Super Striker

Good morning. It's the Spring Equinox today, so summer is almost here! We also have a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. This time we would like your designs using

ANY COLOURING MEDIUM

As regular visitors here will know, Copic markers are my default setting for colouring, so this was an absolute no brainer! Here's my take.

I found this little chap in my to colour box, it's a digi from LOTV called Super Striker. He's in the strip of Liverpool FC, to keep my Son in law happy and I doodled the front of his shirt with their logo and sponsor's name using white gel pen and a touch of Copic marker for colour. The layout I used, I'd seen on Pinterest and had been waiting for just the occasion to use it. 

I printed off some NitWits DP in roughly Liverpool colours and die cut a net using an hexagonal cover plate die from Sizzix, the green stripe was some scrap coloured with matching green Copic marker. My sentiment was stamped on a tab cut using an old Marianne die and tucked under the edge of the square panel. To assemble, I glued my DP across my 7 x 7 square base card, added thin strips of red card above and below, added the green strip and the mock netting. The image I mounted on red card and slipped it through the red ring of card. Just snip the circle for ease and rejoin it at the back where it doesn't show! The finished panel was added to the card on pads.

So where will you go with the colouring element. Will it be crayons, watercolour or alcohol markers like me? We'd love to see your take in our gallery. For more inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

Just Stripes for me

Birthday Cards

Color Hues #60

It's mid month and time for a new colour combination at Color Hues. Here's my take.

I thought of the turquoise and blue of a Mediterranean Sea for my card, though I haven't seen too many mermaids! 

On a panel of white card I inked all over with Peacock Feathers DI and using a piece of scrap paper as a guide, I inked in some Salty Ocean DI to create the effect of sunlight passing through the water. My Whimsey Stamps Goldie mermaid was stamped in the bottom left corner then again onto some Copic friendly card. Using a mix of blues and turquoises, I coloured the image and fussy cut both the snail and Goldie. As I was going to place her over the original stamping I didn't bother cutting out all the twiddly bits, they would be there once I glued my coloured mermaid and snail over! I used a small paint brush to add more bubbles and outlined them with a black fine liner, the sentiment is from MFT's GillFriend. 

The frame was sitting in my bits box, so I added the scene behind it, trimmed any excess away and then added the whole panel to an A6 note card. 

I think this will be going to my Grandson's party stash for one of his many parties!

So that's it from me but please check out the rest of the team and our GD here for some more fab ideas.

Hope to see you in our Color Hues gallery soon!

Joining in over at:-

Something beginning with B - Bubbles

Recliner King

Good morning, how are you this morning? Hope I find you well and not too chilled with this Arctic blast we've had the last couple of days. They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, well we can only hope! Anyway it's time for a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz and for this fortnight I chose the theme of :-

MAKE US SMILE

They say laughter is the best medicine but surely it's great to laugh on your birthday too. 

Here's my inspiration using another Ai stamp set.

I made this for my bestie's partner, I hope he enjoyed it!

After stamping the recliner king, I fussy cut him and put him to the side whilst I looked for some backing paper.

I found a sentiment background in my bits box that I made using some STAMPlorations sentiments awhile ago, check out how I made it here. For this card I did tone down the orange background by adding some Vintage Photo DI over the top.

I was going to add a spring mechanism to the back of the recliner king to make him wobble but he was a bit too heavy for my card springs and he fell away from the background when the card was stood up, so didn't use them in the end, just added him on foam pads. The sentiment from the same set, was stamped and added on pads also and the panel double mounted onto a square kraft base card.

So what will you do to make us smile? As ever the DT have lots of ideas to help you here. We'd love to see what tickles you!

11th Birthday Release Day and Blog Hop and giveaway at Uniko

Well it's release day and you can finally get to play with the new Uniko goodies for yourselves!

I've loved playing with the new stamps and stencil and had so many ideas on how to use them, but here are a few I got around to making!

You might recognise the background to this card from an earlier post made up of spring sentiments, then it was green behind a rabbit! The fussy cut crocus was stamped and coloured using Copics this time, V04, 06, 09 and V17 for the petals.

I couldn't resist making this next card, another watercolour using Spring Botanicals Crocus.

This time I stamped the central bloom then used masking fluid to mask, then stamped the left one, masked again, then the right and masked with the liquid masking. When dry, I flooded the background with a mix of Cadmium Yellow and Prussian blue, added some crinkled up cling film and left it to dry. I did check carefully that there were no beads of damp colour on the masking before carefully removing it and painting in the petals and leaves. The frame was cut using an Avery Elle die and then mounted over the top of the dry painting with foam pads, I left the sentiment off this time.

Next I have a fun birthday card using the bunny from Hoppy Easter and some pretty NitWits DP, the die is MFT.

Whilst I had my watercolours out, I made this simple card using Up and Away.

Look closely and you may notice that this balloon has an extra panel or two. While I was painting the dark blue panel the dog came in and nudged my arm and so I smudged a bit over the lines, so had to extend the colouring to cover it up! Of course the pinky purple one had to be extended to match too.

Finally I used the Up and Away set along with the Cloud 9 stencil for this slimline design.

So that's it, what do you think? Don't forget to leave a comment before you hop along to the rest of the team for a chance to win a fabulous prize.

Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

Joining in over at:-

 
                                               Spring Blooms

Fashion Monger Dahlia

Good evening. After a couple of months off to re-group we are back at HLS with our challenges. Today we launch the March Anything Goes Birthday challenge. So here is my contribution, featuring Altenew's Fashion Monger Dahlia stamp set.

This was made for a good friend of mine who loves red flowers! An elegant card for an elegant lady! The set is a layered stamping one but for this I went with just the outlines stamped and heat embossed onto watercolour paper. The three blooms were coloured with some Candied Apple DI smooshed onto a craft mat, the shadows added with a Zig Watercolour marker, as were the inner cream petals. The leaves were coloured with a wash of Zig markers in two shades of green and then when dry, fussy cut along with the blooms. 

I printed off some black and white, diagonal striped DP, adding it to one side of a panel of white card, together with a strip of black card. The fussy cut leaves and blooms were arranged over the strip, sentiment(Uniko) stamped and a few old HLS gems added. The completed panel was then added to a 5 x 7 white base card.

Why not join in our new challenge, check out the rest of the DT for more fab inspiration.

Joining in over at:-

No topping this time!

Introducing Up and Away and Cloud 9 Stencil

Good morning! It's day 3 of the introductions for Uniko's 11th Birthday release.

For my inspiration, I've combined the new stamp set and stencil to create this fun card.

On some more scraps of NitWits DP, I stamped the smallest of the 3 balloons from the set and fussy cut them out. On a panel of white card, I stencilled in the clouds using the new stencil before adding the balloons and baskets. I had a frame left from cutting out a panel for an earlier card, so after stamping the sentiment, I popped it up on foam pads over the panel and added the whole lot to an A6 note card. 

We get plenty of balloons flying over us from a small airfield nearby but none in such pretty spring colours! Sometimes they are really low and we can wave to the people in the basket and hear the roar of the gas as they try to gain height, much to the annoyance of our little pooch!

Here's one that floated by last September.

For more ideas about the new release, why not check out the rest of the team, I'll be back on Saturday with the full reveal!

Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

Color Hues #59

 Good afternoon! I'm back again with a new colour pairing from Color Hues! I went all festive with my take.

I had a couple of ideas in my head for this challenge but as I haven't made a start on my Christmas stash yet, I thought I would go down that route.

I made my wreath using some evergreen branch dies from IO which I cut from some sparkly green as well as some other plain shades of green. Once cut, I die cut a hoop of the dark green using a couple of circle dies and stated adding the branches until I had the right look. A few sparkly gold gems and a ribbon bow complete.

I used the layout at The Paper Players for inspiration, adding the wreath to a die cut panel of cream card over a slightly larger gold one and finally onto a small square base card. The sentiment is an oldie but goodie from Woodware.

So where will this colour choice take you? There's lots of fab inspiration from the rest of the team as well as our GD on the Color Hues blog. See you there!

Joining in over at:-

D is for Die Cuts

Introducing Hoppy Easter and Everyday Spring Sentiments

Morning and happy St David's Day!

It's day 2 of the introductions for Uniko's 11th Birthday release. Today we are focusing on the stamp sets Hoppy Easter and Everyday Spring Sentiments.

First off is a cute Easter card using Hoppy Easter and some scraps of DP.

The set has a solid rabbit and an outline rabbit, so for this I used the outline image stamped on some matching scraps of NitWits DP, fussy cut and added to a die cut panel of white card. I found some white pompoms in my stash and added some cottontails! The sentiment says it all really.

The second card features the same outline rabbit as well as sentiments from Spring Botanicals, Crocus, Tulip, Daffodil and Snowdrop together with the new Everyday Spring Sentiments.

I've used this technique quite a few times to create background panels, setting the sentiments out in my MISTI and stamping and heat embossing with white EP. It takes awhile to do so I made a few and will be using them later. 

This time I stamped my bunny outline and facial features, which Bev kindly added separately and coloured with Copics before adding him to a panel of vellum. To give him added strength I backed him with another simply stamped, fussy cut one on the under side of the vellum panel. The sentiment strip I made stamping Happy from everyday Christmas Sentiments and Easter form the Spring set. I also backed this strip in the same way as the rabbit.

I used a stitched die to cut down my background panel, added it to a white base card, then added the vellum panel complete with sequins.

I'm sure these new sentiments will come in very useful and can be combined with other sets in the same series for lots of useful sentiments.

To see what the rest of the Brand Ambassadors have been up to, just click on the links.

 Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

I'll see you back here, same time tomorrow for more of the brand new Spring release.

Introducing Spring Botanicals Crocus

Morning all and welcome to the first of my introductory posts for the Spring release at Uniko. Previously Bev has launched Snowdrops, Tulips and Daffodils as part of the Spring Botanicals series and this year Crocus has been added to the stable! When I got my hands on the new set I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. 

We had a few days of warm weather last weekend and it brought out the flowers from crocus bulbs I planted in the grass to naturalize and was inspired to replicate the look of the purple against the green of the grass.

I've previously done water colour versions of the tulip and snowdrop sets so why not a crocus one!

After stamping the image with Altenew's Limestone ink on watercolour paper, I used some rubber masking fluid to mask out the image then taped it firmly onto a board with masking tape when dry. Lots of water and paint was then flooded onto the panel, Cadmium Yellow and Prussian Blue being the main colours and let the magic begin. I tried to keep the darker colour on the right hand side of the image, lighter to the top and left, but I wasn't top hung up as watercolour often has a mind of its own! Before the paint was dry, I added some crumpled up clingfilm and left it to dry, then removed the film to create an interesting background. I just love the freedom this technique gives you compared to using say a stenciled background, the clingfilm gives you all the random texture without all the stress, it's different every time you do it too.

Don't rush to remove the masking fluid as any wet paint will smudge onto your clean image, so check first! Once the masking was removed, I washed a mix of Prussian Blue and Purple Lake onto the petals and a mix of Cadmium Yellow and Prussian Blue for the leaves and stem. The papery bit at the bottom of the stem I coloured using some very dilute Raw Sienna, the stigma is Cadmium Yellow and a touch of Vermillion and left to dry.

After removing the masking tape, I attached the finished panel to a 5 x 7 base card and stamped the sentiment from the set in black.

So what do you think? Why not check the rest of the team to see what ideas they've come up with?

Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

See you tomorrow for another introducing post. 

Joining in over at:-

Stencilled background or freestyle?

I just love the freedom this cling film and watercolour technique gives you compared to using a stenciled background, it gives you all the random texture without all the stress, it's different every time you do it too.

Uniko 11th Birthday Release Sneak Peeks

Morning all. It's sneak peeks day for the latest release at Uniko. 

 First up, a new addition to the Spring Botanicals series...

Next some more Spring season sneak peeks...

Next the last clear stamp set of this release...

And how about a new stencil which coordinates perfectly with the sneak above AND others already released...

Intrigued? Well pop back tomorrow at the same time to see the first introduction of the release!

Judo Boy

Good morning all. The weather has been unseasonably warm these past few days, so I've been getting out and doing a bit of overdue weeding! It was far too wet earlier in the month but I almost forgot to make my card for the latest challenge at Cardz4Guyz, so it was a bit of a rush job, using up some bits and bobs from my stash to create a card that fits the theme of:-

SPORTING CHANCE

The image I found in my to colour box and the DP and linen panel was in the scrap box, also using a favourite layout to make this.

The digi is LOTV, Karate Kid and was coloured with Copics before being fussy cut.  He could also be a Judo Boy, which fits well with the current challenge at Seize the Birthday to use your initials, JB in my case! The scrap of DP, NitWits, was added to an A6 base card and the linen panel added on pads after I'd stamped the Uniko sentiment and heat embossed with white EP. To finish, I added the image to the card on pads, also adding a few movement marks that were lost in the fussy cutting.

So where will you go with the latest theme? There are lots of ways you could go and the rest of the DT have some more ideas if you are stuck, over on the blog.

Joining in over at:- 

 

Color Hues #58

Afternoon folks. We're mid way through the month already, so time for a brand new colour combo at Color Hues. Here's my take.

I decided to use my new layering stencil from Altenew, Hill Blossoms with this bright combination of colours.

I love lime green, it represents the fresh shoots of spring, fresh and vibrant. Cyan is a little trickier so looked it up and the dictionary says it's a green blue, made by splitting white light! I do remember the old TV test card where the primary colours were overlapped to make white, now I think about it!

To start, I took an A6 panel of white card and stencilled the first layer of the stems and foliage over it with Altenew's Bamboo ink. I then went in with the second layer using Altenew's Parrot, then blended the first layer again with the Parrot to intensify the colour. My blossoms were inked using 3 of the Sweet Dreams set from Altenew and the centers with a touch of Industrial Diamond. 

To complete, I added a Uniko sentiment on a layered circle of grey card over white and more grey.

So where will these fresh colours take you? We'd love to see your creations in our gallery at Color Hues. If you need more inspiration there's loads over on the Color Hues blog from the rest of the DT as well as our GD.

Joining in over at:-

#47

Using the Little Stamps, Birthday Candles @Uniko

 Morning, I'm sharing a card I've made for a Brand Ambassadors post over at Uniko. Uniko are celebrating 11 years so I've another birthday themed card using a couple of small stamps from the Big and Bold Wish stamp set. Here's the card but all the details are on the Uniko blog here.