Clouds of Cosmos

Good morning folks.

There's a brand new challenge starting over at Uniko and here is my inspiration for you.

You might be able to guess what the theme is this time -

My inspiration is a little bit literal bearing in mind the photo above!
I chose the Pure Florals Cosmos stamp to create my little scene, masking and stamping to get the mass effect. I then coloured them with a mixture of DI and Zig watercolor pens quite loosley, before fussy cutting the arrangement and adding it to my Brusho coloured panel on foam pads. The vibrant turquoise I used for the sky contrasts with the soft pink of the cosmos blooms and the green at the bottom suggests the foliage and grass. I simply sprinkled the crystals onto some MM paper and spritzed with water, then allowed it to dry and cut my panel with a stitched rectangle die.
To finish I added the sentiment from the same set stamped on a strip of matching card.

I love Cosmos and have them growing in the garden, they go on and on producing their dainty blooms amongst the ferny foliage all summer long. Last year they were a bit like Quatermas, as they grew to be over 4ft in places but after checking the seed packet I realised that they were just a tall variety, so ensured that I went for a dwarf version this year!

Check out the rest of the team here for more flowery inspiration.




    
Summer Colours                                       Earth Laughs in Flowers

Country Boy At Heart

Good morning all.

We're heading quickly to the school holidays here in the UK. Hopefully the weather will be kind for my daughter and family, nothing worse than rain and two kids to occupy!

Anyway after a hectic 9th birthday party for my Grandson on Saturday I finally got some time to make this card for the latest challenge over at Cardz4Guyz -

TRANSPORT

Here is my card.

I know you're laughing at a tractor as a form of transport but in this neck of the woods they are as common as a Cheshire tractor, 4 x 4 that is. There is even an elderly guy who uses the lane to go into town on his tractor with his sheepdog in a transport box attached to the rear!

I bought this Woodware stamp set awhile ago to make a card for the OH but didn't use it in the end, perhaps I will use this for this years birthday! I did use his tractor as an example for the colouring as well as the colours at Paper Players!

The layout is CAS(e) this  Sketch, tractor stamped and coloured with Copics before fussy cutting it and placing it over a couple of scraps of NitWits DP on a die cut panel from the stash. I popped the finished panel up on pads over an A5 base card, slipping the stamped sentiment under the rear tyre.

So for more transport inspiration check out the rest of the DT here, then why not join in?

Joining in over at:-

      

CAS

Sunshine and Smiles

Well the year is running away, it's half way to 2020 already!
The summer here has so far been a bit on the damp squib side but the temps over the weekend were more like it! There has even been talk of cutting hay. We finally got the water tank up and lined so that's going to be the signal for a drought!!
Anyway, its July and time for a new challenge at HLS CAS. Here's my inspiration for you.

Can you guess the theme or have you come from the HLS blog? Well it's -

Now my first thought was die cuts but then I remembered this technique I found whilst trawling YouTube when I was incapacitated.
Instead of colouring the stamped image you colour the space around it leaving the negative space,
Jennifer McGuire calls it Negative Space Colouring.

I took the outline stamp from Uniko's Pure Florals Gerbera and stamped it with Versamark in the corner of a small square of white card, stamping it again on to a Post-It with black ink and fussy cutting it to create a mask.
After stamping in Versamark, I used WOW Gold Pearl EP to heat emboss and then used my mask so I could blend the background. I used three DOx colours, Abandoned Coral, Candied Apple and Fossilised Amber. Removing the mask reveals a pure white outline image, unless your mask wasn't accurate then a spot of white gel pen will cover up!
The coloured panel was mounted on foam then onto a white square scalloped die cut and added to a white base card. The sentiment from Mama Elephant stamped in Altenew's Lava Rock completes.

For more fab inspiration, check out the rest of the team here

Joining in over at:-


diagonal -die-cut, yellow, florals

Black Tie

Morning all.

Another month has whizzed by and its July already, where is this year going?

Well, its also time for a new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz.

Our latest one is to make a masculine card that is -

BLACK and WHITE

Lots of things went through my mind, piano keys, footballs, monochrome, black tie dos.

In the end I went with the black tie theme and came up with this.

I didn't add a sentiment to the front as I didn't want to spoil the tux effect and the inner shirt folds up to leave space for a greeting without spoiling the look.

To start, I took an A5 panel of card and made a couple of score lines to create a gatefold card. I then scored again to create the lapels and folded them back. The notch in the lapel was cut away and some faux stitching in black pen added, not that it shows up!

Next, I cut an A4 panel of thin card and made a top fold card which I scored on one side to look like a dress shirt. I added a collar with some matching card, a fussy cut bow tie in sparkly paper and a couple of white buttons down the front.

 The white card was then trimmed down to sit within the gatefold card and glued it to the  inside back panel.

To finish, I added a black button to the front of the tux.
I will stamp a greeting inside the shirt when I know where the card is going to be sent.

So pretty simple really, but what will you come up with, we'd love to see.

In need of more inspiration, then check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

   

DT Inspiration at Uniko

Good morning all. 

I'm over at the Uniko blog this morning with a little bit of DT inspiration. 

I was inspired to make this card for my daughter's birthday after seeing this video. (Being on the sick list earlier this year allowed me far too much time to watch You Tube videos! )

She love's butterflies and purple and turquoise colours so that's the route I went down.

Jennifer McGuire calls the technique stamped see through cards as you can literally see through the front panel!

For all the details check out the Uniko blog here.

Linking up at:-

Blooms, butterflies and/or bugs

One layer CAS

Hi, just popping by to share a card I made while it was raining earlier. 

The forecast was for rain later as well but when I checked the latest, rain wasn't coming until tonight at the earliest, wish they would make their mind up.

Anyway as I couldn't play in the garden, I thought I would bring it inside and make a floral card.

I bought this Altenew Hibiscus Bouquet set a while ago and haven't really got to grips with it. I was a tad disappointed with the layering effect of the stamps when I used them before, so played around with the outline stamps instead.

I initially thought about the challenge at LIM, OLC with spots but I'm not sure it qualifies, still the other inspirations were the colours at Altenew and the theme at AAA, in the corner option of flowers.

After masking off a frame on my card, I used my Zig watercolour brush pens in colours suggested by the Altenew picture after stamping and masking my image. I added a few spots of colour to soften the edges and added a black heat embossed sentiment. To make it stand out more, I added some white gel pen to hi light the text and some of the anthers of the blooms. 

I do think colouring is quite therapeutic, I was totally lost in the colouring until my OH came in to say it was lunch time! 

He's currently outside trying to get a water tank made to catch the forecast rain. It's been an ongoing task as it is far more complicated to assemble than it looked at first and I'm not that much help at the mo, what with my gammy arm. I think we are about 3 weeks into assembly, what with me and the weather! Anyway the physio thinks I'm not a total lost cause, so I'm back there on Wednesday.

Off to walk the dog now before I'm called to help in more construction!

Joining in over at:-

   

Have yourself a wonderful birthday

Hello and welcome.

It's a sad post in a way, as its my final card for ATSM after 5 fabulous years on the DT. I struggled long and hard about my decision but finally thought I needed to move on. 

Thanks Kylie for allowing me to be part of the team for so long and to all my ATSM DT members, past and present for your support, I'll miss you.

So to my final card for this week's challenge -

ANYTHING GOES

I decided to get my Polychromos out for this card, using Uniko's You, Yes You stamp set to create an all over design.

Stamping the panel of kraft card with a pale ink prior to colouring to get the no line effect, however, I was called away before I started to add the colour and my initial stamping dried so much it almost disappeared! Anyway, I managed to get an outline traced and could then add some colour. using three shades of green for the foliage and three light, medium and dark purples for the flower heads.

The sentiment was added using three Uniko sentiment stamp sets, You, Yes You, Christmas and Birthday Sentiments. I love the way you can make up your own phrase like this with theses sets.

I kept the area around my sentiment clear of stamping so could keep the end result one layer.

There's more fab inspiration over at the ATSM blog, so why not check out the rest of the team there.

Joining in over at:-

    

Blooms, Butterflies and/ or Bugs