Thank you to all who read my Blog and leave a comment. I really do appreciate every one of them and do my utmost to reply as soon as possible.
Crafty hugs to all!


Friday 30 May 2014

Words and Feather Background Card.

Hi Folks!  The card I am showing today is a very simple one, 3 stamps and two colours. All stamps are from Clarity Stamp.  The ink that I have used is Archival - Fern Green and Adirondack - Slate.

I began by masking up the edges of Cream Satin Card with Low Tack Tape, stamping the Verse - May God Guard... using the Archival ink and then dusting with Clear Embossing Powder and heat sealing it.




I took my two Large Matrix and Small Matrix Feather Stamps and stamped them using the Adirondack ink, doing a bit of secondary stamping with the small one.  I used a Clarity Stencil Brush and the Archival ink to brush around the outside edges leaving the centre plain.



I just love the detail that is in these Feather stamps

My next step was to layer up my image.  I did this using the Perfect Layers Rulers from Joanna Sheen. I used a lovely trellis patterned paper with different shades of green in it.  I attached my image then cut out the layer to the size I wanted and then I attached these to an 8 x 8 inch White Card Blank.




The end result has a delicate look to it which I am happy with.  I will be entering this card into the Clarity Stamp Challenge...ends today typical me last minute, just as well this was a quick make!


Happy Crafting Everyone!!

Hugs
Emma xx

Challenges:
http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/challenge-15.html
http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/challenge-87-use-sentiment.html
http://ttcrd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ttcrd-challenge-may-27-to-june-2.html
http://craftcreatoins.blogspot.co.uk/p/new-challenge.html

Sunday 25 May 2014

Aged Mahogany Birthday Card

Hi Folks!  Well I shall end this week with a post of the Birthday Card that I made for my husband's 50th. He loved the picture that I made for him by the way (http://emmburns.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/hi-folks-another-little-post-from-me.html  - posted 29th April)  I made his card to match the picture.

I started with a square of Clarity Coated Card (cut down from the A5).  I masked off the edges with low tack tape and using Ranger Distress Ink - Aged Mahogany I stamped my tree in place.  The tree is actually three stamps, two Split Trees - a left and a right. Also a single stem of Birch Leaves (it comes in two sizes, I used the small one here).  I then stamped the floral border along the bottom of the card.  This stamp comes from the new Gardening Set.












I did quite a bit of secondary stamping with this card, it helps to give the final image more depth.



I then took some roughly torn copy paper and shaded in the background with the same ink and my trusty Brayer (BOB). I added the Floral Branch and the Birds from theBirdhouse and Garden Set along with the two stamps from the Happy Words Set.

I then removed the low tack tape, gave the card a polish (it comes up with a lovely sheen and makes it look as though it has been professionally printed.


I took a piece of scrap card and using my ink pad directly to it, I coloured around the edges.  I then attached my polished card to it using double sided tape and then trimmed it using my brilliant Perfect Layers Ruler. You can get them from http://www.joannasheen.com/  This I then attached to a Brilliant White 8 x 8 inch card and the result is :


Unfortunately my photography is crap and doesn't show up how white the card is or how I have deliberately not shaded in any sky.  I felt that using such a dark colour on the card needed some balance with the white. 

I hope you like it as much as I do.  I would love to hear your comments, I read and appreciate every one of them and I do try my best to respond as soon as possible.

Happy Crafting

Hugs 

Emma xx

I am entering this in the following challenge:

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.ca/  Birthday.


Friday 23 May 2014

Stag and Deer landscape card

Morning Folks!  What a lovely sunny day it is going to be here in South Ayrshire, Scotland.  I was up early to watch the sunrise from my back garden.  The sun comes shining through a bunch of trees on the horizon and the glow coming through is fantastic.  So it may seem strange that the following card actually looks like a winter scene.

This card was made for a man's birthday and the request was for a Scottish feel but not to use too many colours.  I had just got my new Woodland Set from Clarity Stamp that day in the mail so I decided to use this wonderful Stag from it. Thank you Barbara Gray and the team at Clarity Stamp for making him.  

I stamped directly onto a Cream Satin 8 x 8 inch card blank using Ranger Distress ink - Chipped Sapphire. I then put a border around the card using low tack tape covering the back end of the stag.   



I then stamped the Forest Ridge using Ranger Distress Ink - Faded Jeans followed by the Deerscape in Chipped Sapphire. 
I added some Birch leaves at the top and sides with the Chipped Sapphire.  I stamped twice to give the Faded effect.

I also added some shading to the Deerscape using a make-up sponge and a bit of torn copy paper.  I lifted the low tack tape at the Stag and using the same technique I added some shading to him.

I then added the slanted Happy Birthday again in Faded Denim.

Next I put some shading with the Chipped Sapphire around the edges of the picture and I decided to add a grassy edge to the bottom  using the long stamp from the Winter Trees Set From Clarity Stamp.

Finally I used a Pro Marker - Indigo Blue to go around the edge to give the effect of the picture being mounted onto the card.


This was a very quick card to make...it just seems longer in the way I tell it!

That's all for today and hopefully I will remember to do another post tomorrow...old age getting to my memory!

Happy Crafting everyone.

Hugs 

Emma xx

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Moon Fairy Dreams

Hi Folks!  Hope you are all well out there.  What a busy couple of weeks it has been for me and once again I forgot to post my Blog...slap on hand.  So over the next couple of days I WILL post a few more cards that have been made recently.




Today's contribution was made using the Moon fairy stamp from Clarity Stamp (my fav) along with the verse May all Your Dreams Come True, which is of course another Clarity Stamp.

To begin I stamped in clear versamark both stamps onto White Clarity Coated A5 Card.  I had laid a border around the card using masking tape and I also put a piece over the card to separate the picture from the words.









I laid a mask over the moon fairy ( supplied by Clarity Stamp) then with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, loaded onto my brayer and blending it on my splodge mat. I worked on the top part first (covering the bottom half with copy paper). Then I did the same for the word area.  I did this as I wanted to shade in the corners a bit more for each area.


I removed the masking tape and disaster struck!  I had obviously not de-tacked the masking tape enough and it tore away the coating on the border so I had no choice but to trim it back taking out the white border altogether.   I still had the centre piece to do.  So taking an Indigo Blue Pro Marker pen I coloured a length of white gauze ribbon and with a piece of foil and a die I cut out a buckle and of course you can see from the photo I threaded the ribbon through (I did have to fold it a bit first).  I attached this at the back of the card with double sided tape.

I attached a piece of pale blue mottled backing paper and used a perfect layer ruler to trim to give me a bit of a border.  I then attached this to a white card blank.  I gave the card a bit of a polish and then I went over the moon fairy and words with a versamark pen and dusted on some Perfect Pearls  ( I did the talcum powder bit first) gave it another bit of a polish.  Finally I added stars with a fine white micron pen.


All I can say is thank you to the people who invented paper trimmers.  Certainly came in handy on this card!

I could probably do a tutorial on what not to do and if you do, how to get out of it...plenty of practise.

Happy crafting everyone!

Hugs Emma x

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Bentley - Just For You Card

Hi folks!  Hope you are all well out there in Craft Land.  I have a quick card to show you all this morning and I will accompany it with as little 'waffle' as possible.

Starting with A5 white card which I then trimmed with a square die. I stamped my main image in Versamark then I used  BLACK embossing powder and heat set.  I then returned my 'square' back to the die before colouring.  This kept the edge white.

I coloured the Teddy with a Caramel Promarker adding a little bit of Blush to the ears and nose. I used Canary for the centre of the daisies.
 
I stamped the flowers from the image onto a post-it note (at the sticky end) and cut out the flowers and a little bit for the nose.













Next step, copy paper, Archival - Fern Green, Clarity Stencil Brush and put in a little bit of background.
I stamped the little bird on top of the sentiment in Black Archival then I stamped the flower in Archival Fern Green.  I used Distress Ink - Faded Jeans for the sky.  I then added some shading under the flowers and the sentiment.









(why is the flower then two tone)  I stamped it first onto copy paper using the Black ink, cleaned it slightly and then went into the fern green.  I removed 'square' from the die and I edged it with Marsh Green Promarker.  Mounted my 'square' onto a piece of Pale Mint card which had been through a Daisy embossing folder.  (I used the De-Boss side).  This was then mounted onto a Bright White 8 x 8 Square card blank.



The result is a lovely FRESH looking card suitable for any occasion.  

So now for a bit of 'waffle'...I took a lovely photo of this card, the lighting was perfect...then I realised that I hadn't taken the ickle bit of post-it note off the teddy's nose.  Uploaded the pics to computer then had to go back and re-photo (is that a word - no red line coming up under it?) only the lighting wasn't the same...TYPICAL!

It took longer to cut out the masks for the daisies than it did to make the whole card...didn't help that the end of my scissors are a bit blunt.  Any tips on how to sharpen curved scissors? 

The stamps used for this card were as follows:
Main Image - Teddy with Sentiment (one stamp)  Bentley Bear Daisy Chain Stamp and Embossing Folder Set...Free with  Cardmaking & Papercrafting Magazine.

Bird and Flowers - from Garden Set from Clarity Stamp.

Hope you like it.

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Emma x



Tuesday 6 May 2014

Butterfly Montage

Hi folks!  Hope you are all well out there in Craft Land.  I am keeping busy myself.  Two family birthdays next week, one being my husbands 50th...he is catching up with me!  The other being my youngest daughter's 26th.  I have hubby's card in hand and I am just about to make my daughters but I thought that I would get this post done of a last minute card that I was asked to do ( someone forgot to get his wife a card and went off to work...just as well he knew about me as the poor man was working till way past shop closing and his wife was coming to pick him up).

So with only a little time at my disposal I decided to use a very lovely stamp from Clarity Stamp, the Butterfly Montage.  This is it stamped just in Archival Plum on white paper. (poor lighting)


I decided to stamp onto Pale Peach Parchment (the kind used for letter writing)  It has a lovely mottled effect.  I cut out a square from the parchment, taped the edges up with masking tape and then I stamped the Montage in Archival Plum. With my Clarity Stamp Stencil Brush I shaded around the outside edges (I covered the top end of the butterfly wing that sticks out over the edge as I wanted the Peach colouring to show through.

I removed the masking tape and stamped the Happy Birthday flourish on to the parchment. I used a
Brilliance Ink Pad - Pearlescent Crimson

(This stamp comes set at this angle)



Next step was to outline my Square and to add some detail to the butterfly. I used a Sharpie Pen - Berry for the edge and a Marvy Le Plume II - Cherry for the butterfly.  I laid my work out on my blank card and decided it was best at an angle but still a bit sparse.



So out came my Heat Resistant Acetate, Brilliance Ink Pad Pearlescent Crimson, Clear Embossing Powder and heat gun.  I stamped my Large Butterfly - which goes with the Montage - dusted my powder, used heat gun to set it and then cut out the butterfly.  I put a kink at base of each wing, attached it to the Montage with Clear Glue.

This still wasn't enough for me so I added the Small Leafy Swirl using  Brilliance Ink Pad Pearlescent Crimson to two corners and then set my Parchment back on its angle and attached with double sided tape onto an 8 x 8 inch cream satin card blank.


I could have also ran an edge along the shaded part to make it look like another layer but I didn't want to mess things up at this late stage.  I stamped the Leafy Swirls, "blotting before plotting" in the same position on the insert leaving space for the man to write his own message.

Glad to say his wife was very happy with the card...the excuse for her not getting it earlier - he was asking the staff he works with to sign the card too!

Hope you like it too.  

Happy Crafting


Emma xx

P.S.  I have just noticed that the Peach Parchment now looks Pink but on its own it is Peach...has to be the way I take photos. x