More watercolour

It was watercolours, or to be precise, the Online Card Classes watercolour class that got me back into cardmaking, and now they are running another class. Here's my first card for this time around,

made with distress markers for the background and the Simon Says Stamp One with Nature tree in the foreground, embossed in bronze.

I really need to get a better setup for taking photos!

Color Throwdown Guest

I was very excited to be the featured stamper for Color Throwdown's challenge number 351. 

As a result, I get to be the guest star stamper this week for Colour Throwdown Challenge number 353! Fancy being a guest Stamper in the land where they spell colour without a 'u'! 

Here are the colours. Aren't they gorgeous?

The colours I got to work with are beautiful, although even with several purples in my stash, this particular colour needed a quick trip to my local craft shop to buy something that wasn't pale lilac. I've just received the layered Vintage Flowers stamp set from Altenew. It's got so many flowers on it! For today's card I chose just one rose, and one leaf. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things Pretty Poppies. I stamped and fussy cut the floral elements, being too stingy to buy dies. I stamped the sentiment in versamark ink, and embossed it in white before cutting a little fishtail on one end. The Squeezed Lemonade ink was painted onto the watercolour paper in two layers.

Inks used:

Flowers-Simon Says Stamp Lavender, Versa Color boysenberry

Leaves-Simon Says Stamp fern and Beanstalk Green

Background-Distress Ink Squeezed Lemonade 

Colour throwdown

I've been looking at colour challenge blogs this week for some colour inspiration, and I came across the Color Throwdown blog, which had a gorgeous combo of pink, purple and black. Here's my take on the colour combo.    

I used Distress Inks in picked raspberry, black soot and seedless preserves and blended them on with an ink blender. The sentiment is My Favourite Things " On the line ", and the small leaves, embossed in pale pink are from My Favourite Things "Sunflower Sweetheart " stamp set.

Thank you so much

This card is for two challenges, although there is a third challenge that occurred when I ripped the legs off the poor birdie when I was pulling it off the acetate sheet. I put the two halves together on the stamp block, and I don't think you can tell, can you?

The bird was coloured with copic markers, and the sentiment stamped in two colours of Simon Says Stamp ink, Cobblestone and Fog. 

Challenges

Less is More

Card Concept

Ballerina

I've been busy colouring  his sweetie today. Once for a young friend who has just danced beautifully, and another (this one) which I'll enter into a couple of challenges. Hero Arts TicTacToe challenge finishes today and this card includes circles, birthday and a favourite colour. Also over at Simon Says Stamp the Wednesday challenge is Anything Goes.

The image is from the Online Card Classes copic class and the image was coloured with copics markers.

Virginia's View Ombre/ Monochromatic Challenge

Keeping with the same stamp as I used in my previous post, I tried colouring it with only one colour, "Tea Dye" distress inks in three layers. I'm super happy with this turned out, and am pleased to enter it into the Virginia's View Ombre/Monochromatic Challenge. Once again, I embossed it in white, then coloured the whole piece, then sections of it, letting the ink dry between coats. Water colouring really suits me, as it can flow and do its own thing. I can't believe how much colour variation I could get from the one ink.

Hero arts Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Hero Arts have such a clever challenge on at the moment. It's called the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge and I've chosen three things in a row to base my entry on. I chose watercolour, birthday theme and heat embossing. I stamped the background large flowers from Hero Arts and heat embossed them in white. I then coloured the images in two layers of distress inks in Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, and Tumbled Glass, first giving a general wash, then filling in specific areas. I heat embossed the sentiment in white on black card stock, and attached it with dimensional tape. This stamp is an absolute favourite of mine. I hope you like the card as much as I do!

Joy to the Woods

I'd like to share a card that I made with Lawn Fawn's Joy to the Woods stamp set. The image was stamped and coloured using distress inks on Tim Holtz watercolour paper.

This card is going to be entered in the  Lawn Fawn Lawnscaping Challenge. The current challenge is to use critters on the card and I have chosen just a single critter!

I hope you enjoy the card.

One product ten ways

I am trying to really stretch my products and my creativity. I've decided to take some of my crafting supplies and try to make 10 different cards from the one product. And the first product I've chosen is.....

http://shop.pennyblackinc.com/p/sweet-wishes#

Here are the first two cards I've made, just in time for The Card Concept's Cupcake Challenge. For the first card, I stamped the image in light distress ink, then coloured with distress inks and a paintbrush.. I stamped the background cupcakes onto a piece of old card stock with Simon Says Stamp Lavender ink. The sentiment was embossed onto a piece of pink vellum using versamark ink and Hero Arts White embossing powder.  The cherries are highlighted with a bit of Glossy Accents.

The next card was stamped in memento Tuxedo Black ink, and coloured with copics. I added details with Wink of Stella clear pen, Glossy Accents, and a uni-ball signo white gel pen. I rounded the top corner to add a little interest in that corner of the card.

Cardmaking in the busy times

What a busy week. With all my intentions of doing Kathy Racoosin's 30 day challenge, and keeping up with the Stretch your Dies class, work has just taken over my life, and it's taken me four days even to put this card together. Holidays start here in Australian tomorrow and I for one can't wait!

Stretch your dies class starts

I've had a lovely day in my happy place, trying techniques and making Cards. I'm doing another online card classes class, and really enjoying it so far.

Here's my first card, made with using one of the techniques in the class. It was surprisingly easy to do, and it's always great to have more masculine cards. 

Shaker sunset

I'm on a roll!
Here's another card I made over the weekend. I'd like to also enter this one in the Virginia's view Challenge.
All the colouring was done with distress inks and ink blending tools. The dies used were from Simon Says Stamp (circle and rectangle) and Lawn Fawn (Stitched hillside borders).
This card was much easier to make as I had a clearer idea of what I wanted.
Hope you enjoy it!

Shaker cards

Hi all!
With a busy start to a new job, I've not had much time for cardmaking, but a challenge on Virginia's View Challenge got me into the craft room, and busy.
I've made a watercolour shaker card using the Mama Elephant Peek a Frame die, and some bright blue fun foam. I'm really hoping to get some white, but that's all they had at my little country town.
I painted a panel using distress inks and a paintbrush, then cut the window and foam using the die, and scissors. The acetate is a piece left over from doing up a doll's house with my dad.
I then raided my daughter's seed bead stash and my own sequins, and filled the six windows. This was my first attempt at a shaker card, and I like the result, although I can already see places where I can make things easier for myself.
Hope you enjoy it too.

Lawnscaping Challenge

This is a card I made for the Lawnscaping Challenge. I used the Hedgehugs set, and my lightest three inks to do a background of left facing hedgehogs, so that the contrast with the "amazing" right facing copic coloured hedgehog would stand out more. The sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp flower friend set, which I cut with my trusty little scissors, to use just half the sentiment.
 The embossing powder is a beautiful one called mostly mink, from Alison Ellis Design. I love it. I dipped the edges of the sentiment strip in versamark ink before dragging them through the embossing powder.

Runway Inspired Challenge

I'd like to share a card today that I made for the Runway Inspired Challenge. I made the card over several days, snatching time when I could, as I have started a new job this week.
So, here's the outfit.






I used the right hand panel on the shirt by Carven as inspiration for both the colours and also the placement of the inks. The belt was the inspiration for the sentiment which is from a set by Simon Says Stamp called Many Thanks.



I dropped Distress Ink onto a wet piece of watercolour paper. The blues I used originally were Broken China and Salty Ocean, and the Reds were ripe Persimmon and Worn Liptick. I thought it could be bolder, so I dried it off, and added chipped Sapphire and Fired brick, and then I was pleased with the results.
This picture has the panel sideways!

And here's the finished card. I used red and black for mounting.

My mum is 70!

What a cause for celebration! My mum is 70 years young. To celebrate, the whole family gathered from around Australia to have a week of celebrations that included Christmas and two birthday parties. With Mum and Dad having five children, plus partners, and 15 grandchildren, even the family gatherings were boisterous affairs. 

My mum loves gardening, so I bought the sunflower sweetheart stamp set from My favourite things with her in mind. After colouring the image with copics, I mounted it using some papers from the Heidi Swapp favourite things paper pad.. As I have lots of gardening friends, I know I'll get plenty of use out of the stamp set. 

Here's how it turned out, with thanks to my sister in law Melissa who encouraged me to take a photo of the card before I gave it away, something I often forget to do.