celebrate sunflowers.

This sunflower stamp set is called Celebrate sunflowers and is new from Stampin'up. I ummed and erred over buying this set for a while, as it's not really the sort of thing I would go for normally. But I am so glad I did. I didn't buy the die set that goes with this stamp set, but after fussy cutting a load of sunflowers and leaves I am beginning to wish I had.
To create these cards I stamped the sunflowers  and masked them off before stamping the leaves. 

I coloured the images  with Copic markers and using the splatter stamp from the French Foliage set, I stamped the splatters randomly around the panel.  I must add,  I used the second  and third generation stamping technique  to stamp the splatters. What that means is .... You ink up the stamp and stamp it on scrap paper, then without adding more ink you stamp your work. By doing this you get a lighter shade of ink. Third generation stamping is when you stamp the ink off twice before stamping your work.  You will get a very pale image when you use  the 3rd generation stamping technique.
I then lightly  sponged the edges for a slight vintage look.

I stamped the sentiment last as this needed more drying time. I used a pigment ink because I wanted an intense  black that stands out and they are very slow drying. I could have used memento and stamped it over and over again to achieve a deeper black,  but I thought I'd save time and use Versamark as it turned out by the time the versamark had dried I hadn't save any time at all.

A Bit Of Heat Embossing

 I haven't done the  heat embossing resist technique for a very long time and I was reminded of this technique after watching a video  by Sarah Hardy,  where she created a rainbow effect on white card with sponge daubers, stamped and  heat embossed  images over the rainbow card using clear embossing powder.  Then the whole piece of card was brayered over with  black ink.  The  heat embossed images stay the original colour because  they are protected by the clear embossing.

 Inspired by Sarah's video, I decided I'd  give it a try. I inked up my card stock and while I waited for my multicoloured piece of card  to dry off little, I decided to  heat emboss a white piece of card with clear embossing powder and  brayer over the embossed images. The card above is  what I ended up with.  I quite liked the green and white piece so I turned it into the card above. 

I rubbed an anti static bag over the card before stamping to make sure any unwanted particles of embossing powder didn't stick to the card.

Using Versamark ink,  I stamped leaves randomly over the card and heated the powder until it melted.

With a sponge brayer I covered the entire piece of card with mossy meadow ink.. it took quite  a while to build up the density of the green background...  I have to say I wasn't too impressed with this piece of work. Then I had another idea, which I thought might speed things up a little.

Instead of using the white card stock I always use,  why not use coloured card stock.

So I took some yellow card stock and added a few patches of peekaboo peach ink before stamping and embossing  the leaves. Looking for another short cut.... ( my attention span seems to have dwindled a lot since lockdown)  It dawned on me it would be far quicker to paint over the embossed card with re inker rather than building up the layers of ink with a  brayer. 

I mixed  two  or  three sprays of water and four  or five  drops of ink, using  a 1" brush the card was painted in  a matter of seconds. Admittedly it took a little longer to dry out than a  heavily brayered  piece of card. But having said that,... I did over wet the card. It would have been better to give the card two  lighter coats of ink rather the heavy one I gave it.

While that piece was drying  I tried another colour combo, .. a little pixie pink ink daubed onto blue card and I repeated the  heat embossing process again until the last step, I mixed a few drops of Night of  Navy ink with a little water and painted it over the embossed area over the  heat embossed images in a few seconds.

This is how the blue and pink combo turned out. I will add a sentiment and maybe a fussy cut  an embossed  leaf or two before this  one is sent out.   I didn't want to hide the effect of this technique with a sentiment. I will add a sentiment later.
Then I wondered what stripes would look like over the heat embossing.....So  I  started experimenting  masking over  the heat embossed area to create stripes by  brayering over the exposed area in different colours  each time creating the stripes on the card below..

  I used post it notes to mask off the areas either side of the stripe before applying the ink with a sponge dauber. I didn't use the diluted ink as I thought it might be a little to wet and maybe seep under the post it notes.

In the card below, I worked  a little Merry Merlot ink  into the top left corner over  the mossy meadow ink for a more shadowy graduated look.   I'm not sure I want to clutter these 4x4 inch cards  by adding  sentiments. I just might use them as small notelets rather than a greeting card. 

My last card on this post and  using this technique. This one I turned into a notelet for a colleague.

The stamp I used for the sentiment is a two line stamp. The second line was inappropriate for this card,  so I masked off the second line. You must make sure your stamp is clean and dry before attempting this technique

 Sticking a strip of Sellotape over the unwanted text prevents the ink pad from making contact with that part of the stamp..   see example photo below. 

Then ink the stamp up as usual ......REMOVE the now inky Sellotape and stamp. 

 IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE PIECE OF SELLOTAPE BEFORE STAMPING.

 See the inky Sellotape below.

Hey Presto!! the final image minus the unwanted text.

Sorry for everything.

 I have been playing with post it notes again.
 Sponging various coloured inks over the edges of the post its to form the coloured section.

Leaving the post it's in place,  I  over stamped the coloured section using the French foliage stamp set  and dark brown ink.

The sentiment came from the  "Sorry for everything" stamp set from   S.U.

DSP Candles

I can't take the credit for the design of this card. I CASE'd it from Karen Johnson's blog.

I think Karen used a stamp for the sentiment on her card. I didn't have a sentiment stamp suitable for this design so I created this  very similar greeting on the PC, printed off and die cut it.

The candles are just strips of Stampin' Up's DSP and the flames are the wings from the bird and branch punch.

This card should arrive tomorrow, I do hope he likes it.

Retirement card using French Foliage stamp set

You may remember I made another version of this card a few weeks ago in yellow and green. and made as a sympathy card.
This time I thought  I'd try it again in different colours.

I used some post it notes to mask off the areas I wanted to keep white and sponged various inks randomly over the area between the post it notes. Then over stamped  with the  retired stamp set French Foliage.
The  ink pads I used were Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade, Hello Honey, Pumpkin Pie, Almost Amethyst  and Early Espresso. 

I stamped the sentiment in black and  the splotches in Crumb Cake.

French Foliage Sympathy Card.

This is the fourth card of this type I have needed this year and we're only just in March..
To make this card,  I used post it notes to mask off the either side of the card,  leaving a strip of card about an inch and three quarters wide exposed.
Using sponge daubers I applied random patches of Stampin' Up's Hello Honey and Mellow Moss ink .
Once all the white area of card was completely covered in ink, I stamped the text in chocolate chip ink all over the sponged area. Then I stamped the darker ink splats over the
sponged area..
I changed the ink pad to Early Espresso,  removed the post it  note from the right side of the card  and stamped the leaves over the same areas  I stamped previously.
 The leafy stamp set is called " French Foliage". It is a retired stamp set now.

As I was NOT working on good quality stamping card,  I had to wait quite a while for the inks to dry thoroughly before continuing with the next step.  (this is attempt 3 because I didn't wait long enough on the earlier cards)

The sentiment. ... I have to say,  I had trouble getting the "So Sorry" straight on this card. This maybe because I have been a little stressed out of late and unable to concentrate fully. But that's another story.
I drew a fine pencil line across the card where I wanted my "So Sorry" to go and used the stamp a majig to line up  card.the sentiment. This too took sometime time dry.
 I  used the splatter stamp again  this time with Sahara Sands ink and stamped a few splatters on the white section, ....not because it I thought it would enhance the card, but to hide a very small smudge under the sorry. This tiny little mark  stood out like a sore thumb on the starkness of the white.
The splatters hide it perfectly. So nobody will ever know it's there.....unless of course,  YOU tell them.

R.I.P. YOGI

A friend of our sadly had to have his beloved dog Yogi put to sleep a fortnight ago. I have known Yogi since he was a 100 mile an hour puppy along with his brother Buster ( who is still with us and bares more than a passing resemblance to Stars Wars Chewbacca).

Buster and Yogi would tear around in circles on the field and woe betide anyone that got in the way.

It's been a few years  now since they tore round the place like exorset missiles.

Now they are very  laid back and very Gentlemanly .

Around the age of two they actually sat still long enough for me to take a couple of photos of them so last week I decided to give them to Ron  in a Memory Book. Here are a few pages from the book.

 I left a few spaces for Ron to add a few of his own favourite photos too .

I included quotes and poems about dogs

and lots of spaces for Ron to write up his favourite memories about Yogi in the  little books.

All the papers used in the making of this book were from Stampin' up the neutrals DSP collection

 On this page I cut chipboard tags and covered them with card and decorated them.

Rather than sticking them  onto the page or making a pocket for them, I just put them onto the hinged ring as a small page on their own

Below I made a huge pocket to house the larger of the two books I made.

The Friends Embellishment is a crushed bottle top.

 I stamped friends onto some scrap card with Brown stazon ink,  then using the 1" circle punch, I punched out the word  keeping it as central as possible. daubed it with green ink.

When the ink was dry I dabbed it all over with versamark ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder then stuck it into the bottle top with crystal effects. when it had stuck fast, I filled the bottle topup to rim with crystal effect and left it over night to dry on a level surface.

It is important to  heat emboss before you fill the top with crystal effects. If you don't in the morning you will find the ink has run or blurred....even with stazon although it is no where near as bad.

The Book was just one sheet of cream card.  I  stamped the sheet of card  and cut it  in half,   then folded in half and stapled in the fold. I printed off some journaling pages  mounted them onto copper card and stuck them in  the book.

Here I made a corner pocket to hold the smaller of the two books.

There is an awful lot of hot foiling in this book either in copper or gold.

Infact I hot foiled all the text in this memory book.

To make it easier for Ron to cut his photos to the right size for the matts I wrote the measurements for the photos on the matts. I also gave him a few spare  journalling pages  to to practise on. There is nothing worse than writing something and finding you don 't have enough room to get in  everything you need to say.

And  by the way that little corner of paper you see curling up on one page..... I did stick it down properly before I gave  the book to Ron.

Nature card for any occassion

This card was made using a  rectangular mask and I used a scrunched up nappy bag  with  some crumb cake  ink to give the background a soft subtle look.
Then I over stamped with the
En francais stamp background stampwith close to cocoa ink.
I  over stamped  again in two of the corners with  the Baroque Motif stamp  but using  the slightly darker chocolate chip ink.
Finally I stamped the leaves with versamark ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

water filled card instructions

 

I have been asked for instructions  on making the water card. So here they are.

You need one of the sweet treat cups from Stampin'Up a small piece of acetate big enough to cover the back of the sweet treat cup.

First peel off the  white tape to reveal the adhesive fill your cup with water about  3/4 full  without getting water on the adhesive.  ( I over filled this one slightly)
Add glitter or sequins to the water at this point. If you do spill water on the cup adhesive, use a new cup,   it won't seal if it gets wet and you'll end up with a very soggy card.

Carefully place the  piece of acetate over the cup and seal  the edges firmly. Trim back any excess acetate.

Stamp your image onto whisper white paper.

I used the whale from Stampin up's fox and friends set.

 I then placed the water filled cup over my design added snail adhesive round the edges of the white card and stuck The water cup over the stamped image. Taking care to get  the positioning right.

I then punched a hole in a piece of Stampin'up's designer series paper (DSP for short) using the punch that goes with the treat cups.   Added snail adhesive all round the apeture and placed it over the cup. 

I cut a piece of red card slightly wider than the DS paper and mounted the cup onto the red card  tied some yellow ribbon around the topper and stuck the whole thing onto the front of my card which I had already stamped with the splashes stamp from the French foliage stamp set.

A  final word of advice, the water makes this card front heavy.

 To help conbat this problem I usually add an  insert using   a heavy weight paper. Doing this usually adds enough weight to the back of the card to stop it toppling over.

A second way of making this card would be to use a three fold base card and punch a hole in the middle section  and use the end panel to cover the workings on the inside, but this way restricts  where you  position your  cup.

Hope I have made this clear enough for you to follow. Have fun.