Moonlit Dreams

This card is made with some very old stamps that I haven't used in a while and I had forgotten how much I liked the main image. It is by a now defunct American company called Innovative Stamp Creations and I remember I had first seen it on someone's blog and wanted to get my hands on it. 

This card uses masking for the moon (a punched circle) and the main image which was the first thing I stamped with Versafine onyx black. I used mowed lawn and blueprint sketch DIs for the background and then removed the masks. The leaves are by a UK company called Joroco and are even older than the main image. The sentiment is a small stamp I found in my 'words' drawer. I added a few coloured pencil highlights to the face.

Another Heart Pocket Card

 This pocket card uses scraps from the Pile of Shame (which is looking a little smaller). I can't remember what the terracotta base card was used for but a sizeable piece was on the Pile. I used a mosaic embossing folder and some leftover scraps from the Slanted Tri-fold Card here. I added another of the 'stamps' (you'll see a lot of those I have a pile of them) and some gems. The edges were shaded with tea dye DI and chalk.

Floral Pocket Card

 I watched a Jennifer McGuire tutorial on You Tube in which she revisited embossing folders - specifically the newer 3D folders. I have a couple so decided to try out the technique she demonstrated. I used a Crafter's Companion 3D folder called Country Garden on some patterned paper left over from the card I showed in my previous post. The circular sentiment is also a left over from that project from the same Kaisercraft stamp set. The idea is you ink one side of the embossing folder (depending on if you want the background or the raised pattern) and run the folder through your machine as normal. Because the 3D folders are deeply moulded you can ink the folder directly with the ink pad - in this case I used Impress peony purple. After embossing I used Impress cupid pink on a piece of cut and dry felt and rubbed it gently over the raised areas to highlight them. The sentiment was raised on foam pads.

A Quick and Easy Smile

 

Sometimes you just need a quick card to send to someone 'just because...'. This came together in record time.

I die cut a fancy rectangle from patterned paper (Anna Marie Designs Blissful Peach) and used a handy Kaisercraft stamp set (Shine Bright) for all the other bits using circle punches. The circles were mounted on different sized foam pads to vary the height. That's it!

Heart Pocket Card

I haven't made a pocket card for a while - these are small cards (3" x 4") cut with a Sizzix die mostly made up of scraps from the Pile of Shame on my desk. They will be going into an album you can see here.

The background was a piece of card that I had heart embossed for another project but it hadn't looked right so it had been abandoned on my desk. I was using Brushos a few days later and had spritzed too much water and needed to blot some of it up so I grabbed the card, placed it over and was quite pleased with the results. The edges of the script patterned paper (not sure where it's from) were torn and I used a scrap of red card from the pile to die cut a TH scribbly heart. I'm happy with the way it's turned out and am enjoying putting these small cards together from bits and pieces - there's no pressure to make them or to fill the album -  I just have a look through the pile when I feel like it.

Masked Circle

I made a similar card a couple of months ago that you can see here . I still had the circle template so I blended 5 DOs and then overstamped with Woodware's Autumn Agapanthus. The sentiment is a magazine freebie. It's a simple card made easier if you have a stamping platform but effective.

Monthly Challenge - September

 This month the letter is:

O for Owl

Colour options are orange, olive and ochre and I managed to use all of them for once.

My biggest problem was how to shoehorn my newest toy - the wreath builder - onto the postcard. I knew which set I wanted to use, the Sizzix Autumn Owls stamp and die set. It has the excruciating sentiment 'Owl always love you' but I decided to avoid that. I used the smaller of the 2 owl stamps and stamped it first in Archival tangelo bright (orange) then sepia and then I cut out the owls leaving a small border. The background was made with smooshed crushed olive DI and Archival butterscotch (ochre-ish). I used the butterscotch with a Memory Box falling leaves stencil and then used the TH rays stencil with tea dye DI over both halves. I added some narrow washi tape where the 2 halves met. The 'leaves' were made from a Sizzix die and an X Cut feather die set. I added an eyelet? washer? (can't remember what they're called) to the centre. 

More Wreath Building

More experiments with my new toy the wreath builder. This uses a rose layering set by Hampton Arts that I had pushed to one side because it is hard to align the layering stamps correctly. I've noticed that there are some demos on You Tube for this set so I'm going to have a look later. Anyway layering problems were irrelevant for this exercise as I was just making use of the individual shapes. I used a couple of the smaller more detail-enhancing layers of the set first in pink peony and then in magenta hue Archival ink. Finally I used one of the leaf detail stamps in Versafine spanish moss. I mounted this on some pink cardstock and a green square card blank. I used the southwestern corner punch on both layers and added some gems. I've left the card blank because I'm not sure what sentiment I will use but I think it will be a small thin sentiment laid across the centre rather than a circle as before.

 I'm happy with the look of this but would make the actual ring larger next time by positioning the stamps differently.