The plane turned out to be an accent rather than a feature but I find you can't try to dictate too much of what happens at the craft table and this is what happened!
I added some "depth" to elements with a fineliner pen and some smudged charcoal pencil and the wee stamped plane is cut out and raised on a bit of dimensional glue. I stamped it directly onto the card first so that the squiggly "trail" lines would be there, too.
I started with a die cut oval of water colour paper and drew a line across it with black hot glue. While the glue was still molten, I dragged it out with a pokey tool and sprinkled copper embossing powder onto it then heated again so that the powder melted. It can tend to separate a bit but I like the slightly tarnished look you end up with if that happens.
My mum and dad celebrated their wedding anniversary last week. This clean and simple, one layer design seemed appropriate for an autumn anniversary - red and golden yellow colour palette and a harvest image (which, since it's two stalks, also seemed a good symbol for two people in a marriage).
I needed a birthday card for my nephew this week so combined some slightly quirky stencilled stars with the very quirky party puffin!
I did add his age since it's a "round number" birthday but tried not to make it too much of a dominant feature.
This "quilt" technique is really useful for baby cards - just sponge off the edge of a piece of acetate, move it along and sponge again until you have diagonal lines right across the card in one direction then flip it through 90 degrees and repeat so you get squares. I used the tiny heart from the set to stamp in some of the squares for a quilt pattern. With a bit of judicious masking, you can make a one layer card with plenty of interest.
I decided to have a little play with eggshell mosaic. I've tried bending it etc and it's quite stable so I'm quietly optimistic that it will survive the post. I used lots of ModPodge to stick the shells on and it's been coated over with both Mod Podge and then a satin varnish as well as I wanted a bit more egg-shellish sheen. 
I cut an inchie-plus (1.5" square) from scrap mountboard and "buttered" it with a layer of Grunge Paste. Once it was thoroughly dry, I used a sanding block to give me a silky-smooth surface. As you really want colour that doesn't soak in, I sponged Stazon over the top and then stamped the daisy heads (also part of my prize package so another thank you!) using Brilliance. Then the moment of truth - adding those scraped back white highlights with a pin.
I think it looks very much like Stampbord but, if you want to mail it, has the advantage of being lighter and thinner and of course you could do any shape you wanted as long as you could cut it from a substrate with enough rigidity to stand up to the Grunge Paste layer.
I got new laptop a wee while back and it had a protective film over the keyboard area. I used that as a stencil with a couple of Distress ink colours for an ombre effect.
The toilet paper got used to make a paper cast of the sentiment. The cast worked OK but the words "and" and "wait" were missing a couple of high spots and since I wanted to dry-brush (making height difference crucial) I used a tiny paint brush and some glue to build those areas back up.
The no-line colouring technique (stamp in a very pale colour and use markers or pencils so that the lines don't show) works well for many stamps but this one is in the style of an etching and has quite a lot of shading lines so I didn't think the technique would work well for a transparent medium like watercolour. Instead, I stamped on scrap paper with black ink and then put the stamped image on a lightbox with a piece of Bristol Board over the top. 
The Kuretake colours played nicely with the Distress inks I used for the rest of the colouring and lifted to make highlights as a traditional watercolour would do (hopefully the detail shot will show that). So all in all, I'm pleased with those.
I stamped a single word on paper, sponged on a bit of Vintage Photo ink, stuck the domino onto it with a smear of Glossy Accents and trimmed round once dry. I finished the back by adding metal leaf topped with a layer of resin.
I've just bought some Mylar sheets for making stencils - it's sturdier than acetate which is what I've mostly used for quick DIY stencils so far. It cuts easily with wafer thin dies though which is what I've done here, cutting repeatedly with a hexagon die to make a honeycomb design.
I had lots of ideas for the individual letters but coming up with a coherent group was more of a challenge! I 
Once he was coloured and cut out, I decided the owl was in danger of disappearing a bit on the leathery backdrop so I gave him a gesso "halo" for a bit of pop.
Leandra's starting post for the current theme of "paint" mentioned stencil bumping. I was intrigued and found she has a good video tutorial demonstrating the technique here. I went for a tag as it was nice to experiment on something rather than aiming for a piece to use on a card or other project. 
There's a second painty thing on the wee hanging tag - the chipboard piece with the year (just metal punches bashed into the chippie with a hammer) was given a base coat of very dark blue and then dry brushed with a couple of lighter paints. I think it gives a nice patina-ish look.
My first plan was elegant water colouring of a vintage image - that one ended up in the circular file! Scouting around my desk for other ideas, I found this party puffin already stamped and cut out so I picked him up and played - colouring with Copics and using a black and white background to make the colours look even more vivid.
I chose the hearts (both primitive and more traditional shapes), the green and red elements of the colour scheme, the little crackle pattern that appears on some areas of the sample and, as a bonus fourth element, the style of the sentiment.
The end of 2014 was not kind for my neighbour - her mum died just before Christmas so I broke off the festive creating to whip up a quick sympathy card.
