Christmas Animals

Christmas Animals

Hallo There!

Getting nice and chilly now and

we've even had some snow down

here on the coast.  It was amazing

everyone was talking about it

and I never saw a thing.......even

though I was on the phone at

the time and looking out the

window!  Apparently it lasted

all of ten minutes.................!

Right, back to business and you

will be relieved to know that

there is no snow involved.

Louise Thompson is here with

the first of our Christmas animals:

"Penny black have to be one of my all

 time favourite stamp companies, 

so when asked to make a Christmas card 

with mice there was no question I would 

use their stamps.

These ones come from a set called 

'U R the gift.' I stamped them on four

 separate squares of card and coloured

 them with Inktense pencils. 

If you haven't come across Inktense before, 

you add water to them for a watercolour effect

 but they retain their lovely bright colours

which don't move once the ink has dried.

I wanted to add the text around the pictures

so after some deliberation decided to hand 

write it on using fine liner.

I mounted the images on to two card blanks

 using 3d foam mount tape and then fixed

 those cards together for a concertina effect

Look away now if you're squeamish around

 small furries, but by complete chance I ended up

 fostering my own little family of 'Christmice'

This is Sprout!"

Materials;

Penny black stamps 

Inktense pencils

Card

Stickles glitter

Delightful cards Louise and

thank you for sharing one

of your Christmice with us.

Sprout looks so cute.....!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Crafty Emotions

Crafty Emotions

Hallo Everyone!

Good to see you!  Do you

know anyone with a pre-

Christmas birthday?....

You do?....

Well here's a gorgeous

card from Craftyfield

 "Succulent, or cactus (Cactii) as I know them,
 are in trend in the crafting world and as soon 
as I saw the Craft Emotion set I knew I wouldn't
 be able to resist!

 It has several elements, enough to build up
 a complete rockery...

I first stamped all the images on the sheet
 and fussy cut them to help me decide on
 a composition.

 I settled on using only 3 elements to keep
 things relatively CAS. I used my fussy cut
 images as masks to stamp on watercolour
 paper with Brilliance ink in black.

 I coloured the image with Inktense pencils.
 Keep it light, you can always add colour later...

I then used a wet brush to "melt" the colour
 on the paper. After this first wash was dry,
 I re-applied pencils where I needed more
 contrast or more intense colour.

For the background, I wanted lots of shine,
 so I used Starlight paints, applied with
 a brayer all over a piece of cardstock. 

You can see the shine, in fact that
 is pretty much all you can see, 
despite the weather being decidely cloudy
. 
I put together my card by matting the
 focal image onto Art-C glitter card in
 black, adding a sentiment stamped in 
black ink on a piece of white glitter card.
 
I really like that card it's non shedding glitter,
 sturdy but still die-cuts easily, and it shines...

So nice I added another piece of white 
glitter and used Enamel Accents to create
 faux brads.

Without proper sunlight it is difficult to show how nice
 the glitter looks, but I thought you might want 
to see how well it stamped, as I was concerned
 this would be a problem, especially as the
 script on this stamp is quite small. 

I should say that I did enlist my trusty stamping 
platform to stamp the sentiment and I did 3 inkings
 to get the intensity of black I wanted.

You may wonder why cactus for a birthday card
 and I'm mulling over several funny sentiments
 I can add to the inside. 
"No need to be prickly, you're not that old" 
or similar. 

I would be grateful for your suggestions
 so don't hold back and add your
 comments below...please... pretty please?

Supplies: 

Craft Emotions stamps:
Starlight paints:
Brilliance inks:
Glitter card: 
Water soluble pencils: 
Enamel accents:

Thank you for a great card

Craftyfield and also for making

us all smile.....

Well, I laughed out loud

I know a few people who 

are feeling a little prickly

over their birthdays right now...

'Till tomorrow 

Mickie xx

Undercover

Undercover 

Hallo Everyone

We have another card for

you today - this time we

are by the sea wth

Louise Thomson

"Hi there!

I seem to have gone down a very 

'beachy' route recently without realising

 it - must be in need of a holiday!

Anyway, it is hard to resist the lovely beach

 themed stamps from Impression Obsession...

I stamped this tranquil scene using 

archival ink so that the detail would remain

 when using watercolours. 

It is coloured with inktense pencils which 

are another current favourite of mine.

 

The pencils work fine on their own 

but adding water to them really brings them to life.

 I ran the archival pad around the edge

 of the card to give it a border. 

I masked most of the picture and then sprayed 

with colour bloom for a bit of sheen, 

added more archival ink and some scribbley bits

 with the inktense pencils to give the whole thing 

a slightly antique look.

Next to mount it on to my background. 

It is my first time playing with a cover a card stamp 

so naturally there had to be a bit of experimentation

 before I committed to anything too serious

Take one - inked up with brushos, spritzed with water, 

with a paintbrush dragged across for good measure

 Take two - inked with pale blue VersaMagic pad - 

no good in this instance but I think it would 

have been fine if I had chosen a darker shade of blue

Take three - using Fresco paints applied with cut n dry foam.

Take four - Using distress oxides applied to wet paper. 

Plenty of options to choose from but I went 

with the Frescos this time as I liked the way

 the paint colours blended.

I inked it twice to cover this long thin card. 

If you want a more subtle join you can avoid 

inking all the way to the straight edge, 

however it didn't really matter to me as

 the join was going to be covered up. 

I also gave the card a border using more Fresco paint 

applied directly with a sponge.

I laid out a few scraps of paper from my stash which 

had nice textures to them.

Using an Impression Obsession die I cut a couple

 of nautical shapes and coated them in alchemy wax...

...and layered them all up together.

I added a couple more die cuts and a few 

enamel accents to finish it all off.

Naturally it only seemed right to make the 

card insert and envelope match as well - 

partially inking the cover a card stamp 

worked really well for this."

Materials list:

Impression Obsession stamp – Gary Robertson designs, Seaside Scene

Cover a card stamp - clouds

Archival ink- potting soil

Derwent Inktense Pencils

Impression obsession die - seabirds

Impression obsession die -mini nautical

Fresco paints- turquoise, antarctic, nougat

Color bloom spray – Sorbet

Alchemy wax – Inca gold

Distress oxides- faded jeans, broken china

Cut n dry foam and scraps of 

textured paper from stash

Thank you Louise - loved your

experimentation with the

different colouring mediums.

A great idea to make the

insert and the envelope to match

Think I will carry on the experimentation

this evening - I am particularly impressed

with the Oxides and the Brushos!

'Til tomorrow

Mickie xx

Quirky Birds

Quirky Birds

Hallo Everyone!

Another beautiful day on

planet Earth - it certainly

is a beautiful day in my

parallel universe......!

Today's project is just

tailor made for those of

us who have difficulty in

knowing what day of the

week we're in........!

Here is Craftyfield to show

us the way.....

"When I saw this bird, standing on one foot 

and looking sorry for himself, I knew 

this Joggles image would be my "Oops" stamp. 

You know "Oops" I forgot your birthday, 

"Oops" I heard you broke your leg... 

I thought a CAS design would be ideal and

 quick to make in a batch.

 I will finish the inside when I know 

what "Oops" I'm dealing with!

I stamped my bird with Distress Oxide, 

partly because I was trying the new inks and 

partly because this happened to be the most appropriate 

yellow for a no-line colouring.

[no-line colouring: when the stamped lines 

are invisible or near invisible after colouring]

I coloured Quirky no3 with watersoluble pencils, 

masked his legs with masking fluid and 

splattered yellows, brown and blue also with the pencils

I stencilled chicken wire behind the bird.

I used an old alphabet stamp set to 

create my sentiment.

I added finishing touches by die-cutting 

with a Stitched frame die.

Now I am all set for my next gaffe!"

Supplies: 

Joggles Quirky Bird No3: 
Distress Oxide Fossilized Amber:
Inktense pencils: 
Chicken wire stencil:
Memento black ink:
Alphabet stamp: my old set is not available 

but Card-io makes a great one here

Thank you Craftyfield

I think this is the perfect

"belated/sorry" card I have seen 

in a long while

i think it is so apt I am

going to make a few

After all, I am bound to

have a good many

Oops! moments

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx