Wednesday 28 October 2015

80th Purple flowers


I've been making this card for my Mum's friend who is 80 very soon. She is  lovely and
I know she likes flowers and gardening so I hope she likes this.




I've used up some snippets of white card to stamp and emboss the flowers in bronze, my new favourite colour for embossing.
Then I smooshed an acrylic block onto a big and juicy ink pad and used a brush and water to paint the flowers. By using more or less water and blending the colours you can vary the shades of ink. I love these jewel colours.
I wanted a circle for the middle so I inked some paper and cut it out. Then I decided that needed a frame. I didn't have quite the right shade so I cut that out and painted it too.
I asked my daughter if it was too purple and she said 'Can you have too much purple?'


I even remembered to decorate the inside. I'm usually in too much of a rush and forget.



I hopped over to the Butterfly Challenge as I remembered that the challenge was to use embossing and butterflies. Whoops, way too late. We've moved on to N for Numbers. Well I do have a number on here so I'll enter anyway. I hope that is not a cheat, I promise to try harder next time. I always look at this challenge but rarely get round to making a card.
Pixie's Snippets Playground is celebrating Week 200 so I'll skip over and show them my card.  I think there is cake.
A huge thank you to Di who keeps the Playground open for us and must spend many hours keeping it in order. We appreciate you!

Monday 26 October 2015

Snowflakes

I've managed to make a card for this challenge well before the deadline. I was supposed to be helping fit a sink but really wasn't much help so was able to scuttle off and do inking in between times. 
Last post I mentioned how I'd forgotten how much I like inking. This time I realised how much mess I make. There were finger prints everywhere! I thought I'd got much more careful but it obviously depends what I'm doing. 
The challenge at 52 CCT is:
                                                  http://52cct.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/october-technique-challenge.html



 I do like this technique and used to use it a lot.  I got out some shiny paper and this is what I made:
                                 



 My plan was for the panel to be dark blue but as you see it turned out in shades of purple with a little pink and blue. I cut out the circles in the panels and stamped using the same snowflakes on the basecard. The when looking for a ribbon I found this purple snowflake ribbon left over from last year and it was perfect. A knot and a couple of scored lines on the right and it was done. Apart from a lot of fiddling about trying to get the panel stuck in the right place over the stamping, anyway. 
I'm not a huge fan of non-traditional colour Christmas cards but I do think this is pretty. As I said it wasn't supposed to be this colour!
I've seen that it is Rudolf Day in Blogland, a challenge which i have never entered before. The challenge starts on the 25th and is to make a Christmas card,so here I go for the first time.








                               

Thursday 22 October 2015

Winter woodland

I'd forgotten how much I like inking. I've been distracted into other areas but I've seen a few cards recently with lovely inky backgrounds.
This card is made with one stamp, part of a set free with Creative Stamping magazine.


I made one card and then realised that the tops of the  trees had not reached the frame so it looks like a wintry, dead tree swamp. It is a shame as this is the best background and, as it always the way, they all turned out differently. It looks quite ethereal and I like the placement of the trees.
So I had another go and placed the stamps and the frame more carefully.

 And then another go.





I've stamped and embossed the trees in Frosted Pearl embossing powder and then inked with brushes, using a mask for the moon and snow. Sometimes I spritzed with water too. Too much water is bad, though. It makes the ink seep under the masks. 
I cut an aperture in the card blank and placed the inky picture behind. I've glued inserts to the reverse of the front so covering the messyness inside. 
So there I have a few cards made surprisingly quickly and I've only used one of the free stamps or two if you count the words.  Maybe not as jolly as most of my Christmas cards but pretty. 
I'd like to enter:
52(Christmas) Card Throwdown- The Wild Woods. I had meant to add creatures but didn't want to in the end. 
Merry Monday - Frame it
Pixie's Snippets Playground. I have used some snippets of white. Which is always good as I have more of those than anything. And now I've tried inking again, I'll be doing some more.

Friday 16 October 2015

To Sarah

A quickie post while I should be getting ready to go to work. 
I've had this idea in my mind for a while and finally got round to making it. 



I've used Inky Doodles stamps. I stamped various combinations and punched out the squares so they were all the same size. 
I roughed the edges of the squares using scissors to replicate frayed fabric. I kind of wish I hadn't now and think I'll try again with less grunge.I used the ric rac stamp again around the edge of a piece of pink paper for the background.
I used only teal and grape mememto ink.
Stamp sets: Country checks, print backgrounds 2, Caroline's doodles. The button is also a stamp from Warm winter wishes. 
I've used lots of snippets so a visit to Pixie's Snippets Playground is in order. 
Tell me what you think - distressing or no?
Think I can still get to work on time and managed to do my hair while the photo was loading. (Probably could have got to work and back in that time!)