Bugs

These 'bugs' stamp sets from Creative Expressions are really quirky. I have done a few! Here is a selection.

The large card blank was covered in green spotty paper and the edges distressed. The centre mat is agai white card covered in plain green paper, again distressed.  The spiders web was stamped across the green paper and embossed in black.  The boot, ants and toadstool were water coloured and cut out and stuck on with 3D foam. The 'cute' spider was also cut out and two huge wobbly eyes added then stuck over one of the webs.

The  black card was mounted with yellow paper and the huge sunflower from the set was stamped three times directly onto the white mat and coloured. The centres have seed beeds for texture. The boot, ants and flying thing were coloured, cut out and 3D mounted to the card. The sentiment finishes it.

I didn't realise how much I had used black and yellow card for this selection but again, here it is! A white mat was stamped repeatedly with the web and embossed. The boot painted and cut out along with the ants. The big eyed spider was stamped onto a nestibilities die cut and then stamped again with only the body being cut out. It was mounted onto acetate to allow it to wobble about. 

The final card is for my grandson's birthday in July (hope he doesn't look). The easel was made, yet again with black cardstock. The tin can was painted and cut out with one of the ants being inserted through a slit in the top of the can.  The other ants were stamped across the inside of the card and painted, the centre one was stamped again with only the body added to make a 'stop' for the easel to stand on.  All the mats had the web stamped over them.

Hi Cupcake

Thought I would try using some of my paper stash for these cards. This A5 cream card has a metallic purple mat, followed by the spotty paper. The next mat is again metallic purple with the stripe, these were mounted using foam tape. The cupcakes for all the cards were stamped using Cosmic Shimmer Olympic Gold Lustre then painted using CS paints and the 'sweet elements' on top were glittered. Finished with the sentiments 'Hi Cupcake' and 'Naughty but very nice'. 

The black and yellow card is made using paper direct from Japan! Nestibilities were used for the mounts and the cupcake again painted with CS paint.

Simple matting and layering for the flowery card, but quite effective. Perhaps a little stamping around the edges might have given it a lift?

The little square card again uses more of my paper stash! But this time I also stamped a little around the edges in black to make it pop out a little. Also used the black mat for the same reason.

Not too sure about the easel card, I think perhaps deeper paint on the cupcake, it does seem a little lost on the strong orange card.

I couldn't decide if I liked the last card. I had some free papers from a magazine (can't remember which one) and quite liked it. So, I matted it onto the ornge cardbase. Did orange mats for the cupcakes and stamped a cupcake greeting for the middle. Oh, well, It's different!

Fans

Here are a selection of fans shaped cards. The first one is using the Glitter Girls fan embossing board for the basic shape. The peacock lady head is a stamp from Elusive Images. All cut out and simply stamped but then glitzed up with gems, gems and more gems. The second fan is made using the same stamp but done in purples - still lots of gems but also a couple of flowers this time too.   The next two are made using Joanna Sheen's Dancing with Shadows CDRom.  On the pink fan I cut the fan shapes directly around the ladies and mounted them onto the fan. The backing paper was, I think, printed from an Artilicious CDRom. Flowers are used to decorate this time. The final black/gold fan is also made using Joanna Sheen's CDRom, but this time I mounted the fan shape onto a cardblank.  I copied the ladies into 'word' and made them quite a bit smaller. I then painstakingly cut them out!  These were then stuck onto the gold background. I used one of the border shapes to emboss the top and bottom of the card and cut out black inlays topped with little punched flowers.  All these fan card had matching boxes made for them.

Just stamping

A really simple card using the Chatsworth collection of stamps from Docrafts. The background cards are cream and stamped repeatedly with the chandelier. The smaller piece is mounted onto a bronze satin cardstock. I stamped and clear embossed the standard lamp onto the same cream cardstock and mounted it up onto the bronze card. Pale green gemstones are used around the edges of each mount. It's your day sentiment finishes the card.

The second card is very similar, done mostly the same way except for the purple mirror card and gems around the edges.

Today's offering

This one started out to be a simple make! I started off with tan cardstock with a pearlised paper on top stamped with a leaf design. So far so good!  Then using acetate I put alcohol inks over it, then spread a good layer of glossy accents over this followed by scrunched up tissue paper. After leaving it to dry overnight I stamped the 'Create a Scene - pub' directly onto the acetate. I also stamped the leaf design along the left side and top edge. This should have been the end of the card! However, I smudged the ink on the pub - totally spoiled. So, what could I do? I restamped the pub and embossed in black. I then painted it using distress inks. I also embossed  and coloured the barrels and the pub sign. I then used UTEE to completely cover the pub and the sign - very shiny.  The bottom of the card was rather bare - (oh how one thing leads to another!) so I decided to stamp the flower heads along it. Again, unfortunately, I made a mess on the card holding the acetate! So, I cut out the flower heads and stuck them individually along the bottom edge. I then cut a thin frame to fit exactly over the top of mounted acetate - thus hiding all my messy mistakes!  The bottom photo is just at another angle.

Fathers Day

I know it's a bit girlie but my dad likes butterflies and flowers. I started off making the background using Ranger distress ink (I made two). The second one I used to stamp the flowers on (Creative Expressions plate). All the stamping was using the perfect medium ink and black embossing powder. Once the matting and layering was done I overstamped the background with flourishes and added the cut out flowers. A little stickles glitter glue finshed the centres. The Elusive Images butterfly was also painted using distress inks, then glued only on the body allowing for a little movement. Finally I added more flowers and a base plate, cut using a Wizard die, with Happy Fathers Day to act as a stop allowing the card to stand open. On the back I added a further plate Wizard die cut with my sentiment.

So different

The first card is done simply on black card using silver accent. The silver card was run through a Wizard using an Impressibilities die.  The card does look a little purple but this is due to light casting shadows. The dragon is painted using orange and purple Cosmic Shimmer paints. The accents are cut from Spellbinders dies.

This card is done on a black card. The background paper was made by running a sheet of thin card through the Wizard using a piece of netting to emboss. I then stamped a leaf border in different distress inks. After this dried I went over the whole page with distress inks and cut & dry foam. The tulips are from a stamp by Papermania. These were also coloured using distress inks. I allowed each coat of ink to dry before adding further ink to shade. After it all dried I went over the whole page with distress inks and cut & dry foam.

Peacock lady

This Elusive Images stamp was covere with gold embossing powder then inked with distress inks. Gems were added at various points, along with the cut out peacock feathers. Her face was lightly coloured with inks.

A4 wedding card

An A4 gatefold wedding card. Made by fixing 2 A5 cards to an A4 backplate. Lots of silver embossing! Also used a Keepsake embossing board for the glasses. Wizard dies used for the buckles and corners. Name tags done simply on the PC. Also my first ever 'bouquet', was quite pleased with it. If I ever discover how to add a gallery I will add lots of my previous cards. However, for now I will be glad if I can just keep adding my current makes.

Thanks for looking.

First Post

Well it seems I have finally managed to actually get something onto my blog! It has been a long time coming. There always seems to be something else that needs doing and time slips away. However, now I have made a start..........................