Faux Batik

Evening all, time for a new challenge at Perfectly CAS.

Here's my take on the new cue word, inspired by the challenge at CAS Mix Up.

There are obviously two ways to emboss, dry and heat, I chose the heat route and a new to me technique called faux batik. My friend Loll introduced me to the technique, thank you it was fun to do!

To start, I added DI ink in Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed to some MM paper, not paying much attention to the blending. I used the stamp I wanted to use as a guide as to where to place the colours, then stamped the flower stamp of the Uniko BB Doodle Flower set with Versamark and heat embossed using clear EP. Before I added the leaf stamp, I added some Salty Ocean DI where the leaves would be and repeated the embossing with the leaf stamp. Once I had completed that part, I started to distress the panel by folding the paper. This cracks the embossing as well as the paper to leave lines in the design which when coloured with more ink show up. For this layer I chose to use Chipped Sapphire. All excess ink was rubbed off with a soft cloth before I trimmed the panel down and mounting it on a panel of gold card. The sentiment from Uniko's Pure Florals-Cosmos, was stamped on a scrap of blue card to match the base card and heat embossed with white EP.

The finished panel was attached to the blue base card with foam pads. I had firstly added it to an A6 note card but on second looks, I decided it was not CAS enough, so simply upped the size to a 5 x 7inch and the CASness was just right!

So how will you interpret the cue card, we'd love to see your takes in the gallery this month.

As always there is plenty of inspiration from the rest of the team over at Perfectly CAS!

Joining in over at:-

I used sponging and folding as my extra MM elements

Color Hues #36

Good afternoon. 

A new month sees the start of a new challenge at Color Hues.

However, because of the unfolding situation in Ukraine, Nancy has had the wonderful idea that we offer you the chance to flood the internet with a show of solidarity and a mass of blue and yellow themed cards. The original idea was first voiced on the Share Handmade Kindness FB group on Saturday by a card maker by the name of Linda Eterno.

Nancy then contacted the CH team as well as the ladies over at Seize the Birthday to ask if we would join in. So for this challenge we are doing something slightly different. 

Here is my card, hoping to bring a little sunshine to this troubled world.

When Nancy first voiced the idea of a blue and yellow theme, the flag colours of Ukraine, I thought of a card I saw last year and combined with this card by fellow CH and Uniko team member Hannelie being fresh in my mind, I came up with this take.

I made my pocket freehand from a really ancient piece of denim DP, it says 2002 on the back, scoring to create the pocket and as the DP was quite thin, I strengthened it with a panel of white card, which I slipped inside. A few freehand dashes with a blue fine liner create the faux stitching.

I had a couple of these yellow daisy style flowers left over in my bits box from last summer, so just stamped a few more using Uniko's Doodle Flowers and BB Doodle Flowers, colouring with Copics and fussy cutting them out. The tag sentiment is also Uniko, stamped with Unicorn White and Faded Jeans DOx over yellow card. Although the white and DOx are opaque it still lets some of the yellow show through the blue, casting a greenish hue, but I didn't know how else to do it.

On an A6 off white note card, I embossed the stitched detail and then added my pocket.

So now, back to what I came up with using the original colour combo!

To start this card, I took a panel of MM card added some water followed by a mix of Brusho Emerald Green and water across the top half. Whilst still wet, I added some of the dry crystals and left it to work it's magic! To be honest I was expecting more of a mix of colours as is usually the case with Brusho powder, but as it was only a background I went with it.

When dry, I die cut the Tim Holtz wreath and then added back one cut from gold mirror card. A few punched and shaped flowers from the same gold card were added, followed by an Altenew sentiment stamped and heat embossed with mirror gold EP.

The completed panel was trimmed and added to an A6 cream base card.

So you, lovely crafters, now have a choice. You can make a card to show love and support for the Ukrainian people or you can make a card using Lindsey's colours of Green and Gold, OR BOTH!

We are going to have TWO overall winners for this challenge, one for each colour pairing but please, if you do decide to make two cards, would you post them in separate posts, so that way no entry gets missed by mistake.

For more inspiration, please check out the rest of the team and our GD Jules here.

Uniko

Good morning folks.

It's the start of a brand new challenge over at Uniko.

Here's my card to inspire you.

I used one of the large Doodle Flower stamps from the last release and the smaller ones from BB Doodle Flowers around the sentiment from Birthday Sentiments.

On some white card, I stamped the larger flowers and also one of the BB Doodle Flower with black ink.

For something different to my usual Copic colouring, I inked some Mustard Seed DI over each flower and then some I left yellow and others I added Carved Pumkin, Ripe Persimmon and Dried Marigold DI with a blending brush, adding more colour towards the edges and allowing some of the yellow to show. After fussy cutting the blooms, I added the dark centers with a C10 Copic marker, its not quite as stark as black.

On an A6 white base card I stamped the large sentiment and then arranged the flowers around. When satisfied with the arrangement, I glued them down and trimmed any overhang away. Using the small 3 dot stamp from BB Layered Floral, I added some dots between the orange flowers, then some white gel pen to the center of the flowers. The finished flowers remind me of the Rudbeckia and Helianthus flowering in the garden at the moment.

So that's about it from me but for more Autumnal inspiration please check out the rest of the team here and our lovey GD Nonni.

Uniko Challenge, a Reminder

Good morning, just stopping by to  remind you that there is still time to join in the Uniko Flower challenge.

Here's my take.

I had some leftover flowers from this post for the July release so just coloured a few more to match up with this weeks colours at Color Throwdown and used this frame which I'd also made for the release but decided not to use.

After colouring and fussy cutting the flowers, I stacked 4 of my die cut frames together and temporarily attached it to my slimline base card. Using one of the leaflets from the Doodle Flowers set, I stamped a few of them in two shades of green where I was going to place my flowers. Marking the open center of the frame, I carefully removed it and stamped my sentiment, also Doodle Flowers, and then glued the frame in place. My coloured, fussy cut flowers were arranged around the frame and attached, some on foam some not.

That's it from me but please check out the rest of the team here and then why not join in?

I'm linking up at:-

Release Day at Uniko

Good morning. 

It's time for the full release and blog hop at Uniko, so grab a cuppa and settle in.

My first card uses the Doodle Flower set and Squared stencil.

This card started off as a bit of an experiment using alcohol inks on my Gelli plate. You can't take a print directly but have to add a layer of acrylic paint over the top. Check this link on how to do it.

For my panel I used the same purple, deep pink and lime green alcohol inks as in the tutorial and some household emulsion paint that I had under the sink as my craft acrylic had completely dried up from lack of use! 

The flowers from Doodle Flower and BB Doodle Flower, were stamped onto the piece of copy paper I used to dab away the excess once I'd added the stencil, embossed with gold EP and fussy cut before some detail with a couple of Zig Watercolour pens was added.

Likewise, the sentiment was heat embossed with gold EP and sequins added to complete.

My second card featured BB Layered Floral set and my go to layout for using leftover panels.

If you remember this card from Wednesday, you'll recognise the pattern. When I die cut the panel for that card, I had a long thin strip of the stamping left so I turned it into this card. The two narrow pink strips started as a scrap of white card that I dragged a matching pink ink cube down each edge and then trimmed and added to the top white panels. A simple sentiment from the Simply Said Block III stamped in matching ink completes.

The next two cards use the Tropical Leaf stencil, matched with Doodle Flower sentiments.

This card also has a few of fussy cut elements from Block Party Summer and a Toucan from a previously released Paradise set.

On a panel of lime green card. I stenciled the Tropical leaf all over it using Mowed Lawn DI in varying degrees of intensity, cut in half and trimmed down to leave a small border when attached to an A6 white card. 

On a die cut white card panel, I stamped the sentiment then added the other tropical elements and used pads to layer it up over the base.

This second take is the other half of the panel but just a simple gold embossed greeting on dark green and mounted on gold mirror card. Very much a masculine card.

So that's it from me but don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win the WHOLE July release, as you hop along to the other BAs. You have until midnight BST on Sunday August 1st to comment.

Bev
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie -that's me

Rahmat

Steph

Introducing - Doodle Flowers

Today sees the last of the Uniko July release previews.

The final stamp set features elements that may look familiar and so will obviously team up with items you may already have in your stash.

For this slimline card I've used the fussy cut flowers from the BB Doodle Flower stamp to add to the large matching one from the newly released Doodle Flowers.

The layout was influenced by this card that popped into my FB feed, the postage stamp die cut frames are from a Cuttlebug die from well over 15 yrs ago so is probably discontinued now! The sentiment comes with the set too, three large words and lots of smaller ones to make your own sentiments, so versatile.

On some Copic friendly card, I stamped the BB Doodle Flower a couple of times as well as the outline large flower from Doodle Flowers, coloured with Copic markers and fussy cut them. The frames were cut and arranged into a pleasing design, glued where they crossed then I added matching die cuts cut from fun foam, trimming away the excess where they overlapped. Before adding these frames to my card, I marked where the openings were with a pencil line, removed them and stamped my sentiment.

When this was dry, I added the joined frames and fussy cut flowers. I've just noticed that one of the tiny flowers is missing, must have fallen of as I went to take a photo!

Check out the rest of the team for more ideas and leave a comment for a chance to win some Uniko goodies.

Bev
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie -that's me

Rahmat

Steph

So that's all from me for the introductions, tomorrow we'll have the full release on reveal. As usual, we will have the BA blog hop and giveaway and you'll also be able to buy them on the Uniko website.