Kathy's sketch

Kathy's celebrating 40,000 visitors to her blog with a little sketch challenge.

Here's the sketch - I do hope she'll forgive the little liberties I've taken with my card. I've extended the panel on the right out to the edges of the card and used the knot of my ribbon as the circular object. Still, sketches are for inspiration, not slavish copying, right?






I've used stamps from the set I picked as part of my prize when I won the Crafty Secrets Easter Printables contest (post here if you'd like to see the card) as Kathy likes needleworky things so I thought it would be appropriate. Sadly the photo doesn't show the sparkly bits! I used a Spica clear glitter pen on the lace round the top of the bodice and it looks very pretty and girly in real life!

Supplies: Sew Special (Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps), Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing folder, vintage buttons, Brilliance Graphite Black, Colorbox Pigment Frost White, piercer, white gel pen, Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump, grosgrain rescued from a pack of Dasiy D's paper swatches, waxed linen thread, Copic Atyou Spica clear glitter pen

Hope you're all having a lovely day and the sun is shining on you!

Friday's final

OK, I know it's Tuesday - the Bank Holiday hasn't left me quite that confused! This is the final challenge from the CHF Backgrounder Blitz though and we did that on a Friday. The challenge was to use a backgrounder on anything but a card. I was running out of time so mine was fast and furious...



You can't beat a bagalope for a quick project! This started life as an A5 cream laid paper envelope and has just the one backgrounder on the body of it and a simple flower silhouette on a tag cut with a Nestability die. In terms of 'bang for your buck' I think it gives pretty high returns :o)

Supplies: A5 envelope, Rice Paper backgrounder and Silhouette Blooms I (both Cornish Heritage Farms), Tim Holtz Distress Ink Shabby Shutters, scoring board, Nestability Classic oval ide, satin ribbon, cream brad (Dovecraft)

Thanks for visiting today. If you have time to drop by tomorrow, I have news to share and the chance to win some stuff too - hope to see you then!

Double time masking

Two more CHF background challenges today - double time and masking.

The double time challenge asked us to use two or more background stamps in our designs. A friend had asked me to make a birthday card for her dad who is keen on vintage trains so I combined paisley (reminiscent of smoke from the funnel?) and broad stripe to evoke the tracks and made this...



Supplies: Paisley and Broad stripe backgrounders (both Cornish Heritage Farms), vintage train (unknown), ticket from Journey set (Crafty Secrets), sentiment from HOTP set. Brilliance Graphite Black, Tim Holtz Distress ink Antique Linen, Tea dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, watercolour pencil, scoring board, small circle punch (for ticket corners on main panel).

Broad stripe made another appearance for the masking challenge to pretty up a box to hold some notelets I made for my mum's birthday. The box originally held Belgian chocolates - a gift from one of DH's business trips to Europe but obviously I had to consume those rather quickly as the box was the perfect size for the notelets I'd made! I stamped the Daisy Jar on a piece of cardstock cut to fit the lid and then masked it to stamp the background.



Supplies: Daisy Jar and Broad stripe backgrounder (both Cornish Heritage Farms), Adirondack Cool Peri, Ranger Archival Jet Black, Clearnsap Chalk ink wisteria, Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump, satin ribbon, empty chocolate box!

Both of these projects take advantage of the fact that with just a little fancy footwork, you can extend Broad stripe sideways and still have it looking perfect if your project is wider than the stamp - love it!

Thanks for your visit today, I hope you enjoyed it!

Backgrounder Blitz

Last week on the Cornish Heritage Farms forum, the DT girls organised a Backgrounder Blitz - a week's worth of challenges involving background stamps. I managed to do something each day but was busy enough with other stuff that I did quick uploads to the CHF gallery and nothing else so I thought I'd share some of them with you on the blog this week.

The first challenge was to use a BG stamp to make something based on a sketch by Lisa Strahl. Here's the sketch:



And here's my card based on it.



I didn't have any ribbon in the colour I wanted so I used Lisa Silver's tip of colouring a neutral ribbon with an alcohol marker. This technique can stiffen your ribbon but with a lightweight silk one like this, that can be an advantage as it results in a bit more 'body'. The sentiment is stamped directly onto the ribbon.

Supplies: Weathered Wood backgrounder and Silhouette Blooms I (both Cornish Heritage Farms), Tim Holtz Distress Ink Weathered Wood, Brilliance Graphite Black, 1" silk ribbon, Tria marker, silver gel pen

Thanks for looking, I'll add some more tomorrow!

Bright Suzies

I don't know about you but I seem to have been looking at Christmas cards forever and thought it was about time for a bit of a change. Here's another card created with the stamps I got for my birthday. This one uses a sketch posted by Debbie Olsen as part of Lisa Strahl's 30th Birthday Bash over at the Cornish Heritage Farms forum.



I changed the proportions a bit and because the image was slightly too wide for the triptych to work, I've cropped the flowers to make each panel a bit narrower. I cropped each one differently for a bit of added interest. Isn't this Black-eyed Susan lovely and cheerful-looking?!

Supplies: Single Black-eyed Susan (Cornish Heritage Farms), sentiment from Woodware Tiny Phrases set, Tsukineko Brilliance Black Graphite, Copic Sketch markers, DCWV textured cardstock, orange grosgrain from stash, paper piercer

Thanks for stopping by!

I've come over all elegant!

I seem to have been going through a bit of a bright colour, funky image kind of phase just recently but I think I've been struck by a touch of elegantitis in the last day or so. Not like me at all, is it?!

A while ago, I saw a set by Stampin' Up! called Long Stemmed on eBay and thought it looked gorgeous. I've been on the lookout for one since then and finally managed to get one for only $6.50! That's four wood mounted stamps for just over three quid (OK, the shipping pushed it up some but still bargainous, I reckon).

I've been playing with the iris image first and there's something about the long curved stem that cried out for the elegant treatment so...



I'm really pleased with how this turned out. The stamped panel is made with the faux linen technique using glossy photo paper (from Aldi!). The iris is coloured with Copic Sketch markers with a little bit of white gel pen smudged over a few places for more 'painterly' highlights. I thought the Cuttlebug Textile Texture folder and ribbon would make nice textural elements here and I tried something a bit different by punching a hole near the edge of the stamped panel and threading the ribbon through so that the knot and loose ends overlap the panel a bit. I'm afraid I can't remember where I've seen this done - if it was you and you're reading this, let me know and I'll credit you properly, thank you!

See those tiny gems? They're the sort that are designed for sticking on your fingernails *lol*. My nails are plain and unadorned but I thought these would be perfect when you want to add just a little bit of subtle sparkle to a project and they're much cheaper than stuff packaged and sold to crafters! Asela on the Cornish Heritage Farms forum and gallery should take the credit for this one - thanks Asela!

Supplies: Iris from SU! Long Stemmed set, glossy photo paper, Tim Holtz Distress ink Weathered Wood, Nick Bantock inkpad Charcoal Grey, sandpaper, Copic Sketch markers (mallow, blue violet, cadmium yellow, pale yellow, lettuce green), white gel pen, Cuttlebug Textile Texture folder, acrylic nailart gems, ribbon from stash.

Thanks for looking!

Hand cut Christmas

The DCM challenge is set by Tracie this week and she's asked us to include some hand cutting on our cards. I had a total nightmare day yesterday where my mojo definitely left home but I managed this today. Not quite sure about it but I guess it's OK.



Tree was hand drawn and cut from a piece of thick card (back of a notebook) then covered with white core card and distressed. The big M and C were hand drawn and cut and the rest of the greeting stamped with alpha stamps and snipped into random shapes. I added a bit of inking and gel pen detail, a snippet of cuttlebug textured card, a star brad and a piece of ribbon to finish. Oh, and some piercing, of course ;o)

Adapt-a-stamp!

After putting a santa hat on Bossy the Cow a few posts ago, my mind started wandering around the possibility of adapting other non-Christmassy stamps to make Christmas cards. Here's what happened:



I coloured the Singing Swirly Bird stamp in festive colours and used a gold gel pen to add detail to the beak, wings and tail feathers. The holly garland is made of leaves cut on the CraftRobo with veins added freehand with a green metallic gel pen. I seem to have the urge to add a bit of piercing to everything at the moment - not quite sure why but things don't seem to look quite finished without it!

Supplies: Singing Swirly Bird stamp (Cornish Heritage Farms), sentiment from MSE set, CraftRobo, Ranger Archival Jet Black and Brilliance Moonlight White inks, Prismacolor pencils, Sansodor and blending stump, green and gold gel pens, red linen texture cardstock, stitched grosgrain, corner rounder punch.

TFL!

Wrapped in Ribbon

The girls at DCM have been playing with ribbon from Ribbon Oasis this week so their challenge is for us to make a Christmas card featuring ribbons galore. Here's mine:



I cut a triangle from thick card to make the tree base and then wrapped lengths of various different ribbons aroud it. I've machine stitched a length of wide velour ribbon to the card base and cut a pot from the same ribbon as well. I added a few brads for baubles and a star brad to top the tree off. A stamped sentiment, a bit of piercing and a trio of brads on the right hand side finish it off. I didn't have gold brads so I covered some (and the star) with gold sparkle embossing powder so they all matched.

My original idea was to do some ribbon weaving but I decided I liked the stripes before I started putting ribbons through in the other direction!

Supplies: ribbons from stash, sentiment stamp from MSE set, mini brads, star brad, gold sparkle EP.

Thanks for visiting!

ETA: Blogger's image hosting seems to be playing up. If you can't see the image and you'd like to, it's here on my Photobucket.

Silly cow!

This is one of those daft cards that arises from the fact that your craft table is a total mess: you see two unexpected things next to each other (a stamped cow and a die cut santa hat in this case) and the cogs start whirring in your brain. Throw into the mix Nicola's latest Play on Words challenge on CBC and what do you get?



The die cut hat was too big for Bossy so I had to tailor-make one in her size but I think she looks kind of cute in it!

Supplies: Bossy the Cow stamp (Cornish Heritage Farms), Ranger Archival jet black ink, Clearsnap Ice Blue chalk ink, Prismacolor pencils, Gelly Roll glaze pen, gel pen, red linen cardstock, green tape ribbon from stash, paper piercer (AKA map pin!).

I'm frustrated - there are new stamps in the house but I can't have them yet! I got a friend to bring back more CHF stamps when he visited the States so that I didn't pay for international shipping and didn't have to worry about import duties (more to spend on the stamps!) but DH has bought them for my birthday so I have to wait - gah! My blog visitors will probably breathe a sigh of relief too since I seem to be forming an obsession with this cow and the jar of daisies ;o)

TFL!

Wild cows?

It's Kathy's turn to set the dare over at DCM this week. The dare is titled Where the Wild Things Are and Kathy wanted our cards to feature animals.

This may not be quite what she had in mind but I have to say that after a nasty incident in her teens, my mum still refuses to walk across a field that has more than two cows in it - she'd certainly put them in the wild beast category!



I made this little notecard by stamping Bossy the Cow directly onto a slightly textured card blank. She's coloured with Prismacolor pencils blended with Sansodor and I've added a few little daisies, including one for her to chew on; I used a Souffle pen to make the stem nice and opaque. MOO! is stamped separately and cut out so that it stands out just a tiny bit from the card. Knotted gingham finishes it off.

Supplies: Bossy the Cow by Cornish Heritage Farms, See-D Typewriter alphabet, daisy from Woodware Tiny Phrases set, Clearsnap Azurite chalk ink, Ranger archival jet black, various Prismacolor pencils and Sansodor, Sakura Souffle pen, gingham ribbon from stash.