Summertime

It seems to have been Christmas for some time on the blog so I thought I should try to change gear! This month’s challenge at We Love Stamping has a focus on summer. As it’s the classic season for travel, I’ve gone that way as I needed a birthday card for someone who does quite a lot of travelling.

It’s personalised by having a destination hand written on the ticket. I hope he gets to fly in something a bit more comfortable than an open bi-plane, though! 

I used torn paper to create fluffy clouds in my blue summer sky, masking all the various elements first (including the edges masked with low tack tape). I would probably have added some colour to the globe but hubby liked it without and as he requested the card I went with leaving it black and white. The ticket has just a touch of pencil colouring and there’s a drop shadow added to the globe with a marker.

Stamps:
Vintage Transport (Tanda Stamps, no longer with us)
Be Happy Today (Hero Arts, retired I think)
Travel (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Grey Copic
Fineliner 

Thanks for stopping by!

Tea fairy

It’s always nice when the tea fairy calls (i.e. someone else makes you a cuppa and delivers it to your elbow when you’re working). Failing that, just making time to sit for a few minutes with a nice brew can make a difference to your day. 

So, with that and the current Lost Coast Designs challenge (Winged Things) in mind, I made a little presentation card for a tea bag. I’ve had this tea fairy stamp for ages and never got round to using her before. She’s rather sweet even if she does look slightly mischievous! She’s got sparkly pink hair as well as sparkly wings, just because. I fully expected my Wink of Stella pen to have dried up as it must be several years since I used it but it delivered, no problem. 

I cut little tabs inside the card to hold a tea bag in a paper sachet with a die designed to cut them to hold a gift card. My sachet was slightly wider than the usual gift card so I modified by cutting one side, then shifting the die to cut the other.

Sending a special tea bag can be a nice way to say to a friend “I’m thinking of you, make sure you take some time for yourself".

Stamps:
TeeHee HLP (Lost Coast Designs)
Retro Women 2 (Tanda Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Wink of Stella pen
Gift card dies (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Corner Chomper

In the long run

It’s my turn to set the challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week — as Monday is a bank holiday here in the UK that means it’s a long weekend so I thought we could be inspired by the idea of “long” things. Have a look at the blog to see what my teamies were inspired to make. 

Giraffes have the longest necks in the animal kingdom and this stamp always makes me smile so I decided to go that way. I think I’ve had the stamp set since about 2008. 

I wouldn’t normally list my Scor-It in the supplies list (I use it pretty much every time I make a card to score the fold) but I used it to make the decorative framing for the inked strip so I thought it should at least make it onto the cast list! It adds a little something extra to a one layer card, I think, but keeps it flat and embellishment-free!

Stamps:
Safari Set I (Tanda stamps, no longer with us)
Sentiment from Polar Bears (MFT)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door)

Other:
Scor-It
Corner Chomper

Come join us!

Card chain - April

I'm late for reveal day at Card Chain Challenge again - I'm sure I'm not alone in finding the days blurring into each other at the moment! Hope everyone's finding ways to cope and stay as sane and happy as possible.

Our options for April included the colour scheme of plum, lilac and black and the theme of hats. I couldn't find the stamp I originally planned to use so I revisted an old favourite from the long-defunct Tanda stamps.

My card went to Suzanne in Pennsylvania this time so it's a single layer to keep it light and flat for airmailing.

Stamps:
Retro Ladies (Tanda Stamps, no longer with us)
Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord)

Other:
Momento markers (Sweet Plum, Lulu Lavender)
Copic marker (Eggshell - used for skin)
Black fineliner
Stencil cut with Spellbinder Fancy Lattice die

Thanks for stopping by, may you and yours stay safe and well.

Christmas cat

Shabneez is setting this week’s challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like to see pets featuring on our cards - cats, dogs, goldfish, guinea pigs... any domestic pet will do!

I’m playing for the first time at Retro Rubber too - the idea is to use stamps that are at least a year old. Challenge #rrcb97 is a tic tac toe; I’ve used the bottom row of the grid - animal, window, circles. The cat was one of my early stamp purchases (about 11 years ago) and the sentiment is even older!

I wanted the stone wall texture in the corners of the card but the folder wasn't wide enough to send it through the Big Shot and have it cover the whole width of the card front and use "diffusers" so I used a rubber mallet and did one corner at a time.

Stamps:
Festive Cat (Tanda Stamps, long since closed its doors - stamp is 11 or 12 years old)
MSE sentiment set

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Memento markers (Lady Bug and Rich Cocoa)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Copic markers
Christmas Window die (Die’sire)
Dry stone wall embossing folder (Crafter’s Companion)
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Gold gel pen
Corner Chomper
Misti (a great help in getting the cat in the right place!)
Pinflair glue gel
Rubber mallet!

Thanks for stopping by, we'd love to see you at Daring Cardmakers with your pet-themed cards!

New Year Numbers

Happy New Year everyone!

A new year means a new monthly theme for the postcard swap on UK Stampers. I missed the last couple of 2011 so I was pleased to get time to make something for the first swap of this year where our theme is numbers.

I chose to make the numbers a focal point and focus on the year since it's just starting. I'm a bit of a font geek and I absolutely adore the style of these - the maker actually found a box of old stamps at a flea market labelled "Grocery Sign Marking Kit" and used the impressions, including imperfections, to make new stamps.

Extra numbers feature on the tape measure and Roman numerals of the clock face.

I heat emboss the numbers and then coloured the card with Distress Stain and overstamped the tape measure with dye ink so the embossing resisted it. I sponged over the clock mask and then added the lady using Versafine so that I could bleach the face area. Happy accident was that the bleached stain took on a pinkish tone. A slightly less hapy accident was a streak of stray bleach. Keeping the "embellishment opportunity" philosophy in mind, I stamped some crackle texture to camouflage it! Finally, I used metallic pencils to add a bit of silver and purple to the image.

Stamps:
A&P Numbers (Ma Vinci's Reliquary)
Tape measure from Hardware set (Crafty Secrets)
Retro Women Set 2 (Tanda Stamps)
Crackleglaze background (Indigo Blu)

Paper:
Ivory mountboard

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Weathered Wood, Black Soot)
Tim Holtz Distress Stain by Ranger (Weathered Wood)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Detail white embossing powder
Timeworks mask (Tim Holtz Alterations)
Bleach
Ferby Metallic pencils by Lyra

Thanks for stopping by - hope your numbers are all lucky this year!

Time for tea?

The theme for the August postcard swap on UK Stampers is tea time. As usual for this swap, postcards need to be posted "naked" so no bulky embellishments or bits that might get damaged or ripped off under the gentle ministrations of Royal Mail's finest.

I went for a retro look. I thought repeat stamping the tea cup in muted shades had a bit the feel of 50s kitchen textiles which went well with the Tanda lady stamp. I didn't want to fiddle with cutting a mask so I stamped the cups first, stamped the lady and then bleached her face and hand to get rid of the teacup outlines. She's coloured with Copics (carefully since I'd stamped with Versafine!). For a bit of glamour, she has a touch of Copic Spica glitter pen on her lips !

A vellum overlay with a bite cut out of it is stiched over to throw the lady into the spotlight and the whole lot is stuck to a second piece of card so the back is tidy.

Stamps:
Retro Women 2 (Tanda Stamps)
The Cafe (CHF, retired)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Vellum

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx black)

Other:
Copic markers
Copic Spica glitter pen (red)
Sewing machine and thread

Why not come and join the swap if you fancy a bit of happy mail in with the bills and junk? It's not a big commitment - just make one card and you'll get one in return. Details here.

Thanks for stopping by. Is it time for tea, yet?!

Go wild with Tando Creative!

The challenge for August on the Tando Creative Challenge blog is to Go Wild! With a prize up for grabs, why not let your own creative juices run wild and play along with us? The theme is totally open to your interpretation and you don't have to use Tando products on your entry (although if you do you'll get a double chance in the prize draw).

Kaz, Karen and Angela have already shared some fab samples with us and this week Carol and I are going wild too. You can see Carol's project as well as this one of mine here.

I haven't quite decided what this is destined to be! I might make it into a mini book cover and then again I might just give it a little stand and have it on a shelf.

I started with a sheet of the Tando greyboard which is really sturdy. I gave it a spritz with water to help the embossing along a bit and ran it through my die cutter in a Texture Fade folder. I used acrylic paints to give it the appearance of baked earth - the plains of the Serengeti, perhaps! Dark brown was rubbed all over the sheet, making sure to get well down into the embossing and once that was dry I used a sand colour over the top, keeping it just on the higher spots.

The leopard and map of Africa are stamped onto plain white cardstock, cut out and stuck over the base. The leopard's head is raised along the top edge on foam pads for some dimension.

Stamps:
Leopard profile (CHF, retired)
Map from Safari Set 1 (Tanda Stamps)

Paper:
Tando Creative greyboard sheet
White cardstock

Ink:
Adirdonack by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo and Black Soot)

Other:
Copic Markers
Tim Holtz Texture Fade - Cracked
Acrylic paints

Thanks for stopping by! You can check out all the details of how to play along in this month's challenge here - we'd love to have you play along!

UK Stampers header competition

UK Stampers is one of the forums I like to visit. There's a header competition running at the moment to choose a new banner for the forum. There are a dozen entries to choose from - if you're a forum member why not pop over and vote for your favourite on this thread? (You'll need to be logged in to see all the entries and cast your vote.) Voting closes on Sunday so you still have a couple of days to decide.

My entry uses

Stamps:
Retro women (Tanda Stamps)
Alphanumber backgroundr (Cornish Heritage Farms, retired)
Not My Type alphabet stamps (Ma Vinci's Reliquary)

Paper: Cryogen White

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Dusty Concord)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Pool)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Spray can lid
Bubble wrap
Dymo label maker
Copic multiliner

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Life is a journey

We're doing another postcard swap over on UK Stampers. I've decided I like the idea of the "real" postcard ethos of sending something with no envelope so I'm sticking with flat and light with nothing stuck on that might drop off!

My recipient this time is Sam who lives in Evesham so I chose an appropriate chunk from an old road atlas for my central panel. The sentiment is embossed in copper and then swiped over with that staple of the modern craft room, gesso (ah! whatever did we do without this stuff?!) to help it stand out from the busy background. As the paper had a coated finish, the car didn't stamp quite as cleanly as I would have liked so I gave it a bit of help with a black marker in a few places.

Stamps:
Vintage Transport (Tanda Stamps)
Sentiment from Encouragement Expressions (Cornish Heritage Farms, retired)

Paper:
Black
Old road atlas

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Memento marker (Tuxedo Black)
Detail embossing powder (copper)
Gesso
Nestabilites by spellbinder (Labels Eight)

Hope life's journey is treating you kindly - thanks for stopping by!

Time flies...

Ooops, bad blogger! I thought I'd show you this card - I made it a little while back but it's been in an anonymous voting process and I didn't want to blow my cover! The lovely people on the Tanda Stamps forum have a card making competition every month with forum members voting for their favourite card from all the entries. The theme for May was Bugs and Kisses - so anything with butterflies, ladybirds etc etc.

Being a last-minute minnie I had to choose something reasonably quick. I cut the dragonfly from the Crafty Secrets Earthy paper pad and just added a little sparkle to his wings with a clear Spica glitter pen. Edges of the paper (from the Radiant pad) are sponged and then overstamped with the swirls and the sentiment (which I thought went nicely with the fleeting nature of a dragonfly).

Supplies: Beautiful and Time to Stamp sets (both Cornish Heritage Farms), Earthy and Radiant paper pads (Crafty Secrets), Tim Holtz Distress ink (Tea Dye), sewing machine and metallic thread, nail art gems

Big smile - my card won the vote this time so I got to pick out a prize of some new stamps! Thank you very much Tanda, I'll enjoy playing with my vintage transport set just as soon as I get my (work) life under control!

I am woman

Well obviously, I am a woman but it's the title of this week's DCM dare, set by Lythan who says our cards must feature at least one feminine image. I had no trouble with the 'extra' rules since I don't own a single Tilda, Sugar Nellie or Bella image :o)

I was lucky enough to win some stamps from Tanda Stamps recently and I chose the Retro Women 2 plate which I thought would offer a perfect image for this dare. Click through for a bigger view if you want it...



I thought it would be fun to add just a little splash of colour for the shoes and although you can't really see on the photo, I went over the legs with a glaze pen to give them the slight sheen of silk stockings.

Supplies: Come Up and See Us from Retro Women 2 plate (Tanda Stamps), Paisley backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms), Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Distress Antique Linen, ivory and black grosgrain from stash, flower punches, seed beads and pin from stash, corner rounder, foam tape, decorative scissors, Sakura Glaze Pen, Prismacolor pencil.

Thanks for taking a peep - do let me know what you think if you have a minute!

New Nest!

I haven't done a DCM dare in ages so I thought a New Year was a good time to get back into the swing of it. Lynne's set the dare this time and she wants us to celebrate something new with our cards. I'm doubling up my challenges here as Carolyn has just set a 'birds and bees' challenge on CBC so I thought a new home card should do the trick.



I masked off the area for the nest before stamping the bird so that he looks like he's sitting rather than standing. I also tried to make him look a bit more settled by not inking his back wing before stamping! I used the 'negative' of the mask to ink in the nest area and then added a bit of detail with a Prismacolor pencil. I thought gingham would provide a nice homey sort of background and I used pinking shears on the edges and did faux stitching to complete the fabric effect.

Supplies: Singing Swirly Bird and Gingham backgrounder (both CHF) and New Home (Tanda Stamps), Ranger Distress ink Broken China, Clearsnap Chalk ink Dark Brown and Creamy Brown, Whispers ink Azure Seas, Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump, blue Quicklet, grosgrain from stash, Nestabilities Classic Circle

Thanks for dropping by!

Moooo-ving?

I always struggle with new home cards, I have no idea why! Anyway, here's the last of the stamps I got from Cornish Heritage Farms (see Monday's post).



She's called Bossy the Cow and gave me the perfect opportunity for a pun. The insert in the card says Hope the moooove went well. The Home Sweet Home stamp on the signpost is from the mini set by Tanda Stamps. I cut Bossy out after stamping and colouring and pop mounted her on the card front.

Supplies: Bossy the Cow (CHF), New Home mini set (Tanda Stamps), Ranger Archival jet black, Clearsnap Chalk azurite, ice blue and rose coral inks plus random browns for wood effect on signpost, Quikutz grass, daisy punch, green DCWV textured cardstock, blue and green papers from scrap box.

TFL!

Christmas cat!

Hello, I'm back from holidays and thought I'd share a project I did just before I went away. This started life as a tin containing ground coffee and I've altered it to make a Christmas gift.




Thanks to Tanda Stamps DT member Anna for the inspiration to combine the stamps! The stamps are both from Tanda - they're called Festive Cat and Three Gifts and they're fab!

I stamped the cat on a strip of thin card cut to fit around the tin. Then I stamped it again onto thin notepaper and cut it out to use as a mask before stamping the group of gifts. That way, I get to keep the cut out to use for masking future projects and I didn't have to do anything precise round the whiskers as that part of the stamping doesn't overlap! I repeated the gifts image along the length of the card strip so the design goes all the way around the tin.

The gifts are coloured using brush markers and a green highlighter pen to keep things on the bright side! A gold gel pen adds a bit of festive metallic effect. As the cat's hat is solid on the stamp, I coloured over the black bit with a white gel pen and then used a Gellyroll pen to colour it red. I inked the edges of the card strip with Ice Blue chalk ink and stuck it round the tin before tying on a bit of stitched grosgrain ribbon.

For the lid, I cut a circle to fit and inked the edge with the Ice Blue pad. I cut a smaller circle from scrap paper and used the 'frame' as a border mask so I could stamp the cat's face without going all the way out to the edge. Then I used the Gellyroll pen to write Christmas Cookies round the border and finished by stamping a few snowflakes at the base of the circle in the Ice Blue chalk ink.

I'll bake the cookies to put inside nearer to Christmas!

I reckon you could adapt this for all sorts of things... get the snowman stamps out and make a 'Build your own snowman' kit for the kids (either marshmallows and Matchmakers or pom-poms, pipecleaners and felt)... decorate one to put Santa's snack inside to keep it fresh overnight on Christmas Eve...

Thanks for looking - if you've enjoyed the project, it'd be lovely to see your comments, it's always great to know who's visiting!