Moonlight…..

Wow, into March already. Time is flying past, it seems.
We had some fabulous entries in last months Craft A Scene challenge, which was ‘A Winter Scene’, and I believe the winning entries will be posted up this weekend.
So now onto this months Challenge, which is ‘Moonlight’.
For the first of my two pieces this month, I have used images from Lavinia Stamps, Stampscapes, and Inkylicious.

 The Lavinia Stamps are:
Moon Fairy
Bamboo( Bottom Left)
Fairy House

The Inkylicious are:
Grasses
Willow (Bottom Right)

The Stampscapes are:
Oak Branch, 203G and
Spooky Branch 273G.

This piece sort of grew of its own accord as I worked on it, and  I wasn’t entirely sure what I would do with this when it was done, but when I got to the end, I realised I had made our Granddaughters Birthday present!
  She loves fairies, and this will go in a frame for her bedroom.
The piece of card is A5 in size, 5 3/4 x 8 1/4. I brayered the background firstly with Adirondack dye inks, starting with Cool Peri. I followed this with Shell Pink,Stonewashed,Purple Twilight and Eggplant. The ‘tunnel’ effect was achieved by keep turning the card so that I brayered all four sides, and tried to come in a little further at the corners by brayering across the corner. All the images were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, starting with the Moon Fairy. Next came the Fairy House, then I added the grasses along the bottom edge, Willow in the right corner and Bamboo in the left. The 2 oak branches and the Spooky Branches were all positioned using the Stamp Positioner, so that I could get the orientation right.

The moon was given a little colour with Antique White Flexmarker, and I used Promarkers in browns, reds and greens to colour the Fairy House. I added a little colour to her wings with a Glitter Sakura Gelly Roll pen, and also the dots around the moon. I dotted a glue pen between the Moon Fairy & the Fairy House, then sprinkled some crystal glitter over it. That doesn’t show up too well, to be honest, and I shall add some more dots of Stickles over the top, before I frame it. Then I just trimmed the edges to neaten it, and matted it onto some black cardstock.
You can probably see that I tend to work on top of an A3 pad, the sort you can buy for children as a sketch pad. It makes it easy to take the ink off your brayer, test stamp images, stamp off onto, and sometimes you end up with a really interesting masterboard style piece, quite by accident!
   So thats my first this month, pop over to Craft A Scene tomorrow and you will see all the DT first pieces, as well as the winners from last month.

Craft A Scene- A Winters Scene

Hi folks, this is my first post for the Craft A Scene  DT, and the brief was to create two pieces with a winters scene. The second one comes along on the 19th Feb.

       After a few flicks through my Stampscapes stamps, I picked out the ones I wanted to use, then had a long think about how to create a wintry look, without just adding a load of snow. ( Which just so happens to be falling outside right now!).
 I was still struggling with how to look wintry, but decided to get started on the stamping, and hope for inspiration. This image very, very almost went into the bin- I had a complete disaster part way through- and the funny thing is, it was in the rescuing that I got my winter look.
I have quite a stack of brayered backgrounds, from when I was practising to get the hang of it, so I selected one that I thought could end up with the right look. It is a piece of Matt card, from Lavinia Stamps, brayered from the bottom with Stonewashed, Sailboat Blue & Denim Adirondack dye inks, and from the top down with Cool Peri, Purple Twilight, and a little Eggplant right at the top. Before brayering I added a circle punched from a post-it note to the upper half of the cardstock.
I used Versafine Onyx Black to stamp the images. Most of the elements of this picture come from Nature Sheet #6. I started with the Lakeside Cabin (147F) on the right, then stamped Lakeside Island (from Nature Sheet #4, The Lost Scapes) next to it, using a Stamp Positioner to marry them up. I placed them about 2/3 of the way down the card,just where the blue started to fade out. In the foreground I stamped Ledge (054F) twice, varying the angle slightly, then added Reeds Lge (068D) randomly. I used Water Pattern sm (231C) in the water area.  Final stamp was  Spooky Branch (273G) stamped reaching in to the picture on the left and upright on the right. You can see on the design sheet that the Ledge stamp is much larger than in my scene- I just used a small portion of it to give me a river/ lake bank. Equally, you can layer & stack it to give you a larger rocky area.

            Having taken the design sheet out of my folder to scan & show you, I could see similarities in my scene to the image on the sheet.

   So all was well up till now,  when I decided I ought to have a reflected moon in the water. Considered a few options, and decided to try ‘stamping’ a moon shape in Brilliance Moonlight White, using a round foam brush. My instant reaction was that it looked awful- it didn’t work at all. And that I had ruined what was a promising picture to boot.I tried wiping the white ink off- that smudged and looked even worse. Next I tried cleaning that area with a baby wipe- now I had a patch with a different colour ink to the rest of the image. So, as a last resort, and as I had given up any hope of this image being usable anymore, I wiped over the whole image with the baby wipe- I had black ink coming off the image, as well as the white! Panic!!!! So now, completely stressed by everything going wrong, I folded a piece of plain white copy paper in half, put the image between the two layers, put a book on top of it (oh yes, it was curling up too!), put it to one side and went to cook tea.
 When I went back to it the following evening, I had no expectations of it being any use, and fully expected to be throwing it away. However, as you can see, what the baby wipe did was take enough ink away to give me a misty, ghostly look- perfect for mist/fog falling over a lake in winter. Trust me folks, nobody was more surprised at this than me. I had gone from scrap to perfect by sheer fluke.

The Lost Scapes #4

 Which does go to show that you should never consider anything past retrieving- no matter how bad things seem! I must be mad, but I decided to push my luck a little further- I have never used a white gel pen on images like this before, but I have loved the effect when others have done it. I found out my White Gelly Roll pen, only to discover it had dried up from lack of use! I have since managed to get it working by dunking it it warm water, but I purchased a new one from Joanna Sheen- which only took a couple of days to arrive, and sat down to work. As you can see I outlined the edges of the islands and added some white to the fir trees. I did the same with the Spooky branches, Reeds and the Rocky Ledge.  I used an Orange & Yellow gel pen to add a little light to the cabin windows. Finally I added a few squiggly white lines to simulate the moon in the water- very nervously, I might add- then trimmed the image down and matted it onto black, then onto dark purple cardstock.
 For the base card, I folded an  A4 piece of Gold card in half. The embossed background was made with a Cuttlebug folder, Snowflake.  I cut two strips of white card the width of the folder, and almost twice as long, embossed the image once, then turned the white card around and embossed the other end. The two lengths were then joined together with sellotape on the back, and cut down to fit the front of the card. A strip of pale blue ribbon covers the join. Mounted the image to the front, and breathed a sigh of relief, lol.
              I suppose this could be a Christmas card, which means I have actually managed to start them in January- so I only broke my New Years Resolution by a half (I wanted to do two Christmas cards a month).

  I hope you will join us over at Craft a Scene, I am looking forward to seeing the other DT’s take on the brief, and what you all come up with.

Oriental Poppy in Red & Blue

 Another Oriental Poppy card using the Hampton Arts stamp, this time on a background brayered in  Adirondack reds, Watermelon, Red Pepper & Cranberry. Again the post it note Sun mask was added after the first colour was brayered. This one is also heat embossed, and matted onto black cardstock. I used a blue & gold washi paper for the card base here, as all the red papers are very heavily patterned, and the result was just too busy. I also stamped  a kanji  letter, onto a piece of card coloured with red ink, then triple embossed and the letter stamped in Black into the last layer.  A coin and a piece of knotted blue ribbon finish it off.

WOYWW #104

At last I seem to have Blogger working properly,yay!!!!! I haven’t been able to log in, let alone post for a couple of weeks. This week I updated to the new Firefox4, and Blogger seems to be working fine again.So if you use Firefox as your browser & are still getting Blogger problems, this may help.
I’m on a bit of a mission to use up some of the images that I have stamped in the past, so the last few posts use up stuff you have probably seen on my desk at one time or another.
 So, on my desk this week are a couple of cards:

 I used three versions of the Crafty Individuals Treeline stamp, and the base card was covered with a sheet of Papermania paper from the Simply Elegant pad, which I overstamped with a tree from Crafty Individuals Elements plate CI 209, in Adirondack Espresso. The three versions are: brayered background using Latte & Sandal  (top left), oil pastel in oranges and yellows (centre) and sponged Adirondack ink in Sunset Orange and Red Pepper, with a Post-it mask for the setting sun (bottom right). The sentiment was stamped onto a scrap of brayered card ( Latte &  Hazelnut) in Black Soot then heat embossed. It is all one stamp, I masked off one half of the sentiment with low tack tape, inked the part I wanted, peeled off the tape and stamped. That way I could place them separately.

 I brayered white card with Adirondack Lemonade and Distress ink Wild Honey, with a Post it mask. The Fennel Heads stamp was stamped in Black Versafine, and I added a Dandelion head from Lavinia Stamps, part of a set of three, all slightly different, called Dandelions, lol. I cut the image to a tag shape, added an eyelet & some narrow gold ribbon. From the leftover piece I cut another tag shape, and overstamped this with an Artifacts Stamp, from the Stamp Bug, called Darting Dragonflies. I used Wild Honey again, but stamped off first, to get a paler imprint.The sentiment was stamped over the top in Black Versafine- this is another e-bay buy, so I don’t know the maker, sorry. The base card uses some free paper with Making Cards magazine, a strip of gold vellum run through the D’vine swirls folder, and a strip of Black organza ribbon, then gold  organza ribbon over the top. The tags were mounted with sticky tabs.

For quite a lot of years I worked in the Retail trade, so I know only too well that people are quick to complain, but very rarely praise service they receive. So I try to give praise when its due, and to this end I want to say a big Thank You to Inkylicious. You will have seen I use a lot of Adirondack & Distress inks, and this is where I buy them from. For two VERY good reasons. Firstly, their prices – Adirondacks are £3.79 and Distress inkpads are £3.90- best prices I have found anywhere. Also, their postage is a very reasonable £1.50 for orders under £50, free above that. Secondly, their service is second to none. I ordered four pads last week, on Thursday evening at 5.15. As it was evening, and a Bank Holiday weekend as well, I expected ( and would have been happy) to get them during this week. I was astounded then, when I got home from work at midday on Saturday, to find them lay on the mat waiting for me! This is definitely a retailer who will get my custom time & time again- so Thanks again guys! Oh, they do lots of stuff besides inkpads too!

Talking of inkpads, I thought this might be useful. I downloaded the inkpad labels from Ranger inc, for Adirondack pads & Distress pads, then printed then out onto a label sheet- I used one that has 4 labels on an A4 sheet. I cut them down to size, then before I stuck them on the pads I swiped each label across the inkpad it was meant for.I really recommend wearing gloves to do this bit!  Now I don’t have to unstack them to find the one I want. The two links take you to the respective Ranger pages for the pads- you can click on a link on the page to download the labels template. You can also download the colour charts, and ones for the Alcohol inks too.

Tri-fold in Orange

 An A4 sheet of card was tri-folded, then a triangle cut away from the top of the first two sections, leaving the back section whole. Each of the layers were covered in paper, the front with K & Co from the Hydrangea Stripe pad, the middle from Papermania Antique cream pad and the back from Papermania Earth Tones pad.

 The two tags were cut from brayered card, using Sunshine Yellow and Sunset Orange, with Post-it note masks. Lavinia Stamps ‘Ducks’ were stamped over the masked sun. The larger tag uses a stamp from the Chocolate Baroque Autumn Hedgerow u/m plate, and the smaller one is stamped with Fennel Heads, from The Craft Fairy. All were stamped in Black Versafine. Each tag has an eyelet placed at the top, and threaded with some fancy wool. The tags are mounted with sticky tabs to raise them slightly.

Friends

I decided it was time to start using some of the backgrounds I had brayered & stamped a while ago.This background uses just Shell Pink and Stonewashed brayered in from opposite sides of the white card. There is a Post-it note moon on one part of the panel behind  Lavinia Stamps ‘Birds’, the Teasel heads are from Autumn Hedgerow u/m DL plate, from Chocolate Baroque (formerly Elusive Images), and the little dragonfly is from Crafty Individuals Crafty Elements plate CI 207. All were stamped in Archival black.  I trimmed the image down, and on the spare piece I stamped the words, also in black. This stamp is one bought off e-bay, so I have no idea of the maker, sorry. I felt this panel still needed a little something, so I stamped a swirl in Shell Pink & Stonewashed on the respective parts of the brayering, having stamped off once first. Next it as matted on pale blue, pale pink then lilac card.
 I covered the base card with a sheet of paper from a Dovecraft 8×8 paper pack, Amethyst Floral Print. Final touch was 5 flatback acrylic stones in the top right.

A4 cards

Although it isn’t obvious from the picture, this card is a full A4 in size. For this I use white A3 card, from Staples. This card is not particularly thick, but I resolve this by attaching a full A4 sheet of card to the back of the folded A3, and when the card front is covered, and whatever images & embellishments are added, it becomes perfectly solid. I found this much easier than other methods, which rely on attaching 2 x A4  sheets together with a fold & DST.
This was made for a lady who I work with, who is retiring, and I use the A4 size as it allows plenty of space for people signing it inside.
 For the main image I used the Penny Black ‘Aspire’ stamp again, onto a brayered A5 background, cut to three panels.This was matted onto grey, then gold embossed card.Before matting onto gold, I wrapped some lilac organza ribbon around the image. A folded bow was added with glue dots. I punched the corners of the gold card with a Southwest punch.The front of the card was covered with a sheet of lilac paper, from a Papermania pad. The same lilac ribbon was wrapped around the spine, and tied in a bow. Two sizes of Nesties Labels 8 were cut from gold card, and one from purple. The sentiment and name of the recipient were added in gold Peeloff letters.

 This is a second card made for a work colleague, also A4, and the image was originally the front for a square card,but I had to do this card in a hurry, so I cannibalised ! The front was covered in a piece of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, which had words like ‘friend, memories,’ etc on it. The corners were covered with Happy Birthday paper. I cut the numbers from dark brown glittered paper, bought in a pad from Hobbycrafts, then cut ‘shadows’ from gold glittered paper.Peeloff sentiment, name and balloons completed it.

Simple Easel

The background here is brayered using only Adirondack Pool. The Penny Black Aspire is stamped in Ancient Page Flannel Grey, 3 times with a first generation image and once with a second generation.It was trimmed and matted onto black card. I embossed a sheet of white card and a sheet of black card using the Cuttlebug folder ‘Swiss Dots’. The card was cut to the length of the folder, and twice as wide, then it was was run through sideways to be able to emboss a piece big enough for the card. Any dots that were flattened were just re-embossed using a stylus with the card placed on the folder. The image was matted onto the white card, and the black piece was used for the base. Offcuts of both were used to make the matts for the sentiment, cut out with Nesties Long Classic Rectangles Small. The piece for the sentiment was also cut out with the same set, but from a plain piece of card. 4 pieces of ribbon in Black & Teal were tied in a bow and added to the corner.

Friends are Like Angels….

This one uses the Penny Black stamp Aspire, and it was stamped using Forest Moss distress ink on the stems, and Colorbox Cats Eye Terracotta on the flowers.The background was brayered with Adirondack Lemonade/ Sunshine Yellow/Butterscotch. The image was stamped 3 times at various heights, then cut into 3 panels, the centre one wider than the outer ones.They were matted onto a dark orange piece of card.I used the Quickutz embossing folder, Diamonds & Dots to emboss a sheet of white card, cut it to the length of the folder and twice as wide. The phrase, Friends are like angels, Hobby Art GR1353DD, was stamped in Butterscotch onto a similar piece of brayered card as the one I used for the image.This was cut out with a large Nestie Petite scalloped oval, and a matt cut out in dark brown with the largest die.The base of the card was covered in a matching sheet of paper, Papermania Earthtones pack. A butterfly brad was added to the panel before it was stuck in place.

Fairy Easel

This card uses all Lavinia Stamps-Dandelions, 3 small dancing Fairies and Fairy dust is like love phrase. The background was brayered with Adirondack Sandal & Latte on the bottom and Cool Peri on the top, with a Post-it note mask. The dandelions stamps has three different flowerheads, and I just used one, stamped three times at varying heights. I stamped in Versafine black, and added a little sparkly embossing powder to the heads. The top part of the moon also has a sparkle, and this was completely accidental! When I tipped off the embossing powder, some of it stuck to the area the post-its glue strip had been.One of the three dancing fairies was also stamped in black, then I used Stickles ‘Crystal’ to add to her wings and for ‘fairy dust’ she is sprinkling on the flower heads. The image was trimmed and matted onto a pearlescent blue card.
The phrase was stamped onto an offcut from the image, and also matted onto blue card.
 I used a Quickutz embossing folder,Diamonds & Dots, to emboss a piece of white card which I added to the card base. The stamped phrase was added with a little silicone glue, then a matching silver/blue ribbon wrapped around with a folded bow on top.