Nature

One of my favourite card themes is "Nature", and the gorgeous Indigo Blu stamp sets are perfect for a lovely nature card. That indigo blue is also my favourite colour is pure serendipity :-)

"Nature Card"

The stamping for the main panel is in different colours of distress inks over a blended, distress-inked background. Second and third stampings were used for extra depth.

"Butterfly with acetate wings"

Butterfly wings were stamped onto acetate using archival inks and cut out before adhering over the stamped images with a little glossy accents. Bending the acetate slightly on each side of the thorax lifts the wings and provides a narrow, flat area for the glue.

"Crackle butterfly"

The larger butterfly is stamped and coloured on thick watercolour paper before coating with rock candy crackle paint and rubbing some chipped sapphire into the cracks once dried for a lovely antique effect.

"Sentiment"

Distress markers were used to stamp the sentiment in different colours before heat embossing in clear.

"Flower stalk"

These dried sage flower stalks make a pretty embellishment with a short length of ribbon wrapped around the stems to hold them together and attach to the base card.

Ingredients:

Indigo Blu stamp sets: Nature I, Wild Meadow, Discover Your Passion

Distress Inks, various blue & green colours

Distress Markers, various colours

Archival ink, cobalt

Enbossing powder, clear

Dried sage flower stalks

cardstock: white 300gsm, white 160gsm, black 160gsm, blue pearlised & patterned 120gsm

dark blue lace (thanks Lee!)

adhesives: glossy accents, PVA

Entered for the following challenges:
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Anything Goes

Colour

I've been having lots of fun with some new IndigoBlu stamps from Joanna Sheen. It's amazing the different feel you can give to a project by choosing the colour scheme carefully. Now someone sent me some fabulous ribbon in a swap and that was the starting point for this project. I chose colours to match, and the rest flowed from there.

"Colour"

It's funny that there's not much of the ribbon left on show now! I like to use pieces of cut 'n' dry foam to blend the distress ink background, it's great getting your fingers good and close to your work. Splodges of picket fence distress stain are used on the main panel before stamping the sentiment to make it stand out better against the background.

"Butterfly"

Watercolour paper makes a great medium for butterflies. It takes lots of colour well and soaks up any amount of distress stickles you want to add; it's easy to cut out and shapes nicely when dry.

"Flower trim"

Plenty of flower trim left yet - thanks Lee! It's so easy to colour with distress inks to match your project.

"Dimension"

This angled view makes it easier to see the dimension.

Ingredients:

IndigoBlu unmounted stamp set: Wild Meadow

Distress Inks: Pine Needles, Bundled Sage, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Barn Door

Distress Stain: Picket Fence

Archival Ink: Cobalt

Cardstock: thin white for inking and stamping, thick red for card blank

Ribbon

Flower trim

Entered for the following challenge:
Joanna Sheen: Spring / Easter

Charming Birds on a Rainy Day

The wonderful birdhouse die used in today's card was a bargain (no, really!) in the Sizzix sale.

"Charming Birds"

The background stamping uses Crafty Individuals and Hero Arts stamps with plenty of distress inks and some Perfect Pearls. After stamping and colouring, it was spattered with droplets of water to give a softer effect. In the background, you'll also see a Tim Holtz tree diecut and coloured with distress inks to match.

"Birdhouse"

The birdhouse was cut from white and dark brown cardstock. The cards were individually coloured then layered. That gold mottled effect on the brown edging is from dabbing with gold adirondack mixative. The pale birdhouse was overstamped and some more Perfect Pearls used to give the effect of shimmery leaves. It was fixed to a dark brown backing with some foam tape to create some depth, especially for the central hole.

"Charming!"

A few holes punched into the bottom of the birdhouse provide anchoring points for some appropriately themed metal charms. These were attached to jump rings and threaded onto short lengths of gold thread.

"Butterfly and bird"

The butterfly and bird (from 7Gypsies "Conservatory" stamp set) were heat-embossed in gold onto white card, coloured with distress ink, and cut out before shaping and fixing in place with Pinflair dimensional glue.

"Sentiment"

The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz stamp set stamped in black archival ink and heat-embossed in clear, before matting and layering onto Spellbinders Labels diecuts (inked to match the rest of the card).

Entered for the following challenge:
Crafty Individuals - Spring
Gingersnap Creations - Glorious Greens
DYSU Challenge - Anything Goes (Wow, I'd LOVE to win those Crafty Individuals stamps!!)
Sparkles Forum - New Crafty Goodies (Birdhouse die)

Birthday Screen

This card is for a neighbour in her eighties.

"Box"

When you see a box on this blog, you know the card is going to be a bit different.

"Front"

When you open the box, all you can see at first sight is the front of the card.

"Standing in a square"

You need to open it right out for the full effect.

"Side 1 flat"

Each panel is cut with an ornamental die, and the bottom cut flat to allow the card to stand up properly.

"Side 1 standing"

I know that my neighbour likes to set her cards in the window with the good side looking out at the passers by.

"Side 2"

I thought it would be good to make her a card with two pretty sides, so she would still have something to look at on the inside. The blank panel is to write on.

Recipe:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz "Ornamental"
Tim Holtz Sizzix M&S die "Mini Ornamental"
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels dies
Distress Inks "Milled Lavendar", "Dusty Concord", "Stormy Sky"
Card white & dark brown
Perfect Pearls "blue patina"
Sizzix / Hero Arts stamp & die set
Book Rings
lace & ribbon, various
verse from freebie website
sentiment stamp from set that came free with a magazine
butterfly embellishments from "The Works"

Entered for the following challenges:
Make my Monday - Nature - Butterflies and Dragonflies
Truly Madly Crafty - anything goes
Creative Craft Challenge - bingo (flowers, lace, blue)
Gingersnap Creations - Spicy Supply Challenge - Ribbon

Botanical

I love those old Victorian botanical drawings, and the stamps on this card are all taken from the 7Gypsies "Conservatory" set.

"Nature"

I recently acquired some really good quality 300gsm cardstock, and it's been fun playing around colouring and stamping straight onto the card. The background here was coloured with distress inks and dried before stamping in Brushed Corduroy and decorating with gold Perfect Pearls (I can't get enough of these at the moment!). The main image was stamped in brushed corduroy. Masking techniques were used to block areas for distress colouring, then the individual stamps were gently coloured using a watercolour brush dipped in water & a little of each distress ink colour. Keeping to a muted & limited colour palette helps tie all the elements together.

"Side view showing dimension"

With so much stamping and colouring going on, the layout has been kept very simple. The main image panel was matted onto a thin frame of hammered gold cardstock (to match in with the perfect pearls), and layered onto the background with a thin strip of gold & deep pink lace. The (Tim Holtz) sentiment is simlarly coloured, matted & layered using the small oval & scalloped oval Nestabilities from Spellbinder. Both panels were adhered to the card using Pinflair to add some dimension.

"Butterfly"

For added interest, one of the butterflies was stamped in black archival ink onto thin acetate, cut out and the wings shaped, then stuck to the main image with glossy accents.

Entered for the following challenges:
Ribbon Carousel - non-traditional colours (botanical drawings should be black and white)
Cheerful Stamp Pad - birds of a feather
Truly Madly Crafty - Anything Goes
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - photo inspiration
Let's Ink it Up - Anything Goes
Fashionable Stamping - butterflies and bugs
Moving Along with the Times - things with wings
Simon Says - anything goes

Altered Clock

Don't worry, I 'll be showing you some more cards soon, but first here's an altered wall clock.

"Altered clock"

This started out as just a very plain plastic clock. It was taken apart and the dial was removed then used to size a circle of glossy, white cardstock.

"Side view showing stamped decoration on outside of clock"

The clock and new dial were decorated with Adirondack alcohol inks & gold mixative, before stamping some Tim Holtz stamps with black archival ink.

"Altered clock"

The hands were dabbed with gold mixative. A small butterfly was diecut from a bit of saved cellophane wrapper to add to the secondhand (I used the thinnest clear plastic I could find so as not to add too much weight to the hand). The diecut was decorated with alcohol inks and stamped with Tim Holtz' butterfly in black archival ink to match the background, then fixed to the secondhand with a little glossy accents. It's fixed sideways and facing clockwise so that it flies in the right direction when the secondhand moves!

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... anything but a card.

Be my valentine - a red letter day

The theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show... this week is "Red Letter Day", and what better red letter day than St. Valentine's?

"Red Letter Day, St. Valentine's"

I just love this rich colour combination of deep pink & gold, so romantic and feminine and just perfect for a Valentine's or Anniversary card.

"Centre Panel"

The main panel has the script stamp from Tim Holtz' "Papillon" stamp set with plenty of gold Perfect Pearls and other stamps from the set are added in black archival ink.

"Butterflies Flutter By"

This huge Spellbinders butterfly makes a great centrepiece to echo all the lovely Tim Holtz stamped butterflies.

"Elegant Corners"

Parts of diecuts from the Spellbinders Elegant Posts set are cut & coloured to look like metallic corners.

"Butterfly"

Smaller butterflies are made using Marianne Creatables diecuts.

"Butterfly"

Some pink gems are added for a little sparkle.

"Lace"

More of that scrumptious lace from Kathy is added for texture (thanks again Kathy).

"Tags and charms"

One of Lee's bird cage diecuts make a fabulous foil to hang interesting extras from (thanks again Lee). Here, three diecuts from Tim's "Tiny Tabs & Tags" set have been stamped with parts of the Papillon set and inked to match the background, then attached with jump rings along with a couple of charms. The bird cage itself was attached via a chain of jump rings to a small eyelet set into the top of the card.

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... Red Letter Day
Samuel Taylors - distress (great prize of four distress inks)
Stampin' for the Weekend - Vintage

Vintage birthday card

A big thankyou to Kathy from Docrafts who was my Christmas swap partner this year, and sent me some absolutely gorgeous lace. Some of it is used on this card and I hope she approves.

"Vintage birthday card"

The design is mostly achieved with distress inks & Tim Holtz stamps. The background has gold Perfect Pearls rubbed into the stamping for lots of shine.

"Closeup of main panel"

The stamping from the background is repeated on the main panel in a darker colour. The sentiment is stamped in black archival ink, distressed, and diecut in layered ovals before fixing to the main panel with Pinflair.

"Butterfly"

A couple of butterflies are stamped and heat-embossed in gold onto white card before colouring with distress inks, cutting out and fixing to the card with the wings raised to add a little dimension. This design folds neatly flat for posting at the standard letter rate :-)

Entered for the following challenge:
Samuel Taylors January Blog Challenge - Distress (fab prize of 4 distress reinkers - woohoo!!)
Simon Says Stamp...NEW something (new lace)
Crop Stop Challenge - Go for the Gold

Metamorphosis

A sea of cogs and gears metamorphose into colourful butterflies.

"Metamorphosis"

The butterflies are cut from either blue foil card or a sheet of silver mirror card decorated with Adirondack alcohol inks. Some were embossed with silver cogs from a Creative Expressions stamp set.

"Metamorphosis"

The background is a sea of cogs and gears die-cut in silver mirri card using the Spellbinders' "Sprightly Sprocket" and Tim Holtz' "Gadget Gears" sets.

"Metamorphosis rhs view"

The lettering is die cut from offcuts of the same coloured card as the butterflies.

"Metamorphosis lhs view"

The acetate tunnel-card construction aids the 3-dimensional illusion of butterflies emerging from the middle and flying off the edge of the card.