Contemporary Congratulations

 

It's that time of life when many of my son's friends are getting engaged and he wanted a couple of cards 'without hearts and stuff'. I had seen a card on Pinterest (or maybe someone's blog?), liked the CAS, contemporary style and had scribbled down a quick sketch on a scrap of paper. I forgot to jot down where I saw it but if I find it I will add a link.

I die cut a perforated rectangle, embossed it with an old Cuttlebug folder and added some fun foam behind it. The leaf die is from a Sizzix set - Spring Stems. I painted some Twinkling H2Os in majestic blue and mystic blue onto a scrap of watercolour paper, spritzed it with water to blend the two colours together and die cut the butterfly (I have no record of where this butterfly came from).

I wanted a sentiment in keeping with the clean style of the card and after a few attempts went for this small peel off. A few gems gave the card a subtle sparkle.

Monthly Tag Challenge - September

 The theme for this month's challenge was bees and the colour yellow. Although there are many bee-themed stamps available I don't have any and I was thinking of  looking online for an image when I discovered I had some paper napkins with bees on. 

The background was easy enough with my honeycomb layering stencils and fossilized amber, spiced marmalade and crackling campfire DOs. I found a quote that gave me the chance to use some TH wildflower dies which I coloured with alcohol markers.

I fussy cut a bee and added it with the computer generated quote. Yes it's quite busy but then so is a bee!

CraftWorld Masterboard Challenge

 I've been on the CraftWorld forum for a few years but haven't participated in any challenges but then last week I saw a challenge that sounded right up my street. This is going to be a long post!

The idea is to create an 8x8 masterboard and then cut it as follows:

6x4 postcard

4x4 coaster

2.5x3.5 ATC

2x2 twinchies (2)

1x1 inchies (2 but I managed to cut 4)

It's been years since I last made a masterboard and as I'd only recently unearthed my Oriental box of ephemera I decided to go with an Oriental theme.

I find masterboards great for using up those sheets of patterned paper that you get in a set but don't really care for. This sheet was from an old Papermania set called Simply Elegant.

I started by sticking some torn strips of  Oriental newsprint (no idea if it was Chinese/Japanese/Korean). Then randomly applied some texture paste coloured with seedless preserves DI through a stencil. A small Hero Arts fan and a tiny oriental motif were stamped all over and I finished with some splatters of playful peony Twinkling H2O. When dry I cut out the various base elements and brushed the edges with faded jeans DI.

It's been such a long time since I made an inchie but I had managed to cut 4 (2 more than required) so I decided to make them all. I had a look at the 4 bases and tried to work around the bits of background on them.

The first was just folded bits of origami and washi paper with a gem. Next I used some Mizuhiki cord to make a tiny knot and added some gems.Third was a dragonfly punched out of washi paper. Lastly I stamped a Simple Expressions text stamp in Impress cherry pink and added a washi paper punched cherry blossom embellished with some Nuvo Drops.

I rounded the corners of both twinchies. The first was overstamped with an Oriental background stamp in Memento sweet plum and a postmark in Memento love letter. I made a small origami flapping bird from patterned paper, stuck it on a circle of vellum and added some Nuvo Drops. I had an image of a Japanese lady which I cut out, stuck on and outlined with a fine grey pen.The flowers are cut out from some patterned fabric tape and embellished with gems.

The ATC uses the Simple Expressions stamp that I used in my previous post with an origami paper obi. The sentiment is a stamp I had made many years ago.

The coaster took a while to come together. I wanted to use this beautiful old wood mounted stamp by Stampington called Cinnabar. Unfortunately the stencilled texture on the background was exactly in the centre of the 4x4 coaster. I decided to stamp the image so that I got the hair ornaments on the coaster and then to cut out the main part of the image separately to add on top. The image looked too stark against the background and I was thinking about what to do when I spotted a mask I had made for the image for another project. If the mask is reusable I tend to keep it with the stamp - in this case it was actually on top of it. I must have used it to overstamp a fabric texture and traces of it were still on it. It gave me the effect I was looking for and I found some coordinating green and gold washi paper to go with it. The text is a Paper Artsy stamp and I added a floral sticker, a Japanese symbol sticker and a small gem in her hair.

Looking at the postcard I feel I should have added some gesso to it to knock back the background  before adding the stamping but it's done now. I added a Chinese calligraphy stamp in Memento love letter and stamped the brush stroke bird. The text is by Paper Artsy and some washi type was used on the edges.

I really enjoyed this challenge, time-consuming as it was. 

Monthly Tag Challenge - August

 This month's theme is Oriental. This tag is my second attempt. The first was a collage of various rail tickets, menus etc from a trip to Japan in 2005 but it didn't look right so I started again. The background was blended fossilized amber DO with candied apple DO blended over a trellis stencil. I randomly stamped some small flowers over the background and added a few dots of peel-off waste. I used Spellbinders oval and scalloped oval dies on some paper bought from the Japanese equivalent of Poundland called 100 Yen Shop.

I made the knot with some Mizuhiki cord following online instructions. The oriental text is a sticker and the title and the main image are by Simple Expressions. I gave the lady a colourful obi and added some variegated fibres.

All About the Die Cuts

When you need a card in a hurry die cuts can be invaluable.

 

I started with a Pretty Quick die called straight panel which cuts a complete A6 panel. I cut the panel in white card and then blended fossilised amber DO over it. It would have been even faster if I had cut the panel from coloured card. This was mounted on a white card blank. I die cut the sentiment and the butterfly from white card and added them. Job done!

Monthly Tag Challenge - July

This month's tag had the fun theme of fashion with a requirement for some embossing. I kept thinking of the David Bowie song ('Fashion, turn to the left, fashion, turn to the right') and once the earworm embedded itself  only another song could replace it so I turned to Madonna ('Vogue, strike a pose'). This Dina Wakley stamp from her essential silhouettes collection fitted the bill.

I stamped it several times with my stamping platform and Versafine onyx black to get a crisp image, clear heat embossed it and then masked it. The background is a TH stencil in spiced marmalade, crackling campfire and candied apple DOs. It looked a little plain after removing the mask so I added some splatters of red acrylic paint, die cut some stars of various sizes from metallic card and added a heat embossed sentiment.

Monthly Tag Challenge - June

 Playing catch-up with the monthly tag challenge. June's theme was Celebrations with a requirement for some red, white and blue. 

The dies were mainly by Crafters Companion from various sets. I die cut the word and inlaid it into the tag. The confetti and balloon strings were also by Crafters Companion. The cake and stand are a very old Cuttlebug die (coloured yellow as a nod to the lemon jubilee pudding).