More postcards

I'm still making postcards to send to my dad and brother during lockdown. I managed to forget to photograph last week's (featuring big fat bees) but remembered this week - butterflies to celebrate the little critters being back out in force in our garden and along the lane.

The usual postcard etiquette is at play here - single layer, no embellishments so there's no risk of anything coming loose and messing up sorting equipment etc. A bit of drop shadow on the big butterfly, done with a couple of grey markers, gives the design an illusion of depth.

Stamps:
Wings (Darkroom Door)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Soft Granite)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Twisted Citron)

Other:
Copic markers
Cressida stencil (Memory Box)
Corner Chomper

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

Card Chain Challenge - March reveal!

I'm a day late but the Card Chain Challenge reveal for March is up. My card went to Linda in Minnesota this time.

From the options on offer I went for the colour scheme (lemon. lime, sky blue) and the theme of "things with wings" to make a clean and simple card that was good for airmail.

The butterfly is coloured with a Zig Clean Colour marker and a damp paintbrush to spread the colour for varied intensity.

The fact that there are three different sizes of each circle in the Indigo Blu stamp set means you can compose your own background quite easily with just a bit of masking.

Stamps:
Wings (Darkroom Door)
Limor Circles (Indogo Blu)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Twisted Citron)
Jenni Bowlin ink by Ranger (Lemon Drop)

Other:
Spellbinder die (Phrases Set 1)
Corner Chomper
Zig Clean Colour marker

Hope you and yours are staying safe and well in these strange times. Thanks for stopping by!

Rosemary is for remembrance

Dawn has set today's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. Dawn lost her dad recently and so would like to see cards representing special thoughts of someone. It could be a card in memory of someone, or one to let someone know they’re in your thoughts.

I had a plan for this and then found I needed to make a sympathy card for a friend who just lost her mum so my plan changed. Her mum loved her garden and the birds and butterflies that visit so this set seemed perfect.

I started by brushing on a very light coverage of blue ink from bottom left and then stamped the rosemary sprig several times to create the effect of the top of a bush. I used pencils to colour since I feel I have a bit more control in the very narrow spaces of the leaves than I have with Copics - three shades of green, two of purple and white. The tips of the stamens have dots of gold gel pen to finish them off.

Stamps:
Soothing Sympathy (Power Poppy)

Paper:
Bristol board

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

Other:
Coloured pencils
Gold gel pen
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

January Elements

Happy New Year! It's the first challenge of the NewYear after our wee break so today over at Daring Cardmakers is Elemental day - choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture to kickstart your creation.

I chose the butterfly, grass stalk, chevron pattern and the blues/aquas from the colour palette.

I got a pack of Gel Press Petites for my birthday and had a first play here with the circle one - I just used it a bit like a big stamp to layer up the inks and then add the chevron pattern by stamping onto the gel plate itself before transferring to the paper. It made it really easy to line up the repeat pattern (it's a border stamp).

Stamps:
Antique Engravings (Hero Arts)
Thankful Silhouettes (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)
Offbeat Backgrounds (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Say It All (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Stonewashed, Denim)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Copic markers
Wink of Stella (clear)
Gel Press Petites
Corner Chomper 
MISTI 

Here's the lovely mood board we have for our January inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stencilled Scrapling

Svenja has set the challenge for this week's Daring Cardmakers - she'd like to see stencils and shades of green on our projects. I've made a scrapling in which the stencil took a bit more of a supporting role that my original plan but I find you can't always dictate what happens at the craft table!

I started with a piece of mixed media paper with Juniper ink sptritzed and pooled on it that was left over from a previous project and built up from there, stencilling and stamping over the top. A pretty die cut butterfly, a spatter of Enamel Accents and pen dots and some messy silver thread and I called it done - I seem to be having a problem including sentiments on things at the moment!

Supplies:
Mini Butterfly Duo dies by Time Holtz/Sizzix
Wings stamp set by Darkroom Door
Bamboo Mixed Media paper by Hannemuhl
Scraps of black and orange cardstock
Juniper Adinrodack dye ink by Ranger
Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint Distress ink by Ranger
Cressida stencil by Memory Box
Copic markers
Clear wink of Stella pen
Black Engamel Accents by Ranger
Fine line marker
Silver thread
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Geometrics

Leo is setting the challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she's asking us to make geometric patterns on our cards. Any kind of shapes used repeatedly to make a pattern is fine here, Leo's only stipulation is that it shouldn't simply be a piece of patterned paper, you should make the pattern yourself (stamps, die cuts, stitching etc).


I decided to make my pattern with die cut circles, double sided tape sheet and glitter. In the end I chose a reinforcer die from a tag set so I ended up with rings rather than solid circles.

I stuck the die cuts to a square covered with tape, keeping my fingers off the sticky as much as possible (keeping the release paper handy and using it as a shield is a good idea). Then I burnished fine glitter over the piece to complete the pattern and stuck it to a black mat.

A stamped butterfly and a simple sentiment finish off a fairly bold, graphic look.

Stamps: 
Antique Engravings and Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Microfine glitter
Tag die set (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Double sided tape sheet
Copic markers
Corner Chomper

Size: 14cm (5.5") square

Take a look at the blog to see what the team has been up to with triangles, squares etc - it would be lovely to see you there with your own geometrics, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

November inspiration

It's Friday so it's Daring Cardmakers day and despite having finished my month as Guest Designer I'm still here! I'm delighted to have been invited to stay on as a permanent member of the team which should give me a little prod to make something each week as well as being great fun!

Being the first week of the month it's an "elemental" dare - scroll down to see the picture Kathy chose or, even better, visit the DCM blog to see the picture and the different ways it inspired the team.

There are loads of possibilities in the picture so choosing three or more elements shouldn't be too difficult.

I chose the colours, butterfly (it seems a strange decoration for a Christmas tree but definitely there!), circular cushion and glitz (gold embossing and gems). I tried to keep some of the overall "busy" feel as well which made me a bit twitchy but I think there's enough white space here to counteract it!

My purple circles are domed to fit with the cushion element - I've got a couple of wooden implements that go with a dapping/doming block designed for shaping jewellery pieces which proved very useful on larger circles. An embossing stylus is great for tiny ones but not so much use when you go large!

Stamps: Wings by Darkroom Door

Ink: 
Adirondack by Ranger (Pool)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Picked Raspberry)
Versamark

Paper:
Bristol board
Textured purple

Other:
Gold detail embossing powder
Coloursoft pencil
Circle punches and die
Hello die by Waltzingmouse Stamps (retired)
Cressida stencil by Memory Box
Corner Chomper
Nail art gems
Pinflair glue gel

The elemental inspiration picture:

Thanks for stopping by!

Simple butterfly

I think a card for airmailing needs to be light and flat (unless you want to get into sending it as a parcel!) so this is a one layer card. The recipient teaches maths so I went for a numbers border to tie in with that, stamped with grey ink over a masked butterfly.

As I wanted to use Copic colouring I added a sheet of paper stuck inside the front the card to disguise any bleed-through but still keep the one-layer aesthetic.

A charcoal pencil shadow adds a bit of depth to help the image pop off the surface and there's a wee bit of shimmer on the butterfly's spots courtesy of a Wink of Stella pen.

Stamps:
Antique Engravings and Say It All by Hero Arts
Numbers Border by Kaisercraft

Paper: Smooth white

Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko
Soft Granite by Hero Arts

Other:
Corner Chomper
Wink of Stella clear pen
Charcoal pencil

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday butterfly

My friend's daughter is at that age where she's no longer really a little girl but she's not old enough to be into "teen" things just yet, either. So,  I decided to throw a bit of sophistication into the mix this year but kept a girly pink and gold colour scheme and personalised it since I think kids tend to like that.

I got  new laptop a wee while back and it had a protective film over the keyboard area.  I used that as a stencil with a couple of Distress ink colours for an ombre effect.

The stamped butterfly was sponged with the same inks - I've added hot pink glitter to the spots on the edges of the wings and used water to lift off some of the colour in the large spots. The body was filled in quickly with a Copic and I used my usual trick of stamping just the antennae on the card and adding the cut out butterfly over the top rather than attempting to cut round anything really fiddly!

The sentiment was stamped with Flitter Glue and then flaked and the die cut lettering got the same treatment. It makes photography more difficult but it's a nice rich gold effect in real life!

With hindsight, I think I should have put her name just a wee bit higher up for better overall balance of the design but never mind, she liked it!

Stamps:
Antique Engravings and Essential Messages (both Hero Arts)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Pearlescent Chocolate
Distress by Ranger - Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry

Other:
Font One dies by Spellbinder (both upper and lower case)
FlitterGlu
Chariot of Fire Megaflake
Hot pink glitter
Corner Chomper
Film from laptop keyboard used as stencil

Thanks for stopping by!