New Year Wish

Hello everyone, I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and are enjoying a bit of quiet time over the festive break. This year seems to have gone so fast, and has brought many changes, I even made my first tentative steps onto live TV! Whatever you have done and are looking forward to in the months ahead, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, and a healthy, creative 2018.

I have some cards to share with you today using stamps featured in last month's TV shows on Hochanda. I made a background using Brushos, spritzed with water. I wanted to create a Wintery sky, and so I chose Turquoise, Lilac and Grey for the background. I stamped a large butterfly from the Tangled Garden stamp set using Stazon Jet Black Ink onto a piece of sparkly acetate, and stuck this to a piece of coloured background that I had in my scrap box. By chance, this was a very similar colour to my Brusho background. I fussy cut the butterfly out, omitting the antennae.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp set, and an image from the Seasonal Fragments stamp set onto the background using Versamark and silver embossing powder. I added a few sparkly gems randomly throughout the fragment images. Just before I stuck the butterfly to the background, I stamped the antennae onto the background, using black ink.

Here are a couple more of my show projects, a pretty gelli plate card using another image from the Tangled garden stamp set:

A necklace and tag using images from the Bold Blooms and Words of Inspiration stamp sets. I have used shrink plastic to create the necklace:

Finally, a card made using Soft Form Relief Paste to create the focal point, adding gilding wax over the top, to pick out the fabulous detail of the stamp:

Thanks for stopping by,

Woodland Scene

Hello everyone, it's Winner's Week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog this weeik, and I am providing another nspirational card as part of The Design Team.

I have chosen to use the Design a Tree stamp sets, as we have been using those recently to create samples for one of Lesley's television shows on the Craft Channel, and they were still out on my craft desk.

I created a background on a smooth white card blank, using green and blue Distress Inks. I masked off the edges first, using low tack masking tape, and took away some of the stickiness, by pressing the tape against my clothing. I used brushes to apply the ink, and blended the inks together where they met in the middle of the card. I used a stencil across the top of the background, and applied Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink through the stencil. The stencil was slightly smaller than my card, and so I just moved it along at the edges, using the co-ordinating Distress Marker to add extra detail through the stencil where necessary.

I stamped the central, larger tree using Vesafine Onyx Black Ink, and added the smaller tree either side, using Versafine Smoky Gray Ink, taking care to offset them a bit. I picked up a bit of Pumice Stone Distress Ink with a painbrush and dry brushed it under each tree to add some shading. I chose several shades of lilac and purple ink to stamp the foliage of the trees, starting with the lightest first, and using second generation stamping for the trees at the back of the picture, to help create the feeling of distance for those trees at all times. I added another foliage stamp at the base of the picture, to resemble flowers on the ground, adding in some green stamping as well, which looks like grass, again, fading to second generation stamping the higher up the background I went, to indicate a move further back in the woodland. Finally, I added a sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp set. I have cut this stamp in half, giving me the option of having it as a long stamp, or as I have stamped it on this card.

I hope that you will hop over to the challenge blog to see more Design Team inspiration, and check out how you can join in the current challenge. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Hi Folks, here is another sample using the versatile Nature Fragments and Abstract Fragments stamp sets from Chocolate Baroque. I have created a background by covering some watercolour paper with a wash of  Ecoline ink, and adding some salt while it was still wet. Once the background was dry, I brushed away the salt, and randomly stamped the squiggly texture stamp in Salty Ocean Distress Ink across the paper. I added highlights with a white pencil.

I coloured a piece of glossy card with green and brown alcohol inks and then stamped the large and small tree trunk circles several times in archival black ink. I cut these out, and arranged them across the page. I used another texture stamp and some blue green embossing powder to create a pattern across the wings of a die cut dragonfly.The sentiment was taken from the Words of Inspiration stamp set.

 

Something along these lines might make a great masculine themed card, which is always hard to design.Thanks for stopping by, xx