Seaside Delights (by Julie)

Hello, thanks for popping in. 

I have three seaside themed cards to show you so I will get straight on and show my first card:

The background is Distress inks and then over-stamped with the shell and star fish from Underwater

The main image is a selection of shells stamped and masked from Underwater as before and then whilst all the masks are still in place, stamp the large single cling Ammonite shell over the top. When the masks are removed the large shell will appear to have been stamped behind the other smaller shells. The little star fish was stamped onto separate card, coloured with water-colour and then cut out and mounted onto the main image with 3d pads.

The sentiment is from Birthday Words.

My second card is a very simple stamp and colour card. 

The Ammonite shell was repeatedly stamped over the background and shaded with pencil. The lighthouse and seagull are from Seashore Scenes and were stamped onto separate stamping card with Onyx Black Versafine, before being coloured with pencils, cut out and mounted onto black card-stock.

The card was finished off with a sentiment from Seashore Scenes.

My third and final card is stamped using Seashore Scenes as before along with Mermaid Queen.

I started by creating the underwater background with shades of blue and green Distress inks. I applied the ink with cut n dry foam and used the straight edge of some scrap paper as a guide. Apply Picket Fence Distress Stain to add the highlights.

Next I stamped the mermaid silhouette with Onyx Black Versafine. I also reverse stamped this image by stamping the mermaid onto some plain rubber and then pressing the image down onto the design.

The little seahorse is from Mermaid Queen which was stamped with Versafine and then coloured with coloured pencils. The lighthouse scene is from Seashore Scenes , which I stamped onto spare stamping card, before colouring with pencils and then cutting out with a circle die. Before mounting onto the card with 3d pads I edged the circle with Hickory Smoke Distress ink.

Thanks for looking and please call back for daily Design Team inspiration

Julie xx

Dreaming of the Beach (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have three projects to share with you today, which I took with me to last month's TV shows on Hochanda to use as demos on the shows. If you watched the shows, you will have seen two of these projects in action, but the third one did not make it to air, because the stamp featured sold out so fast. That's the nature of live TV!

For my first project, I created a watercolour background on a large piece of cartridge paper, and stamped a selection of stamps from the Underwater and Mermaid Queen over the top. I cut a postcard sized piece of cartridge paper, and stamped the seashells from Seaside Dreams, and masked the image. I added a watercolour wash over the background. I coloured the shells once I had removed the mask, using just three colours, blue, yellow and brown, mixing the three colours to create a variety of different shades. I added a sentiment to the bakground.

I created a postcard back by drawing some lines using a fineliner pen, and adding images from the Mail Art stamp set. Once I had completed all of my elements, I assembled the card.

To create my second project, I used the same selection of stamps to decorate some brown paper using brown, orange and red tones of ink. I used the paper to make first some wrapping paper for a present, addng some red hessian and some string as a decorative feature. I stamped and embossed some shell images onto kraft card using gold embossing powder, and added some colour using Distress Ink, before cutting the images out, and attaching them to the parcel. The card was made in exactly the same way.

To create my final project, I made a watercolour wash for a piece of watercolour card using Brushos, and sprinkled sea salt over the background while it was still wet. The salt draws some of the liquid away and creates beautiful patterns. Once the background was dry, I brushed the salt away, and stamped a seaweed image from the Underwater stamp set across the background, using first, second and third generation stamping. I also added a sentiment.

Finally, I stamped the Ammonite image onto cartridge paper using some of the left over diluted Brushos, which I picked up from my craft mat, directly onto the stamp. I used a water brush to draw some of the colour from the outline of the image. I cut the image out, and attached it to the card using 3D foam pads.

I will be back later in the month with more watery inspiration for you. Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx