Variations on a Theme

I wanted to pack light for this month's crop on Saturday, so I chose one of my Pins - original pin here - and took along various stamps to make variations on the idea.  I die-cut the cardstock to size in white and then some ivory when I ran out of white LOL.  I didn't pack coloured cardstock for mats, but cut those on Sunday and assembled the cards. 

I used silhouette stamps from Lavinia (seedheads), Nellie Snellen (stylised flower stems) and Hot off the Press (feather).  The splats are from Stampin Up and the sentiments from Visible Image.

I do like silhouette stamping :-) 

March yellow challenge

Over at Kool Kitty, the 2017 Pantone colour challenge for this month is yellow.  Not really one of my go-to colours, but I got onto a bit of a roll and have made four!  Well, I wasn't happy with the first one, so I did a second one which gave me the idea for the third, which led to a fourth using the leftover bit ...... you know how it goes :-)

Memory Box Butterflies, Tattered Lace flourish and SU sentiment.  The background paper is from Craft Creations, the butterfly bases are a bronze pearlescent cardstock, doesn't show well in the photo :-)

More MB butterflies .... I had this white die-cut leftover from the pink inlaid card I did the other day, so just popped it over the same yellow paper matted onto matching Bazzill.

Then it occurred to me that I could do another inlaid card over the yellow paper, so that was the third one.  But then I had another white die-cut leftover ...... so .....

I had this background already embossed and smooshed over with Distress ink, it does have yellow in the mix ....

That's four cards from a colour I don't really use very much.  Not bad :-)

Pin-spired Wednesday: Get Well cards

I am going to try and blog something inspired by one of my Pins, every Wednesday .... feel free to join in :-)
Today I have a couple of get well cards, inspired by this Pin.

I reversed the design as I prefer the stamped image to be on the left.  For the agapanthus card, I stamped the splotches in shades of aqua/green/grey and added some grunge lines and a sentiment. The butterflies are stamped over pink/green splotches with grey water droplets.
Then I trimmed the image to size, matted onto silver and job done!
I am pleased with both of them, but I do prefer the agapanthus card, I think it's a cleaner silhouette than the butterflies. 

Buy it - Try it: Get well card

I forgot I hadn't blogged this BiTi .... I bought a magazine a while ago with a free stamp and embossing folder, thought I would try out the folder.  I can't remember which magazine it was, I only buy them for the gifts now and they all blur into one!!!

I ran some pink cardstock through the folder and lightly brushed over the raised areas with Picket Fence distress ink ... so lightly it doesn't really show in the photo .... LOL.  I had some freebie magazine papers and die cut a circle to go in the middle of the embossed card.  Then I die-cut some pennants (Nesties) and some leaves (Sue Wilson) and put the whole lot together.
I decided to make it a Get well card, because I don't have that many in the box, I need more variety :-)
So, the embossing folder, the paper, the pennants and the leaves are all new, a four-in-one BiTi :-)

Buy it, Try it - new Distress ink minis and SU stamps

I have been waiting for ages for the second mini distress ink set to be released and finally it has arrived :-)  at the crop last Sunday, I tried them out, along with some new SU stamps.

For the background, I smooshed the DIs in Twisted Citron, Blueprint Sketch and the grey whose name escapes me....
The flourish is from Everything Eleanor, the butterflies are from Butterfly Basics, the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny sentiments.  All stamped in smoky grey Versafine.
Now I have to say, I am not entirely happy with the overall look of this card.  I like the background, but I could have placed the larger butterfly better - it would have looked nicer stamped at an angle.  The flourish is slightly mis-stamped in places.  Also the sentiment isn't stamped quite straight, which is of course torture for me LOL.
So not my favourite card ever, but it'll go in the box and I will be having another play with the inks and stamps :-)

52CC - week 23, aqua & yellow

The prompt for week 23 is a photo, predominately aqua and yellow.  Now, yellow isn't really a colour I am fond of, and certainly I don't see it as a Christmas colour, so I did a birthday card and a get well card instead.  I decided to go with using inks, after seeing an example on UKS from one of the other participants (thank you Silver Tiger!)

The get well card was inspired by something I found on Pinterest, here.  Simple stamping and some scored lines to add interest to the white space :-)

For the birthday card, I revisited the embossing resist technique, stamping & embossing the flowers in white and smooshing distress ink over in Peacock Feathers, squeezed Lemonade and Salty Ocean.

I won't say they are my favourite cards ever, but they are acceptable :-)

52CC - week 19

Nat dipped into the prompt jar for week 19 and this is what she came out with: navy, vellum and stitching.  I didn't manage to use all three, but hey the prompt is just a starting point.... isn't it?? LOL.

The Christmas card has a landscape image, which I had previously stamped (not sure of brand) and then had put in the 'come-in-useful-one-day' drawer.  I coloured it with Kuretake pens and matted it onto some background paper on a navy card blank.  The sentiment is die-cut .... Britannia dies, I think.  Then I added some pearls.  I wasn't sure about colouring this image and will probably do it slightly differently next time, but it's not too bad :-)

The get well card is also on a navy blank and has faux stitching!  The flower stamp is from Hero Arts, coloured with Kuretakes again, the sentiment is from Stampin' Up.  I have to confess, one of the flowers is there to cover a stray splodge of ink and the other two are there to balance the first one!!

52CC - week 18

A photo prompt for week 18 over at Kool Kitty Musings.  I chose to use the colours to make these two cards.

I made two everyday cards rather than a Christmas one.  My card box has mostly birthday cards in it, so I thought I should have some different cards in stock as well :-)  I stamped and embossed the flower (Hero Arts) and sentiments (Stampin' Up), then coloured the flower with Kuretake alcohol pens.  I cut a mat from the background paper, making it long enough to be able to punch a border at the base (Martha Stewart), then I tied a ribbon around the mat and assembled everything onto a deckle edge card blank.
A word on the Kuretake pens .....they are the first pens I have ever got on with, I have tried Promarkers and Flexmarkers, but never really did well with them.  Now I am building up a my collection of the Kuretakes, a few every month - it does work out to be quite expensive as I buy a replacement brush tip for each pen as well, to go in the broad tip end, but I do like them!  I get mine from Cult Pens, who have a wonderful selection of any pen you could ever need!!

Get Well card

Oo-err!  This is a bit bright for me!  I made the bubbly background tag a while ago and decided it should go onto a card.  So I searched through some 6" pads to find co-ordinating papers and this is the result.  Simple matting and layering, with peel-off line frames, then I stamped /embossed the flower and cut out.  The flourish is die-cut and the sentiment stamped.

Background stamp - Lost Coast designs
Papers - Jillibean Soup? or maybe My Minds Eye?
Flower - Craft Stamper freebie
Flourish - Dienamics
Sentiment - Tinchies

52 Cards Challenge - The Big Catch Up! - weeks 33 and 35

The prompt for week 33 was 'birthdays' and week 35 was 'thank you'.  I didn't do a Christmas one for either prompt LOL but I did make two thank you cards!

The birthday card is done in shades of gold and ivory - I stamped and embossed the vintage flower and cut it out, then inked the edges with gold.  The flourish is die-cut and split in two with the ends tucked underneath the flower, it wasn't quite long enough otherwise!  The background mat was run through a lattice embossing folder, the sentiment tag is punched.
Flower stamp - Craft stamper freebie
Embossing folder - Embossalicious
Flourish - Dienamics
Sentiment tag - Stampin' Up

The two thank you cards are made from the same 6" paper pad, but I have no idea of the brand - I am making an effort to use up all my 6-inchers and most of them don't have their covers any more.....!  I really like the way the butterflies look on the 'lachette' die-cut (no I don't know what a lachette is .... that's what they call it!).  The second card is just a simple matted background and a die-cut 'thanks'.
Lachette - Memory box or Dienamics
Butterflies - Martha Stewart
Letters - Hero Arts
Thanks - Sizzix

I think the birthday one is my favourite :-)