate Baroque. The stamping is all done with Memento black ink and coloured with Promarkers. I also used a gold gel pen to highlight the flourish,and a little star dust Stickles on the wings. I stamped all the angels on pieces of ivory card from the snippets box and the mats from more snippets of blue glitter card and some from blue mirri card. The glitter one made a better photo. The oval dies I used are Go Kreate. I made an awful ink mark on the top corner of the first card I made and decided the only solution was to cut it off which I did using a corner rounder. I quite liked the result and so did on all of them .Right I am dashing off now to link up with Pixies Snippets Playground.
Thank you for visiting and for your your comments which are much appreciated.

Christmas Journey

There are still some hi-jinks going on at Pixies Snippets Playground this week in celebration of Di's 100 weeks of hosting last week. So for this card  I used a snippet from my "bits" box to stamp this lovely image so I can go and join in the fun again. The stamp is Stampendous stamped with black Memento ink. I then shaded the edges with tea dye and vintage photo Distress ink before colouring the image with Coloursoft pencils. The backing paper is printed from an Artylicious CD, Seasons Greetings, from Chocolate Baroque, and cut with a deckle blade in my paper cutter and then edged with a gold Krylon pen. I tied a red ribbon  around and added the sentiment on another snippet. The stamp is Chocolate Baroque and I used a Go Kreate die to cut it out.
I am also going to enter this at,
Cards For Men - Anything Goes
Here Come The Boys - Anything Goes For The Boys.
Thanks for looking and for your comments, I really appreciate them all.                          

Fireworks

It was my grandsons' birthday last week and I always struggle to know what put on his cards, as I do with most of the menfolk specially the young ones. Anyway I was needing to do something with fireworks a couple of weeks ago for another project and remembered I had this Dreamweaver stencil, and while I was using it, it occurred to me that it would make a good birthday card. I have recently renewed my interest in Imagination Crafts' Sparkle Medium, and while at the NEC show a few weeks ago I invested in some more colours and they are perfect for the job.I masked off each of the fireworks with tape and and uncovered one at a time so as to keep the colours separate, which turned out to be a bit easier than I expected. I set it aside to dry completely before trimming it and mounting onto red metallic card.I cut and folded a black 5" x 7" base card and stamped two swirls from a Chocolate Baroque set with Versamark and embossed them with WOW metallic brass glitter embossing powder.The greeting was stamped and embossed in the same way as the swirls and mounted to match the main panel, and I added a few red gems to finish off.
As I have used two tiny snippets left over from the fireworks piece for the greeting I am going to enter this at the Pixies Snippets Playground, a lovely fun and friendly challenge hosted by Di who is celebrating 100 weeks of hosting with some brilliant prizes so why not pop over and take a look.
I am also entering at Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog - Bonfire Brights
Paper Creators Crafts - Birthday
Thank you looking and for your comments which I truly appreciate.

Scenic Christmas

Well here we are at the 25th of the month again which means it's time to make a Christmas card for Rudolph day at Sarn's blog, Stamping For Pleasure. It is the last chance to enter this year as this time next month we shall all be celebrating Christmas Day itself. This is my card for this time inspired by a demo that I saw at the NEC show earlier this month. It was at the Cardio stand where they sell the Majestix stamps. I was intrigued to see the lady using this twig stamp to make a circle shaped wreath by stamping several times with one inking, and then created a little scene inside. She had stamped hers with black ink and used another little stamp that looked like fairy lights threaded through the twigs. Of course I went and bought the twig stamp and then had to choose between two sets, ( I couldn't afford both! ) one had the lights and other Christmas decorations and the other these little scene stamps. I decided on these and thought that would decorate my wreath with flowers. I started with an A6 folded card and drew faintly round the inside of the DS tape roll to get shape right. I stamped the twigs with iced spruce Distress ink and the added the poinsettia flowers and holly leaves with some Tapestry peg stamps from my stash, using barn door DI and olympia green Versafine. The scene was made starting with torn paper for the skyline, and scattered straw and rusty hinge DI for the sun and broken china and stormy sky for the sky, applied with a finger wrapped in a dry baby wipe. For the rest of the stamping I used black Memento ink and a little broken china to define the landscape. I think the demonstrators' wreath looked much tidier than mine but I am quite pleased with way it turned out. The greeting is a Chocolate Baroque stamp stamped with the iced spruce ink.I am now off to link this up with the final Rudolph Day challenge for 2013 .
Thank you for visiting here and for you comments all of which are much appreciated.

Jumbo Birthday

It is my husband's birthday tomorrow and this the card that I have made for him. I have had this Crafty Individuals stamp for a little while but this is the first time I have used it. My hubby is very fond of elephants so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get it inked up.I used Memento Rich Cocoa ink and stamped onto white card. It was trimmed to size and shaded all over with Distress inks, antique linen first very lightly then tea dye and vintage photo on the edges. I think a touch of peeled paint and aged mahogany found their way onto it as well. I then used two shades of grey pencil to add a little colour to the elephants, and red for the postage stamp. The patterned paper is from a colourful little 6" Penny Black pad that I won along with a lovely bundle of Penny Black stamps at Stamping Sensations last month.I thought that this design complimented the image quite well. I cut some dark blue card to fit the front of a 6" square card blank and layered the other pieces on top inserting a dark green mat under the main image. I found a. bit of green organza ribbon with blue stripes in it and threaded it through a carrier which I cut using the centre die from the Spellbinders set called Radiant Rectangles.Because I wanted to use the patterned paper for this I put a snippet of the paper through a Xyron sticker maker and stuck it to a bit of thin scrap card before cutting it.It seemed to work OK. To finish off I wrapped the ribbon around the blue mount before adding to the card and fixed a blue gem to the centre of the carrier.
As both of the top layers were made with bits of card from the snippets box I am going to pop over to link this up at Pixie's Snippets Playground, a fun and friendly place to visit where we are encouraged to use up some of those snippets that we all squirrel away.
I will also enter it at Paper Creators Crafts - Birthdays
and Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting here and for your kind comments.

A Special Birthday Card

This very cute, very pink card is "special" because it is for my little Great Granddaughter who was one year old yesterday. ( my goodness where did that year go?) There was much excitement going on at her house with tons of balloons, and little friends to a tea party, as well lots of parcels to be opened and the contents to be investigated.
For the card  I used a Lily Of The Valley image stamped onto white card and coloured with Promarkers, and then cut with a Spellbinders die. The base card is a pink 6" square folded card and the next layer is a pale pink embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots EF. Then a deeper pink layer again cut with another die from the same Spellbinders set. I used a square pink push pin that has been in my stash for ages, and a pink flower shaped brad, onto which I stamped the 1 with black ink and embossed with clear EP and then I dabbed the whole brad onto a Versamark ink pad and then into the clear EP to give it a glazed appearance. I managed to find enough of the right colour letter beads in my jar to complete the sentiment. I added a pink ribbon and some pearl buttons and a little teddy bear from my                                                       stash to finish.

 I am entering this at,
Seize The Birthday - Anything Birthday ( with texture )
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Paper Shelter - For Some One Special
Make It Monday - Anything Goes.

I have some more new followers this week, so welcome along and I hope you like what you see here and keep coming back. Thank you all for your lovely comments too, they are greatly appreciated.
                                                   

More Christmas Cards

Yes Christmas is coming and although for the first time ever I have been making a few Christmas cards all year I still only have just over half what I need, so it's time for some batch makes again. This time I was inspired by this nice free stamp that came with this months Craft Stamper. It is the reverse kind of stamp where the background is inked and the focus part of the image shows through. I fancied to see it in white on dark green card. I looked in my box of small coloured card pieces and found enough green bits to get started. The stamp is only about 2" square so only needed little pieces. I stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with white WOW powder. I was pleased with the result and to see that even the very fine wording detail showed up nicely. Another search in the bit box came up with enough red and gold pieces to make double mounts for each image. I then used pieces of backing papers left over from my last project to cover some small square cards, just adding a few bits of ribbon, gems  and a couple of holly die cuts again from the die cut bit box.

  Here is a close up showing the stamped image. As I have used up so       many snippets I am going to enter this at,

  Pixies Snippets Playground - week 98
  and Make It Monday - Anything Goes.

Thank you for taking a look and for your comments which are much appreciated.

A Trio Of Glitter Candles

These cards came about when one of my friends
brought a similar brass stencil to our weekly crafty
get-together and asked me what she could do with
it besides basic stencilling. I immediately thought of
Imaginations  Sparkle Medium, so I looked out this lovely one called Metallic sparkle. I found that the medium worked well with the brass stencil and so dug out this one of mine, which was bought years ago and not used for a while. I made three pieces and when dry I trimmed them and made them into three different coloured cards.                                          


This one was shaded around the edges with tea dye Distress ink and double mounted on brown and copper pearl card. The backing paper is from a pack bought when Kate was staying with me and we shared it , but I can't remember the make. I cut it to cover the front of a 6"x 6" card blank and again shaded the edges with tea dye ink, and finished with a matching ribbon and a greeting stamped with a Chocolate Baroque stamp and tea dye ink.

I used pine needles Distress ink for all the shading on this one,and
mounted it on green mirri card. The greeting is the same stamp as the previous one and cut out using a Memory Box bistro label die, and then mounted onto some green ribbon with copper coloured brads.

This one is an A6 card cut to open on the short side instead of the long one. I used fired brick Distress ink for the shading and red metallic card for the mount and for the edge strip. After cutting the backing paper to fit I cut a fancy edge with a Fiskars running water, edge punch. The mini greeting I used is one I've had for ages and I believe it was from Hero Arts.


All the backing papers I used are from the same pack. I will add a close up of the sparkle design below to show how nice and chunky the sparkle looked using it with a brass stencil instead of one of the thinner ones.


I am now off to Sarn's blog Stamping For Pleasure to link this up for
Rudolph Day.

I will also enter at Make It Monday - Anything Goes.
        Trough The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes.

Thank you for taking a look and to all who leave comments, I do appreciate them all. I also see I have a new follower so, Hi to Sally H thanks for joining and I hope you continue to like what you see here.

Birthday Butterflies

Hi folks, it is some time since I posted anything here again, mainly because we have been decorating, and also I am in the middle of making wedding invitations for my grandsons' wedding next year. However it was my sisters' birthday yesterday and I needed to make her a card.I actually made this a couple of weeks ago as she lives abroad and I had to get it posted early enough to reach her in time, but as she reads my blog I couldn't show it before.
I started by stamping the Inkylicious butterfly collage stamp with Memento black ink onto white card and coloured it with coloursoft pencils, and using a gold gel pen to highlight the title and a Wink of Stella white brush pen for the white markings on the wings. I then tore around the image and used Distress inks, antique linen and tea dye I think, to tint and shade the card. The base card was embossed with a butterfly corner embossing folder from Sissix, and then shaded with the same distress inks. The patterned paper is from a vintage style 6x6 pad from The Works cut with a Spellbinder die. The pieces were assembled on the card along with some scraps of lace and some brown organza ribbon from my stash. The greeting was cut from gold mirri card with a Britania die and the fancy corner with a Memory Box die. I stamped and coloured two more butterflies and using silicon glue to give a little dimension stuck one over the original one and the other just below.

I am entering this at Stamping Sensations - All Creatures Great and Small
                               Oh La La Creations - Things With Wings
              Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
                                Crafty Cardmakers - Shabby Chic
                                   Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting, I appreciate all your comments.

Plenty Of Bling For Rudolph

Well here we are it's the 25th of the month again which means it's Rudolph Day on Sarn's blog Stamping for Pleasure and here is my offering this time.
I have used one of my newest Chocolate Baroque Christmas stamps. There are several to choose from, I have this lovely bauble one and a Poinsettia one.They are huge stamps about 5.5 inches square, I have cut the sides off this time (from the image not the stamp!!! ) and just used the middle part. I began by stamping onto white card with Versamark ink and embossed with WOW gold embossing powder, and then coloured with Promarkers. When the colouring was done I filled in the background with a very pale marker, and trimmed the sides, and then mounted onto gold mirri card. I cut some of this lovely red glitter card to fit the front of my base card and wrapped the Christmassy ribbon round it in both directions and the stuck it to the card. I cut circles for the greeting with Nestability dies and coloured the centre to match the main image and stamped and embossed the greeting which is also from Chocolate Baroque.I then added the coloured panel to the card and then the  greeting on thin foam pads and tied a short length of ribbon at the side.
Now I am going to link this up at Stamping for Pleasure.
Thank you for looking and for your kind comments which I really appreciate.

Autumnal Quintiles

The theme for our quintiles swap at Chocolate Baroque this month is Autumn Days. I actually made these a little while ago to make sure they were done in time as I had my sister to stay with me for a few days, so I hope I can remember how I made them.

                                                                                                                                                                 I did this one first using torn copy paper and duster brushes with distress inks to create the landscape.  The cloudy effect in the sky was achieved by brushing blue ink against the edge of a die cut flower and moving it around and overlapping between inking. This technique was shown to me by a friend who had discovered it while inking petal edges to layer up into a flower.I think the die she used was a Spellbinders.
Having got my background, I inked the tree stamp with distress markers in autumnal colours and stamped it to the left adding a little stamping of the leafy edges of the tree stamp in the bottom corrner  to ground them a bit. In the right hand corner I used the leafy corner stamp inked with distress inks, I think I used forest moss, rusty hinge and wild honey, and then added clear embossing powder and heated it to give a bit of a shine. Both the tree and leaf stamps are from Chocolate Baroque and the word stamp and the birds are Inkylicious. To frame the tile I inked the edges with vintage photo distress ink.

  The back ground on the second one was first brayered with distress inks, I'm sorry I can't remember which ones exactly. I over stamped with the same leafy corner stamp with Brilliance pearlescent beige and galaxy gold in opposite corners. The poppy head image was  stamped with Memento rich cocoa ink and I added a little colour with coloursoft pencils. The poppy stamp is Chocolate Baroque and the quote I think is Stamp Addicts, I have had it for ages.  Again the edges are finished with vintage photo shading.                                              

I am entering this at ---
Fashionable Stampers Challenge - Autumn Colours.
Make It Monday - Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting and for your comments which I truly appreciate.

Blue Butterflies

I can't believe that it's nearly a month since I posted anything! Where did all that time go?! It's not that I haven't made anything but I just haven't got round to blogging. Some of my time was taken up with preparing for, and then enjoying a visit from sister.
Anyway today the postman delivered this lovely new die from Joanna Sheen's signature dies range. As soon as I spotted it this week it shot to the top my "must have" list. This afternoon I just had to try it out so took a piece of  Imaginations blue shiny card and my Cuttlebug and cut away. I must say that it cut absolutely perfectly first time and even came out of the die easily too. It occurred to me that it would also make a good mask, so I cut it again from some scrap card. I placed it onto some white card as a mask and used a duster brush to apply Brilliance ice blue pearlescent ink through and around it. I then placed the blue die cut slightly off set over it and stuck it down, and added a few random dots with blue Stickles glitter glue. I used a Memory Box die to cut a fancy edge on a piece of matching blue card and then mounted the butterfly panel onto it, and then onto a white base card. I added the small sentiment stamp to finish.

I am entering this at, Crafty Bloggers Network - Things With Wings
                               Through Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting and for your comments, I truly appreciate them all.

CAS For Rudolph Day

Yes we have reached the 25th of the month again which means that it is Rudolph Day at Sarn's Stamping For Pleasure blog.  This month I decided to use some masking tissue which I bought recently. I have used this technique often before but I usually use post it notes or copy paper for the masks which can  be a bit problematic with the edges curling up etc. The tissue proved useful as it sticks all over, so it can't move while in use and with care it can be returned to it's backing sheet and reused another time.
I started with a piece of tissue to cover the front of my card and die cut a rectangle where I wanted the image to go. From the cut out I cut a circle where the moon was to go.I used Spellbinders Nestabillities dies for the cut outs.I placed the rectangle with the cut out back into place on the card and coloured the moon with a pale yellow Promarker. When dry I replaced the circle mask and removed the rectangle one and coloured the space using a duster brush and chipped sapphire Distress Ink. Next I stamped the owls with black Memento ink, and then removed the rest of the mask from the card . The tissue has very low tack adhesive and didn't damage the card.  I coloured over the holly leaves and berries with Distress Markers and added a tiny dot of Stickles glitter to the eyes. To finish the card I added a stamped greeting and a die cut holly corner with some red gems to represent berries and to add a spot of brightness.
The holly die cut is from Cheery Lynn and both the stamps are Chocolate Baroque.

I am entering this at, Stamping For Pleasure - Rudolph Day
                               The Hobby House - Christmas
                               A Creative Romance - Masking
                     

Summer Roses

For this card I have used this lovely stamp from Just Rite.It is fairly new in that I have only used it once before when I stamped it with black ink onto white card and I wasn't very pleased with the result as I thought the black ink looked too heavy. So I was quite keen to have another go as I like the stamp so much. This time I used Memento Rich Cocoa ink and stamped it onto some very lightly printed paper that my friend had given me. I stamped the bottom flowers again onto thin white card and the front rose once more. I coloured all the images with Promarkers and coloured pencils, and cut out the extra flowers. This is quite a large stamp so my finished card is about 5" x 7". I trimmed the main image and mounted it onto gold mirri card  and then onto a purple mat which I cut to fit the white base card. I stamped the greeting onto a scrap of the printed paper and mounted it on gold card to match, and fixed both panels to the card, adding some pearls to the bottom one. I used an embossing tool to shape the cut out flowers slightly and glued them over the base image with silicon glue for added dimension. To finish the card I stamped and coloured two little butterflies from a Chocolate Baroque set  and added them to the card also with silicon glue.

I am entering this at It's All About Vintage And Beauty - Summer Flowers
                               Bloggers Challenge - Flower Power
                               Stempelsonnen - Anything Goes.

 Than you for visiting and for your lovely comments, they are all appreciated.

Feathered Friends

First of all today I would like to say welcome to my little corner to my newest followers, I hope you like what you see here and keep coming back.

The challenge this month at Stamping Sensations is
Wings and Things and a Touch of  Vintage, and I thought this stamp from Inkylicious which I have just bought would fit the bill. I stamped the image with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and water coloured it using distress Markers and a water brush. The stamped image, mount and frame were die cut with Spellbinders Marvellous Squares. The background  paper is a freebie from a magazine, and all the shading is with Distress inks, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo. To finish the card I added some feathers and paper flowers from my stash, fixed with a little diamond glaze and the brads in the flower centres.

Thank you for visiting and for your comments which I love to read and really appreciate.

A "Man" Card

I think most of us agree that cards for men are not the easiest to make, but I needed to make one this week for my brothers' birthday. I spotted this Our Daily Bread stamp recently and thought it would be perfect for the job.
I used Brilliance  Lightning Black ink to stamp the image onto white card and coloured it with coloursoft pencils. I then trimmed it and mounted it onto some navy blue card. I also stamped the scripture quote, which is part of the same stamp set, with the Brilliance ink and mounted it to match. I cut some light blue card to fit onto my white base card and added the two panels. I considered several forms of embellishment but ended up just stamping a corner from the Chocolate Baroque Pretty Poppies set with Adirondak Denim ink.

I am entering this in a new challenge,
 The Male Room - Anything Goes
Make It Monday - Anything Goes.
The Squirrel And The Fox - Nautical / Sea Life

Thank you for taking a look and for your comments, they are much appreciated.

Blue Birthday

When I made this card I decided to play about with a set of stamps from Just Rite. It includes the stamp for the frame, about four flower stamps that fit  inside it, a kind of collaged label and some sentiments. I also have the set of nested dies made to go with it for cutting the frame, although I was a bit disappointed that it didn't cut out the centre and none of the oval dies have are a good size and shape match.
I picked out this piece of blue card as a starting point and stamped the frame with Versamark ink and embossed it with WOW clear powder. I cut it out using the appropriate die and stamped the flower in the centre with Brilliance Lightning Black ink. Having made sure it was properly dry I coloured it with Promarkers. I wanted to know how well they would work on coloured card, and although I used blue pens on blue card they showed up really quite well. I am fairly new to these markers as some of you who follow my blog regularly will know I generally favour pencils for colouring. So, even though I was fairly happy with the result I thought it would look better with a light background so I set about colouring it with a new Zig pen that I have, called Wink of Stellar.It has a beautifully fine real brush tip and delivers a sparkly white ink, and I think it is available in several colours, I have  the white, and a black one. The sparkle doesn't show in the photo but is lovely in sunlight. Having decided that I quite liked the result of my "play" I need to find something to mount it on. I quite like stamping my own backgrounds but I also have rather a lot of paper stacks that I buy because I like them!!. I chose this one because it is blue, it's from a Paper Cellar pad called Langley Place.I trimmed it to fit my card and highlighted some of the design with a blue pencil and a silver gel pen. I then decided to add some pink ribbon to brighten the whole thing up,wrapping it  around the paper before fixing it to the card.  To finish off I added a die cut greeting using a Britania die and the same blue card as the frame, and a few pink gems .
I am entering this at Crafting When We Can-Floral
                               Craft Room Challenge- Heat Embossing ( the frame )
                               Eclectic Ellapu-Anything Goes
                               Through The Craft Room Door- Anything Goes.
                             
Thank you for taking the time to look and for your kind comments which are much appreciated. Jean

An Angel For Rudolph

I can't believe it's got around to the 25th of the month again already, but the calendar tells me it has, and that means it's Rudolph  Day at Sarn's blog Stamping For Pleasure.
This little card is only just over 4" square. Last year I bought a lot of envelopes this size with the idea of making smaller Christmas cards but most of my cards ended up bigger so they didn't get used.I thought I'd try again this year and dug out some of my older stamps to use as well. I have had them so long I don't know what make they are as I used not to label them. The little angel is stamped with black Memento ink and coloured with promarkers, then cut out.I used Go-Kreate nested dies to cut the wavy squares, one with white card and the larger one with some gold glitter card I found in my stash.
I stamped the holly sprays with Peeled Paint distress ink and added the red berries with a Barn Door Distress marker. The glitter card was self adhesive which was handy and I placed it diagonally on the card. I sponged round the edge of the white mount with a little Tumbled glass DI before adding to the card. The angel is fixed with foam pads.
I am off now to link this up to Sarn's blog, do pop over and see what the others have made.

Summer Flowers

I made this card using one of the newest Chocolate Baroque stamp sets called Poppy Meadow. I already had some of their poppy stamps but I really liked this set because it has the grasses and seed heads in with the flowers which I feel adds a real wild flower appeal.
All the stamping is done with Brilliance Lightning Black ink and the colouring with Derwent coloursoft  pencils. The  main image is edged with the black ink pad and mounted onto pale green pearlised card. The background stamping is another image from the same stamp set and the sentiment is an Art Journey stamp.

I am entering this at,
Fashionable Stampers-Flora and Fauna
Make it Monday-Anything Goes
Great Impressions-Anything Goes
Eclectic Ellapu-Flowers

Thank you for stopping by to look and for your kind comments
which I really appreciate.

Sister's Birthday Card

This is the card that I made for one of my sisters who had a birthday last weekend.All the stamps I used are from a large Chocolate Baroque plate entitled Butterfly Daisy Collage.I first stamped the main image onto white card with Memento Elderberry ink and embossed it with clear EP. I coloured the flowers and butterfly with promarkers, then trimmed the image down and sponged the edge with spun sugar Distress ink. I covered the square base card with a piece of Crafty Individuals backing paper having trimmed it to size using a deckle edge cutter. I stamped one of the corner stamps in the top left hand corner using the same ink and EP as before. I mounted the coloured panel onto purple card and fixed it to the card, and stamped the smaller butterfly just above it. I stamped it again onto white card, coloured it, cut it out and stuck it over the other one with silicone glue to raise the wings slightly. I also added a little pink stickles to the centres of the flowers but it doesn't really show in the photo.

  Having made the card I decided to make a matching bookmark, so I stamped a smaller  image from the same set, masked the top flower and stamped the small butterfly. I then coloured it to match the card and cut the bottom edge to shape,and   sponged the edges.  To finish it I covered the back with a piece of the CI paper and punched a hole and added a purple tassel that I had  saved from an empty perfume bottle.

I am entering this at Make It Monday- Anything Goes
and at Through The Craft Room Door- Anything Goes.

Thank you to all who read this and for your comments, I really appreciate them all.

Christmas Flowers

When I said in my post last night that I would be back with a card for Rudolph Day at Stamping For Pleasure hosted by Sarn, I had no idea what the date was, so when I realised that the 25th was today I had to get busy this afternoon and make this card. As I am also using it for the Chocolate Baroque Christmas card group where the theme this month is flowers I decided to try out this stamp.  It is a CB stamp but I don't know which set it is from because I got it in a mystery grab bag a while ago. I am not sure if they are meant to be flowers or snowflakes but I have stamped them in Christmas colours and they can be Christmas fantasy flowers for the purpose of this blog .I coloured the stamp with distress markers in Pine Needles and Barn Door and spritzed it with water and stamped onto watercolour paper.When it was dry I added some yellow stickles to the centres.I layered it onto red and green mounts and then onto a red base card, having already stamped the two right hand corners with a foliage corner stamp and Versamark ink. To finish it off I tied some green ribbon just in from the fold.I wanted to add a greeting but couldn't find a suitable place for it so it will have to make do with one inside.
Now I am going to link this up to Sarn's blog, so thank you for taking time to this and for you lovely comments, they are all much appreciated.

Two For The Price Of One

I have got this month's quintiles for the Chocolate Baroque swap to show you today and also some Atcs also for a Chocolate Baroque swap.
The theme for the tiles this time is June Brides but
unfortunately I haven't got any bride stamps so I had
to improvise a bit. I began by printing some backing paper from an Artylicious CD.(Decadent Brocade). I trimmed it with a deckle edged cutter to fit the 5" tile of dark brown card. I over stamped it with the lovely background stamp from the CB Dusky Damask set with Versamark ink and embossed it with WOW vanilla white embossing powder.I used a rub down cream lace across the top and added a strip of tiny flowers on top of that. As I have no suitable stamps I decided to use this image from a Crafty Individuals mini book.I cut it out and mounted it onto cream card to make a frame. I used skeleton leaves, ribbon bows and some cream mini flowers made with a Britania die,cream coloured pearl paper and some mini stamen coloured yellow with a promarker, as embellishments.                                                        
                                                                                 The theme for the ATCs  is Steampunk, another style that I am not entirely comfortable with, but which I do have a few stamps for. These both started as ivory card and were shaded all over with distress inks in antique linen, tea dye and vintage photo. one was embossed with a TH  embossing folder and the raised area coloured with grey and brown inks.The grid  stamp is from Art Journey.The clock face is part of a CB set, Punky Romance and I stamped it with black ink and embossed it with clear EP onto ivory card and coloured it with the brown inks. I cut it out and fixed some chain with a brad in the centre and and used foam pads to stick it in place, and fixed a metal embellishment over the background embossing. The other one has some background stamping with the same grid stamp as the first one and also using a Crafty Individual crackle stamp. the main image is from CB Steampunk Travel set and I stamped it straight onto the card but decided it didn't show up very well so I stamped it again, coloured and cut it out and fixed it over the first image with silicon glue. The card was then decorated with a piece of mesh fixed with metal embellishments and a little Frantage embossing in the corner.

I am sorry I haven't been around much lately I have been a bit short of inspiration or/and motivation but have several projects in mind so hope to back again soon.Maybe later this week even, with a Christmas card for Rudolph Day,(not made yet!)over at Sarn's blog Stamping for Pleasure.
Anyway many thanks to every one who comes to look and for your lovely comments.

Holly for Rudolph

This will hopefully be a quick post today to show you the only Christmas card I've made this month. The theme for our Christmas card group at Chocolate Baroque this month is script and/or text and there are several CB stamps that are ideal for this including this lovely holly one.I stamped the image with black Memento ink and coloured it with Spectrum Noir pens.I used distress inks to shade the background in I think scattered straw and forest moss.I then mounted it onto red card and attached it to a green folded card. I stamped, shaded and mounted the verse to match and fixed it to the card slightly overlapping the main image.To finish off  I stamped the holly flourish with Versamark ink in the top right hand corner and added a little Stickles glitter glue to the leaves, and then smudged a spot of white ink with a pigment pen to the berries to make them look a bit shiny. I am showing you this today as it the 25th and I can enter it for Rudolph's day at Stamping For Pleasure

Thank you for looking and for your kind comments which are all appreciated.

Flower Show Quintiles

The theme for the Quintile swap at Chocolate Baroque this month is The Chelsea Flower Show. My first thought was, Oh good a nice easy one but in fact  I really struggled to get them made in time, my first two attempts finished in the bin. I have never been to the flower show but I have seen bits of it on TV and love flowers of all kinds but the picture I had in my head just wouldn't transfer to the card. In the end I changed my idea altogether and went for a simpler design and used the fact that the show is celebrating it's 100th anniversary this year. I decided to use the same design for both but using different colour schemes. I started by covering the card with paper from Crafty Individuals Spring book and then brushed Brilliance Pearlescent Beige ink through a Crafters Workshop stencil.This is a round doily type design and I thought the little motifs were flowers until I noticed the title on the package is Mini flying Birds, which on taking a closer look I suppose they are but I still think they look quite flowery too.Then I used distress inks to shade the edges in colours to match the flowers I was going to use.The little trellis panel is a Memory Box die, and the mini roses are made with a Britania die, cut out from white paper and coloured with Promarkers as per the video tutorial on the Johanna Sheen website, The leaves are part of a CB stamp coloured with pencils and fussy cut out.The daisy flowers are coloured with distress markers adding a bit more colour with a pencil on the pink ones, then cut out, and the leaves are cut from patterned paper with a Marianne die.I fixed these with a large glue dot in the centre of each flower and when I went back to them in the morning the edges had curled up a little so I tucked some silicone glue under them as they looked better with a little more dimension.
I printed the title on the computer and cut out with a Spellbinder labels die set, I can't remember which number it is.I mounted it onto dark green shiny card cut with next size up die and fixed to to the card.

Thank you for looking and for your comments which are all appreciated.

Punky Birthday.

Today I have this card to show you, I have made it for my niece and though her birthday is not until next week she doesn't read my blog so I think I am safe to show it now. Some may think it an odd colour scheme but it just the sort of thing she will love.
The stamp is from Chocolate Baroque set Punky Romance and I stamped it directly onto a folded white square card with Memento Black Tuxedo  ink.I used several shades of grey Coloursoft pencils for the shading and a black pencil and black fine line pen to emphasise the leaves and swirls.The flowers were coloured with a red distress marker and I used a red glitter gel pen on the butterflies. It doesn't really show in the photo but the main butterfly is decoupaged with the wings slightly raised with silicon glue.To finish the card I added the red and black ribbon to the folded edge and stuck some black gems in the flower centres and stamped the birthday greeting in the top corner. I am quite pleased with this and enjoyed making it especially as I have been lacking in motivation lately.

I am going to enter this at Fashionable Stampers Challenges - Anything Goes
                                                   Crafty Bloggers Network - Os+ Xs  ( Vertical- Gems Stamp Ribbon )

Thankyou for visiting and for your comments which are much appreciated.

Christmas Trees

Well Hi there after not posting anything here for a month I am now back with a second blog in three days, Inconsistent or what?!!!  Some of you may remember that back at the start of the year I declared my intention to take part in the Christmas card group at Chocolate Baroque where one of our members had suggested some themes for us to use each month if we wanted to. The idea being that if we made a few cards each month it would save us from having a rush to get them all done in December. This is a new concept  for me as mine are usually made in a mad couple of weeks. Anyway after blogging my January cards I haven't got around to putting any more on here although I have made at least two cards each month and earlier this month I made three, the theme for this month being Trees. Finding myself with a little spare time this week (spare time?!!) I decided to make a couple more, and as today is still just about the 25th  I am going to show them for Rudolph's day on Sarn's blog Stamping For Pleasure.

 For this one I used Chocolate Baroque Stamps from the Frosty Trees and Christmas Cheer plates.First I stamped the tree with Versamark and embossed with WOW silver EP onto purple card and then used a gold gel pen to highlight the little stars adding a dot of yellow Stickles in the centre of each one.I the edged the piece with a silver Krylon pen. The holly flourishes were stamped onto the base card with Memento elderberry ink and the dots highlighted with silver Stickles. I wrapped the silver ribbon round the card and fixed the purple panel over it and then added the silver bow.


For the second card I used more traditional colours,staring by stamping the holly background from the CB Holly Flourish plate onto green card with Versamark and embossed with WOW Brass Sparkle EP. The tree is from the CB Stained Glass Christmas plate and I stamped it in Versafine olympia green ink. The star is stamped and embossed with the sparkle EP. I coloured around the star and the pot with  distress markers, and  trimmed the edges using shaped scissors to cut the corners, and then used Distress Inks scattered straw and fired brick to add some shading. I mounted this onto red card and cut a label for the greeting with a Memory Box die to match. I stuck the two panels together using double sided tape and fixed the greeting with gold brads and some thin foam pads, and then fixed the complete panel to the folded card and used coloured Stickles to decorate the tree.

Thank you for looking and for you kind comments I really appreciate them.

Jean

April Fool

I apologise for the long gap since my last blog. I have been doing some crafting but since a bout of flu at Easter I have been lacking in energy and enthusiasm. Anyway I needed to get these Quintiles done for the  Chocolate Baroque swap so have decided to show them to you today in an effort to get back to blogging.
The theme this month is April Fool which had me
thinking for a while, not really knowing where to start. However after checking in the dictionary to see if there was some definition I was anaware of,(there wasn't)  I turned to Google and searched for some quotes and came up with these two that I thought I could work with.

 The first quote made me think of this stamp from Crafty Individuals with the rabbits wearing crowns. I decided I would try and make a painty background for these tiles and used Lin Browns step by step tutorial on her blog here, for inspiration. I have a few of the Fresco Finish paints from Paper Artsy that she uses but they are mostly the opaque colours which are good for the base layers, but I found one that was more translucent and managed to mix some Old Gold to the Haystack to make it a bit less opaque. The other colours I used are Rusty Rose, Pansy and Guacamole. When I was happy with the painted background I stamped the diamond pattern across the top with a chocolate Baroque stamp from the decorative Edges set, with Versamark and embossed with WOW gold EP. I added some further interest by brushing Brilliance crimson copper ink through a Crafters Workshop stencil and adding some Frantage antique gold EP and fragments to the lower left hand corner. I also randomly stamped a few Crowns from a CB set with the Brilliance ink and some fragments of script with black Archival ink and a Paper Artsy stamp.The rabbits are stamped with the Crimson Copper ink and coloured lightly with pencils and cut out before sticking to the background.I stamped the crowns again onto gold miri card with Versa mark and embossed with WOW Gold glitter EP,cut them out and glued them in place. I printed the quote on the computer and cut it into strips and coloured the edges with the Brilliance ink pad.
The second one was made in a similar way but before painting I spread some Dreamweaver stencil paste in the top right hand corner and stamped into it with the diamond pattern stamp, spritzing it with water first. This was left to dry completely before adding the paint. I stamped the diamond pattern again with Crimson Copper ink across the bottom and added Brilliance Moonlight White ink through the stencil. I used a corner stamp from a Chocolate Baroque set  in opposite corners, stamped with Versamark and embossed with WOW gold EP, and I used some Gleam gold rubbing wax to highlight the texture paste. Again the quote was printed on the computer and cut out with a spellbinder die. I shaded the edge with Crimson Copper ink and mounted it onto some kraft card.

Thank you to everyone for looking and for the comments you leave, all really appreciated.
Hope to be back again soon. Jean

Springtime

Springtime is the theme for our "Quintile" swap on the Chocolate Baroque group this month. It's a lovely idea but I would like to be experiencing it with a bit more reality than the freezing cold weather we are still having. Having said that, on the day I made these the sun was actually shining and it did look like spring even though it was very cold outside.
To make the background for these I used a newly acquired stencil from Imaginations. I put it through the cuttle bug which gave a slightly embossed appearance and before removing the stencil I used a stencil brush and bundled sage distress ink to colour the leaves. I love the Chocolate Baroque stamps with flowers on a script background. The crocus is from one of their newer springtime plates and the daffodil is an older one that I have had for a while. They were both stamped with black Memento ink and coloured with colour soft pencils. I then shaded the background with bundled sage and edged the card with forest moss DI. When I started to make these I thought the theme was Spring Flowers which is actually the theme for the ATC swap and this one is Springtime and as I said the sun was shining outside and the little birds were singing away in the garden as if thought it really was spring, so I decided to add the little birds to my project. I am not sure I like how they look but I couldn't take them off again so I hope the recipients do like them. The word Spring is from an Easter set of stamps from Our Daily Bread.

I am going to enter these at Crafty Boots - Flowers
                                         Make It Monday - Anything goes
                                         Vintage Stamping Challenges - Spring Is In The Air

Thank you for taking a look and for your lovely comments, they are all appreciated
Jean .

Oriental Birthday

I have made this card using the Oriental Crane clear stamp set from Chocolate Baroque. I stamped the crane onto white card with Memento black ink and coloured it with Coloursoft pencils. The blue shading in the background was done using a duster brush and broken china Distress ink. After trimming I mounted it onto black card leaving a narrow border. Next  I stamped and coloured the little oriental scene and the Birthday greeting on the left hand side of a larger piece of  white card. I edged this piece with narrow black peel off strips. The back layer is a piece of oriental style paper from my stash cut to fit the base card, and then the other pieces positioned on top  with the crane panel mounted with foam tape.
This card is for yet another man in the family with a birthday this month.
I am  entering  it in the following challenges,
Stamping Sensations - The Great Outdoors
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
CCEE Stampers - Pencils Please

Steampunk Birthday

This is the card that I have made for my son's birthday, I think it might appeal to his quirky sense of humour. The mechanical hat is from a Chocolate Baroque set called Steampunk travel. I stamped it with black Memento ink onto ivory card and coloured it with distress markers and Sakura  metallic pens. I trimmed it and edged it with a black marker and mounted it onto red Kraft core card from a Tim Holtz pad. The two green panels are cut from the same pad and embossed with a Tim Holtz  ATC embossing folder, and then the edges and embossing sanded back slightly to reveal the craft core. I fixed them to an ivory folded card  overlapping them at the centre and then stamped the birthday greeting in red ink in the top right hand corner. I glued a small clock face over the clock on the hat and then a gear over that. I stamped the wing again on a spare piece of card and coloured it with the gold pen and cut it out, and then glued it with silicon glue to raise it up slightly. I fixed the metal tassel to the lower corner before sticking the image panel to the center of the card with dimensional tape, and then added a couple more metal pieces to the bottom corner of the card.
I am entering this at. Crafty Cardmakers-Masculine Birthday featuring Technology or Gadget
                                Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenges-Add Some Metal
                                Anything Goes Challenge Blog-Make It Manly

Thank you all for visiting my blog and for your kind comments, all are much appreciated. Jean

Two Special Birthdays

 I have two grandsons with birthdays this weekend, one is 18 and the other 21. I never find it very easy to come up with appropriate cards for the men in general, and specially not the young ones.
These greetings and tiny bird stamps are from a Chocolate Baroque set of clear stamps called Happy Words and Birds. They are quite different from their usual style and at first I thought that I didn't like them very much, but then I saw the very CAS cards that Glenda had made with them in the February issue of Craft Stamper magazine and decided that would be useful for making quirky cards for my young men.
The birds were stamped with black ink and coloured with distress markers.The frame on the 18 card was made by drawing round a Go-kreate die three times with a fine black pen moving the die slightly each time.(another tip I got from the Craft Stamper)

 I used Brilliance rocket red to stamp the Happy Birthday, and on the second card I cut the main image out and mounted it on red card to cover up my botched first attempt. The stars are a magazine free stamp which I cut out and stuck onto red card and cut out again. the numbers are from a 7gypsies set.

I am entering this at Addicted To CAS-It's Raining Men

That Craft Place- Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting and for the kind comments you leave, all are really appreciated  Jean.