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.