Background Technique

I decided to have a go at producing the Bokeh effect on a background but instead of the usual circles I used a stencil which was in fact a piece of 'waste' card left after I'd die cut some flower shapes.  Distress stains were used to colour the card first in streaks and 'splats' and then the flowers were overlaid in a random fashion using  white gesso thinned with a little water.  I didn't want to cover too much of it so simply stamped the wording on top and added a die cut strip and some flowers as a border.  A technique with lots of possibilities I think!

Border dies - from Tonic
Flowers - Sue Wilson dies with Card Candi centres
Leaves - Sue Wilson ivy die

Pixie Snippets 174

I'm including another of my notebook covers for this week on the Pixie Snippets challenge - lots of interesting 'picks' showing this week and a pretty daffodil card to see if you follow the link to take a look.  The journal cover started off with the addition of a piece of white card which had been inked with Distress inks and edged with gold embossing powder.  Some of the leaves were stamped onto the background and the colour removed from the leaves using water to 'lift' before colouring with a Distress Marker.  The snippets come in now with the flowers and extra leaves all having been stamped onto oddments of card, embossed and then coloured using pencils before cutting them all out with scissors.  Sadly we seem to have lost our sunshine and this morning is quite grey and dull - shame but I reckon the ground really needs a spot of rain.

Stamps used - Floral set from Sheena Douglass

Distress Inks

I've had a dabble with some Distress inks and other items to make a card similar to something spotted in a recent magazine.  Both the large and small backgrounds started out as white card but were transformed with Distress paint and inks along with some over stamping.  The smaller panel was coloured and stamped including the wording before running it through the Big Shot using a hessian texture embossing folder, finally applying some gilding wax around the edges.  the flowers were stamped onto white card, coloured with Distress ink before cutting out (with scissors) and adding some gold leaves and sparkle centres.  I really enjoy making this kind of 'hands on' card creation.

Stamps used - Flowers and words Sheena designs, Crackle and other textures Creative Expressions
Embossing Folder - Hessian design from Crafters Companion
Leaves - Marianne die
Distress inks - Broken China and Seedless Preserve

Here She Is...

I've not kept you too long waiting to meet Toots, the other new character from Polkadoodles.  I've used one of the images adding an extra partial layer an for dimension also background papers from the collection were used. The wording is from a set of Joanna Sheen stamps cut with Stampin' Up label punch.  Another beautiful sunny day although I must say the wind is a bit keen.

Twiggy

Two lovely new characters have joined the Polkadoodles 'family' - they are Twiggy and Toots. Could I resist them - no I'm afraid not and this card has used one of the images of Twiggy perched on a branch enjoying cakes and a cuppa!  Background papers are from the same collection and I've just added an odd piece of punched border which was lying around and a computer sentiment.  Keep an eye out for Toots - I'm sure she will appear on a card soon.

Paper Players

While trawling around the net I spotted another challenge which appealed to me  -  The Paper Players are asking for a clean and simple project using water colour techniques.  I've used the acrylic block technique here to achieve some bands of colour on a piece of watercolour paper.  This was then stamped with the tree stamp and then the blossom.  As this was a CAS project I simply popped the panel onto a square card, stamping a sentiment from the same set - a simple insert and that's it. I hope the prominent watermark isn't a distraction - they do seem to stand out on CAS cards!

Stamps - from Stampin' Up Sheltering Tree set
Background - watercolour effect using Distress pens from Ranger

Pixie Snippets Challenge 173

Another of the cards which I had made as a demo sample should fit in with Pixie Snippets challenge this week and also of course has incorporated heat embossing and stamping which hopefully is making a bit of a comeback so that I can use some of my vast collection of stamps. The background was printed from a design within Docrafts Design programme which sadly seems to have been abandoned by them with no further updates forthcoming - shame!!  I then stamped a matching design onto a snippet of kraft card and gold embossed; topped this with another snippet of left over  card which had already been coloured for another project - this was embossed using a similar embossing folder with the addition of some gilding wax.  The clock was cut from snippets of mountboard before triple embossing in gold.  The 'cut out' pieces on the face of the clock then had some patterned paper added (more snippets).  Finally the trellis at the side was another oddment from my bits box - grunge board topped with some patterned paper before cutting out, then heat embossed with Distress embossing powder. Finally the words were stamped using a stamp from a freebie set and cut out using a banner die. Phew - that was a long description - sorry!  I think I might spend a quiet day in the craft room today after my marathon grass cutting session yesterday.

Background - Chronology paper from Docrafts Designer
Stamp - also from Docrafts
Trellis border - Tim Holtz Sizzix die
Clock - Tim Holtz Sizzix die
Banner die - Sue Wilson