Eastern Skies

Hello everyone, I am sharing more cards using stamps featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

My first two cards came about when I made the backgrounds, which were a mixture of Red, Yellow and Orange Brushos sprinkled onto drawing cartridge and spritzed with water. I also added some Gold shimmer for some added bling. I like to create one piece, and use a second piece of the drawing cartridge to blot the excess liquid off the first, creating a second background for later. Both pieces end up a bit less vibrant, but I do not mind this effect, especially as I am creating the second background for free as such.

When I looked at the backgrounds, they looked as if they had a sandy foreground, and a sunset sky, which made me think about creating some sort of scene with the backgrounds. Every background turns out differently when you are using Brushos, and it was just luck that these two made me think of making this sort of card.

I cut a square of copy paper, and placed it in the middle of the background, then stamped the paisley image from the Paisley Elephant stamp set all around the edge, using purple Versafine Clair ink, to create a border. I used the same colour ink to add the sentiment from the same stamp set. On my first card, I used the Chocolate Baroque Mask- Silhouette Palace 1, with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink.

On the second version, the card that I demoed for the TV shows, I simply stamped an image from the Indian Textiles stamp set, using a deep plum ink.

These one layered cards will be cheap to send through the post, even though they are a bit larger in size. If you vary the colours, they would be great masculine cards. I have kept them fairly monochrome, if you made them in blues or greens, or brown tones for example, they would look equally effective.

I am sharing a much older card with you as well, which uses this same image. Long time followers will have seen this card, but I thought that newer viewers would like to see the card as well. I stamped and embossed the building using white embossing powder, and then created the background with inks. I used masks for one side of the background and then the other. I stamped a tree image from the Landscape Edges stamp set along the horizon, and a flower stamp from the Floral Edges stamp in the foreground.

The elephants were stamped onto a spare piece of card, coloured with Distress markers, and then decoupaged onto the background.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Paisley Accordian Book

Hello everyone, I am back to share another project with you featuring the stamps from last month's shows on Hochanda.

This time, I have chosen to share a little concertina book that I made. I make these books quite often, and they are a great size for journalling, or creating smaller pieces of artwork.

I took two whiteboard postcards, and coloured the white surfaces with Salty Ocean Distress Ink. I then stamped the surfaces with a paisley image from the Paisley Elephant stamp set, using a purple toned Versafine Clair ink. To create a cover for the inside, I coloured a piece of drawing cartridge with Twisted Citron Distress Ink, and stamped the same image with an orange toned Versafine Clair ink. I trimmed two sections to fit the whiteboard panels.

These sections will be barely visible when the book is finished, but they create a nicely decorated edge inside the book, and it is worth completing this step.

I made my pages by cutting and folding some large pieces of watercolour paper, but you could use drawing cartridge, it would make a great surface for this project. You need to make the pages slightly smaller in height and width than the whiteboard pieces themselves, and just keep folding the pieces, and sticking them together until you have a section as long as you want to put inside the book. As you can see, I have already added some ribbon underneath my back decorated surface, and this will wrap all of the way around the book eventually, to keep it closed. The left side of the ribbon needs to be longer than the right, to go across the spine and the front of the book, (see top picture).

To decorate the front of the book, I used some shimmering purple Soft Form Relief Paste, which I spread over the large background image from the Paisley Elephant stamp set. I left this to set overnight, and then peeled it away from the stamp. I trimmed the edges, and added some blue and gold gilding wax, picking out some of the raised detail. I attached the film to the book, and added some Little Birdie flowers that I had spritzed with orange Brusho, and some gold paisley embellishments from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

CAS Paisley Flower

Hello everyone, over on the Design Team Blog today, we are sharing our monthly Fifteen Minute blog post; a compilation of cards and projects from the Design Team that aim to inspire and show how cards can be created in fifteen minutes or less. You can either start with a blank piece of card, or rummage through your scraps to find ready made backgrounds, scrapbook papers, etc., as a starting point, and then using stamps and inks, etc., make some really quick cards. These once a month blog posts are a step away from a lot of our other blog posts, which show more time-consuming projects.

I have created a CAS style card, which featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. I stamped and embossed an image from the Nature's Paisleys stamp set several times onto coloured vellum, using Versamark and gold embossing powder. I cut the images out to form 'petals'. I chose one of the other images from the stamp set, and after loosely laying the petals onto a card blank, decided where I wanted to stamp the image, to create leafy sprays. I stamped the image using green Memento ink, and then adhered the petals to the card. I added a blingy centre to complete the flower, and stamped a sentiment from the Paisley Elephant stamp set to complete the card, using the same green ink as before.

Do check out the post on the Design Team blog to see what the rest of my Team mates have been creating. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Faux Batik Paisleys

Hello everyone, I have several projects to share with you today, featuring a range of stamps from last month's TV shows on Hochanda.
 
I wanted to use the faux batik technique on my first batch of projects, and show how this could be adapted for a range of uses. I created a masterboard, using an A4 piece of drawing cartridge, stamping a leafy image from the Nature's Paisleys stamp set, using Versamark and clear embossing powder all over the page. Once completed, I blended Picked Raspberry, Fossilized Amber and Salty Ocean Distress Inks over the page until I had covered the background. The clear embossing powder acted as a resist for the inks. I placed some copy paper over the top of the page, and used an iron on a medium setting, to iron off the embossing powder, leaving a flat surface.

For my first project, I trimmed a piece of the masterboard into a tag shape using a large die. Using the same die, I folded some black card, and drew around the die to create a card base. I added an elephant image that had been stamped onto a spare piece of card and coloured with Distress Ink and a water brush. The sentiment had been stamped onto card coloured with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and edged with toning ink. All of these images were from the Paisley Elephant stamp set.

I used another piece of the masterboard, trimmed to fit a square card blank, for my next project. I stamped a sentiment from the Birthday Words stamp set over the top. Because the surface is flat minus the embossing powder, you can stamp over the top. I created a flower as an embellishment by stamping and clear embossing one of the smaller paisley images from the Nature's Paisleys stamp set onto card that I had coloured with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink, and cutting them out. I added a large gem in the middle.

I decided to create a card in a similar style using kraft card. I stamped and embossed a paisley design using clear embossing powder onto the kraft card, and thought how fabulous the embossing looked against the kraft card, just by itself. I decided to make a card in this monochrome colour scheme there and then, it was a discovery by happy accident. Sometimes you just need to experiment, and you find extra ideas as you go along, this was one of those times for me. I added some cream flowers from the Little Birdie range, and a sentiment, using clear embossing as before, and my card was finished. Without the flowers, this card could have been more masculine.

On to the card that I was intending to make now! I embossed the kraft card with clear embossing powder, and added Salty Ocean Distress Ink before ironing off the embossing powder as in my first projects. The background looks like an old faded bandana, and I love this effect. It would look great with red or plum ink as well. I spritzed some cream Little Birdie flowers with Turquoise Brushos and a bit of gold shimmer, also adding some gold leaves from my stash. I added a sentiment stamped onto kraft card, and used a layer of kraft card to mat the background.

I thoroughly enjoyed making these projects, and hope that I have given you lots of ideas. Most of all, I hope you will experiment, because you never know where it might lead you! Thanks for stopping by, xx