BBQ Man

This is the card I made for my husband's birthday as he really fancies himself as a bit of a BBQ expert!

We have several barbies in our garden, one which looks pretty much like this one, plus a smoker, a gas barbie and a chiminea. He began his association with them when we lived in the USA many years ago and his enthusiasm hasn't waned in the interim.

For this card I used a stamp from Hobbycraft, (I bought a whole set just for this stamp!) I coloured it with watercolour pencils and a water brush, but I wanted to get the sheen of the real barbie and wondered how to achieve it. What I came up with in the end was to put a little Versamark reinker onto a craft mat and used it to paint over the image using a fine brush, I simply sprinkled over some clear embossing powder and heated it. Bingo... a shiny BBQ!

The sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers!

The challenge  for the Happy Little Stampers CAS  this time is Birthday!

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

Patterned paper

When I saw that  the challenge at CASual Fridays was to use patterned paper, I was delighted to think that I could use some of the stacks of patterned paper which have been sitting in my drawers for years. 

When I first starting crafting, I tried everything... all styles, all genres... until I realised that my own particular style was clean and simple! By then I had accumulated heaps of stuff, now obsolete in my craft room.

 Here I used Sizzix butterflies and a Sizzix embossing folder with a sentiment which was a freebie from a magazine I believe. The bodies of the butterflies are from a Memory Box die.

It's still possible to keep things CAS even with patterned paper in the mix!

Having fun!

Since attending the Happy  Little Stamper's Craft retreat last year, I have really become a Brusho convert!

This card is a bit of an experiment and I had fun doing it.

I began by applying some White Pearlescent Embossing Paste through a stencil and then having removed the stencil, tapped some Brusho colours onto the wet paste. It began to react a little but I fancied a little more impact so I spritzed it with water and blotted it a little.

The pearlescence shows through the colours and I rather like the effect!

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches, stamped in SU Pacific Point ink.

I'm submitting this card to two challenges

CAS Mix Up  (my additional  choice is die-cutting) and Just us Girls

         

Here is another using a similar technique, although this time I cleaned the stencil and put it back over the embossed images before adding the Brusho pigments. The pearlescence didn't show as much so I brushed a little Perfect Pearls over the butterflies and then decided to do a little spritzing as well.

The dry embossing is from a Cuttlebug folder.

Do you have a preference?

Fabulous Friend

I was just browsing a few blogs when a card from my fabulous friend Anita, jumped out at me. It's her inspiration card for MUSE and what an inspiration it is, I think it's absolutely stunning.

So this is my attempt!

I used a Tim Holtz stencil and brushed some Candied Apple Distress ink through it. I simply added some Sizzix flower die-cuts and stamped a one word sentiment from Paper Smooches. The front panel, cut with a SSS stitched rectangle and elongated a tad to fit a British card size, was popped up on dimensional pads.