Life's Rainbow

Morning, Since I very first saw the Bee Crafty stamps I have loved them. I especially like the sentiments, sometimes even using them as a starting point for my finished project. I make a lot of Artist Trading Cards and the smaller sized sentiments are superb for that.

The project I am sharing today is actually a completely different card to what I set out making. I started off using the Quill,Nibs and antique accounts stamps. It was when I chose the sentiment that I was sidetracked and started a different design entirely.

I stamped the 'Life' Sentiment onto my Super Smooth card, then used one of the Backdrop Borders to create a frame around the sentiment. Then taking a selection of Distress Inks I coloured the piece. I started off at the top right hand corner with Blueprint Sketch to about half way across the card, then blended through Chipped Sapphire approximately quarter way down. Then from the bottom left I repeated the process using in order: Mustard Seed, overlapping slightly to give green, then Spiced Marmalade and finally Candied Apple.

For the main card, I started by stamping the large and medium curled feathers with versamark to give a watermark to the background. Then drew a rough idea of my rainbow and placed this over the background, then using the Distress Inks, stippled the colours through in turn. Keep an eye out for the paper getting saturated, All I did then was cut out the next segment from the mask and move down. I used the following colours for the rainbow: Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Dusty Concorde and Blueprint Sketch.

When I had completed the rainbow, I made the decision to make the feathers more prominent in the main background, The versamark was still sticky so just added the ultra fine clear embossing powder and used the heat gun. Then for the top of the card I blended out from the edge using Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire and for the bottom I used Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade.

Finally I used a black fine liner pen to create a border about 5 mm from the edge. Added my sentiment with 5 mm foam tape to raise it from the card and added a black mat.

I really hope you have enjoyed my Step by Step today, along with the finished card. I hope you will join me again very soon. Tomorrow I will be sharing a project that was made for the launch of Leonies new collection of stamps, I really hope you will come back for that. Thank you so much for all of your lovely comments, I do like to read them all and it certainly makes my blog worthwhile knowing that you are enjoying what I share. Take care xx

A Wedding Card Using Sheena Douglas Stamps

Day Six and another update.

Not bad I hear you say. Today, I thought I would share a wedding card I made using stamps from Sheen Douglas and a Die from Sue Wilson. For the outside of the card I used the outside die from Sue Wilson's Australian Collection, the background set. I cut that out to create a frame for the stamped image behind.

I stamped the frame with a selection of swirl stamps and words, also by Sheen Douglas. I used distress ink to stamp the swirls and the colour was Tattered Rose. Then I used the a few distress inks around the frame to blend into the background, The inks were, Tattered Rose, Antique Linen and Victorian Velvet.

I stamped the main image twice onto Crafters Companion watercolour card using Black archival ink as I wanted to use watercolour, also I wanted to decoupage the car. The blossoms were also stamped in black archival ink and painted using the same distress inks used for the frame. Finally the image was painted using a selection of Tim Holtz Distress inks, used with water from the craft mat. To finish the card, I used foam on a roll to add dimension to the frame and 3d glue gel to decoupage the car. The I tied a bow using double sided satin bow for the top left hand corner and a wrap of the same colour ribbon on the bottom right hand corner. I was going to glaze the car but decided against it on this card.

A frame card made using my Brother Scan N Cut

This is a frame card I made using my brother Scan n Cut. It is my own design and all done by hand, then coloured using copic markers. Firstly, I started by drawing the design I wanted onto vellum so I could see the photo through it,  slightly larger than I wanted the finished design to be so I could get more detail. It also had to be a negative of what I wanted to keep, so after a few mistakes I finally got the design I wanted. 

I then scanned it into my Brother, reduced it to the size I wanted and cut out the base design onto 300GSM Super Smooth Card. Then I drew the first layer of flowers, again on copier paper, scanned these and had the machine cut them out on the same card. Then this was repeated for the third layer, this time slightly smaller then the first layer, cut out on the same card and then I drew in the fine detail with a copic fine liner.

Finally I coloured all of the layers with copic markers so once the card was finished no white card was showing. It wouldn't have been possible with scissors as some of the branches within the frame are less than 3mm think so it's very delicate. At the back of the base card I have attached a layer of mauve card covered in acetate and the design is placed over the top, this added some protection without loosing the delicate effect.