Link in the chain - September

It's reveal day at Card Chain Challenge - my card has gone to Greta in Oregon this month. I often go with a one layer card if I'm airmailing it but somehow my brain didn't want to go that way this time!

As usual, we had lots of choice - I went with the sketch and the theme of "things with wheels".

Things are starting to feel pretty autumnal so I thought I'd pull out an old set and haul some giant pumpkins! The truck and pumpkins are separate images, I cut a slit along the line of the truckbed with a scalpel and tucked the pumpkins inside.

The green is part of a gel print that was out on my desk, the swirly sky is inked over a stencil and I hand drew the birds and grass tuft to fit the sketch. I did struggle a bit to get the word die to cut right through where the truck is stuck on to the background but got there in the end - I thought an eclipse sentiment would suit this!

Stamps:
Happy Harvest (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Premium weight copy paper

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black, Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Stitched frame dies (Paper Rose)
Copic markers
Fibres stencil (Visible Image)
Phrases Set 2 dies (Spellbinder)
Fineliner
Momento marker (Bamboo Leaves)

Thanks for stopping by! There's still time to sign up for the October chain if you fancy it - make and mail one card, get a hand crafted card from somebody else!

Here comes summer!

For this month's postcard swap on UKStampers, Sam has asked us to include wheels. I thought of summer road trips and this surfer couple in their convertible seemed like the perfect set of summer wheels!

I had some fun with a shaving foam marbled background for a retro, tie-dye look and coloured the car and the stripe down the surfboard to match the vibrant shades. As usual, it has no embellishments so it can go through the post with no envelope when we swap.

If you've never tried it - shaving foam backgrounds are fun and each piece will be unique. Just squirt a layer of  foam onto your craft mat (or other surface that's easy to wipe down). It doesn't need to be a particularly thick layer - I tend to squirt some foam and then use an old credit card to spread it out a bit. Add drops of reinker to the surface of the foam and then swirl with something like a bamboo skewer or thin paintbrush handle. Press a piece of card onto top, making sure you get contact with the inky foam all over the piece and then lift - it will look a big gooey mess at this stage! Scrape the inky foam off (I use the credit card again) and you'll have a marbled background. Wipe with a tissue or kitchen roll to remove any last traces of foam and then just leave it to dry and you can stamp on it directly or use it as a background piece.

I used Distress ink here but any dye ink is fine and alcohol inks work too - I've never tried it with pigment inks but I don't see why not. Try to choose colours that won't get too "muddy" in any areas where they mix together as you swirl.

This is actually the second background from one lot of foam - I just smoothed over the surface with the credit card after lifting the first one and added a few more drops of the inks, swirled again and pressed a second piece of cardstock on there. The first one had a little bit of Perfect Pearls as well as the ink - I'll use it for something in the future, I just happend to prefer the swirl pattern on this one for the postcard.

Stamps:
The Beach (retired CHF)

Paper: Smooth white

Ink:
Distress reinkers in Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry
Brilliance Graphite Black

Other:
Shaving foam
Copic markers
Tracing Wheel
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Gingersnap Colour Challenge

It's the third challenge of the month during CHF's sponsorship of Gingersnap - that means it's time for a colour challenge! The colours this month were orange, green and brown.

Sticking with the month's overarching theme of harvest and using natural materials, here's my card. It had to be pumpkins really, didn't it? I stamped and masked a whole row to reduce the amount of cutting out (you only have to do the top and bottom edge this way rather than cutting round each and every pumpkin!).

I used a sentiment stamp from the set to create a little interest on the green panel and the Fine Lines backgrounder on the brown because it makes me think of corduroy fabric which I think is very cosy and autumnal!

In a bid to break free from raffia and jute, my natural material this week is skeleton leaves. They do stick out from the edges of the card but they're delicate and filmy enough that it was hard to capture that on camera.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Happy Harvest (General Motors line)
Fine Lines backgrounder

Paper:
DCWV (green)
Brown from the scraps box
Simply Smooth

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Peeled Paint)

Other:
Copic markers
Skeleton leaves
Corner Chomper
Sandpaper

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed the card!

Pile o' pumpkins!

I know it's still summer (such as it's been) but autumn is just around the corner and my organic veg box delivery this week contained a small pumpkin so I reckon this set of stamps is timely! "Fall Harvest" is the latest of the General Motors releases and although there's the obligatory truck on the sheet, there's also lots of fabulous veggie stamps!

The pumpkin was just crying out to be piled up in a great big pile of orange goodness! It's a really easy shape to cut so making masks is easy and, as ever, I just pop them into the case with the stamp set so I can reuse them and the cutting out effort is a one-off (at least until they get so tatty that they become unusable!).

Kraft cardstock has a great look and feel for autumn projects and raffia just seemed like the right kind of finishing touch somehow.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Happy Harvest (General Motors line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth
Kraft

Ink: Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Inkssentials white pen by Ranger
Natural raffia
Tags trio dies by Spellbinder
Sewing machine and thread
Corner Chomper

I had more fun with this set for a Splitcoast technique challenge this week. I love resist techniques and Lynn pointed us to a couple of blogs with a leafing pen resist tutorial (Carol who in turn got it from Trish Bee).

Now, my Krylon nib is a little, ahem, frayed. That meant I found it impossible to get a pattern I liked as I was trying for a small scale pattern with a broad and tattered nib. So I "refined" the technique by embossing my watercolour paper in a Cuttlebug folder, used the Krylon on the raised bits, ironed it flat again and then carried on as described in the tutorial.

The pumpkin came out again along with a couple of ears of corn, some textured card and some stitching to make a touchy-feely kind of card which seems about right for autumn to me!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Happy Harvest (General Motors line)

Paper:
Watercolour
Kraft
Bazzill Monochromatics (Yellow Green pack)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso for stamping plus Lettuce and Pesto reinkers)

Other:
Cuttlebug D'vine swirls embossing folder
Krylon leafing pen (copper)
Copic markers
Mini mister
Sewing machine and thread
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by, hope your weekend has more summer than autumn in it! There'll be more fruit and veg next week in a completely different style - got to keep up your five a day, you know ;)

Sunset truckin'

I don't know about you but things around here are definitely feeling hot, hot, hot so I decided to go tropical with the truck!

Daring Cardmakers this week asked us to include five of something on our projects. I decided to steer clear of the five flowers and go for something a little more masculine so I've anchored this design with five extra large eyelets. I decided after doing it that they looked kind of like the truck wheels - including the spare! lol!

This is my first Lots to Do challenge entry too - the theme this week is travel and I think truckin' into a tropical sunset should count for that.

I love the graphic lines of this stamp - it looks like a technical or concept drawing and looks great if you just stamp it and don't add any colour or shading at all but here I've given my truck a silver-grey look with a few shades of cool grey Copic marker. The truck was masked while inks were sponged in through an oval negative mask and the horizon lines were stamped.

Stamps:
Keep Truckin' (General Motors line at Cornish Heritage Farms - releasing Tuesday 2nd June)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Sunshine Yellow, Sunset Orange, Red Pepper)

Other:
Extra large eyelets (We R Memory Keepers, pewter)
Copic markers
Nestabilities by Spellbinder (classic oval)

Thanks for dropping by, hope you enjoyed a little on-screen sunshine!

Everything's groovy! (and candy winner)

Lots of the girls from Bubbly Funk are meeting up this weekend to make things, gossip and have fun. Those of us who've stayed at home decided to create a little fun of our own with a last-minute cyber crop. It's all quite impromptu with many of the classes being ones that are already online at places like YouTube or Splitcoast. Gez went above and beyond the call of duty though and created a tutorial for us on shaving foam backgrounds.

Gez's tutorial used alcohol inks and she got a fabulous effect- she's kindly added the tutorial to her blog here. I don't have any alcohol inks but I'd been meaning to play with shaving foam for a while so I decided I'd play along using the classic method of dye-based reinkers. The resulting piece made me think of groovy tie dye so I've gone for a retro surfer look!

I found I only had scraps of black card left so I just rubbed my Stazon pad over a white card blank to get the look I wanted!

Stamps: Surfing Chevy Convertible (GM line at Cornish Heritage Farms)

Paper: Smooth white, hot pink pearlescent

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (reinkers in Juniper and Stonewashed)
Stazon by Tsukineko (Jet Black)

Other:
Nail art gems
Plastic canvas circle (as template for gem placement)

This image is one of the two stamps offered in my last post as blog candy. I put all the names into a list and asked Random.org to mix them up for me. Top of the list was Rachel!

Congrats Rachel, your stamps are on the way!

Go for it!

The sentiment on this card is from a set called "Encouragement Expressions" that's releasing on Thursday and has some great phrases for those situations where a little pick-me-up or just because kind of card is required. Edited to Add- oops, there's a typo on the Encouragement Expressions plate so the release has been put back a week - they'll actually release 21st May, sorry about that folks. The Camaro is fun, too! Read on if you'd like the chance to add this and its surfing buddy to your stamp collection. I played my first colour challenge at SCS here. I'm usually intimidated by the fact the colours are specified in terms of SU! which until very recently hasn't been available in the UK and I don't have any but I decided to just get over it and play with what I have! Colours specified were Only Orange, Summer Sun and Kiwi Kiss - I think I got pretty close. Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms): Encouragement Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line - releasing Thursday 21st May) Chevy Camaro Front View (GM line) Paper: Sunflower medium (Prism Papers), Yellow Green monochromatics pack (Bazzill), Coordinations (orange), smooth white Ink: Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso and Pitch Black) Other: Copic markers, Copic multiliner, Grungeboard arrow, foam pads Candy Alert! I have one each of the Camaro stamp and the Chevy Convertible used to make this card to give away. I combined the convertible with the Beach Party background stamp to make a fun summer card! Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms): Surfing Chevy Convertible and Beach Party backgrounder (GM line) Paper: Bazzill orange, smooth white, vellum Ink: Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Pitch Black, Sunset Orange, Sunshine Yellow, Red Pepper), Versamark by Tsukineko Other: Copic markers, foam pads, Nestabilities by Spellbinder, clear embossing powder, sewing machine, brads If you'd like to add a couple of fun stamps to your collection, leave me a comment to tell me what your dream car is - maybe it's the one that took you on vacation as a child or one you dream of owning now! I'll close commenting at midnight GMT Friday 15th and get Random to pick a winner. I'm happy to ship anywhere so international players are welcome - just make sure to leave a link back to your own blog or some other way I can contact you if you win! Thanks for stopping by!