More Bokeh!

Hello again! Hope your weekend is treating you well? I got a bit carried away with bokeh and now I can't stop! I realised I had a birthday card for a friend to make, and so I got my little girl's paints out again and went with a green theme this time.

It's the same technique as in my previous post, but with a few additions. The dragon fly is the Simply Cards and Papercraft free gift from issue 134, embossed using my new bright white Wow! Embossing powder. It's so fine compared to my other powders and gives a lovely result. The sentiment is stamped in Lily Pad Ranger dye ink and is from Clearly Besotted's Sweet Little Sentiments set. I added a few of my new Lucy Abrams' sequin mixes. This one is Phosphorescence and the colours just went beautifully.

Hope you like it, I think I'll enter this one too into House of Cards Challenge!

Thanks for reading, enjoy what remains of the weekend :)

House of Cards Challenge - Bokeh Effect

Hello there! The House of Cards May challenge has started and since I had a lot of fun with the last one, I fancied giving Bokeh effect a go. This is totally new to me, so I had a read of Mynn's instructions and also found a great video from Dawn at Wplus 9, which also taught me how to make my own circles stencil using dies (acetate is very hard to die cut though!). The only thing I didn't have was a dauber, but I improvised with a piece of sponge from the top of a kitchen scrubber - not brilliant, but not bad either.

Here's the result:

I tried a panel of watercolour paper with my Inktense pencils, but didn't like the results. I then tried watercolour paints belonging to my four year old which gave a much better finish. I've now received some Spectrum Aquas, courtesy of taking out a subscription to Simply Cards and Papercraft, so I will try those next :)

I used Ranger pigment ink in Glacier White with the stencil once the panel had completely dried. To finish it, I wanted a simple sentiment that would stand on its own without any embellishment, so I found this from the Clearly Besotted Book Worm collection. In view of the election yesterday, it's something that any government needs to do. I then die cut out a panel using my Memory Box stitched rectangles and adhered it to a Kraft card blank. Simple.

I really love this technique and the results and am planning on trying it out again - how many entries am I allowed??

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!

Musical notes

Morning! It's another lovely day here in W Yorkshire, baby is asleep and I've the cards I made yesterday to share. I have two occasions to make cards for. One is for our singing group leader who set up the group a year ago, and has done loads of work with us, and the second a birthday card for my future brother in law. Both were made pretty much in the same way and after some inspiration from Nichol Magouirk (the frame) and Pops (white on white).

Here they are:

After watching Nichol's video, I took my stitched edge rectangle dies and cut the frame using two of the dies from white Bazzill textured card stock. I then cut the inside panel from white card and stamped the musical notes (they are Twinchies from Inkylicious, but I can't find them on their website - I got them at a show) in various colours with Memento and Ranger Dye Inks, adding a little glossy accents to them. I then put some musical washi tape around the outside of the card base, added foam tape to the frame and stuck it on, adding the middle with double sided. I reckon it would have been easier the other way around, but I only thought of that later!

The words are both Clearly Besotted, happy birthday and thanks. I die cut them with double sided tape attached, a great tip for making it easier to stick down once you've cut them. I added a little green gem to the dot for the 'i', because I always lose it when I peel it out, it is so tiny!

Thank you for reading, hope you have a great weekend :)

April Showers

They keep talking about a heat wave, but it's avoiding West Yorkshire at the moment, so with the grey weather in mind I decided to try the challenge at Addicted to CAS - Code word Showers.

The card top is a piece of water colour card die cut from the Memory Box stitched rectangles with the images stamped in Ranger Archival Ink. I used the bicycle from Clearly Besotted's Good Times set (the first thing I purchased from them and it's still my favourite!) and the umbrella from the Mama Elephant Up and Away set. I then added some colour using my Prismallo Aquarelles, and some rain dashes (ME Up and Away) in Memento London Fog. The sentiment (also ME Up and Away) is in Versa Magic Night Sky rather than my usual tuxedo black for a change!

Been a long week without much crafting, and it's funny how frustrated you can get without a bit of 'me' time, so I was grateful for baby's long nap this morning.

Thanks for reading! It's nearly the weekend again and hopefully it will be a bit brighter up north :)

PS Apologies for the not so great picture. I need to work out a better set up in my tiny craft space and also get a decent camera!

Butterflies and colours challenge 2

This is the other card. I enjoyed doing it because it's bright and reminds me a bit of minimalist block paintings a la Mark Rothko and others.

As with the previous card, it's a card blank, again using the butterflies from my free Clearly Besotted stamp set from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133. The background is from the Papermania capsule collection, background in yellow with red and blue blocks die cut from the Memory Box Stitched Rectangles. The butterflies are stamped again in Memento Dandelion, Bahama Blue and Lady Bug onto white card stock adhered to the card with foam pads.

Thanks for reading again - enjoy the weekend!

Butterflies and colours challenge

In a bit of a blog hop at the start of the week, I discovered House of Cards Challenge. I loved the colours of this month's challenge, so I thought I'd give it a go. I ended up doing two cards, the first of which I thought I'd enter. Challenges are new to me, but I'm constantly amazed at how different crafters interpret the brief. Such variety.

I adore the colours. It said to me: Simple. Primaries. Bright. 

It is simply a white card blank (14.75x10.5cm) stamped up with butterflies from my free Clearly Besotted set from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 133. I stamped them using Memento dye inks - Dandelion, Bahama Blue, Lady Bug. I also die cut a small piece of yellow cardstock from my Papermania Capsule collection with my new Memory Box Stitched Rectangle dies. I did a bit of overlap stamping, so the butterflies are half on the yellow and half on the white. The panel was then attached with foam pads. The butterfly in the bottom right hand corner is stamped in all three colours - a bit of selective colouring from each pad, which is not that easy.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!