English Country Side

Following on from the success of the Rapunzel card, I had to try the stepper template again and I also wanted to utilise the landscape dies as more of a focal point so I folded another card from blue this time and cut a pile of rolling hills:

Its unfortunate that the direct sunlight in this pic is showing up all the flaws where I have removed the odd tree from the sweeping hill – its not so obvious in real life, I promise!
It waited as just the green hills for about 24 hours while I mulled over how to finish the scene but a balloon from Up, Up & Away (SU) seemed appropriate and I have had this lil moo cow punch for ages and don’t think I’ve ever used them on a card! I added a sentiment and twine in orange to add a spot of colour.
Again, here is a side shot showing the steps more clearly:

Fairytale Steps

It all started with this gorgeous card I spotted on Pinterest (right) I’ve always been more of a papercrafter than anything else and I’m always up for trying out a bit of paper engineering so I was more than game to have another go at a side stepper card.

Lorraine at Cards & Co has a really good tutorial on her blog and she also tells you that these lovely digi stamps come from Pink Cat Studio (Lily & Billy) and I was immensely grateful that as part of the download you get a coloured version – my headache and unimpressive colouring skills were both very pleased!
I was also very pleased to see that she had used the Memory Box landscape dies in her background too - I added a little SU Pear Pizazz ink to the edge of the other layers to help them stand out from the background layer – and I made my bushes with by cutting up a die cut from my new Memory Box Grand Oak die and adding tiny pink flowers (actually punched snowflakes double layered) with a yellow gem attempting to echo the flowers on Rapunzel’s tower.
Here is a side view showing the steps more clearly, I hope you like!

Picking Cherries

So I finally caved and joined an online card class – late as ever (is it still “late” when its always? Isn't it just Jody time by now?) cos I joined two days after it started but so far so good!

The class is called His & Hers and the basic concept is to inspire feminine and masculine versions of cards with a common link.



Neither of these cards bear much resemblance to any of the designs explored in the videos I have watched so far but I have cherry picked a number of elements that came together to form these beauties.

One thing discussed so far is how the design can become his or hers just by changing the colour scheme. I found these two papers in my leftovers and they coordinated perfectly with another tidbit I picked up – hearts for girls and stars for boys. This is by no means a hard and fast rule but again its a simple element to change about a design that can completely alter the feel.

Also earlier in the day I had seen this card by Debby Hughes, utilising a SSS die that is very popular and an “on the edge” technique that has enticed me for quite a while. I don’t own that die so Robocop got a dusting off and cut my choice of word, the specs, the star & the heart out.

The white panel is foam mounted and the specs and element are simply glued down. The BIRTHDAY is from The Crafts Meow Typically Teen stamp set – I chopped the HAPPY off and stamped it in SU Real Red & Pacific Point then daubed the mini elements with the same ink.

If any fellow students are reading this and are wondering; I made a conscious decision to keep the same font, and the same shaped frames – although I did toy with Dame Edna style frames for a little while! – and to use black on the frames. I guess I wanted to change the minimum amount of elements to prove (or disprove) the theory – do you think I did?

March Days

 

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade”

 

I have always found Charles Dickens to be a dreary author and I hated studying Great Expectations at school but this quote is an example of hitting the nail on the head (and probably why every one else thinks he’s great!).

 

 It didn't really require much embellishment as the artist had already laid the words out well, but I’m enjoying this paint splodging thing so I decided to flick a bit of Dylusions around. I also added a die cut flower which I touched up with a bit of the left over ink and a water brush, pretty & simple!

Feather light

This is one of those “get off with ya” moments…

I read – just over a year ago, it seems – about the wonderful Betsy Veldman stamping this card with an actual feather:

Are you thinking what I thought? No way, right? How could you possibly get such a crisp image without a stamp? But the idea has been floating around my head ever since and while in the garden a couple of weeks ago – yes! I do know where it is! – I found a feather on the floor and it brought it all to mind again.

Now, I knew I would never be able to get enough pressure with just my fair hands but I thought about coating it with ink and running it through the Big Shot and lo:



Heavens-to-Betsy! I made a kitchen towel/feather/ink/paper combination and this is actually cut from the kitchen towel; somehow I got a better impression on this than the paper, but I now have four of these beauties to work with – I just cant believe it worked!

Man Of Iron

Today I created a subfolder of images called ‘Brands’ as I get so many requests for TV or Film themed cards! I have no problem browsing Pinterest for images tho, especially with the recent popularity of Marvel etc films, there are some really talented artists out there; its just a shame I can’t give them the credit they deserve!
This started out as a sketch but I got as far as sticking the backing paper down and decided I didn't like it so I rotated the design 90 degrees and settled on the old faithful “image-on-a-slant”.. Hey, it works for me!

Colour Clouds

One of my more recent purchases is the two ‘skyline’ dies from Memory Box – and apparently I wasn’t exactly quiet about liking them even before I owned a manual die cutter…*shucks!* – so when I spotted this beauty I thought I’d have a go myself:

This is from one of A Blog Named Hero’s celebration posts and is by a crafter called Christine Drogt – who I now realise I know the work of but had not registered her name, sorry Christine! I recommend you go and have a look at her blog cos this girl has style!
Anyway, I wanted to recreate her card so I used Stampin’ Up’s embossing folder “Cloudy Day” and embossed a panel measured to fit my card front (twice cos of the size of the folder). Then I cut the panel into strips and got out the old trusty daubers, along with Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizazz & Tempting Turquoise SU inks. I think you can work the rest of the construction process out for yourselves:

Awful photo, I’m losing the light, but I’m pleased with the card itself.. just gotta stop singing the Rainbow theme tune now…