Reflection...

Over the Christmas holiday, my friend M sent me a picture of a card she did, with the word puzzle in the subject line and the instructions not to google it to see how she did it. She sent me a card with the reflection of the Lovely Trees set from Stampin' Up. When we got back to work, she told me how she did it, and I had to try it myself.

This is my second entry for the Less is More one layer bird card challenge.

For this card, I used the bird stamp from the SU Nature Walk set. I stamped the bird on the cardstock, then stamped it again on a sheet of acetate. Then, I lined up the acetate image with the cardstock image and rubbed the acetate to transfer the bird onto the card stock.

I coloured the grass with shabby shutters and crushed olive distress ink. The water is broken china distress ink and the sky is stormy sky distress ink.

The birds were coloured with copics- E31 and E33 for the reflection and Y21 for the legs and beak. The top bird was coloured with E33 and E35 and Y26 for the legs and beak.

A tutorial for the reflection technique can be found here. 

I am really pleased with how this card turned out. I have to say, it's one of my favourites so far this year.

Bird is the word

This week's challenge at the Less is  More blog is a one layer card using birds.

Some days, CAS cards are no problem for me- others, it seems next to impossible. I checked out the LIM blog yesterday morning while I was waiting for the dogs to come in from their morning constitutional, and immediately had a couple of ideas, but I needed to get chores done first. I also wanted to go to Michaels yesterday to see if they had any new spring stamps out. I hit it lucky in the $1.50 bins. I picked up a new bird stamp, along with a couple of others that I can't wait to use.

I really like the look of a coloured focal point on cards, and I took a little inspiration from Chrissie's so happy for you card. For the coloured oval, I used Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Scattered Straw distress ink. The bird and sentiment were stamped in Archival black ink. To give the image a little dimension, I outlined the oval with N0 copic marker.

I have another card to fit this theme, but I'll have to post it later.

A little bit of inspiration

On a recent trip to the States, I picked up a new nestabilities die that I really loved the look of. It was an impulse, and I had a few ideas floating around in my head, but when I was checking out the galleries at Splitcoast Stampers, I came across a stunning card by Kittie, I took a closer look on her blog and was inspired to try it.

I made two attempts:

 The red was my first attempt- I cut out the frame using the nestabilities die and then hand cut the centre out os that the embossed background was behind. I then cut out the poinsettia using my boss kut die. There was a slight imperfection, so I added the sentiment.

The white poinsettia was cut out using a shiny white paper. It was a tad too stark so I rubbed some tea dye distress ink on it to tone down the white a bit. Instead of putting the frame on the embossed background, I cut out the embossed background and attached it to the frame. I love the simplicity of this card, and have a feeling that I am going to be creating many more along this same line.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November...

I am a few days late, but when I checked out the Less is More challenge Saturday before I headed to a work event, I immediately had an idea. It had to stay in the back of my head until I got home on Sunday, but I am thrilled with the way it turned out.

The challenge this week is to use red and orange- and given that winter is just around the corner, I will jump at the chance to use warmer colours.

I have the Hero Arts Dandelion flower seed stamp, and I haven't played with it much yet, but I was immediately inspired to use it- reminds me of fireworks.

For this card, I used distress inks in Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany to stamp the image, and cut the white card to 5x5 inches. I matted it on glitter orange stock cut to 5.25 square. The sentiment is stamped in black. I added spots of sparkle on the flowers with a Spica clear pen. It's a little hard to see, but it looks fab in person.

For the second card, I cut a 4.25x5.5 inch front and created a mask with a 3 inch circle punched out.
I sponged on Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Fired Brick into the mask and dabbed it with a babywipe to brighten the colours, then stamped the dandelion stamp three times.

The black looks a little washed out in the picture- it's more bold in person. 

House Mouse- no cookin' challenge

This week at House-Mouse and Friends, it's a No Cookin' Recipe Card Challenge.  I don't think it's any secret how much I love House Mouse and company, and I have been meaning to play along with the challenges for ages, but it always seems like I miss the deadline. This week, I had a few ideas for the challenge, and they were all birthday cards. September is a busy birthday month in my world, and here's one card down.

I also love cookbooks and have many. In fact, they have overflowed my cookbook cupboard and are on several shelves. I pulled this recipe from a book I picked up for $1. It's brand new, and decided to muck it up a bit using distress inks in Vintage Photo and Tea Dye. The recipe contributor's name was in the right corner, so I distressed it further by tearing the paper.

I stamped the image on Bristol paper with Momento ink and coloured with copics. I then cut it out and adhered it to the recipe with foam tape. It is layered on glassine paper and orange cardstock.

Wonder who is going to get this card?

LIM- one layer get inky... take one

This week over at Less is More Mandi and Chrissie have us making a one layer card, using ink. Now, everyone uses ink to make cards, you say... but there are lots of ways to make cards without ink- embossing, ribbons, embellishments, stickers, etc. I usually use ink on mine, and have no problems getting inky... in fact, my fingers are green and black at the moment, thanks to a wayward ink pad.

I had lots of time to mull over my creations today- the dogs had me up at 6:30, and when they were out, I checked the blog, went back to bed for a while, did some errands, and when I went to my stamping space nearly 12 hours later, I had some pretty good ideas about what I wanted to do.

The additional bit to the challenge is to do something you don't usually do, or use a technique you haven't tried. One of these cards fits into that.

I really admire Chrissy's cards, especially when she uses bands of colour, such as this one. I decided to give it a try. This one incorporates four distress inks- honey, marigold, rusty hinge and marmalade. I sponged them onto the card and then washed over it with a baby wipe. I find that the paper curls much less doing it that way. Then I stamped the Inkadinkado image over it in Momento black.

Seems as though I am on an orange and black kick tonight. I stamped the butterfly and sentiment in black, then coloured with distress inks. I put some colour onto a stamp block and painted it on with an aqua pen. For a little more dimension and sparkle, I ran a bead of glossy accent over the body and let it dry. 

I think I'll be taking full advantage of my weekend and playing with the one layer challenge more tomorrow. I usually do a card front and add it to the base, but Less is More is becoming easier for me, and the one layer challenges are helping to save paper.

Sometimes, you just have to play...

I've been playing with Distress inks quite a bit lately, and wanted to see what this LaBlanche stamp would look like distressed. I stamped in brown Momento ink, and coloured with Distress inks- the sunflower was done in Honey, the leaves in Shabby Shutters and the centre of the sunflower was (I think) sepia.

Then I decided I was going to play... and that's where it went horribly wrong...

I thought that I would add some dimension by adding glossy accent to the centre, and the centre only. And then the distress inks started to run. So, I decided to smear it all over the card to add some extra texture and interest, which I liked. Then I dried it with my heat gun, which caused the paper to curl. To get rid of the curl, I took the paper and ran it over the edge of my desk. That softened the glossy accent, and gave it an interesting feel. I attached it to the brown cardstock with brass brads. The butterfly was punched out and placed over an ink smear.

Harvest hues

A few months ago, I trekked to a stamping store that I don't usually get to- the Scrapbook Cottage in Steinbach. I was looking for a Queen Ann's Lace stamp, and came across one I liked (Inkadinkado's Meadow). It also included a wheat image, and I decided I wanted to play with that... I am a prairie girl, after all!

For this one, I took a piece of white cardstock and sponged on Distress inks in honey and marigold. Then, I rubbed a baby wipe across the card to intensify the colour. The image was stamped in dark brown and then added onto a brown piece of cardstock and the ribbon was wrapped at the bottom. You can't really see it on the card, but I also spritzed it with copper shimmer.

Happy Fathers' Day!

It's Dads' day today. I saw a card on a blog earlier this week. Thought I bookmarked it, but unfortunately, I didn't. This idea has been ruminating, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I have a deer stamp that I've used in the past, but it wasn't what I wanted for this card. Three failed attempts later, I just got out some card components I stamped at a card camp and decided to give that to dad.

It wasn't what I wanted, so I took a trip to Walmart yesterday and picked up the wildlife Cricut cartridge so I could complete this card. Funny thing is I've been looking at that cart for weeks, if not months, and kept saying to myself that I didn't think I'd use it.

So, this morning, while husband was vacuuming, I went downstairs to do laundry, and while I was down there, I whipped up this card. When I have an idea in my head, it takes next to no time for it to come to life.

I sponged on Broken China distress ink for the sky, followed by Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood to create the mountains. The pine tree from Stampin' Up's Lovely as a Tree was stamped in soot black distress ink, but I stamped it off on paper first so it wasn't bold.
The stag is cut at 4 inches, and attached with my xyron.
I punched out the pine sprigs from three different shades of green with my MS punch and attached it to the base of the card with a run of glue tape. Easy peasy. Not counting the two hours working on the failures and the 30 mins working on the first father's day card, the 2 hour errand trip to Walmart and other places, this card took less than 15 minutes to create.

LIM- Week 18 Less is More

Another busy weekend- before I headed out to work and errands on Saturday, I checked theLess is More challenge to see what was on order for this week. Monochrome. Not something I am really comfortable with- or really work with. I enjoy participating in this challenge because it helps me get out of my comfort zone, and gets me exploring my inner creative soul.

I got this stamp set from Chapel Road Artstamps last summer, and it hadn't seen ink- in fact, the rubber hadn't even been cut. I loved the look of the stamps from Chapel Road, and wasn't sure what I was getting into with unmounted rubber- all of my stamps before ordering from them were either mounted or clear. I really like they way they ink up- I just attached them to an acrylic block with a little tape and that worked like a charm.

 This is a 5 inch square, stamped in black ink. The diagonal band was embossed with holographic embossing powder to give it a little shine, and the dragonfly was embossed with clear EP five times to give it dimension and shape. It was embossed then cut out, before it was placed on the dragonfly background, which was cut out and placed on top of a black square.

This card I decided to do in shades of brown- the stamp is from LaBlanche. I stamped it in sepia archival ink, then sponged all over with tea dye distress inks. The edges were rubbed with a darker (burlap, I think) distress ink. The sentiment was stamped in the same darker distress ink and sponged all over with tea dye. I think it needs a little something, maybe a couple of brads or something... not sure. 

Spring has sprun...

Well, not quite, but it has over at Less is more. The week three challenge is spring. 

I didn't post last week because I was way too busy getting ready for a major event at work, which was held Feb 19. It was a huge hit, and thankfully, Monday was a holiday. I took advantage of it and retreated to my crafty area, and made several cards. 

I got a couple of new Tim Holtz stamps in the mail last week, and couldn't wait to play with them. 

This one is probably my favourite. 

The colour really jumped out at me when I was deciding the colours to use.

It took no time to do, but it was a multi-step process.

First, I stamped the background in black ink and clear embossed it.

Then, I wet the paper, and smooshed distress inks all over it, wet it and crumpled the paper. I then wet it again, added some more ink, blotted the paper with a paper towel and gently (VERY gently) rolled it between my hands like I was making a play dough worm. As a result, the paper is rather leathery. I then dried it a little with my heat tool, and ironed it to smooth it out a bit. 

As it was embossed, I ironed it face-down on a piece of cardstock and very carefully lifted it off. 

Here's a close-up of the stamp- it shows the paper off a little better.

I then cut out around the stamp, ran it through my xyron and added a black mat behind. The three brads on the top give it a bit more dimension. 

The paper, I think is Stampin' up, but I don't have the package any more, so can't be sure. I think the greens in the background go well with the card. I usually do a white card, but decided to make it all green. 

I have several other cards to share, and will do that in the next little bit.