Holiday Leaves Take 2 ...

Another two clean and simple cards to add to the Christmas stash - once again created using the Tim Holtz Holiday greens die set.

The top holly one was die cut from a scrap of yupo paper coloured with alcohol ink and some foil.  The red one was from some gel plate printed card.

Simple designs but so easy to create.

Enjoy!

Subtle blues ...

This is the first time in weeks that I have had the time or inclination to be creative ... all of my recent posts were planned in advance for my Design team responsibilities.  Family needs meant that I have been away from home for almost a month and have not felt like being creative but hopefully things will start to change.

I love to craft as it provides a healthy distraction from real life ... so today I created this:

I thought I'd join in with the current challenge at "Less is More":

I took a piece of gelli plate printed card, a couple of dies and a stamp - nothing too complicated!

I used:

Memory Box: Honeycomb Square

STAMPlorations: Flutter Zen 1

UNIKO: Simply Said

Enjoy!

Saturday fun ...

Good evening ... I've had a lazy day crafting and creating ... some success and some best not talked about!!

First up I created a card using the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches and the photo inspiration from TIME OUT Challenges:

This card began with a print I created using stamps, acrylic paint and my gelli printing plate ... this is the print:

I selected a small area and die cut a rectangle, I also die cut a piece of vellum the same size and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment.

The details of the two challenges are:

CAS Colour and Sketches #273


TIME OUT Challenge #110 Photo Inspiration



Enjoy!

Dandelions ...

I was on a bit of a roll yesterday and this card is just one of four I managed to create ... possibly my most successful crafting day in weeks!  I ran out of time to create a post to share the card ... so here I am a day later.

Another simple card created using a gelli print for the focal image.  I die cut the image from the gelli print and from 3 other pieces of white card all of which I adhered into a stack to create more dimension.  I had real trouble deciding what colour to use for the sentiment ... as you can see in the end yellow was the winner!!

I used:
Sue Wilson: Dandelion Posies
UNIKO: Simply Said Blocks
Memento Ink - Dandelion

As mentioned at the start I am entering this card into the TIME OUT challenge:

Enjoy!

Butterflies ...

Back again for my second post of the day ... this time to share two cards for one challenge ... Twofer Card Challenge #5 ... as the name implies this challenge is all about creating two cards for different events and different designs using the same die or stamps.

If you follow my blog you will know of my obsession with gelli plate printing ... both of my cards use a gelli print and two coordinating butterfly dies.

Apologies for the fly in the top right corner ... it is not part of the design!!

For this card I die cut the solid butterfly out of the card and then inlaid a butterfly cut from a gelli print into the opening.  Finally I die cut the coordinating intricate butterfly and attached it by the body leaving the wings free to add dimension.

The fly was camera shy by the time I took this photograph!

For this card I cut a section out of the card before die-cutting three solid butterflies.  I used three butterflies cut from a gelli print to attach the two pieces back together to form the front of the card - kind of floating inlaid die cuts.   I added three intricate butterflies cut from vellum attached by the body leaving the wings free.  This was a fiddly card to create ... I'm not sure I will be repeating it!

I used:
STAMPlorations - CUTplorations Flutter Zen 1
Simon Says Stamp - Handwritten Borders
UNIKO - Simply Said

Challenge details:

Enjoy!

One Layer Stencil ...

Good Evening ... popping in to share this:

A simple design - a stencilled image and a stamped sentiment!  This is a new technique for me ... I used alcohol inks and a stencil on my gelli printing plate.  I brayered two shades of pink alcohol ink onto the plate and then added the stencil.  I removed some of the ink from the open sections of the stencil and then added some yellow Memento ink, removed the stencil and allowed this to dry.  As it was drying I masked off a rectangle on my card base.  Once dry I added a thin layer of Buff Titanium acrylic paint, placed the card base over the top and rubbed the back to transfer the image.  I un-crossed my fingers and removed the card ... and what you see is the end result.  I added a simple sentiment and that was that!!
A one layer card created with a stencil!!!

I used:
Adirondack Alcohol Inks - Cranberry and Raspberry
Memento - Dandelion Ink
Buff Titanium Acrylic Paint
UNIKO - Chrysanthemum Stencil and Simple Said Stamp Set

I will be entering the following challenges:
"Less is More" # 367


Also, TIME OUT Challenge #105 - Happy Birthday and Congratulations!!


Enjoy!!

Something different ...

I've been working on a number of projects recently around doodles of lines and circles.  The whole idea kind of began when I needed something to do as a distraction from thinking ... I've quite a lot going on at the moment and it has been difficult to switch off.  One evening I created this:

This is hand drawn on Khandi paper using a uni pin fine line (0.5) pen.  I then took a ghost monoprint created using a Gelli plate to create a postcard to send to my son:

Still in need of distraction I decided to see if I could continue to develop this idea and create an 'embroidery'.  Whenever I have a printing session with acrylic paint and my gelli plate I always print at least one on calico ... so I took one of these prints and created this mixed media piece.

The print was created using three colours, three layers and a number of handmade stencils and masks.  The circles were then added with embroidery silk in three colours.

I'm going to enter this mixed media piece in the STAMPlorations challenge:



Enjoy!

Bright or what! ...

This weeks seems to be whizzing by ... I don't recall the weekend arriving so quickly when I'm at work!  I've had a packed week ... the usual housework, add in some gardening, sanding and stripping varnish from an old sewing box, playing with my gelli plate creating lots of "interesting prints", upcycling a glass bottle into a single flower vase (I'll show you this when I manage to get photos) and lots more including quite a bit of procrastinating!!

Less waffle and on with the reason for this post ... a card!  Take one gelli print and some inspiration from Jennifer McGuire and this is what you end up with:

This is more vibrant and has very little white space compared to most of the cards I create but I thought it was an interesting way to showcase one of the prints that I created.  I think it is also the first time I have created a card with a moving sentiment!  It also uses an idea from Jennifer McGuire on the Background Check course currently running on onlinecardclasses.com . Jennifer clear embossed a large floral background stamp onto some designer paper and the blended ink onto the background.  I liked the idea and thought it might work well with one of my prints.  I do not own any large background stamps so I used a floral mask instead.  I also wanted to be sure that the black ink was solid so rather than blending it through the gaps I used a Pitt artist pen from Faber-Castell and coloured the spaces by hand! This is the print before it hit the guillotine, black marker and Big Shot!

I still need to practise with the gelli plate but have come to the conclusion that it is hard to predict what your print is going to look like!

Enjoy!