Creative Chemistry

Yesterday I decided to have a play day, experimenting with some of the techniques to be found within Creative Chemistry 102 from Tim Holtz - great fun resulting in a selection of backgrounds and some embellishments which will be incorporated into projects. This one is a sort of layered effect using masks, stamps and inks and I added some embossing and embellishments to turn it into a male card (always useful to have in the box) - I find on the whole I tend to make more female cards than male ones so I might try to concentrate on the male themes.  I guess my next task will be to have a bit of a tidy up before I can do much more - such a messy worker!!

Make My Monday Challenge

Oh dear, the challenge on Make My Monday is a CAS sketch and I'm afraid 'clean and simple' really isn't me but I've had a go anyway.  I followed the sketch and instructions to the letter - another thing they said was NO distressing!! - can you believe that??  I used a stamp by Hero Arts which is one of a set which I've had for years but sad to say not used recently; however it came to mind when I saw the sketch.  It was stamped onto plain card and also onto patterned paper which I cut out and 'paper pieced' for the flowers, adding glittery centres and  colouring the background with Copic pen.  Squares were cut out and adhered to the card blank with a punched greeting popped onto a die cut shape to match the flower centres. One good thing about this particular challenge is that it has reduced my scrap mountai, albeit by a small amount. Follow the link to see other examples from the design team.

Fantasy Flowers

Floral cards are always popular and I like to get away from recognizable ones sometimes and into the realms of fantasy florals.  Stamp is from Fantasy Meadow by Chocolate Baroque and some text was stamped on the background (Hero Arts stamp). The greeting was made on the computer.

Spring Flowers

Spring is just around the corner - it's official because at least two challenge blogs have chosen it as their theme for the month.  Make My Monday have a general theme of  Spring for the whole month with a specific theme of  Spring Flowers  for week 39.  Spring into Spring  is the theme of the month for the St Luke's Charity challenge.

I just knew that somewhere amongs my huge stamp collection I had a wooden stamp with daffodils and I eventually managed to unearth it to stamp onto watercolour paper and colour using Polychromos pencils.  Nestabilities were used to cut out the oval shapes and Spellbinders dies for the border; background paper is from a pad I've had for a long while and as usual the cover is missing - some stamping was added around the edge.  A stamped greeting was added along with a ribbon and scrap of floral paper from my bits box and that's it - two challenges covered with one card.

Forgotten Friday 12

My card for Judith's Forgotten Friday Challenge this week is a twisted easel using several 'forgotten' elements.  I was looking for something amongst my stash last week when I came across a large pack of twelve by twelve papers which I bought as a special offer at least two years ago, put them away tidily at the time and would you believe the pack hadn't even been opened!!  Another thing I've been using again recently is my alcohol inks which had been sitting on the shelf unused for ages.  So - background paper from my stash; a tag cut out in mirri card embossed with a text embossing folder and then dabbed with alcohol inks. Onto this I've popped a paper rose which I made for a demonstration this time last year and has been sitting in my 'flower' box since then; a strip of card stamped using a text stamp by Hero Arts (again unused for a while) and finally some eyelash yarn left over from a scarf I knitted a couple of years ago - I knew I would find a use for the oddment some time. All these forgotten elements have been put together to make this twisted easel card, adding a swirl and sentiment.  Thanks Judith for encouraging the use of these neglected items and I know I have many more buried away in my craft room.

Less is More Week 3

The theme for the Less is More challenge this week is Spring and they have also provided a great tutorial on writing sentiments using Microsoft Word - I couldn't get it to work exactly as they did but of course different versions of Word have slightly different features but I will persevere to see if I can get it all to happen as it should.  I did print my wording directly onto a DL card which is a first for me although I often make sentiments using the computer and either punch them or die cut them to use.  The daffodils were stamped using a Hero Arts stamp which I've had for many years but can't remember when it was last used - I had to have a search for it as I knew it was somewhere in my stamp collection.  Colouring was done using Polychromos pencils and the image was simply layered with two Nestabilities die cuts - I managed to resist the urge to add a few pearls although I was tempted!!  This 'Less is More' style is proving to be such a challenge for me but it is good to step outside the comfort zone and try different styles and ideas.

It occurs to me that this card would also fit the criteria for the Forgotten Friday challenge so do go and check this out too and maybe think about taking part in this fairly new challenge.

Flower Card

When searching for a particular stamp I realised that I have lots that I've not used in ages and this is one of them. Background square was stamped with a swirl from Elusive Images, clear embossed and sponged with Adirondack dye ink. The flower was coloured with Polychromos pencils and the flower stamp is by Hero Arts. Incidentally I was unable to find the actual stamp I intended to use!!

Sketch Challenge

I came across a challenge blog here and decided to have a go using an Elusive Images stamp, Hero Arts text stamp and some metallic acrylic paint.

Creativity

A Mona Lisa card - the main image stamp was inked using three colours of Adirondack dye ink then lightly spritzed with water before stamping onto heavy watercolour paper. The torn edges were inked direct from the ink pads and spritzed to make the colour bleed. This is an effect I quite like with certain stamps - results are somewhat unpredictable and often the second impression is better than the first.

You Wait for Ages...

...and then three come along at once!!

I tried some masking to come up with this card - always short of ideas for men, particularly something not sport related. Stamps are by Hero Arts.