Birthday Birdie .... and a Chocolate Baroque Challenge entry!

Morning Everyone!

Well, this morning started out the same as yesterday weather wise ....... it was slinging down with rain, lol!  However, at the moment we have some bits of blue sky and sunshine so I managed to take photos of the card I finished last night before the next shower hits ;-).

I really wanted to enter Chocolate Baroque Challenge 14, mainly because the inspiration colours are not in my normal comfort zone so I combined the need for another birthday card with the challenge.  In the end my colours turned out somewhat brighter but still out of my comfort zone ;D.

The stamps I used are from sets As Free as a Bird - main image and birdcage,  Eccentric Edwardian - script and Amazing Birthday - sentiment

 

I stamped the main image using Archival Watering Can and coloured it with pencils. I edged the oval with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.

 

I used Distress Inks, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, Fired Brick, Forest Moss & Pine Needles blended with cut and dry foam for the background.  I then spritzed water through a peacock feather stencil here and there and dabbed it off for the water mark.  I followed this with a patchy wash of some chalk spray picked up from my craft mat (mainly to tone the colours down a bit, lol).

Next I applied Chalk (colour) Fresco Finish paint through a favourite Imagination Crafts flourish stencil with a stencil brush and stamped the script with Olive Archival Ink. The birdcages are stamped using the Chalk acrylic paint.

I was going to stamp and colour some flower embellishments but decided I really should try to use some of the many purchased flowers I have in my stash......9 down, 10,000 to go, lol!  I diecut some leaves which I stamped over with the script using Stazon ink because the card is pearlescent.  The main image is attached with 3D foam and the embellies with Pinflair glue.

Finally I did my usual trick of deciding to stamp the sentiment directly onto the card and risking ruining the whole thing, lol!  If it had been a whisker out of line with the edge I would've had to cover it with a diecut because it would be the first thing I saw on every photo (bit of OCD slipping in there, lol).

Righty Ho, off to link up to the challenge as it closes in just over 13 hours....talk about last minute!

Have a good day all!

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

A Birthday card and chance to try out some new PaperArtsy products!

Hi Everyone,

After a lovely long weekend in Chester things are getting back to normal around here apart from collecting a dog from the kennels who sounds more like a sealion when he barks, lol!  I think he must have spent the whole 4 days barking (although they said he hadn't) because he's definitely given himself a bad throat. 

I think I mentioned in my last post that I need quite a few birthday cards this month and as I now have some fab new PaperArtsy Fresco Finish products in my craftroom it was the perfect chance to try them out.  I will apologise in advance for the photos because I found it impossible to get a really good one.  Firstly I was trying to photograph shiny acetate and secondly it was very bright in my craftroom today (it's been glorious) and thirdly I couldn't get a good one of the new Fresco Frosting Glaze :-(.

I found some lovely squares of acetate I had created subtle backgrounds on with alcohol inks several years ago so I applied the Fresco Frosting glaze through a JOFY leafy stencil.  You can just about make it out in the above photo.

 

I took a square of PA Heavy Smoothy card the same size and painted it with a layer of Granny Smith from the new limited edition set of Fresco Finish.  I then stamped the 'HAPPY birthday' words from JOFY 26 stamp set using Fresco Finish Snowflake paint and coloured in some of the letters.

I attached the acetate layer to the stamped layer with two green sparkly brads ...... OMG I need to use some of my brad stash up!!! I have hundreds!!!....and then attached the two layers to the basecard with 3D foam.  Lastly I curved the wings of this butterfly (another JOFY stamp) which I had left over from another project and attached it's body to the card.

 

I know I've only used one of the new colours on this card but they are all quite stunning colours and I'm looking forward to using the rest,  The Frosting Glaze is a very fun product but I need more practice with it and I have a couple of things I want to try it out on.  I just wish it wasn't so difficult to photograph, lol! 

This is the link to Leandra's blog post from Monday evening introducing these new products and also giving links to the suppliers who are stocking them and there are posts all week with some amazing Design Team projects showcasing all the new fab stamp sets. 

Well, it's nearly weekend folks so hope you have something fun lined up. See you again soon.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

PaperArsty Blog Challenge ... Circles entry #2!

Hi Everyone,

I didn't think I would manage a second entry to the PaperArtsy Blog Challenge before the deadline on Sunday as my OH and I are off for a long weekend in Chester with family and friends but as I need quite a few birthday cards this month I've made one for a very special friend who has a birthday coming up and I've combined it with the 'circles' theme.

Whilst browsing Pinterest I found a card which had some flowers on created from folded circles (HERE - it doesn't give a how to but they are simple enough) and I had already decided I wanted to make some for the card I had in mind but instead of plain paper I wanted to make mine from a designer paper I had created myself.

The inspiration from the PaperArtsy DT over the past one and a half weeks has been gorgeous and has included wonderful backgrounds with lots of layers of Fresco Finish paints and PA stamps such as this one from Emma Godfrey.  Alison Hall also did a gorgeous one last night using her small Gelli plate; yet more inspiration although I'd already done mine by then.

I just built up the layers with my small brayer, for once being totally slap dash, lol!  It was still very patchy when I decided it was ok, then I started to cover it with layers of stamping mixing the colours to get varying shades.  All the stamps I used were different circle stamps from several PaperArtsy sets (I've listed them at the end of the post).  For the final 3 stamping layers I used different Archival Inks.  It wasn't quite what I wanted at this point so I used a wet wipe to blend a wash of Chalk  FF to tone it down a bit.  I finished it off with a slightly watered down layer of Satin Glaze.

I also painted the back of my designer paper with a mix of Hint of Mint and Evergreen with some Satin Glaze added as it was obviously going to show once folded.  I really like the subtle effect the glaze gives plus it makes the cheap copy paper much stronger and very malleable.  I diecut two sizes of Nestie circles plus some smaller deckle edged circles, edged them all with Archival Ink and proceeded to fold and construct my flowers.

I then got so carried away I totally forgot to take any more progress pics so the rest are a selection of angled shots to show the fabulous dimension of the stylised flowers.

 

I took a 14 cm square of card, stamped a leafy stem and the dotty borders in each corner, both JOFY stamps and painted them using some of the same colours as before.   I gave this layer a fine edge of Archival Ink for definition and adhered it to a slightly larger basecard before attaching my flowers.

I added some stamens to the centre of the largest flower.....

 ....and stamped the JOFY words onto separate card, cut them out and stuck them in position.

I was really pleased with how my take on these flowers came out and the card overall.  Thoroughly enjoyed the 'messy' process for the paper too!  The only problem is I now have to find a box to post it off in so the flowers don't get squished, lol!

Off to link up to the fabulous PaperArtsy Blog where once again we have been wowed by some amazing creations from the DT......it's always well worth a visit for the inspiration!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.  I'm sure I will!  See you when I get back.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Stamp sets used
EEG07, HP1010, ESN13, HPXT02, JOFY 11/24 & 36.
Fresco Finish Paint colours : Chalk, Hint of Mint, Evergreen, Moonlight, Wisteria, Squid Ink

Wow, Double Post Day!

Hello Again ........well I've been here once before today even if you haven't, lol!

Over on the PaperArtsy Blog at the moment they are just going into the second week of their current challenge theme which is 'Circles' (see Leandra's intro post from last Sunday HERE) and as always there has been some absolutely fabulous inspiration from the various designers.  I've been itching to join in especially when I saw the gorgeous cards from Jo Firth-Young on last night's post so this afternoon I went through my stash of PaperArtsy stamps and pulled out several sets with promising images.  However, I went off on a complete tangent for this entry and only used one tiny stamp ..... for a sentiment, lol!

For the previous PaperArtsy challenge to use gels/mediums lots of us fell in love with Lin Brown's fabulous faux paua shell technique (see my entry to that challenge & link to Lin's video HERE) and one result of my play was a piece of crackly tissue.  It was actually my favourite result but I decided I wanted to use it on this card and very bravely (I think) punched various sized circles out of all of it.  I have enough circles to make 2 more similar cards and as you can see I only used the one sentiment stamp from a JoFY set.

I'm sorry I forgot to take photos of each step.  I cut a square card base and a smaller square of card which would leave a 1 cm border.  I found my Nestie circles were exactly the right size to leave a border round my punched circles.....very handy..... so I decided where I wanted them to go and diecut the circles from the top square.  I used a stencil and a mix of Guacamole and South Pacific Fresco Finish paints together with some Fresco Metallic Glaze to stencil the little circles.

I used two co-ordinating metallic chisel tipped markers to edge the circles and the outer edge of the topper and then mounted it onto the card base with 3D foam.  I then glued the punched circles into the holes and used the smallest diecut circle to stamp the sentiment onto before adhering it with 3D foam.  This was a happy accident because initially I was going to stamp the sentiment directly onto the topper but forgot all about it until after I'd stuck it to the card base.  I was then worried in case I messed up the stamping (and ruined the whole card) as the 3D foam underneath meant I nolonger had a stable surface to stamp onto.  Thanks Sam for suggesting stamping on a bit of card!  I actually think it balances the design better than my original idea ;D!

This shows the dimension of the 3D layering.

Well, I have 10 birthday cards to make for September so this is one off the list ;-).  I'm off to link up to PaperArtsy then crack on with another card.  See you soon.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

ATC Swap Time!

Morning All!

'Tis a bit dull and cool this Sunday morning but as it's the long bank holiday weekend what more can we expect, lol!  Great for me and my craftroom though ;-)!

I finally managed to get my ATCs done for this month's Tag and ATC Swap with some buddies.  The theme for this month is 'texture' which I love but for some reason I struggled for 2 days just to get going.  Never mind, I got there in the end so here they are.

This first one was cut from a piece of black card embossed in a folder.  I then stuck a torn piece of fine corrugated card to the right hand corner and blended some PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk paints in various greys over it and onto the black.  I followed that with a bit of stamping in Black Archival using a Chocolate Baroque stamp (Texture Fragments set).  I didn't use a block and like the way the ridges picked up the stamping and created more texture.  Next I added some Golden soft semi-gloss gel in the top left corner and added teensy glass beads to it.

When the gel was dry I rubbed on some Treasure Gold in pewter and a bit of a blue limited edition one and added the cut out words.

 

The second one was also cut from a piece of previously folder embossed card which had a stonework design on it.  I blended various colours of Fresco Finish starting with Concrete, then Stone and then more or less dry brushed Toffee and Brown Shed, blending and dabbing off with a wet wipe.  I then stamped the Chocolate Baroque image (Gothic Fragments) onto tissue, painted it with Fresco Finish, tore round the image and stuck it to the ATC.  I gave it all a coat of DecoArt Soft Touch Varnish and when it was dry I added some Prima Clear Crackle Paste through a stencil and when that was dry wiped over with Vintage Photo Distress Ink before adding the cut out words.

If you click on the pics you can see more detail.

I still haven't mastered the technique of stamping on tissue and adhering it to textured surfaces or any surface come to that!  Unless I fussy cut the image the tissue is always visible and I've tried a multitude of different tissue and adhesives/gels.  It's that long since I painted on tissue I've forgotten how to do that too so must revisit Leandra's fab video HERE.

Have a lovely weekend and a long one if you're here in the UK.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Final Chocolate Baroque Guest DT make for this month.

Hi everyone,

Crikey where did this month go?  What with grandchildren staying over and Guest DT spots over on the fabulous Chocolate Baroque DT Blog it's gone by in a flash!  I'm scheduling this post between sleepovers by my little people and have to make the most of it as visits are few once school resumes in two weeks time.

Today I am sharing my final makes over on the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog using the beautiful stamp sets Christmas Candlelight and Sparkling Trees.  They definitely won't be my last make with these gorgeous stamps though as there are several I haven't used yet so their potential still has a long way to go.  My first card today still has lots of white space but couldn't be called simple I don't think, lol!

 

I took an A5 white card base and lightly drew in pencil around the outside of a circle die, taking it slightly off the edge.  I placed a strip of masking tape down the right edge of the card so that I was going to be left with a clean 0.5 cm narrow border.  I then inked up the reindeer with Sepia Archival Ink and stamped him to the top of the circle, followed by the tops of the trees using Black Archival Ink. 

I then cut a piece of white card slightly smaller than the card base to give a 0.5 cm border, placed it over the base and lightly marked where the die needed to cut.  I then stamped the three trees in the bottom left corner using Black Archival Ink.

I created a mask of the trees by stamping on a post-it note and a rough mask to create hills from torn copy paper.  I then used Distress Inks and brushes to give a hint of background hills both in the left corner and also behind the tree tops in the circle.

I watercoloured all the images with Distress Inks and added some Diamond Stickles to the trees and the reindeers antlers with a damp brush. (I only like a hint of glitter ;D). 

I stamped the greeting then 'rolled' the edges of the top layer on my scoreboard and gave it a finished look by going round with a gold Sakura Pen-Touch pen.  Finally I attached this layer to the base card with 3D foam.

The lovely reindeer has a Red Stickles nose!

My second card uses a 10 cm wide x 21 cm tall tentfold card base.  Because I make a lot of square cards I get quite a few offcuts this size when I'm making my card bases.

All the stamps used on this card come from the Christmas Candlelight set.  First of all I streaked ink direct from an Evergreen Bough Distress Inkpad from the fold at the top.  I then stamped the fir cone branch using Black Archival Ink followed by the lovely lantern. 

I used Distress Inks to watercolour the images except for the lantern where I used a metallic Viva Precious Metal paint.  It wasn't quite as translucent as I'd hoped so I went over the lines of the image with a very fine black pen. 



I stamped the Merry Xmas banner on separate card, coloured it, cut it out and attached it with 3D foam pads.

 

I have really enjoyed using these beautiful, finely detailed stamps to kick start my Christmas card makes this year and there are many more ideas still floating around in my head.  Do drop by the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog as there are some absolutely gorgeous ideas being posted by the Design Team.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

A second PaperArtsy challenge entry!

Hi everyone,

How's your weekend going.  I'm going to moan, lol .........IT'S WAY TOO HOT HERE!!!   As I am drafting this post it's gone midnight and 25c.  I don't think there'll be a good night's sleep had in this house!

Anyway,  today I'm sharing two tags I've made for my monthly swap where the theme this time is 'texture' but also I made them using Lin Brown's inspirational faux paua shell technique.  You can see the video HERE on the PaperArtsy Blog.  I'm not sharing step by steps as I forgot to take photos, lol, but Lin's video is the best way to see how it's done as I used the same products.  There has been some fabulous inspiration as always over on the PA Blog this past two weeks and so many projects to set the creative juices flowing......just need the time and a cooler craftroom!

This first tag uses a delicate leafy stencil for Lin's technique so I took poetic licence and created some leaves in similar colours to the lovely background.  I stamped them onto smooth card, cut them out and then carefully sprinkled teeny grains of Brusho then spritzed with water until I was happy with the effect.  I then triple embossed with clear embossing powder before adhering them to the tag.  I stamped the quote cut it out and blended inks in co-ordinating colours.

On my second tag I used a Tim Holtz stencil for the faux paua effect.  I also used heavy gloss gel at the top and Grunge Paste at the bottom to see what the difference was.  I actually liked them both  but of course the GP gave a rougher, dull finish as opposed to the smooth, shiny Golden gel.  I used some seaweed stamps from Chocolate Baroque on the right hand side enhanced with pencils and the seahorse is also one of their stamps which I stamped onto shrink plastic painted with Snowflake Fresco Finish.  I spritzed some mesh bandaging which I found in an old first aid kit at my Mum's with the Lindy's StampGang Starburst sprays I'd used in the background and glued it to the tag and then attached the seahorse.

We have Izzy and Charlie coming to stay for another couple of nights later today.  This time the weather forecast is not good for the two days they'll be here with lots and lots of rain!  We look like getting wet because unlike their wimpy Mamma they don't much care what the weather is like as long as they can get out so wet walks in the wood might be on the cards, lol!

Thanks for dropping by today and enjoy the rest of your Sunday.  

Hugs

Lesley  Xx