Butterflies on brushos.

 

Hi everyone, my stepdad asked me to make a thank you card for the nurses involved in his chemo therapy. He wanted something with butterflies, but on a bigger card.

Luckily I had some 5x7 inch bases to use. It's a bit trickier composing something on a bigger base although this die, which is quite large, fits better than on my regular bases!

For the background I sprinkled brushos in a couple of blues onto watercolour paper and spritzed with water. The butterflies were fussy cut and coloured with inktense pencils. The sentiment diecut is embossed with black sparkle powder, it's nice and glittery in real life.

I'm linking up to the anything goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.

It's also anything goes at Word Art Wednesday.

At Stamplorations, the focus is on sentiments.

I'm also joining a new to me challenge Make My Monday, where the theme is wet or dry embossing.
I've used wet embossing on the butterflies and the diecut sentiment.

Supplies:

Hero Arts antique engravings butterfly stamp; versafine ink & clear ep; inktense pencils; brushos; Memory Box thanks die; versamark ink & black sparkle ep; Simon Says Stamp thaks sentiment stamp.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Rubber band bamboo!

Hi everyone, I'm racing to the finish line with this card!

I wanted to join in the fun at CAS Mix Up Card Challenge, where they are stamping with rubber bands!

There are some amazing entries and designs by the DT. I wrapped a few bands around an acrylic block ( don't have a brayer with a removable roller). I thought the lines looked a bit like bamboo and went with that!

My other elements are stamping, fussy cutting and diecutting. The base is a hammer card and it has that great texture when you buy it.

At Simon Says Work it Wednesday, it's a Mother's Day theme.

I'm also linking up to the CAS challenge at Addicted to Stamps & More,

At AAA Cards it's all about the perfect day. Mother's Day is usually pretty perfect for me as I am happily spoilt so that I don't have to do any cooking, cleaning or housework, and if I want to stay in the craft room all day...I can lol!

Supplies:

Mama Elephant panda stamp; black archival ink; versafine olympia green ink;  Crafts 4 u stitched rectangle die; Happy Little Stampers stitched border die; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Scottie dogs!

Hi everyone, I'm scraping in late again to a few challenges.

Had major computer problems with Windows 10 updates, and then today we had no electricity from 5am to 3pm!

The theme at Twofer Card Challenge is pets.

I love terriers like these, although our dogs are nothing like them lol! We have a blue heeler and a black labrador.

I've used snow texture paste for the furry look, and coloured it with black acrylic paint for the black dog.

I'm linking this card, to these challenges:

At The Male Room the theme is symmetry.

I used the rule of thirds to lay this design out, and tried to get the pup's positions to be symmetrical.

Happy Little Stampers Anything goes with dies,

and the anything goes option at Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge.

I've created the background by smooshing watercolour paper through some brushos spritzed with water.

At Inkspirational the theme is play. These 2 pups look like they're about to have a great play session!

Supplies:

Marianne Design dog die; Poppystamps grassland border die; Simon Says Stamp hellos die;DecoArt snow tex paste; brushos; forest moss distress ink. The white card base is embossed with Spellbinders Valor embossing folder.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Vintage flowers.

Hi everyone, I was excited to be asked to play along as a guest designer at

Retro Rubber Challenge Blog.

I have a lot of old stamps, in fact I seek out ones I missed from Stampin Up on a couple of 2nd hand auction sites here in Australia! I told hubby it's a legitimate form of collecting lol!

To play along with the challenge there is this gorgeous pic for inspiration,

and these are the guidelines:

Remember to use a stamp older than a year and you must include the age (or approximate age) of the stamp in your blog post. After all – we want to give these old stamps some love!

This stamp is from a Stampin Up set called Summer Solstice and it dates around 2011.

I stamped it in versafine, clear embossed, and fussycut it. I also cut along the edges of the petals, so thet when I shaped the flower it allowed the petals to move and separate for dimension.

The flowers are coloured with distress markers in spun sugar and worn lipstick, with a touch of vintage photo distress ink at the edges. The flourish die is cut from a scrap of watercolour paper coloured with jade infusions powder.

I'm also linking up to the flower power challeneg at Simon Says Stamp Monday,

and to the anything goes option at Seize the Birthday.



Using snippets for the flourishes means I can visit the snippets playground too, so I'm linking up to
Pixie's Crafty Workshop. You only need to use 1 scrap or snippet to play along.

Supplies:

SU Summer Solstice stamp and Pretty in Print embossing folder; versafine ink & clear ep; distress markers; prills micro beads; PaperArtsy Infusions-jade; MFT small leafy flourish die; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Slow and steady, snail's pace.

I'm not a huge fan of snail's in the garden, but they are fascinating!

I stamped this one onto a scrap of watercoloured paper and also onto some white card, so I could fussy cut, colour and paper piece onto the card. Close up it looks like 4 antenae and you can see the glossy accents on the shell and wink of stella on the snail, and trail lol!

At Less is More the theme is to bring something back.

 In this case it's the sentiment stamp from Darkrom Door that I haven't used in years. It's stored in a tin so I tend to pile things on top of it!

The tiny greenery stamp is part of a stamp from Flourishes.

Earlier this week I saw one of Darnell's cards (go and check her blog out if you haven't already as she is a wonderful inspiration!)

Darnell said she'd operated on a stamp to remove the daisy and add an umbrella. I recognized the stamp, went searching and then realized the tiny greenery would fit the snail panel! Thanks Darnell!

It's another one that hasn't been used in years.

I must check out my stamps more carefully and see how else I could use them.

At Simon Says Stamp Monday, the challenge is to be influenced by a myth, fable or story.

I know a snail isn't the same as the hare and the tortoise, but that was the fable I got stuck on! I hope that's ok,  think this sentiment is a bit like slow and steady wins the race.

I've added texture with glossy accents and a touch of black soot ink around the edge of the panel, so I'm also playing at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.

At Word Art Wednesday it's an anything goes sentiment theme or bible verse.

Supplies :

Darkroom Door Viva La Flora Vol 2 stamp; versafine ink & clear ep; Flourishes Kid's play stamp; Carabelle un escargot stamp; Versafine green ink; scrap of watercoloured paper; tombow markers; prismacolour pencils; glossy accents; clear wink of stella pen; Stately embossing folder.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Pearl lustre lapis embossing.

Hi everyone, I've been sidetracked all weekend from what I am supposed to be doing, and the card I am supposed to be making!

I'm using a pearl embossing powder that I haven't used for ages. Here's a better look.

Love the metallic blue look.

The theme over at AAA Cards is to use your favourite technique.

I love embossing, and use it on nearly everything.as it can make colouring easier.

Embossing or even double embossing diecut shapes and sentiments is also fun, although the powder can get flighty!

At Addicted to Stamps & More it's make a mark.

I used prismacolour pencils for the butterfly.

At Seize The Birthday the toppings option is vibrant colours.

At Simon Says Stamp Wednesday the challenge is to add some texture.

I've added a shiny texture to the sentiment and just a touch of stickles to the butterfly wings.

Supplies:

Hero Arts antique engravings butterfly stamp; Annabelle Stamps Easter chickadee happy sentiment stamp; versafine ink & cler ep; versamark ink & Stampendous pearl lustre lapis powder; Prismacolour pencils.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Butterfly & grunge.

Hi everyone,

 I made an ATC back in January with a similar design and thought I'd make a card with this background.

That one used crackle paste while on this one I used matte transparent paste.

I started with a piece of leftover brushos watercolour paper that was bluey grey, then stencilled on the matte transparent paste. Next I sprinkled on some infusions powder in brown tones and spritzed with water to get a vintagy splotchy look. 

The butterfly was stamped with versafine, embossed with clear ep and coloured with prismacolour pencils. I emphasized the white dots with a paint pen.

I used some snippets of blue and black card in the layers,

 so I'm linking up to the snippets challenge at Pixie's Crafty Workshop, you only need one scrap or snippet to join in.

Simon Says Stamp are celebrating their 9th birthday! Woohoo, Congratulations.

At The Mix it Up Challenge Blog, it's anything goes with the option of bleaching. I've chosen anything goes.

At Addicted to Stamps & More it's anything goes.

And I'm playing again at Seize the Birthday with the anything goes option.

Supplies:

Visible Image fibres stencil; Ranger transparent matte paste; brushos: PaperArtsy infusions; Stampin Up Best of butterflies stamp; Prismacolour pencils; versafine ink & clear ep.; Sharpie white paint pen; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

More acrylic paint with cling wrap.

Hi everyone, I had some acrylic paint and cling wrap backgrounds in my project box and thought I'd make some quick cards. April is another busy month for birthdays here!

The tree die was a gift so I'm not sure of the brand and the woodgrain base is done with a Papertrey Ink coverplate. I've popped the tree panel up on some fun foam for dimension. A sentiment sticker finishes it off.

I'm linking up to the birthday challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.

They are celebrating theiir 9th birthday, Congratulations!

At Addicted to Stamps & More the theme is anything goes!

At Seize the Birthday, I've gone with the anything goes birthday option.

Thanks for visiting, have a great week,

Cathy x

Colourful alcohol inks & gilding flakes.

Hi everyone, I spent a day playing with alcohol inks and yupo. I really wanted to get some gold veining but the gold mixative doesn't move around very well. 

I watched a video that Jane from Janey's cards had done where she added foil to the tacky alcohol ink. Her piece looked amazing.

 I don't have sheets of foil but I thought I'd try gilding flakes. Bit messy but it sort of worked! I used a lot of colours as it was an experiment but I hate wasting things so decided to diecut some flowers. I should've taken the pic before I cut it up!

The dull gold is the mixative and the shiny gold is the gilding flakes. (I'm going to buy some foil as I think it will look better and no need to scratch off the excess.)

I've inlaid one of the flowers so the other one can lay flush across it.

There's a few challenges I'm linking up to:

At Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, it's anything goes.

At Work it Wednesday the theme is to use an inking technique.

AAA Cards wants us to use a favourite technique. Hard to pick one favourite but diecutting is up there.

At Just Us Girls, it's a clean and simple theme.

Outside the Box  has a floral challenge. I've used a Memory Box die, Chloe Stem.

Supplies:

Yupo; alcohol inks; gilding flakes; Memory Box chloe stem die; Simon Says Stamp Thanks clear stamp set sentiment stamp; versafine ink & clear ep; linen card base.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x