Leafy Lady

I had to make a very quick card this week for a friend who is about to go off on an exciting trekking holiday on the Inca Trail to celebrate a special birthday. I decided to use one of my favourite stamps Mollie from Beeswax again - a variation on a card I posted a while ago.

Sadly I couldn't get a great picture of the card because it had to be delivered the next day and the light wasn't great.

I stamped Mollie in purple Versafine and then covered her with Eclipse masking tape. I obvously didn't cut it accurately enough, because she ended up with a bit of a halo that I had to try and ink afterwards - very tricky and not entirely successful - still you live and learn!! I masked a sun with a round post it note and then stippled various colours of Adirondack dye ink to try and give the impression of a sunset. In real life, you could see the blends of orange, yellow, pink and a little purple so much better. I overstamped with a loose cloud stamp from Beeswax in Malted Mauve Versamagic and then oversprayed with a very light coat of irridescent gold Glimmer Mist.  I added a sentiment, I think it from Serendipity Stamps, mounted the design onto a 8 x 8 card and finished off with some thin copper peel off border and Prima russet coloured ivy leaves - I love these!!

I'm still here!

It's been quite a while since I blogged, both because I have been really busy, but also because I haven't been satsified enough with anything I made to share it! Finally last weekend I did manage to get some quality crafting time and tried out my new set of Inkadinkadoo Utopiary stamps.

My first effort is a card - my favourite 8 x 8 size.

The background is Basic Grey Marrakech Green Tea paper with leaves added in Adirondack Pesto dye ink, sponged through a stencil. The tree image and flourishes on the tag are from different stamps In the Utopiary set, stamped in Olympian Green Versafine, shaded with Citrus, Lettuce and Pesto Adirondack dye inks using a stipple brush and Cut n' Dry foam. The sentiment is from a Paper Artsy mini stamp using the same colours and cut out with a Nestabilities label set in the Cuttlebug. The design is finished off with some paper leaves and some stick on dots in the corners.

Next I tried some ATCs to practice my inking, which I think is gradually improving - inking backgrounds is something I have really struggled with for some reason - other people make it look so effortless. These also use the Utopiary set.

I added some pale Adirondack dye inking  in the background with the stipple brush and then I stamped the images in my favourite ink for a good clean image - Versafine. More ink was added with Cut n' Dry foam to add shading in toning colours. I think the pinky ones are my favourites, these used Sunshine Yellow, Sunset Orange, Watermelon, Cranberry and Eggplant inks.

I hope now I have got back into the swing of crafting, I might have more projects worth sharing.

Tags and butterflies

I have never really got into making tags before, but decided to have a few experiments.

First of all I wanted to use some of my leafy backgrounds. Actually I have mostly ended up covering them up, but never mind! The first two are part of a set of seasonal themed tags, inspired by the Debbie Moore set of seasonal defintion stamps which I have had a while, but used here for the first time. This one is autumn and the main feature is a lovely stamp of a wren from Crafty Individuals. Wrens are my favourite bird and they often visit my window box.

The other materials include a gold embossed and stamped chipboard dragonfly, Paper Artsy and Artylicious papers, Prima leaves and a jewelled beaded edging.  

This is my winter tag.

This one is a bit more sparkly! The main stamp is another lovely Crafty Individuals stamp that I heat embossed in a Moonshadow Turquoise Angel Wings interference powder that I love. Plus various brads, dewdrops, bling, Artylicious paper and snowflakes cut with a Papermania punch and backed with glitter paper and a beaded edging again. I have spring and summer tags underway and will post if they work out.

The next tag was one I quickly put together this morning. This one uses a Prima clear stamp I bought at Ally Pally last weekend. These stamps are very reasonably priced, so I was delighted with the quality of the image. The stamp is the frame and word, the butterfly image is another Crafty Individuals image.

This was a blue card tag which I inked with white pigment ink and then added blue disress ink around the edge and overstamped with flourishes in a blue Versamagic ink. The main image is stamped in teal Versafine and left paler to try and make it stand out. Leaves added have been cut out of Artylicious paper with a Woodware punch, plus a dragonfly button and a lovely paper flower I bought on the LB crafts stand at Ally Pally too.

Lastly, this lovely butterfly stamp is from Imagination Stamps- better know for their Rollagraph range (this was another Ally Pally purchase and a special offer bargain too).

This image is embossed in black and then I used Cut 'n Dry foam and a stippling brush to add several diiferent Adirondack dye inks to the background. This isn't a finished card yet, but I couldn't resist sharing this lovely stamp.