Super hero!

Nat is setting our challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like us to be inspired by super heroes. It could be a card for the superhero in your life or something inspired by your favourite fictional one, go wherever your imagination takes you!

I needed a card for an 8th birthday so decided to take super hero inspiration for that. The Superman logo is so instantly recognisable that I thought it would stand up to being changed and still retain its essence.

I found an outline graphic of the Superman badge shape online and printed it, along with a big figure 8. Using those to plan it out, I used a scalpel to cut out the red layer and stuck it onto a yellow base then used a Perfect Layers ruler to do the black matting. A fine line black marker added some definition between layers and a little white pen highlighting livened it up.

The stars are stamped onto the textured blue base to get the half-tone dots and then again on textured foil and just the star part cut out and stuck on for a bit of glitz.

Die cut lettering for the sentiment, a doodled border and some sanding to scuff up the edge of the white core card finish it off.

Supplies
Red, yellow, black, white and textured blue cardstock
Silver foil
Star stamp from Kaboom set (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Brilliance Graphite Black ink by Tsukineko 
Corner Chomper 
Perfect Layers ruler
Fine line markers (black and white)

Thanks for stopping by!

Can't stand the rain?

The song title for this month's challenge at the Craft Barn is very apt for April - I Can't Stand the Rain!

I'm definitely going to show my age with this one - the disco version by Eruption is the first and only thing to pop into my head on mention of this title (although I confess I did have to look up the name of the group to make absolutely sure I had it right!).

Lots of hand drawing on this postcard - I started by drawing the curved lines and lettering the song title and group name, adding just a bit of Copic colour in shades of blue/aqua. Then I had a go at drawing rain drops (this tutorial on YouTube is very useful) and although I need a fair bit more practice, I don't think they're too bad for a first attempt.

I masked the bottom of the postcard and stamped the paisley pattern to fill in above the top curve.

This is not my usual style and I had fun experimenting - play time!

Supplies:
Smooth white card
Fine line marker
Copics
Pencil, blending stump and eraser
White pencil
Paisley Scrapblock stamp (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Brilliance Graphite Black ink by Tsukineko 

Thanks for stopping by!

April: showers and flowers!

Kathy is setting our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers today and she'd like us to celebrate the season by breaking out the spring flowers!

Hellebores are one of the earliest spring flowers and are probably about over by now but I've been eyeing up this image for ages and decided this challenge gave me a good reason to just go ahead and get it! I'm not much of a digital fan in general, I like my crafting to be time away from the computer but every now and again I give in to a lovely image! Since I just printed and then took it to my craft table it didn't feel much different to stamping and colouring in any case.

I printed on kraft and accidentally ended up doing "no line colouring" because the toner didn't fuse properly on the cardstock and mostly rubbed off as I worked. I'd done a test print card on ordinary paper first so I had a strong line image to refer to, though.

I decided to do a super-simple one layer card and just let the image speak for itself.

Supplies:
Hellebores digital stamp by Power Poppy
Sentiment from Big Day Today stamp set (Waltingmouse stamps, no longer with us)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Kraft cardstock
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper

Have a lovely Easter weekend!

April elements

Its Friday so it must be Daring Cardmaker day! It's also the first Friday of the month so that means it's an "elemental" dare with Dawn choosing fresh, spring time inspiration for us this month. As ever, choose three or more elements to kickstart your card.

I chose a frou-frou style flower (in the vase top left), pink, pale yellow, soft blue and green from the colour scheme and tangled nesting material.

This really should have come together quickly but I had one of those days where you just shuffle stuff around in endless combinations and can't make anything look right at all! Looking at it now I realise I've done my default of "shove a big flower bottom left and leave lots of white space"! About the most creative thinking here is using a stamp that should be a spike of flowers and making it into supporting foliage by stamping in shades of green - never mind!

Stamps:
Sweet Havana by Mama Elephant

Paper:
Textured white

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Home made stencil (cut with Spellbinder Fancy Lattice die)
Paper flowers (a couple of Prima hydrangea heads and a Wild Orchid cherry blossom, I think)
Crochet thread
Corner Chomper

Here's the inspiration picture in case you'd like to join in and didn't arrive here from the DCM blog!

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely weekend!

Blowin' in the wind

The song challenge over at The Craft Barn is fun - I've managed to join in again this month making another postcard.

The challenge asks for both the song title and the artist name to feature in the design. This time the song is Blowin' in the Wind which has to be Bob Dylan as far as I'm concerned! It seems especially appropriate when he's finally dropped in to collect his Nobel for literature this month!

The background was sponged with Distress inks and flicked with water before I stamped the ears of wheat, using the Misti so I could restamp over the lettering for a "nearly but not quite" inlaid die cut look. I die cut the lettering for the song title and stuck it onto the postcard, gave it a light wash of ink to make it blend in a bit and then restamped the wheat.

A touch of Wink of Stella on the lettering and a handwritten name along one of the stems finish it off.

Stamps:
Thankful Silhouettes (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Stormy Sky)

Other:
Font One dies by Spellbinder
Clear Wink of Stella pen
MISTI stamp positioner

Thanks for stopping by!