Artful Times - Birds

This is my second card as February Guest Designer for Artful Times and the theme this time is 'Birds'.

I used one of my favourite techniques for this card - its also one of the most simple ones!  I added three colours (Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord and Ripe Persimmon) of Distress Ink to an acrylic block, sprayed with a little water, then turned it over and pressed the block on to a piece of white card.  Before lifting the block off, I gently lifted the sides of the block up and down a little to merge the colours.  I dried the ink with a heat gun then stamped the bird and sentiment with black Archival ink.  The sentiment was free with a magazine and the bird is from an Inkadinkado set called Birds Galore - I have not used either of these stamp sets before.  I just matted on some contrasting card and job done.  I have to say, I love how this turned out and has that real clean and simple look.

Please pop over to Artful Times and enter your 'Bird' projects - its a wonderful challenge blog and I would really like to thank Neet and Wendy for a fabulous month as Guest Designer!

This card fits into Hels fab challenge at Ink on my Fingers which is 'New' - both the stamps I have used are new to my stamp pad and never before used!  Hels blog is fabulous too and definitely worth a visit.

Thank you for visiting me - two posts in two days - thats good for me!  I appreciate you popping over to see me!  Take care and have an awesome weekend.  Christine xxx

February Rudolph Day

I haven't blogged for a while and I nearly forgot that its time for the Rudolph Day Challenge  so I quickly put this card together.

The background is Seedless Preserves, Chipped Sapphire and Salty Ocean Distress inks, Water and Glimmer Mist.  The trees are a very old wooden stamp with no makers name on but I love it and use it lots!  Its stamped with Versafine and embossed from behind with clear powder as is the sleigh which is from a Sheena Douglass set.   The snowflakes are some I already had die cut from some Centura Pearl card and I just popped a pearl in the centre of each then did a bit of mat and layering.

I love entering Rudolph Day, its good fun and I can get some cards ready nice and early for Christmas.  You should pop along and join in too!

Sorry this is such a quick post and sorry I haven't been around in blogland much lately.  Will pay lots of visits over the weekend!  Thank you so much for visiting my blog - I appreciate every visit and every comment!  Take care of yourselves.  Christine xxx

Ribbon Butterfly

Over at Butterfly Challenge the theme this time is to use ribbon.  I am guilty of having so much ribbon that I don't often think to use so this was a perfect challenge to use some of my stash.

I used the negative left from using my large Sizzix die and adhered various pieces of ribbon behind the aperture.  The little fairies and the sentiment were stamped with black Archival ink and I embossed the sentiment and added some glimmer mist for sparkle.  I attached some acetate to the image with brads to protect the ribbon and I was going to leave it at that but I had a glue mishap!  I ended up with glue all over the acetate which I couldn't remove!  I had already done all the layering so couldn't undo the brads as they were stuck fast with dimensional tape and extra glue so I had to cut the acetate off and add some more by cutting the corners off and covering them up with the flowers. Luckily my cropodile made just the right sized hole for the brads to poke through for the centres of the flowers and I like the look!  Disaster averted!

The colours look brighter in real life and the sparkly ribbon really sparkles!

Please pop over to Butterfly Challenge there is lots of butterfly fabulousness to see!

Thank you so much for visiting me - I love it when you do!  Also welcome to my new followers - when I started out I only thought I would get half a dozen and now I am up to 78 which is awesome - Thank you!

Take care and have a wonderful day/evening depending where you are! Bye for now.  Christine xxx

Artful Times - Romance

I am absolutely delighted to be guest designer at Artful Times for their next two challenges!  The first one is Romance.

I sprayed the background card with water then added various colours of Distress Ink letting them merge before I dried with a heatgun.  I added some more water and dried again.  I did the same for the sentiment piece which is on oval die cuts and popped up on foam tape.  The stamping is all done with Versafine embossed with clear powder. The stamps are mainly from Vintage Hearts by Creative Expressions although a couple of the smaller hearts are from other sets.  I added some twine and a wooden heart painted with Black Soot Distress Paint and a punched heart in the centre.  They are also 3 punched hearts round the sentiment.  The large key is made using a Sizzix die called Key to my Heart.  I cut it out of black card then embossed it twice with Versamark and clear powder.   The is also Eucalyptus Stickles added to the card for sparkle.  I am going to give this to my husband for Valentines day - I hope he likes it!

I am really chuffed that Artful Times asked me to be guest designer.  Thank you so much!  It would be awesome if you could visit their fabulous blog and, if possible, join in the challenge - they really would love your support!

Thank you so much for visiting me - I so love it when you do and truly value your comments!

Have a wonderful day and take care!  Christine xxx

Hexagon Background

The background stamp is an awesome one by Hero Arts called Hexagon Background.  I stamped it on red card with black Versafine and embossed with clear powder.  When I stamped it, I took the card to the inked stamp and rubbed my hand over it to transfer the ink - its much easier with a stamp of this size.  I made the little banner using a stamp from a set by Inkydoodles, edged everything with a black Promarker and matted on a black card. The banner would have looked better raised but I left it flat for posting.  Its a mega simple card but perfect for a 'man' card.  I am going to use this fab stamp lots more - I just love it!

I would like to enter this into the Artful Times Challenge which is 'Men' this time.  Please hop over to this blog if you have the time, its fab!

Thank you so much for visiting - I really appreciate it!  Take care.  Christine xxx