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.

Playing with Alcohol (Inks)

I've seen Yupo paper mentioned in relation to alcohol inks for a while but I've never actually seen or felt any so I'm not sure what it's like but it seems to create beautiful effects with alcohol inks which to my mind look more vibrant than the old coated card I'm used to. Alcohol inks seem to have had a bit of a reboot after falling out of favour and I've been meaning to use my neglected collection again.
I remembered that whilst clearing out office things a couple of years ago I had kept some thin
 plastic-y file dividers as I thought they might be useful. I managed to find them and decided to give them a try with the inks. Wow it was fun! There seems more time to move the inks around on this surface and with the aid of an old pen blitzer (I think it belonged to my sons) I was able to puff air at the pools of ink and blender with fab results. One word of warning - please do this in a well-ventilated room - I found the fumes made me quite light-headed.
The one on the left is my favourite made with shell pink, stonewash, stream, denim and gold mixative. On the right is sailboat blue, red pepper, sunshine yellow, lettuce and gold mixative. You can just make out the punched holes from the file divider on it.
I will make these into cards at some point but for now I'm just enjoying the colours and patterns.

Lockdown Cards - 11

The warmer weather has put me in the mood for hotter colours and so I have blended picked raspberry, ripe persimmon and mustard seed DIs on this background. The image and sentiment are from the same set  - Dill by Woodware - both stamped with Versafine onyx black. I used a white pen to highlight some of the text.

Lockdown Cards - 10

A new month and we're still in lockdown in the UK although things look promising for a further loosening of restrictions this month (fingers crossed).
An old Crafty Individuals stamp (CI 389) coloured with Coloursoft pencils and solvent, matted and mounted onto an embossed card blank. I try and make more than one of each of these cards whilst all the stuff is out so I did another in an orange colourway.