Autumn again

Nothing to do with the cards, but the fact that time keeps moving relentlessly. Seem every autumn I’m spending more energy then I have – how I wished I could just take time off work from the 1st of October untill the end of january. Sort of a wintersleep. Alas, in modern day society taking such a time off is hardly possible. Not working is hardly possible – we could manage but would have to flip every coin twice. Don’t look forward to that, so I’ll just keep going on.

Eventhough I haven’t blogged, it doesn’t mean I haven’t created. It just meant I spent what little time I had on creating tangible things instead of some bits and bytes.
I do regret to say I haven’t had time to read other peoples blog either. So maybe I just did them a favour – I didn’t read theirs (yours?) but you wouldn’t have to worry about not reading mine as there was nothing to read. On to the cards now, as that is why you are here. (Right?)

 

Spring is pink

I posted a snapshot of the finished background on facebook allready, but here is how I made it.

Put some pink/soft purple tones on the paper, then place the stencil and go over it with a brighter colour. Make sure it’s dry, and use anti-static bag. Put the stencil back in place, dab some embossing ink through it with a sponge, remove the stencil ans sprinkle clear embossing powder on it. Tap off the excess embossingpowder (ofcourse pour it back in the jar) and heat it with the heating tool.

I’m not sure if I added the dots before or after this, could very well be before this step. The dots are a tim holts stencil, and one part was done with mdelling paste and acryllic paint and the other with ink spray I think. Not sure anymore…

 

Next, take some contrasting colours (not too hard, but light) and ink it over the image.

Below the paper is cut in 2, for 2 cards. First picture is with a flash, second without.

This last card turned into this one:

I added the butterfly, it was a precut vellum shape, which I coloured with alcohol inks a while ago. The stamp is from ArtSpecially.

The second card still isn’t finished, I got a very pretty fairy to put on it, but it covers too much of the background. Maybe I should leave it as it is? Less is More? Hmm. but the fairy matches it so well… I guess I’l have to make another background like this.

This is my first entry for the Designs by Ryn May Customer Creation Challenge.

Live, Laugh and Love

And craft up another card for Designs by Ryn february challenge:

It’s a card with quite some layers and techniques, has been a while since I did that. I started with inking the background and then stamp and emboss the gentleman (Tim Holtz stamp) with clear embossing powder. I stamped and embossed patio stone from Designs by Ryn.

I put down some stnecils (Might have used a star stencil too, but the clocks from Tim Holtz are quite visible) and inked again. I looked through my stash of cutouts and found a long strip, (tattered banners) die cut, inked up allready. Torn in two it’s perfect for two words, and the 3rd word in the bottom.

The man is looking down, towards his watch? or his heart?

The harts and wings (ok they’re leaves from a ranger thinlits strip diecut) are from my stash as well.

This is where we are now.

Next I added the backing paper – torn pages of an old book, glued it on cardstock, my kids helped me with that by putting the glue on the cardstock. Isn’t the grungy style great for that? Just put the (decoupage) glue around a bit, leave some spots open maybe, and it will act as a resist too.

After this I used modelling paste through 3 different stencils (the dots from Tim Holtz, the roman script from TCW and the harlequin figure from Prima/Finnabair).

The splitpens were from my stash as well, I had used them previously and put some stazon black on them to make them a little bit darker/duller.

One more indoor picture to end this post with.

I was – as always – fun to make this card, I hadn’t used modelling paste in a while as it requires more cleaning in between and more drying. Hmm the colours look to dark on this last picture. grmbl indoor photography… The scan isn’t right either, the outdoor picture (of the unfinished card) looks best, but it’s unfinished… Oh well, maybe your monitor balances the colours out right again ;).

Congratulations on the new home

It just dawned on me that this card fits the  Vandicrafts artistry challenge “Home Sweet Home”  from too, so I should post it quickly before the challenge closes (or is it closed allready?).
This card was meant for the people who bought our appartment, but it took me a while to make it, and then it took me a while to get it ready to send, and now I think I won’t send it anymore – it’s 4 months after they bought the appartment.

I had bought several (Sizzx) dies on marktplaats (the Dutch ebay), and wanted to try them out. I used 4 different dies, the fence, the house, the background row of houses (an on the edge die), and a non-sizzix frame die (the gardensign).

I cut it mostly from (wooden) samples of flooring (laminaat) – you know, when you go to a store where they sell wooden floors they sometimes have paper samples of the floor. I still have enough of them,  I don’t use them often, but it’s a good alternative. It’s smooth paper, so difficult to stamp on. I should try using it with alcohol inks, haven’t thought of that before.

First, the background. You can see on the left a failed background, the colours didn’t blend nicely. Also visible are the diecuts of the fence and row of houses. I inked up the embossing folder, sprayed a bit with water then embossed it (running it sideways through the machine).

Oh right, I also used the Tim Holtz Rays embossing folders, you can see the yellow strips of it. It represents the light shining through the trees.

Behind our old house stood some trees, there was a playground but because of the trees it felt like a big garden.

The row of houses, trying it out against different backgrounds, combining papers. I used the brown paper as backframe – I should post the card I made with the left over bit soon. That was originally cream coloured paper, on which I used a TCW stencil of trees, vintage photo distress ink, copper perfect pearls mist and some more (forest moss distressink, gathered twigs).

I can’t rememer the (original colour of) the top paper, but the flowers are a Chocolate Baroque stamp.

Coffee and a wobbly cutting mat – I didn’t have a craft sheet then I think. Here you can see the wallpaper samples. A bit of interior decoration for my 2d paper house.

As you can see, I didn’t use the black row of houses, it was too dark. I used different wallpaper inside the house, and made steps going up to the house. I masked off the sides and used Mowed Lawn (ofcourse) for the lawn, masking off the pathway as well. That was later on coloured with.. ehm… another colour.

The fence was cut twice, the second cut mounted with foam onto the first, to add more depth. Oh and there is the sign – it’s made out of 2 parts, if you look at the lining of the wood you’ll see – the middle part is placed on top.

All in all it does look like the area where we lived (and also it doesn’t, as it are all appartments and no frontyards).

It’s a large card, and I’ve grown to like it a lot. I somehow can’t seem to mix the bigger diecuts with stamping very well, or rather, I can’t seem to mix them at all. Either I have a minimum of diecuts, or a minimum of stamping. Oh well, another creative challenge for me :).

And just because I think the first picture is the prettiest one, I repeat it here.