Penguin Trio ...

It's been a beautiful Autumn day - sunshine and blue sky, unseasonably warm a real bonus!

I'm working away at creating Christmas cards and I'm delighted that the number is steadily increasing - I may even be ready in time to catch the last post!!  Today's effort:

Some simple stamping water coloured using distress inks - I added some Wink of Stella sparkle to the hats and street light but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get it to show in the photograph!!

I'm joining in with the following challenge:

CAS Christmas Card Challenge

Enjoy!

Framed Carnation ...

I can not believe where the time is going to ... it is already Sunday evening and almost time for work ... again!!!  I've had a mixed weekend ... washing, cleaning, cooking and ironing but I'm delighted to have squeezed in some 'me time' being creative (at least trying to be!).

First up this evening is a card for the current challenge at "Less is More" - it is a colour challenge ... yellow,grey and blue.  

I stamped the image with pumice stone distress ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I like the effect you get when embossing an image it creates a cleaner line for water colouring.  I water coloured the image added some foam tape and popped it onto the base before adding a small sentiment.

I used:
STAMPlorations - Framed Carnation
UNIKO - Simply Said
Distress Ink Pumice Stone
Winsor and Newton Water Colours.

The challenge details:



Enjoy!

Daffodil Delight .

A quick post to share a card:

I stamped and heat embossed the daffodils before water colouring the images.  The sentiment is heat embossed onto a piece of vellum before wrapping around the stamped panel.  The panel was adhered to the card base using foam adhesive to add a little extra dimension.

I used:

UNIKO - Spring Botanicals: Daffodils

Winsor and Newton Water Colour Paints

Versamark Ink

WOW White Embossing Powder

I'm entering the following challenges:

TIME OUT #105

Happy Little Stampers

UNIKO

Craft Stamper Magazine Blog - March "Anything Goes"

Enjoy!

Mini bouquet ...

Sunday evening ... so soon!

A quick post with a not so quick card ... for some reason this took me ages to make ... I knew what I wanted to do I just seemed unable to do it!

I used:
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Bouquet
Versafine Onyx Black ink
Inktense Blocks to water colour the flowers
Lil'inker Stitched Tag die
Brads
Paper string

I'm entering this challenge:

I need to say a big thank you to the AAA Cards design team ... they selected one of my cards to feature in their top four! How exciting is that ... this is the card they liked:

Enjoy!

Flower print ...

Today's post is all about printmaking and water colours.  I've been attending a printmaking course for some time and one of my favourite techniques is drypoint etching (scratching images onto a substrate, inking it up and then printing the image using a printing press).  I decided to take one of the images and see if I could water colour it ... I could and this is the end result:

This is the print without colour - just a black and white image ...

... here it is water coloured!

Enjoy!

Time Out CASE ...

Back again for my second post of the day!

This time my card has more colours.  My inspiration for this card is from the challenge at TIME OUT challenges where the criteria is to CASE a beautiful card created by Kim Makortoff - check out Kim's blog for some inspiring projects. See below for Kim's card.

I took her design and created my own take - using the layout and flowers this is my version:

I've stamped and masked the flowers before water colouring them using distress inks I've mounted the panel using some foam adhesive just to create some added dimension to the card.

This is Kim's card:


I used:

STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches
Distress Inks - Festive Berries, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint
Clearly Besotted Many Messages
Versafine Onyx Black ink

As I have used STAMPloration stamps I am also going to link up to the Anything Goes ongoing challenge over on their blog.

Return of the Gerbera ...

It's difficult for me to stay away from my Gerbera stamp for too long and here it is back again!

Before I begin I need to say a big 'Thank You' to the designers over at "Less is More" as they have selected me as the monthly winner for May.  I love this challenge blog and try to enter a card every week - they are so supportive of all the people that enter the challenges. I'm honoured, thank you!

It seems fitting that tonight's post is a card created for this week's challenge at "Less is More" where the challenge is to use Watercolour.  

I first masked a square in the top half of the card, stamped the gerbera and drew in the square with a fine liner.  I watercoloured the image and then cut away the square.  Less talk, more action - here is the card:

You can see garden through the aperture!

I used:
Uniko Studio stamp set - Pure Florals: Gerbera
Windsor and Newton Watercolour paints

Enjoy!

Rainbow Balloons ...

A quick post to show a simple balloon card.  This is another card using the inlaid die technique - I prefer this one to the Speech Bubbles it's more compact and joined up in layout.

The die cut balloons are painted with water colour paints

I used:

Clearly Besotted Stamp and Die Set - Make a Wish

Windsor and Newton Watercolour paints

I'm going to enter the following challenges

Addicted to Stamps and More - Make Your Mark!

CAS(E) this Sketch!

Enjoy!

Happy Hexies ...

I think I'll describe this card as "a happy accident" because it is nothing like what I set out to create but it seems to work.  

I started by trying to use a technique that I learnt about on the online Watercolor course (onlinecardcourses.com) which involved embossing a background stamp and then using watercolours to selectively colour small sections.  I got off to a good start - stamping with versamark and then heat embossing with white embossing powder.  I selected three blues and a turquoise paint and started to fill in the hexagons.  All was going well until I dropped the brush and splattered the whole piece and then in a childish tantrum I painted over the piece with more water and left it to the side!!   The happy surprise for me was finding it the next day - having dried out it has proved to be quite a pretty background.

The sentiment is white embossed on vellum

I used

IndigoBlu Honeycomb Background stamp
Versamark
Uniko Studio - sentiment from Pure Florals: Gerbera
Windsor and Newton Watercolours

The card is based on the sketch at STAMPlorations


Enjoy!

Patchwork Poppies ...

Sunday sunshine, after a very wet start to the weekend we have been lucky today as the sky is blue and the sun is shining!  I've managed to cut the grass and make a small start on the gardening - still a long way to go!

I found time to create one card for a number of challenges and I've been trying out some new techniques as well (not perfected enough for a card!).  Today's card has been inspired by quilting and poppies also my new love for water colour painting.  I stamped and embossed the image with white embossing powder before painting with water colours and die cutting into small pieces. 

I die cut the sentiment three times to add a bit of weight

I used the following:

Clearly Besotted - Geometric Style Die Collection and Hello Word Die
Habico - Flowers 05 stamp set
Windsor and Newton Water Colours

I'm going to enter the following challenges:

"Less is More" - Recipe week to use a Die Cut
Inkspirational - Word prompt Bloom
CASology - Flower

Enjoy!

Blue Gerbera ...

New stamps quickly become an obsession to me and the Gerbera stamp set from Uniko Studio is no different!  New techniques also have the same effect - having been a participant on the Watercolor course on onlinecardcourses.com (if finishes today) I can see it becoming my go to technique!

Today's card combines both of these obsessions!  Luckily for me this week's theme on one of my favourite challenge blogs, "Less is More", is Flowers, in addition I have used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

I embossed the gerbera with white embossing powder before painting.

I used the following:

Uniko Studio Stamp Set - Gerbera
Tim Holtz Stencil - Stripes
Versamark Ink
Stampendous Embossing Powder
Distress Inks - Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers
Windsor and Newton Water colours

I will enter it into the following challenges:

"Less is More" - Flowers

Freshly Made Sketches


STAMPlorations - Stamps and Flowers

I'm also going to put it in the Gallery on the Watercolor course to show that I have dome some homework!  I used the technique shown by Tim Holtz to create the striped card as well as colouring the stamped image with water colour paints.

Enjoy!

Watercolor* homework ...

At last I've done some homework for my watercolor course!!  Tonight I've water coloured a stamped image .... I'm quite happy with it and really enjoyed completing the image.  I'm not sure about the final composition of the card itself.  Here it is:

The image is from a Uniko Studio stamp set - Gerbera

I used Windsor and Newton water paints.

The Watercolor course is at onlinecardcourses.com - it is brilliant, I need to find more time to practise the techniques.

I will enter the card into the challenge at STAMPlorations  the theme is "Stamps and Flowers"

*I have used the American spelling as a tribute to the course designers!!

Enjoy!

Watercolour Gerbera...

After a weekend away with family it was back to work today!  Back to crafting this evening - I've managed to make two cards, one consigned to the "I'm not happy with it pile" and one that I'm going to share with you.

As I mentioned I'm doing a Watercolor course  (at onlinecardcourses.com)and should be doing homework every evening but life sometime seems to get in the way so I'm busy playing catch-up!  Tonight I've created a card stamping an image to create a watercolor finish and this is it:

I'm going to enter this card into two challenges:

"Less is More" this week the challenge is a 'One Layer Thank You' card.
STAMPlorations - the monthly challenge - Stamps and Flowers

I used the following:

Uniko Studios Stamp Set - Pure Florals: Gerbera
Clearly Besotted - Many Messages
Distress Inks - Spiced Marmalade,  Mustard Seed, Tea Dye

Before finishing I would like to thank the designers at Addicted to CAS they have awarded me CAS Perfectionist for one of my cards for their grunge challenge.  Thank you!  This is the card they liked:

Enjoy!

Day One, Watercolor course ...

As I mentioned I have joined the Watercolor course at onlinecardcourses.com. I hoping to learn lots of techniques but I'm not very good at doing homework!  Day one and two are about creating watercolour backgrounds - this is my homework based on one of the techniques which I have enjoyed attempting.

The card base is actually dark navy and not the black it looks in this photograph!

I used watercolour paints that I've had for years but never used - they are going to take a bit of mastering especially as the depth of colour changes as the paint dries.  I'm reasonably happy with the finished card but do need to practise more.

Enjoy!

Happiness ...

Tonight I am childishly excited and honoured that one of my cards has been awarded a 'Top Three Winner' on the CAS - Colours and Sketches blog.  The theme for the challenge was a colour one and you needed to use black and two shades of grey - you can see my card that they thought was a winner here.  Thank you.

It's funny really that tonight I have been working on a grunge style card and it was a grunge style card that was a winner!  I like the idea of grunge but my style is more clean and simple and I find it difficult to get my head around this apparent conflict.  This week at  Addicted to CAS the theme is Grunge whilst bearing in mind the need to produce a clean and simple card - the embodiment of my conflict!

So here is the card I will be entering into the challenge:

The sentiment has been white embossed and then the background water coloured using distress inks

The sentiment has been set on dimensional adhesive

I used the following:

Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed
Versamark
Stampendous White Embossing Powder
Stampin Up Gorgeous Grunge stamp set
Kaisercraft Clear Stamp - Way of Life

Enjoy!