Butterfly on black

I wanted to play along with a couple of challeneges this week, so I decided to combine a few!  This week's CASUal Fridays challenge, to use a black card base, Dynamic Duos Black tie with Poppy Parade and punches, and A Blog Named Hero's inspiration from Hero Arts Artists - I took inspiration from the layout of THIS CARD by Tami Hartley.  

 I hope you're having a great day - thanks for visiting :)

Black is black

I had a sheet of watercolour cardstock that I'd stamped, white embossed, Distress inked and doused with Perfect Pearls, but it just didn't look righ as a single sheet, so I punched out some squares that looked OK and made this card for this week's CASual Fridays challenge, Back in Black. 

Stretch your Stamps - Day 11, card 2

One more card today, before I head out - reverse stamp white embossed onto watercolour paper, then Distress Inks over the top. 

Stretch your Stamps - Day 11, Card 1

I don't own very many reverse stamps, but I do have one large Hero Arts backround reverse stamp, so I pulled it out and got it inky :) 
I stamped onto patterned paper with Versamark and clear embossed, and then inked over the embossing with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Finished with a white embossed sentiment on a strip of vellum.

Stretch your Stamps - day 10

Missed making a card for day 10 of class yesterday, so sneaking one in today - all about using border stamps. 

Stretch your Stamps - Day 9, card 2

Another card using outline stamps - this time, I stamped and white embossed the flower and leaf images onto patterned paper, then fussy cut and attached in layers. 

 Thanks for visiting - have a great day :)

Stretch your Stamps - Day 9, card 1

Using outline stamps today, and this is one of my favourites.  Thought I'd try something different - I usually use Copics to colour this stamp, but today, I stamped it onto watercolour paper, and clear embossed, then coloured using Tombow markers and my aquash pen. 

Stretch your Stamps - Day 8, card 1

Only one card today - went back to work today after a few weeks break between semesters and a week of illness, so I'm exhausted. 
Today's topic was labels or border stamps - and I was a bit stumped, as I couldn't think of any stamps in my collection that fit this category.  I went through my entire stamp collection after work, and I came up with a grand total of.....one!   Here 'tis!!  I used a few of the same elements as Kristina Werner did in her card - I used the same sentiment stamp (from Hero Arts), I altered the shape of the card front, I covered most of the card front with patterned paper (from Lawn Fawn), and I laid the sentiment on a banner on top of the label.  Not a usual card style for me, but I likey! 

A new stamp set!!!

I combined a few challenges with this card - firstly, this week's Lawnscaping challenge is an inspiration photo - lots of fun, summery images, and the colours that stood out to me were yellows, blues, greens and pinks.  Secondly, this week's challenge at A Blog Named Hero is to choose a Hero Arts Artist and get inspired - my card layout was inspired by this card by the talented Lisa Spangler.    Thirdly, I thought I'd try Jennifer McGuire's stamping on glitter technique from Stretching your Stamps a second time, but this time, I made the glitter card myself (rather than using ready made glitter cardstock), I used Memento ink rather than StazOn, and I used Copics rather than water based markers. 

PS  Happy mail arrived this morning - this new stamp set from Lawn Fawn that I won for this card from the Lawnscaping challenge!  Woo hoo!! Thank-you Laurel at Lawnscaping and Kelly Marie and Mike at Lawn Fawn!!!  :D

So, of course, I just had to ink it up IMMEDIATELY!!!

Christmas in July

I made a sheet of glitter cardstock, using a sheet of Sizzix adhesive and some very old Artee glitter that I had sitting around, but when I'd made it, all I could think of was snowflakes, instead of a flower card I had intended to make (for Stretch your Stamps online class).  Oh well :)

Unfortunately, the photo doesn't do justice to the glitteriness of the punched snowflakes :(  Which is a shame, because I'm covered in the stuff!! LOL!!

Stretch your Stamps - Day 7, card 1

Hmm- I don't thing Jennifer McGuire's stamping on glitter technique in class today agrees with me - this was my 4th attempt before coming up with anything that I could possibly post, and even then I'm not entirely ecstatic about it.  I used glitter cardstock from American Crafts instead of making my own sheet of glitter, so maybe I'll try that next. 

Inspired by .....

....Jennifer McGuire!   When I saw that the new challenge at A Blog Named Hero is to make a card inspired by a Hero Arts Artist, there was no doubt in my mind that I'd be making a card inspired by Jennifer McGuire.  (That's not to say that I won't also make cards inspired by Shari Carroll, Tami Hartley, Kelly Rasmussen or Lisa Spangler - all artists I admire greatly).  I find Jennifer's work beautiful, inspirational and classy, and she is just so generous with the papecrafting community - she's just fabulous!

I didn't actually go to Jennifer's blog and choose a particular card to CASE, I just got out a bunch of HA supplies that I know Jennifer has used and loves, and tried my best.  I know she has mentioned how much she likes the Flower Dot Pattern background stamp from HA and Basic Grey, I know she loves distress inks, and I know she ADORES Perfect Pearls.  So, starting with those three things (and adding a finishing touch of scattered black pearls), I came up with this:

Thanks for visiting - have a great day :)

Stretch your Stamps - Day 6, card 4

In class today, I loved the way Jennifer McGuire used her butterfly diecut to have a butterfly show on the front of the card, but be inside the card, AND stick out the side of the card all at the same time!  I wanted to try her technique, but after making quite a few butterfly cards this week, I'm a bit butterfly'ed out. So I had a look through my stash of diecuts (which is not incredubly huge), and I don't have a huge number of dies that specifically fit stamps (other than butterflies), but I do have the Simply Jane set of stamps, dies and patterned paper from Papertrey Ink, so I used all three and came up with this:

I think this would make a good Valentines Day card or, even better, a wedding anniversary card. 

In this close up, you can see the rolled paper flower I made from the same paper on the card front.  You can also see the detail on the frame - I've had this gold cardstock for many years - my lovely brother-in-law, Paul (who is a printer) got me some, but I'm down to my last few sheets, and I can't seem to find it in any shops (and Paul can't get any more, either), so I'm rationing it.  To give it a bit of texture, I just stamped the detailed frame stamp (from Simply Jane) onto the diecut frame in Versamark ink, then clear embossed it.  You can see in the pic how lovely and shiny the cardstock is - perfect for a gilt frame.

 And, inside, this is what the diecuts look like:

 Thanks for visiting :)

Stretch your Stamps - Day 6, card 3

Kristina Werner always has the BEST ideas.  She showed in class today how she made a butterfly with markers, watercolouring, embossing, die cutting and multiple layers!  Phew! But such a gorgeous result, I had to have a go myself. 

 I'll be submitting this card to CASual Fridays Challenge.

Stretch your Stamps - Day 6, card 2

I couldn't stop at one glittery butterfly.   So I made another one :)

 I'll be submitting this card to CASual Fridays Challenge.