Christmas card two

An oldie, but a goody  today.
I was inspired to make this card yesterday after spending Friday  teaching lots of techniques to a new stamper.
Having refreshed my own memory on lots of different techniques I decided to try this technique again.....it's  basically sponging  through a mask, then over stamping.

I began by cutting out an oval from scrap paper, I discarded the oval centre  as it was the negative I wanted to work with.
 I applied some two way glue to the back of the aperture mask and allowed it to dry.

Once the glue was completely dry,  I placed it over  a piece of white card stock and pressed it down  gently to secure it to the card.
I tore a very narrow strip from the sticky edge of a post it note,  (just so that it no longer had a straight edge but still had lots of sticky left along the edge)   

 I stuck the post it note across the  middle of the aperture  and began to sponge  Barely Banana ink ( a warm yellow ink) from the centre of the post it note and worked upwards  in an arch shape.
  I applied Apricot Appeal ink from the sides and  worked around the yellow arch and blending the edges of the two colours.
 I added a touch of Pretty in Pink ink around the arch and blended it the Apricot .  t
That was followed by a few light strokes of Lavender Lace  ink around the arch, again blending the edges. The  final colour was Smokey Slate at the very top of the arch and a touch at the edges.

 I removed the post it note and then began to sponged small amounts of Smokey Slate ink over the edges of the bottom half of the oval and worked the ink in towards the middle.

When I was happy with the effect,  I inked up two thirds of the  row of trees  stamp from the "Lovely as a tree" stamp set in black ink  and stamped over the sponged area, positioning the stamp slightly over to the right side.


I inked up the pine tree stamp and stamped it on the left  side of the card, overlapping the sponged oval.


 I added some glitter glue to the branches of the trees on one of the cards. When the gltter glue was dry, I added a greeting.

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..   :-)

Wetlands Sunset Card

Today's post is a sunset card.  I love sunsets so I thought it would be  good to have a go at creating one with sponges.
The inks I used were Sunset Yellow, Real Red, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip and black Stazon.
I started by sponging over the top section of the card with yellow, then masked off a circle for the sun and the horizon. Working on the sky  I sponged on more yellow until the colour was quite intense.

 Then I applied the real red ink  gently working in from the edges of the card.   To finish the sky I added a touch of cherry cobbler in the  top corners. 
Once I was happy with the sky I removed the horizon mask (leaving the sun mask on) turned it  around, stuck it back down where the sky line finished and began working on the water.

First I applied yellow to the centre foreground.
I then applied the real red to the horizon line and worked down the card until the red and yellow met and then softly blending the two colours until I had the depth of orange I wanted.

 Using the Cherry Cobbler ink  I added a touch more colour to the horizon.
The Chocolate Chip was sponged on to the bottom two corners  and then I removed the Mask from the sun and stamped the image along the lower edge of the card using black Stazon , Making sure I  varied the height of the foliage.
Finally I stamped the Greeting using the Stamp-a-ma jig to get the position just right.
Warning : 
Do make sure your hands are clean after each step and before touching your work. 
I must have inked  this  scene about five times before this one, because I didn't 
I  totally ruined some nice sunset picture with my inky fingers.