Lots Lavinia Stamps

I have been distracted from crafting and blogging by the lovely weather we have had.  When it's dry and sunny, it's time to get out in the garden to do lots of pruning,  fence painting, cleaning and painting a few pots, planting up the pots and  generally tidy up. I have to say it's been a lot of  hard work, but well worth the effort. I also made a little friend while working outside. He pops in  every day for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a few snacks in between. He will come very close and sit in the feeder next to the garden table and cocks his head to one side as I sit close by and talk to him. He doesn't seem to be too bothered that I am sat so close if I put my hand out I could touch him. You probably think I am crazy talking to a blackbird, but as he sits there with his head cocked to one side and looking directly at me, he really does look as though he is listening to every word I say. 

My son tells me that birds recognise faces, so maybe he has seen enough of my face over the last few weeks to recognise me and trusts me enough to realise, I will not hurt him. If this is the case I feel truly honoured.

The weather has taken a turn now and we've had some heavy rain and a thunder storm, which will do the garden good and give me some time to catch up with my crafting and blogging. 

I used a whole host of stamps from Lavinia stamps to create this card. I used Stampin up ink pads, Blending brushes,  seven or eight colours of posca pens for the flowers, plus a black Versafine Clare ink pad.

Boys Toys.

The  composition of the stamping I have totally CASE'd  from a card I saw on on Pinterest. 

It was created using the "Boys Toys" stamp set. It's a retired set I bought ages ago, but then had no idea how I was going to use it. If I hadn't seen this idea, I think it would still be sat on the shelf unused.

To get the single brick I had to  carefully mask off the stamp with Sellotape before inking it up, so that I didn't get ink on the other two bricks.

Card size 7x5 inches.

LOTV digital stamp sale.

YAY!!  LOTV has had another sale and I couldn't resist purchasing a few more digital stamps. I couldn't wait to get colouring  these three little guys. Then I made three quick cards with the images I  was impatient to colour. I thought the image above would be perfect for an apology card as well as boys birthday card. The sentiment  on the first card is from a Stampin' up set call "Sorry for everything." Which I'm pretty sure has retired.

My brother in law seems to do an awful lot of grass cutting and not just for himself,  so this would make

an excellent thank you card for him as well as a birthday card.  Another member of the family has a job as a groundsman, so cutting the grass is a big part of his job.  Although I'm pretty sure he doesn't use  a mower like this.

 So I have at least two people I could use this image for, and that was all I needed to convince me,

 I needed to buy this image. 

Stampin' up  sell a stamp set with a very similar image in. "It's called  a cut above the rest" and the sentiment I used on this card is from that set, and it's in the current catalogue.

The vegetable plot is a great image for a retirement card or a birthday card for the keen gardener.

Or even a thank you card for a gardener.

I have teamed all of these images with a DSP from Stampin' up.

 The bee paper was given to me.

Treasures of life

This image is not really my cup of tea. I think it's because of the words on the heart.  I would prefer it without the words. I just don't think it needs them, the image says it all.   

Despite this stamp not being to my taste I decided to try it out.  I think it has turned out okay.

 In my experience I've found  the cards I make and really like, others don't like and the ones I hate others love. So I am sure there is somebody out there that will love this one.

Oh I almost forgot to say this stamp is in the set called  "Treasures of Life"   and it's in the new spring summer catalogue 2021.

Bookmarks.

About 6 weeks ago I agreed to do a bookmark swap.

My swap was going to be the silhouette bookmark here on the right , but I mislaid it and didn't find it until after the  postal deadline. So I made a couple of butterfly bookmarks  and sent one of those instead. The recipient loved the butterfly version.

The multi-coloured butterfly was created by daubing different colour inks on to the stamp and giving the stamp a big huff  or three (to replace the moisture that had evaporated ) before stamping. 

A little sponging around the edges and stamping the splatters in crumb cake ink completed the image. I mounted the completed image onto a piece of brown card stock to frame the image and to hide the ink smudges on the back.

The silhouette bookmark was sponged,  splattered with bleach,   stamped and then mounted.... If you want to know more about  how I  created the background see my post on inking with makeup brushes in  a post below. 

Dave's Birthday

 Here's a card I made today for my brother in law. Dave has always had a liking for VW campers and has owned several  over the years. So this campervan stamp is perfect for him.  I bought the stamp many years ago,  but I couldn't get on with it very well, so it's been stashed in a drawer for years and has been badly damaged.   The front  wheel  (that would be behind the man) broke off this morning, but because I stamped the man first and masked him off, I could still use the damaged VW stamp by carefully positioning the stamp so that the missing wheel falls on the masked off man.   It doesn't show on the finished image, proving that damaged stamps can still be used with a little planning.  I die cut the image into a circle which meant I cut off the back end of the van.  I have to say , as much as I like using whole stamp images this van looks a lot better with it's rear end chopped off.

I masked off the van and stamped the trees and coloured the images.

I finished the van off by adding little gem stones on the lights. I used some travel theme DSP from S.U. for the background. I would have preferred the compasses were a bit smaller, but beggars can't be choosers... not without breaking the law that is. ha ha ha.

Santa Card.

I've made a start on this years Christmas cards. Using one of the new Christmas stamp sets from S.U..
I can't remember what the set is called though. After colouring this Santa with Copic markers,  I mounted him on to a piece of black card before sticking him on to a base card which I had adhered  a strip of red corrugated card. A nice quick and  simple card.

sponging/ brushing technique with silhouette scenes stamp set

This morning I created a card that seemed to be quite popular on the Demonstrator website. 

 I was asked to do a tutorial on how I created it. But I am still having issues with uploading videos so I have decided to do a photo tutorial instead. The stamps I am using in this tutorial are different to the card I made this morning  but the process is  the same.

Before starting  I'd like to share some tips to help you get better results first time.

Brush and card tips.

 I would normally use sponge brayers or daubers to do sponging, But my daubers are starting to disintegrate  and  leave streaks, the brayers hold so much ink it seem wasteful  to use them.  So I chose to use  microfibre make up brushes  that I bought from Amazon that retail at around £10 per set.

  I have been trying these brushes out on various  types of card stock with varying results and... not all good. But the same  could be said for the brayers and daubers.  I think it's just a case of getting the combination right.

 For an air brushed look,  Stampin Up's  Whisper white card stock is a good choice  when working with these and so is the A3 300gsm card stock from the Range. It has a bit more tooth than the  usual stamping card, but it's great with these brushes. Some other cards give you a grainy look which is not a look I like.

  

 Another tip is not to over load the brushes  just a gentle tap or two on the ink pad is more than enough, then dab off most of the ink in the lid of the ink pad before applying it to your card.

You need next to no ink on your brush to start with, If you need more, use the ink you deposited in the lid.  You don't waste  ink by doing this.

 I watched a video review of craft and make up brushes,  including the sets I had bought. The lady said "you don't have to  start working off the card."  But I have to disagree with her.  You get a far better almost air brushed look if you  remove most of the ink and start working off the card and work towards the centre, as you would with sponges.

 The brushes seem to  release the ink quickly and basically clean themselves as you're working. This means you don't have to have one for every  shade of every colour.   ( I have one for all yellows, one for  all reds , one  for all light  blues, and so on.)

All you have to do to clean them,  is just brush it on scrap paper until no ink comes out.  

My verdict on these brushes is they are great for creating a lighter, air brushed look.  I think we all know just how strong the Melon Mambo colour is,  but with these brushes and almost no ink on the brush you can achieve a very pretty pastel look.

 Of course if you want strong vivid colour ignore everything I have said. 

Another thing that is worth mentioning is  the fact you don't get that awful round dauber mark that you just can't get rid of when you have just loaded it with ink and applied it without thinking directly to your card... Yes,  we've all done it.

 Here we go......

I am giving instructions for using the brushes but the technique stays the same if you use sponges or daubers just don't load the sponge with loads of ink if you want a lighter airbrushed look or you'll  waste a lot of ink dabbing it off.

On whisper white card from S.U. I loaded the brush with daffodil delight ink and then dabbed the brush in the lid of the ink pad several times to remove a lot of the ink, by dabbing it in the lid of the ink pad I can come back and reload the brush from the lid. Starting on scrap paper  work in a circular motion and work your way into the centre of the card.  Keep applying the ink in this way until you have the density of ink you like.   I rather like the soft pastel look.
 You can achieve  this look by having the minimum amount of ink on the brush/sponge.

 Work in the same way as you apply the other colours around the edges. I used  Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo , Balmy Blue, Highland Heather and Lucky Limeade.

To add a hill in the background tear a piece of paper into a hill shape and  and using the negative hill shaped paper, place it where you want your hill to be  and using a light lilac  or pale grey,  brush over the the edge of the scrap paper onto you card stock. You just want a light impression of a hill or mountain in the distance so don't apply too much ink.

Once I had completely covered the card with ink I filled a cheap and nasty aqua painter style brush with bleach and gently splattered the bleach over the card to form the white spots.

Unfortunately... I forgot that step  when making this tutorial sample so I splattered the bleach after I had stamped the girl. 

Luckily for me the bleach didn't have much effect on the black Versamark.  You could just about see where the bleach had landed,  so I took a small stiff paint brush and brushed over the areas with the same Versamark ink.

 For this sample, I chose the girl on a swing, from the Silhouette scenes stamp set from S.U.

 I haven't used this stamp before, so I am curious to know how this will turn out.

Stampin' up don't have a branch stamp big enough to hang this swing from, so I resorted to using a branch stamp from Lavinia stamps. The other alternative was to draw it in myself .

This looks like a summer scene to me, so using a tiny leaf stamp, again from Lavinia stamps,  I put a few leaves on the tree. I sponged some black ink at the bottom  to create the foreground.

Then I began to stamp in some plants using the  pocket silhouettes stamp set (a long since retired set that I wouldn't be with out)  and a grass stamp. There are a couple of S.U sets that have grass stamps in, but I can't remember the names. If you don't have a grass stamp it's easy to draw in grass. With a fine black pen you just start at the bottom of the blade of grass and flick the pen  upwards in multiple directions many times. Clumps of grass tend to look best. (You can see grass clumps I have drawn in on the cats card in a post below this one.)

I blended the ink from the tall plants that over laps the foreground into the foreground.

Just for cuteness I added  Pippin the rabbit from Lavinia stamps. That's where it all went wrong.  My card moved  when I lifted the  stamping platform plate,  so when I stamped over him again, he had four ears.  I decided  to stamp a second rabbit very close to the first to cover the excess ears. 

I applied glitter to this sample. I don't like lots of glitter on small images. I think it overwhelms and distracts from the image. So I like to use the fine glue pen, but I always have problems with these pens. I use them once or twice then they cease to work. No matter what I do I just cannot get them working again. so I have a glut of non working fine tip glue pens.

I hate wasting products, so as not to waste the glue, I take the pen apart tap the end of the  tube on a rubber mat to get a little the glue out, then I apply the glue to my image with a cocktail stick. 

Sometimes I need  to start the flow off by inserting a pin in the tube and give it a wiggle to loosen it up. When I 've got enough glue out I replace the nib until the next time I need it.

And here is the finished card. I am afraid you can't see the glitter. Glitter is hard to photograph at the best of times and when it's subtle it's even harder.

simple cosmic card

I am calling this one The Cosmic card. I think it would be a great card for a guy with no  particular interests or hobbies. its colourful  which makes a change from the  usual browns, blues and greys.
To make this card I started by brushing the centre of my 5x5 whisper white card.  
Then I brushed around  the edges with melon mambow, mossy meadow, gorgeous grape, and balmy blue. I splattered bleach over the inked card to create the white patches.
Then it was just a case of cutting several happy birthdays, gluing and stacking them  before sticking them in the centre of the card. I added a layer of black card underneath and  trimmed it back to 1/16th of an inch for a narrow border. I added a few tiny gem stones for sparkle as a finishing touch.

I decided to do a rectangular version to see if it worked as well as the square.  I added some glitter to this one instead of gem stones.

Pampered Pets

I've put the cat and the dog together on this one.

A nice anniversary card..... I think

This is a fairly quick and easy one to make.  It would have been quicker if I hadn't over inked my "craft" ink pad   (which Is a Slow drying ink) I had to wait for ages for the ink to dry, but it took so long I resorted to using the heat gun to finish it off.

This is a 6x4 inch card. I started by brushing ink in a  semi random way over the card stock. I brushed in a couple hills in the distance then  splattered some water over the card and waited for a about 30 seconds before blotting  off the excess water and the ink it lifted.

 I wanted the splatter marks to be a little brighter, so with an aqua painter  filled with bleach I added  tiny drops of bleach to each splatter and let it sit until the splatters where almost white then blotted off the excess.

  I stamped the silhouettes,  sponged  in the foreground and left it to dry.

  It was essential the ink was completely dry before I did the gold heating embossing.

 The  couple  are from the retired  stamps set Silhouette Scenes . The floral silhouette wild flowers  and willow are from Lavinia stamps.

 This is a long skinny card  at  3x7  inches.

 The stamps used on this are Pocket silhouettes, 

Silhouette scenes.

 and the over hanging willow stamp is from Lavinia stamps.

Pampered Pets...Dog

I've  used both dog stamps from the Pampered pets set from Stampin' up on this one. Coloured with Copic Markers and teamed up with the coordinating DSP.

The little butterflies come in this set too,  so just for fun I thought I'd  have one of them land on the dogs nose.

Pampered Pets... The dog 3

Another card using the Pampered pets stamps and dsp.  This time I have included the bowl.

Instead of using red card stock, I have used sticky back red flock which I found floating round in my craft room.  This makes the card more tactile.

I just love this colour combo with this dog.

  

Way to GOAT

 I thought I would try a square version of the gift card holder to see if it worked. This card is 4x4 inches , 5x5 would have been a better choice for a square version. The 4x4 will still take a gift card if you apply the glue very close to the edge of the patterned paper. See instructions for Gift card holders a couple of posts below. The card below is  just a card ...no hidden features in this one.  The stamp set  is called Way to Goat and is a available from stampin' up.

 I didn't want to use ribbon on these cards. I wanted something a little more rustic looking.  So I thought I'd try some raffia.  It's  a lot cheaper than ribbon and possibly  more suitable for masculine cards. The fact you can split it  easily means you can vary the width  from 1/8th of an inch to one inch wide.  It can even made to look like twine if it's split to half an inch wide and twisted tightly. 

Interactive Card

I had an idea a while back to create an interactive card by putting a ball game on the front. 

So Hubby ordered some ball bearings in  several sizes to make sure we got the right size..

Once they arrived  I began working on my idea. 

 I decided I didn't want too many balls rolling around in a small  game so I kept it to three as it is going to  a person with a short attention span that loves fishing but can no longer fish.

I am pleased with the way this turned out.  I think if I made another one, I would make the sentiment a little bigger .

I used the snow globe die  and  the snow globe dome to create this card.

The fish bowl is an old retired  S.U  single  stamp.

Since this card has a lot of dimension it needed a box to help protect it as it goes through the postal system.   I decorated the box with  a piece of  card  from  a seaside themed pad  I purchased from Lidls.

I put a double tissue wrap in the box  one layer  of tissue was stamped multiple times with the same happy birthday stamp I used on the box .

  I recycled an amazon  box envelope to post this card this morning. 

I hope he likes it.

Gift Card Holder within a card.

.

My brother-in-law was to celebrate his 60th Birthday at the start of the Covid pandemic. So all plans were cancelled. Not only did it mean we couldn't  celebrate his birthday with him, it also meant I couldn't get out to buy his gift. Now shielding is coming to an end and I am allowed out it meant I could finally buy and give him his gift. Gift cards Don't come with Cards now so I had to make  one for him, and here it is.

I was quite please with the way this card / gift card holder turned out.  I used the golfing theme DSP that goes with the Club House stamp set from Stampin' Up. The golf ball is  from the club house set.

I used the sorry for everything stamp set from S.U for the inside as this card/ gift is so late.

 To create this card with gift card pocket is quite easy.  

Card Base 5  7/8 "  x 8  1/4 score and  fold in half.

On the front of the card you  need to cut an L shape.

Measure 3 inches down  from the top edge and mark.  

Make another mark half an inch in from the top

Measure 3 inches in from the opening edge  and mark. 

Mark another mark half an inch in from the opening edge.

From the half inch mark at the top cut down to the three inch mark with a steel rule and sharp knife. Then make a second cut from the half inch mark at the side to the join up with the end of the first cut. You now have an L shape cut.

I was in a rush to cut and photograph the pieces for this tutorial as my craft room is unbearably hot and I slipped with the knife and made a really messy cut. But I will continue with this piece. You of course will make a much neater cut. 

  Line up a rule with the end of both cut lines and score a diagonal lines at each end of the cut lines to the edge of the card.     DO NOT score across the centre square. 

These  two small  score lines will help when you fold the corner over,  as you fold the corner over the L cut will flip up, giving you the square panel on the front where you will place your focal point. 

Cut a piece of  DSP half an inch smaller than the card base. Cut off the corner to match the base card. 

Apply adhesive to the bottom edge and  the sides. DO NOT apply glue to the diagonal edge. Adhere to base card lining up the diagonals.( This edge is the open edge of the pocket for your gift card to slide into.)  

Add your focal point image to the square panel on the front

Secure the folded corner with a glue dot to the card to stop it flipping up.
Cut a small piece of  DSP  2  1/2   x 3 inches this is to line the back of the pocket and make it look tidier. 

Apply adhesive to the top  2  inches of the panel and slide the bottom unglued part into the pocket lining it up with the front panel and press down.  I have used a different colour pink to show this panel  better.    ( Don't apply  glue to the bottom part as it will make it difficult to slide it into the pocket and quite messy if using a wet glue.

                      The gift card will now slot in the pocket

Cut a piece of card for the insert.   Remember the top and a small portion of the side of the insert will show when the card is closed, so you could use a layer of DSP with a layer of a white on top if you don't want a white border.