FRIEND

I made this card to send to a fellow crafter whom I "met" on Facebook. I guess it just about sums up what I feel about the many, many people with whom I have had interaction over the internet. Questions are answered, techniques are shared and I guess this is the friendship of the 21st century! Some of these lovely people I have had the good fortune to actually meet in person... at craft shows, retreats and the like and I feel truly blessed to have all these associations.

As to the card... I began by embossing a background stamp by WOW with gold and silver embossing powder on a black base card.  The word friend is from a new alphabet die set by Memory Box called Twiggy Alphabet, which consists of the letters and their backgrounds. The flourishes are from MFT. I quite like the opulent look of this one!

The colours are from this challenge at Color Throwdown

 

Masculine Christmas card

The challenge over at CAS Christmas  is to make a card suitable for a chap.

Here I began by die cutting a couple of fir trees and inking the trunks with Versamark. I sprinkled  a little distress embossing powder over them and heat set. then I inked the rest of the trees and randomly added embossing powder in two shades of green, plus some verdigris powder.

I then inked just the right hand side of the trees and added some sea foam white powder, hopefully to give the impression of snow.

These were stuck to a front panel (Creative Dies wonky stitched frame) of the card beside a square aperture  (SSS die) through which a little dry embossed snow (Sheena Douglass EF) can be seen.

The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed in Gold!

It's also for the challenge at CAS Mix Up this time.

Here we have the layered embossing powders, stamping, dry embossing and die cutting.

Looking at where I positioned the trees, it looks as though I should have put the 'snow' on the left side of the trees, or put them on the other side of the aperture! I may change them over!

Peacock Feather Colours

The colour challenge at "Less is More" this week is to use the colours of peacock's feathers... I decided to use an image of  a peacock's feather too as had I picked one up in a Grab Bag from Rubber Necker stamps at Ally Pally some time ago.

Essentially the colours are blue and green, but there is also quite a bit iridescence in these glorious shades. 

To achieve this I used  a variety of glittery powders from WOW; St Lucia Surf, Antigua Breeze and Jamaica Green.

The sentiment is from a die cut from Hero Arts, also inked with Versamark and embossed.

Here's the same stamp, this time stamped on white card, embossed in silver and then painted with a water brush. Various shades of blue and green Brushos were then sprinkled over and allowed to react with the water.

When dry, the feather was cut out and a twinkling of Glamour Dust was added for good measure!

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and embossed in silver.

Blending

For this card I used a blending method which might not immediately spring to mind,... I blended a variety of embossing powders  over this negative flourish stamp from WOW.

It's so simple to do, really effective and a great way of using some powders that may not look their best alone! Lots look really good accompanied with a little gold or silver.

The butterfly is from SSS as is the sentiment!

It's actually the card I made for one of my LIM teamies Sarah G!

It's also for the challenge at AAA Cards

Mixing up Embossing Powders

Here is a simple one layer card using a super Indigo Blu image, stamped with Versamark and embossed in silver gold and black powders.  A tiny amount of each was added without removing any surplus after each addition. It's a little wasteful but I love the effect. The sentiment is from Avery Elle.

It's for AAA CArds Embossing & CAS on Sunday One Layer

Now I'm off to the gym, it's the start of a new programme today!

Using rejects

This card started life as a one layer flourish card for "Less is More" this week, but I realised that when masking,  I had put the Post it notes on slightly wonkily, so I cut off the panel (straight this time) and decided to add a little inking which I did using sponge daubers and then accompany it with a die-cut golden flourish too! The sentiment is from HLS embossed in WOW Pale Gold.

It's for the Time Out Challenge

Birthday with the optional twist of adding sponging!
Plus..., Seize the Birthday  Anything Goes

I love these flourish stamps which are from Stamplorations and embossed with three different coloured embossing powders... Deep Blue, Gold Tinsel and Distress Frayed Burlap.!

A Retro Sketch

Here is a card I made this morning following this sketch from Retro Sketches

I had recently bought a Sizzix die which makes the swirly cord effect and wanted to try it out. I had to cut off the outer ring as it seemed too large for this card but I'm really pleased with the overall effect.

The two background panels were made with a Crafty Individuals crackle stamp, embossed with Black and Gold Tinsel embossing powder. I love the effect of the mixed powders. I have a video here showing how I do this.

They were cut with a Lil Inkers stitched rectangular die, reducing the size of each piece to fit the card blank.

The hearts are from from Lil Inkers and the sequins from Dienamics.

The tiny tag is from Lili of the Valley.