An octopus may not be the first idea you have when making a card for someone but John has mentioned them a few times when regaling us with stories from his holidays in Greece. This one is an Oxford Impressions stamp from The Deep set. I brayered the background blue onto silk matt coated card then sprayed with water and sprinkled with salt to get a speckled effect. The image was stamped using black memento ink then using a water brush filled with bleach I took some of the colour out so I could then go back in and use a pinky colour for the octopus. I used a variety of copics and other pens but couldn’t quite get the blended effect I was after.
Category Archives: birthday card
Bright and colourful grungy birthday card
Inspired by Craft stamper again but can’t remember the issues, I used a mixture of techniques. Using an A5 piece of old card I started making the background using torn masking tape along with some ripped pieces of text from an old book sticking them haphazardly over the whole piece of card.Then I applied some Distress inks to the page (tiny drops from re-inkers) and smooshed it around with a baby wipe so that some of the ink highlighted the edges of the tears. I gave it a light spray with water and while it was still wet I sprinkled on some salt in some areas. Once dry the salt was then wiped off. Using various found items I made some marks with black and white acrylic paint and stamped some text using white acrylic paint (I tried various white inks but none of them came out well).
Next I stamped the silhouette onto tissue paper and stuck that onto my card. Stamped more white text over the image and highlighted areas with oil pastels. Cut the size you need then mat and layer it all on the card. Similar background card was created with ordinary white card as one of the layers.
Inks: Memento Tuxedo black, Distress re-inkers Picked raspberry, Moved lawn and Salty ocean
Card: white and black
Stamps: Dina Wakely grungy silhouette D1007
Other: black and white acrylic paint, oil pastels, torn book pages, masking tape
Brayered fairy birthday card
Stampotique birthday card
This card was inspired by the Craftstamper mag. but it is an amalgamation of a few ideas all of which I have used in various art journal pages but not usually in my cards. I used acrylic paper as I wanted it to look a bit like canvas but I had to be careful with swiping it with baby wipes as the surface disintegrates. I maybe should have given it a thin wash of gesso first.
Only one Candle Carey 😉
Inks: Black India ink, inktense pencils to colour image, copic pen for skin (not good with the India ink though), Acrylic paints: Black, Lime, Moss, Turquoise and White
Card: acrylic card, white card, turquoise card
Stamps: Stampotique Karen, Cute companions Patchwork number set 2 (little cup cake), computer generated text
Other: black pen
Steampunk or industrial birthday card
So I was blog hopping the other day and landed on Kaz’s blog where she did a metal foil covered tag inspired by Tim Holtz. I have used this technique a few times previously but had forgotten about it and it was just the reminder I needed for creating Kevin’s card. It more or less uses the same technique but I added some discs, numbers and magic mesh underneath the aluminium tape to give lots of texture and dimension. I used paper stumps and embossing tools to smooth the tape gently around these additions and going inside all the little squares made by the mesh. The text I made using metal stamps. I have used this kind of technique before but instead of using alcohol inks to colour the metal foil in the recesses of the texture I used black acrylic paint then swiped some areas away with a baby wipe before it had dried completely.
Inks: Alcohol inks Pitch black, Stonewashed and Rust
Card: white, black antiqued metal card
Stamps: metal alphabet stamps
Other: Aluminium foil tape, small discs, Ideology: fasteners, washers, and cogs. Hammer, wrench, and keyhole brads, small key charm
Zentangle birthday card
Another zentangle birthday card, they are great for guys cards and you can make them as intricate and fussy as you like.
I stamped the greeting first then drew in the rectangular border. Masked it then stamped some cogs and some dots. The rest is doodled zentangle.
Inks: Black document ink
Card: black, white,
Stamps: Stampin up Cheers and wishes, Sense of time and Circle of friendship
Other: black Pitt pens, masking tape
Zentangle birthday card
Mens easel birthday card
Butterfly birthday card
In the March 2012 issue of the Craft stamper magazine Riet van Zundert shows how to use your acrylic block to add colour to your card so I had a go with her technique for Ceara’s birthday card. You basically ink up your acrylic block then swipe away any areas you don’t want colour on. Then use your block like a stamp and press onto your card. I stamped the pink colours first, then added the green to the centre, then stamped the images normally and coloured them in.
Inks: Distress inks Spun sugar and Bundled sage, Cosmic shimmer Angel mist, Memento Tuuxedo black
Card: White, Black glitter card
Stamps: Inkadinkado Mindscapes, Elusive images Easter grasses
Other: Gelly roll glitter pen, Lime green stickles, black 1/2 pearls and nail heads, tiny flower sequins and seed beads
For a little something extra I made a steampunk bracelet. It was a kit from John Lewis but I won’t be buying any more as the quality is very poor. The metal is very soft and is a strange colour that is neither silver nor gunmetal colour. Instead of the large metal heart they had in the kit I added a dragonfly in it’s place. Just the addition of a few cogs apparently makes it steampunk….Hmmmm.
Birthday card and tag
I know that Connell likes all the Tim Holtz bits’n’bobs and distressing techniques so I made this card and tag for his birthday.
Inks: Distress inks Vintage photo, Weathered wood, Stazon Timber brown, versamark with clear embossing powder and Vintage photo distress embossing powder
Card: Ivory card, grunge board letters, brown envelope, Basic Grey patterned paper
Stamp: Invoke Art ticket stamp
Other: 4 brads, Tim Holtz pin, large Stampin up eyelet distressed, string