More Masculine Cards (by Lesley Ebdon)

Hello everyone, Lesley is back with two more beautiful cards to inspire you this week. She wanted to create cards that are not necessarily using traditional male colours, or dark and sport themed. She has chosen images to suit the personalities of her recipients, and the second card is a reminder that Spring is here and the trees are turning beautiful shades of green.

This is what she had to say about appearing on the Design Team blog once again:

Hello everyone,

I was delighted to be asked recently if I would like to do a guest spot on the blog joining so many talented crafters, some of whom have been friends for many years. It's a bit like coming home lol, and it's lovely to be here again. 

This first card was for my Brother who was a draughtsman before he retired, drawing industrial buildings, so Lesley's Wild Cornflower Blueprint was the perfect image for his card. I did some blended stencilling in the background then stamped the main image using Morning Mist VersaClair ink. I used Distress Inks picked up from my craft mat to watercolour the image. I then stamped the building plan onto my card base using a blue VersaClair, matted the topper onto black card and adhered it to the card base. Finally I stamped the sentiment from the recently released Say It Vertically stamp set.

 

The second card was for my Hubby. 

 

Again I did some soft stencilling top right and bottom left using Distress Inks onto the base card, and then used the lovely little foliage stamp from my chosen stamp set with first and second generation stamping in the top right corner. I then masked off a narrow border round a piece of card for a topper and softly blended Distress Inks to give an impression of an early morning sunrise. I inked up the image from the Tall Trees set using brush pens so that I could get the variation of shading to the foliage and stamped it onto the topper, grounding it a bit with a little more ink, and added the topper to the base card with foam pads. Finally I stamped the sentiment direct to the card (I like to risk all on the last bit, lol) again from Say It Vertically.

Thank you for your visit. I hope you enjoyed my creations as much as I enjoyed making them and that you might use some less traditional male images and colours for some cards for the men in your life once in a while.

Stay safe and I'll see you again soon.

Lesley xx

 

Cornflower Blue by Brenda

Good morning everyone. I hope you are all remaining safe and well and coping during these strange times, today should have been our eldest Granddaughters wedding, then COVID-19 came along, who could have foresaw such change in our lives. But there's always craft!!

Today I have a few more cards using the Blueprint stamps, starting with a blue and yellow creation, it's a colour palette I always enjoy working with. A Distress Oxide background created simply by dabbing ink onto a piece of acetate, spritzing with water and placing over the card giving a gentle rub on the back to release the ink. Then repeat the same process with the second colour, but this time bending the acetate to make contact with the card to get the colour exactly where you want it. 

Some stencilling using Strip Stencils and Wild Cornflower Blueprint Sketch stamped in Versafine Clair blue.

I used the smaller flowers from  all four sets here Freesia Blueprint, Sweet Pea Blueprint, Wild Cornflower Blueprint and Cala Lily Blueprinth stamping around the edges of the card and colouring in with pencils. I then used several of the sentiments from the same stamp sets and cut a circle to place in the middle.

Finally a soft yellow Distress Oxide background with a little pink as well, stamping around the edges with elements from Wild Cornflower Blueprint and then Sweet Pea Blueprint focally and coloured with pencils.

My thanks as always for your visit today.

concertina blueprints

 My turn today to show you something different using the lovely blueprint sets of stamps - I wanted to try to use as many of the stamps as I could and combine them with my current passion for concertina cards.

I started by using a sheet of 12x12 white card, and cut it into 4" wide strips. The background was created using splodges of peeled paint and broken china distress inks on to a craft mat, spraying with water and dragging the card through it. Needed repeating several times to cover all the card (well, mostly, i didn't worry about the blank bits)




Once it was all dry, I scored the strips at 4" intervals to create the pages, and cut one strip down to 2 panels to use to fix the other strips together 



Then I stamped some of the  smaller technical images randomly using mostly the blue ink, but a few with the green. I also used some of the stamps from make your mark as well.   


             
The main images were stamped using black versafine ink and clear embossed, then coloured with watercolour pencils or watercolour paints.
Some extra images were decoupaged , and sentiments added as well.

 Hopefully you are all managing ok so far, and keeping well and safe - and sunshine does help to make me at least feel better , so I wish you all have sunshine to brighten your days.

Map of Happiness and A Blue Print by Penny

Morning peeps, I hope this one finds you all fit and well.  Today it's my turn to try and inspire you with a couple of my samples from last months tv shows.  

Map of Happiness.

For this card I have used stamps from the Wild Cornflower Blueprint, Make Your Mark, Haberdashery and Small Graph Paper sets; Distress Inks, sepia Versafine ink, and a stencil.

I took a piece of Drawing Cartridge  and stamped several images with Versafine ink,  I wanted to create a card with a masculine feel.  I used Distress ink to watercolour the images, stamped a sentiment then added ink around the edges of the card.

 On a piece of Kraft card I stamped the graph paper image and matted the focal panel onto it.  I  took a white base card and used DI through a stencil to colour it, then I attached the focal panel to the base card.  To complete the design I added a couple of images from the Make Your Mark set.

A Blue Print.

This time I have used stamps from the Wild Cornflower Blueprint set; black Versafine ink, watercolour pencils and a colour spray from my stash.

I took a piece of Drawing Cartridge and stamped a couple of images in Versafine ink.  I then masked the images and spritzed blue ink to create the background.  I removed the masks and watercoloured the images.

 I added a sentiment and blended ink around the edges before matting the panel onto blue card and attaching it to a white base card.

Thank you for dropping by today I hope you've enjoyed my post.  I'll be back again next month with some more crafty fun to share with you.

Until then take care and stay safe,

                             x x  Penny  x x 

Blueprint Tags (by Sandra)

Hello
Today I am sharing a couple of tags I have made using the Blueprint range of stamps.

The first one is from the Sweetpeas Blueprint set and is on a mount board tag. I painted the tag with a copper metallic paint and then added a white crackle paint over part of it before stamping in Memento ink and colouring with alcohol markers.

My second tag uses the Wild Cornflower Blueprint set. Again it is another mount board piece which this time has been coloured with Distress Inks. I then stamped with VersaMark and embossed in gold. The flowers were then coloured with marker pens.

Thanks for looking and stay safe
Sandra x

Technically Speaking..................by Sandra

Hello

I am sharing some more of my samples from the January shows on Hochanda.

These stamps all work so well together so these cards have elements from  Cala Lily Blueprint, Freesia Blueprint,  Sweetpeas Blueprint  and Wild Cornflower stamp sets.

My first card uses the single leaf image from the Cala Lily Blueprint set which I used with my stamping platform to enable me to create a simple circular design. I used two different coloured Distress Inks.

My next card, again I have used my stamping platform. I have stamped in a soft grey ink and splashed a few drops of Brushos over the top. I have used the spray of flowers from the Freesia Blueprint set and the leaf sprig from the Sweetpeas Blueprint set. The corners are architect drawings from the Freesia set.

Finally, I have used some of the architect drawings from Freesia Blueprint, Sweetpeas Blueprint and Wild Cornflower Blueprint sets. I used a blue card and embossed the images in white to look like old  blueprints. The detail in these stamps are amazing and they are not lost at all when you emboss.

Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoy using these stamps as much as I do.
Sandra x

Cala Lily From Grungy to Clean and Simple (by Julie)

Hello, today I have three Cala Lily themed cards with two distinct styles.

My first project has a grungy style and most of the images come from Cala lily Blueprint. I started this card by stamping the main Cala Lily design and then covered it with masking fluid. You can also just stamp onto copy paper and then cut out and use the copy paper image as a mask as well. With the main image covered I coloured the background with Distress and spray inks, also adding in a dotty stencil for interest. Once everything was dry I removed the mask and coloured the Cala Lily with polychromos pencils and stamped the background images. You can find an extra stamp I used in the background on Wild Cornflower Blueprint.

My second card is a simple DL design. I inked up the single leaf from Cala lily Blueprint and stamped in a zig zag pattern along the left hand edge of the DL card. I then added in the single stem Cala Lily at the bottome and top right. This was then coloured with Distress ink and polycromos pencils. The single stem Cala Lily was then stamped onto spare card and the single leaf was stamped twice either side of the stem before being coloured with polychromos pencils. I then cut out the image with an oval die and added a black card-stock matt, before attaching to the front of the card.

My second card is very clean and simple and again uses the stamps from Cala lily Blueprint.

I stamped the three separate designs along with the sentiment using Onyx Black Versafine ink, before colouring with polychromos pencils. I then applied a teal coloured dye ink through a dotty stencil, across the plain white card-stock background.

So you see, the same stamps can be used in a variety of ways...what have you done with yours?

Please call back soon for more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

techno florals

 My first card uses the main stamp from the sweetpeas set stamped over a distress oxide background - I used a red and a yellow onto a mat and lots of water to create the background, then coloured the image with distress marker pens.  I stamped the colours separately, using a stamping platform to make sure the images matched up.
I then used a waterbrush to add more colour

Same background technique for this one, using the wild cornflower set - have to admit that I thought this was a thistle, as it didn't look anything like a garden cornflower! - and purple and green inks.
Stamped just in black, with some extra colour added using a waterbrush and ink picked up from the mat.












Same stamp again, this time on a brusho background, stamped in black and clear embossed.
Base card uses a couple of the smaller images stamped in blue with green brushed round the edges to take the white down and tone in with the brusho





I seem to have missed scanning some of the lily samples I did, but this one I did find.
Grey brusho powder on watercolour card,  main image stamped in black and clear embossed before adding colour using watercolour paints.
background images added using grey ink, and the sentiment stamped in versafine and white embossed

Pretty Blueprints (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have some more projects to share with you showcasing the fabulous new stamps that we aired on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. The possibilities with these stamps are endless, and I hope that you will try out lots of the ideas that myself and the rest of the Design Team are bringing to the blog this month. We have had a lot of fun working with the stamps, and we are sure that you will too!

For my first project, I took a piece of kraft card, and embossed an image and sentiment from the Calla Lily Blueprint stamp set, using white embossing powder. I coloured the image using Koh-I-Noor paints. The white paint in the set is particularly effective on kraft for creating delicate effects on flowers.

For my second project, I coloured a piece of drawing cartridge with tea, and then stamped a small worker image from the Freesia Blueprint stamp set randomly over the background. I coloured the image with watercolour pencils. I stamped the main image from the same stamp set onto a piece of fabric, (these detailed stamps still work perfectly even on a surface such as fabric), using Archival Ink. I then coloured the image with Inktense pencils.

For my next project, I coloured a canvas with acrylic paints. I blended the paints using a baby wipe to get a smooth effect. Once the paint was dry, I stamped an image from the Sweetpeas Blueprint stamp set onto a piece of tissue paper and coloured it with pencils. I tore around the edge of the tissue paper, and stuck the paper to the canvas background using matte medium. I stamped a sentiment onto a piece of scrap card which I edged with black ink, and stuck that to the background to finish.

As we become ever more conscious of the effect of our actions on the environment, I did not simply want to throw the baby wipes away. I dried them off, and look how cool they are!

They would make fabulous backgrounds in their own right, you could tear them into strips and layer them with other papers to make layered background, or simply stamp onto strips to make a decorative type of washi tape. I chose to use some for a mini card as follows....

I stamped a sentiment from one of the stamp sets and a flower from the Wild Cornflower Blueprint stamp set onto one of my baby wipes and cut them out. I adhered them to a coordinating piece of drawing cartridge using matte medium and added a layer of black card to mat the background.

  Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

On a scale of 1 to 10.....................

Hello

Today I am showing some of my samples from the January show on Hochanda.
This was Chocolate Baroque's 3rd Anniversary with Hochanda and there were so many sell outs!

These Blueprint stamps are so lovely to work with.

My first card uses the Sweetpeas Blueprint set
I have used the main stamp, which as Lesley explained was a drawing of the top of a flag pole, and I've coloured with alcohol pens. I have also used the little sprig stamp as a background and one of the sentiments

My next card uses the Calla Lily Blueprint set. This is a lovely image and I have used watercolour pencils.  I have used the Set Square stamp for the background layer.

 Next, I have a card using the Freesia Blueprint set.  I coloured with alcohol pens again and added a little bit of glitter.

My last card today is from the Wild Cornflower set. For this card I used a brayer with some chalk paints onto some card and stamped the main image from the set.  I then added some watercolours just to the flower heads.

Thanks for looking
Sandra x

Engineered Florals (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have some projects to share with you today using the fabulous stamps and stencils that we brought to you during last month's TV shows on Hochanda. I hope that you managed to catch the shows, they were a whirlwind of activity, as the stamps sold out very quickly, but Lesley and I enjoyed ourselves enormously trying to keep up with what was happening!

My first card was created using the beautiful Freesia Blueprint stamp set. I used the Dotty stencil from the Strip Stencil - Collection 1 set and added some texture paste to a piece of drawing cartridge. I coloured the background using Distress Ink once the texture paste was completely dry. I added some background stamping using one of the smaller images from the stamp plate.

I stamped the main freesia image onto another piece of drawing cartridge, and coloured the image with Koh-I-Noor watercolour pencils. I stamped a sentiment onto a small piece of card, coloured in the same colours as the main background, and edged all of the pieces with brown ink.

To create my second card, I took a piece of glossy card, and embossed a couple of images from the Wild Cornflower Blueprint stamp set using white embossing powder. I then covered the background with blue Distress Ink and polished the card. I stamped the main image from the stamp set onto a piece of smooth stamping paper using blue ink, and coloured the image using pencils as before. I added a sentiment, and some shading with blue ink, before edging the paper with dark blue ink.

Using a piece of drawing cartridge, I added some yellow Distress Ink to create a background, and then drew lots of postage stamp shapes using one of the inserts from Triple Postage, another one of the Strip Stencil - Collection 1 set. I stamped the smaller images from all of the stamp sets into the postage stamp shapes, and coloured them with pencils, adding a sentiment into one of the shapes. For extra definition, you could add shading around the shapes to give a 3D effect, making the postage stamps look as if they had been stuck onto the background.

My final card was created by adding one of the beautiful Designer Papers A5- Background Splash, designed by Lesley, onto a card blank. I stamped one of the engineer's drawings from the Sweetpeas Blueprint stamp set three times across a piece of drawing cartridge. I varied the height of each image. I added some foliage in between the images and coloured everything in with pencils. I stamped the small sweetpea flower head onto a scrap piece of the patterned paper three times, and cut them out. I stuck each flower head into the top of a 'bulb'. This piece of apparatus is actually a flagpole, but I thought that it resembled a quirky specimen jar and made a perfect home for the flower heads.

I edged the card with black ink before attaching it to the coloured bakground.

I hope that you have enjoyed my first batch of cards this month. I will be back later on with more inspiration to share with you. Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx