Another day of great crafting with three friends yesterday - Loll (Stamping with Loll), Christine (It's a Card Day's Night), Nancy (scandinancy creates), and I are spending five days together having our own mini card-making retreat. Yesterday Trina Pham (My Crafting Closet) joined us for a few hours. It was so great to meet another Vancouver area stamper!
Showing posts with label poppies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poppies. Show all posts
Friday, 12 May 2017
Tuesday, 2 May 2017
Blue Poppies
Poppies of all sorts are one of my favourite flowers, and blue is my favourite colour, so I love the blue Himalayan poppy. The Penny Black image I've used here is not a very accurate depiction of the Himalayan poppy, but I was thinking of it when I chose the image so went with shades of blue.
I framed it with a stitched die and popped it up on fun foam.
Please come over to CAS Watercolour and check out the other cards by our wonderful Design Team and our Guest Designer, Mac Mable (Sweetest of Peas blog). And then link up your clean and simple card featuring flowers by May 24th! Can't wait to see what everyone creates!
Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Smooshed Acrylics with a Prim Poppy
Here's a card made with another one of my background pieces I made at Loll's the other day when we smooshed up all the leftover acrylic paint.
I made it for the SCS Color Challenge (Marina Mist, Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi). I don't have SU colours but got something very close with the blue, green, and yellow acrylic paints, spritzed with water and smooshed onto coated cs.
I added a die cut flower (cut twice and stuck together for more dimension) and a blue, a green, and a yellow sequin. It's popped up on fun foam. The sentiment is stamped with a Kaleidacolor ink pad.
Since it's smooshed, has some stamping, and one other thing of my choice (the poppy die cut), I'm linking it up at CAS Mix Up's smooshing challenge.
You have just two more days to enter - it closes on March 24th.
I made it for the SCS Color Challenge (Marina Mist, Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi). I don't have SU colours but got something very close with the blue, green, and yellow acrylic paints, spritzed with water and smooshed onto coated cs.
I added a die cut flower (cut twice and stuck together for more dimension) and a blue, a green, and a yellow sequin. It's popped up on fun foam. The sentiment is stamped with a Kaleidacolor ink pad.
Since it's smooshed, has some stamping, and one other thing of my choice (the poppy die cut), I'm linking it up at CAS Mix Up's smooshing challenge.
You have just two more days to enter - it closes on March 24th.
Saturday, 21 January 2017
NBUS Flowers
Darnell over at djkardkreations hosts an occasional NBUS (never before used stuff) challenge. I love it as it gets me to dig out some of the things I've bought and finally put them to use. This time, Darnell is offering optional themes. The theme for the first week is "use coloured pencils on kraft". I haven't done that technique in ages so a good chance to pull out the pencils.
I went on a bit of a Penny Black spending spree about a year ago and ended up with some of their lovely floral stamps so pulled those out for their first ever inking.
I couldn't decide whether I prefered the look of white ink or black ink for stamping the image so did one in each. First up, a white heat embossed image:
I couldn't decide where to put a sentiment so decided to just put one on the inside. I bordered with dark red cs and used a white cardbase.
The second one is stamped in black ink with no heat embossing:
I used the same colour palette for each as I wanted a fair comparison of which ink I preferred for the stamping.
For this one, I bordered with black cs, and used a cream linen cs for the sentiment and card base. I really like the look of the hemp twine for attached the sentiment tag - it seems to go well with kraft cs.
Now over to you - which do you prefer in terms of whether to stamp the image in white or in black?
Thanks!
I went on a bit of a Penny Black spending spree about a year ago and ended up with some of their lovely floral stamps so pulled those out for their first ever inking.
I couldn't decide whether I prefered the look of white ink or black ink for stamping the image so did one in each. First up, a white heat embossed image:
The second one is stamped in black ink with no heat embossing:
I used the same colour palette for each as I wanted a fair comparison of which ink I preferred for the stamping.
For this one, I bordered with black cs, and used a cream linen cs for the sentiment and card base. I really like the look of the hemp twine for attached the sentiment tag - it seems to go well with kraft cs.
Now over to you - which do you prefer in terms of whether to stamp the image in white or in black?
Thanks!
Monday, 1 August 2016
CAS Mix Up - August Challenge
I'm really enjoying being on the Design Team for Loll's and Bonnie's CAS Mix Up challenge. The August challenge is "sprays":
See the side bar on the CAS Mix Up blog for a list of "your choice" options.
I chose sponging, stenciling, and die cutting as my options. I had a yearning to use red and royal blue together on a card and came up with this:
A blue twine bow finished it off.
You have until August 24th to show us how you combine sprays with stamps and at least one other element. Link them up here. Please remember cards must be Clean and Simple.
See the side bar on the CAS Mix Up blog for a list of "your choice" options.
I chose sponging, stenciling, and die cutting as my options. I had a yearning to use red and royal blue together on a card and came up with this:
I used mixed media cs for my focal image panel. I partially sprayed over a Texture Mesh stencil with Memento Paris Dusk spray. I didn't want the whole stencil to be heavily sprayed as I wanted to leave white space to keep my card CAS. I then stamped and heat embossed my sentiment on it and die cut with a stitched rectangle.
I die cut my flowers and leaf spray out of white cs, and then sponged them with various red and green Distress inks. I arranged them on the stenciled panel, gluing down the stems and popping up the leaves and flowers with foam tape. The whole panel is raised off the cardbase on a piece of fun foam.
A blue twine bow finished it off.
You have until August 24th to show us how you combine sprays with stamps and at least one other element. Link them up here. Please remember cards must be Clean and Simple.
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Flowers for Challenges
I love cards with flowers on them so was happy to see another flower-themed challenge at SCS - this time the CAS challenge "May Flowers". And the new Addicted to CAS challenge is "Petals". I made this card for them:
I have lovely orange and yellow poppies (both Welsh poppies and
California poppies) and some of the larger oriental poppies blooming in
my garden right now, so I'm inspired to use poppies on my cards!
Stamped, heat embossed, and watercoloured, die cut with a stitched square to add interest, and bordered with black - it feels like a real back to basics card with no embellishments, no dp, nothing fancy!
And the SCS Technique Lovers' Challenge is "Stencil Monoprint" so I used a flower stencil for it:
The Stencil Monoprint technique really takes some practice! I finally got one I'm happy with.
I used two colours of Distress inks and a flower stencil as I'm also doing it for the "May Flowers" CAS challenge.
I added a die cut sentiment (cut twice and glued together to give more body to it) and several sequins. The focal panel is popped up on a piece of fun foam.
Stamped, heat embossed, and watercoloured, die cut with a stitched square to add interest, and bordered with black - it feels like a real back to basics card with no embellishments, no dp, nothing fancy!
And the SCS Technique Lovers' Challenge is "Stencil Monoprint" so I used a flower stencil for it:
The Stencil Monoprint technique really takes some practice! I finally got one I'm happy with.
I used two colours of Distress inks and a flower stencil as I'm also doing it for the "May Flowers" CAS challenge.
I added a die cut sentiment (cut twice and glued together to give more body to it) and several sequins. The focal panel is popped up on a piece of fun foam.
| Stamps: Sparkle n Sprinkle poppies, unknown sentiment |
| Paper: watercolour paper, cream and black cs |
| Paper Size: 4.25" square |
| Ink: Versafine Onyx Black |
| Accessories: Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, clear embossing powder, Lil Inkers stictched square die |
Monday, 8 February 2016
Naked Stamping
Last week's Splitcoastampers Technique Lovers' Challenge was called "Naked Stamping". The idea was to create a background with whatever medium we liked and then use line stamps over top to let the background medium show through (rather than colouring the image).
I chose to use my Brushos. My first few attempts were disasters - my colours came out too strong or too muddy. I'd been using mixed media and watercolour papers. Then I went back to the coated cs I used when I first got my Brushos and had much better luck. I ended up creating three cards, the first of which I'm really pleased with:
My plan was to end up with distinct patches of scarlet, yellow, and orange to kind of fit the stamp but the colours ran together a bit more than intended. I was okay with the peachy colour they made in the centre. I watered the Scarlet Brusho down quite a bit to get it pale enough. When dry, I stamped the poppies.
Poppy card:
I chose to use my Brushos. My first few attempts were disasters - my colours came out too strong or too muddy. I'd been using mixed media and watercolour papers. Then I went back to the coated cs I used when I first got my Brushos and had much better luck. I ended up creating three cards, the first of which I'm really pleased with:
My plan was to end up with distinct patches of scarlet, yellow, and orange to kind of fit the stamp but the colours ran together a bit more than intended. I was okay with the peachy colour they made in the centre. I watered the Scarlet Brusho down quite a bit to get it pale enough. When dry, I stamped the poppies.
Poppy card:
| Stamps: Penny Black poppies, A Muse sentiment | |
| Paper: ivory cs, coated cs | |
| Paper Size: 5.25" square | |
| Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black | |
| Accessories: black pearls, Lil Inkers stitched circle die, and Brushos (Scarlet, Orange, Yellow) |
Sunday, 25 October 2015
Happy Little Stampers Blog Hop
Welcome to my blog!
Happy Little Stampers are celebrating the second release of their stamps with a blog hop!
Comment on the HLS blog, and then continue on to each Designer. You must comment on all the blogs in the hop to be eligible for prizes.
I love my new Happy Little Stampers stamp set "Thinking of You" so used it for this card:
It's got a great small text stamp that I really like for doing mixed media, layered images over inky backgrounds, etc. I made a Wrinkle Free Distress background, but instead of spritzing with water, I spritzed with a homemade shimmer spray. It's hard to photograph the shimmer but it's there in real life! Here's a close-up of the text stamp over my background. It's subtle as I didn't want it to jump out at you. And take a look at the lovely swirly font on the "with love" stamp that comes with the set. It goes perfectly with my flourish embossing folder border.
The ribbon attaching the sentiment is white in real life - not sure why my photo picks it up as yellow!
The flourish embossing folder also works really well with the two little flourish stamps included in the stamp set - also great for adding interest to backgrounds as you can see at the top right and a bit down on the left hand side in this close-up:
I hope I have inspired you today with my card. The designers and I have had so much fun playing with these stamps! Next you need to hop on over to "LesLee's" blog.
Supplies:
Stamps - Happy Little Stampers
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Ink - Distress Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves; and Memento London Fog
Accessories - white sheer ribbon, foam tape, Memory Box Prim Poppy die, Spellbinders ribbon label, Cuttlebug flourish embossing folder border, homemade shimmer spray
Monday, 21 September 2015
Last of the Summer Flowers
I still have some California poppies blooming in my garden so when I saw today's SCS Technique Lovers' Challenge "Floral Frenzy" - a last curtain call for the flowers of summer, I went with
poppies. And I went with autumn colours to be seasonal.
I made a Wrinkle Free Distress background on some watercolour paper and added some faint text stamp. I stamped the poppies on top, let the ink dry, and then coloured them with Distress inks. I made a real mess of painting a couple of the flowers in the centre area so restamped, coloured, and fussy cut two flowers and one bud. After I layered them on top, they looked odd so decided to highlight them by adding the square frame over that area. I'm not sure how I feel about the finished card, but it needs to go in the mail to my sister or I'll miss her birthday!
Saturday, 8 August 2015
Zig vs Distress Markers
Zig Version:
My friend Christine (known as calex on SCS) and I spent yesterday at Loll Thompson's (Stamping with Loll) house having a great time crafting with her. One of the things I wanted to do was try Loll's Zig markers as I've heard so much about them.
I stamped this image by Penny Black on mixed media cs and coloured it using yellow, orange, and green Zigs, laying down a little bit of colour and pulling it out with a water brush.
The Zigs were very smooth and easy to use, and have a great brush tip and wonderful vibrant colours. Christine did a comparison with SU markers and concluded that the Zigs pulled the colour out much more easily and gave a smoother blended result.
When I got home, I cut a rough mask to lay over the poppies and added some pale green stencilling (using a leaf stencil made for me by Loll) around them. I felt a need to balance the yellow of the poppy on the left so added a thin strip of yellow cs along the right edge. And popped the panel up on a white cardbase.
I'm entering it in Loll's Happy Little Stampers "Masking" challenge and one of the SCS Dare to Get Dirty challenges.
Distress Marker Version:
Before I spend the money on the Zigs, I want to know how they compare to the Distress markers as I have the full set of them. So before I left Loll's, I stamped the same image on the same cs and brought it home to colour in. Here's the result:
The Distress markers took more water and more effort to pull the colour out but gave a pretty good result, though of course the Distress colours are more muted. So do I need the Zig markers? I'm not sure - though I definitely want them!
In keeping with the use of the Distress markers, I finished this card in a more distressed style. I spritzed the Peeled Paint marker in random spots, and then, using Peeled Paint ink, I added a partially inked text stamp and sponged the edges. A simple green cs border seemed to be all it needed. I used an ivory cardbase for this one. I'll add the sentiment to the inside.
Supplies for the first card:
My friend Christine (known as calex on SCS) and I spent yesterday at Loll Thompson's (Stamping with Loll) house having a great time crafting with her. One of the things I wanted to do was try Loll's Zig markers as I've heard so much about them.
I stamped this image by Penny Black on mixed media cs and coloured it using yellow, orange, and green Zigs, laying down a little bit of colour and pulling it out with a water brush.
The Zigs were very smooth and easy to use, and have a great brush tip and wonderful vibrant colours. Christine did a comparison with SU markers and concluded that the Zigs pulled the colour out much more easily and gave a smoother blended result.
When I got home, I cut a rough mask to lay over the poppies and added some pale green stencilling (using a leaf stencil made for me by Loll) around them. I felt a need to balance the yellow of the poppy on the left so added a thin strip of yellow cs along the right edge. And popped the panel up on a white cardbase.
I'm entering it in Loll's Happy Little Stampers "Masking" challenge and one of the SCS Dare to Get Dirty challenges.
Distress Marker Version:
Before I spend the money on the Zigs, I want to know how they compare to the Distress markers as I have the full set of them. So before I left Loll's, I stamped the same image on the same cs and brought it home to colour in. Here's the result:
The Distress markers took more water and more effort to pull the colour out but gave a pretty good result, though of course the Distress colours are more muted. So do I need the Zig markers? I'm not sure - though I definitely want them!
In keeping with the use of the Distress markers, I finished this card in a more distressed style. I spritzed the Peeled Paint marker in random spots, and then, using Peeled Paint ink, I added a partially inked text stamp and sponged the edges. A simple green cs border seemed to be all it needed. I used an ivory cardbase for this one. I'll add the sentiment to the inside.
Supplies for the first card:
| Stamps: Penny Black poppies, Impression Obsession sentiment |
| Paper: mixed media cs, white and yellow cs |
| Paper Size: A2 |
| Ink: Archival Jet Black, Distress Bundled Sage |
| Accessories: leaf pattern stencil, Zig markers, SU label punch, dimensionals |
Sunday, 12 July 2015
Early for Christmas, Late for a Birthday!
I love making Christmas cards so much that sometimes I get distracted and miss a friend's birthday. So today I've got my latest Christmas card, and a belated birthday card to share.
The Christmas card is for the Mixed Media challenge "Blue". I had to take part in that challenge as those of you who know me well, will know that I passionately love blue!
I was playing with my Inka Golds and made a few sheets of background by putting small blobs of different colours of Inka Gold (in this case blue and silver) onto my craft sheet, spritzing with water, and pressing my cardstock into it. In some spots it comes out thick, in others thin so there is some nice texture to the card. Here's a close-up showing the texture:
I then stamped some random bits of text on the piece (with some of the ink wiped off of the stamp before stamping). Because it did not dry flat, I used a trick I saw Bonnie use recently where she made a frame to put around a piece to keep it flatter.
Out of slightly glittered cs, I die cut some small snowflakes and the "winter wishes", making three layers of each and sticking them together for dimension. I lost the little die cut dot for over the "i" in "winter" so substituted a little embellishment.
Now on to the belated birthday card:
I missed a friend's birthday and so had to make a belated card for her. I wanted to take part in the Tag You're It Challenge as I really liked their inspiration tag with a flower, some script, a border, and a blue background.
The background is Tumbled Glass ink sponged through a stencil, then a bit of script stamp in grey. The poppies are die cut twice - the stems on one set sponged green, and the flowers cut off the other set, sponged with two shade of orange, and then stuck on top of the other die cut.
I then die cut using a tag die, and die cut a tag the next larger tag die, and sponged the edges of it with the Tumbled Glass to match the colour. Added a grey ribbon and a grey sentiment.
Thanks for taking a look!
The Christmas card is for the Mixed Media challenge "Blue". I had to take part in that challenge as those of you who know me well, will know that I passionately love blue!
I was playing with my Inka Golds and made a few sheets of background by putting small blobs of different colours of Inka Gold (in this case blue and silver) onto my craft sheet, spritzing with water, and pressing my cardstock into it. In some spots it comes out thick, in others thin so there is some nice texture to the card. Here's a close-up showing the texture:
I then stamped some random bits of text on the piece (with some of the ink wiped off of the stamp before stamping). Because it did not dry flat, I used a trick I saw Bonnie use recently where she made a frame to put around a piece to keep it flatter.
Out of slightly glittered cs, I die cut some small snowflakes and the "winter wishes", making three layers of each and sticking them together for dimension. I lost the little die cut dot for over the "i" in "winter" so substituted a little embellishment.
Now on to the belated birthday card:
I missed a friend's birthday and so had to make a belated card for her. I wanted to take part in the Tag You're It Challenge as I really liked their inspiration tag with a flower, some script, a border, and a blue background.
The background is Tumbled Glass ink sponged through a stencil, then a bit of script stamp in grey. The poppies are die cut twice - the stems on one set sponged green, and the flowers cut off the other set, sponged with two shade of orange, and then stuck on top of the other die cut.
I then die cut using a tag die, and die cut a tag the next larger tag die, and sponged the edges of it with the Tumbled Glass to match the colour. Added a grey ribbon and a grey sentiment.
Thanks for taking a look!
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