Simple Wreaths and Altenew Take 2

Hello folks,

CAS on Friday's latest challenge is to use your favourite flower stamp. I'm assuming a selection of flowers will do - remember this set from W Plus 9? Fresh Cut Wreaths was everywhere when it first came out but I haven't inked mine up for ages.  I almost made a one layer, then added a simple stitched frame from MFT to finish it off.:

My second card is still clean and simple but I matted the panel on gold card stock. For both cards I used the pretty inspiration pic from The Card Concept, drawing from the soft pinks, greens and gold with a touch of yellow:

As promised I did a second take on Altenew's colour challenge using the same technique as the first:

This time I kept it simpler and created a stamped panel of Hennah Elements with a stencilled Grid background again. A small sentiment and butterfly from Stamplorations and it was done.  I do prefer the simplicity of it in comparison to this one - as I said yesterday, splatters are just not for me!

Claire

Playing with Altenew

Hello again,

I've been trying a different technique with Hennah Elements for Altenew's May colour challenge:

I've always loved Heather Telford's cards and particularly the soft, watercoloured card she made in this tutorial. I don't have many solid image stamps so thought I'd try a similar thing with these outline stamps. Instead of colouring in the whole image I inked the stamp with distress inks, spritzed with water and stamped it on watercolour paper.  I then used a water brush to soften the outline of the image. For the stencilled background I used gesso with Altenew's Grid Stencil.

To be perfectly honest I'm not sure if I like it - I'm just not a spatter kind of crafter and wish I'd just left the blooms and the stencil as is. It looks too messy for my clean and simple sensibilities! I've also made a patterned panel using the same technique so I may make another card which is more to my liking!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire

More Inky Education

Hello again,

I've been playing around with some more techniques from the classes over at Bluprint. Mayuri's class on Radiant Stamping Techniques gave me an idea for this week's Less is More challenge - Out of Focus:

In this class she showed how to create a geometric design by rotating the same stamp in different colours. I used one of Waltzingmouse's Funky Feathers - however, to achieve the blurry look, I took one of Catherine Pooler's ideas and sprayed the stamp with water before stamping.  The hello sentiment was a freebie from Poppy Stamps covered in a thick coat of Glossy Accents.

For the second one I smooshed a distress ink background and added a simple fish stamp and sentiment from Altenew's Ori Kami set. I'm popping this over to Addicted to CAS'  'Animal' themed challenge and CASology's Zodiac challenge - I'm a Pisces so it seemed logical to use the fish symbol for this one.

Lastly, I had some of the stamped squares left over from yesterday's technique in the previous post. They fitted perfectly for CAS(E) This Sketch  #368- I just added another Altenew Hennah Elements bloom and Cheery Lynn flourish and made a more CAS version of yesterdays card.  Since I used Altenew's colours (again) I'm linking up over there too!

Hope you have the time to get inky this week!

Claire

Inky Education at Bluprint

Hello fellow inkers!

With all this extra time on my hands I've been watching lots of tutorials over at Bluprint Crafts. Over the last few days there's been free access to all their classes so I've been trying different techniques - some successful and some a 5 year old would be proud of!

One of my favourite classes is with Mayuri from Candles in the Garden - she showed a technique on kraft card stock in which she stamped the back of the stamp with white pigment ink, then offset stamped over the top with a coloured ink. She then put the stamp the right way round and stamped the outline image on top in black.

I like playing with different techniques but always try to do my own take on it,  so I used grey card stock instead of kraft and stamped it with white and pink inks. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy with the result - it was far too dark and almost ended up in the bin. However,  I thought if I could add lots of white space and a bright bloom over the top, I could perhaps salvage it so I cut the piece into squares and used them as a base for this Altenew Hennah Elements bloom. The flourish is from Cheery Lynn and I've used the colours from their inspiration pic again.

I've made a couple of these cards using this technique so I'll post the second one later, along with some other cards with some much needed colour. It''s all looking a bit grey on this blog at the moment!

Happy stamping!

Claire

Altenew Inspiration Challenge

Hello again, hope you're doing well and keeping safe.

It's been ages since I played along at Altenew - I love the muted colours in their latest inspiration pic and thought I'd have a play with Painted Flowers:

Whenever I use this set I never feel like I've done it justice but I'm quite happy with how this one turned out. I splashed some ink on to the background, then embossed some of the flower outlines in white before adding the blooms.  The sentiment is from Floral Motifs.

Thanks for popping by,

Claire

Altenew Woes

Hello folks,

Here's a CAS card using CAS(E) This Sketch as inspiration and the colours from Colour Throwdown:

I've used Floral Motifs from Altenew - yet again I despair with my colouring of my Altenew blooms...I never feel like I do them justice!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Freshly made Sketch #420

Hello and happy Monday to you!

I've been playing around with the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches using the colours from Colour Throwdown:

I've used Waltzingmouse's Simple Sprig for the main image and stamped the same image on the background panel using Grout Grey Ink on Grout Grey card stock.  I love using matching inks and card stock as it looks subtle and doesn't overpower the card.  The sentiment is from Altenew and the stamped red circle around the die cut was a freebie I received recently from Winnie and Walter. I'd won a gift voucher and they threw in another stamp set for free as they were closing down - how nice is that!

Hope you get the time to get inky this week!

Claire x

Revisiting a Freshly Made Sketch

Hello fellow inkers!

Freshly Made Sketches are still celebrating reaching 400 sketches by revisiting some of their past ones. This week it's their 300th:

I remember this one first time around - you can see how I was inspired a couple of years ago here. This latest one is still clean and simple but I used a couple of MFT die cut frames and a vellum panel instead of using stamps. The butterfly die from Stamplorations has been coloured using alcohol inks on yupo.  It looked a little too clean on the plain white cardstock so I added some stencilling to the background with a sprinkle of clear glitter and a pop of pink sequins.

Happy stamping and thanks for calling by,

Claire x

Shimmering Giraffe

Hello fellow inkers!

I've been away for a few days so not much in the way of card making these school holidays. Whilst away I caught up with a lovely friend of mine who used to be an avid card maker (in fact it's partly her fault I've acquired this inky obsession) but has now developed a fixation with mixed media. So she presented me with a whole heap of stamps she no longer uses. I really felt all Christmases had come at once!

One of the sets she gave me is Altenew's Geometric Menagerie which I've used to create a card for 3 

challenges:

I've taken this month's colours at Altenew and made a very CAS card for AAA Cards (maxi white space) and CASology's new challenge where the cue word is 'shimmer.' I've coloured the giraffe with Copics and added some clear glitter to some of the triangles but yet again I lament that the glitter really hasn't been done justice in the photo!

Thanks for popping by!

Claire x

Freshly Made Sketches #389

Hello folks,

The Copics have been out again, this time for Freshly Made Sketch #389:

I haven't inked up PTI's Doodlie Do in a while. For some reason I always seem to reach for the pinks and oranges with flowers so thought I'd go for blues and greens for a change.. It was a little sparse with just the one big bloom so I added a second but kept it uncoloured. The background is Gesso with a honeycomb stencil and I've added a sentiment from Altenew. 

Thanks for calling by!

Claire x

Ombre...or Maybe Not

Hello, hope you're having a good week!

Addicted to CAS has another code word to inspire which is 'ombre.' I used 3 similar shades of distress inks but two of them look almost identical so I'm afraid it's not very ombre-ish!

I also used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch - I found the sentiment placement quite difficult so ended up stamping on the diagonal with an Altenew sentiment.

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Altenew Inspiration Challenge

Hello bloggers. Happy weekend and all that!

My mojo seems to have gone AWOL in the last few days which is always a source of frustration.  I've  tried to get it back by playing along with Altenew but when I mixed the purple and violet alcohol inks, they pooled together and formed blue.  Which means my card doesn't really look like any of the colours in the inspiration pic...

I've used Hennah Elements with a couple of polaroid die cuts and flourishes, one in white and the other in green.

I'm also popping it over to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge which is Anything Goes!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Less is More: Olive and Tangerine

Hello, hello,

I've had a few guest designer stints in the last few months so haven't had the chance to play around with some new stuff sitting in my stash. Sarah from Funky Fossil very kindly sent me a couple of her stencils recently so I've been having a play with Forest Foliage for the latest Less is More challenge - to use olive and tangerine:

I stencilled a large panel using some distress inks, then cut it down using some of MFT's Mod Rectangles. I matted part of the panels with black card stock to make them pop against the white, then added a leaf sprig and sentiment from Altenew. Not sure about this one - I've never been a big fan of olive but I guess the bright mandarin cheers it up a bit!

Enjoy your week!

Claire x

Altenew Inspiration Challenge

Hello and happy weekend to you!

Quick post for Altenew's April challenge featuring the dreaded purple:

I used Floral Morifs, white embossed and watercoloured with Copics.  I splattered some Colorbursts but the colours were so bright they kind of overpowered the delicacy of the blooms so I covered them with some corner die cuts.

I'm also popping this over the Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge where anything goes!

Happy stamping!

Claire x

Plenty of CAS

Hello folks!

It's CAS all the way with these three cards. First up are a couple I've made for Darnell's Twofer challenge. The theme is pets so I used Your Next Stamp's goldfish from Keepin' it Reel and a sentiment from Fishy Fun. I think most people have probably owned a goldfish once in their lifetime - normally won at the fair and then flushed down the toilet a couple of months later when it's found floating at the top of the fish tank - or was that only mine?

I'm also popping the first one over to Addicted to Cas where the theme is bubbles. I stencilled some circles over the inked backgound and added plenty of glossy accents to create a shiny bubble effect:

The second one is quite similar but I've stencilled with texture paste behind the stitched frame using one of Sarah G's stencils that she kindly sent me a couple of weeks ago. Check out her other designs here - I've used Geo Circles:

Next up is Less is More's latest challenge which is to bring something back. I really enjoyed this and  went right back to when I first started cardmaking and bought Stampin' Up's Stem Silhouettes. Remember that set?

I kept it very simple and embossed the stem against the inked background using copper embossing powder. I'd forgotten how much I liked this set and it felt good to ink it up after years of non-use - having said that, it made me remember why I don't like using wood mounted stamps as I can't see where I'm positioning the stamp. (And I'm way too lazy to use a stamp-a-ma-jig!)

That's it for now, hope you get the chance to get inky this weekend!

Claire x