beautiful butterflies

Oh my goodness it's been soooooo long. I thought it was time I added something to my poor neglected blog.
this is a card made for the MIL. It was a backgound that I had prepared during a class I was taking and I liked that the colour was almost like a sky blue, so what else to add but some butterflies flitting about.
All Stamps are Rubbadubbadoo - birthday block and monarch
All inks are kaleidacolor - blue breeze and desert heat.

A fun challenge

Here is a snippet of two of the projects I made for the I Brake for Stamps feature over on Stamper's Quest magazine. Mine were featured on the final day. I recommend looking at all of the guides creations to see what a wide variety of images they have. Follow the links on the stamper's quest pages to check out I Brake for Stamps.

latest ATC

I've been making some ATC's for a swap at my local - Scrapbook Corner. This is one of my favourites that I made - so I thought that I would share.

Images are Stampendous and oxford impressions.

In the jungle...

Well the jungle that is my craft area....

Just a quick post to show off this gorgeous stamp I got from Rubbadubbadoo this week - New Zealand shopping is the only way to go at the moment (with exchange rates the way they are). Overseas shipping is about NZ$ 15 for up to a kg.

I have sooooo much planned for this lion. This is a quick card I did to try him out. It took about 8 minutes all up. I coloured in with the kids pencils that were out on the table, added some sponging then the extra sponged layer and hey presto! I'll add a word or embellishment of some kind (not sure what exactly) before he gets sent away but isn't he magnificent!

iscc13 atc resist techniques

The challenge this week at Innovative stamp creations was to make 2-4 ATC's with a resist technique. Now I was lucky as I have just done two this week with this technique so here they are...

This was inspired by “Adele” my very cool step-sister-in-law who is now a published writer and who strove to achieve her dream through all the “poo hooing” of the people around her.
Resist method
Ink crackle background in versamark and clear emboss.
Sponge a mixture of dye inks over (I’ve used red pepper caramel and a little stonewashed adirondacks)
Then I ironed (with paper towel) the background to remove the clear emboss
Stamped “fly” and used black emboss powder
Stamped pen nib on scrap card black embossed and added colour with sponge
Stamped “wings” and sentiments in black onto scrap and coloured with spongeing
Then layered it all up.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Resist methodThis next one was done for the "men" theme at inkurable blogspot - go have a look and join in - there is so much inspiration over there.
On gloss cardstock I stamped the torn paper stamp with versamark and then sponged with esspresso and maybe a little caramel (or butterscotch) for some depth. I then stamped the film strip four times down the length of the card with sepia archival ink. Sentiments are in black archival ink – I used second generation stamping to avoid too much ink from pooling on the gloss and causing the stamp to slip if I pressed too hard.
The slide mount was found at the bottom of the sticker drawer and sanded back, a little plastic peeled back a little, inked with ginger and then some "fire adobe” emboss powder sprinkled over two corners and melted then scratched a little of it off and inked again (it used to be very black and white)
The bottom peice was a chipboard sticker which was sanded back – it had a much easier surface this one. I inked with browns and blacks until I liked it. I stamped the "family" with black but it just soaked in so I put some brilliance white overtop and tried again. The ribbons are a strip of white card, inked black and brown then corners cut and taped on. I like how they look like old dark leather.
Resist method
This last one was done with a cuttle bug and wax. I think that I scraped candle wax into the cuttlebug first then gave it a bit of a blast with the heat tool, squished it. Sponged and spread esspresso and caramel ink (with plastic) over the top and then stamped with archival ink. Now I don't think it's finished but my dh does, so I'll add to it when just the right thing pops up. I think it needs a long tall key or key hole to go with the opening of creative doors and beginning of artistic journeys... (Edit - I have made the keys from chip board diecuts from my local and I like it - I'll add a photo this evening - let me know what you think...)

Edit - well my dh also prefers it with the keys now that he doesn't have to imagine it. I like the middle picture with the keys on the left so you can see more of the resisting

All stamps used on these ATC's were from Innovative Stamp Creations : About me, ATC elements and art4framesII. go and check them out here

ISCC12 - scketch challenge

Here it is for Melissa because I did give a tease earlier today...
This is for the blog challenge at innovative stamp creations (See my previous post for a pic of that gorgeous rubber)

I will take some more pics in the daylight tomorrow so that you can see the butterflyies standing out (the scanner is a bit squashy) and the colour's a little better - the scanner really shows the white in behind the colours.

Stamps used:
Innovative stamp creations - about me and art4framesII

inks used:
memento dandelion and tangelo; adirondack red pepper and stonewashed; versafine onyx black

techniques used:
I cut the strips from white cardstock and ripped the ends, then attached them to the card. I started with the red dandelion head then orange then yellow and sponged a little colour into the gaps. Then I wiped the black card clean (it is a little shiny). Next I stamped the butterflies randomlyish to be flying from the bottom left to the top right. (wipe clean black again). The sentiment was a solid background stamp with black embossed "thankful" matted onto black which matched the card.
Instead of brads/eyelets I stamped butterflies with black on manilla card and colourd dtp with stonewashed; they are attached with a little folded peice of card to make them float on an angle above the card.

This was the third draft of this card - I learned that if you stamp the paper up and then cut and split it your brain doesn't like the gaps if you've cut a butterfly down the middle and spread the gap and that if you stamp and then rip the bottom and try to adhere to the card it looks funny with gaps on the top and bottom or patterns on an angle (looked like a bad wallpaper job). But this one I liked!

Latest card creations

This is the card I made for my brothers 20th It was pretty simple with some card distressed with antique linen ink and a green gold twinkling H2O and some peelcraft stickers coloured with brown sharpie for a bit of textural variety on a readymade background paper with a few clocks stamped on for good luck - (well actually cause I liked it).



This is the first stage of a 2 year old birthday card - I know that it's not completely appropriate for a two year old but she won't be very interested in the card and I needed to play with the new rubber after I had so carefully cut and indexed the sheet.

The stamps are from the elegant artsy swirls sheet coloured with twinkling H2O's - also a relatively new aquisition (after hearing about them for so long) and the background diamond pattern was stamped with versamark and covered with pink pearlex - I've since seen a beautiful use of this stamp here if you're interested in seeing it.




This is the card finished with Rubbadubbadoo greeting and a shrinky necklace to fill the gap - made pretty much as we were walking out the door to the party.










And this bright beauty was for a five year old (obviously) the boat and bee squares are doors which open upwards to reveal a happy birthday message, soe of the squares are recessed and some ome to the front - it's the grid from the art 4 frames sheet and anything I could find that I thought might interest a five year old. If I do a similar style card again I will put little shaker windows too.

Feel better soon

• Here is a card I made using my favourite stampington stamps with a shaving brush background inspired by the art of my DD(8) I love the way it turned out - it was even better in real life - now it has gone to it's recipient in the hope of making her feel much better very soon!

• I also used resist embossing from the Tim Holtz blog (it's nice to be reminded of those techniques we used to use) which I think made a nice balance.