Tips, Tricks and Techniques Tuesday - Changing Leaves

Hello, today I now know that Autumn is on it's way again already, sadly! My rose tree in the front garden has finished flowering and the leaves are beginning to change again too. However, my Magnolias are starting to flower again!! Figure that if you can as I can't! Anyway using the Changing Leaves stamp set again today I have made a card where I stamped all of the leaves onto the white background. 

I then stamped them again several times and fussy cut them out and raised them onto the previously stamped mat. The only one that I didn't re-stamp was the large leaf. Fortunately that is in the centre and ready for the sentiment which is in position perfectly. All of the additional leaves were raised up using Dimensionals to give some height to the card. 

I used Granny Apple Green for the large leaf in the middle, Lemon Lime Twist for the smaller leaf and Lost Lagoon for the 3 finger leaf. I love the way they go together so well.

Tips tricks and techniques Thoughtful Wishes

Hello and thank you for joining me today. I must apologise for missing the blog out yesterday. It was my son's 30th birthday and I haven't seen him since the middle of last year so it was important to see him and like a twit I forgot to make a card for the blog! Today though, I have not forgotten. This week I will be using the lovely Thoughtful Wishes stamp set and dies. My card is a very simple one by stamping the image onto a piece of card 10.0 cm by 14.4cm I stamped the large leaves 3 times. Then I chopped it up. I started with a 2 cm border and once the outer edge was cut I trimmed again at 1.5cm that left me with a small rectangle for the centre. I matted each rectangle onto a piece of gorgeous greenish blue of Lost Lagoon. I then added a piece of retired ribbon in white going across the centre of the 3 pieces and then once they were all ready, I added dimensionals (double sided foam shapes) to the back of each piece. It was then a case of adding each layer to the card base and matching the pattern that I had stamped onto the white. I stamped a sentiment at the bottom and stamped and diecut a flower from the stamps and dies to complete it.

 

 

Watercolour Wednesday - Botanical Beauty

 Hello and thank you for stopping by. Today, using the gorgeous stamp set Botanical Beauty, I really went to watercolour heaven! I stamped the image in Lemon Lolly, one of the last years new colours. It is soft and subtle but can be bright too. I lightly stamped it onto White card and then I started with many of the green inks from Stampin' Up! I used  Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green, Pretty Peacock and a touch of Old Olive. I stamped an acrylic block onto the ink pad and using my fine water brush, started to colour in the leaves and ferns in different ways. I repeated this with all of the colours until I was happy with the depth of each colour. I went on to cut the white stamped mat down to 9.4 cm I left the width at 10.5 cm. 

I then chopped it up randomly from top to bottom at different angles. I added the pieces onto a mat of the Lemon Lolly card. Once the last piece was ready to go I was able to trim the width down to fit my card base. I adhered the mat to a black mat a few mm larger than the yellow which I think has made the colours stand out so well. I mounted it using Dimensionals on the back and added a piece of yellow ribbon from the Sheer Ribbon Combo pack. 3 gorgeous colours in the pack, Lemon Lolly, pink of Bubble Bath  and the bright blue of Azure Afternoon. A sentiment inside and a few extra leaves etc. and I was finished.

This or That Thursday - Sale-a-bration - Flight and Airy DSP

 Hello again. As it's Thursday I have, of course, 2 cards for you. For these cards I have used some more of the gorgeous Flight and Airy DSP again. I coordinated it with the Heartfelt Hellos stamp set once more. Either of the 2 products are available for FREE when you place an order worth £45 or more. In fact for every £45 you spend on products you get another Saleabration, so, £90, £135 etc etc. This time it's all about colour. I used a coloured card base. 

THIS card is in Lost Lagoon card stock and the birds on the DSP the patterned paper is the reverse of the front ones. I used the Nested Essentials dies for this one and I only fussy cut out the one bird which is on the inside of the card.

 

 

For my THAT card I used the gorgeous In Colour Boho Blue card stock for the card base and inkpad. I started by taking a strip of the DSP which happens to go in a line going across the page. I then sort of fussy cut around, very slighlty, around the birds and branches until I had a shape that fitted onto the page. I used a scrap piece of the DSP and using the Deckled Circles I die cut out a half circle by placing the die across only a folded half of the DSP. When it was unfolded, I had a wiggly oval which was perfect for the birds to go onto. The pink DSP behind the blue is Bubble Bath and is the reverse of the birds that I used on the front.  Using a mask, I stamped 3 little birds for inside to complete this one. This little bird many of you will recognise as coming from Happy Hedgehogs.

 

Watercolour Wednesday - Everlasting Beauty

 Hello on this watercolour Wednesday. Today I stamped the floral image which I could just see in the orange of Calypso Coral. Using the stamp from Everlasting Beauty, I coloured little bits of the outer leaves from the flower in the same colour. Using Lost Lagoon ink pad again this week, I washed the rest of the images carefully in the Lost Lagoon. To blend it all together, I made a very weak colour wash of Fresh Freesia and using a small brush I just gently brushed the lilac over it. 

I used some of the Calypso Coral Braided Linen Trim and laid 3 strips across the white mat which I had embossed with the Layered Florals embossing folder. A few sentiments from the stamp set onto the circles completed this card.

Technique Tuesday - Everlasting Beauty

 Today was a bit of a challenge but easier after I thought about it. Using the stamp set Everlasting Beauty, I stamped and coloured many, many of the images of this flower. It really wasn't working out as I had hoped until my son and his daughter came home. They fell in love with the colours on this flower here. I started with a simple mat that I stamped the flowers in the gorgeous soft grey of Smoky Slate. Starting in the centre, I stamped the flower randomly over the mat and then using a blending brush, I added some layers of the beautiful soft baby pink of Bubble Bath. It was the green that I had problems with as I hadn,t completely worked it out in my head which colour was correct. After several tries, I fell in love with the gorgeous bluish-green of Lost Lagoon. That was it! That was the one that I needed. I knew instantly I saw it that it was the correct one.

Watercolour Wednesday - Backgrounds - Rays of Light

 Hello again. Firstly, I must apologise for the lack of a project for yesterday. Unfortunately, life just got in the way! I'm very sorry. However, today's project is another background stamp that I have wanted to use for a while but have never gotten around to it. I started by spritzing a piece of Fluid  watercolour paper with lots of water. Using an H block, I inked it up with first of all a beautiful very soft pink called Bubble Bath. I spritzed that with water too and added it across the centre of the piece of watercolour paper. I repeated this process with the fresh lemon of Lemon Lolly, above and below of the pink and then the blueish green of Lost Lagoon above and below of the lemon. I tilted the card quite a bit to blend the colours well and got the lovely misty lines. Then using the Rays of Light stamp, I inked it with Versamark and then some Lemon Lolly and placed it over the now dry mat. 

I heat set it and repeated it with Clear embossing powder as well which was sprinkled over the Versamark and Lemon Lolly. I heat set that and stamped a flower from the Everlasting Beauty stamp set. I watercoloured the flower using ink from a block and a waterbrush. I adhered the watercolour paper to a Lost Lagoon mat and then onto a Basic White card base.