Birthday Card for my FIL

Hello everyone, I'm back again with a masculine Birthday card to share with you. It's my Father-in-Law's Birthday today, and I needed to make him a card. I had these stamps out on my craft table, and decided to use them for his card. The card did not take all that long to make, as I had a design in mind, and so I managed to complete the card in about half an hour.

I cut a piece of smooth watercolour card 11cms x 11cms, and stamped the image using Potting Shed Archival Ink. I coloured the image using watercolour pencils, and then added the sentiment, also using Archival Ink. I edged the panel with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink.

I cut a larger piece of kraft card, a little bit smaller than my card blank, and randomly stamped the two fern stamps over the background, using Olive and Library Green Archival Ink. I matted both panels onto dark brown card.

Unlike both of my previous cards, I have gone for a much simpler design, showing that you can make a very stylish design in a short space of time. The earthy colours make this card ideal for a masculine Birthday card.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Song of the Kingfisher

Hello everyone, goodness my second post in two days! I hope that you managed to catch Lesley's fabulous One Day Special Shows on Hochanda on 31st January/1st February.  She shared some wonderful techniques with the latest stamps from Chocolate Baroque, the stamps are exclusive to Hochanda for ten days, but after that, you will be able to order them from Chocolate Baroque as usual.

I have a couple of cards to show you today that were featured on the TV shows, which utilise several of the new stamp sets. I love to mix and match stamp sets, and so having lots of new stamp sets to work with all at once was just perfect for me.

For my first card, I created a gelli plate background, using Salty Ocean and Shabby Shutters Distress Ink, and used the bubbles stamp to stamp directly onto the gelli plate before I took a print from the plate. This created a cloudy effect on the background. I then stamped a couple of the kingfishers onto the card, and masked them. TIP: To be able to use the bottom left kingfisher, I needed to mask off part of the stamp image before inking it up, as it belongs to a larger scenic image. I simply used masking tape, inked the bird, and removed the masking tape before I stamped the image onto the background.

I added branches and foliage, using various colours of Archival ink, and then used the bubbles stamp once again to create foliage for the branches. I coloured the birds with watercolour pens and a water brush. I edged the panel with teal coloured ink. I stamped a greeting onto some sage green seam binding ribbon, using Archival Ink, and then adhered the ribbon across the bottom of the scene, before attaching the panel to my card.

To create my second card, I stamped the large Kingfisher onto a piece of smooth watercolour paper, and masked the image, before stamping the large branch a couple of times. I added Orange, Sea Green, Emerald Green and Turquoise Brusho powder, and spritzed them with water, blotting off the excess liquid with a spare piece of card. (I saved this piece of card for another project). Once the background was completely dry, I stamped the small leafy sprig using three different colour greens, and I used first and second generation stamping to give a feeling of depth to the foliage.

I removed the mask from the Kingfisher, and coloured the image with watercolour pencils. I added a sentiment, and edged the panel with teal coloured ink, before matting the panel onto a deep green card.

Please do keep visiting the Design Team blog each day for more beautiful designs from my team mates. Thanks for stopping by, xx