Atmospherics!

Lydia has set this week's Mixability challenge at Splitcoast Stampers - Through the Mist.

The idea is to clean a painty brayer by rolling on clean cardstock and use the resulting piece as the basis for something.  The brayered prints are often reminiscent of a misty landscape. Lydia's put together a great little video, you can check it out of the SCS thread linked above.

When I watched the video, I kept mentally filling in bare tree shapes on the prints so that's where mine had to go, I'm afraid! I stamped the tree over the brayered base and added a bit of white pen for some moonlight highlights. I smudged a little charcoal pencil along some of those higlights to soften them.

I helped the brayering along just a tiny bit with a pen line under the tree to define the ground a bit more and stamped and white embossed the sentiment. The moon is finger-painted with silver acrylic paint and I added some lowlights with a Copic fine liner once the paint was dry (again smudging with my finger).

I kept the setting really simple, just sticking it slightly offset on the cardbase and running the fineliner round the edge of the panel - I thought the simplicity went with the tranquil feel.

Stamps:
Winter Trees by Stampendous
Scene-it Sentiments by Hobby Art

Paper: smooth white

Other:
Lamp Black Americana acrylic paint by DecoArt
Shimmering Silver metallic acrylic paint by DecoArt
Graphite Black Brilliance ink
Copic fineliner
Posca white pen
Bright white embossing powder by WOW!
Charcoal pencil

Thanks for stopping by!

Less is More Week 8

It's recipe or sketch time at Less is More - Chrissie and Mandy have given us a sketch to play with this time around. It's a DL card, tall and slim (for our friends in North America - it's roughly equivalent to taking two thirds of a letter size sheet and folding in half; the sort of size you'd get for a business letter or bank statement!).

I used the same Technique Tuesday set I used on Friday as it was still out on my desk. The original plan was just to use the flower in the place where there's a circle on the sketch but it looked just a tad out of scale so I ended up creating a little group and breaking over the boundaries of the card. No colouring though and this flower is a really easy shape to cut out so it was still a fast card to put together.

The embossed area at the bottom has just a hint of colour - I brayered Bundled Sage ink onto my folder before running it through the Big Shot.

Stamps:
Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Cryogen white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Bundled Sage)

Other:
Embossin folder by Provocraft (Victoria)
Copic marker (to colour the brown strip and the pearls)
Pearls

I always find this shape card looks much better in real life than it does in photos - maybe it's the proof that not everything long and lean is photogenic?!

Thanks for stopping by!

Continuous effort

I signed up for a postcard swap over on UK Stampers. I thought I'd go the whole hog and make something that really could be mailed as a postcard rather than feeling it had to go into an envelope for protection. Here's what I did (Linda, look away now if you'd rather not see before it reaches you in the flesh!).

I had a play with the bouncing brayer technique to make the background (tutorial {here} if you've never heard of this), inking up with three different Distress inks - perfect for the current Gingersnap colour challenge of yellow, orange and red. Then I overstamped the keys and script in Spiced Marmalade, used bubble wrap and gesso at top right and bleach stamped a couple of small clocks before adding the sentiment and clock face in black ink.

I gave the whole lot a spritz with Krylon sealant to give it a bit more protection as it goes through the post. The lace wasn't quite the right colour so I swiped over with a Copic marker before sticking it down firmly and then sitching it along the edge and stitching the sequins in place to be sure there was nothing loose going on. I stuck the whole lot to another piece of cardstock so the back was neat.

Stamps (all Cornish Heritage Farms):
Time to Stamp (Rummage Bin line)
Key Elements (All Things Considered line -in stock here at Bubbly Funk if you're in the UK)
Key Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

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

Paper:
Smooth white

Other:
Lace by Prima Marketing
Sequins
Gesso
Bubble wrap
Bleach
Krylon Matt spray sealant
Gold thread

Hope Linda likes it! Thanks for stopping by!

Bird watching birthday

I made this card for my uncle's birthday (happy birthday Uncle John!). Dogs and water seemed about right for his interests so I pulled out this lovely stamp from the Saturday Evening Post range. I heat embossed with fine detail black for a silhouette that would resist the ink I brayered over the top for the sunset. I used a punched circle to mask the sun before brayering and then lightly sponged with the same inks I'd used for the sky. A few white gel pen highlights give the impression of the grasses and the dog's nose catching the last rays of the sun.

I kept the layout very simple and resisted adding any embellishments to leave the focus on the image and the rich colours.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Bird Watching (Saturday Evening Post line - if you are in the UK, Bubbly Funk has this stamp in stock {here})
Cursive Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Simply smooth
Black
Kraft

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Sky brayered with Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick)

Other:
Detail black embossing powder
Memento marker by Tsukineko (Tuxedo black)
Inkssentials white gel pen by Ranger

Tools:
Brayer
Squeeze punch by Fiskars (large circle)
Sponge

Thanks for stopping by!

Whoa, I'm going to Barbados...

I'm not really but I kept singing it whilst making this card!

I was lucky enough to win a set of Kim Hughes designed stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms during their last blitz event and have just made my first card with Paradise Found.

We could use a little sunshine at the moment so I thought I'd go for a tropical sunset and some bright hibiscus flowers to frame it. The layout kind of reminds me of that '70s kind of postcard, if you know what I mean! The flower garland was done with a simple mask and the stamp just turned at different angles. The sunset is brayered and the flowers are coloured with alcohol markers. I didn't have any suitable foliage stamps so I just drew some green shapes in there with markers. I sponged black ink up against torn copier paper to make the land bar for the distant palms.

Supplies: Paradise Found (Cornish Heritage Farms), Ranger Archival jet black, Adirondack ink (sunshine yellow, sunset orange), Tim Holtz Distress ink (Scattered Straw, Fired Brick), Clearsnap chalk ink (azurite), oval Nesability (used as a guide with a scalpel), alcohol markers (some Copic, some Tria), brayer

Three blog friends have been kind enough to give me an award too - thank you! Dan, Shaz and Hazel all have blogs of their own - why not pay a visit?.

I'm supposed to pick seven blogs and nominate them now but I'm rubbish at this because I love visiting so many blogs. Here's a handful: Lisa at Silver Stamping, Keri at Pink Lemonade, Kathy, in her own world, Tracy at Craftyme, Kaz at Slightly Wonky Crafts and Janice, the Serial Crafter. Please don't be offended if you're not here - my brain aches just remembering that many!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brayered Birthday Wishes

I've been admiring Michelle Zindorf's work with a brayer, both on Splitcoaststampers and the Cornish Heritage Farms gallery. I remembered using something similar as a kid when I made a lino block for Christmas cards one year and Dad let me use a "roller thingy" to apply the gloopy printer's ink.

Sure enough, Dad can be relied upon not to have got rid of such things and I've borrowed the brayer - thanks Dad! It's probably half a century old but it still does the job!

Not easy, this brayering lark but after a lot of faffing about trying different cardstock and rolling actions, I think I might be getting somewhere.



Supplies: Adirondack Willow, Tim Holtz Distress Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters, Clearsnap Fluid Chalk ink Dark Brown, brayer, Single Black Eyed Susan (CHF), sentiment words from HOTP set, Prismacolor pencils, French curve template, fine point brown marker, sewing machine, acrylic nailart gems.

Because I wanted longer stems at a different angle than the stamp, I stuck tape over the stem when I inked up and just stamped the flower head. Then I used a French curve template and drew in stems with a fine brown marker.

I was inspired to do a green background to fit with Claudia's blog challenge to create something using your favourite colour. My favourite colour varies from time to time but I always seem to gravitate back to greens, especially soft or olivey tones.

Thanks for dropping by - hope your day is a good one!