Happy Heart & Spring Dawn

2 New cards from the "Birds" Stamps from Elusive Images - sorry I keep calling them the "Birds" as I don't know what the plate will be called yet. Just to show that although the theme plate shows black images - you don't have to stamp these birds in black. You can alter the colours in both cards to suit your own colour scheme.

The first is Happy Heart

This card stated with an off white piece of card which was then coloured using DTP with Tim Holtz Aged Paper and an odd turquoise ink pad. Over the top I used the long stamp from the "Fantasy Floral" themeplate in alternating directions in Anna Griffin Chocolate ink. After inking the edges with the turquoise ink I then mounted it on to a 15cm square card. The topper again started as an off white piece of card which was first stamped over with one of the "Damask Backgrounds" themeplate. The bird was stamped with the Turquoise ink ( with some of the chocolate on the branch ) and then clear embossed. A soft turquoise inked edge before using some of the flourishes from the "Birds" stamps around the edges. The flowers and the filigree in the Bird were coloured in gold with a Sakura pen. The matting was the off white card inked using the turquoise for the top and then another in chocolate for the bottom mat. The sentiment is from the "Words of Wisdom" themeplate which was stamped in the turquoise and then clear embossed. Again matted and layered over inked edged mats. Finally an organza ribbon and three wooden flowers to finish.

Now for ................

Spring Dawn ...

So how's that for colourful ? Yey - Stampbord again !!!

First the main card is an A5 landscape pastel green, the back matting is a white card stock with an inked edge in a summer blue ( from a clearance set of 60 ink pads for a £5 ) , the main background white card stock was first DTP with the summer blue and a soft yellow ink, where the blue and yellow meet it gives a natural soft green hue. This was then stamped over first with the floral spray from the "Floral Damask" themeplate in a whispers baby blue ink, this gave the soft image I was after - more like a shadow stamp. Random filigree swirls were added around the edges wherever I felt like popping them. The "Oval Stampbord" was DTP ( suppose that should read Direct to Stampbord DTS ) and the Bird stamp was stamped in Versafine Olympia green. As this remains wet on Stampbord I embossed it with clear powder and added some more branches to the lower of the oval - again all embossed. I used the "Scratch Tool" to etch into the design and then recoloured using red, orange and yellow inks. The oval edge was sanded back a little. The top background layer for the Stampbord piece was a white piece of card stock, a soft yellow ink was dusted over then stamped again with one of the "Damask Backgrounds" themeplate in the Baby blue whispers ink. Flourishes from the "Birds" stamps to the corners in the summer blue and inked around the edges. This was matted on to a piece of white card stock which had the edges inked over with the yellow and blue.

The greeting comes from "Joanna Sheen - from the Serendipity range" stamped in the blue and clear embossed over a DTP matted layer again matted on to an inked edge layer. The flower is held in place with one of the Large eyelets from Crop-A-Dile.

I'll explain about the flower in another post - make them yourself for pennies !!!

PLEASE REMEMBER - Glendas Blog Candy Give-Away for the "Unicorn" stamps Ends at Midnight Saturday 6th September - if you want to be entered your must leave a comment on the "BLOG CANDY" post to be in with a chance of winning !

Sunset Choir - Glendas' Stampbord Challenge

" Sunset Choir " - AKA Labour of Love !


Ok so Glenda Waterworth aka Graphicus aka Artylicious has set us another challenge competition - this time using Stampbord, so here's my entry and once again I have chosen "Other Item" - this time this is a large 10" square panel picture. The panel picture is based upon a summer evening ( sorry we haven't had too many of those lately ! ) when the birds are giving their last song of the day. Once again everything used is from Graphicus - except my cardstock.

As this is a large panel picture it will sit on an easel frame near my landing window so every time I pass it, the word Inspire will do just that !

How I made it etc all details below . . . . . . . . . . . . . Click the pictures to open them in new window and then click again to see them in their full glory !

All the various Stampbord pieces - 21 in total - were placed in the arrangement I wanted prior to being sprayed, as I wanted the background colours to flow into each other. The main center panel is 6 pieces of 2" square tiles. I used a combination of Glimmer Mists and also Tim Holtz spray inks ( all available at Graphicus ) to create the shaded background working from the green through to the deep russet. The centre panel was rubbed off slightly as I wanted a more highlighted effect for this panel.

The panels in general needed some fore-thought as I didn't want to over stamp each one and the effect I wanted was for the stamped panels to flow on from each other, IE: the vines on the bottom centre panel then flow outwards to the side panels, which in turn the stamping then flows on to the next panel. The same with the centre panel, the foliage from the tree flows down to the top centre panel to match and again on the bottom panel.

The 4" x 6" centre panel was stamped with the Graphicus Guild Members stamp from the June newsletter. The left & right edges were then stamped using the Leaf flourish from the Lily Themeplate . All detailing was made with the scraper tool and various scratches were then rubbed over with colour to highlight them - ( see the birds chests ) this gives a great effect as the colour deepens within the scratches and gives the birds some dimension. Spots of gold were added to the leaves. Before anyone asks I didn't leave gaps between the stampbord pieces as it made the birds look like they were caged - not my kind of thing.

I didn't want to overdo the scratching on the outer panels as these were meant just as highlights to the stamped flourishes. The lettering down the side was stamped with the Sketchy Alphabet as this could really then be highlighted with the scratch tool.

Each stampbord piece was mounted on to black card, then onto a gold pearlescent card - then again on to another black card. Each Matted & Layered panel was then glued to the main gold pearlescent backing card which was then matted to yet another piece of black card.

All in all this has taken over a week to make as I had to do bits in between my other work - hence the labour of love x

Buttercup Fields

Ever since my daughter was 2 years old ( 20 years ago ! ) we have always had buttercups in a corner of our garden. She always said they were her flowers and I wasn't to pull them out. We've been asked on many occasion why do we grow weeds ... Weeds .. No they are such lovely flowers and I will always have a little corner somewhere for my daughters flowers.

The card below is inspired from the above and was made using the stunning new Themeplates from Graphicus - the buttercup is from the Fuchsia and not only has the outline version but also a reversed solid version.

The background card is stamped with the outline buttercup head in an Olympia Green Versafine, the next layer is a Glimmer Mists ( I will have to check the colours as I just spritzed away ) the edge was then stippled with the versafine using those lovely little ColorDusters from Judikins ( like mini shaving foam brushes ).
The top layer was fun as this is parchment, you can get the mottled type and the great thing about parchment is when wet is creates dimples - so with Glimmer Mists in hand I lightly spritzed the parchment to give a soft subtle effect. You can see the dimple effect better in the next picture.
I tried various ink pads on a spare piece of parchment as I was after a soft shadow effect for the solid buttercup, the one that gave the look I was after was the Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Peeled Paint which when combined with the parchment gave the soft shadow. The outline buttercups were then stamped over with the Green Versafine. To highlight the buttercup flowers I just used some of the Glimmer Mists - Lemon Zest as a colour wash.
Organza ribbons in limey green and yellow threaded through an antiqued buckle lower down.
Top corner Stampboard - first spritzed with some Glimmer Mists and the same stamping method - soft shadow for the solid and outline for the main.

The text is from Serendipity Stamps which came via Joanna Sheen and are great as they are already pre-trimmed and mounted on to EZ mount !

Remember click any of the pictures to see the full sized versions.

This shows the dimpled effect better of the parchment.
See the glimmer !
The inside was again made with a soft stippled edge and another soft shadow style stamp in the lower corner with the solid buttercup.

Backgrounds using Glimmer Mists and Inks

Now I'm back in the office I'll start again !

Below is a card I'm making for a friend, the background was colour washed over with the Tinkerbella Ink in the Rich Violet colour, then randomly stamped using the filigree swirls from the Damask Hearts themeplate, ( now if you enlarge the picture those eagle eyed amongst you will also notice the smaller versions of these - they were in the December Guilds members offer stamps ) in a deeper violet. The background for both toppers was made with the Glimmer Mists - Pink Bubblegum and also an odd splodge of the Rich Violet. Again I normally do a whole A4 sheet then I can choose what bits I want to use - the spare gets popped in my backing box.
The top left is from the Delightful Damask themeplate, the bottom from the Damask Hearts and the edging around the bottom one was also from the Decembers Guild offer. I purposely didn't want a full on black , more of a worn effect , so after inking up the stamp I gently prestamped on a spare piece of card just to take some excess ink off. I haven't finished the card as I just wanted to show you the effect of making your own backings, the top right image is a piece of Stampbord , coloured using the glimmer mists to match, overstamped with a green then stamped again with the mini Filigree and a little scratching to highlight areas, I still have a couple more to do to finish the card.
Ok so scroll down to see the great backing papers that I started this about ............. Please remember you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.




Making your own backgrounds is so much fun, I could spend hours doing this, I tend to sit and play around with my colours. All the backgrounds below were made using the Glimmer Mists Spring Fever set and Tinkerbella inks. I've tried where possible to show alternative views as the colours will change as you move the papers around. All my papers are either A4 or A5 size. As a note - although I call them papers most of my backings are done on card around 200gsm.

Glimmer Mists - Lemon Zest and Rum Raisin, with a final spritz of Irridescent gold.



Below .... Glimmer Mists - Denim Blue and Honey Dew Mist and a splash of Irridescent Gold. This particular backing is to be used with my Peacock stamps from Graphicus




Below .... Glimmer Mists - Denim Blue, Irridscent Gold and Tinkerbella Inks Sky Blue & Teal




This A5 below was what was made from the excess ink and overspray from the above paper, the texture comes from the corrugated board that was below the paper.



This next one is so easy to make , and gives an A4 sheet full of wonderful colour. Just fold an A4 sheet in half, blot - splodge - splatter whatever colours you like on one half and simply fold the card over and rub to mirror the image on the other side, touch up any places as required. Glimmer Mists used - Golden Terracotta and Lemon Zest with a little spray of rum raisin around the edges.


Glimmer Mists - Pink Bubblegum and Rum raisin - just using a spray and holding and turning the card to let it flow naturally.



Now the next couple are for some cards I'm making for a friend, and yes the colour really is a Lime Greeny Yellow ! Using Glimmer Mists - Lemon Zest and also some Tinkerbella Ink Sunshine Glow kit. As this is part for a project I've already stamped one section in white and clear embossed it before making the background. Middle section has had some of the leaves touched in - using the Tinkerbella ink. As mentioned - the colours change so beautifully as you turn the page around. The lower picture was made the same way but with a few strokes of Tinkerbella Teal.





These are for the same lady - to go with the above , this time the papers were made with the Tinkerbella inks , the Rich Violet and the Teal ( mixed with some Glimmer Mist Pearl Glimmer ) I have made the A4 sheet sectional as I'm going to be using it in various ways. The top section is a nice grungy texture - criss crossy brush strokes blending into a soft Turquoise. The next sections are much deeper as some of them will be overlayed with a vellum as shown in the pictures which will soften the colour back down.



Ok - back to my favorite colours - I just love these rich warm Russet tones - all again made with the Glimmer Mists and Inks






Well that's just a few of my backings - I hope I've managed to show just what wonderful effects can be gained from just a few simple items and it really doesn't take long.