Lockdown Cards - 17

A square card for a change (although it has scanned a bit wonky). I tend to make A6 cards but this die (Creative Expressions Square Tulip Frame) needed a square blank and this 12cm  silver blank I've had for ages was asking to be used up so win win.
I bought this die last year at Ally Pally which now seems like a lifetime away - I am missing the excitement of a Craft Show and the opportunity to browse stamps, dies, inks. I am enjoying revisiting  things I haven't used in a long time and there is the internet to keep up to date with new ideas but it's not quite the same.
Anyway back to this card. I diecut the flower and kept all the flower components discarding the background bits. I mounted the frame onto some blue cardstock and coloured the flower and leaves with alcohol markers. I fitted the coloured pieces back into the frame (I think I've seen Jennifer McGuire do this) so that the image is slightly raised from the background. I ran 2 square stitched dies through my Cuttlebug to form the outer frame - a bit fiddly but it worked ok. This is a bold and bright card and I didn't think it needed anything else.

Monthly Challenge - June

You would think that as I organise this monthly challenge and pick the letters and words each month that I would have some idea what I was going to do. Sadly I am not so forward thinking and so I struggled to put my ideas down onto this postcard. This is version 3 and I think I managed to achieve what I wanted which was to depict the joy my garden has brought me during the lockdown.
The letter this month is:

G for Garden

and the colour options are Green, Gold and Grey all of which I managed to use.

There is quite a mixture of different brands on this and some very old stamps. I started with a smooshed DI background of blueprint sketch, salty ocean, tumbled glass and faded jeans. Delving into the furthest reaches of my craft cupboard I found this long forgotten Sizzix original (the red chunky one) picket fence die. I keep the thick Sizzix dies (apart from the TH ones) in shoe boxes so I don't access them often. I added some shading in grey along the right side because I was originally going to put the diecut on the right of the postcard. The leafy stamp is an old one from a company called Duo Designs and features the image you see here with a sort of trailing flower intertwined with it. I decided to separate the two images as I feel I will use them more like that. The hanging branch is from a Katzelkraft set. I stamped it in Versafine spanish moss and used a gold pen on the buds/berries whatever they are. The sentiment is by Hero Arts stamped in Versafine smokey grey. The flowers are  a Memory Box die called Springtime Border which I cut twice and watercoloured with water-based marker pens and also sponged gathered twigs DI for the base. I cut one border in half and stuck them together at the base and snipped off flowers from the second to wind round the picket fence. I left one piece hanging over the edge as I wanted to show the exuberance and joy of the flowers bursting out of their boundaries. I added a couple of tiny punched butterflies and a couple of birds cut from an Impression Obsession birch tree die because whilst I have had no human visitors recently, flying garden visitors have been most welcome.

Lockdown Cards - 16

Yes I'm still in lockdown so the lockdown cards will continue. Things are definitely not 'back to normal' (will they ever be?) and I feel no great urge to rush out and go shopping for anything. That's not to say that I haven't done any online shopping LOL but nothing craft-related. I've been exploring bits of my craft stuff that I haven't used in a long time and at the moment I'm quite happy to do that. Since March all I've bought are some C6 envelopes, some C6 cello bags, replacement plates for my Cuttlebug, a pack of new blending foam pads and a Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolour set of 12. 

This card was inspired by a Gina K video on You Tube where she was showing her latest drop of stamps. I liked the idea so I decided to create my own version.

In the tute she used some special tacky masking paper but I just cut a circle mask with a framelit die and held it in place while I blended fossilized amber, mowed lawn, barn door and salty ocean DIs in the gap. I then used my stamp positioner to stamp the flowers in Versafine onyx black. I have no idea who made this stamp but I have it in a smaller version as well (I think I have a similar Katzelkraft one as well). I like the way it pokes out of the circle. The sentiment is from an old CDees set called Celebration Messages.

Lockdown Cards - 15

This is a repeat of a card I made many years ago - I love the simplicity of it. The sentiment is from an old set (maybe Personal Impressions?) and the flower, stamped in Brilliance pearlescent lavender, is by Crafty Individuals. I matted it on purple card and mounted it onto a white card blank.

Lockdown Cards - 14

This is just a 'cut & stick' card using scraps of paper and card and a Sizzix set of dies. I inked over the plants with some Impress spring green to get a better shade of green. The sentiment is a magazine freebie. I have a clever set of Fiskars scissors called corner edgers that rounds the edges one way and cuts into them the other.

Lockdown Cards - 13

Having typed the title above I'm wondering how long I can continue with the lockdown theme. Next Monday in England all non-essential shops will be allowed to open provided they can adhere to the safety and social distancing rules. Am I going to rush out and shop like crazy? No I don't think so. I would like to give my custom to local businesses but as far as the virus is concerned I don't feel anything has changed - there is no way of spotting who has the virus until it's too late and there is no vaccine as yet. Do I continue making 'Lockdown Cards' until I go back to volunteering or do I change to just making 'Cards'? One thing's for sure - I have already made more cards and posted more on this blog  than the previous 2 years. I haven't decided yet if things will change but until then here's something a little more cheerful:

I love this pair of Indian runner ducks from Crafty Individuals - they always make me smile. I stamped them, coloured in their feet and beaks and cut them out in order to put them on this landscape background which is a set of dies by Sizzix. The sentiment is part of the same Crafty Individuals stamp set.
Whilst the set was out I also made this:

The background paper is from the  My Mind's Eye Chalk Studio range cut with a Sizzix Tim Holtz ornamental die.

Lockdown Cards - 12

It took a while to decide what to do with the alcohol ink pieces I made in the previous post. I found it tricky trying to enhance rather than conceal the beauty of the colours and the patterns. Many diecuts were rejected and then I thought I would just let the background shine with a simple sentiment. I matted the piece with some dark blue card to frame it and mounted it on a white card blank.

This piece did look better with a bigger central sentiment - this one is an old Hero Arts set of 4 called 'A Great Big'. I put it on a gold card blank which brings out the gold mixative in it.

I enjoyed making these so I made a couple more. The first is citrus, cranberry, terracotta and sunshine yellow, matted on gold with a simple sentiment and one of the many butterflies I've folded.

Next is cloudy blue, watermelon, oregano and eggplant.

I had a lot of fun playing with alcohol inks again and I much prefer the effect of this method of puffing air on them rather than dabbing with a felt pad.