Bamboo beauty

I have been in two minds over this stamp set for some time. It's called Bamboo Beauty.  This quarter I finally decided to buy it because I was struggling to find items in the catalogue I needed, liked or wanted. 

I like bamboo so of course I am going to like this set, but I am not sure how often it will get used. I particularly like the sentiment on this card. I don't think I'd describe it as an uplifting sentiment, I think it's a more thought provoking sentiment on strength and flexibility. 

I rather like the tiny Japanese writing stamp, but I do wish the stamp makers would provide  a translation for this type of stamp. I wouldn't normally use a stamp like  this without  knowing what it says. Can you imagine stamping it on a sympathy card and then finding out it says Happy Birthday. 

 If anyone reading this can read Japanese,  I'd be so grateful if you could tell me what that tiny stamp says.

Inspiration is everywhere.

 Sometimes I'm asked where I get my inspiration and ideas from, my answer is everywhere. 

These cards are the perfect example of that. 

Last week while travelling on the motorway a van  delivering wine caught my eye. It had an attractive company design on the side, which got me wondering several things. First one being do I have a stamp suitable, two, which stampin up ink pad is closest to the colour on the van and three, could I reproduce the a similar design that would work on a card. 

Well I didn't have a grape stamp that would work, but I had a vine like leaf that may work. The above card was the result of playing with one leaf stamp from the autumn splendour stamp set, heat embossing it multiple times on white card, and using clear embossing powder. 

Then blending  a mix of blueberry bushel and soft succulent ink over the embossed card. 

The card below was made using the pieces I trimmed off the panel above. These would normally have gone straight in the bin.  But I had been watching a of lot videos on working with scraps, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's not my cup of tea, but it shows that you can make a half decent card out of the scraps that you would normally throw away.

And if you'd like to the design that captured my interest... Take a look at the back end of the truck in the photo below.

 

Don't be fooled by the front of this card... it's all happening on the inside.

This is a card I designed about 10 years ago, but never completed. Earlier this week I came across the prototype and decided to give it another go. It took three attempts but that was because I kept getting  ink on my fingers and it transferred to the card. But I persevered and this was the final result.

 

I started out with a sheet of basic white card  cut to  5  7/8 th  x 8 1/4 inches for the back panel. 

The front panel was cut to  8 1/4  x 5 inches. 

I stamped the balloons on both panels and masked them off before doing the ink blending.  

There are three score lines on the front panel and one in the middle of the back panel. But I'll come back to that later.

Warning!!  Do NOT score before completing the blending. The ink collects on the score lines making them much darker and unsightly and any stamping over the score lines will be patchy.

I  used torn paper and a blending brush and an assortment of green inks along with so saffron ink for the fields and blueberry bushel for the sky. 

The stamp sets I used are retired S.U  sets called,  Lovely as a tree and Up up and away. I used my cloud stencil, which is basically cloud shapes cut into the edges of a page from a glossy mag and blended ink over the edge to form the clouds. 

The front panel (The bit that folds out) I stamped the first balloon as close to the top as possible and masked it off.  I cut in half diagonally across the long side but in a wavy/hilly way, cutting around the red balloon.  After blending in the fields and a little sky. You may notice in photos that the sky disappears  later... I decided I didn't need it, so cut some off, then decided to do the front panel again without the sky.                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                   

 

The small trees are the single leaf stamp in the Lovely as a tree set.  

I began stamping the trees.  

Stamp the rest of the balloons  on the back panel and masked off before blending the sky.

  

With a the fine end of a dark brown stamp and write marker, I drew in branches  and thickened the leaf stem to turn it in to a trunk. I scribbled some shrubbery around the base of the trees to ground them.  Then coloured the leaves with Copic markers, a light  green at the top and dark green at the bottom and not forgetting to add some green on the shrubs.

The last thing to stamp were the trees in the foreground. 

On the front panel, I  scored a half  an inch in from each end to wrap around the back of the back panel and I scored a third line in the middle.

Score the centre of the back panel in the centre.

Fold the score lines and adhere the front to the back, by wrapping and gluing the the half inch flaps around the back of the back panel.

 I cut a 6x 4 1/8 th inch base  card in white and blended some clouds on the front to match the inside. Punched out a balloon  in white and coloured it. Confession Time... I did actually stamp the balloon on the front and then smudged it, hence the punched balloon. It was slightly bigger than the stamped one, so it covered my mistake well. Once all the blending and stamping was done I adhered the inside into the base card with Tombow mono glue.

 Push the front flap into the card to fit in a standard 6x4 envelope.

Sweet as a Peach cards

 

 I used the Sweet as a Peach set to create these cards along with the coordinating DSP.

I don't really get why you'd put fruit on a card, but this was quite pretty and it reminded me of Avon's Pretty Peach soap on a rope. I loved the smell of it. I'm giving away age now ha ha.

Many years ago S.U did a pair of edgelet dies with a coordinating embossing folders. I used these to cut and emboss the edge of the top layer.

I am not a fan of the Dist-ink-tive stamps because they leave a tiny dotty effective rather than a solid image, so I was in two minds about buying this set. The effect is rather like the old magic painting books.  To combat that effect I used a blender pen to smooth out those dots between the layers.

When I say layers, it's because I stamped the peach multiple times. First I stamped in peekaboo peach then stamped on top with pretty in pink twice and blended the colours together with the blender pen.  With a sponge dauber I added some cherry cobbler ink around the  very edges of the stamp only and stamped over the top again. I did this a couple of times more,  bringing the cherry cobbler ink in a little further each time and blending each layer of ink. Resulting  in a deeper more intense colour at the edges and no dots.

  I also used the blender pen on the leaves and flowers to eradicate those dots.

I kept the card below simple, I just used the blossom from the same set on the this card.

  Not a peach in sight.

Slim line cards

 These three cards were a result of me experimenting with hinge stamping and  the stampin' up set Biggest Wish. I wanted to see  if I could create a  slim line card using all seven colours of the rainbow with this large stamp set,  but  it didn't quite work as the stamparatus isn't quite big enough for the taller  DL cards.

 As I write this an idea pops into my head on how this might be achieved. I'll let you know if it works when I 've tired it.

For the other two cards, I wasn't so ambitious  and stuck to just a couple of colours. I added a thin line stickles glitter to the  uprights of the letters only.

Camping themed cards

I ordered the Campology stamp set basically to make up my figures for this quarter. I didn't really want it. It's not the sort of stamp set I would go for, but I did really like the trees, so I am glad I did buy it. 

I have had hours of fun playing with this set over the last few days.

The card above is Hubby's birthday card for next week. Maybe it will remind him of a camp site in Suffolk we stayed on, more than 40 years ago. It was called the Moon and Sixpence. I loved that name, which is probably why I remembered it. I also recall it cost more than sixpence to camp there.  That's enough of my memories, time to tell you about todays cards.

 The card above is nothing like what I had in my mind when I started it. I had originally stamped the lantern on the scene, but I didn't like it, so I started messing around with aperture card fronts and managed to save a portion of the card.

 However  the handle of the lantern was showing through the aperture, which was not a good look. 

After a little thought on how to get round this, I decided to stamp and colour the lantern on a separate  piece of card. I then cut it out, cutting off the handle. 

 I inked up the handle part of the lantern stamp only, and using the stamp a majig, I matched up the handle on the stamp with the piece of handle showing through the aperture and stamped the handle on the front panel. I then stuck the body of the lantern on the front matching it up with the handle.

To create this one I stamped the tent twice and masked each one off as I stamped them. Then blended  a band of yellow ink through the centre, above the yellow, I blended in some peachy ink, followed by pink ink and finally purple. 

I then stamped the trees over the top and sponged in the foreground and added the sentiment.

I have had a few questions about how I coloured the tents. 

Here's how I do it...

 I coloured the tent with alcohol markers, starting with a pale yellow, draw a circle and colour it in. 

 Add a circle of a golden yellow around the pale yellow, then  draw an orange  circle and fill the corners. Blend all the colours together with the lightest coloured marker.  If you want a little more shading  add  a little brown in darker areas and blend all the colours together with the lighter coloured marker. Don't blend too much or you will blend out all the shading.

  I wanted the trees to have a bit more substance,  so  I dabbed dots of dark green ink on the foliage areas and coloured in the trunks. Lastly, I dotted stars in the sky with a white Posca pen.

The card above was inspired by Michelle Zindorf, I saw her version and decided I wanted to have a go at reproducing it myself.  I would never have thought of using greens in the sky, but it works.

I am happy with the result, it's quite close to the original,  but not exactly the same.  I think Michelle's card is nicer.

My third card is a 3x 7 inch card.  I adapted the image to fit the slimline card.

I swapped out the lantern for the coffee pot and mug. I cut out the pot and mug and adhered them in the foreground using dimensionals.

 My final card, which was actually one of my first attempts with this set. I almost abandoned it as I thought the foreground was too dark, then I decided to try painting a path through the foreground  with a paint brush, after water waiting a few seconds for the water to do it's stuff, I dabbing off the water with kitchen towel. The water lifted just enough ink to create a moonlit path through the darkness. So I managed to save yet another piece of work that was heading for the bin. I found some tiny crystal stars in my sparkles drawer and used three on this card. 

Campology Tutorial.

I posted a couple of cards on the  Stampin' up demonstrator face book page yesterday and the response was phenomenal.  I have been asked  many times to do a video on colouring the stamped images, in this instance the tent,  but my blog won't allow me to upload videos. The nearest I can come to a video is a photo tutorial. 

So I don't have a finished card for you today. The purpose of this post is to show you one of the ways I have been working with the Campology set. Which hopefully will answer all the questions left on FB. The actual cards will be posted  here on Tuesday,  which is Hubby's birthday. As he follows my blog,  I can't have him seeing his card on here before then. Hence the delay in posting the actual cards.

 If you are a visiting demo you will probably have seen the cards already and they are probably the reason you are visiting here.  I hope that this post will answer your questions.

First I stamped the tent onto my piece of basic white card and again on the sticky edge of a post it note.

 I cut out the tent from the post it , cutting on the inside of the stamped line. I placed the post it over the stamped image, to protect the tent from the blending process. You really don't want to get any ink on the tent.

I used Blueberry Bushel and a blending brush to create the sky. I load the brush with ink then tap off the excess in the lid of the ink pad, I can come back and collect the ink from the lid next time I need to load my brush.  I also work on a sheet of laminated card, this is so I can brush the ink from the laminated card onto the  piece I am working on, meaning I don't waste too much ink.  If I was working on paper the paper would soak up a lot of ink and I could never reclaim that. Yep! I am a tightwad.

Always start work from the top edge of your card and blend down towards the middle. The top edge will absorb most of the ink on your brush, as you work downwards the  less ink you will have on your brush, which will give you a graduated look. This will help to give the scene a little depth.

The next step was to stamp those trees. I roughly lined up the bottom of the tree stamp with the back edge of the tent, so as not to stamp over the guylines holding up the tent.

 I moved the tree stamp over and planted another row of trees on the opposite side of the tent. One set of trees looks great, but I decided to go with two sets on this sample.

Using a piece of torn scrap paper and Soft suede ink I brushed in some shade at the base of the tent and under the trees. I used the edge of the torn paper to brush in  some extra shading or contour lines.

 You can add the stars  with a white Posca pen now if you wish or leave it to the end.

 With a Mellow Moss ink pad  and a brush, I completely covered  the foreground in green ink.  This time working from the bottom upwards so the intensity of the green is darker at the bottom. You can still see those contour lines I brushed in but they are nowhere near as obvious. They give the impression of uneven ground without hitting you in the face.

                           Now we can colour that tent. So remove the mask. Take a pale yellow alcohol marker  The paler the better. Draw a circle with the marker and colour in the middle. 

With  a  slightly stronger, more intense yellow, draw another circle around the first circle and overlapping the first slightly.  Do not colour it in this time. You're creating a bullseye effect with the markers.

With a stronger  golden yellow, draw another circle around the first two,  slightly over lapping the last circle.

 With   a light or mid tone orange marker draw  another circle and fill in the corners of the tent with light orange.

Going back to the lightest yellow marker, gently blend the  hard lines between the circles. They don't have to disappear altogether, you just want to soften the edges.  

Don't go over the middle circle, you need to keep that as light as possible. 

Warning..... If you blend too much, you will washout all the darker colours. You are  also in danger of flooding your card with ink.  The good news is, if you do blend out too much colour,  let your card dry and then you can put it back in.

    

If you want a little more shading on the edges, try adding a little mid brown in the shaded areas and blend to soften the edges a little. Once you've achieved the look you like,  add some stars with a white Posca pen. if you haven't done it already.

I am including a photo of the marker pens I used  to give you an idea of the colours I used.

However I think I should have swapped the pale yellow Y11 to canary yellow Y02 or something even lighter.

 I do hope this information has helped and answered all the questions.

Nuts and Bolts

I almost missed this set in the mini catalogue, if I hadn't seen a cute card by another demonstrator, I probably would have missed this set altogether.

I have really enjoyed playing with  this set. I got a bit carried away stamping and colouring these little guys and have a little pile of them waiting to be turned into cards.

For the card below I decided to experiment with some die cut gears in silver foil as a background.  I used saddle brown Stazon ink to give the impression of rust.  I think this one would make a good Thank you card,

I embossed a piece of silver foiled card for the background of the next card. I wanted a more industrial feel to it.

I have say the colours are a bit washed out in this photo, in reality they are much stronger.

If you take a closer look at the card below, you may notice I have put one of his arms in a different position.  I have also added a banner, borrowed  from the woodland wonder set.  

I used two of the robots to make this anniversary card.

Here's a 5 x 5 card,  using up some waste materials.

For the card below I stamped the gears using a stamp from the Sense of Time set, then blended ink over the stamping. The greeting is from otterly awesome stamp set.

Here's how I changed the position of his arm.

You'll need a stamp positioning tool for this technique.

The Tool is in two parts and consists of a  clear plastic sheet and a black T shaped tool.

 Cover the arm with the sticky part of a Post it note ( you could also use Sellotape.) then ink up the stamp.

 Remove the post it, and stamp the image.

 Now mask off the body with a post it note.

Ink up the arm  and remove the post it note.

 Using  the Stamp a Majig   (stamp positioning tool )  Place the  plastic sheet into the corner of the T tool, then stamp the arm onto the clear plastic sheet,

 

 Position the plastic sheet over the body of your stamped image and line up the end of the arm with the outline of the body. When you have the arm positioned  where you want it, hold the plastic sheet firmly in place and bring back the T tool and place it back on the corner of the sheet.

 

Ink up the arm of the stamp again, using a post it to mask off the body. Just as you did to stamp the arm on the plastic sheet.

Go back to the positioning tool.....Check your arm is still aligned with the body and that your plastic sheet and T tool  haven't moved.

Hold the  T tool firmly and remove the plastic sheet. 

Check you stamp is the right way round and stamp the arm in it's new position.

This might seem like an awful lot of trouble to go to to move an arm half an inch, But I really wanted him to be waving that flag above his head.

In the photo below  you will see I have given him a flag to wave,   it's from the Woodland Wonder set. Yay! all that remains to be done is the colouring and to turn him into a card of some sort.