Filling Gaps

I've been filling  gaps in my box of cards and this time I noticed a shortage of sympathy cards which unfortunately are needed from time to time and it is good to have some ready to hand.  For this one I started by using a textured stamp inked up in two colours to make a section of background following up with stamping the tree, birds and sentiment..  This is a fairly simple card but I feel cards for these occasions don't need to be too elaborate.

Background - textured stamp from Clarity
Tree - Sheltering Tree by Stampin' Up
Birds - from a Lighthouse stamp set by Stampin' Up
Sentiment - from a set of free stamps which came with a magazine some time ago

Books

This week seems to have gone by in a flash but I do have a card to share today.  I've used another piece of the card which I embossed and coloured in an inky session with male cards in mind although I think this one would work for anyone really.  The books and sentiment were stamped onto scraps of watercolour paper and the colouring done using Distress inks and a water brush.  The embossed card was also coloured using Distress inks and gilding wax added afterwards for definition and a bit of subtle glitz.  The background is a piece of script paper and I've added a cog which has been embossed and gilded after die cutting.  In case you are wondering - the sentiment is deliberately 'messy' because that's how it stamps out!!

Stamps - by Phill Martin
Embossing folder - from Sizzix
Cog - Bigz die from Sizzix
Background paper from Prima.

Challenge #370 Pixie Snippets

Time for new challenge in the Playground and this is another dragonfly card but nothing like my previous one.  I used a die which came free with a magazine and which partially cuts out a 'flight' of dragonflies - cut it twice on a square snippet of white card.  There was a matching set of stamps and thank goodness for the Misti so that I could line things up (more or less anyway) to stamp over the cut out dragonflies.  A blue glimmery embossing powder was used throughout.  A couple of larger dragonflies were stamped. embossed and layered up for some dimension and tiny pieces of 3d foam were popped under all of the wings.  A greeting was stamped onto a small snippet of white, backed with some blue and put into the centre of the card. A few matching gems were scattered around.

The lovely Di has made a super cheery card using some cactus stamps - very colourful and just right to brighten the dull days we seem to be having.  Of course that set of stamps with matching dies is the prize on offer for the lucky person who is drawn at the end of the two weeks.

Die and Stamp set - from Stamps by Chloe
Embossing Powder - Cosmic Shimmer Tropical Aqua Blaze

Dragonfly Love

I've had a change from making male cards and this card could be ready for Valentine's Day which isn't really all that far away.  The various elements were die cut from cream and gold pearl card and layered up onto a pink butterfly background paper.  We've had quite a change in the weather today - nice blue sky and some sunshine but very cold with quite a frost first thing this morning which hung around for quite a while.  It is nice though to see the sunshine after a week of grey and rainy days.

Background paper - from Polkadoodles
Dies - all from Tonic

Steampunkery

Today's card is similar to the previous one but with different colours, different embossing folder used and a stamped image added instead of a die cut.  Again the embossed background strips were coloured using Distress Stains.  The steampunk image was stamped and heat embossed onto a piece of text card, then backed with a purple oval mat.  A stamped sentiment on the same text card and that's another one for the box - could be suitable for male or female I think.  The purple background technique has shown up more brightly on screen than it is in real life. It was touched with some pewter stain to highlight the texture.

The weather here has again deteriorated into relentless rain and wind and I hope it isn't too bad where you are.

Embossing Folders - Tim Holtz Alterations
Sentiment - Tim Holtz stamps
Text background - from a Prima paper pad, more card weight than paper
Stamp - from Steampunkery stamp set by Chocolate Baroque

Inky Session

I decided that my box was short on male cards so yesterday I set about making some backgrounds by embossing white card using various 'industrial' style embossing folders and then colouring with Distress stains and inks along with some metallic stain.  Good idea to do most of the inky jobs in one fell swoop and then have a major hand cleaning attempt.  So far I've put together three cards and this is just one of them - they have similar components but are not all the same.  For this one I cut three strips from the inked card, die cut a motorbike and added a bit of over-stamping to some text background paper. Of course most of this is covered up with the strips but not to worry. The bike was layered onto a scrap of text paper which in turn was layered onto another left over strip of a different text paper.  A selection of cogs were die cut from black card, embossed with 'industrial' folders and rubbed lightly with Treasure gold. Sentiment was produced on the computer and punched out.  I had intended going for a walk today but became engrossed in making these cards - now it is lashing with rain so the furthest I will be going is to put the wheelie bin by the gate.

Embossing Folder - Tim Holtz Alterations by Sizzix
Cogs - Sizzix Bigz Die
Text Papers - Prima pad which I've had for a long time
Motorbike - unbranded die
Sentiment - Stampin' Up punch with ends trimmed off

Playground Challenge # 369

The lovely Di of Pixie's Crafty Workshop fame has been taking a short break but it is lovely to see her back today with a beautiful Christmas bauble card which of course is a big hint as to what the prize will be for Snippets #369.  My make this time is a relatively CAS style of card using what I thought was an interesting set of geometric dies and something a  bit different.  I die cut the openwork layers twice and layered them together for a bit of extra dimension - using snippets of white pearl card.  Then found a snippet of card which I'd coloured with Distress Oxide and Pixie powders some time ago - this was a left over piece which of course I saved and it has come in handy for this card.  I stamped a narrow border three times onto a large snippet of white card using similar colours before arranging the triangles and a message banner, finally adding a few left over 'jewels' scattered in between.

Triangles - set of unbranded dies
Banner - Sue Wilson die and stamp from Tim Holtz
Border stamp - from a Stampin' Up vintage stamp set from several years ago