Lockdown Cards - 9

A quick card made with a mopped-up background of mowed lawn and salty ocean DIs. The Memory Box die (Chloe Stem) was cut from black and white card. The sentiment is from a Paula Pascual set. I edged the background with a black pen and mounted it on a standard A6 card blank.

Lockdown Cards - 8

I haven't used this agapanthus stamp by Stampendous in a while and thought it was time to give it an airing. I used water based markers to colour the image and spritzed it with water before stamping. The cross-stitch rectangles were from a set from The Works.
The second generation stamping (spritz and stamp again) produced this card:

Lockdown Cards - 7

This image is by Crafty Individuals (CI471). It's not a solid image but has tiny text on it and is quite tricky to stamp cleanly. I found my stamp tool invaluable for this. The background is a mix of blue DIs (ombré again!) and the text is from a Cuttlebug die.

Lockdown Cards - 6

I'm enjoying revisiting old dies that I haven't used in a while. This lavender one is by Joy Crafts and the frame is by Nellie. The lavender was coloured with DOs in peeled paint and wilted violet and then I used a splatter stamp to add a bit of texture to the flower heads. Not much else to say about this one but here's a variation on a Spellbinders frame with some embossing in the background:

Lockdown Cards - 5

One of the advantages of this lockdown is that I seem to have got my mojo back. I had been finding it very difficult to get into card-making again and lacked a sense of purpose - so many of the challenges I used to take part in have disappeared and I can't summon up any enthusiasm to find new ones. I feel a desire to keep busy and focussed at this time and hope that these lockdown cards will help raise some funds for my local Hospice whenever they can be sold.
My next card however is not for sale - I have made a few for staff to give to patients/families who are unable to be together due to the current restrictions. In some cases communication has been via Facetime on phones and tablets but sometimes patients find it hard to speak for physical or emotional reasons. I'm hoping these cards can be a way of expressing feelings.
The last stamp I bought before the lockdown was a Gemini stamp and die set from The Works called 'hugs'. It's a nice bold die with a couple of sentiment stamps that cuts into the card rather than cutting out the complete shape. I used it to cut into some white card blanks and then used a circle die to partially cut a semi-circle (thanks for the tip Jennifer McGuire). I then cut out the 'hugs' die from some patterned papers (My Mind's Eye Pretty Please Spring Papers which were a free gift in a magazine) and stuck it on top of the relevant part of the blank. The 'sending' part was stamped and heat
embossed.

A batch of these cards have been sealed and are ready to be posted in a few days in line with safety requirements along with a few extra hug tags I made.

Lockdown Cards - 4

This die was a freebie from a magazine I bought some time ago and I had never used it. As it's quite intricate I decided it didn't need anything other than a coloured background to show off the detail. I'm having a bit of an ombré moment so I blended squeezed lemonade, spiced marmalade and festive berries DIs. I would have stamped a sentiment directly onto the card but had a bit of an accident and needed to conceal a splodge. Some tiny gems finished off the card.
I was very pleased with the result (apart from the splodge) so made another in blues. The marks you see on it are from my scanner.

 

Lockdown Cards - 3

I had an urge to play with watercolours and all I had was a little children's paint set but I spent a happy evening playing around. This background was a result. I used an old Cuttlebug script embossing folder and the Memory Box poppy die with a Paula Pascual sentiment. I know I could have used my Distress Inks or even my water based markers but I wanted to feel like I was 'painting' LOL.

Monthly Challenge - May

This month's letter is
                                            D for Dance
with colour options of denim and dandelion neither of which I used on this postcard. I had planned to use a very different image but then I remembered this stamp that I don't think I've ever used.
The background was a light base of peeled paint DO followed by twisted citron DO over a stencil. Instead of using my blending foam pads I decided to use my ink dusters which has given a much softer effect. I stamped the image (Papermania Urban Stamps) twice - once on the postcard itself and once on a scrap piece of card. The spare image was coloured with Coloursoft pencils and solvent and then cut out and stuck over the first image (it saved having to fiddle with trying to cut out the feathers on the headdress). I added some art deco type peel-off corners and lines. The text is from an old Non Sequitur set and I added some Wink of Stella on the gown for a little shimmer.

Hearts for the Hospice

A friend posted some cute knitted hearts on a forum I visit and I really liked them so when a request came for knitted or crochet'd hearts from my local hospice I had to look into it further. I don't know how to crochet and I'm not the world's fastest knitter but I managed to find some wool and needles in my collection (why did I have so much pink acrylic????). There are many free patterns on the internet but I chose this pattern by Amanda Berry from the Ravelry website.
The idea is to knit a matching pair one of which is given to a patient and the other sent to their family who are unable to visit at this time. There is a special process to send them to the Hospice - they can't just be put in an envelope and posted so I shall be following this and hope they will be received by the end of this week.

Lockdown Cards - 2

This background started with Gelatos. I hadn't used them in such a long time but a chance encounter with a video on You Tube gave me a nudge to dig them out and have a play. I scribbled yellow, orange and red in a rectangle and then went over the colours with a wet brush to blend. I added some script with a Crafty Individuals stamp
(CI 017), a small star shape from a Paula Pascual set and then a couple of Tim Holtz stencils (dot fade and rings). The die is Frangia Bouquet by Memory Box. The sentiment (by Paula Pascual) is raised on foam pads and I added a small bow.