Tag with a Pocket

I nearly missed the Artful Times challenge this time as I have been away at my Daughter's place and it slipped my mind!  Luckily I remembered in time and managed to put this card together.  The theme is 'A Tag with a Pocket' which I did but then mounted it on a card.

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The tag is a large tag from Inkylicious and the background is sprayed with Dylusions Bubblegum Pink Ink Spray and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Coffee Shop.  I dried with a heat gun then stamped randomly with a couple of stamps from Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds from Stamplorations in Vermillion Archival.  The flowers are die cuts using Penny Black Bashful and they are coming out of a little envelope which I used as a pocket.  I have lots of these that came from a set, I can't remember where from.  The large butterfly is by Memory Box and the small ones are Sizzix. The ribbon and pearls are from my stash and I did three score lines on each side of the black base card to add a bit of interest.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Artful Times - Tag with a pocket
That's Crafty - Wings and Things
Buckwells Crafty Challenge - Flowers
Darnell's Blog - NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) - I haven't used the Penny Black Die before or the fabulous Stamplorations stamps.  I won the stamps as part of a win from a previous NBUS challenge, thank you so much Darnell!

 These are all fabulous Challenge Blogs and are definitely worth a visit!

I hope you have a lovely day whatever you are doing.  Thank you very much for visiting me - I appreciate it so very much and I love reading your comments!  Take care.  Christine xxx

Noel!

Two more cards for my Christmas card stash!  I have used the fabulous Dreamweaver Noel stencil and have made two cards to illustrate how different a stencil can look in different colours and pastes etc.

This one is using Dreamweaver Metallic Gold on black card and when dry a little gold glitter and a red stone added to the snowflake then a simple mat on red and a black card base - so simple!  Sorry about the bad photo!

For this one, I inked through the stencil with a couple of Distress Inks, cleaned the stencil and made sure the ink was dry then replaced the stencil and used Sweet Poppy Translucent stencil paste which dries clear.  Whilst still wet, I added glitter to the whole word.  When dry, I mounted on some vellum then the blue card and added the white card candi.  There is a bit more to this one bit its still quite simple.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Darnell's Blog - NBUS No. 4 - (Never Before Used Schtuff)  - my NBUS is the stencil which I have had for ages but never used, and the Translucent paste which I bought more recently.

Rudolph Days at Scrappymo's - Make a Christmas Card - Anything Goes
Please visit both these blogs, they are awesome!

Thank you so much for popping in today I love your visits and comments so much!  Have a fabulous week.  Take care.  Christine xxx

Bokeh Effect Background in Green

The Bokeh Effect is something new for me.  I have heard about it used for backgrounds and finally saw it demonstrated by Barbara Gray on her You Tube channel which you can get to via her blog here.  Barbara's card is awesome!  I tried the background technique for my own card.

I created the base of the background by applying Mowed Lawn, Shabby Shutters and Evergreen Bough with a blending tool.  Then I rummaged through my stencil and mask stash and found anything round and randomly applied Moonlight White Brilliance ink through them, again with a blending tool (the small round one is best for this).  The tulip and word stamps are both from IndigoBlu set Nottingham Lace and the dragonfly is from an IndigoBlu set that was free with a magazine. They were stamped with Black Archival and the Tulip and Dragonfly are coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils which work nicely over the ink.  I added a little sequin and black stone next to the word tulip and edged the whole thing with Pine Needles Distress Ink.  I also added some clear Wink Of Stella to the Tulip, the Dragonfly and the little dots round the sentiment.  I was going to add more bits and bobs but I decided I liked the background too much and didn't want to cover it so I left it as it is.  The piece is matted on black and added to a 7 x 7 inch green card blank.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

IndigoBlu - Spring Greens
Buckwell's - Flowers
That's Crafty - Wings and Things

These are all fabulous challenge blogs so please hop over and have a look!

Thank you so much for visiting me, I really love your visits and comments!  Have a lovely Mother's day if its relevant to you today!  Take care. Christine xxx

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