Link in the chain — March

It’s reveal day once again at Card Chain Challenge. My card has gone to Brenda this time so it didn’t have too far to travel. 

From the options on offer I chose the theme of birds and the colour palette. Of course the product option of stamps was pretty much a given for me! I intended to use proper watercolours but somehow got sidetracked into using Distress inks instead. 

This beautiful bird stamp is one of Maria Kitano’s designs for Crafty Individuals, I don’t use him nearly enough. He makes a lovely robin with some orangey red for breast feathers. I added some leaf shapes to the twiggy bit of the stump — it seems in springtime anything with even a bit of life in it will push out optimistic leaves!

The sentiment is from a very old set but it fell in to my hands while I was looking for something else and this sentiment seemed right — we often associate robins with winter and Christmas time but they’re around and singing loud and clear to herald spring, too!

Stamps:
Perching Bird (Crafty Individuals)
Scene It Sentiments (Hobby Art)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Rustic Wilderness, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door)

Other:
Corner Chomper 

There are still a few days to sign up for the next chain, why not come and join us — it’s a lovely way to spread crafty happiness around the world!

Time for a check up

Our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week is all about checks - backgrounds, accents, clothing patterns… there are lots of ways to add checks to your designs.

I opted for textured checks by using an embossing folder and went mixed media on this one. I rubbed a white crayon over the embossed piece (best done while it’s still on the folder as the support means you can press quite hard with the crayon) and then used a couple of Dylusions sprays. The crayon resists the spray but as you’ve generally got imperfect crayon coverage, you tend to get a nice slightly grungy effect.

The Party Puffin hasn’t been out to play for a while and I thought he’d be fun on the bright background. His crown and heart have some subtle sparkle courtesy of Spica glitter pens  

Stamps:
Party Puffin (Crafty Individuals)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Black

Ink:
Brilliance (Graphite Black)

Other:
Dylusions sprays (Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime)
Checkerboard embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix - retired)
White crayon
Black fineliner
Spica glitter pens (gold and red)
Copic markers
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)

Thanks for stopping by!

January’s Elements

Happy New Year everyone, let’s hope that 2021 is a bit kinder to us all than 2020 turned out to be. 

Daring Cardmakers are back from a little festive break with the first elemental challenge of the year. As ever, just choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture (chosen by Dawn this time) to kick start your project. 

I chose a bird, bokeh background and colours. I could probably count squares too since I started with the intention of making this a standard A6 card but maybe looking at the inspiration pic cast a square spell since that’s what wanted to happen once the image was painted! Hubby got me some watercolours as a birthday gift and this is my first play with them. They do behave differently than the inks I’ve been using when I’ve done watercolour style projects and I need practise but it was fun to have a little try out with them. 

The bird was stamped with a light brown ink and used in much the way an artist might use a pencil sketch as a guide. The bokeh circles might be a bit subtle, I think I’d let the paint dry too much to have much success in lifting the colour with water so I used some white watercolour to add circles over the top of the base layer. I used Gansai Tambi White Gold (another birthday gift) for a few of them so they have a slight sheen.

The current Lost Coast Designs challenge is things that begin with B - I have a Brown Bird on a Bokeh background so I’m hooking up there. If you stamp a project featuring something that begins with B why not join in too, there are always prizes on offer!

Oh, Gundi (who often takes part in the Card Chain Challnge) just alerted me to a new-to-me challenge - thank you Gundi! The current theme at Day of the Month is National Bird Day so I’m entering this card there, too. I love bird images, I suspect they’re the second most common thing in my stamping stash (after florals). Our garden attracts a great variety of birds too - DH always jokes that the pheasants know they’re safe here as we’re vegetarian!

Here's this month's inspiration picture at DCM:

Stamps:
Perching Bird (Crafty Individuals)

Paper:
Watercolour
Kraft

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Winsor and Newton watercolours
Stitched Square frames dies (Paper Rose)
Gansai Tambi Starry Colours set

  

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe!

Keep it in the family

It's my turn to set this week's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. It's World Family Day today so I chose the topic of "family". When I chose the topic I had no idea that it would have extra poignancy as many of us are not able to see our families at the moment because of the lockdown restrictions.

I chose a stamp that has “family” in its name and I reckoned that maybe we could all do with a bit of owlish wisdom to help us through the tough times.

Stamps:
Owl Family (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Blueprint Sketch, Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade)

Other:
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are staying safe and well.

Inky!

Rizwana is setting her first challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like to see some inky backgrounds.

I have two quite different projects to share for this one but they both use the same basic technique - add some ink to a sheet of acetate, spritz with water and add to a sheet of heavy cardstock or watercolour paper.

For this bird card I stamped the image first and masked it, then added the inky background in a pale blue for a subtle effect. I painted the berries in green in the hope they'd look more like leaf buds for a more spring-time feel.

Stamps:
Blue bird with branch and berries (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Tim Holtz watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Stitched Rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

The second project features more postcards for my dad and brother.

I added three different blues to some watecolour paper, building up layers using the acetate technique. Then I stared at them for ages trying to figure out what to do with them. I finally settled on a VE Day theme and added some bunting and stamped numbers since we're commemorating 75 years this year.

The blues lifted quite well from the open flag areas just with water but I decided I wanted a cleaner white so those are painted with a bit of gesso.

Stamps:
Artsy Banners (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
A&P Numbers (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocen, Blueprint Sketch, Barn Door)
Mid tone ink by Hero Arts (Charcoal)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Gesso
Microglaze

Thanks for stopping by, if you fancy getting inky to distract yourself in lockdown why not come join us?

I've got your number!

Ruth has set the challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like to see numbers on our projects as her son celebrates a significant birthday soon!

I wanted to have a go at a reductive painting technique that featured in a recent challenge at Splitcoast Stampers and thought this might be a good opportunity. I used Tim Holtz alphabet masks that I've had forever and a day over a shaving foam background left over from a play with the oxidised shaving foam technique. A layer of black acrylic paint and there you go - a dramatic background!

The quirky Party Puffin is always fun and he's useful for cards where people don't have specific hobbies or anything to theme things around. I gave him a bit of a "halo" with a white pencil to reduce the risk of him disappearing against the background.

Stamps:
Party Puffin (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment words from Say It Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Shaving foam piece done on preimum weight copy paper

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
White pencil
Stitched rectangles A6 size dies (Paper Rose)
Black acrylic paint
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!

Come fly with me

Svenja is setting today's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and she’d like us all to take flight. Birds, superheroes, planes, hot air balloons, helicopters... feature anything that flies on your project.

We’re lucky enough to have owls around us - there’s a tawny that we sometimes hear in our back garden although we’ve never actually seen it! Hubby has seen a barn owl at the bottom of the hill and there’s a family of little owls just up the lane. So this lovely owl stamp from a recent release at Crafty Individuals was a no-brainer for hubby’s anniversary card this year!

The berries have a touch of glitter pen on them but it’s otherwise unadorned and just the way he tends to like his cards!

Stamps:
Owl Family (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Putting on the Ritz (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door - used as watercolours)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide (Evergreen Bough)

Other:
MISTI (invaluable for a detailed stamp on a textured paper!)
Spica glitter pen (red)

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday bird

I needed a birthday card for my nephew this week so combined some slightly quirky stencilled stars with the very quirky party puffin!

More chat about the card in this post on the Bubbly Funk blog.

Stamps: 
Party Puffin by Crafty Individuals
Say it Loud by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Graphite Black
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger - Tumbled Glass and Broken China

Other:
Starry Starry Night Stencil by Dylusions/Ranger
Chit Chat Stencil by Claudine Hellmuth/Ranger
Typeset die - Tim Holtz/Sizzix
Copic markers
Wink of Stella clear glitter pen
Charcoal pencil
Black fineline marker

Thanks for stopping by!

Party on, puffin!

This week's challenge from the Daring Cardmakers is "You can leave your hat on" and they want to see any sort of headgear making an appearance on our cards.

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 did end up stamping again so I could cut out an extra crown and layer it up on a bit of gel glue so it has some more dimension. The puffin is also raised just a wee bit off the card surface.

Stamps:
Party Puffin by Crafty Individuals
Numbers background by Kaisercraft
19th Century French Script by Hero Arts (the post cancellation mark)
Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Black Enamel Accents by Ranger
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Pinflair glue gel
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!