Recycling duty

Ruth has set this week's challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers, choosing her topic well before the current state of affairs. It might be very apt for times when we have to stay in since it's about using what you already have, not nipping out to buy new: recycling!

I decided I'd make postcards to send to my dad and brother - a bit of actual mail dropping through the letterbox might be extra welcome at this time and I figured postcards might raise a smile or two as they worked their way through the mail system.

My recycled elements are the insides of a couple of "security" envelopes (the sort that have bank statements etc in them) and the pointing fingers which came from cartons of oat milk - the printed layer of the carton peeled off beautifully so they were easy to cut out and not too bulky.

The bubble borders are painted with iridescent colours so they have an extra soap bubbly look about them but of course that doesn't come over on camera.

On a side note: if you're looking for a plant-based milk that froths well and keeps that froth for the perfect cafe latte or capuccino, I have to say that Oatly Barista does the job extremely well!

Stamps:
Bubble border (Lost Coast Designs)
Just My Type (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, no longer with us)

Paper:
Security envlopes (stuck on white card)

Ink:
Archival by Tsukineko (Cobalt Blue) 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Oatly carton
Perfect Pearls
Fine line marker

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and remember to wash your hands!

Lucky for some

It’s my turn to set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week. As it’s Friday 13th today I thought we should focus on luck - some people might believe it’s unlucky but St Patrick’s day is coming up in Tuesday so I’m hoping we can balance it out with the luck of the Irish!

Different cultures have different symbols of luck. I chose a peony as they’re widely considered to be lucky. Apparently the reason they’re popular as wedding flowers is because they symbolise good fortune and a happy marriage. I didn’t need a wedding card today but maybe I should bear that in mind next time I do!

I fancied having a go at a truly monochrome card - I used three grey Copics, two grey pencils and a black ink pad. I think it creates quite a calm kind of look. I used a silver gel pen for the stamens in the centre of the flower so there’s just the tiniest bit of glitz.

Stamps:
Peony (Paperbabe, retired)
Birthday (Letter It range by Ranger)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Silver gel pen 
Scor-It
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by!

March elements

Miri has set our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers today and as it’s the first Friday of the month of course it’s an “elemental” one - just choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture to include on your card.

That’s Crafty had a plate of Viva Las Vegastamps at a price I couldn’t resist in their end of year clear out sale - I really wanted it for the police box/Tardis image that’s on there but Brian Kesinger’s quirky illustration style should provide some fun, too!

Presumably Otto can build up a lot of speed on that penny farthing since he’s wearing driving goggles. Maybe when his tentacles get tired he just switches to a different pair since he has eight to chose from!

From the inspiration picture this month (it’s at the end of this post if you didn’t arrive via the DCM blog) I chose quirky octopus, painty strokes, little gold circles in threes, typewriter font and the colours. I stamped the image on the card just below the painty background and then stamped again on a scrap piece, coloured Otto, cut him out and stuck him on with gel glue so he’s raised up. The tiny circles are “stamped” with the little tube that’s sometime threaded on the end of a fine paintbrush to protect the bristles.

Stamps:
Otto's Sweet Ride (from Plate 909, Viva Las Vegastamps)
Sentiment from Mini Memories (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Delicata by Tsukineko (Golden Glitz)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Acrylic paints
Pinflair glue gel
Stitched rectangles dies, A6 size by Paper Rose

Here's our inspiration picture this month:

Leaping forward

It’s a leap year so Svenja is asking us to use things or people that leap this week over at Daring Cardmakers this week.

Kangaroos can take huge leaps so I chose this cute Kanga and Joey stamp.

I’m playing along at Lost Coast Designs as well where the current challenge asks for monkeys and/or repeat stamping. My monkey stamp has gone awol so I went for the repeat option - a stamping platform let me line up the Bubble Border so that stamping twice gave me a wider background strip with no obvious join. I used the earthy colours often seen in Australian Aboriginal art to go with the kangaroo and used Copic markers and a gold gel pen to fill in some of the circles.

Stamps:
Bubble Border (Lost Coast Designs)
Kanga and Joey (High Hopes)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Coffe Bean)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers 
Gold gel pen
Charcoal pencil
Corner Chomper 
Misti
Pinflair gel glue 

It would be lovely to see you at one or both of the challenges if you get chance - Daring Cardmakers is for the fun of it, Lost Coast offers a prize if there are enough players (and there already are, but more players means a bigger prize!). Thanks for stopping by!

 

String theory

Kathy has set this week’s challenge over at Daring Cardmakers - we’re “all tied up” using string, twine, ribbon etc on our cards.

I went for perhaps a slightly left-field take on this one since I used string but it’s not there on the finished card, if you see what I mean! I’ve seen “string pull” art several times and finally got round to having a try.

You basically ink up some string, put it down on the page in a wiggly pattern, put another piece of paper on top, apply pressure and pull the string. Totally unpredictable but fun!

There are loads of video tutorials out there if you want to have a go and prefer to learn visually - this one is as good a start point as any, I reckon!

Stamps:
Birthday (Letter It by Ranger)

Paper:
Smooth white, black, gold linen texture

Ink:
Flame Orange Acrylic ink (Daler Rowney)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Crochet thread
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by!

Who/what do you love?

Our challenge theme at Daring Cardmakers this week is "love" - who or what do you love?

I love bird images! After florals, I think they come a close second in terms of what I have in my stamp collection.

I also love clean  and simple and one layer designs. CAS designs are often great when you need a romantic card that's not too feminine - anniversaries, Valentines or "I love you" for the man in your life perhaps. Can you guess what hubby's Valentine looked like?

Pan Pastels made this a quick card -  I blended three colours into a square masked off with low tack tape, stamped the image and sentiment after removing the tape and gently erased colour from the birds' breast and cheek areas.

A stamping platform is really helpful here as the first impression tends to "lift" the pastel, a second stamping will give you a cleaner image (give the stamp a wipe in between).

Stamps:
Tree Swallows and Key Expressions (both Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Paper: Bristol board
Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance by Tsukineko
Other:
Pan Pastels (Turquoise, Phthalo Green Tint, Magenta Tint)
Spectrafix Degas fixative
MISTI
Low tack tape
Putty eraser

Thanks for stopping by!

Tag - you're it!

I was lucky enough to win some stamps from Lost Coast before Christmas so I thought it only right to use one to play along with a new challenge!

The current challenge is "tags" - make a tag, use a tag on something else, use a stamped image of a tag... details here.

I went for an "office supplies" vibe with the pencil border stamp, a tag and some string. Black and white with just a tiny splash of colour keeps things simple.

The tag is stuck on with gel glue so it's raised just a little from the card base but is still plenty flat enough for regular postage.

Stamps:
Pencil tops Border (Lost Coast Designs)
Say It All (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Stitched tag die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Copic markers
Black Fineliner
Corner Chomper
White crochet thread
Pinflair glue gel

There are always prizes on offer in the Lost Coast/Carmen's Veranda challenge and there are still a few days to play if you fancy doing something taggy!

February elements

It's the first Friday of the month so that can only mean an "elemental" challenge over at Daring Cardmakers - just use at least three elements from the inspiration picture to help kick start your project.

I won a grab bag from the lovely folk at Retro Rubber a while back which included a set with several cacti - since it hadn’t seen ink yet I thought this would be the perfect opportunity! As well as cacti, I chose red/green/pink, a bow and a handwritten style sentiment as my elements.

I’ve gone very clean and simple with a one layer card, just the tiny bow made with silver thread and a line drawn with a silver gel pen as embellishment. The flower is a line image so I stamped in light pink and coloured that with pencils, the rest are solid stamps so the inks did the heavy lifting.

Stamps:
Cactus (Momenta)
Say It All (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Momento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)
Distress Oxide by Ranger (Evergreen Bough)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Spanish Moss, Smokey Grey)
Distress by Ranger (Spun Sugar)

Other:
Silver thread
Silver gel pen
Charcoal pencil
Coloured pencils
MISTI (useful for solid stamp, especially new ones!)
Corner Chomper 

Here's our inspiration this month if you'd like to play along and didn't arrive via the DCM blog:

Thanks for stopping by!

New year, new chain!

It’s reveal day over at Card Chain Challenge. The first chain of 2020 saw my card winging its way to Shylaa in India.

From the options on offer I chose the colour palette and die cuts.

I finally caved in and added some pretty floral dies to my birthday wish list and was lucky enough to get these. I cut them from watercolour paper and used a combination of watercolour pencils and a Momento marker to add colour. A little bit of background stamping and my “trademark” rounded corner finish it off.

Stamps:
19th Century French Script and Say It All (both Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board 
Watercolour paper

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Walnut Stain)

Other:
Tim Holtz/Sizzix dies (Wildflower Stems #1)
Watercolour pencils (Emerald Green, Light Violet)
Momento marker (Lulu Lavender)
Silver gel pen
Corner Chomper 
Pinflair glue gel

There are still a few days left to sign up for February’s chain if you fancy it - make and send one card, get a lovely handmade card from somebody else!

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, Christmas tree

Trees are taking centre stage over at Daring Cardmakers this week - Christmas trees, bare branched wintery trees, festive or not, just show us a tree or two.

It’s a double dose of trees from me! I used the technique of inking up and stamping onto an embossing folder before running it through the Big Shot to get the impression of fir trees behind the birch trunks. Adding a torn strip of paper inside the folder stops ink going onto to the lower portion of the cardstock and  gets you an easy horizon line. I then decided to step it up a notch and add colour to the embossed trunks with a teeny tiny paint brush and some inks - darker brown for the markings on the bark and a very light beige to add some shading down one side of each trunk.

I didn’t want to cover anything up really so I added a sentiment on a vellum strip so the scene is still visible behind it. The strip is stuck on with double sided tape sheet - covering the whole strip is a good solution to the age old problem of how to attach vellum without the adhesive showing! Gel pen lines give the strip a slightly more finished look.

Stamps:
Lovely as a Tree (Stampin Up!)
Sentiment from Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps, now available from Gina K)

Paper:
Bristol board 
Vellum

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Pine Needles, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen)
Versamark by Tsukineko 

Other:
Detail gold embossing powder 
Woodland embossing folder (Stampin Up!)
Gold gel pen
Double sided tape sheet
Corner Chomper 

Here's this week's cover sheet if you'd like to share it

 

Thanks for stopping by!