Let’s go to Mexico!

It's Svenja's turn to set our challange over at Daring Cardmakers and she’d like us to be inspired by Frida Kahlo and/or Mexico. I guess we won’t be travelling for a while so we can craft our own vacations instead!

There’s a fabulous portrait of Frida Kahlo with hot pink lilies in her hair and looking at it reminded me of one of the very first stamps I bought (I’ve had it since at least 2007). It’s an unbranded grey rubber stamp, I believe the same image turned up later in a Graphic 45 set. I did doctor the eyebrows a little with a fineline marker, just to up the Frida factor!

I’m afraid the foil and metal flakes made this a horror to photograph but you probably get the idea. The sentiment was cut from double sided tape and foiled with a little roll I’ve had for over 25 years! I wish I’d placed it just a bit higher, closer to the image, but you live and learn. The ginkgo leaf was just hanging about on my desk and seemed to fit the sort of opulent feel so got added.

Actually, this turned into an older supplies fiesta, the gold paint splatters are made with pearlescent watercolour paint I bought years ago as a cheapo version of Twinkling H2Os - from The Works if I remember rightly.

Stamps:
Woman with flowers (unbranded)

Paper:
Bristol board 
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Ginkgo leaf die (Impression Obsession)
Phrase Set 2 (Spellbinder)
Gold gel pen
Pearlescent watercolour paint
Double sided tape
Gold foil
Mega Flake by Indigo Blu (Chariot of Fire)

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

Link in the chain - October

I missed reveal day over at the Card Chain Challenge yesterday. My card has travelled all the way to Dawn in New Zealand this month.

As ever, we had lots of options - I chose the theme of leaves, (sort of) the colour palette of tangerine, cherry and gold and the product option of die cuts.

I had a piece of inky mixed media paper in my stack of scraps that was good colours for autumn leaves and close to the suggested colour palette so I went with that - hopefully Dawn will forgive the northern hemisphere slant on this! The leaves are die cut from the paper, the circle is sponged with gold ink and overstamped in a slightly hit-and-miss style with a script stamp. There's a tiny bit of pale stencilling for some background interest and a scored line under the sentiment (the American spelling is another thing for Dawn to forgive!).

Stamps:
19th Century French Script and Essential Messages (both Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board
Bamboo mixed media by Hannemuhl (inked with long forgotten Distress ink colours)

Ink:
Delicata by Tsukineko (Golden Glitz)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Coffee Bean)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Leaves dies by Impression Obsession
Cressida stencil by Memory Box
Home made circle stencil
Scor-it
Corner Chomper

There are still a couple of days to sign up for the November chain (which is the last one of 2019) if you fancy making and sending one card and getting one lovely handmade card from the next link in the chain.

One. two, three, four, five

Kathy has set a slightly fiendish challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week. She’d like to see one of something, two of something, three, four and five of something.

I thought this stamp I got recently might fit the bill as a starting point since it gave me my “three” for a start. So...

• One layer
• Two words
• Three baubles
• Four ink pads - used for both stamping and colouring
• Five tiny gems

I did use a silver gel pen as well but I don’t think the challenge police will be after me for using an extra item!

Stamps:
Ornament Collage (Impression Obsession)
Sentiment from an old Cornish Heritage Farms set

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Hero Arts (Soft Granite, Charcoal)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Fired Brick, Peeled Paint)

Other:
Silver gel pen
Nail art gems
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn inspiration

I'm delighted to be guest designing with the Daring Cardmakers for October - the original cardmakers' challenge blog, still going strong after 10 years!

The first dare of the month means an inspiration photo and a challenge to choose at least three elements from it to kick start a creation. The lovely Gez has chosen this month's picture - pop over to the DCM blog to see it or check out the bottom of this post!

I dithered wildly and finally settled on making an autumnal birthday card for my brother. From the picture I chose the vivid leaves against a black background, the horse's mane (embroidery thread combed out to a fringe) and the silver rings of the bridle (the big eyelet).

Various Distress reinkers, Brushos and lots of water made a lovely multi-coloured mess all over a sheet of mixed media paper. Once dry I die cut a load of leaves and added a touch of clear Wink of Stella to some of them (probably clearer in the close up shot). For the base layer I drew a scribbly circle on black card with a glue pen and covered with gilding flake once tacky.

The eyelet holds the embroidery thread in place and the scribbled circle forms the basis of a partial wreath shape. I spent ages fiddling with leaf position and still ended up not entirely happy with the composition! A die cut circle with a stamped sentiment, inked edges and faux stitching finished it off.

Supplies:
Black and white cardstock
Mixed media paper by Hahnemuhle
Various Distress reinkers
Brushos
Leaves dies by Impression Obsession
Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Sentiment from Big Day Today stamp set (Waltzingmouse Stamps, retired)
Versafine ink by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Skeleton leaves
Jumbo eyelet
Black embroidery thread 
Zig two way adhesive pen
Mega Flake by Indigo Blu (Chariot of Fire)
Black Fineline marker

The inspiration photo chosen by Gez

Thanks for stopping by!

Anniversary leaves

Gosh, I can almost hear the echoes here in my poor neglected blog! I've not done as much crafting recently and I've also managed to make several things without photographing them before sending them on their merry way.

Here's a clean and simple anniversary card that I did remember to photograph! Unusually for me there's almost no stamping (just the sentiment) with die cuts providing the focal element.

I've had this ginko leaf die for ages and have kept failing to use it. It's such a pretty die though that I'm sure it will get used again now that I've broken the duck.

I used some green metallic rub-on to highlight the embossed "veining" on the leaves - hard to see so I've added a detail shot that might show it up better. It's a subtle detail but gives a pretty shimmer.

The dots are "waste" circles from various tag dies, domed out with an embossing stylus so they're like matt versions of enamel dots.

Supplies:
Ginko leaf die by Impression Obsession
"waste" circles from various tag dies
Cressida stencil by Memory Box
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters)
Versafine ink by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Sentiment from Putting on the Ritz set by Waltingmouse Stamps (retired)
Gilding Wax by Creative Expressions (Spring Green)
Corner Chomper
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!