Bright Summer Flowers

This month's Penny Black challenge is "Summer Colours" - they want bright and cheerful pretty summer colours.  What better than a bouquet of beautiful summer flowers?

I coloured the image with watercolour pencils by using a wet paintbrush to pull the colour off the tips of the pencils.  It's a technique that Darnell had us do at the May retreat I was on with her and several other stampers.

I trimmed the panel and wrapped a strip of vellum on which I heat embossed the sentiment around it.  I then popped the panel up on fun foam.  I added yellow and black pearls to the centres of the flowers.

It's going off to a dear friend who is a very keen flower gardener and whose birthday is this month.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black bouquet, SU sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs, vellum

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour pencils, clear embossing powder, fun foam, yellow and black pearls

Rainy Day Card-making

It's raining so my plans to garden have been squashed.  But a good time to get some cards made!

Here's one for the Less is More "Celebrations" challenge, using their suggestion that we get some cards done for the December holidays.

I always need a few Hanukkah cards so made one of those.

There is a SCS tutorial for making the paper star here.  I used a lovely double-sided decorative paper I've had in my stash for ages.  I topped it with a silver glitter die cut Star of David and added it to a plain white card base with a heat embossed sentiment.

I might make a couple more to use up more dp!!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU sentiment

Ink - ColorBox silver

Paper - white cs, patterned paper, silver glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - silver embossing powder, SSS Star of David die

Less is More Celebrations

A Christmas card for Less is More's "Celebrations" challenge.

The background was an experiment using some photo paper with Oxide inks and a baby wipe. I smooshed with various shades of blue Oxide inks, drying between layers. When I was finished and the piece was completely dry, I wiped off the chalkiness of the Oxide inks and was left with a lovely glossy background, similar to the Polished Stone technique done with alcohol inks.

I die cut my front panel with a reindeer die I hadn't yet used, added a sentiment, and popped it all up on fun foam.

A nice quick design to use over a variety of background pieces!

Supplies:

Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment

Ink - Tsukineko Kaleidacolor Blue, various blue Oxide inks

Paper - white cs, photo paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box reindeer die, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam, baby wipe

A Tree for the Sparkles Challenge

I'm behind on my Christmas cards that I need for my November sale so really must get going - and the various Christmas card challenges are a huge help.

Today I'm doing the Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Include a Tree".

I created a background of various green alcohol inks on Yupo.  Trimmed it down to leave a border from the white card base.

I die cut the Tim Holtz tree twice, once from white and once from gold cs.  I glued the outline to the background and then had the fun of getting all the little gold pieces into the right spots - good thing I love jigsaw puzzles.  The sentiment is cut out of the same gold.  The panel is popped up on fun foam for dimension.

Thanks for coming by on a July day to look at a Christmas card!

Supplies:

Ink - various green alcohol inks

Paper - white and gold cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz tree and joy dies, fun foam