Freesia ghosts

I was really tempted to called this "The ghosts of freesias yet to come" :o)

Over on CBC, Jackie has posted a tutorial for ghost stamping (you'll need to be logged in as a member if you want to see the full tutorial as it's in the Instructions section). It's something I've been meaning to try for a while so Jackie's post was just the nudge I needed.

I thought this freesia stamp would be perfect for a dreamy and romantic feel so I stamped randomly all over my cardstock with white pigment ink to "ghost" the image then sponged over with Milled Lavender Distress ink. The white image repels the ink just slightly - it's very subtle and difficult to pick up with a camera but very pretty in real life!

This detail photograph probably shows the ghosted flowers more clearly.


Once I had my ghosted flower background, I stamped the freesia again with a darker ink (Dusty Concord). If you rub gently over an image stamped with Distress ink with a sponge or facial tissue it will soften without smudging all over the place. I stamped three layers of freesia here, softening each to different degrees.

The card is finished with the sentiment that comes as part of the Stamp of the Month set which I think is lovely! This could even be used as a non-traditional Valentine, I think.

Stamps:
Freesia Happiness (Stamp of the Month combo, January 2009)

Paper:
Simply Smooth (Prism)

Ink:
Colorbox Pigment ink by Clearsnap (Frost White)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Imperial Purple)

Other:
Flower by Prima Marketing
Pearl by Kaisercraft
Sewing machine and thread
Vintage lace trim

Thanks for stopping by, hope you had fun!

Bear Hugs

Kim Hughes has a very distinctive style - just look at the eye on this bear, could the artwork be done by anybody other than Kim?!

The bear in the set faces left but I thought it would be fun to bring together a bear pair to go with the hug sentiment! I used a mirror stamp to make the bear who faces right.

Sherrie had a cool tutorial on her blog the other day for making the illusion of textured fur by using blender solution and some wadding (batting for my north American friends). I don't have any blender solution so I adapted the technique by colouring the bears with a Chamois marker and then dotting over the top with the colourless blender and a lighter colour (Brick Beige). As Copics are alcohol-based, the lighter inks push the darker base coat out of the way and you get a "furry" bear. You can see Sherrie's tutorial here if you'd like to have a go with the original technique.

I'm going to pop this card into hubby's bag when he heads off for his next trip :o)

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Bear Hugs (Kim Hughes Collection)
Mirror It medium (to reverse the bear image)

Paper:
Epic Laid Black, Simply Smooth (Prism Papers)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Linen Thread
Nail art gems
Inkssentials white pen by Ranger

Thanks for visiting today, hope you enjoyed the card!

Imagined Blooms

As it's such a grey and dreary day, I thought imagining some bright spring colours might cheer us all up a bit! This stamp is part of the Shady Tree Studio line releasing at Cornish Heritage Farms on 15th January.

Not only is it a new line, it's a new artist (some of you may know her as Phantom on Splitcoaststampers) and I think she's done a fabulous job. There are several sketchy flowers in this first release and this is my first play with one of them.

I thought some loose water colouring would suit the sketchy style of these beautiful blooms!

I remembered to let colours dry before moving on to the next one this time (some of you may remember the elk dribble incident!). I used Distress ink (lid squished down on to the pad and a brush to pick up from the pool of colour) as they stay true so you know what colour you're going to get on the paper.

Stamps (from Cornish Heritage Farms):
Artsy Blooms (Shady Tree Studio line) - releasing 15th January
Motivational Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
140lb hot press watercolour
Suede Brown dark (Prism)

Ink:
Stazon by Tsukineko (Timber Brown)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (used as watercolours - Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Broken China)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread

Want to win? There are sneak peeks of more stamps from this line and a chance to win some of them over on the Be Creative blog - why not hop over and leave a comment, you might get lucky!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed the card!

Sketch book ballerina

Happy New Year! Something a little different from me to start a new year of blogging! Like many Copic users, I take a look at Marianne's blog from time to time - lots of tips and tricks there! I was inspired by her post on cross hatching to have a go at making this little ballerina look like something from an artist's sketch book.

I don't have a Multiliner (yet!) so I decided to use a mechanical pencil for a slightly softer look whilst still having a consistent and fine point. I used the shading on the stamp to guide where the hatching went and added just a little extra to the open spaces like her arm to give a bit of dimension. I shaded a little under the image as well to give her a grounding.

Here's a close up of some of the detail so you can see how that cross hatching works over the shading provided by the stamp (as ever, you can click through for a closer view if you want it).

Stamps:
Ballerina Girl (Sandra Kuck line)
Aged Sheet Music Scrapblock
Birthday Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Ivory and Simply Smooth (Prism)

Ink:
Nick Bantock by Ranger (Charcoal Grey)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Antique Linen, Vintage Photo)

Other:
Silk ribbon
Corsage pin and beads
Krylon Leafing pen (copper- to colour one bead)
Classic oval Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Foam tape
Sponge
Thanks for the inspiration Marianne and thanks everyone for your visit today, hope you enjoyed it!

Want to win some stamps?

There's a chance to win all four of the new Kim Hughes sets being released tomorrow by Cornish Heritage Farms. Hop on over to the Be Creative blog to see all the sets and find out how to be in with a chance to win! Toasted marshmallow, anyone? :o)

Crafty Calendar!

Fancy a calendar with a new crafty project each month? A group of crafters from the Bubbly Funk Forum have put one together for you! Visit the blog for 12 projects you can print out to make a calendar or simply come back each month for a new project. There are full step by step instructions for each one that you can view on the blog or download to print out and keep.

If you like the calendar, it would be great if you could make a small donation to help us raise money for Action for ME - there's a Just Giving widget on the blog to make it easy for you and if you're a UK tax payer, don't forget to Gift Aid it so it's worth even more!

Click on the picture to visit the Crafty Calendar blog - January's project is mine and I'd love to know what you think so please do leave a comment if you get a moment or have any queries about it!

When the mists rise...

We've been having a fair amount of misty mornings just recently so this week's Challenge over at CHF seems fitting - Mini Misters! I held out on buying these for ages but bought a pack in a closing down sale a couple of months ago and I love them!

For this card, I made my own 'glimmer mist'. Now don't get me wrong, Glimmer Mists are great but those bottles are quite big really, aren't they? One of the great things about the Ranger Mini Misters is that you can mix up a small quantity of something so you don't get much wastage and you don't have 99.9% of a bottle left at the end of a project that will sit gathering dust until next time.

I added a shot of Spiced Marmalade reinker and a teeny tiny scoop of Gold Perfect Pearls to one mister and topped up with water. I used Fired Brick and Copper Perfect Pearls in the other. I embossed the Fiery Florals with clear embossing powder and then sprayed with the orange mix over most of it then sprayed again with the red to shade deeply down to bottom right. Fun! Of course you can't really see the glimmer here but you can imagine for me, OK? I love the way this kind of embossing resists ink so I added some Spanish Script in Fired Brick for textural interest, too and just wiped over with a facial tissue to take the ink off the embossed areas.

I just love these Scrapblock™ stamps! Where a regular backgrounder means you can do up to 4.5" across, these are 6" square so a 5" x 5" card like this is no problem!

Stamps:
Fiery Floral Scrapblock™
Spanish Script backgrounder
Birthday Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper: smooth white

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Spiced Marmalade pad and reinker, Fired Brick reinker)

Other:
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Gold and Copper)
Clear embossing powder
Flower by Prima
Vintage Lace
Velvet brad by Making Memories

Tools:
Mini Mister by Ranger
Sewing machine and thread

Everyone's busy with festive preparations at the moment but why not stop by and see what Kim and Kristine have created with Mini Misters for today's challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed something that provided a bit of a change of pace from Christmas stuff!

Wish Big!

I had this image coloured in and had plans for it but today's Limited Supplies challenge over on Splitcoaststampers changed the direction a little. It's a "Go green" challenge to reuse/recycle.

I managed a couple of reuse/ recycle things here:

- The 'fly' is actually a single earring - its companion was lost many years ago! My aunt bought them from a guy at a craft fair who'd obviously decided that jewelry would be a more lucrative market for his fly tying!

- The card base is one I stamped and then dropped an ink pad in the middle so it went into the scraps box - it was fine for this design as I just covered it up with a big panel!

- The linen thread is not exactly reused but it was an awesome find! I got three cards on eBay for 99p that were printed with their original price - 3D! We went decimal in the UK in 1971 so this thread is most likely 40 years old and hasn't been touched so I'm counting that for the challenge too!

Stamps (all Cornish Heritage Farms):
Fly fishing (Saturday Evening Post line)
Spanish Script backgrounder
Script Essential Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Simply smooth (Prism)
Scrapblock layers (CHF)
Unknown ivory

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic markers
Linen thread
Fishing fly earring
Antique copper brads (Making Memories)
Oval template
Classic oval Nestabilities
Sponge

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your visits!

Water, water(colour) everywhere!

Julia's challenge for the CHF Challenge Chicks this week was "watercolour". Now I love my Prismacolour pencils and my Copics but sometimes it's nice to break out a brush and bring out the arteest, right? So I decided to watercolour an image rather than doing a resist or wash or whatever. I was in a painterly kind of mood so I used my inkpads rather than pencils. If you don't already know the trick - just squeeze your ink pad before opening so that the lid touches the pad and you'll have a little pool of ink in the lid that you can pick up with a brush and use for colouring.

I needed to make a birthday card for a friend/colleague of DH's who is one of those men without an obvious hobby to theme a card around. I thought this new creature (more of that later!) from the Saturday Evening Post line would make a great general purpose masculine kind of card! He's fabulous to watercolour as the body is a solid silhouette style which means you're not colouring in an outline, you're spreading out the ink that's already there - I stamped in Latte and added shading later with Espresso.

Because the image is big and I wanted it to take centre stage, I kept everything else very simple with just some stamped texture on the dark brown layer and some linen thread to whip stitch down one side of the panel.

I love the history behind these stamps - this one originally appeared as a cover for the Saturday Evening Post in November 1902. The artist, Charles Livingstone Bull, called this "The Elk" and therein lies the story behind my earlier reference to this as a "creature". You might have to be a keen naturalist to know but it's not really an elk, it's a caribou (wild reindeer). An elk has the darker area around the neck and a lighter body, the caribou is the other way around. The antlers are a bit different, too. Natural history as well as stamping, huh? lol!

Stamps:
Elk/caribou (Saturday Evening Post line at CHF - releasing Friday 12th December)
Weathered Wood backgrounder
Sentiment made up from Silhouette Blooms I (Kim Hughes Collection) and So Happy (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
140lb hot press watercolour
Suede Brown dark (Prism)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso, Latte, Cloudy Blue, Stonewashed)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Antique Linen)

Other:
Linen thread

Thanks for stopping by today, I appreciate you taking the time! If you'd like to see what everyone else has been up to with watercolour, here are the links for the ladies playing along today:

Julia - Kim - Dawn - Michele - Jennifer - Sherrie

Fade into the background?

One of the things I love about background stamps is that they're so versatile so when Julia told us that this week's CHF Challenge Chicks would focus on backgrounders my problem was choosing an idea from many rather than coming up with just one! I decided to make my background stamp the star of the project and use it to add texture as well as colour. The pendant is polymer clay cut to shape with the lid from a small jar and the barrel of a pen! I dusted Perfect Pearls onto a sheet of paper and laid my stamp on to pick up the powder (I find there's less chance of getting it into the crevices of the stamp and therefore onto bits of the clay where you didn't want it if you do this rather than brush the powder directly onto the stamp). If you have a small piece of baking parchment under your clay shape, you can handle it without distorting. I pressed the pendant gently onto the stamp and then baked. I think these would make nice Christmas gifts and with a limited supplies list it won't break the bank, either! I think one small block of polymer clay would make 8-10 pendants of this size (this one is just under 2" across). Stamps: Tiled Scallops backgrounder Other: Sculpey Premo polymer clay (black) Perfect Pearls (Perfect Copper from the Metallics kit) Leather thong Thanks for stopping by! For more backgrounder ideas, check out the other girls playing along today: Carole ~ Dawn ~ Julia ~ Kim ~ Kristine ~ Lisa Strahl ~ Michele ~ Val