May You Sparkle on Your Special Day

I know I posted earlier but I was fiddling around and realised two challenges are finishing up soon and I had wanted to enter them. I haven't done the card for one and it only has 3 1/2 hours left so may have to miss it BUT I got this one done.

Love the CASology Challenge as its PINK and that makes it so easy.

I have done cards in similar design before as I stamped and embossed them all together, leaving some to be watercoloured later. Now its later.

Stamped  the gems and embossed  with silver embossing powder on watercolour paper. I decided to use Distress Inks to colour these so I just used all the pink tones: Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Tattered Rose; Victorian Velvet and Picked Raspberry. Did a bit of mixing around till I liked all the colours.

Once dry I smothered in Wink of Stella which means they have a brilliant sparkle but couldn't get that to show in these photo. They look fantastic IRL.

I was going to use a die cut sentiment but decided it would look better stamped and embossed with the Silver emboss powder.

I love this sentiment as it can be used for many different occasions and 

it is just such a nice thing to say to someone.

CASology: Week #193: Pink

AAA Cards: Game 62: Anything Goes

This is my third card I am entering in this, I couldn't find any rule as to how many times so if this is too many let me know and I will remove the link. Thank you

Addicted to Stamps Challenge Blog: Challenge #124 Pastel Colours

Thank you for coming to visit and I hope I see you again soon.

First Year Anniversary, Congrats and Hello

My computer is amazing, it came up with a message on Saturday 16th telling me it was the 'One Year Anniversary' of my blog. It didn't pop up till late and I had already done my post for that day so thought I would post the next day but then life gets in the way sometimes and so now its Monday the 18th, so a wee bit late. But better late than never I say.

I want to thank all the amazing people who visit my blog and comment on my posts. Its wonderful to know I'm not talking to myself and that others are interested at looking at my cards and listening to me waffle. I cant believe I have acquired 65 followers + through the different types of linking.

I so enjoy making cards, even when they are not quite what I visualised in the end. 

I love that I have connected with people from all parts of the world and have also been able to connect with some of these people through email and mail and had friendships develop through this. I love that people get my humour and listen to my happy times and my sad times with my family. You have all made my learning of  how to set up a blog and all it entails so much easier with offers of help all along the way.

I want to mention one person in particular here. That being Darnell, what an inspiration she is. First she got me using Flickr then the time came for a blog. Her constant praise and help got me motivated and feeling more confident, that maybe others would like to see what I do. Her advice and getting back to me every time I asked a question in getting things set up and running. 

If you have never visited her blog you have to, it should be on every card makers lists of todo's as there is a lady who is kind, generous, artistic and ohh so funny.

Thank you every one of you.

Now its time for the cards for today. It's as Darnell would say a Twofer. 

Two cards, one post.

This first one is a stamp from The Ton and I love it. I stamped and embossed in white, gold and silver on watercolour paper for my fist experiments. This card I have used the silver embossed image and  a beautiful blue Zig watercolour pen.

Added a little extra colour around the lace areas. Very simple and easy to do. I coloured the hair and skin with my copics, very basic colouring as they are small in size and don't need much tone.

I love this stamp, she is so elegant and of course there is so much more potential. Wait till you see the others. Finished it off with the 'Congrats' word die cut in silver mirror cardstock and finished. Really doesn't need anything else, so pretty.

Challenges:

Uniko Studio Challenge #31: Use Metallics

Fab 'n' Funky Challenge: Challenge #300 Girly and Pretty

2 Creative Chicks : Challenge #9 Anything Goes

Next card

This card was inspired by different cards I have seen on Pinterest and just wanted to try this idea of using my much to make squares then used the corner punch to make the curves on opposite sides.

I have a die that I originally purchased to use with this idea but found I was unable to get the two different sizes that close together in size and small enough to make a design for a card. After spending the money on the dies I then found that the square punch I already had worked size wise and then I just measured and cut the next size up manually and ended up pretty straight and didn't have to recut too many.

The top panel I made using a Hero Art Background stamp that I stamped with different coloured Versa inks then clear embossed on copic friendly cardstock then I used my copics to blend the colours of green yellow and orange. I did this panel quite a while ago and it was before I knew that you shouldn't use copics on embossed images but for all the colouring my copics have survived and continue to work thank goodness. (Thats what happens when we don't know enough about the products we are using (we meaning me, I love new things but ohh so often forget to do enough research on them). I also added a bit of sparkle to the page but you can only really see that in the photo as speckle on the coloured squares.

Decided it looked good sitting on a olive green cardstock and finished off with one enamel dot and a small white 'hello' layered a couple of times.

Challenges

613 Avenue Create: Challenge #172 Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog: Challenge 107 Anything Goes

Crafty Girlz Challenge : April Challenge Anything Goes

Thank you for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

You can do Anything watercolour resist.

I decided to try another technique I haven't don't before. It was another that Jennifer McGuire demonstrated recently and very simple to follow.

I was going to show some photos but I uploaded them to Instagram and then I deleted from my camera cause I didnt need them anymore except I wanted to show you and cant now cause they are on Instagram and not my computer/

Anyway I did a few different colour groups. This one I did on watercolour paper (Canson) and then scribbled in sections going from pale lavender, to violet to fuchsia  to pink to orange. I taped each piece of paper to a board to keep it as straight as possible.

I brushed over generously with water going first across to get inks wet and flowing then moved around a bit but carefully so as to not drown colours.

I had brushed on fairly heavily to get good rich colour. Pulled some of the colour across each other but was pretty neat to keep each colour. Let them dry totally.

Then I clear embossed using the MFT Lace background stamp. Ohhhh I love this stamp, so much potential. Of coursethen I had to white/silver/gold/black emboss on watercolour paper, plain cardstock, vellum. Yes I can never do just one thing as the mind is turning over thinking, blending, washes, plain ohhh so much  to try.

After clear embossing, I taped the page back down and then commended to wet the cardstock and dab with paper towel to remove extra colour and just leave the design with the dark colour under it. I LOVE IT.

The only negative I found was that even though the water colour paper was taped down both times it still warped quite a bit. I ended up gluing it onto a thick piece of card stock to help straighten the piece out. I cut a two inch piece that I have used on this card.

I then die cut the sentiment is a black shiny cardstock, added a few bright embellishments and its finished.

Makes a great card, now I have another three backgrounds made using different stamps. I did end up using mostly background stamps for this idea, I felt they worked well with the idea and I have quite a few. I did do one background where I collected a number of small flower and leaves but wasn't that happy with the end look, mainly as they were mostly outline and you need a thickness that will hold the colour for contrast. Thats why this lace background works well with this technique.

Another negative to finding all the small flowers and leaves was cleaning them then trying to find which belonged with which stamp set, noooo,  I  like quick and easy.

Challenges: 

AAA CARDS: Game #62: Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog: #107: Anything Goes

Simply Papercraft : Challenge #27: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

Happy Birthday Rainbow Hydrangea

I learnt two things today: How to make a watermark to put on cards but still  working on the design, size etc a bit but I can now do it, Yayyyyyyy.

Then I started playing with Instagram and found you can have in your phone, iPad and computer; every man and his dog is on it; it is too easy to get distracted on it; who to friend; what to post and the biggest thing I still need to learn about Instagram is what words to use; how much to post; the relevance of hash tags etc.

Then of course I need to get back to setting up on Blog along with Pinterest (Kylie has offered to help with that thank you just need to get back to her) and tags? and search? etc..

Check out this beautiful flower, I love Hydrangeas as they always remind me of my mums beautiful garden. It was a walk through garden cultivated and maintained by mum up until they moved into the retirement village. 

They are the most beautiful flowers and I could loose myself in them for ages, the smell of the garden, the design of the flower itself, the pure delicacy of the individual little flowers within the ball of the flower and the shimmer of the actual petals. God has certainly perfected the flower, each petal individual and perfect in itself. 

Now to tell you a terrible truth, I am the worlds worst at trying to grow things, honestly I would have to say I have a black thumb, the only things that survive me are the hardy natives and weeds. 

So, this is my imaginary rainbow coloured hydrangea, stamped and white embossed on Canson watercolour paper then watercoloured with my Zigs and lots of water.

When it was finished I cut it out with the die.

I decided to add it to a white card base that I first stencilled some leaves on using a Winnie & Walter stencil and Distress Ink. I added very lightly and had it fade out as it moved away from the flower. I then added Wink of Stella to the leaves (I know people usually add the Wink of Stella to the flower but here I wanted to add something extra to the card base and felt it really worked well).Shame it doesn't show up in the photos so well.

Finished it off with the stamped sentiment done in Hero Art Grey Ink as I felt the black would be too strong and instead of some gems decided to just add a falling petal and really like what I see.

Would like to add this to

Seize the Birthday: Floral and a New Guest

Finally doing a card here and using the Topping.

Naughty or Nice Challenges:#26 Over the Rainbow

Great challenge where you can add a nice card or add one thats a wee bit naughty. Always good for a laugh if your looking for ideas for cards that have that little extra something. I have plenty of sentiments but at this time I am entering with a 'Nice' card and hope to get back with another later.

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge: April

This is a fairly new Challenge, if you haven't been there take the time to check it out and see the talent.Each month is a different Challenge, they will nominate two things that must be done on your project and you can pick one other to add.

I have Stamped + Embossed + Stencilled + Watercoloured

Thanks for coming to have a look and I hope you come again soon.

Peony Bouquet flowers from Altenew with Vellum overlay

Wellllll I decided to try doing a set or two of cards just like Jennifer McGuire did on her blog in 

this post using the same flowers.(I just realised I didn't add any sparkle like Jennifer has and it does look nice- off to get the Wink of Stella out)

 I have stamped all the little cards and they aren't too bad though it was a bit harder in that you are trying to estimate where the next layer comes down as you are not using the outline (after watching Therese at Lostinpaper  where she showed me how beautiful they can look by using the outline, I have decided if I do it again I would be better off doing even a very light outline stamp first).

Then it was time for the vellum layer. I thought my vellum was quite thick and couldn't image it any thicker for the flower to show through. BUT the cards won't stand up. Maybe thats the way they are meant to be, I don't know. Anyway I continued on and as you can see here it is quite pretty BUT they will be my last set.

As you can see here the over stamping isn't so neat but its passable.  

To be honest the vellum is the hardest bit and a learning lesson. Probably if I had just gone one card then decided from there if I wanted to do more, but I set myself a task of 8 cards.

Problems are:

a) you need to remember to use the anti static pillow or tool each time you go to stamp as your fingers will leave oil on the vellum that the white powder loves to stick to.

b) You need to make sure your card is lined up where you want it each time you are stamping and make sure it hasn't moved so your embossing on top matches. I did attach with temporary tape but they can still move.

c) Make sure you have really good light so you can see where you are stamping as the vellum makes it harder to see exactly where you are stamping.

d) You really need to prepare and stamp and emboss each part separately, so it is a bit time consuming.

e) Jennifer points out its a good idea to preheat your heat gun and do your embossing more as short bursts to stop the vellum curling (as you can see I didn't listen too well).

f) You need to remember to clean off the stamps roughly every couple of goes or the outlines start to get thick and no where near as pretty.

Moral of this stamp and emboss adventure. 

Loved the idea but it is a bit more time consuming than I want for a card or a set of cards. I have stamped all sets but have only done three so far in the vellum part as light ran out and it was too hard to see the outline. Will finish tomorrow. Of the three done I will need to do one again.

My yellow card that you can barely see is hidden because I juddered(Is that a word???) as I stamped and I have double and triple lines in some spots. Then my sentiment I pressed down too hard and ended up thick and ugly.

This isn't for any challenge as it is a direct copy of what Jennifer has done. Her cards are stunning and when she does it and she does go through step by step it doesn't look that time consuming so don't take my word for it. If you like them go try them. 

Thanks for coming to have a look and I hope you come again soon.

 

 

Best Wishes Partial Painted

I saw a card in my travels through blog land that got me started on this idea but I cant remember where. Thats the problem with so many blogs to visit. 

Cant remember if its one of my favourite blogs or a card in a challenge but anyway thanks to someone else inspiration brought me this card.

 I silver embossed the background on to Tim Holtz Watercolour paper then randomly added colours. I used four different colours and just added them here and there. I did have one spill through that you can see where the purple has gone into the pink. 

I did tidy it up a bit but it you look closely you will see the silver embossing didnt take in a small bit of the line and thats why the watercolour kept running into the other. 

Okay so when I felt there was enough colour added I added a 'Best Wishes' sentiment cut from silver mirror card and felt that was enough. I really like it.

Simon says Wednesday Challenge : Birthday

Seize the Birthday Challenge: Floral Topping Optional

I have gone without the topping for this one.

AAA Cards Game #62 Anything Goes

Thanks for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

A little something Just for you.

Using up the  Kuretake watercoloured Altenew flowers that I had painted previously on the cheap watercolour paper (I actually went through all my pre prepared stamped and printed images on the cheap paper and threw them all out. So much work put into making them all up previously that I had put them all in a pile then was having second thoughts....... pondering..... then I got out my paints and started just playing around and NO they all went into the recycle bin). Clean start on good quality paper.

On this panel I have painted one flower and ended up trimming nearly the whole of the small one up in the corner but I think it still works ok. Don't you just love the richness of the Kuretake paints.

I used the stitched die rectangle that cuts out and leaves stitches on the cut out piece and the negative.

I then cut again with the pink cardstock. placed a small piece of cardstock on the inside that covers the hole left by the removal of the die cut piece and gives an area to attach the watercoloured piece to on the card so now it is an inlaid die cut.

Finished it all off with the lovely stamped sentiment and a few smooth pink gems.

Simon Says Monday Challenge : April Showers bring May Flowers

Where The HeART is: Challenge 8: Anything Goes 

AAA CARDS: Game #62: Anything Goes

thanks for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

Fabulous bouquet

This is one of those last minute inspirations, started with 2 hrs to go till the challenge I want to enter closes. Hope we make it (nothing like last minute hey Ruth!!).

Stamped and white embossed on watercolour paper this fabulous Hero Art floral background stamp.

As I used Tim Holtz watercolour paper the white really blended in so it was a bit difficult to work out where one plant started and another ended and where the leaves were. I used Tim holtz Distress Inks to paint with a did very light colours till I got it all sorted.

I picked colours as close to the inspiration photo as I could and felt this background was perfect for this inspiration. I then sprayed lightly with pearl mist to add a bit of shimmer.

I then decided to use my new postage stamp die, I love this die and have wanted it for ever so finally bit the bullet and got the Memory Box set that are four different sizes. Can see myself using this over and over. It was tough to cut but only because of the watercolour paper I used that is very thick. But it also reminded me I need to look for one that is easier to use with all these intricate dies and on my hands and hopefully my pocket.

Added to a black card base that is only a bit bigger than thud cut so the card ended up 4.5 x 4.5.

Anyhooo, I then decided to add the fabulous word die, no wait lets do inset word. Did I just finish telling you how hard it was to cut the postage stamp die and now I want to cut out the word???.

Mmmm well I did it after 6 times through and added three lots of paper to build up. Then I die cut the world in gold as I felt that the word would just totally disappear placed back into the original setting as it has too much colour. The gold works perfectly and I even managed to add back each and every little bitty speck of pieces within the die cut word that are usually thrown away. It did make the gold a bit messy with glue marks but once dry fully I will shine up.

Now I would like to add this to

Inspired by All the Little Things: featuring Nancy Leppek

Absolutely stunning inspiration over there and 45 minutes to go.

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #85 Inlaid dies

Pearly Sparkles Challenge Blog: #3 Anything goes

Okay better go link up before it closes. Thanks for coming to have a look and hope you come again soon.