Bah Humbug Challenge 11

The challenge this week on Bah Humbug is 'metallic' so all sorts of scope here.  I settled on colouring some glossy card with alcohol inks, stamping using Elusive Images Klimt Baubles and embossing with gold powder. The background paper is from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD and I printed it on some beautiful metallic gold paper which I've just discovered is no longer available - sad or what.  Fortrunately I still have a small amount left so will reserve it for 'special' printing like today when I felt it went along with the  theme. The sentiment is also from the same set of Elusive Images stamps and I even went to my sadly neglected stash of peel-offs for something to 'hang' the baubles.

By the way - while I had my alcohol inks out I noticed that the mixatives (the metallic ones) had well and truly settled at the bottom of the bottles and it took me ages to get them mixed again.  I tried shaking vigorously to no effect and  resorted to tapping the bottles smartly on the table several times which eventually loosened the little ball from the sludge at the bottom and now they are well mixed again.  I must remember to give them a shake every now and then even if I'm not actually planning on using them at the time.

Forgotten Friday 9

Forgotten Friday comes around very quickly and Judith has made a lovely card using a set stamps which were lying unused - her blog is well worth a look anytime.  My card uses a couple of stamps from a set called Studio Sketch which was a hostess gift from Stampin Up a while ago and I think I only used one or two of them once when I got them first - it's a good thing that I have to keep tidying up and reorganising all my 'stuff' because it certainly reminds me of what I've not used recently and that in turn is handy for this challenge.

I used background paper by Artylicious, a piece of card embossed using a Cuttlebug folder and a couple of Marianne Die cuts.  The image and greeting were stamped on kraft card which is a favourite of mine at the moment. The two buttons were dug out of my huge button box which lies neglected nowadays because I don't do dressmaking now and rarely knit garments either to use them up. I don't think I'm likely to run out of buttons even if I put some on every card I make!!

Bird of Paradise

I'm afraid I was tempted by this bird of paradise die by Marianne and the birdcage sort of fell into my basket at the same time - how does this happen?? Background papers are from My Minds Eye with an embossed panel using a Tim Holtz embossing folder. Now I've seen the photo on the screen I'm regretting adding the photo corners so I might just have to disguise them with a flower.  I felt something was needed there but I think I made a wrong decision.

 Edited - I have now added a small punched flower and it looks so much better - at least I think so.

Lace Template

Papermania have recently produced some dies which cut lacé designs - a technique I did try years ago with a metal template and craft knife (without a great deal of success) it was far too fiddly for my liking. This way the die does the work and all that remains is to fold over the cut elements.  I added a little punched flower to the centre and then assembled it into a card with a Pampered Pets stamp which was given away free as a taster earlier this year and an embossed faux postage. Background paper was lurking in my oddments box.

I'm demonstrating use of the Big Shot next month and this will probably be one of my samples so certain people had better look away now!!

Cute Rabbit

I think these rabbit images by Craftwork cards are probably intended for Easter cards but as I don't really make those I've used Warren for a birthday card. Background paper is from a Basic Grey pad which I've had a while, the image was coloured using Copics and the embossed border was cut using one of the new border dies from X-cut. I reckon Spring is on the way at last.

Less is More Week 6

Two posts in one day but I thought I'd post this card before anything else bad happens to it!!  This one layer card challenge from Less is More has caused me such hassle this week you wouldn't believe.  After having an idea my first attempt was a disaster - the masked circle was too large for the card; I'd chosen to use a stamp which didn't really work and the spongeing could have been better.  The second attempt fared a little better until I somehow managed to get an inky mark on the 'white space' and of course for this challenge I couldn't hide it with a strategically placed flower or butterfly!!  On the third attempt I decided I'd cracked it and then noticed the bottom corner of the card was slightly damaged and when I went back to the pack of cards some of the others are too which is annoying to say the least.  I know the guidelines said 'no embossed lines' but I do hope it is allowed to cut off an edge of the card with a border punch - which is what I did eventually to overcome this last hiccup. Despite all these setbacks I did enjoy rising to this challenge and no-one said it was easy!!

The circle had inks applied with brushes through a circular mask placed off the edge (mask cut with Nestabilities die) The teazles were stamped and shadow stamped off the edge (Elusive Images stamp) and a simple word added (Stampin Up stamp).

Inspiration

This card was inspired by an article in the March issue of Craft Stamper.  Alcohol inks were used on silk card which was then run through a Cuttlebug embossing folder - the soft ribbon was also dyed using the same inks.  Background paper is from artylicious Essence of Nature collection and the flower stamp is from Papermania Hampstead set - stamped onto watercolour paper with Adirondack dye ink and cut out with a Nestability die.  The corner was cut using a Marianne die and the stamped sentiment punched with a Stampin Up punch mounted onto a smaller 'Nestie' die shape.