Chillin' with the birdies

I hadn't really planned on making a wintry picture or I would have chosen a different folder/image/stamp. But I really like the feel of this one.




I liked the results of highlighting the flourishes on the embossed image on my earlier post so I decided to try it with my lovely tree stamp. The flourishes are a little fine for the pen but I still think this looks quite cool.



I'm at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show at the weekend. I think I'll be looking for some purple dye inks to try this with.

Cuttlebug journey

Having marvelled at the lovely pristine white Cuttlebug design, the next step was to get inky. This impression was swooshed in Marvy Blending Blox Shades of Mauve which had been spritzed on my heat sheet. Looked nice but the edges of the design were a bit ragged in places so I submerged the lot in a haze of Candy Apple Red and Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mists. The effect is subtler than it appears here with the gold more obvious in the light.



This one was sponged with Tattered Rose DI and a touch of Fired Brick before spraying with Iridescent gold Glimmer Mist

Then onto Birds and Swirls. Have to admit I can't be sure which inks I used on the green one. I think it was Fresh Green and Greeen Tea Versacolor. The one on the right is Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick.

The next step was to liven things up a bit. I've seen some gorgeous work recently where flourishes have been highlighted with white pen. So I added some depth to this one with a Souffle pen. The text stamping was done right at the beginning, then the embossing and finally the inking with Butterscotch and Lettuce Adirondacks. I'm really pleased with the results and am now going to do lots more like this with all the colours I own!

A card of firsts

Sh! Can you keep a secret? I don't usually like to blog my cards before I've given them. That seems to be an unwritten rule here in Blogland. But I won't be giving this one for a couple of weeks and, because it is the beginning of a little journey, I didn't want to post it out of sync.

It is a card of firsts. It is the first time I've used my Cuttlebug and the first time I've used Stampbord.

I tried to practice stamping my gypsy girl on card before risking the Stampbord. Over my shoulder I could hear Glenda Waterworth whispering, "Allow yourself to waste two pieces." But this escaped the bin, probably because I was so cautious with it. I'd planned to colour the image but it is not very big and I was worried about losing definition so I just shaded her skin very lightly and coloured the rose red.

If I was making it again I'd trim the embossed panel more. It seemed a crime to cut any of it away! The grosgrain looks blue in the photo but is actually purple with white organza behind it.

Not a work of art

Has anyone else found their eyes see things differently since they started crafting? Helen Chilton's flowers on her blog and in Craft Stamper have made quite an impression on me this last week. I've also been clearing out my cupboard to make room for more crafting goodies. I had a box in there where I was keeping oddments to take in to work for the children's collage activities. I had forgotten I'd saved this packaging from a set of glass bowls I'd bought. I haven't done anything to them except to rearrange the layers slightly. And somehow, I felt compelled to put a candle in the middle??!?! What's that all about then?