Hooray

I just received a package of goodies from Simon Says Stamp, among which were the sentiment and vented star dies used here. I'm not sure of the make of the ribbon and stars and haven't been able to find the make online... I guess I'll have to rummage through my die packaging. I keep my dies on magnetic sheets in A4 plastic cases according to their subject matter and so file away the original packaging, but it takes a lot of going through to look for and determine the manufacturers, often it's quicker to look online.

Anyway I thought that this card fitted quite well with a couple of challenges.

Just US Girls - Sentiment

Case this Sketch

Watercolour Tilley

My son has a birthday approaching and I never know what to get him. This time he gave me a hint. For many years he has had a Tilley hat, to which he is enormously attached. Although it looks a though it is on its last legs he wants to keep it. (It could be exchanged for a new one as they have a lifetime guarantee, but he's just too sentimental about his old one to lose it.) SO his present this time is a spanking new one... just the same model as the old one, but more presentable! So for his card I decided to do an image of his hat. I drew this one and watercoloured it ... I think it looks reasonably like the real thing!

The theme at Addicted to CAS is Heat so this image is definitely for that!

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted

Christmas in July

For this challenge, I looked for one of the smallest Christmas stamps in my collection, as the brief from AAA Cards is to leave maximum white space. This little wood mounted stamp is from Stampendous, coloured with alcohol markers and cut with a MFT pierced die. The embossed surround on the card front, was made with the next size up of the same set of dies.

I think that this is a potential for mass production as two runs through the Big Shot, one stamp and a little colouring completed the task! The stark simplicity really pleases me.

To give some idea of perspective... the die cut square is about 2.5 cms or 1x inch square.

The Holly and the Ivy Challenge!

The Male Room - Christmas in July

She thought she could, so she did!

This card was a bit of an experiment. I made it for the challenge at CAS Stencil which is Alcohol Ink / Alcohol lift. As my friend of many years Anne Ray says... "Alcohol really does give you a lift!"

Anyway for this card, I thought that I would try NOT to use YUPO paper, NOT to use Alcohol Lift ink and NOT to use a commercially produced stencil... I did however use alcohol ink!

To begin with I cut a stencil with a Sizzix flower die from a piece of vellum. I used a piece of the smoothest card in my arsenal and added a few drops of various blue toned alcohol inks and some blending solution onto it. Because this card is more porous than Yupo it dried quite quickly. I then put my 'stencil' over the card and used Stazon Stamp cleaner fluid dabbed onto a piece of paper towel to lift some of the ink through the stencil. It worked reasonably well and gave a somewhat hazy outline but I really rather like the effect!

I used the actual vellum die cut as a bit of an overlay and the glue I used to stick that, makes it somewhat translucent.

The sentiment is from a set by Clearly Besotted.

Now you may see the reason for my post title.. things like this don't always work out, but this time it did!

PS Big WELCOME to Viv on the Design Team at CAS Stencil... what a great addition to the team. well done Viv!

CAS on Friday Use a Stencil

CAS Mix Up Alcohol ink lift

PS Just saw that I had already added three cards to the Mix Up challenge so this one can be ignored!!!!