Fun with a very detailed stamp

Now that most of us have some sort of stamp re-positioners detailed stamps are a little less frightening. What did we do without them? I know I wasted a lot of card stock.

My stamp is from Magenta a sweet image of a cat with her kitten, I was aiming for photographic vintage look to the card and quite liked the effect. I stamped the image in Versafine Clair, used a text stamp around the lighter areas and then used Vintage beeswax Emerald Creek embossing powder over the whole surface and then added Rocky Road embossing powder to the edge.

Here's a close up of the cat and the embossing

My second card uses a technique which I love for detailed Christmas cards. I stamped the image with Versafine Clair and covered it with Sookwang tape. I then dipped the sticky surface in Martha Stewart glitter, the camera doesn't show how sparkly it is in real  life.

I'm entering these for the Double D Challenge

Card Recipe
Stamps: Magenta
Paper: 110lb white
Ink: Versafine Clair,
Accessories: Emerald Creek Embossing powders
Techniques: Embossing, Detailed stamps

Twofer birds

I'm just squeaking in under the wire for Darnell's Twofer challenge and this month it's birds.

For card 1 my background was created at a recent craft technique get together with Loll and Susan.  I sprayed the colours onto mixed media card, these aren't my usual choice but I like it. 

I then stamped the background flower image (Magenta) using gesso, sponge the gesso onto the stamp, It's quite thick so won't work with stamps that have too much detail. Allow  the gesso to dry, and don't forget to clean your stamp with a little water and a brush before the gesso dries.
The white areas are the stamped image which picks up a little of the background ink softening the whiteness. I stamped and fussy cut the bird on a branch (magenta stamp) and coloured with watercolours. The birthday sentiment (Stampin up retired) blurred a little as the gesso gives a little texture to the surface.

 Here is a close up of the bird against the background. 

Fussy cutting tip, use a marker to edge the cut surface it helps finish the image and looses the white areas outside the lines.

Here is my 2nd card, this one a little more CAS. I stamped the bird watercoloured it, I then masked it and used a stencil (Magenta) to create the rays of sunshine. This is a thinking of you card.

'The sentiment for this card is from Chocolate Baroque.

Card Recipe CARD 1
Stamps: Magenta, Stampin up
Paper: 110lb white, black, Mixed Media
Ink: Ranger Archival
Accessories: Spray inks, Watercolours, Gesso, MISTI
Techniques: Watercolouring, Gesso

Card Recipe CARD 2

Stamps: Magenta

Paper: 110lb white, Mixed Media, Black

Ink: Ranger Archival,

Accessories:  MISTI, Stencil, Watercolours

Techniques: Watercolouring, Stenciling

Treats on Tuesday for Magenta

Hi there I'm over at Magenta today with a mixed media card.

For this I created a gelli print background using Distress oxide inks swiped onto my gelli print surface and brayered it to spread the ink evenly. I stamped the background using the bubble stamp, this removes some of the colour and adds some interest. I then stamped the garlic flowers using Ranger archival ink.  I also used one of my favorite mixed media products (glass bead gel) and a stencil. I love the sparkle and texture they add to the card, and it's one of those products that lasts for ever.  Too many of the products we buy dry up and go hard and we throw them out before we've had much use out of them (my little gripe of the day 😒)

Here's a close up of the glass bead gel, it looks even better IRL.

35.062.H Bubbles

09.150.M Garlic Flowers

TM179 Bubble Path Duo stencil

Card Recipe
Stamps: Magenta
Paper: Mixed Media, 110lb white, Coated card, Black
Ink: Ranger archival, Distress Oxide
Accessories: Stencil, Glass Bead Gel
Techniques: Gelli plate, mixed media

Crayons through a stencil

Back in May when we had our Crafting Retreat one of the comparisons we did was using Faber Castell crayons and Ranger distress Crayons (I actually preferred the Faber Castell Gellatos but that's just me). We took both types of crayons and used them with stencils and then blending after.  I had forgotten I had my swatch until I was rummaging through my UFO box and found this great Bokeh effect from the blended Gellatos.

You can't really see it but there's a touch of gold which gives the image a little shine.

I added a sentiment from Chocolate Baroque and a die cut to finish the card.  I used the frame to tidy up the edges and frame the bokeh image.

I'm entering this for CAS Mix up Challenge Bokeh

Card Recipe
Stamps: Chocolate Baroque sentiment
Paper: 110lb white, Black, Mixed Medi
Ink: Ranger Archival
Accessories: Faber Castell crayons, Kaiser Kraft stencil, Die Cut Birds (unknown), Simon Says stamp stitched rectangle
Techniques: Stencils, die cutting. Bokeh

CAS Christmas mid month reminder

I hope you're all loving the blue and silver creations by Kaja our Guest Desinger for this month and the CAS Christmas Design Team. We're all having a blast with our blue and silver inky fingers and die cuts.

Here's my card for the reminder. I used one of my favorite JOFY stamps and pulled out a blue glitter pens that have been sitting on my shelf for eons. The stars were coloured with my Molotow liquid chrome pen. I stamped the image, coloured it in and then re-stamped it as the pens took away some of the colour of the image. The sentiment is from Amuse.

The tiny sequins just add a little more sparkle.

I hope you like the card and also hope you drop by CAS Christmas card challenge and join in the fun.

Card Recipe
Stamps: JOFY, AMUSE sentiment
Paper: 110lb white,
Ink: Ranger Archival
Accessories: Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangle die, fun foam, sequins, glitter pen, Molotow liquid Chrome pen.
Techniques: colouring, CAS

Pulling out the stencils

CAS Stencil has challenged us to pull out our stencils and do a little blending.

I used a Carablelle stencil and some distress oxide ink and to add a little interest I stamped the sponging with the stencil in place.

Here is a close up of the touch of stamping on the sponged area,

CAS Stencil January challenge sponging

Simon Says Wednesday challenge CAS

The Flower challenge Pink and Gray

I'd love to hear your thoughts 😃

Card Recipe
Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Background stamp and Ranger Tim Holtz sentiment
Paper: 110lb white, Mixed media, black, Gray Green
Ink: Ranger Distress oxide, Ranger Archival, Versamark
Accessories: embossing powder, Stencil (Carabelle)
Techniques: Stenciling, background stamping, Tim Holtz Wild Flower Die cut

CASology Guest Designer

I was so happy to be chosen as a CASology winner in December and to be their Guest designer for this week. Their Cue word for this week is "Cloud".

I struggled a little with this one. I don't have a cloud stamp but I have a die, although that didn't work for me. I then thought watercolour 👍

I decided to pull out some hot press watercolour paper and create my own cloudy sky.

I flooded some watercolour paper with water and touched the water with the paint brush with some blue on it, once I was happy with the colour saturation I let it dry.  To keep the clouds the focus of the image I though a few birds off to one side would be perfect.

I hope you join in with the challenge and I would be so happy if you left me a comment.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Tim Holtz Sentiment, Local King Silhouette Birds
Paper: 110lb white, hot press waterrcolour
Ink: Ranger Archival
Accessories: MFT die
Techniques: watercolouring.

Treats on Tuesday For Magenta

I'm at Magenta with my Treats on Tuesday with Christine.

This week I'm using a background from my stash, a faux mother of pearl . I stamped over it with some Distress Oxide inks using the Galaxy Cluster stamp and the Delicate leaf branch. Finally I used the bubble stencil and distress inks to blend around the leaves.

I used Zig watercolour pens to colour the leaves and die cut the frame using a stitched rectangular die. You can see the shine from the shimmer frost white ink below.

Stamps used

18.090.L Galaxy Cluster

0705.N Delicate Leaf branch


TM179  Bubble Path Duo

Card Recipe
Stamps: Magenta
Paper: 110lb white, Mixed Media
Ink: Ranger Archival, Distress inks, Distress Oxide inks
Accessories: Stitched Rectangle die, MISTI stamp re-positioner, ink blending tool, cling wrap, Tsukineko frost white ink (shimmer for Faux mother of pearl), Zig watercolours pens.
Techniques: Faux Mother of Pearl, stenciling.

Treats on Tuesday for Magenta

It's time to play over at Magenta.

I used a salted watercolour background and layered the stamps using Delicata Silver and Distress Oxide Peeled Paint.  The focal stamp was stamped in Black Archival and the leaves were coloured lightly using a watercolour pen. The final touch was a little stenciling in Distress ink. The whole panel was sprayed with Shimmer spray to make it glisten.

I used the following stamps and stencils

09.150.M Garlic Flowers

48.003.N Distressed Text Background

35.062.H Bubbles

TM219 (Stencil)

Christine Alexander DT Magenta

Card Recipe
Stamps: Magenta
Paper: Mixed Media, Black, 110lb white
Ink: Ranger Archival, Distress Oxide ink, Distress ink, Delicata Silver
Accessories: Stamp die, Shimmer Spray
Techniques: Salt watercolour, layered stamp, stencil