Another Moonlit Scene

I gave  this  card to lady who wants to try a different style of card making. I  made this card as a sample to show her one of the inking and stamping  techniques she will be learning.  I am really looking forward to having a crafty day and sharing lots of techniques and tips with her.

 Unfortunately we can't have that crafty day for a few weeks yet, due  to work commitments. But that gives me lots of time to plan the day and select techniques that won't require huge amounts of equipment and materials, so she will be able to start her card making journey without having to spend a  huge fortune on materials before she can begin.

Debbie's Bat Birthday Card

More night sky sponging this time with bats flying in front of a full moon. Less romantic than my last moon lit card but this one was created for my cousin's wife Debbie, who is into bats. I hope she liked it.

Inks used were Stampin' Ups  Marina Mist,  Midnight Muse, and Black craft ink.
A white gel pen for highlighting.
A sponge daubers to sponge in the sky and another to sponge in the foreground.
Stamp sets Serene Silhouettes from Stampin' up! and the bats are from a retired set  called Wicked Cool.

I masked off the moon  and sponged in the sky,  first using Marina Mist ink pad and dauber, I  always start on the mask and working outwards.
When I was happy with the density of the colour,  I sponged on the Midnight Muse ink this time starting from the edges of the card and working in towards the moon but not quite getting there.

Having completed the sky,  I removed the mask  and  blotted off  any excess ink from the dauber on scrap paper then gently sponged over the  edges of the moon,  just to add a small amount of colour and depth to the outer edges and  leave some white patches  towards the centre.

To form the clouds drifting  across the moon I used the very edge of the dauber  and without adding ink I dragged it part way across the moon. These drag marks  kind of look like streaky  clouds drifting by.

When all the black ink had dried completely,  I added white dots and dashed with a white gel pen to give the impression of moonlight hitting the edges of the plant life.
 I have to say doing random dots and dashes does seem to look better than  highlights added  precisely.

Serene Silhouettes Card

A quick card using the Serene Silhouettes stamps set from S.U. 
I used lovely lilac and pretty in pink ink  to create the circle. I 
punched  a large hole in a sheet of scrap paper to make a stencil and then applied  two way glue around the hole and allowed the glue to dry.

Once dry, I positioned the scrap paper over my white card stock making sure the hole was where I wanted it to be and then sponged through the hole until I had achieved the density of colour I liked.

I then removed the scrap paper and over stamped the sponged circle with the tree from the Serene Silhouette stamp set inked up with black craft ink from S.U. I really like this  black craft ink, it is great for doing silhouettes. It does take much longer to dry than the basic ink... but you will never get this result from this classic ink pads.

Stamp Waste Idea

 Ever wondered what to do with the waste  from your S.U stamp sets. Well here's one idea you may find useful.

Cut them up to make simple silhouette stamps.

I wanted a couple of hills for a sunset scene and was fed up with sponging them in.
 Then it occurred to me to make a stamp from the rubber waste.
With my rubber snips,  I chopped  (and I mean chopped) out some rough shapes resembling hills and stuck them to an acrylic block. 
They are probably there for all time now. I may ask hubby to  cut some small wooden blocks for me when he's feeling a little better,  then I will transfer them to wood.
But to be honest I don't mind sacrificing that acrylic block. I  found it very useful  having them on the acrylic block as I could actually stamp exactly over  my hill a second time,  after I found I hadn't applied enough ink to the stamp first time round, because there is no edging round the stamp.

For this post only,    I prepared a very badly sponged sunset just to demo the home made rocky hill/ mountain stamps.










I can promise you the colours are NOT really this vivid and it's not quite as patchy as it     looks here . My camera really is reacting badly to these colours.



Inking Up the stamps with Stazon I stamped the images onto my sunset. 
Wow! it's improved that mess no end.

If you don't like the shape you have cut out you can always trim bits off or  fill in the area you want to hide with a marker pen the same colour as the ink pad you used to stamp the hill.

I went on to add a few more silhouette images, using the tree stamp  from the Serene Silhouette stamp set from S.U.
                                                                                   
                                                                                  With a white gel pen I added some spots and dashed  in a very slap dash, hap hazard way and smudged them  a little with my finger. I kept adding and smudging until  I was happy with the effect.
                                                                             
Once the white ink has dried I dabbed over the white ink with a sponge and  Apricot Appeal ink to take some of  the brightness of the white away. As the hightlights would be a golden colour not  a bright white.
Next mission......... to find a golden colour gel pen.

Here is the finished sunset along with two others using different shaped hills.
Over did the white  a little I think.

Moonlight Card

My third post of the day is this Moonlight card.
Recipe. Whisper white card stock.
The ink pads used were;
Marina mist,
Midnight muse,
Black craft ink all from SU 
sponges
White gel pen
Black marker pen.
Serene silhouettes stamp set and the pocket silhouettes  stamp set.
The detailed instructions are the same as on the sunset card I posted last week. So I 'll try to condense the instructions on this card.

Using Marina mist ink pad and a sponge lightly sponge the centre of the sky  leave it  quite patchy and uneven.

Position the mask for the moon over the patchy sponging here you want your moon to go.
Mask off the bottom half of your card and sponge the  the sky using  a gentle circular motion starting from the centre of the moon mask and working outwards towards the edges of the paper.
When you feel you have applied enough of the lighter ink. Change over to Midnight Muse ink pad  and sponge the edges of the card working in towards the centre of the card. make sure the corner of the card are the darkest part and try and aim for an arch shape going over the moon with the darker ink.

With the sky  inked up you can now turn your attention to the lower half of you card.
remove the  horizon mask turn it round and cover the the sky with it. make sure  the edge  of the horizon mask is dead in line with the base of the moon /sun.
Sponge  the middle area of the card with the lighter ink leave some lighter areas in streaks going across the card stock.
Change to darker ink  and sponge in  the horizon line, be sure not to go over your lighter areas too much.
Then sponge the edges and corners of the card working in towards the lighter area , overlap the lighter area slightly.

Now here,  you can tear a ragged V shape into some scrap paper and place it over the edge of your card and sponge black in over it to form the rocks,  or  you could use a  black marker pen and scribble the rocks in.     ( Here I sponged in the rocks,)
Stamp your silhouette images over the rocks, over the edges of the card , over the bottom  edge of the card to make a scene you like .......Allow this ink to dry thoroughly before using the white gel pen.
Top Tip... when using the gel pen  to try NOT to be precise. it looks a lot better if you apply the white highlights  in a slap dash, hap hazard way.

I applied some white lines  at the base of the rocks and  gently smudged them and then re applied the white lines and smudged them again to get the misty,  sea spray/ water lapping against the rocks  look.  
A few lightly smudged  dashes going across the water to give the impression of ripples in the water.   Add dot and dashed to  the edges of the plant life, rocks and  anywhere where the moonlight may hit .
Add some tiny stars to the sky.
The shooting star was a happy accident,..... I smudged a star so I just added another white dot at the point of the smudge...... Hey Presto!! I had a shooting star.
Had the shooting star been more prominent I would have  added  the greeting make a wish.

Ummm,  Just re read  this post...... guess I am not too good at condensing things down..   :-)

Serene Silhouettes

Here is another card inspired by  a video by Brenda Keenan on You Tube.
This is a quick card.... providing you constantly check your hands are clean before handling your work.  
I am not good at that so the consequences are that I usually have  three or four attempts before I finally learn to check my hands.
The colours I used on this one are Marina mist and pacific point. 
Mask off the moon  and  the area in which you want to the sky.

I started sponging  with Marina Mist beginning in the centre of the moon mask  and working outwards towards the edges of the card.  

Once this step was completed I added pacific point ink this time working in from the edge of the card towards the moon mask. 

When  I felt the colour was  intense enough I removed the moon mask and stamped the image using black stazon ink.  If I remember rightly this stamp is from the Serene Silhouettes stamp set.
 For a demo on making this card pop over to You Tube and watch Brenda's video.