Weathered copper poppies!

I spotted the latest Gingersnap Creations challenge - use a faux technique - through Jean's blog and it gave me the kick I needed to do something a bit special for a background on a birthday card. I actually used the same faux technique as Jean had chosen for her card - faux verdigris copper - as textural stuff always looks good and in this case the colour contrast was perfect with the bright poppies.

I didn't have any copper paint in my stash but I did have a copper Krylon leafing pen so I used that to colour my embossed cardstock before giving it the treatment with acrylic paint (I used little tubes, not dabbers and used two greens plus a blue) and gesso. A tiny bit of metallic rub-on wax on the high spots brought out the pattern a bit more.

I coloured my poppies with Copics and trimmed for an "out of the box" panel and to keep with the background I used copper embossing powder to add the sentiment on top of the image.

I used a bit of wide cotton crochet lace and some simple matting with dark chocolate cardstock to finish.

This is for a neighbour/friend's 70th birthday - I just handed it over and she was very pleased with it. Always nice to see a reaction to your cards and it doesn't happen very often since most are posted!

Stamps:
Poppies (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)
Say it Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: Smooth white and bitter chocolate

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Detail embossing powder (copper)
Couture Creations embossing folder (Tied Together)
Cotton lace
Acrylic paints
Gesso
Metallic rub-ons
Krylon Leafing Pen (copper)

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Warm stripes!

It's been ages since I played at Less is More so I decided to put that right today. This week's theme is "stripes" on a one layer card.

I chose a striped animal as the focus of my card - I love these beautiful zebras! I wanted to make something to send to a friend who slipped on the ice last Thursday, broke his elbow and subsequently had to have surgery on it. Warm colours and African animals was about as far away from ice as I could get!

I stamped the zebras, cut a mask for them from ordinary copy paper with a little Zig two-way adhesive on the back and then used plain paper to mask the strip and sponged with ink.

Just a tiny touch of shading on the zebras with grey Copic, a stamped sentiment and I called it done.

Stamps:
Zebra Pair and sentiment from Common Cold (both CHF, retired)

Paper: Smooth White

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick)

Other: Copic markers (C1 and C3)

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In orbit

The theme for this month's postcard swap on UK Stampers is "circles". I started thinking about orbits and planets and came up with this. As ever, our swap postcards need to be posted without an envelope so ink and stamps with no stuck on embellishments is the way I chose to go...

It's something that actaully needs some movement to show it off to best advantage - I used an interference ink to stamp a map of the stars as a background and of course that's nigh on impossible to capture with a photo - it's a green ink so it looks a bit like the image on an old computer screen. If you tilt the card so that you can see the star map, the sentiment pretty much disappears!

The planets were inked with both positive and negative masks in place to give them the appearance of overlapping. I used a tiny bit of watered down gesso to give a "glow" underneath.

The Waltzingmouse stamp set was great for this as there are three different sizes of flower so I could add a bit of patterning to each planet using a stamp that was the right scale.

Stamps:
Reach for the Stars and Astrology Scrapblock (both CHF, retired)
Big Blooms Chrysanthemums (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Black Soot, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick)
Opalite by Tsukineko (Cypress Frost)
Colorbox pigment ink by Clearsnap (Frost White)

Other:
Punches and Nesties to make circle masks
Corner Chomper
Gesso

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Off the page

It's a new month so it's time for a new challenge at Tando Creative Challenges! Our theme this month is "leap off the page". There's a photo board if you'd like extra inspiration but I just went for interpreting the title and making a project that didn't start with a piece of paper.

I keep my collection of random die cuts in an old chocolate box. For years it's just been exactly as it was when I finished the choccies! I decided to give it a makeover and set to work with chipboard shapes, die cut lettering etc.

I used the clock and hands plus a partial cog. The bit I trimmed off the side of the clock face was used at the bottom of the lid. Some rubber washers and microbeads added a bit extra texture and lettering cut from cereal packet cardboard was used for the quote.

I glued everything down and then covered with a scrumpled sheet of tissue paper, giving everything a good soaking with slightly watered-down PVA glue. Once it was dry, I spray painted it black and then added some metallic blue, metallic turquoise and silver acrylic paints. Finally, I used silver Rub n Buff to bring out the edges and textures even further.

I think the effect of the tissue paper "rounding out" the edges combined with the sheen of the acrylics gives the appearance of something rising up out of a pool of oil or something!

I like the way the quote suggests that feeling when you're "in the zone" that you lose all track of time and just enjoy what you're doing. I thought an exploded clock went well with that idea, too!

Check out the Tando Creative Challenge Blog for details of the challenge if you'd like to play along and be in with a chance of picking out a prize of lovely Tando chippie or masks to play with - it's a random draw of all players so your chance is as good as any other entrant!

Thanks for stopping by!