Tea with Books and Sunflowers with Horses

Sweet Stampin' wants to see "Beverages" and Shopping our Stash wants to see a "Just Because" card.   A friend gave me this stamp set as she thought it was perfect for me as a retired librarian - it's the first time I've used it so entering it in NBUS as well.

I coloured it in blue as I'm going to send it to my youngest sister who loves blue, tea, and reading as much as I do, and loves to get cards from me.

The image is coloured with coloured pencils and popped up on fun foam. The background is an embossing folder that went well with the scrolls on the tea cup.

I've also got a card for Double D "Sunflowers". 

I stamped the image and coloured it with coloured pencils, bordered with black cs, mounted on a kraft card base, and added a white heat embossed sentiment on a scrap of black cs.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Cuttlebug embossing folder, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession horses, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, ColorBox white
Paper - white, black, and kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, white embossing powder

Blue, Green, and Yellow Garden Collage

A bright summery card is perfect for today in Vancouver as it feels like summer - nonstop sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures.

I'm trying to decide if I want to get rid of some of my older stamps so I try making a card with them and if I like the results, I keep the stamp.  Since I like the collage look of this and the fact it has text in the background, I'm keeping it.

I stamped the image twice, watercoloured one whole image, and just the butterfly in the second one - then fussy cut the butterfly and popped it up on the first image with foam tape. Bordered in black and popped the whole panel up on fun foam.

Blue and yellow are my favourite colours so they predominate, but there is some green so I'm linking it up with the Color Throwdown Challenge "Yellow, Green, Blue, and White".

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Garden Collage, unknown sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam, foam tap

Two Heads, Two Challenges

A card for a couple of challenges:

Cardz for Guyz "Birthday for an Adult Male"

Day of the Month Card Club "Make your Own Head Day"  (this can be interpreted by including one or more heads on your card)

I stamped the image on watercolour paper, painted just the flowers and butterfly as I like the horses the way they are. Popped it up on fun foam on first a white layer with the sentiment, then a blue layer to match the blue butterfly.

Supplies:
Stamps - Impression Obsession horses, A Muse sentiment
Ink - Archival brown
Paper - white and blue cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

Sunflowers with Horses

It's reminder time for CAS Watercolour!  This month the challenge is "sunflowers" - perfect for August when sunflowers are starting to bloom.   Check out the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and our wonderful August Guest Designer, Izzy of Izzy Scrap.  The link up is open until August 24th.

I decided to stick with stamps for this challenge as otherwise I'd be using the same stencil some of the other DT members used.  And I only have two stamps with sunflowers, the one I used for my original card and this one:

I stamped it in brown ink on watercolour paper and then decided to colour in only the sunflowers and butterfly, thinking that would keep quite a busy image more CAS.  I used my Gansai Tambi paints and used this photo of a red sunflower as inspiration for my colours just to make a change from yellow sunflowers. 

I originally did the butterfly in mauve and it didn't show up enough so I restamped just the butterfly section on a scrap and painted it turquoise, then fussy cut it and popped it up with foam tape.  I trimmed the image down to its borders, popped it up on fun foam, and added a simple brown sentiment.

I'm also taking it to the AAA Cards "Friendship" challenge.  I truly believe friendship exists among animals.  I've seen it often amongst the dogs and horses in my life.  These two horses at the barn where I volunteer with therapeutic riding spent their off-time standing by each other, nuzzling and grooming each other, and when one went out for a lesson, the other fussed and whinnied till he came back.  The one on the left, Quincey, was one of our therapy horses and much older than his friend, Trio.  When Quincey passed away a couple of years ago, Trio was visibly bereft for awhile. 

And these two, Teddy and Sprite, are the mainstay of our therapeutic program.  Both are elderly (in their 20s) and as calm as can be with our riders, but they are such good friends and when they are turned out together, they act like two friendly youngsters, romping together, chasing each other, and enjoying their companionship so much.  They only do this with each other - if you turn either of them out with a different horse, they never play with that different horse.

Teddy is also friends with our little Shetland pony, Becca - their paddocks are side by side and they spend a lot of time interacting and grooming each other across the fence.

So, just like people, animals choose certain other animals to be their special friends - we can learn so much from observing the animal world.

Supplies:

Stamps - Impression Obsession horses, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil

Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs

Size - 4.25 x 6"

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam, foam tape

Sunflower with Splatters

 
It's August already - where has the year gone?  The flowers of high summer are fading and we're starting to see the later blooming flowers, one of which is the sunflower.  So appropriately, that is the theme for the August CAS Watercolour Challenge.

I found a Penny Black stamp in my collection that I've never inked up before so am happy to have the opportunity.  I inked it up in brown on cold press watercolour paper as I thought brown would suit the colours better than black.  And then watercoloured with my Gansai Tambi paints.

I fussy cut the sunflower and popped it up with foam tape on a piece of cs splattered with Distress ink.  I created a frame using deckle edged dies, cutting it twice and layering them to give it a bit more dimension.  I added a brown vertical sentiment to the frame.

Here's a close-up:

Please come and join us at CAS Watercolour.  We're looking forward to seeing all sorts of sunflowers - stamps, dies, stencils, whatever, as long as you use watercolour on the card and you keep it clean and simple.  There is lots of inspiration from the Design Team and our wonderful August Guest Designer, Izzy of Izzy Scrap.  The link up is open until August 24th.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Blooming Garden sunflower, Technique Junkies sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil, Distress Brushed Corduroy

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Spellbinders deckle rectangle die, foam tape