Anniversary card – misty grasses

anniversary card, card

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I have a few anniversary cards to make in September so I made 3 similar but ever so slightly different by changing the colours slightly or the shading (only showing one here).  The photo doesn’t really pick up the shading very well.  I was trying to capture a  misty Autumnal morning effect.  To get the misty effect spray a very fine mist of water over the image as this reacts with the inks I used and diffuses them slightly.

 

Inks:  Distress inks Tumbled glass, Weathered wood, Frayed burlap, Stamping up Mellow moss and Crumb cake

Card:  white card

Stamps:  Judikins bamboo, Carity (?) flock of birds, Rubber stamp tapestry (small leaf), Stampin up Cheer and wishes, English stamp company Oriental grasses (reversed by stamping onto brayer)

Butterfly – live the life you’ve imagined card

birthday card, butterfly, card

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I was trying to be clever with the background paper for this card.  I had already made the background a while ago with spray colours and I used salt to make a blotchy pattern on it but I wanted a few more layers in keeping with the recipient’s likes (numbers and accountancy) so I used stamps with those themes but just quite low key in the background.  The butterfly is stamped onto acetate and coloured on the back side using Copic pens and Stickles.

Inks and paints: Stazon black, Black India ink, Dylusions Vanilla custard, Chroma jewels slate, Cosmic shimmer Aqua lagoon, Hot jewels Lime, Acrylic paint Light antique white, Lumiere Halo blue-gold, yellow

Card:  white, watercolour paper, acetate

Stamps: Stampers anonymous Mini muse, Fairytale frenzy and Urban tapestry, Paperbag studios Scrap journal, Paperartsy Words plate 6, Clingables flourishes, Inkadinkado Mindscapes

Other:  Stickles, Copics pens blue and yellow, Diamond glaze (to glue acetate)

 

Steampunk airship card

birthday, card, steampunk, steampunk card

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Steampunk or steampunk style is great for men’s card.  The design is quite simple – I was trying to recreate a smoggy scene and grunged it up a bit.

Inks:  Distress inks Black soot, Antique linen, and Pumice stone, Black India ink

Card:  white card, pale dusky green, black

Stamps:  Clarity stamps wrought iron corner (?), Oxford impression Steampunk

Other:  natural sponge to stipple on black ink

Dragon fly card

card, dragonflies, dragonfly, watercolour

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I was finding it difficult to come up with new ideas for some cards and even after flicking through some old magazines and books I still couldn’t come up with any thing.  But I then started to look back at some previous cards I have made I got an idea from 2 previous designs that I joined together.  This is made using the watercolour technique and stamps where you ink up your stamp and spritz the stamp with water before stamping onto water colour paper.

Inks:  Adirondack Wild plum, Red pepper, Terra cotta, Stream, Lettuce, and Oregano

Card:  water colour paper, old olive card, ivory card

Stamps:  Clarity stamps Dandelion heads, Satampin up Pocket silhouettes, unknown dragonfly stamp, Papertrey ink Out on a limb sentiments

Other:  Stampin up hardware, Tiny mosaic Cranberry, East of India ribbon

Jazz blues card

birthday, birthday card, card

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I found a great Jazz blues stamp the other day that was just perfect for a  birthday card I wanted to make for a friend who enjoys jazz and blues music.  The background is an image from a Greek magazine (thanks Lizzie) cut down to fit the card.

I think the band is called King Oliver’s Creole Jazz band.

Inks:  Archival cobalt blue, Adirondack sailboat blue

Card:  white card

Stamp:  Graphic45 ‘Curtain call’

Other:  gold peel-offs colour using Faber castell multimark pen.

Zentangle card humbug style

birthday card, card, male, zentangle, zentangle card

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I caught a little bit of zentangle on a TV show a few weeks back (I think was the lady doing the demo was called Mel) and this was roughly the pattern she was doodling.  Mine isn’t quite the same as I have angled my stripes differently and also the shading.  The pattern reminds me of these old fashioned sweets you used to get that were kind of pyramidal and stripy – humbugs.  I think zentangle lends itself really well to male cards and this one is for Fraser.  Happy birthday Fraser!

Graduation card mortar board style

card

graduationMortarCardSmlBig congratulations to my niece Erin for graduating this month!  I made this spring fold card with a sort of mortar board on the top.  I have seen similar things before, possibly one of the sample cards at my scrapbook crop, so the idea is not a new one.  The message is on the the back of the card.

Pick-up truck Father’s day card

father's day

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It has been a while since I last blogged so here is the Father’s day card I made for my dad.  There are the three of us as kids in the back of the truck and my dad driving.  I didn’t have a stamp of a mini pick-up so this one from Stampin up had to do.  I tend not to make my dad’s cards with loads of colours as he is colour blind so this one is mainly grey, white and black.  I am trying to use up some of my old stash and the backing paper for this one is from an old Little Sizzles pad (Earth tones) from Sizzix.

 

Anniversary card

anniversary card, card

I have been trying to do more single layer (less is more) cards recently and there have been a few articles in past Craft stamper magazines which I have taken my inspiration from.  Here is one of the anniversary cards I have made.  I vary the colour scheme depending on the season and I like to mix and match various flower and foliage stamps.

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Inks:  Distress inks Mowed lawn, Shabby shutters, Tumbled glass, Picked strawberry, Memento black, Stampin up Crumb cake, marker pens.

Card:  white card

Stamps:  Stampin up Pocket silhouettes, Cheer and wishes, Rubber tapestry stamps (various flowers)

Encaustic cards

abstract, card, encaustic

Just recently someone gave me a hot tray that they no longer used so I had a go at an encaustic art technique that I saw John Buckland using in an encaustic art DVD. Basically you put your card on the hot tray then apply your wax. You then move the melted wax around with various tools or just a piece of scrunched up tissue. The hot plate that John uses is much larger, has a glass top and a thermostat. Mine is just a narrow hot tray with a steel top and only and on/off switch but it was still fun to try. I made 2 A5 pieces which I cut down to make a few cards. Before I cut them however I photographed them so I can now print them and use them as background papers for other projects.

futuristic encaustic art using a hot tray

A6 artwork in card

Encaustic abstract using hot tray

A7 artwork in card

Draw backs of the hot tray I have:

 

  • The top of the hot tray has a slight grain to it which makes it difficult and time consuming  to clean
  • It is long and narrow limiting the size of card
  • No thermostat control so you have to keep turning it off all the time
  • It stays quite hot for quite a while

 

but then it was built for keeping plates and food warm and not for encaustic art.