Birds on a wire

Goodness me I really am running late, as with my post over at the Penny Black and More challenge (where we have loads of fabulous prizes to be won) I should have scheduled this but totally forgot and of course Mr Blogger is having a real hissy fit today and taking forever.

But better late than never as they say and here is my mid month card following our theme of 'Use your Favorite Stamp', always a difficult one with Penny Black as I love most of those I have and that's a good few hundred I might add, but those on this card seem to pop up time and again so figure they fit the theme nicely.

The background has been created with Pan Pastels and then the stamping added over the top, I don't always work this way round, it rather depends and if I am creating a landscape I tend to add the trees, fences and so on first, then flowers, birds etc., second. 

Have a good Wednesday all, lets hope the weather improves as it's rather cold here in the Fens this morning.

Shadow stamping with acetate

Good Morning, it's my week to host a tutorial over at Prickly Pear and this is just a short one using acetate and shadow stamping, the technique is fairly subtle but using two contrasting colours gives a finish that's a little bit different.

Here are the products and materials I used: Prickly Pear stamps Floral Silhuettes HH0044 and Flourish EE0131, Distress inks, Black Versafine, Detail clear embossing powder, heat resistant acetate, watercolour card and Pearl mica spray

Distress the piece of base card with your chosen colours of distress inks and spritz with the mica spray. Whenever I create a background with inks or Dylusions I invariably add a spritz if mica spray as it helps bleed the colours, as well as giving a nice shimmer and added interest.

Randomly stamp around the edge of the card with the flourish stamp and then stamp the floral image slightly left of centre. Next stamp the floral image onto the acetate with the black ink, cover with embossing powder and heat. You will find dusting the acetate with an anti static bag or talcum powder really helps to stop your stamp slipping and also prevent powder sitting in unwanted places.

Lay the stamped acetate over the base stamping slightly to the right of the base image so you can see a slight shadow, then carefully glue the corners together with a dries clear glue. Mat and layer onto your base card and embellish as desired. I used some ribbon and butterflies using Mini Butterfly dies PPRS – DO23 and over stamped them with the same flourish stamp that I used around the card edges.

I do hope you will give this fun card a try and please do ask me if you have any questions.

I thought I had better also share my DT card which was on the PPRS store blog yesterday, clean and simple'ish' using the Clear Vase stamp set which you will find here.

Hope you all have a good Tuesday.

Gold and grungy

Helen has set us a colour challenge at Allsorts this week of 'Gold and White plus One', we have two great sponsors A Passion for Stamps and Craft Fairy.

My colours on the top one are perhaps a little bit predictable, gold and white and brown as my extra. This is one of the samples I made for a recent Stamp Addicts Create and Craft TV programme using some of the new Grunge stamps, sentiment and clock with grunge paste and masking in the background and a flower using TH Tattered Floral die.

And a second one in white, gold and yellow using one of Ruth's designs the Stargazer Lily which she drew for me a couple of years ago, I printed three onto Fabriano watercolour card and coloured with Derwents and then Wink of Stella pens and decoupaged one bloom, an embossed background, a triple bow, cameo and Liquid pearls.

I met Ruth in Cambridge today, she is over here for a few days so it was lovely to catch up with her again, there were a few photos taken as we supped coffee in the sun and I know she will be blogging them so will grab one to share here as well.

Have a good weekend all.

Bobbly Flowers and a blue hat

Using: JJ 0038 May your Life,  FF0104 Wheat, EE0103 Flourish, CLR051A Blobby Flowers,  GG0082 Delphinium, PPRS D015 Blobby Flower Die, PPRS D045 Flourish Die

It's a bit of inkiness for my Prickly Pear DT share this week and one I really enjoyed creating. I started with Dylusions and Glimmer Mist onto the reverse of Centrua Pearl, sponged some sunrays using a mask and randomly stamped with a number of Prickly Pear stamps including the lovely sentiment and then from another piece of card also sprayed with the same mediums made some flowers using the matching stamps and die and swirls using the new swirl die.

My Nicecrane DT piece this week uses another new design sheet called All Season Hats, I made a stepper card, some scraps of DP and overlaid them with trellis cut from linen cardstock using a Cheery Lynne die. Some rolled roses, feahter and a beaded pin in coordinating colours.

Happy Monday all. 

Just the one layer

This week at Allsorts the lovely Jo is challenging us to make a one layer card and our sponsors are Craftbag.

I love making this style of card using Pan Pastels, masking a section in the middle and round the edge of the reverse side of a piece of Centura Pearl and stamping the scene which in this case is repeat stamped with a Clarity stamp for the focal element then adding the PP's. The faux layer effect is achieved simply by using Copics and a ruler, I find it easiest to start from the outer edge and work inwards.

And another using exactly the same technique but this time using Chocolate Baroque's lovely Tuscany image and sentiment.

Happy weekend all.

Blossoms

It's time for a new challenge at FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges where our them is Summer Blossoms, what a lovely easy one as we all love our flowers. And as it's Monday I also have my Prickly Pear and Nicecrane DT shares.

For my top card I have used a number of FlonzCraft stamps, Etched Rose and leaves, Buttertfly trio, small butterflies sheet and Floral Butterfly corner and sprayed them all with Dylusions before cutting out and decoupaging. Graphic 45 DP and TH weathered clock cut from Coredinations.

I am again entrering the Butterfly Bingo Challenge (after totally messing up yesterday's one - need more practice) and following the line of Butterflies, Dies and DP.

This one is probably the most difficult card I have ever had to make, when my latest DT package arrived from Prickly Pear I looked at this sentiment and lovely as it is wondered what on earth I could manage to do with it.

Using: GG1096 Loyal Companion

After thinking about it for a few days I decided I would make a card in memory of my lovely Buffy. The design and colours of the card, little UTEE fob and glazed flowers were inspired by Pere Lachaise in Paris, for those not familiar with it, it's the largest cemetery in Paris set on a hill with views of the City where many famous people are buried .......Sarah Bernhardt, Chopin, Colette, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf to name a few........although it is a cemetery it is unlike most and more of a tourist attraction with beautiful marbles, many flowers and ornate glazed photos to commemorate those buried there.

Finally my Nicecrane share is another using the elegant A Dream of Fair Women design sheet........can you tell I really like these, along with Graphic 45 DP's, a bit of paper folding, ribbon and flower.

Happy Monday all.

Some of my favorite things

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are Animal Antics and Use your Favorite Stamp.

So for my Penny Black piece I had to go with my all time favorite Penny Black stamp 2695J Dance, Sing, Love along with two favorites from the 2014 Spring releases 4373K Red Tango and 40-282 Twirls, although as you can see my Poppies are blue so I figure they must be the Himalayan variety which are the National flower of the Kingdom of Bhutan which is a land locked Country sitting at the far eastern end of the Himalaya's..........so endeth today's Geography lesson !! The background is Dylusions and Glimmer Mist, a bit of bleaching here and there and a touch of grunge paste and decoupaged Poppies.

Although I rarely enter challenges these days, I have been wanting to join in with Mrs A's new Butterfly Challenge who this time have the theme of Butterfly Bingo and I have gone with the the row, butterfly, wet embossing and flowers.

This one is a rather tenuous link to this months Stamping Sensations theme....two very tiny birds in the sky and butterflies on the embossed panel - not strictly animals I know, but I did want to share a card using a Crafty Individuals stamp as they are our sponsors this month.



My second Stamping Sensations piece is a collection of stamps from Lavinia.......the larger than life bunnies to the fore...... plus some Inkylicious, Sutter and Stampscapes and good old Pan Pastels for all the colouring.

Have a good weekend everyone, hope the sun is making an appearance for you.