Simple elegance

This is one of my favourite card designs and one I have (very rare for me) repeated many times because I love it so much. I needed a card to send for something special.

I really love this Vitality stamp!

You’d think I’d have this design ‘off pat’ by now, but no – I stamped the flower (using felt tip pens) then it took me 8 – yes EIGHT attempts to get the wording right – it kept smudging, then I smudged it while cutting the card – unbelievable!!!!!

This is a quick card, made to accompany something else – made from one of the scratch papers I use to protect the desk when I’m stamping and inking. The stamp is a new one – a gift – so of course I had to try it out :) Thank you, Mel!!

Skinny Book cover

This is how the covers ended up – and I’m half way through punching and binding – only with ‘O’ rings, but I’ve used the Bind it all, so anyone who wishes to can just finish the book off with a coil :)

It’s hard work but it really is a privilege to compile these books.  The idea came from Suse and I’m sure she would have loved them.  There’s some fab artwork!

Skinny Pages Completed – well, almost…

Here are my completed (? almost) pages for the Skinny Book Swap. I need to mount them on the actual covers and attach the words (in progress – my trusty Xyron has come out of hiding) but these are the actual skinnies :) I sprayed with Glimmer Mists before attaching the little girl and the coloured borders, but of course you can't see that - nor the glitter on the little girl...

Colour ATC Technique – as requested :)

I feel more than a little embarrassed about posting this as a technique because it really is so EASY, but here you go…

I used just three shades of Ecoline inks – Cerise, Cyan and Yellow – then, taking a sheet of card (thickish) or watercolour paper (I used hot press smooth) I just painted them on randomly (with thick brushes) and left them to dry. What a cheat? The colours blend beautifully and create all those shades you can see on the ATCs. On some, I wet the card or paper first, then added the inks, on others I spritzed after painting, then mopped up excess colour with another sheet of card/paper, so I ended up with lots of variations – some muddier looking than others, some paler.

Word of warning – it looks YUKKY before you stamp it and the white highlighting really does make all the difference :)

I did try this with Adirondack reinkers but they are too highly pigmented, so the colours are too dark. Great for inkpads but not for techniques like this. I am intending trying the same thing with Vivid Reinkers because I have quite a lot of those – I’ll upload my results when I do.

Here are a couple of the backgrounds BS (Before Stamping).

I think the first two were spritzed VERY lightly. Don’t they look YUKKY?

The second two pieces were wet before I started and then were spritzed a little more before being allowed to dry. These look much nicer unstamped.

More Colour ATCs

 

 

The Ugly Card is on the move and needs a new home…

This is it in all its glory (forgive my INKY THUMB – yes, that’s INK!) on its day out in Merseyside. We took the not so ‘Ugly Card’ to Crosby, North Liverpool to see Antony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ exhibition of 100 ‘tin men’ scattered along 3km of coastline, along the River Mersey Estuary, looking out at the Irish Sea.

According to Antony Gormley, ‘Another Place harnesses the ebb and flow of the tide to explore man's relationship with nature. He explains: The seaside is a good place to do this. Here time is tested by tide, architecture by the elements and the prevalence of sky seems to question the earth's substance. In this work human life is tested against planetary time. This sculpture exposes to light and time the nakedness of a particular and peculiar body. It is no hero, no ideal, just the industrially reproduced body of a middle-aged man trying to remain standing and trying to breathe, facing a horizon busy with ships moving materials and manufactured things around the planet.’

It was a windy day and we felt sorry for our ‘Tin Man’ so we covered his ‘bits!’

But I decided I’d like a more ‘intimate photo’ so here it is – complete with wind blown hair!

The Ugly card has travelled a long way, starting life in Canada, then moving from country to country and city to city – since it’s now in Merseyside (arriving from Yorkshire) it’s looking to go a little farther afield now. If you can offer it a temporary home and a day out ‘of interest’ then please leave a message on my Blog – I’ll draw names out of a hat…

I should have said; the card came to me from Sylvia Anne and originated from Diane Forst in Canada, it then went to Tracy, also in Canada, then it went to Jen in Hawaii, who sent it to Rita in Massachusetts. Rita sent it to Lyn, and Lyn passed the card to Sylvia in Leeds, West Yorkshire, who passed it to me in Merseyside (not quite Liverpool, even though the photos were taken in Liverpool.)

I'll leave this post at the top of the Blog for a few days, until I have chosen a new owner!

Brazen Brilliance and Triple Resist Technique

These cards are unfinished – they’re just background to show the effect of the technique. the lighter colours you see in the scans don’t show up unless you tilt the card, giving a gorgeous multi layer appearance. The pearly Brilliance inks just make it that little bit more special. I’ll try to do another sample of this later on if I find time.

This last one is a Triple Resist Technique – stamped with Versamark ink, then brayered, ink removed then stamped with Versamark again, followed by brayering in another colour and finally, overstamped with yet another shade of ink, giving three shades altogether.

Mini techniques

Here are some BI (before ink) and AI (after ink) samples.

The first one is peeled paper – though it doesn’t show up very well. They don’t make Sellotape like they used to… lol!

This one’s just Gesso, applied randomly – hard to see it on the top tag - sorry.

Next we have gesso on torn book pages. You can really see the faux texture on the second tag.

Creative Masking

Using punches (or die cut machines – or even scissors or craft knives) to create a ‘stencil’.

Creative masking BS (Before Stamping) and AS (After Stamping) :)

More Creative Masking

This one is courtesy of my Mum, Jan Cross - her card was based on an advert on the back of a bus in New Zealand and used Pampas grass or wheat in the foreground.

I’ve already posted this (but will remove it from former post) because it, too is made by creative masking – using the humble post it note :)