ATC's Joy to the world
1 hour ago
Saturday, 21 September 2019
The colours of Autumn are now starting to display and aren't there some beautiful leaves around?
As the flowers decay, it's just beautiful to see fresh colours. So, I made a couple of leafy cards.
The first uses Bee Crafty's Oak leaves - or one oak leaf - the other one is huge and would work best for journalling or for a full card (ping!). They're lovely stamps and I did mean to go back for the other set, but of course I forgot. I always feel guilty for buying leafy stamps because I have collected them ever since I began stamping (over 20 years now) and having a bit of a leaf and tree fetish 😎 I have LOADS! But fresh ones always inspire.
I made this using one of my standard autumn leaf methods, stamping in Adirondacks or Distress inks (Oxides this time), then blending the colours with a damp paintbrush. I made the mistake of stamping over a couple with Gathered Twigs and wish I'd pulled out my Adirondacks now and used Currant or Raisin! I love their reds. The GT looks a little TOO dark and I did it by 'eyeballing' instead of being precise with my stamping platform, which didn't quite work out as well as I'd hoped. I still like it, though 😊 The colours I used were Aged Mahogany, Toasted Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Fossilised Amber, with a hint of Festive Berries.
This one I actually stamped last year on hot pressed watercolour paper, but decided I'd made too many leafy cards. I fussy cut the edges on one side and coloured with Inktense Pencils, but my beautiful clean paper ended up spotted with colour, so I continued to fussy cut, then edged with black Pitt pen and glued to a blank white card. I added a little strip of faux stitched edging and stamped the PB words above to complete, attaching to a warm rush coloured card after layering onto black.
Thinking of the challenge over at Stamping Sensations - Flowers - I made this echinacea card.This is one of my favourite flowers and I know they come in lots of colours, but I chose to keep them white, like daisies. The background is a Stampington cube stamp I've had for a LONG time and a couple of Tim Holtz fragments, with a little grey stencilling, too. I started it when making a few pink and grey backgrounds, so I finished it off in the same colours, fussy cutting the flowers and adding length to the stems.The larger background stamps were designed by Isa Norris, who seems to have gone onto other things these days. Yes, I've had them a long time.
This was a delight to make...I enjoyed it so much, doodling a few more waves and adding colour as and when I felt like it. I love it's imperfection! The words in the background are from a Donna Downey stencil - I removed the colour with a babywipe, after playing around a little with that technique à la CAS stencil...but no, this isn't in any way CAS. The image just fitted the words perfectly and although I wanted to paper piece over the girl, I chose not to so that the words would show through. I've added a whiter tail to the 'Y' which I'd inadvertently coloured over! I also added some paper piercing around one of the waves and the whale...as well as a couple of stitched edge frame cuts on the sides - just for the Inkspirational Challenge, but it was a nice change. I don't do much paper piercing at all!
Allsorts, Trees and Leaves
Inkspirational, Paper Piercing
Cards 4 Galz, Welcome Autumn/Fall
Mod Squad, Stencilled Background
Always Fun Challenge, Autumn Colours
Country View Challenges, Under the Sea (under, in?)
Penny Black Satruday Challenge, Use something old/neglected - Jumbo Rollagraph stamp, um
Moo Mania & More, Autumn Glory
Thank you so much for calling in today
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Tuesday, 17 September 2019
Try it on Tuesday, NEW Challenge!
16 very kind comments from lovely people at Tuesday, September 17, 2019
It's time for a
NEW CHALLENGE
at
HOT, HOT, HOT!
We'd like to see your interpretation using hot colours, a visit to a hot country, a hot, comforting drink...and so on. LOTS of options!
ANYTHING hot!
We look forward to seeing your creations.
Hope you just have fun, get inky and share your art with us.
You have TWO WEEKS to enter...
We look forward to visiting your Blogs.
The first thing I thought of when I saw the theme title was African sunsets...and knowing that I had the perfect stamp, that's exactly what I aimed for. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out as planned, lol...what's that quote?
'The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray'?
I embossed my sun - BIG mistake! When I stamped over it - then embossed the Versafine ink again, the embossing just blended - eek! If I'd thought about it logically, I would have known that, but hindsight is a wonderful thing...
I wasn't able to start again, so I had to think 'on my feet' and decided I had nothing to lose by trying to 'tidy it up' with my trusty black Posca pen! Fortunately, it worked - phew!
I was even quite happy with the result, even if it was a bit of an adventure...scribbles and daubs gave me the sketchy look I was looking for, even if my inks didn't streak across the setting sun as I'd hoped they would... most of it is hidden anyway. It didn't help that I turned the card the wrong way when I started to add colour. I'd carefully positioned my sun so that the tree and the elephant would only cover a little part of it. H'mm! More haste less speed, methinks!
I really didn't think this through before I began, but hopefully, I'll remember for next time 😊
I used Oxides, Distress Ink (Aged Mahogany) and Archival inks in yellows, oranges and reds. It certainly looks hot...😉 and those poor elephants look absolutely exhausted!
I really hope you'll play with us in this challenge - it's a great theme and if you check out the rest of the DT's fab art, you'll see lots of different ideas sparked by it. Great inspiration! I'm always amazed by the variety of interpretations.
Thanks for calling in today
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Sunday, 15 September 2019
In the Pink...and a birthday card
21 very kind comments from lovely people at Sunday, September 15, 2019Hello there!
Thought I'd just pop in and share a few cards I made this week. The first one is the birthday card I made for my brother, who's 60 tomorrow. I took it to him yesterday because he lives at a distance, so I can show you - not that he would ever dream of looking here...
It's the second one I made, so was deliberately simple, with one of the quickest and easiest stamps I've ever used - I love it. It never fails to make me smile and it just seemed perfect for him - especially as I decided I hate the one I set out to make! Very little colouring on it, just embossing and it doesn't need anything more, unless I feel like adding to it.
I'll show you the first one I made. I do love the stamps but they just don't work together...or maybe I just didn't quite get them straight and that spoiled the effect. Whichever it is, the card will now be cut down to be used for an ordinary birthday OR I'll cut out the images again and use them somewhere else - individually. It's a shame the cupcake isn't a separate stamp - it just feels as if it should be central. Love the way they're both looking at it longingly, though and that's so typical of my brother!
This one was made after seeing Brenda's Allsorts' card last week. I loved it and loved the colours...so I had something in mind, then woke up wanting to use pink and grey - Hickory Smoke, Victorian Velvet and Spun Sugar, one of my favourite colour combos...so the card was born. I do love Lavinia stamps, with the occasional Inkylicious image - they work so well together. I stamped the ivy and shrooms in grey and in Victorian Velvet as well as black, just to add some depth and shadow. The stencil, another of my favourites, made the perfect spotlight. I also used Brilliance Moonlight White to add to the effect of the lamp and on some of the stencilling. I did rather mess up the wings, adding glitter glaze after using Posca pens - yikes - they bled with the liquid and covered the wings, so they're not as crisp as they should be. I like the way it turned out, though, with the grey edging adding a little atmosphere. I added a little bling in the form of jewels, because it seemed to need a little something in the centre.
And just for you autumn lovers, I made a leafy card...in pink and grey! I know it isn't very realistic, but I still like it. I still have a pink and grey thing going on, I'm afraid.
I'm playing along with the following challenges:-
Lavinia World Challenges, Anything Lavinia goes
Penny Black and More, Animals
Simon Says Stamp Wednesdays, Bling (jewels and glitter)
Simon Says Monday, Stamp It!
Moo Mania & More, Use Stamps
Addicted to Stamps, For a Lady/Girl
Alphabet Challenge, M for Masculine
Thank you for popping in
See you soon
Cath
xxx
Thursday, 5 September 2019
There's a RESIST challenge on Daring Cardmakers and I just HAD to play along - it's my all time favourite technique but although I had all kinds of ideas when I first saw the post...I ended up using a background I made a few weeks ago, that was sitting, waiting to be used 😉 At least I didn't miss it - I often do!
As I already said, I love resist techniques of any kind and especially love Versamark resist and Faux Batik. I was playing around with stencils and wondered if I could get a resist effect with Versamark...so, I tried daubing Versamark ink through the stencil, heat setting it, then smooshing inks over the stencilling. This was the result. Although it isn't perfect, I do like it. I think it may well work better with contrasting colours, whereas I used Salty Ocean and Cracked Pistachio Distress inks AND photo glossy card, which mutes the colours even more. I wanted something to signify energy and grabbing hold of life with both hands because of the VI swirl stencil, but this was the only real rubber stamp I could find to fit that idea. I used Memento ink anyway, and that didn't work perfectly either, so I had to deepen the stamping with a black permanent pen and didn't really like it. BUT in my determination not to be too perfectionistic, I'm leaving it 😊 Just don't look too closely!
For my son's birthday last week, I made him one of my favourite card designs - more with his daughter in mind. She loves to see Nanny's cards 😊
The background is sponged Oxides and splattered water drops, the images - stamped, coloured and fussy cut - are Katzelcraft's Les Animaux, my favourite stamps of the year. I have possibly made a card that looks very similar to this before... but I like it.
I'm playing with Seize the Birthday with their option of using a square card.
I'm happy to also be able to play with the following challenges:-
Penny Black and More, Animals
Creatalicous, Anything Goes with optional Humour
Time Out, 'It takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow.'
Addicted to Stamps and More, Make Your Mark.
Simon Says Wednesday, Stamp It!
My final card was a play around with some florals and my favourite Paperartsy birds. I stamped and die cut the flowers, then drew the stems - background DIs. The birds are coloured with Bluebell Promarkers. The flowers are watercoloured.
I'm playing with:-
Stamping Sensations' Anything Goes with Flowers
and
Moo Mania & More, Use Stamps
Thank you for calling in today!
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Tuesday, 3 September 2019
TRY IT ON TUESDAY, NEW CHALLENGE!
17 very kind comments from lovely people at Tuesday, September 03, 2019
Good morning, peeps!
Tuesday means we have a brand new challenge at
and the challenge theme is...
BOYS & GIRLS or CHILDREN
Please feel free to create anything you like, using any medium and link to our challenge.
We'd love to visit your blog some time during the next fortnight.
Don't forget to go see the lovely artwork from my teamies..We are blessed with some very talented designers.
I made a simple card for this, starting by stamping and clear embossing my image, to create a resist effect, then smooshing Distress Oxides over the card. The faces and little girl's arms were bleached to remove the colour, then coloured with Prismacolor Pencils and Paint over Pens. After trying several colours for matting and layering, I opted for the white behind the black frame, but it looked too plain, so I dry embossed the top and bottom, though it's not very clear. I did manage to cover the stamped black shading on the little girl's arm, then managed to lift some of that when colouring later, so I gave up...it IS just shading. It's not a stamp I use much but it's one that I designed and was very pleased with at the time.
Thank you so much for calling in today
I look forward to visiting your blogs to see your own creations 😊
Cath
xxx
Sunday, 1 September 2019
Hellooooo!!! Yes, I'm still here - honestly. I'm sorry I haven't been around much but I've had a difficult few weeks/months... but I have made a few cards and even got to finish a couple of them today, so I'm happy 😀
This is one I started ages ago, when I was making my last Paperartsy 'efilump' card and stamped several of them to use later. Unfortunately,, me being me, what started out as a CAS card acquired a dotty background - of necessity. I don't know how I so often manage to get marks on my beautiful white card, but I do - more times than I can count - but fortunately - now - I just laugh and use it another way. So on this one I just stencilled various coloured dots and circles. Although I did prefer it CAS, I don't think it's too bad. My blog title is no mistake - I spend most of my life with inky fingers!
I love these words and have been trying to get them from a certain company for months and months - possibly for more than a year - but seem to miss them every time I get an email to tell me they're back in stock. I was delighted when I spotted some very similar words by another company AND that one was IN stock, lol - and much cheaper.
Penny Black and More's September Challenge is Animals, so I'm happy to be able to play along with them - I have no doubt I'll be back if I get to stamp again this month... I love quirky animal stamps 😉
This one was borne out of frustration because I just wasn't managing to get to play very much at all. I decided to use a background from my basket and use up some of the many die cuts I have lying around. I love the idea of some dies, but then rarely use them because I still find it hard. It almost feels like cheating, even though I know it takes a lot of skill to use them well! It's a very simple card, but I'm afraid it had to be on this particular day. I did add some smooshed oxides and spattered some water drops to create added interest - I think the card was made with Brushos. I then quickly coloured the daisy stems with Oxides, glued them in place and stamped a very simple sentiment. I did layer the petals on the centre flower, but not very successfully...they would've looked much better if I'd used some thin foam tape, but I was keeping it simple, with the aim of actually completing the card!
Just realised I used the same shade (or similar) as the previous card...that was accidental, but it is a favourite of mine.
I stamped a Celtic script (Chapel Road Art Stamps) background first, using Oxides, before adding the die cuts.
Although they're very stylised flowers, I'm going to link to Stamping Sensations' Anything Goes with Flowers challenge
and also to Friendship Challenges' Circles challenge.
My last card is using one of my favourite little girl stamps - isn't she cute? The background is Oxides with a bit of stencilling...a lovely, warm colour combo. I think I was influenced by Paperartsy Blog's current theme of 'shrooms'...but again, I was just trying to keep it simple and even so, it took me a few days to complete! The borders are a Dylusions border I stamped, cut out and edged in black.
I'm happy to link this one to the Creatalicious Anything Goes (with optional humour) challenge.
Thank you so much for calling in today...
I'll be back soon(ish)
Cath
xxx
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