Casology - Stencils

This week's challenge at Casology:

Week 198: STENCIL

I have been playing with a new stencil - Memory Box Smash.  I am sure that it will become a firm favourite.

The dragon stamp is one that I used in a previous post  from Personal Impressions.   I stamped the dragon on to white card then stamped again on copy paper and cut  it out  to use a mask. I then placed the dragon mask over the original stamp before covering with the stencil.... Following? I used red and yellow inks to represent fire. I used gold card as a mount before adding this to a red base card.

Ahoy There!

This week's challenge over at the  Less is More blog involves a one layer card with a nautical theme entitled......... At Sea.


I love to be given the opportunity to make cards for children and I have used this Clearly Besotted pirate ship several times before. It is difficult of come up with different ways of using it so a one layer card was a perfect technique to get the brain working.

There was a lot of masking involved.   The ship took ages to cut out but using Zig Two Way Glue enabled it to be held in place securely and also easily lifted afterwards.
I brushed Stormy Skies Distress Ink for the sky with the cloud masked in the same way as the ship.   The waves ( Distress Inks Peacock Feathers), cloud and birds (Adirondack Slate) are from a Kanban set. I had to think carefully about masking to achieve the ship looking as if it was in the sea as apposed to on it.

Blue Skies

It is such a beautiful day here.  A clear sky and no wind and rain to blast the remnants of my hanging baskets.  It has been such a disappointing summer in terms of garden colour - unless green is your favourite hue.

I went out to the garden with the camera hoping to capture some fluffy white clouds but...not a one to be seen.  Lovely colour though.

Fluffy clouds are what I was aiming for as the end result when designing this card.

I made it to play along with this week's CASology challenge. 

  

Beginning with a rectangular mask and a cloud shape cut from copy paper,  I used Cut and Dry  foam to add  ink (Ocean Blue from Rubber Stampede.) Adirondack - Lettuce was applied to create the "land". The same ink was used to stamp the Lavinia Stamps trees to complete the foreground.

No sentiment - I don't think it needs it.

Shades of Blue

SHADES of BLUE is the title for this week's Less is More challenge .

The brief:

"You can use a white card base, but we do want to see more than one colour of blue, not just one!"

 

This is my submission

 

 

I bought several Crafter's Workshop 6x6 templates a while ago but these, until now, had not seen the light of day! I attached the butterfly one to a 15cm square card with a little Blu Tack ( I love Blu Tack - it has got me out of a number of tight spots - not all crafty!!)  This then acted as a mask when I applied a mixture of Stormy Sky Distress Ink and Impress Lavender.

I stencilled the dragonfly and two of the butterflies on white card and cut them out.  This time I used Broken China Distress Ink and Adirondack Denim.

 

Now my weapon of choice to apply the ink was........a shaving brush. It was a new one that my dad hadn't got round to using.  I am going to Doncaster next week and , at the top of my shopping list are those Ink Duster Blending brushes.  However, the shaving brush will stay in my toolbox. I'm sure that I will find another use for it.

 

 Finally,I though that a little bling was in order, so............. out came the Stickles.

 

The sentiment is from a set by Personal Impressions which I attached with 3D foam pads.

 

You can see that I shaped the wings before gluing to the base. 

Which way is Up?

This is what I debated before I added the sentiment.  The original plan was to have it standing up portrait syle but it just didn't look right so I turned it on its side before finally deciding about the sentiment.  The inspiration for this card came from Simplicity's OLW59 challenge where we were to use this photo as a starting point.

I used my Big Shot and a  Nestabilities circle die to cut 3 circles to act as a mask. I stamped flowers on to a post-it note, cut them out and used them to cover the stamped flowers.  This enabled a light backround to be created with a sponge dauber and green ink. While these were still in place, I stamped the leaves and the dragonfly.   I removed the masks and, because I felt that they needed sometning more, I gave the flowers centres with a Sakura gel pen. Then came the decision about the orientation of the card.

Now, I have a confession - my yellow inkpad was completely dry so, after some thought, I used a Promarker - applying it to the stamp before stamping.  I was a little worried about the effect that it would have, so I immediately cleaned the stamp.  A couple of hours later and it looks as if it is still intact. Phew!

Note to self: Buy a yellow inkpad tomorrow and use it some more.

Saturday: I just couldn't move on until I made the vertical card that I had orginally thought of.......... so here it is.

I

I made another mask and positioned the circles closer together. Pleased with this so now I can move on!

OLW 39 Challenge

I struggled a bit with this week's One Layer Wednesday Challenge. The requirements are to use a border stamp, an image, some bling and no sentiment.


I chose the the monkey image first then couldn't find a border stamp to match. My solution was to create one myself with a single leaf and using masking to give a continuous line.


I coloured using Promarkers but had a wobble when I couldn't see where to fit the "bling" ( an unusual problem for me!!) I added the butterfly purely so that I could use some acrylic gems for the body.

Resources:
Stamps- Stampabilities, lil' Monkey ; butterfly - Dawn Bibby Designs.
Promarkers

OLW 37 Challenge

It has been some time since my last entry to the Simplicity One Layer Wednesday Challenge. I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I saw what it was.The challenge was to use only sentiments in the design.


As I am in Valentine Card mode anyway and had already gathered together sentiments that were suitable for this topic, it seemed an obvious choice. When I revisited Susan's blog today I saw that others had had a similar idea. Is there such a thing as original thought?

I resisted the urge to embellish it in any way - not even a little "bling" but I know that I will produce other variations on this theme.



Speaking of variations on a theme - I produced a couple of other attempts with the addition of ink smudges. We don't not make mistakes in cardmaking - we only create opportunities to expand the boundaries of creativity??!!! Here is the result of one of mine.



Guess where the smudge was.

Rejects revived

When making cards for challenges I seldom am happy with my first attempt. Often it is a stamped image or sentiment in the wrong place but even more often it is a smudge of paint, pen or ink that relegates the otherwise perfect card, to the pile that can will eventually be re-used with background paper to obliterate my mistakes.

However, sometimes if I go back to one of these rejects, I can see a way of adding elements that will hide my previous mistakes. Here is one such card:

This began life as one of my OLW16 Challenge cards for Susan Raihala's Simplicty blog. The card that I eventually entered and another can be seen here. By adding another layer I have rescued a card that I was quite happy with before disaster befell. The ribbon at the top and the ribbon and button hide black ink smudges ( very small but noticeable). Sometimes, I think that I get more satisfaction from saving a card from the reject pile than I do from a card that is created without problems.

OLW16 - Stamp a Scene

The weekend is here and its a beautiful day (for now) so I must get out to the garden for some tidying up. I have just time to upload my entry for this week's One-layer Wednesday Challenge at Simplicity. The subject is Stamp a Scene so I have gone for masking a rectangle shape then sponging a background again using masking but this time with torn paper and a punched circle. The poppy stamp completes the scene.

Of course, as usual, I have several attempts and I have decided to upload this one too - same techniques - different colour palette.

The sentiment is slightly wonky so I almost discarded it.

I have added a post that details one of my rejects from the challenge
here.

Resources:
inks - 1)Memento Tuxedo black, Rubber Stampede - Ocean Blue, Impress - Cerulean Blue 2) T H Distress - Pumice Stone, Old Paper
Stamps - Poppies - Lavinia Stamps, Sentiments 1) Hero Arts, 2) HOTP

Christmas in July

Christmas seems so be a topical theme in Blogland with lots of challenges asking for festive entries. Making Christmas cards this early is not my thing really. I had to get the stamps that I wanted to use down from the loft. I pack them away with the decorations and it is always a pleasure to renew their acquaintance. This is the card that I have made for the Simplicity OLW 13 challenge this week. I have had this stamp for several years and enjoyed using it in a different way.

I used a fine line black pen and a template to create the rectangular frame, stamped the image, then masked it before stamping the flourishes. Tried Promarkers to colour but I felt that the result was too intense so, as my watercolour pencils were to hand, I used them. A little bit of bling, using acrylic gems and stickles for the star, finished it off. The photo is a bit dark but I wanted to get the bling to shine.

Was on a roll so I made some more.

With Susan in mind I simplified one much further. Single stamp with a silver star which has a very tiny acrylic star in its centre.

Resources:
Main stamp - Anita's Sugarloaf, Flourish - Inkadinkado
Inks - Memento Tuxedo black, Versafine - black
Watercolour pencils and water brush
Acrylic gems

I don't own a brayer

As I am Scottish, I have chosen a thistle stamp that I bought from Lavinia Stamps as the first sample of my work. I really like the brayering technique that is demonstrated so well by the gallery samples at their website and by Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps. However, I don't own a brayer (next purchase) so I just made do with ink pads dragged over the card. I hope that it gives a feeling of the Scottish countryside as I intended.

The picture is a little distorted so I will have to improve my photographic skills!