Limited Colours (by Christine)

Hello again and welcome to my second blog for April.

You may remember that I decided on a journal page for one of my pieces in the first blog so I needed another to balance the other side of the journal.

I chose the lovely Mother Earth stamp sheet and decided to create a background from scratch. The first thing I reached for was the Draw and Tear Ruler Set and then, with a permanent black fine tip pen, used each side of each ruler to draw lines horizontally and vertically across the page.

Using some grey Archival Ink, I then added some elements from the Modern Textures stamp sheet.

When that was completed, I created a mask for the shroom stamp and then added six shrooms to the piece, again using grey Archival Ink. 

I stamped the shroom image four times and used pencils as my colouring medium; two shades of red for the head of the shrooms and two of brown for the stem. A white gel pen brought the white areas out a little more and then I used a blending stub to finish them, but decided to keep them quite uneven for the effect. Before adding them to the page, I stamped two words from the Mother Earth stamp sheet using a deep pink and brown Versafine ink. Finally, I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to edge the final A4 page.

I used my fingers to give the shrooms some shape, added some foam tape down the length of the centre and, voila, a finished journal page.

I really enjoyed creating this page - I hope you like it too. 

My second project is an 8" x 8" card, clean and simple. The stamp of choice for this one is the Floral Clock.

I used Versafine Black ink and then clear embossing powder since I intended to use alcohol pens for the colouring. I kept the colour choice to a minimum and was pleased with the final look. I cut a red mat and then mounted them to the front of the card. I had already used a heart edger die from my stash to give the front a little more detail. A simple but effective design I think.

Take care and happy crafting!

Christine

xx

Fabulous Flowers by Sandra

Hello everyone.

I am sharing some more of my cards from the February shows on Create and Craft.

For my first card I have stamped one of the flowers from the Glorious stamp set onto black card and embossed in Gold embossing powder. I have then coloured the flower with shimmer paints and added a border from Modern Textures and a Sentiment from Say it Vertically. I have mat and layered onto some gold card and then onto a 7x5 card base.

My next card uses the same floral image which I have stamped twice and fussy cut. I created a background from a master board I made using Distress Inks and On the Tiles, Square Bubbles and Large Crackle Background. I cut a piece down to fit onto a 7x5 card base and added the flowers on some foam pads to give some dimension. 

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For my next card I stamped the second floral image  from the Glorious stamp set.  I coloured the flower with Distress Inks. Using the left over ink I made two little border strips and added a background using the smaller stamps from the set. I finished by adding gems and die cuts.

For my last card today I stamped the flower from Glorious in Memento Ink. I then coloured in different shades of grey alcohol markers and added corners stamps from Nature Swirls.

 Thanks for looking

Sandra x 

One Stamp , 3 Ways by Sandra

Hello everyone, today I am sharing three of my cards from the February show on The Craft Store which is now known as Create and Craft.

I used the Mosaic Flower stamp set and it is so versatile.

Sentiments are from Say it Vertically

For my first card I have used alcohol markers and coloured some of the Mosaic background in bright, summer colours and left the flowers uncoloured. I have mat and layered onto a 7"x5" card base using coordinating colours of cardstock. Great for a birthday card.

For my second card I have used soft purple markers to colour the flowers and added some green to the background. I found this combination very peaceful and ideal for those difficult cards we have to make sometimes.  I have mat and layered onto a 7"x5" card base.

My last card today is coloured in vibrant reds, which could even be adapted to a Christmas card!

I have made this card 8"x8". By adding just a small amount of detail around the main image it makes a lovely larger card.  Detail stamp is from Modern Textures

                             

Thank you for looking

Sandra x
                         

Back to Nature

 Hello

I'm sharing some of my cards that I made for the April show on the Craft Store.

My first two cards use stamps from Sow the Seeds set.

First, I stamped the leaves in Archival ink, masking the first leaf and stamping either side. I then added a watercolour wash around the leaves and coloured in with watercolour pencils. I added the word "Botanical" from the set and added a frame using a stamp from Modern Textures. 

For this card I blended Distress Inks to make the background. I stamped the Poppy heads in brown Archival using my stamping platform and stamped again using some tacky glue, but just in a few places. I then added gilding flakes to the glued areas, just to give a little sparkle. I used a stencil in the background and mat and layered onto some gold card.

These two cards use the stamps from Mother Earth set.

I used Distress Oxides for the background. I stamped the very large pinecone 4 times and cut out the different layers. I also die cut some foliage. I coloured the pinecone with Distress inks and some shimmer spray and then layered them using foam pads for dimension.

My last card features the equally large mushrooms! 

I used Distress inks for the background and the landscape. I stamped with Archival ink and coloured with Distress inks. I used a white gel pen to highlight the "spots" on the Shrooms and added some foliage from Wild Meadow.

Thanks for looking,

Sandra x