Ombre Love You Card

This card built up slowly. Had an idea and had to change then change again and finally got something I like.

I think I need to work on my photography skills. Found it a bit hard showing this card off to it's best. Was going to use the vellum that I had gold embossed with a Hero Art stamp and put with white and black but it just wasn't working. Fiddled around a bit and ended up with this card. Again because I didn't think of the sentiment till the end I found I put that many there that I then rejected: too big; too white; too something. Anyway I went back to this die cut that is from Technique Tuesday and I use it quite often. Really works well At first I tried just the pink die cutout put that blended too well, added the background die cut and it was perfect.

I used quite a large card base and blended two Tim Holtz distress ink pinks together. then I trimmed the vellum a bit and attached by using mono glue on sections that had the gold embossing. Also used the word die to hold down the vellum.

Love the glittery gold dots up in the corner. I can see my supply dwindling and can understand why people hold onto things. Haven't seen them since.

Decided to enter this in the Challenge going on at Virginia's View - Dimensions as there are a few layers here- I think.

Decided to add this to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes - as I do believe it fits the bill.

Hope you enjoyed the card and thanks for looking.

Challenges

My biggest Challenge is knowing which challenges to go into. I can't believe how many Challenges there are out there. Every time I look I see another one and I wonder how you wonderful ladies keep track of the Challenges and which ones are on which day and how many to limit yourself to.

I probably won't go in many product link ones except Hero Art cause I have so many of their stamps and know them well. I decided a year ago to separate all my stamps into categories to make sure I got the best use out of them. So that means all my sentiments are in categories of word type. Then the stamps themselves, so I am lucky to know where they are from so that will eliminate a lot of Challenges I suppose but there are so many more. mmmmm what to do.

As I sit her colouring in for one Challenge cause even though I have two huge folders full of coloured in digital and rubber stamp images of course none of them a right for this Challenge so I'm colouring away.

So that my blog doesn't sit idle I want to post these two cards I coloured and posted on Flickr a while ago but didn't get much look in as they don't qualify to be posted to the main groups I post too.

So without further ado here they are

Both of these are digital images and there are more to the set. If you want to know who the designer is let me know and I will look it up for you. They are so beautiful and different. I coloured both of these with Peerless Watercolours then finished off with Inktense pencils and water brush. Love love both the cards and their colours, just different. Some die cuts for mats and words, enamel dots and sequins and all finished.

Hope you enjoy my in-between post and let me know please if there is any good system for working out which challenges and how to keep track.

Thanks and Enjoy

Congrats

Had to do another. No way I could stop on one with that wonderful colour combination. So I hope its okay to enter more than once. Here's my next one.

Softer yellows but still yellow, black and white. Did this card by using versemark ink then white embossing on vellum. The stamp is a Hero Art and one of my favourites. Used copics on the reverse side to introduce yellow. You can't see in the photo but the yellows are three different colours and the palest covers the whole petals.

Cut the panel with my rectangle stitches die but only cut part way then turned the piece around and cut the rest as it was smaller than the length of the die. Cut the next piece of yellow cardstock with the next rectangle up but since the top one was smaller I tilted slightly so it would work better.

Added a couple of black acrylic gems and a die cut 'congrats'. Added Glossy Accente to the die cut to give nice dimension.

Very happy with this card too.

Would like to enter this in the Challenge Color Throwdown  339 Yellow, Black and White.

Found another Challenge to enter in Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog 'Clean and Simple' hope it qualifies. Certainly was easy. New to this so not sure if it fits the challenge but can't hurt to try.

Thank you for visiting.

You are my Sunshine

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. I love that song and often wander around the house singing to myself, it has such a catchy tune.

Enough about me. I have made this card to enter the Challenge Color Throwdown 339 Yellow, white and black.

I love how this card turned out and it is exactly what I wanted. The butterflies are Hero Art Digital butterflies and I had printed them out on copic cardstock ages ago, just the outlines. Today I sat and coloured with my copics all yellow bar a little grey for the bodies and outline.

Just love how they turned out. Cut the piece to size then placed on an angle on the black cardstock that I had attached to the white card base. Added a few yellow acrylic gems that are different colours to go with the butterflies.

Then of course I had to add the sentiment (really really need to work on planning the sentiment before the cards finished.) Tried and discarded chipboard words, die cut sentiments then looked thru my sentiment stamps and fell in love with the one I used. And of course its a perfect fit.

Might as well add this to the Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog - Clean and Simple.

Hope you like.

Will a Kiss Make It Better

This is what we call squeezing into a challenge at the last minute. I had coloured this stamped image and loved it, saw the challenge and thought why not. so with one hour to go I decided to make the card.

Will post to the challenge and come back and finish as only 20 minutes to go.
Have done this for the Sentimental Sundays Challenge Animal Love

Ok hope this doesn't effect the post. This is a Unity stamp and sentiment. Coloured with copics. Used a rectangle stitched die and yes of course then I torn a bit of the cardstock with the washi tape as I removed it, hence the gems. Only had the big gem in blue, looked silly on its own so added two clear ones that I coloured with different copics till I was happy.

Used the mist to stamp the sentiment, perfect except I got a wee bit of ink on the corner of the stamp, ahh well makes it handmade I say. Blue/mauve cardstock under the main image and all on a white card base. The top layer is on dimensional foam so not flat.

I feel pretty happy with this card. Hope you enjoy.

Anzac Day - a Day of Remembrance

I will not be writing a great big blog here on Anzac Day. 

There are so many blogs and posts and news stories out there that have a done a wonderful job I just wanted to acknowledge all our past and present men and woman who have taken on the massive task of protecting and serving our country. 

We who stay at home can never know of the horrors, losses and heartbreak you have had to endure but know that by honouring Anzac Day we are thinking of you all and thanking you from the bottom of our hearts. 

To those fools out there who have the audacity to say we should not be honouring Anzac Day as we are honouring war, you are not even worth my time or ink.

Know this, we will always honour our men and woman who have made the choice to protect our great land and may we never have to deal with the atrocities we see taking place in other lands, within our own country.

Let me end with the Ode of Remembrance 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

Now a photo down memory lane.... my father in 1945

This is a photo of a photo so not the best quality. The young boy on the right, yes thats my dad, after he joined the Airforce. I look at this photo and both boys look so young its hard to believe that people were sent to protect our country who were younger than my dad. 

Dad is 19 here but looks a lot younger, probably not helped standing next to that very tall fellow either. My dad isn't a shorty but not that tall either (I think he was 5'8") but honestly he looks like a ring-in doesn't he.

Then you think of all those young lads that signed up at 15, 16 etc and I am just blown away with this thought. Children, children sent out into the trenches. 

I struggled with this photo as the light kept reflecting off the photo and of course it was reflecting on the side where dad's head is.

 This is a photo of dad with one of his sisters (Cis). looking a bit slept in there, no natty sharp lines for my dad. Same year as the first photo which shows you how misleading a photo can be cause he looks both taller and older here.

While dad was in training in the Airforce he came down with Rheumatic Fever and so even though he joined up he was one of the lucky ones that ended up staying here and not having to face the horrors of the war. 

Love You Ombre

I did a few cards at the same time as they were so simple to set up. I thought I might enter this one as well as I think it meets criteria.

This card was done the same way with the strip of watercolour paper, Inktense Pencils and paintbrush. Again trimmed to tag. This time I added a white diet butterfly that I am pretty sure is a Memory Box Die.

Added some bling but just pale pearls that I coloured with copic marker. Die cut the Technique Tuesday die 'love you ' and 'background'. The 'love you' is from watercolour paper done in a wash of green becoming blue but it doesn't show up well here. Put the sentiment where it is because I felt t'fit' better there. Still very much on a learning curve when it comes to sentiments.

Entering this in : CASology week 143: OMBRE

CASology OMBRE

 Well here we go I have made a card and hope it fits the bill. This is the first Challenge on this Blog so lets hope I haven't done anything wrong.

First the card:

First I coloured a piece of watercolour card stock with Inktense Pencils in varying shades then used water and paint brush to blend the colours together. I then cut into tag shape.
I have coloured in two Hero Art Digital butterflies using different amounts of  the one colour to get  the different shades.
A few little gems for bling and of course I drew on the outlines of the butterflies with my glitter gel pens cause I love sparkle.
A Technique Tuesday 'Hello' die and its all finished. Very simple and quick card


Entering this card in the CASology week 143: OMBRE


Thanks for coming to have a look.

CARDS CARDS CARD...............

I have decided just to add the link here for the rest of my cards that I have posted to Flickr. If you are interested in looking please go and check them out. Usually I have written comments on what I did and stamps and dies, techniques and who inspired me.

Please feel free to contact me if you see something and you want further information.

Its time to start doing some current posts so I can try a Challenge or two. Hopefully I might even get someone looking :)

Okay so the link to my Flickr account Aileen

Enjoy

Flickr cards 3

More cards that I have posted on Flickr previously. 

Here I have used another my favourite stamps from Hero Art. I watched a video originally on how to use the stamp and then I used scraps of patterned paper all placed carefully to stamp again and then paper pierce to make the layers. 

It was the longest, most time consuming exercise I had ever tried then when I was ready to throw it all away I realised just use larger pieces of patterned paper. Did lots of different sheets including plenty with green colours for the leaves. Kept the little craps for other ideas.

So first layers were done on plain card stock, versamark ink then white embossing powder.

 After I put those aside I did patterned papers that I felt would look good for the flowers and leaves. Of course I never do anything by half so there were plenty of sheets to then cut up in front of the TV.
Made these as large cards as I looked to use the whole stamped piece. Then I decided to try doing one layer stamped on white and colour with copics.

 A few gems here and there and they were all finished. Left them all with no sentiments, better to use as a card with plenty written inside.

I love this pink one and I think by the time I had finished I had 8 cards to add to my pile of cards.

Still need to learn to remember to add copyright symbol. My effort above is a bit pathetic its so small but it will come at some stage.

Hope you have enjoyed this post and if you have this stamp at home, dust it off and use it cause its beautiful.

Flickr Cards Two

Another card using a digital image from Mo's Digital  Pencil. I really love her images and find it really relaxing colouring or water colouring these images. This one is done with copics and I used a little bit of Glossy Accents to give 3rd look to the glasses and ice block though you can't see it on the icebock.

  The background is paper cut from a 6 x 6 pattern paper pad. it is layered on Orange cardstock then all placed on hite card base.

Love the sentiment 'Whats up?' its just so casual.

Used the same layout just flipped and the same sentiment and same graphic artist. Another of Mo's Digital Pencil images. I think she is called 'Who me?' but I love her for What's up? as well. On this one colouring again with copics and Glossy Accents on dog collar and flower on the t-shirt.

This Masterpiece was for my granddaughter after she was born. Lots and lots of colouring in.
 I have used Mo's Digital Pencil images and Lili of the Valley rubber stamps and a couple of images from other digital artists that I am having a mental blank on their names at the moment The beautiful baby image which I also used for the card is so lifelike I love it but for the life of me the name is just out of reach. The owls were a freebie at the time of download. The butterflies are Hero Art Digitals and I printed them up tiny, teeny, it bity and coloured them all.

All images coloured with copics or Inktense Pencils and bits of jelly roll glitter pen. Made the backgrounds with pattern paper and gems and star gems, a chipboard heart covered in glue then glitter, a couple of charms and buttons and bows.

The hardest part was the frame that came from Kaisercraft and was chipboard that needed painting. We must have used two tins of paint to get an even glossy white look. All the pink is cardstock cut to size and of course a couple of photos of my beautiful granddaughter included.

Flickr Cards Collection

Thought rather than having to go back through numerous posts I would just do a collection of cards together. Hope you enjoy the collection

Alright these cards were a gift for my girlfriends daughter who was having a Baby Shower. I decided to make the Thank You cards for her. Used the cutest Mo's Digital Pencil Baby image and coloured them all in with copics then cut them all out.
Did the white base with a printed sentiment and used a heart stencil to add hearts that I blended on using Distress inks in pinks, add a few gems here and there then attached to pink cardstock.
An envelope for each, made 40 and worded so it could be a thank you for coming to the party or a thank you for your well wishes on the birth of the baby.

Was very happy with the end result.

Put this card together with Stampingbella Uptown Girl stamp. I mainly watercolored but finished off with copics and a bit of Gelly roll glitter pen here and there. I used the stitched rectangle dies largest that just imprints and the next one down that cuts layer as well. 

Added a glitter piece cut with Stampin Up punch and pale pink card stock with their other punch. The stamped sentiment just fit perfectly.

Love this sentiment. Of course had to add a couple of gems and it was ready to go with the gift set of Thank you cards at the Babyshower.

Unity stamp, perfect for a card to farewell my sister as she takes off on a round the world holiday (take me with youuuuuuu!). 

Painted with Peerless Watercolour paints on water colour paper. Finished off with bits of glitter and some gems just busting to get out of the bag and around her waist.

Didn't have any travel sentiments so added some preprinted words that I thought were relevant to travels. Fun card to make.

This last one was a card for a relative. My first attempt at a Sympathy Card and I felt it work out well. I used the Big Background Flower stamp from Hero Art. I LOVE painting in these background stamps.

All painted in with Distress Ink and finished off the piece by running the edge of the watercolour card stock along the edge of the antique linen distress ink pad.

I struggle the most with sentiments for my cards. I can always visualise my card but never what needs to be said or what will work the best so this becomes the most time consuming part.

Decided that four photos at a time is probably better than bogging down peoples computers with trying to open posts. I do reduce the size of the photos considerably in Photoshop but not sure if they are reduced enough. Please let me know if my posts take too long to open and I will work on the issue.

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at what I have been doing.

Love You with Altenew Flowers.

This is another card I placed on Flickr for Kathy's 30 Day colouring Challenge.

I also entered it in Darnell's NBUS challenge cause Darnell got me posting to Flickr in the first place.

These I have not used before and have a million and one projects I want to do with them.

In this instance I have stamped in black ink on watercolour paper then used two colours from the Peerless Watercolours, lots of water to help them blend together beautifully. Love love the look.

Greens are a combination of a bit of this and that in the Peerless collection of colours. The shadow is done with Copics, dark then light grey then pale blue but the pale grey looks like its not there.

Lots of tape to hold the watercolour paper straight. Die cut with stitched rectangle, a couple of bright pink enamel dots. Pink cardstock for the main part of the card and the die cut 'love you' is Technique Tuesday.

 It was layered up with 5 white layers glued underneath. the top layer was a piece of watercolour paper coloured and wet to blend with Inktense Pencils.

  

I love flower stamps as you will find when you look through my cards, flowers and butterflies. The Altenew are my favourite, just love the look of these stamps.

Anyway thanks for visiting and please let me know if you have any questions.

The Start

I have been blogging for years with my sign language and Proloquo2Go Blog but have reached a stage in my life that I feel I just cannot give what is needed for this blog to continue.

 I have finally arranged to close down my website 'Hands Can Talk' as I lost control of this website over 2 years ago and the business I bought the template through in America has not responded to any emails that were sent over the last 2 years. My password was not accepted within the Admin section of the webpage and all contacts with the owner of the template design were met with an automatic email referring to family issues. Well, being unable to access data and update information etc it really was just a lost cause so it will cease from early May.

At the same time I decided that I would close the 'About Sign Language & Proloquo2Go' blog and will then close down my Hands Can Talk Facebook page.

Life takes interesting turns and with my parents getting older and relying on me to help where possible along with being full time carer for my beautiful Elysha, Nanna to all my beautiful grandchildren, mother and wife I decided that something had to give.

I have run Hands Can Talk for nearly 20 years, teaching, producing resources, presenting workshops, providing as much help as I possibly could. I totally believe that Communication is the most important issue for our children/adults with speech and/or developmental delay. So much has happened since I first started all those years ago putting my knowledge of sign language to use with the Key Word Sign community. I learnt how to use corel draw on the computer so I could draw sign language graphics and I tried very hard to get some brilliant resources going out there. I achieved a limited amount though I see such potential within technology for Apps for Key Word Signing but its one of those areas where you need plenty of money or the old adage its not what you know but who you know. I hit barriers within the hearing and Deaf community because of that 'special needs label' and have reached the end for now.

I need my time and energy for my mum and dad and my family now so I decided to lighten the load. BUT I have a great hobby that I love and it has always made life bearable when times felt like everything was closing in and there was no time for anything extra. ART in any form, of course along with reading mean I can always cope. Big art had to become little quick art so I make cards, I paint some, I colour some, I cut and paste some and I have a family who always tell me they are beautiful so with my inbuilt cheer squad I will blog about my cards and creations, add in a personal post here or there and people can decide for themselves if they are interested or not.

I started posting to Flickr a couple of months ago and really enjoy it. Not always regular, it has to fit in with what I do but with less time spent on other media for my business I can spend more time (I hope) on a blog full of bright colour and a bit of humour (I hope).

You are so Sweet

This was fun but not how it was meant to be. I started out trying to do it like Kathy did her butterfly card in the 30 Day Colouring Challenge but I struggle to do anything subdued. My butterflies all stood out and my outer area around them was too smaller the effect she had done so I will try again.
This was interesting in that these are digital images from Hero Art. I don't have this butterfly as a stamp, don't know why cause I sure use it a lot and it would have been easier to stamp. In this instance I made a rectangular area on the computer then brought the butterfly image in one at a time and layer by layer so I could remove overlaps. It was a LOT of work, so much easier to stamp copies, cut out and mask.
Anyhooo I coloured with copics and did shadow in dark grey then lighter grey then added some blue for sky.
A giant blue precious in the corner and stamped :You are so sweet'. I love that stamp. Mount on some gold card stock then added to white card base. Kept it simple as I wanted eyes to go to the butterflies.
This card is for Day 29 -boo hoo only one more to go. Kathy's 30 Day Colouring Challenge.